Some weeks are so full and busy that it seems one day speeds into the next and time gets jumbled and days get lost in my mind. The best way for me to remember a full week is to write it out, and it’s been a full week!
We’ve had two significant weather events – ice on Monday and snow today. Monday’s ice meant no dance classes for the girls, so we filled the afternoon with making apple hand pies. I made a batch on Friday last week and everyone enjoyed them . I had an abundance of apples that needed to be used quickly, so we made another batch. This time Sophie helped out and she learned how to make them. She loves spending time in the kitchen, especially if it includes making treats. Apple Hand Pies (or turnovers) are a little bit more complicated than most of the recipes she’s tried, but we worked together and these turned out great!
The recipe is from Heather at North Ridge Farm. I love every recipe of hers that I’ve tried, and this one will definitely be placed in my permanent recipe files.
We’ve had a new to us dog for the last few weeks. He comes with a bit of history and a few issues, and we’re still not sure we’re keeping him. He was adopted as a young puppy by a family that had someone with a fear of dogs. The thought was that a small corgi would be fine for this person. After 6 months they realized it was a bad idea and they returned him to the breeder. The breeder didn’t have the time and space to house him and he asked us if we’d like to give him a try, even for a week. We’ve discovered that he’s aggressively afraid of slippers, and we’ve worked on that with him. But we already have two dogs and they don’t always get along. So, he’s adorable, and he loves us, but we’re still not sure. We’ve kept the breeder up to date with our progress with him, so he knows there’s a good chance he’ll have to find this little guy another home. We’ll probably keep him with us until a new home is found just to reduce the amount of moving around this little guy has to deal with. It makes me so sad to see how quickly a pup can learn fear and bad habits. I absolutely understand a fear of dogs, but using a corgi puppy to try to work through them isn’t really a good idea.
I’m trying to reclaim a schedule with our homeschooling, my workout habits, tending our goats, getting children to dance and youth group, and still getting my sewing work done. This week was pretty successful, but Wow! I’m so glad it’s Friday! I started a new treadmill series and I’m loving it, but I was so sore this morning! It may have been from the combination of running plus trying to chisel ice from the back deck before more snow fell. It was a good kind of sore though, and I was glad that this morning’s working was an interval hike instead of a shakeout run.
I’ve been tending to the goats as soon as I’m done with my morning walk/run/jog/hike. Carrying jugs of water through the snow is a great way to finish off my morning activity before sitting at the table with the kids for a few hours.
The fresh snow this morning made our backyard look like a snow globe. It’s funny how much more I enjoy winter when I get to go outside every day. There have been seasons when I feel too busy to go outside; I ask the kids to tend the goats, I ask the kids to grab the mail, someone else shovels off the decks. But those are the seasons when I most need to get outside for a few minutes. Being out in the fresh air, even for just a few minutes, even when it’s cold, is a great mental reset.
Our boiler went out on Sunday. Fortunately, we do have an alternate heat source, so our house was never very cold. We only use the boiler to supplement and the temperatures weren’t very cold this week. My husband knows how to repair such things, but he wasn’t able to access the parts without specific tools so he called in an acquaintance to lend a hand. A new part had to be ordered and it came in on Thursday. When my husband was talking to the acquaintance about the cost for the part he was shocked to learn that the exact same boiler we installed 4 years ago now sells for 438% more. We’re grateful that we only needed to repair it and not replace it. When our acquaintance friend came over Monday night to help take the boiler apart he wouldn’t take any money, but we gave him a freshly baked Apple Hand Pie to take with him. I was so glad we had made them.
I’ve started planning our vegetable garden for the year. We did some structural work on the garden area in the fall to prepare for a larger garden area, and with the cost of everything I think we did it just in time. I haven’t had a full garden in a few years, so I really need to revisit planting schedules and layouts, but I love this garden planning part of winter.
And that’s my week! I hope you all have a quiet and lovely weekend! I’d love to hear how your week was and what your plans are for the weekend.