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'd probably talk about:

Happy New Year. I'm looking forward to seeing what 2025 holds! 

The weather: Well, the new year isn't bringing in good weather (insert sigh). Next week shows some sunnier days. I sure hope so. It'll be cold though. I'll take cold and dry any day.

What we're thinking about: I don't set resolutions, but I do try to take stock of what I want the year to look like. January can feel a bit overwhelming as we head out of the busy season and into a new year and so I've decided not to dwell too much on it. My focus is to just get back into a routine of some sort and go from there. To make some loose goals or intentions but nothing concrete.

What we're thankful for: I'm thankful for recent reminders to keep things simple. I love finding quotes and thoughts that encourage me to think different, to not let life overwhelm me, to take pleasure in the small things.

Around the house: Our heat pump went out New Years Eve. At least we think it did. We hope to get a tech out ASAP. My hubby thought he saw steam coming out of the unit so turned it off. When we went to turn it back on, it immediately smelled "hot" through the vents. So off it went again. Thankfully we have a gas fireplace. I'm hoping it's an easy fix and not the need to replace the entire unit. Update: Heat pump is fine. Chalk it up to paranoid hubby. The "hot" smell apparently was when the auxiliary heat kicked in and since it hasn't been used much was just a "burning off sorta of dust, or whatever". Hmm..Having ducts cleaned and equipment serviced next week. 

I'm possibly going to take Christmas down this weekend. We'll see.Update on that: I don't think it'll get done. 

For the love of food: This week I've been trying to keep it on the lighter side. Sunday we had crab with the family. So good. Monday I did a pork roast with potatoes and asparagus. Tuesday I made a taco salad and it was so simple. I just chopped up romaine lettuce, seasoned ground turkey, chopped tomato, avocado, goat cheese, black beans and a mix of salsa and taco sauce. I love how when adding a warm meat to the goat cheese, it starts to melt it and make a creamy texture. It was very satisfying. Wednesday I made a ham and bean soup. 

This week was also my week to flavor Kombucha. I bought some new, smaller bottles and some labels with chalk markers.

I want to make some homemade bread with some Kamut flour that I bought recently. I just need to make the time to do it. 

For the love of books: I have decided to loosely try to do the 52 books challenge, though some of the prompts seem challenging, both in my interests but also in finding titles, however on the website, they offer ideas for each prompt which is nice. I'll share the prompts below and if you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I'm also doing a challenge that I found on one of the mystery FB pages I follow, Murder They Write. I'll share that below. I'm just started a kindle book called Puzzle Me a Murder by Roz Noonan. It was a free one I downloaded and it does fit one of the prompts, Related to the word Puzzle. Since one of my goals is to read through the books on my book shelf and clear out my kindle library, I'm trying to find books there first to match the prompts. Then I'll try the library. 

Do you have any book suggestions?

What we're listening to or watching: Boy! I haven't listened to much of anything. Definitely haven't watched anything, and no podcasts. I am ready to get back into a routine and normal days off. I am enjoying the audiobook I started, which I mentioned last week. The second book of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. 

A favorite quote: I created this for the blogger I work for and I just love this quote!

Favorite photo(s): 

Haha! Last night my hubby was in the other part of the house and sent me this text. I laugh because we have to drive 20+ minutes to get to this spot, and I'm usually not a night owl, or spontaneous. But I thought, "why not!"

I had a split scoop of freckled mint and salted, malted cookie dough. 

The other day Pepper said "let's play look at the tree....and don't laugh". 

Then we played Zooreka. My girls enjoyed this game..I don't even know how I found it, but the grandkids love it too. The goal is to build habitats. 

Random or not so random: I have not worked much more on my current puzzle. 

I did go on Monday to have them look at my tooth that I broke last Friday and Thursday I had it fixed. I have a temporary crown and will go in two weeks for the permanent one. I joked with them that my tooth was tired of being a peasant and wanted to be royalty like the rest of them (which all have crowns). 

My grandkiddos have been sick with a nasty cold. It is something that is definitely going around. I feel bad for them. I'm going to their house this morning to make waffles because a certain little girl called me yesterday and said they needed them...and maybe mama needs a bit of a break since their daddy is out of town til today. She's going to go exercise with my hubby. 

The grandkids and I did a fun craft last week. I even enjoyed it.

What you need: Printed coloring pages (thicker paper might work better, but regular copy paper worked fine), washable markers (I didn't try it with regular), aluminum foil, spray bottle. 

Tear the aluminum foil to the size of the paper, or a little larger. Then have kids color all over the paper, you can see how we did it below.

Once done, you lightly spray water over the surface. Invert your paper over the ink (photo side down) and press gently down on paper. 

The end result was pretty. They had fun and it was neat seeing the end result.

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin