Father Winter sure stopped by this week around here. I don’t know the exact totals, but something in the 8 inch range on Tuesday, and yesterday into today we got hammered with another ~12 inches.
I envision a wintery, mythical creature like this waving a snow wand over Wiconsin:
I’ve been generally feeling it! Yes, it gets old fast, but I do welcome a good, cozy, lazy, snowed-in day or two now and then.
I worked yesterday (a little bummed I ended up engrossed in something I needed to finish before the long weekend and worked until after 5…. was hoping to maybe take a lighter day and make brownies with the kids or something).
Ivan had to drive in the storm to work in the morning (yuck) but fortunately pretty much everything shut down around here by noon. His work closed up by 12:30 and he made it home safely (and early- a rare occasion!).
We had molletes for dinner (inspired by having them in Mexico and realizing a) we all love them and b) they are incredibly easy and c) why don’t we have them more often?
Ivan and I binged several episodes of Emily in Paris last night on the couch, with Charlie.
The boys and Ivan did several long rounds of snow removal…. Charlie supervised.
Asher approached our neighbor yesterday during the day to see if he was interested in paying Asher to clean his driveway. Maybe the guy just felt put on the spot…but he said yes. Asher said he would take whatever he thought was a fair price, and the guy gave him 50 bucks!! omg. I told Asher he absolutely had to go back over again and do the end when the plow came through, another round, etc (the snow went on for a LONG time, so more definitely fell after Asher’s first pass).
I guess good for him, because we gave the boys 0 bucks for helping clean out our driveway. 😅
This morning I spent over an hour clearing off our deck. I don’t always clear our deck (not like we’re sitting out on the deck this time of year…). But we at least need a path down to the patio, and the snow seemed so heavy and wet. Maybe it’s fine, but it seemed like a lot of weight piling up on the deck. Last thing I need is for our deck to like, collapse under the weight of 2 feet of snow drifts. lol. So I shoveled the entire deck clean. (Bonus- cardio workout?)
Charlie thinks he is Husky and not a little Cavapoo. Hahaha. He dives into the snow and goes nuts.
Oh- I googled my “ice balls stuck in his curly fur” issue and found a good solution! Apparently if you run a metal kitchen whisk over his fur, it pops the ice balls right off. I tried it yesterday and it works!
The rest of the weekend:
- CLEAN THE HOUSE
- Ethan to indoor soccer practice 4-6
- email cleanout
- gym! Lower #2 today, Upper #2 tomorrow + run
- misc. “weekly tasks” from my list… wash sheets, delete photos, change dishtowels, etc.
- finalize a couple lingering Christmas things for when we celebrate with my parents next weekend
- may start some decluttering!! I listened to these 3 episodes of the Organize 365 podcast recently and feel inspired. ( Step 1 Step 2 Step 3) Not doing any official program, but decluttering/organizing has been gnawing at me for months now. (I made a huge household list of areas I want to organize back I think in August? And haven’t touched it…). But I’m inspired by her idea of “a little bit per day goes a long way”. Also, the idea that if I start now, by this time next year, I could have a decluttered house. Hmm. That would be amazing. Current state= every single drawer/closet isn’t terrible but DEFINITELY not organized or user friendly. It’s been weighing on me. (And some areas do = terrible.)
It’s a 3- day weekend, too! I’m excited- basically still snowed in, no big plans/events…. Ahhh. Sounds great.
I am not going to take down my Christmas stuff yet, either! Yep, I’ll be “that person” rocking a Christmas tree on January 15th. I just want to enjoy the weekend and Christmas dismantling is a big project. I simply don’t want to tackle that right now. Besides, like I mentioned, we’re doing Christmas with my parents next weekend. So I’ll leave it til then, and then adios. I still love the twinkle lights, anyway. Not really ready for their departure.
Also: Continue reading my two great books I’m loving:
Fiction:
Non-fiction:
Finally, thinking I may venture out to Chipotle at some point during the next day or two. Maybe sooner than later, as now that the snow is gone, we are getting ARCTIC temps moving in. Like highs of 0 degrees Fahrenheit type weather. Guess I won’t be running outside anytime soon….
Happy Long Weekend if you have MLK Jr. Day off!!
Daily Gratitude:
- I am grateful for a low-key long weekend. SO grateful for that right now.
- I am so grateful to NGS for sending me an AMAZING email full of dog training tips and ideas (after her recent post about dog training). Seriously, I was so touched by the time she took to type all that up for me!! ♥ It was so helpful.
