Snow Days, Vacuums, and More

I said I wasn't going to let someone else steal my happy, yet I did.

No. More.

I've got Ten Things of Thankful:

My dad is getting new flooring throughout his house, and all the "stuff" everywhere had to be packed up and moved to the garage and basement (large furniture will be moved by the workers). Let me tell you, there is a lot of "stuff" (kindly called "senior clutter" by the contractor), but after working three weekends non-stop, we (my husband and I) got it all packed up and out of the house and cleaned the basement and set it up for my dad to live down there during the installation. 

Okay, so the flooring didn't get put on the truck for delivery in time to do the floors this week, but that turned out to be all right, since the weather was too bad for workers to get there anyway. The flooring has now arrived. The snow is gone. The workers should be there this week. Fingers crossed.

We got THREE SNOW DAYS this week! Snow days are a GIFT (and a necessity). We were supposed to get 9-13" of snow, but instead of big ol' wet snowflakes, we got tiny dry flakes and that cut our amount down considerably. But 5"+ is still a lot of snow for us, and coupled with temps below zero, the whole area pretty much shut down. 

I am thankful for my cheap but amazing snow boots. I bought them at Walmart probably seven or eight years ago. We don't get much snow, so I probably haven't worn them much more than a dozen times, but they are incredibly warm and have great traction.

I started a jigsaw puzzle on the second snow day. I found it in a cabinet and have zero recollection of buying it. It's a lovely picture of needlework, including pins and scissors and different projects and even has a cup of tea in it. It also has 1500 pieces. 1500. I worked two days solid on it and many hours since, and I STILL don't have the outer edge completed (still missing two pieces). But I have completed maybe 20-25% of it, in spite of every effort from Lewis to thwart me with a sweep of his magnificent tail.

I'm still on my healthful eating track, avoiding all ultra processed foods, as well as flour, sugar, and caffeine. I've lost about 15 pounds and feel terrific!

We have annual on-line trainings at work that must be completed by every employee. The links are usually released in August or so and we have until June 30 to complete them. Every year, I do them on June 29th. THIS year? February 19th! 

I am thankful for my vacuum cleaner. It's a Shark Navigator Lift-away, it's purple, and it is the only vacuum cleaner I have ever loved. I have two, one for each floor (they are not expensive), and I have put them both through the paces this weekend, doing some major housecleaning. 

I'm thankful for cheese.

And I'm thankful that I have this platform. It saves my sanity.

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Make Good Trouble

You know what I finally figured out? No one can steal your happy. If someone takes your happy away, it's only because you handed it over to them. 

Pity Party over. It's time to resist and make good trouble....

Now let's get to those thankfuls:

1. I'm thankful for Heather Cox Richardson and her insight as a historian into current events.

2. I'm thankful for writer Kate Bowler, professor of religious history at Duke University, for reminding me that it is a terrible, beautiful world in which everything happens. Her devotionals always hit hard.

3. The bitterly cold weather has retreated and we are having seasonable weather now. I can deal with seasonal.

4. There's been an owl hanging out near my house for the past month or so. I used the Merlin Bird ID app to record him and found he is a Great Horned Owl. There are woods behind my house, and I couldn't narrow down where, exactly, the sound was coming from, but one night this week, I got home from work right at dusk, and he was hooty-hooing on a pretty regular basis. I walked towards the sound, just past my next door neighbor's house, and I heard him clearly. Looked up, and saw his profile way up on a limb of a tree about 20 feet away. He's sneaky! I sure enjoy hearing him at night. It's a very soothing sound.

Can you see him? 

5.-8. After cleaning out our refrigerator one Saturday right after our big (for us) snow, I noticed some water that appeared to be coming out from under the baseboard between the fridge and the hallway to our living room. Weird. Checked the basement below it and found water POURING out of the ceiling from the vicinity of the water found in the kitchen. I yelled for my husband, and we grabbed buckets and towels and rubbermaid tubs. Water was pouring in streams from a doorway and also from the ceiling in several places, including over and around a light bulb. Chaos ensued, and our first thought was it was an ice dam on the roof caused by melting snow and an old roof (there was no visible leaking on the second floor). My husband kept saying "there's a finite amount of snow up there, so it should stop soon." It did not. Then on a whim, I turned off our water where it enters the house, and within ten seconds, the water slowed to a trickle. Now instead of needing a roofer, we needed a plumber. Dreading that the plumber was going to tell us our 100 year old pipes had fallen apart somewhere in the area between the basement ceiling and the first floor and wondering how many possible tens of thousands of dollars the damage could end up being, the plumber said it was coming from the little hose that leads to the refrigerator for the ice maker THAT WE DON'T EVEN HAVE. When we were cleaning out the fridge, we pulled it away from the wall a little, and in pushing it back, we ran over the line. Soooo, it was self-inflicted. It has to dry out now, and we will need a little patching of the basement ceiling, but good news that it wasn't worse! And that our basement is just a basement and isn't a finished room. And that our ancient (as in at least 40 years old and probably older) chest deep freeze that once belonged to my grandma did not suffer, as it was under the stream of water. fyi at least 20 gallons of water poured through the ceiling, not counting what missed the buckets.

9. I'm thankful for my school family. I have the sweetest class! They can be a handful, but they are loving and funny and inquisitive, and we are having a great year!

10. A month ago today, I gave up ultra processed foods, as well as caffeine, flour, sugar, and, well, pretty much everything except lean meat, some dairy, fruits, and vegetables. I listened to a podcast of NPR On Point about UPFs right before Christmas and it stuck with me. What also stuck with me was all the cookies and candy and snackies and cheese that I had consumed from Halloween until Christmas, so I made a change. I told myself I'd do it for a month and see how it goes. It's been a month and I'm going to continue. I feel better. I've lost a few pounds. I'm saving money by not eating out. Yay, me!

Oh, and a bonus thankful:

HOW 'BOUT THOSE CHIEEEEEEEEEFS???

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