It's a Great Break

Can't believe two weeks have passed since my last post.  Yikes!  Time is flying by.

At work, we counted down the days until Thanksgiving break and then before we knew it, Winter Break was upon us.  Off for 17 days IN A ROW - the mind boggles.

I promised myself I would not look back on these days and think I wasted them - so for the most part, we've been keeping pretty busy.  It 'helped' that Mother Nature brought a storm that thrashed our yard so badly, it's been days of never-ending clean up.  The Japanese maples are losing their leaves and were encouraged by huge wind to do so.  They are so pretty but geez - they are a pain in the toukas to clean up every winter.

Yesterday, I started wrapping and organizing - we are shipping gifts and treats to B. today - and while I wrapped for him, I wrapped for everyone!  Using the higher counter in the study vs. schlepping things upstairs.  Guess that's one advantage to having adults in the house - no worry about trying to be super secret.  I've got a few more things to wrap but it's likely wrapping will be done completely by this evening.

I've baked cookies and am backing more cookies and brownies today.  I'm also attempting to make B. some sort of 'tree' - it's pathetic but it's the thought that counts.  Even the least crafty person on the planet can find things on the web and put something together.

I have a CT scan of my 'face' this afternoon - trying to figure out why my sinuses aren't draining.  At the time I made the appointment, late afternoon seemed best but now, I wish I'd scheduled it for next week.

We have cousins arriving Thursday evening for a one night stay and then stopping again on their way back from Portland next week.  I'm resisting the urge to frantically clean - but there is some tidying happening and plenty of 'stuff' being organized, put away, given away.  Mainly, I'm using the 'guests' as strong motivation to keep going - and I frequently can be heard saying 'we're not moving that to Reno so out it goes'.

I made the decision to not pursue a job outside my current district - I couldn't imagine commuting after 10 blissful years of not.  It's pretty hard to give up a 5 minute drive each way - and after traveling to Lodi last week in a bad storm, I realized 'I don't want to be driving to/from work daily in this stuff.  Ever'.

OK - I'm hopping in the shower so I can go outside and continue cleaning up.  I cleaned up the gross sludge in the bird seed trays and the blue jays have been here this morning looking for nuts.  I will put out a few and refill often vs. putting out a lot and having the next storm create seed sludge.  It's gross.  Baking, more wrapping, more tidying and eventually heading to the local hospital for the darn scan -

Winter Break 2016 is going to go down as the most productive ever - I can feel it.

OH - and I'm officially down 10 pounds as of this morning!!  Some of that is in jeopardy with Christmas treats everywhere - but for the most part, I stick with little to no sugar and eat as carefully as I can.  It's working -