GRATEFUL KAE 
You guys have so much snow!! It’s giving me flashbacks to last winter. I don’t think I you need to necessarily shovel your deck? We never do! But Phil seals it every couple of years so I think that helps it tolerate tons of snow on it. Last year we got 100” during the winter and it did fine. But that was a great workout! And $50 for clearing snow – amazing!! Good for Asher! I know there are kids on our block that do this. I don’t know their rate though. We would hire someone if it snowed while we were on vacation as there is a rule about how soon you have to have the sidewalks cleared. We have a snowblower thank goodness. We have a corner lot on a BIG hill so it’s very necessary for big snowfalls!
I will have to listen to that podcast. I have loosely been following a January organizational challenge. I mostly only do the organization tasks like cleaning out a drawer (but I did 5). But today I felt motivated to deep clean out kitchen. It felt good!!
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A deep cleaned kitchen! That’s amazing! I bet it does feel so good. I REALLY want to tackle our 2 “junk” drawers in the kitchen. I bought some organizing bins for them a year or two ago, which kind of helps in theory, except there’s still all sorts of random crap in there that really does not belong. So you still have to rifle through the various containers to find anything…. kind of defeats the purpose of having “organized” them. Haha.
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Brrr…we’ve got the cold and the wind but so far only a dusting of snow. It’s a great day to snuggle up inside.
I approve of leaving up Christmas stuff for as long as you want to. Especially since you’re still celebrating Christmas.
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Yes, this was a very “snuggle up inside weekend”. We did quite a bit of it! Not complaining. Except now I’m ready for it to go away, because the roads are all frozen and ice covered and everything is just frozen solid everywhere.
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So much snow! I’m glad Charlie likes it. It makes things so much better when dogs are having a good time. We have a pretty long driveway and I would 100% pay a kid $50 to shovel it if it meant I didn’t have to deal with it again during this storm. LOL.
If it makes you feel better, our tree is still up, too. I am going to probably take it down this afternoon, but I’m already feeling sad about it.
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After I posted this I almost had a change of heart while I did some cleaning and considered taking everything down…. but then by the time I finished cleaning, I was just tired and flip flopped the other way back to “leave it up”. Haha. I basically just ran out of time and energy and had some other things to do today. So I guess next weekend it is!
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It makes me sooo sad to take the tree down, but I also feel sad seeing it up when I know it needs to come down (if that makes any sense). Within a week of Christmas I needs to come down or I just can’t get on with life in the new year. But I left the lights up on my mantle and the wreath on the door so I’m not a complete Scrooge about decor spilling into the new year!
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I hear you! I don’t really feel fully into the new year either until all of that is put away. I certainly no longer feel “in the Christmas spirit” ((i.e. no longer watching Christmas movies or anything…) but I still like how everything looks! I cleaned the whole house on Saturday after I posted and I have to say it was SO nice to have a nice, clean, straightened house + the decorations this weekend. Before Christmas it was a bit of a rush with getting ready to go to Mexico etc and I feel like our house was in a state of disarray. So, this was nice. 🙂
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so much snow! can I say I’m jealous a bit??? mostly wanting to cozy up inside when its snowing outside.
good job Asher for being brave and work hard! I love when kids go beyond their comfort zone to ask for what they want to a stranger.
I can’t believe Ivan would watch Emily in Paris with you… never with my husband!!! hahaa
enjoy your 3 day weekend.
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LOL, I know! I’ll hand it to Ivan- he has a very diverse taste in TV shows/ movies. Believe it or not, he has watched Gossip Girl with me, Dawson’s Creek (WAY back in the day), This is Us, Younger… and probably some other’s I’m forgetting. 🙂 But he also likes action shows, etc as well… He actually really likes Emily in Paris!!!
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Leave that tree up!!! We had no choice, as ours was a real tree that was on its last legs. And most of my Christmas stuff is down, but I still have my card display up because I like it. The cards are beautiful and they’re attached to a string of lights. The whole thing just looks festive and in my opinion, still appropriate for January. If you’re still enjoying the tree- and it sounds like you totally are, being snowed in and cozy like that- then it should definitely stay up.
Enjoy your extra day off! Oh and I’m rooting for the Packers today!
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I love that you display the cards with lights. 🙂 That’s such a great idea. Mine just go in this little snowman basket that sits by the door. Not nearly as festive…..though I do grab the stack as I walk by sometimes and will flip back through them.
AND GO PACK GO!! What a thrilling win!!!
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And now i got the honor of see Charlie go! Thanks again for the smiles from your day. $$$$$ those kids hahaha
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Wow you got a lot of snow. You can count the shoveling as your workout 🙂
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I understand this is a news article about snow in Wisconsin, but what I was interested in is,” The Old Man Winter “ painting, I was wondering if you have any information about it or where you found the picture. I have a canvas painting of that picture and I’ve been trying to find anything about it. If you read this and have information please contact me at clkesler@Yahoo.com thank you
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