Rainy Day Thaw

Today is an odd mix of rain and sleet (but thankfully no snow). My back gutters are dripping all over the place, I know that isn't ideal but it is nice to see the melting happening instead of it just sitting up there cold.

Of course, this is New England, and though it may be 38ish and rain/sleeting today...it is going to be back to a high of about 18 for Thursday. Weather doesn't last long here in the pre-spring.

Fries

Ignore my gross oven door.

This is the result of me still going strong with the lack of grocery shopping. If I get to Saturday it will be just about 3 weeks since I went "real" grocery shopping and I shouldn't have any trouble getting there. I did hit the store yesterday for a few staples (plain yogurt, fruit, lettuce, etc) but it amounted to $19 worth of stuff. Not exactly breaking the bank.

I had a potato left, one lone, sad potato. So I opted to take it, cut it up, toss it in some olive oil and a little salt and toss on a baking sheet to make french fries to go with lunch. Yum!

Pre-Spring Snow Storm

This is one of my least favorite types of snow. The kind that goes sideways. It has stuck to our kitchen windows (and all the windows on the back side/ bottom floor) of our house. No screens or anything, just stuck straight to the window. Our kitchen is now very dark because the snow is blocking that light. Evil snow. The plus side is, as it looks now, we are suppose to get a 45ish degree rainstorm on Monday (after tomorrows high of 18 degrees). Just another sign of the approach of spring around here!

Our Little Oddity

So, apparently, this is what happens when a 12oz can of polar seltzer is filled up too full by the company. We opened it and it flowed over a little bit and stayed like this until we drank it.

Sugar

I have decided that sugar is about the most evil thing that exists.

I have always consumed a lot of sugar, for as far back as I can remember. After I had kids this became a problem for some reason or another. I am guessing it relates to hormones because they seem to be responsible for a lot of not so great things.

When I eat too much sugar I suffer from yeast trouble. NO not just *down there*. I get trouble from it with bad skin, I get cranky, I get fatigued, and the most annoying trouble of all is it makes my IBS flare (assuming that my IBS isn't simply sugar/yeast related).

So, after yet another bought with these issues, I have decided to do my best to cut out the sugar. Sugar is in EVERYTHING. Even yogurt, which is generally seen as healthy, has 20+ grams of sugar per serving. Obviously the plain doesn't but the grab n go flavored ones do.

It means little to no juice etc as well.

The biggest problem I have? Chocolate. I LOVE chocolate.

The most difficult thing I have done in quite awhile, was done about 30 mins ago. I had to go to the store to grab a couple of quick things and I was craving sugar like crazy. Of course, I had to walk by all the Easter candy, which includes one of my favorite candy's, cadbury mini-eggs. I love them.

It was almost as though there was some sort of gravity pulling me toward the candy. I managed to steer away from it, but it was extremely difficult.

The other problem is now I am in the withdrawal phase of getting rid of sugar. I have headaches and bad IBS flares. I am super tired. This is "normal" as the yeast dies and release toxins all at once. Since I am not giving them sugar, they are dying because there is nothing to eat. It lasts a few days and I am hoping to be out of the worst of it by tomorrow, but today the headache is pounding and I KNOW that some chocolate, that I want so badly, would make it ALL go away.

As a way to keep myself accountable I am writing down everything I eat. I am not writing down amounts or any of that, but I am writing down WHAT it is that I put in my mouth. It looks like I eat a lot, and it is possible that I do, but I am a grazer and grab a handful of something here and have half a thing there etc.

This was yesterdays list.

Double Post Day!

I had two things I wanted to post about today. I thought about saving one for tomorrow but what is the fun in that?

The first photo I have is of our little dinosaur project. For Christmas the kids got a little dino in an egg. You place it in the water and let it sit there for awhile and eventually the dinosaur grows so big he "hatches" out of his egg. The kids have been begging off and on since Christmas to see what dino we got, so I placed him in the water yesterday. This afternoon this is how he looks.



The kids are quite pleased by him and think he is pretty cool. They were going up every 5 minutes at first waiting to see him and I had to explain, several times, that it takes the dinosaur a little while to grow big first so they had to be patient.

The second thing I wanted to post about today is the great cupboard clean out project.

Normally I go shopping for food every week or so. I had a list all made out for this week and decided, at the last minute that I wasn't going to go. I decided this for two reasons. The first reason I decided this is because I am sure I MUST have enough things in the cupboards to make it through another weeks worth of dinner. I have beans and lentils and all sorts of odds and ends that need to be used up. The second reason is because of my battle on sugar, which I will get into another day when my resolve is a little stronger, but suffice to say if I had gone shopping Sunday as planned I would have left with copious amounts of chocolate which goes against my battle on sugar.

So dinner tonight is a variation on the lentil soup recipe I found here. I didn't have carrots or celery so I opted to use 2 potatoes and used a can of corn to go in there as well. In the end it doesn't get much easier than a crockpot soup and I really enjoy lentils so I figured I would give it a go.

