Hey there! Seems I’ve been away from my computer a bit too long, and neglectful of this space.

We’ve simply been focused on school and routine appointments and Girl Scouts.  It hasn’t helped that I had the cold from the deepest depths of Hell that lasted for days and days and days.

When I emerged, I had to catch up on school work with the kids and deep clean the house (not that you can tell anymore….amazing how quick the clutter and dirt builds back up!).

I’ve been working on my Chimney Fire Sweater pretty diligently; Girl Scout Sundays are great for that. I hang out and knit for the two hours the older girls are in their meeting. I also finally got around to plugging in to season 2 of Serial. Add in a nice latte and it’s a rather enjoyable two hours for me.

This weekend we’ve been prepping for more snow (which started a few hours ago) and trying to manage the cold. In addition, Paul tore open the ceiling in the kitchen to try and fix the upstairs plumbing issues. As soon as he got the hole open where water had been dripping, a whole lot MORE water poured out, despite that bath not having been used for well over a week. We’ve discovered just how poorly this house was put together, and to boot, I now have a hole in my ceiling until we can be sure it’s properly solved.

In dog news, Lucy has been banished outside with the sheep and working dogs. She managed to slip out the gate last week when I was moving it, and came back with a skunk pelt. She refused to relinquish her prize, and spent the better part of a few days chewing and consuming it. Eventually she came back in the house, where we soon discovered that ingested skunk causes diarrhea.

She’s not in any danger of dehydration (it’s not frequent, but it’s once a day, and it’s awful, and she was doing it in the house), and she’s slowly recovering, but she’s not coming back in until I know she’s over it.

As for the kittens, they are getting bigger and cuddlier every day.

Little Widget is a regular lap cat for me, and Poppet loves to cuddle with Maddie and her boyfriend John. They’ve definitely been our furry little Valentines this weekend.

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, I took the opportunity to try a few recipes from the Joy the Baker cookbooks I’ve got.  I made a Banana Coconut Cream pie Friday night, knowing Paul would love it (the rest of us aren’t big on banana pie, but it was pretty tasty nonetheless).

For brunch Saturday I put together the Breakfast Nachos.

Let me tell you.

This was HEAVEN.

Oven-crisped potatoes topped with crumbled breakfast sausage, cheddar cheese sauce, and sunny-side up eggs, with pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream on the side.

This was a HUGE hit here. It would also be a weekend regular for us if it wasn’t so decadent! Seriously, it is too delicious to resist overeating by A LOT.  And then going back an hour later to pick at it some more.

Considering we also had our traditional Chinese take-out for dinner tonight, I can’t imagine what the scale is going to say in the morning. And you know what? Totally worth it!