Where's The Snow?

Just a quick note to whine about the weather. I'm not one to complain too much about weather where I live, as I know the climate in northern New England is fickle. I am, however, losing my resolve. By this time last year, I'd done a ton of nordic skiing and I was kicking my own butt learning how to skate ski. Although we've had a couple of storms, none of the snow stuck around for very long. Looking at the 10 day forecast is pretty grim as well. Looks like about one new inch of snow is likely. Not enough to do much of anything on.
Although this lack of snow is affecting morale for us skiers (especially those of us relying on natural snowfall versus the machine made stuff on the slopes), it's really not good for the economy. The local economy here relies heavily on winter recreation: skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiles, dogsled tours, etc. The folks that really make their bread and butter off the snow are just itching for the next big dumping of fluffy white stuff to sell to the tourists. Although I complain about the lack of wintery weather, at least I don't rely on it to keep my family fed.
All we can do is grin and bear it, and go for a hike instead.

Survived the Holidays!

Christmas is officially over at my house. It ended when Lils and I took down the tree today and shoved it out the front door. It will look lovely in the New Year's Eve conflagration on Saturday. 

For all my grumpiness around the holidays, I actually did quite well this year.
I managed to Christmas shop without breaking the bank. I've got a marketable skill as a massage therapist and am convinced that a good massage is all anyone really wants for Christmas. I hit up a couple of local business owners and bartered gift certificates to gift shops, boutiques, and even a hair salon. I even gave some massage gc's directly to some people who I know would use them. There's a good gift at little cost to me. We also gave out cookies and cranberry chutney to folks. I even baked some gluten free cookies for those people in our life that eat that way.
So, as the gift giving tends to be the most stressful part of the holidays for me, I am happy to report that it went quite well this year! Kiddo's best gift from us was a handmade doll changing table. For $10 at the thrift store, we got this:

 And turned it into this:

I love that she is still at that age where the biggest gift she asks for can be got for very little. We were pretty proud of ourselves for making it, too. 

I feel like I made out well this year, stressed way less than usual, and didn't go broke trying to make things just right for everyone. 

For now, I will look to 2012 with great anticipation. We bought our airfare to Europe as a gift to ourselves this year. 

A Few Odd Things That Made Me Chuckle Today

Kiddo asked me how to break into buildings, 'cause she "might want to do that someday." OK then.

We went to a Christmas theme park today. There was the usual holiday- themed stuff: mechanical sleighs, elves, gingerbread cookies. All fun for the little ones.
There was also this one-antlered reindeer:

 There were a few of these, and for no good reason, I was cracking up inside. 

Another silly one: A dinosaur with a puffin (or penguin?) head and another with antlers. What the...?

Well, that was silly. 

It was a COLD day for wandering around a theme park and I found myself emphatically saying no to any ride that seemed it may have any speed for fear of wind chill.

Days like this make me especially grateful for my hot tub. What a lovely way to warm up. It was a crisp clear night out there. Perfect for star-gazing. We even got to see a few shooting stars; likely leftovers from the Geminid meteor showers. 

Yep, life is good. Strange at times, but still good. 

Clutter or Holiday Decorations?

I'm constantly fighting clutter. I don't usually win. I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays for various reasons, one of which is all the added mess and clutter it brings into my home. Decorations don't really excite me much. I wouldn't put them up at all if it weren't for kiddo and Mr. T. -They love this stuff.
Having recently decorated a float for a holiday parade in town, and having had all the decorations in piles around the house, I feel like I've already had my fill of Christmas decorations. (and Christmas music!)
Along with that is the extra travel we do this time of year, making sure to see all the family. We end up living out of bags and never fully unpacking. Then we have lots of family and friends visiting us, too. We absolutely love to see them, but the toys scattered by the kids and the constant dishes and messes to clean up, and the ever-growing piles of stuff that get left behind, well, it's all part of it I suppose.
Don't get me wrong. I love the company and the cooking and festivities of it all. I just have a fairly small house and any bit extra gets to feel overwhelming at times. So, forgive me if I don't rush out to get the Christmas tree and if I slack a bit on getting the holiday lights up on the house.

To Market, To Market

I love the farmers' market.
OK, flashback 3 years. A friend of mine is wishing the local community had a farmer's market. She goes to another market in the region to check things out and suddenly she's the coordinator for the first ever farmers' marketplace in our depressed mill town. Inspiring to say the least. Last year, I lugged my massage chair downtown every other week and did back massages for a buck a minute. I alternated with another massage therapist in town. Mostly, I did it because I wanted to be in the market scene. I made a few bucks and left most of my earnings back at the market with the food and hard cider vendors. My business is pretty well established in town, however, and it seemed that folks thought I wanted to build up clientele. They'd refer me to folks thinking I needed more business. Not to complain about abundant business, especially in this economy, but I have been doing massage for 11 years and intend to do it for many more, so overworking myself is not on my to-do list. Also, since moving my business to my at-home office, I have been more discerning about who I let in to my space, and frankly, I didn't need every market client coming home with me.
So this past summer, I let the market go. Instead, I visited as a customer when I could, and liked it that much more (except that I often stopped by between in-office massage clients and rushed through so fast I barely got to say hello to those fantastic market vendors I've grown so fond of.)

My friend the market coordinator could not be stopped at a simple weekly outdoor market. She decided that the community also needed a harvest market in November just before Thanksgiving, and a Holiday market in December as well. So we moved indoors. Last year, I lugged my massage chair over and did the back massages and sold gift certificates. This year, I decided to devote my harvest market day to the ski club. As we're in the middle of a membership drive, I figured I could get some new and returning members on board and sell a few t-shirts as well. Plus, I can bring my 4 year old to sell t-shirts where she'd be distracting for massage.

