. . . Just Life Along the Way: Winter and Stuff

All of the sudden, it was the middle of February. (Insert shocked exclamations.)

The entirety of January seemed to be swallowed up by the black hole called The-beginning-of-the-semester-and-catching-up-on-work-and-life-after-two-weeks-of-Christmas-vacation.

On the very last day, my very last project for the month was finished (even though it meant staying up later than usual).

I blinked, and there we were in February. A whole month gone with scarcely a trace!

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There have been projects and improvements going on in the guest house since before I came to the Bible School. In a way, I feel like my first couple years were a lot of conversations, research, changing of plans, projects stopping and starting, and (for me personally) just trying to get a handle on how to do this job well - but not always much visible progress. This school year it's felt like all of it is finally coming together.

So many things are updated or changed that when you walk into one of the apartments now, it's visibly different.

I get a little giddy over it.

Perhaps because it took effort and time and a generous heap of teamwork, I value it that much more.

While the pictures aren't the best quality, here's a couple glimpses of our new look -

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Random bits -

A new kind of pothos! Houseplants can be tricky this time of year, but so far this one is doing well.

The Super Bowl does have its pluses, I suppose, as avocados went on sale for 87 cents.

I made guacamole (because of course), and then when the last few ripened later in the week, I made chocolate pudding. Yes. Chocolate pudding. With avocados. I'd always wanted to try it but it's hard to justify that when avocados are $2 a piece. For the record, it wasn't bad. I'd even make it again.

...Next February, when avocados go on sale again.

This used to be a closet with just a characterless shelf and some odds and ends. It was a sort of catch-all space that I wanted to better use. I wanted to actually like it, instead of merely tolerating it. I moved my desk and file drawers in there several months back to see how I'd like that...and I really did. Like it, I mean.

One of January's goals was to repaint the space (I didn't paint it when I moved in, unlike the rest of the house), tidy it up, get a shelf rehung, and put up new calendar pictures along the one wall.

The project is complete, and I'm quite tickled with the results.

Addie turned 12!

Ava "all gussied up", as my grandma would have said.

Little crazies. They make me laugh.

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Winter.

There hasn't been an inordinate amount of snow.

Not every day has been unbearably cold.

I think we even had a fair number of sunny days in January.

But we had some record-breaking cold a couple weeks back, and every time one turns around the schools are calling another "inclement weather day" (either for ice, a lot of snow, or extreme cold). It all makes the winter seem worse than it really has been.

(That's me trying to remind myself not to complain about the weather. I do like winter, except when too many sunless days come in a row. But complaining doesn't change the weather, so...)