Life: It Goes On - January 14

Happy Sunday from arctic Nebraska! I know the Rodger's and Hammerstein song says that the wind goes sweeping down the plain in Oklahoma; but let me tell you, it's been sweeping through all of the plains the past couple of days, making already frigid temps that much worse. We'd had almost no winter weather at all until Christmas Day, but it's definitely here now. We've had about 14" of snow this week. Fortunately, it was warm enough last Monday that the snow was melting as fast as it fell so what's left is not 14" deep...except where the wind has created giant snowdrifts, some several feet tall.  I haven't left the house since Thursday; I'm not looking forward to going outside in a couple of hours! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I'm back to Mary Doria Russell's Children of God. I had such high hopes for it, having loved The Sparrow, but this one bounces around all over the place, making it hard for me to settle into it. 

Watched: Football, college football, the first episode of season 6 of The Crown, and the first episode of Northern Exposure (a show, set in Alaska, that we loved when it first aired in the 1990's). Of course it comes out on Amazon Prime now...we just bought the DVD set for our Alaskan kids. 

Read: Caitlin Moran's latest, What About Men (Moran always makes me laugh AND gives me a lot to think about) and I started Melanie Benjamin's latest, California Golden, this month's book club book. I think I've read all of Benjamin's books and I'm always impressed by the variety of stories she finds to tell. Have you seen the trailer for Feud: Capote vs. the Swans? It's based on a different book but I'm looking forward to seeing it, having read Benjamin's The Swans of Fifth Avenue. 

Made: Apparently all it took to get me cooking again was a good cold snap. Friday I made two soups: ham and potato (possibly the best potato soup I've ever made) and turkey and noodle (which we will have today for the first time). Yesterday I used up a couple of sweet potatoes to try a recipe I found on Instagram; it's definitely one we'll do again, although it's a little tedious to make. While that was cooking, we tossed in a couple more sweet potatoes and those will get turned into sweet potato soup today, something we've never tried before. 

Enjoyed: Because of the weather, I opted to work from home on Friday. Except that the internet was hit and miss. So I only ended up working a couple of hours and got most of the day as an unexpected day off. I love days like those. I decided to take full advantage of the time to get a lot of little things done. 

This Week I’m:  

Planning: We have pretty well locked down plans for my dad's move to his new place. Now it'a a matter of sorting through his things to decide what's going to make the move so I'll be going over to his current apartment a couple of times this week to get those decisions made. 

Thinking About: Remember last week, when I hushed my family room? I'll be honest, the emptiness of the room made me a little twitchy. But it was a great chance to really rethink what was in there (although it took me a stupid amount of time to get it put back together again!). Now I'm thinking about what room to do next, which room I'd most like to refresh. 

Feeling: Much more relaxed, now that we have a plan in place for my dad. 

Looking forward to: Book club on Tuesday. And also April, because I'm already over winter. 

Question of the week: If you found yourself with an unexpected day off, how would you choose to use it? Would you take advantage of it to knock off chores you haven't had time for or would you use it as a day to just relax, to read a book, watch a Netflix series, paint a watercolor?