January at Home

I hope everyone is staying warm and cozy this winter, it has been a cold and snowy January for us!

My new favorite freezer prep is homemade crockpot refried beans! YUM. 1lb of pinto beans makes several servings of refried beans, and we eat a lot of Mexican food here so they come in handy.

Gotta keep the nails nice! I do DIY gel nails at home, they last 2-3 weeks before needing to be changed.

We've had a few cold snaps here getting down to 0 and below. This particular day I got up early and went hiking with a friend! It was 0 at my house when I left, and on the way there got down to -7. When we actually started hiking (Finger Lakes Trail at Letchworth) it was about 2 degrees. We broke trail in almost a foot of snow (with no snowshoes unfortunately!) for about 6 miles. The temp was up to the low 20s when we were done.

I love baking homemade bread in the winter! So quick and easy. I just throw a few ingredients into my bread machine where it gets mixed, kneaded, and first rising. Then I transfer it to the loaf pan for one final rising then bake. Yum!

And of course my boys keep me busy. Here they were cracking each other up jumping around like weirdos. Gotta love 'em!

More news to come, as always--check back soon for the updates!

Celebrating 19 Years

Today is our wedding anniversary! We have been married NINETEEN years! Can you believe it? Time flies. We went out for a special dinner with live music last week at a fancy new restaurant in Medina called Harvest. We had the best seat in the house right by the band, and the music was amazing. Great jazz style covers of classic big band and love songs. I requested "The Way You Look Tonight" and he did not disappoint. 

This outing was most definitely a splurge considering how frugal we usually are....but I figure it's a special night so we should loosen up a bit. We ordered some wine, and I started with a salad and Nick got soup.

I can not believe it, but I failed to take a picture of our entrees before we devoured them! I ordered chicken with lentils and kale, and Nick ordered pasta carbonara. It was delish and we ate every bite!

We sat there for awhile enjoying the music and finishing our wine, then the pastry chef brought out a special plate for our anniversary! So sweet. We almost licked the plate!

It was a fun evening out, and Bradley has become very responsible and is a great babysitter for his little brother. He even put him to bed that night!

Cuddles is enjoying the season, as you can see here in his very relaxed state. He has a birthday coming up next month, and will be 17!

You could say this was an anniversary present--tons of snow! Thankfully I did not have to work, and the boys were out of school for the holiday so we had no where to go. The prediction was 12-18" over about 24hrs, and I think we will get pretty close to it.

We woke up this morning to about a foot of snow on the ground, so we both bundled up and headed outside to start digging out. Nick used the snowblower while I shoveled the porches and sidewalks, then we started helping our neighbor dig out their cars and clear their driveway. It was hard work! We finished around 11am and came in to rest before lunch time.

After lunch we decided to surprise the boys and take them sledding! We haven't been able to go this season yet, and what better day than a holiday out of school to go have fun? I dressed them up in layers and boots, and we grabbed the sleds to head to the town park where there is a big sledding hill. There was only one other family there at first, then our neighbors showed up. After a little bit several others came so we finished up to go home and warm up.

They had a blast, and this was the first time Jacob was brave enough to go down the hill by himself on a sled. He did good! The snow was not the best for sledding since it was so deep and powdery, but we made it work and all had fun. We came home and had hot cocoa to get warm, then relaxed the rest of the day. I'm curious how much more snow will have fallen thru the night tonight!

Keeping Busy to Start 2022

Now that the holidays are passed, it's time for regular life to get back to business. Our weather here in western NY has been pretty tame so far this winter, so when we got a little snow that stuck around finally I grabbed Brad and we.met a hiking buddy at Mendon Park for a hike! It was nice to get some fresh air and exercise. We did about 5 miles.

Hubby decided to sell his '51 Chevy so we bid it farewell to it's new home in Pennsylvania.

He "bought" my Hyundai from me, so I got to find myself a new car. I really wanted another manual, so I finally found a worthy car that ticked all the boxes! A 2015 Mazda3 Sport. She is so fun to drive!

The boys both had dentist appointments and Jacob got a clean bill of health. Bradley however has a cavity on one of his molars...I thought Jacob's x-ray was really interesting with all the adult teeth lurking in the gums.

Bradley finally got to have his surgery. It was a correction of a minor birth defect. It was at a surgery center in Rochester and the staff was great. Bradley was excited to be getting all the attention. He didn't even mind the IV!

He woke up nice and happy and we went home to rest afterwards. By the time his school break was over, he was doing much better.

I've been doing a lot of reading. I love the Outlander series and I own all the books (except the latest one!). I have 8, and the 9th just came out before Thanksgiving. I started rereading the series to get ready for the new one, and I just finished #5. Each book is 900-1000 pages!

We saw this funny sight at our Walmart one afternoon....

Nick has been getting back into synthesizers and of course Jacob has to help him test the new arrivals.

I've stayed busy with orders from my crafts store Kandy's Krafts! I get the occasional Etsy order, but I also have a wholesale partner in Brockport, NY who just placed another order. Go check out my Etsy or my Facebook if you haven't yet! I'm adding a few new items soon.

That's about it for now, the boys are back in school and Nick and I have an anniversary coming up on the 17th. Brad starts 2 college classes on the 18th, so wish him luck!