Weekend Coffee Share....Come Sit with Me

It's another week of Weekend Coffee Share. I always love everyone's posts. Are you like me and try to visit everyone? It doesn't always happen but I try. I have loved getting to know different bloggers and I figure if they take the time to write a post, I'll find the time to visit, even if it's a week later. I truly enjoy what you all share and I often learn so much. 

Check out all the other posts on Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. I'm off to go visit some now. #weekendcoffeeshare.

If we were having coffee we might talk about:

The weather: Well, all I can say is WOW! So, I mentioned last week that a front was moving in Friday night. It did. High winds, and it snowed but because of the winds, it took forever for the snow to accumulate. By evening the winds died down enough and we got about 3 more inches. We were disappointed because our thought was "if we're going to be snowed in, we want the pretty fluffy falling snow that we can go out in". Not that stuff, it was blowing and not fun at all. Sunday we were stuck on our hill for the most part...my hubby's job was getting so many calls (he works for a restoration company) so he drove our Subaru in (which he said did amazing), so I was without a car. Monday, he took it to work, my daughter dropped me off at work, but then we decided to close early so my Father in Law picked me up and brought me home. Tuesday I was off, hubby left on an executive team "retreat" for work and we were anticipating a freezing rain storm moving in. It hit around 4 and left us stuck inside for the next two days. Freezing rain is no joke. Yesterday (Thursday) I made it in to work. I walked down our road which was still icy, and down our hill (which was clear but I didn't know that), and my FIL picked me up. I was wet and I was cold...haha. Our daughter made it down in her car a few hours later. It's now supposed to warm up to the 40's and no chances of snow for awhile. I love snow, but it's not fun when the freezing rain comes because we can't get off our hill. We do not get the snow like the midwest/east coast gets, or even other areas here that just get it more than we do. 

Sorry, that was a long weather update. 

What we're thinking about: I saw on Gretchen Rubins FB page a thing called My "24 for 24" List. She says, list twenty-four things you'd like to do by the end of the eyar. These items can be easy or ambitious, one-time undertakings or habits that stretch for years. I'm "thinking" about doing this...keeping it fairly simple. You can find it here. 

What we're thankful for: Thankful for staying healthy, thankful we weathered the storm well, with no power outages, etc. Thankful that we managed to bounce back at work after being closed for 2 days. Thankful for being able to help friends who are under the weather with a hot meal. 

Around the house: On Tuesday morning I spent about an hour and a half clearing our gutters of snow. We didn't want the freezing rain to come, freeze on top of all that snow and then melt, potentially causing issues because of the build up. We filled bathtubs with water in case we lost power, and kept the house warm so pipes wouldn't freeze. We stayed hunkered down while outside the house froze. Not much more to do. I did organize a few cupboards and drawers that were getting a bit out of hand. We put the final totes from Christmas away. 

For the love of food: Cold, freezing, snowy weather calls for comfort food. And I apologize there are no photos for proof. On Tuesday I made Split Pea Soup with homemade sourdough rolls. On Wednesday, I made a chicken pot pie which I hadn't made in a long time. Thursday night I made some shredded mexican chicken and we had that on tortillas...simple but satisfying. I wanted to make homemade pasta but didn't get around to it. Bummer. I need to sit down and plan the meals for next week. It will for sure include at least one soup. I have ingredients to make a salmon chowder that a friend told me about, so that and probably chicken soup. 

OH, I also used my Moka Pot for the first time. It wasn't bad. I'm going to try it again. It's hard because I don't know "how" it's supposed to taste to know if I did it right. 

I'm also experimenting...I had used all the pickles up in the container on the right...I put some of the juice in a jar with some cucumbers I had to use. I haven't tasted them yet. I'll give them a bit in there and see what happens. 

What we're reading or wanting to read:  I'm participating for the first in WOYB. I've been wanting to, but haven't because I didn't think I read as much as everyone else....then I gave myself a kick in the hiney and said "just do it, no one cares how many books you read". You can find my post here. 

I'm currently waiting on our book club to choose their next book. I think it's going to be (well, shoot, I just looked and it now looks like it's a different one than I thought..lol).  I was thinking it was going to be Northern Spy b Flynn Berry, but now it's looking like it might be About Grace by Anthony Doerr. I did vote for both of those. The other in the  running is The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, which I'e already read. 

I finished  Plain Truth. 

What we're listening to or watching: I just started listening to the book Finding Freedom By Erin French. I've watched her show The Lost Kitchen and when someone recommended this for my 12/12 challenge I was excited. 
I've listened to a couple podcasts, and watched a few videos with Dr. Edith Eger, the author of the book The Choice that I just finished. I can't say as I've watched any TV shows. 

Favorite quote: Last weeks theme for #WQ was inspiring people/MLK Day. You can find my post here. 

Favorite photo(s): 

Since we were snowed in, I didn't get out much. I LOVED the sun coming through the kitchen window. 

I did venture out after the freezing rain and between the regular rain to check the roads and snapped this photo. 

Random or not so random things: 

We were pretty much snowed/iced in Sunday through Wednesday. My hubby was out of town Tuesday through Friday on business. Those of us who were home just hunkered down. Monday and early Tuesday were nice enough that I went for several walks down our snow covered road. It was cold and crisp but refreshing. But except for that, we stayed indoors. My steps will not hit 70,000 this week. 

I mentioned the weather situation at the beginning of the post so I won't bore you with all that. I did however, manage to finish two puzzles, and start another. We played games a few of the nights, which filled my cup. By Wednesday night though, I was so ready to get out of the house. I'm a homebody, but when you don't have a choice but to stay home, that's not fun for me. 

The above two are the ones I finished. The bottom one is the one I started and am working on now. 

Oh, Joyce over at From this Side of the Pond (where I participate in Wednesday Hodgepode, shared this tip with me when I mentioned needing to clean up my phone photos. Her daughter said to go into your search bar in photos and type in the current date (example: Today is January 20th so I'd type that in), then all the photos and videos from any year will pop up and you go through and delete ones you don't want, keep ones you do). Now, I have found that it will often bring up a photo with the number referred to in it which seems odd, but I suppose that's technology for you. It does help to weed some out. I'll keep doing it and see how it goes. 

Because of all this weather and the chaos that comes with it, my hubby's business has blown up. He works for a restoration company, Paul Davis Restoration..so in the midst of someone's crisis (water leaks, fire, smoke, etc) his company comes in to help bring it all back together. They received over 700 calls since Saturday...going out and getting peoples homes dried out, packed out, etc. They might not get all those as jobs, but they do what they can. He worked last weekend, and will be working this weekend to help coordinate sub contractors, rentals, and their own teams. It's a lot. We had to make the hard call to cancel a friends get together tonight because we knew he'd have to be gone. 

I'll leave it at this for now. I want to work on my Sunday Stills post and get around to some commenting. I always have high aspirations of commenting on everyones, but I don't think I'll be able to, so if I miss you, I'm sorry. I will for sure visit those who visit me and hopefully more, but holy smokes, if I commented on all the posts on all the link parties, I wouldn't get anything else done..or I'm just really slow...haha! My heart is there though. I don't like anyone to feel left out. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin