I am beyond. Just beyond. I have no brain capacity during a week when I need it most. Deadline week. Always a killer. So I do what one can only do in these situations. Procrastinate. Which, I have to say, is not one of my weaknesses. I would rather get stuff done. And right now, I’m knocking The List off my list.

1) It’s the beginning of March in Michigan. Which means it’s 10 degrees. I also am beyond done with winter. We had another ice storm in early February and everything shut down. Again. Then temperatures dropped slightly and wind came and then you had chunks of ice falling from trees and rooftops. Gah.

 

 

2) I can pretty much gauge my life by emoji usage and this month, my most used emoji was the horror/terror emoji. So that. When I went to Google it, it’s officially called “face screaming in fear.” Pretty much.

3)  Did I ever tell you about the time my friends from Ohm Coffee Roasters sent me a Christmas gift out of the blue? We love each other, but we don’t normally exchange Christmas gifts, hence the surprise. These types of gifts given in love with no strings attached are always the best kind, no matter what they are, although in this case it was a delicious assortment of small batch roasted coffee beans. I haven’t surprised gifted very often, but when I have, it’s made me feel so happy. I would like to do more of that. Maybe you can, too.

4)  I have always loved Valentine’s Day, even when I didn’t have a Valentine. I am a sucker for true love and celebrating love in general (although make me sit through a romance movie and I am in agony), plus PINK. This Valentine’s Day was uneventful, aside from my sweet bouquet from Willa Rose Floral (thank you! And thank you, Valentine, for getting them for me!), because life and stress and whatnot, but my littlest gave me this Valentine, I mean, who needs date night when my seven-year-old lupine loves me? I’m all set.

5) Can we talk about typos for a minute? Because I always seem to have them in this blog. People actually pay me to write nice things and not make mistakes like typos. Am I apologizing? Not really. Defending myself? Not that, either. I’m simply saying I think it is ironic that as a professional writer, I can’t get it right on my own work. And also I know that you know. And now you know that I know, too.

6)  We worked on a lot of puzzles this month because winter, ice storms, etc. This one I haven’t done since my husband and I rented a place in Anderson Valley, California one weekend when I was pregnant with our first. It’s a Swiss Chateau.

This photo was taken a couple weeks ago and now it’s a lot further along, but not finished, and it will never get finished because I’m having The Garden Detroit board members over for a meeting and I need the table. I suppose I could put some people’s dinner plates on top of the puzzle but…I don’t know, that’s not super classy, no?

7)  Speaking of our first born, she turned 10 this month. She requested my coconut cupcakes (aka Ina Garten’s coconut cupcakes) with cream cheese frosting, which I gladly made. They never disappoint.

She begged for a sleepover birthday party, which I was hesitant about, then had the brilliant idea of holding it on Presidents Day weekend, seeing as everyone would be out of town. Aaaaaaand everyone was in town. We had seven girls over, plus our two. Aside from the screaming (happy girl screaming, but screaming nonetheless), all went surprisingly well.

8)  I did a craft (which may surprise some of you, but I was actually quite crafty back in the day) for the party. This project I found online where you break crayons, put them into silicone molds, bake them and voila. I read a tip about soaking the crayons in warm water to get the wrappers off and that saved me.

The girls had fun doing all the steps, and when I took the molds out of the oven, I goofed and spilled some of the hot wax (face screaming in fear emoji), but contrary to my initial reaction, the crayon hearts still came out great.

9)  Okay, let’s talk about my new La Creuset dutch oven. First of all, it’s blue. Secondly, I made beef burgundy (yes I do know it is capitalized, but I don’t want to so #notatypo) in it the other week.

Pretty much the exact same recipe I always use for the crock pot, but this time threw it in the dutch oven and oh my goodness. Picture is kinda gross, but it tasted amazing. Huge difference. All the flavors came together in a way that they just don’t in a crock pot. I still love the crock pot for the ease of  it, but whenever I make stew of any kind, I’m going to have to defer to my trusty dutch oven.

10)  We can also talk about chocolate. My new after-lunch snack at work is a Trader Joe’s chocolate peanut butter cup. It’s such a treat and I look forward to it every day.

Next, is another new-ish favorite that my friend introduced me to, are Hu bars, my favorite being cashew butter and raspberry jelly, which does not sound very good, but it is. The price of a bar has gone way up since the one store in town started carrying them, though, so they are a rare treat. I haven’t tried the cashew butter and vanilla bean and I bet I’d like that even more.

11)  I didn’t read the book group book for this month because I am just too dang busy, and also because I am enjoying my current book, “Stiletto,” the sequel to “Rook,” a light fantasy/adventure book by Daniel O’Malley. The writing is smart and fast-paced and fun, and the characters steer the book as much as the plot. You really should read the first book first.

12)  I have run out of things to talk about. Not much happened this month because work kind of took over. I try to maintain gratefulness, although if you’ve run into me lately you may not have figured that. But I do give a quiet nod to all that I have. Health, family, choices. And a prayer of thanks for it all. I think you can be stressed and tired and cranky, and thankful at the same time.

March is going to be another doozy of a month, but here’s to warmer days (maybe) and fewer hours at work (possibly) and more pressing on (surely). Happy almost spring!!