What's Been Going On: Thursday, 30 December, 2021 - Sunday, 2 January, 2022

 Good morning and happy Monday! It’s a cold one here, currently just 6 degrees Fahrenheit. I slept a little funny on my right shoulder, so it’s pretty cranky with me, but I’m not going to let that stop me!

We got our first decent snowfall over the weekend. It snowed almost all day Saturday and a little bit into Sunday morning, leaving us with a little over four inches of snow. Everything is covered in a lovely mantle of white and looks so cheery!

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately!

 

Thursday, 30 December, 2021

After breakfast and coffee, I posted my Thursday post and did an hour of volunteer work. I unloaded, reloaded, and ran the dishwasher, did 20 minutes of Pilates, and then rested, because I was wiped out!

By this time, it was time for lunch (winter break means sleeping in a little later, so I don’t get quite as much done). Afterwards, I sat down for 30 minutes of my Read Harder project, and friends, I FINISHED The Joy of Sects by Peter Occhiogrosso!!! Almost 600 pages and I completed it. My first Read Harder book since 2020. Super proud of myself!

I dozed for a few minutes, then got up to unload the dishwasher. I sliced the bananas I’d bought on markdown on Wednesday, and chopped some on-sale peppers, then took everything out to the garage freezer to freeze.

 

I unloaded the dishwasher, took out all the compost (it was a lot!) and recycling, and reloaded the dishwasher. I sat down to do some cross-stitching, but the cat hopped onto my lap, so I figured I’d just leave him there and played on the computer instead. : )

I created a Google doc version of my want-to-read list. I have a paper version that I bring to the library whenever I go, but I figured it might be handy to keep a Google doc version as well; that way, I always have a copy with me, accessible on my phone, wherever I go! We had dinner, I did my Duolingo, showered, and finished putting together my Google doc list. I put my daughter to bed, read my book, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Killer in Plain Sight.

 

Friday, 31 December, 2021

I had breakfast and coffee, finished and posted my Friday post, and got dressed. I loaded and ran the dishwasher, wiped off the gross stovetop, then spent the rest of the morning turning my pile of old bread ends into bread crumbs. I’d been needing to get to this for a while, but had lacked motivation; it’s not my favorite of tasks! But I got it done and now have a huge bag of breadcrumbs to show for my efforts.

 

 

After lunch, I biked for 25 minutes, then picked out my new Read Harder book, American Literary Almanac, edited by Karen L. Rood. This has been sitting on my shelf for…over a decade, at least, so it’s time to take this bad boy down! I spent 30 minutes reading this, then spent the rest of the afternoon finishing Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration by Reuben Jonathan Miller (I may have napped a little in there as well).

We had a dinner of appetizers from the grocery store. I did my Duolingo and showered, and began reading Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science by Erika Engelhaupt (really loving this!!!). My husband and I watched three episodes of Killer in Plain Sight before going to bed well before midnight. We’re real party animals. ; )

 

Saturday, 1 January, 2022

Happy New Year!!!

After coffee, I posted my monthly update on my book blog (WordPress was being a BEAST. I don’t understand why WordPress is so consistently buggy and difficult to work with). I got dressed, then went out to gas up my car in preparation for the snow and cold that was coming. At home, I reloaded and ran the dishwasher, scooped the litterbox, took out the compost and recycling, then sat down to clean up my email. The snow started falling around this time and was super pretty. Check out our colorful visitor!

After lunch, I biked for 25 minutes, then did my 30 minutes of Read Harder. I tidied and swept the living room, unloaded and reloaded the dish washer, then mixed the dry ingredients for Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal. I completed the first chapter of Prayerbook Hebrew The Easy Way (I had gone through the first few chapters this summer, but I’m starting over, just to make sure I get everything!), including making flashcards, because my Hebrew spelling could use the work!

I prepared the baked oatmeal and put it into the oven. I chopped and sauteed an onion and the rest of the mushrooms from my fridge and made scrambled eggs with those veggies to go with the dinner oatmeal. Breakfast for dinner is so fun! After we ate, I did my Duolingo, showered, read Gory Details, and my husband and I watched three episodes of Killer in Plain Site before bed.

 

Sunday, 2 January, 2022

Quiet day!

After coffee and breakfast, I loaded the dishwasher and prepared a batch of spicy black-eyed peas in the Instant Pot (no recipe; I had to use the Wayback Machine in order to retrieve it, since the website no longer exists. I would’ve made these on the 1^st, but I’d forgotten I had some! Forgive me, New Year!). I ran the dishwasher, helped my husband use the dehydrator for a project he was doing, and then sat down to work on my grandmother’s cross-stitch until lunch.

I continued cross-stitching after lunch while watching YouTube and Swans Crossing (a short-run teen soap opera that I loved when I was 12 and which is available in full on Tubi). I unloaded and ran the dishwasher to clean it, did a brief ten minute Pilates video, and put the rice in the rice cooker before settling back down to continue cross-stitching.

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, biked for 25 minutes, showered, showered my daughter, then settled down under my heated throw to read Gory Details, and my husband and I watched three episodes of Killer in Plain Sight before bed.

 

And that’s it! Really not sure what this week will bring. I’m not feeling at all confident about sending my daughter to school this week. I wouldn’t go into a room with twenty other people for seven hours a day, five days a week, in a building with several hundred people; why would I do that to my child? Case numbers are ridiculous right now, and we’ve worked so hard to avoid COVID these past two years. I don’t want all our efforts to be for nothing. My husband has emailed her teacher to see if we can get take-home work if we keep her home this week. I don’t know what the answer will be, but I really don’t think sending her into a school full of kids who have traveled and spent time with who-knows-how-many-other-people over break, who are (often improperly) wearing cloth masks (which aren’t enough with Omicron) and sitting in the unmasked stew of the lunchroom for 25 minutes every day, is the right call here. Wish us luck; parenting during a pandemic is full of awful decisions with no clear answer.

Whatever you’re doing this week, I hope it’s a productive one, and you stay healthy and warm!