Christmas Take II

I got my first COVID vaccination on Christmas Eve eve.  I feel so honored to be part of the first wave to receive one!  JP will get his next week, and then we each get a booster in 3 weeks.

Christmas eve morning, my Christmas cards finally arrived!  I spent a good part of the day addressing them.

We had just finished dinner and were cleaning up to get ready to watch a Christmas movie, when the power blinked and went out.  It had been raining for a couple of hours and the temperature outside was dropping fast, so I am assuming that ice was the cause.  We lit every candle we could find, and played some games, and read books out loud to each other until 11:30, when the estimated time for power restoration changed to 9:30 AM Christmas day.

At that point, the girls realized that they weren't getting showers before bed, and JP and I realized that the cats and bunny were going to need different sleeping arrangements with the temps dropping into the teens and no electricity.

I warmed water on the gas burners so the girls could take sponge baths.  We heated bricks on the woodstove, wrapped them in towels and put them in the kitties' box that we moved into the garage, along with a litter box, and their food and water.  We put the bunny in the kitty carrier full of fluffy shavings, and set him up with food and water in the extra bathroom upstairs.

9:30 AM Christmas morning came and went with no power.  I used our gas burner and Amish waffle iron to make eggnog french toast waffles for brunch.  JP got the generator fired up so that we could run the refrigerators for awhile.  J played some Christmas music for us on the guitar, and when we realized that the power wasn't coming back on before lunch, we went ahead and opened presents.  We played a few more games, and looked through our Christmas stash.  Just when we were seriously despairing, the power came back on right before 6 PM. 

We didn't have our special Christmas dinner, or spend the day the way we had planned, but we were extremely grateful for our Mac and Cheese with the lights on and showers before bed.

Today was our Christmas Day (Take II.)  We had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and our special dinner.  In between, since we had electricity to run the block heaters to start the diesel engines, we could work on cleaning up the 4 inches of snow or so that fell over night.  J and I did some sledding and took a walk through the snow as well.

It wasn't the way we planned it, and we were only slightly uncomfortable, but we were very happy to have a Christmas Take II with lights!

More Snow

We had a lot of fun in the last snow.  It stayed for several days, so we had the chance to play outside for several days.

We built a snowman, and named him Milton.

He only lasted a couple of days.

It was interesting to see the snow slowly slide off of the barn roof.

It seems that we are having winter just a few days at a time this year!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

We got at least 8 inches of lovely snow yesterday.  The girls finished their school work in record time, and I moved all my patients to the morning, so that we had time to play in it.  We were out for a couple of hours until we were wet, cold and tired.

It continued to snow during the night, and I went out after dark to take a few pictures.

This morning, everything looked transformed.  The birds were hungry, and after filling the feeders, I sat in the snow and watched them for a while.

The driveway, however, is a bit scary.  Luckily we don't really need to go anywhere, so let it snow!

I ♥ This Season

We actually got our first nice snow of the season over a week ago - about 6 inches!  It didn't last long, but L and I noticed this heart shaped hoof print in the snow on a walk.

We are getting prepared for Christmas here on the ridge.  Our decorations and tree are up.  I am finished with shopping and wrapping gifts (including L's Birthday as well.)  The cards are hung up in the mail somewhere, so they may be a bit late getting out this year.  We are planning on doing our baking next week.

Meanwhile, our state has basically shut down again.  The girls are doing 100% virtual school until mid-January at least.  

I was able to restart quilting lessons last week since my instructor has recovered from COVID.

JP was finally able to get both cataract surgeries done (his second one was postponed for 2 weeks while his surgeon recovered from COVID.)

Those little pumpkin sprouts that I found growing inside my pumpkin at Thanksgiving have become a thriving plant, with tiny pumpkins of its own.

We now have the outdoor wood burner up and running since the nights have been below freezing.  I was checking it morning and evening on my own for over a week because JP had lifting restrictions following his surgeries.  It's nice to walk barefoot downstairs as the radiant heat keeps things super cozy.

Over the weekend, JP and replaced the broken bamboo blinds in the library with a bunch of Van Gogh prints on the pull down shades.  I think it looks pretty nice!

That's all from our neck of the woods right now.  Stay safe!

Left-overs

 JP is back to work today, so the girls and I have done a "Hunger Games" movie marathon.  We had left-over Thanksgiving dinner this evening.  It was nice to not have to do anything today, since I ended up working in the kitchen from 9 AM until 5-ish, with small breaks for breakfast and dinner.

It is hard to scale down a feast for four people, and even harder to scale down a turkey when there are only 2 meat eaters in our house.  Hence, we have plenty of left-overs to enjoy in the next couple of days.  We had 2 kinds of pie, because I wanted to try a recipe for Cranberry Custard Tart.

It was beautiful...

and delicious, but I will never make it again - way too complicated!

We had pumpkin pie too, of course.

We all worked hard last weekend.  We moved and stacked wood to the lean-to by the barn to use for heating our home this winter.

Last weekend was also my Grandma's 105th birthday.  We were hoping to make a quick trip to OH to sing and hold this sign up outside of her nursing home room window, since it is closed to visitors, however, our states have closed their borders and are requiring quarantining for those who travel - something I am unable to do because of work.  Instead, we mailed her the sign.  I hope she got it, because we just learned that she has contracted COVID.

It's absolutely crazy how fast the COVID case count is growing in our county.  I had a ZOOM call with my friends on Wednesday, which was absolutely lovely.  I wish things were different, but here we are - hunkered down and trying to stay safe.