This is a picture of what it looked like when I first put it going this morning. It looks much thicker now as the lentils have plumped up nicely.

Organizing Sunday

This was what Ms. I did with animal crackers. She decided they all needed to be grouped up and matched with buddies, so she did just that.

Snow Melt

This is the progress the snow made in the week. Pretty impressive given the length of time and the fact that one day had a high of about 11 degrees.

Clearly, I Need a Fruit Bowl

Yea....I need something to put all this in that fits it better. The flat plate just doesn't do it.

The Great Melt

So, normally, every year, we get a thaw at the end of January. It is almost always the 3rd week. I don't know why this is, but I can remember it from when I was a kid.

This year, we skipped that. It stayed cold, REALLY cold, all January. It seems the thaw moved to the second week in February this year.

Today the high is 40. Tomorrow it drops back to 11 (brrr!). Then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are 38, 47, and 52 respectively. I was curious how much the snow would melt on it's own so I took some pictures today and will take another set of the same two places on Saturday to measure the snow melt in just a few days.

Day 44

This is what happens when small children meet Wii. Wii wouldn't work, the disc wouldn't go in. Luckily I have a handy husband and he took it apart and found the trouble with the machine. That is a small felt thing so hard things don't scratch floors, a piece of wood, and part of a starburst wrapper, just so you know.

Day 42 (Signs of Spring)

Winter where I am has a strong hold on the calender. It is "silly" to mention anything about spring in February here, but I do it anyway. It helps me pass the time and it helps me make it until spring really gets here. Today's big development was the sun at after 4:30 this afternoon. Afternoon sun has always been my favorite, just before the sun goes down. Last month the sun had been setting behind my nieghbors house and now it goes SO much beyond their house that it amazes me.

This is a shot of my road at around 4:30 this afternoon with that bright golden sun streaming down, just screaming of the signs of spring.

Getting Through Winter

I have mentioned, on a few occasions, that winter sucks for me. At this point I am counting down the days to when it *might* start getting warm again. We currently have about 2.5 feet of snow here, which is enough that without snowshoes (which I don't own) I can't even walk around my lawn with anything that resembles ease. I will also admit, that while I am sad we had to find a new home for the dog, and I miss her, I am kind of glad I don't have to see how she does in 2.5 feet of snow.

My mailbox is covered. Every time the plow comes by I have to dig it out. Again. We got another 5ish inches of snow last night so my husband will be coming straight home from work and snow blowing, again.

This here, this is my attempt at keeping my sanity through the winter. Just a stupid little candle right? I have four of them right now: Sparkling Mojito, Lilac Blossom, Fresh Lemon, and Caribbean Escape.

They may only be candles, but they bring some bright smells into my otherwise not bright house. They are the scents of summer and spring to remind me that I know spring is coming, it does every year, and that I just need to make it through the rest of February before we start seeing hints of spring and the sun starts feeling just a bit warmer on your skin.

Playroom Fail

So, I have been trying to keep the playroom in a state that isn't "clean" (as I know I can't achieve that, I am realistic) but in at least organized.

I have a place for all the dinosaurs, all the cars, all the kitchen things, all the felt food, all the misc toys, all the books, etc. I have been having a rule of ONE thing out at a time. If you want to play duplos you need to put away cars first etc.

It seems I have failed at this for a couple of days as this was the state of our playroom this morning. Dinos laying on cars, cake in the middle of "town", toys everywhere. Luckily, we got it all cleaned up and back in the correct places but for a bit there, it was pretty scary in the playroom.

Close eyes. Draw Batman.

I am not an artist to start with but here is my closed-eyed attempt.

Sunshine

So, as many in the North do, I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disoder (SAD). This happens because of the lack of sunlight and vitamin D that happens in the northern hemisphere during winter.

In the summer I am fine. I like to sit on the porch and read books in the sunshine. It is warm and feels so good on my skin, completely relaxing.

In the winter I get depressed and go into hibernation. I deal with winter a few different ways. I try to go outside as much as I am able, even if it is just to shovel the driveway, again. It helps not only to get the fresh air, but it also helps in terms of exercise. Exercise is of course, one of the first recommended ways to deal with depression because there are only positive side effects (except for those with severe medical issues of course).

Before I got pregnant with my son I would go tanning once a week. It really helped me feel uplifted and happy, a little pick me up in the middle of winter. Now I am not a fan of skin cancer of course, but once a week in the grand scheme of things, isn't too horrible.

Another way I cope is to have this special calender on the fridge. It sounds trivial but it really gives me something to focus on that is positive. I print off my calender from this site.

Back in December the sun set here at 4:12pm. It was very difficult to handle. Now, in February we are back to a 5pm sunset time so it is light until about 5:30 or so.

This is the print off for the month of February where I am.