I saw this rainbow on my drive to work on Wednesday - I think it is a symbol that this too shall pass.

Here We Go Again...

Well, I was hoping that last Friday the 13th would "reset" this whole pandemic craziness.  Friday, March 13th, was when they closed the schools initially.  Instead of a re-do last week, the schools closed again.  We are again doing "virtual school" 100% of the time until December at least.

Sigh.

In the meantime, we have stayed busy around here.

I baked some pies.

Apple - I had to try out my friend's pie filling

Shoo-fly pie - a Mennonite staple

The last pumpkin from the garden was cut up, cooked, pureed and frozen for later, with the exception of some used for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and some for pumpkin coffee cake.

Interestingly, when I cut open this pumpkin, some of the seeds had already sprouted.

I planted a few, and now I have some baby pumpkin plants growing on my windowsill!

JP had his first cataract surgery done and it made a huge difference in his vision.  He was supposed to have the second one done this coming Thursday, but it was postponed as the surgeon was exposed to COVID and is quarantining.

J won Senior Student of the month for November.  We are quite proud of her!

J and I did a road trip to visit colleges Thursday and Friday.  It was a lot of driving and fairly exhausting, but good.  I am favoring Youngstown State at this point!

My quilting is on hold for the time being as the instructor has COVID.

I cut down the dead plants in my big flower garden and weeded.  I also weeded about half of the blueberries and mulched with leaves.

Back to work tomorrow.  Sheesh.

All Fall

 I have been trying to write for a couple of days, but keep getting distracted by masks that need sewing or Algebra 2 questions, or everyone's unnatural need to eat 3 meals a day.  Today, I am distracted by election results. 

Except for anxiety regarding this election, it has been a really lovely fall.  I have been puzzling about why I was enjoying it so much, and finally realized it boiled down to this:  no soccer craziness and no theater rehearsal craziness.  I miss those things, but I don't...it's complicated. 

We had time to carve our pumpkins early in the month.  Well, J and I had time.  L scooped the goop out of her pumpkin and let it sit on the counter for two weeks where it turned slimy and grew mold.  We had a jack-o-lantern funeral procession to the compost the week before Halloween.

J carved a porg, mine was a wolf howling at
the moon (long story)

L had to wear a mask near her pumpkin since
it smelled pretty bad!  Notice the fungus (arrows)

I took time to make lots of roasted pumpkin seeds - a savory variety (R)  and a sweet & spicy one (L.)

It has given me time to take quilting lessons - I finally started the quilting last week:

JP, who has been putting in lots of hours at work, finally has a large part of the month off.  He is continually worried about not having enough PPE at work, and brings home his masks.  I put a bunch of them in a lingerie bag, ran them through the washer and hung them to dry.  Overall, I think it was successful, although the wire to fit over the nose broke on a couple of them.

A multitude of masks

JP is also FINALLY having time to get his cataract surgery done - first eye this week!

So, it seems that Fall is nearly over.  Most of the trees are bare.  The mornings are frosty and we have been building fires in the woodstove.  Winter is on its way - long, dark winter.  Sigh.

Have you been enjoying fall this year?

Well, Well, Well...

The well drilling rig finally pulled out of our driveway on Sunday, and we have been using water from the new well for about a week (after writing a VERY large check to the drilling company last week.)  Imagine my dismay last night when L shouted up from the shower that there was no water!  Once again, the cistern was empty, once again, JP and I got the water buffalo loaded back into the truck, and once again, JP made several late night trips to the water station to get enough water for us to shower last night.

After footing the bill for drilling 3 wells and attempting to develop a natural spring for water, I am exhausted at the stress, work and expense that the simple matter of having consistent running water is causing us.  Slap all that stress on top of the fact that my daughter is applying to colleges and planning college visits in the middle of a pandemic, and both of my girls are attempting to do cyber school 3 days/week with spotty internet.  Well, it's maddening.

I was not in the best of moods heading in to work this morning.  I do usually manage to forget about everything but my patients once there, however.  My dad called mid-morning to tell me that the well people checked things out and there was an issue with the wiring to a pump in the cistern, and that it was slowly refilling with water from the well.  What a relief!

Things really seemed to turn around for me then.  I was completely slammed with patients all morning, but my patients after lunch cancelled or didn't show, so I was able to leave the office early.  I had time to get a coffee and sit and read my book for 30 minutes (yeah, I was parked in the school parking lot, but still...coffee, quiet, book...not bad!) before J got out of school and we could head home.

J brought home with her some lovely lettuce that her Aquaponics class grew this year.  We had some for dinner - yum!

I got home to find that my friend stopped by while I was away and traded some of the blueberry pie filling that I canned last summer for some apple pie filling that she canned last month.  It's pie time this weekend!

L and I had time for a walk before dinner, and we enjoyed the colorful leaves.  

We stopped by the garden to admire the lush rye crop and the brightly colored cosmos and zinnias, and noticed a preying mantis with a bumble bee in each claw!

I collected a bouquet of flowers from the garden to enjoy inside, and when I checked on Ms. Mantis an hour later, both bees had been devoured!

I am in a much better state of mind tonight than I was last night.  It's amazing what some down time, a walk in the leaves, friends that share their preserves, colorful bouquets and fresh greens can do!  I hope that you are enjoying your autumn as well.

Borders

Today, during quilting lessons, I sewed the sashing between my sampler blocks, and sewed the first of 2 borders.  It's looking nice, if I must say so myself!