Although I made no money for myself today, I brought in nearly enough to buy groomer fuel for the season. That makes me happy. 

Aside from the monetary gain for the club, I was able to talk up our events and programs, and shmooze with folks that may or may not have local influence and even money to help our cause. 

I also get to meet folks with Nordic ski history that puts my meager kick and glide abilities to shame. Today I got to meet a guy that won first in his division in ski-jumping in '68. From this 171 foot insanely steep jump.  

On top of all that, I got some amazing multi grain bread from a local baker, fresh local cranberries, and some leeks. All in all, a good market day.

Oh, and while we were at the market, (and the 6 year old's birthday party immediately afterward) the Mr. was installing the base for the new shower and some backer board for the fancy tile job we're doing. What a productive day! 

Busier than we ought to be.

OK, so I've been MIA for a while.
I'm still trying to find some balance between my work life and my volunteer life. This ski club I volunteer for is great and fun and has some real historical significance, and I feel like I ought to give it more energy than I have been. Of course, it's all volunteer run, and although I get some great ideas, I keep having to remind myself I'm just a volunteer. So I need to lay off. Or not. I am having fun learning new things, like how to write a grant, and I'm loving the trail work and the times we get to get outside.

Now, if I could spend more time outside and less time squinting my eyes in front of grant-y terms and what not...

I did get to spend some time with Lils and the neighbor kid jumping in leaves last weekend. That stuff brings me back to the best times of my childhood.

To make an eventful week even more so, our hot tub busted last Thursday. In the midst of my stressing out about something that was probably unimportant, I decided to take a few minutes in the tub to relax. then the jets stopped and this happened:

Yeah, that's the contents of my tub draining out onto my yard. It was on warranty and the hot tub company sent a very adorable redhead man to repair it for us. Although the broken tub totally harshed my mellow, I am well aware that this is not a real-life problem, so if you were pitying me, you should stop now.

So what's on tap for the weekend? It's Veteran's day so Mr. has Friday off. We're going to tackle the shower project this weekend. A while back, we totally re-did a bathroom and installed a shower that we chose mainly because it was inexpensive and looked cool. Like a portal or something. the shower turned out to be a total piece of crap and the floor cracked in several places. It wasn't how it was installed. It's that the base was a not-so-dense foam covered in a thin plastic coating and never made to last. We got a pile of tile and a new floor and glass doors and are tackling the demo of the old shower tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll have it done by Monday. 

The Before Picture

Of course, We've got a pile of other stuff going on this weekend, so we'll see how the project goes. 

I'll post more often, as we're getting psyched and planning our Europe trip and this shower project ought to have some progress to report soon. 

A week in pictures

What on Earth have I been up to this past week? Well, Halloween, for one thing:

 It's quickly becoming my favorite holiday. Kiddo was a witch (her choice) and I went all out and did 2 different costumes. A witch for the daytime trick or treat, then this awesome fairy costume for a party and the night time trick or treat. Fairy costume is a little on the racy side so I'm not posting it here.
While I had the sewing machine out, I restyled a couple of boxy t-shirts. This one's my fave:

 Apologies for the bad bathroom mirror sideways shot.

We got our first real snow of the season. About 4 inches here, but some folks south of us got more than 2 feet of snow from the same storm.

 First snowman of the season:

Aside from all that, I've been stressing myself out to the max, trying to get the ski club I volunteer for all set for the season. Herding volunteers isn't always easy. I'm also working on boosting my own enthusiasm to make things work. It's been waning, and that's no good for anyone. 

Wish me luck!

Moving In.

We spent much of Sunday cleaning and organizing the house. We're getting ready to "move in." Living in a climate with (at least) 4 very distinct seasons makes us sensitive to how we use our space throughout the year.
Our house is fairly small. About 1100 square feet or so, and a big part of it is taken up by my massage office. In the summer, we live outside quite a lot. The house cleaning gets neglected as we give attention to our gardens and other outdoor projects. (This year, it was 100' of privacy fence to guard against the prying eyes of a bad neighbor.) We cook on the outdoor grill year-round, but it's nearly daily in the summer. We have fires in the backyard pit a few times per week. In the hot weather, we bring our mojitos to the shade of the front porch. The size of our indoor living space is rarely a concern in the summer.
As the weather cools, we start to move in. Although we're pretty active outside with sledding, nordic skiing and other outdoor fun, the days are just shorter. When sunset occurs mid-afternoon, it's not as appealing to go out. Plus, we tend to get several below-zero days in the winter.
Along with putting away the lawn furniture and getting the snowblower running, here are some things we do to adjust as we move in:

• dust the damn house - It's just not something we do in the summer. 
• re-arrange our space- This is a constant with us. We recently did our bedrooms, working toward a minimalist look and adjusting furniture for more usable floor space. 
• organize the basement- We use a section of the basement as sort of a rec room. It's not pretty, but it's functional. This time of year, it looks a bit like a campmor catalog threw up down there, so we're picking up and putting all that stuff on shelves. 
• de-clutter- It's a constant struggle around here, but the clutter gets worse in the winter. I'm still trying to figure out a way to effectively organize papers related to the ski club I volunteer for. They end up in a pile on the kitchen counter for weeks until I get around to filing and dealing with it all. Along with that kind of "grown-up" clutter, we have a plethora of "kid clutter." That's a whole other monster to deal with. So- we're nowhere near perfecting this step, but getting better each year. 
• organize- It goes along with de-cluttering, but I look at organizing as assuring that when I get around to de-cluttering, there's a space for all that stuff to go. It's organizing the house so that everything in the house has a committed space where it belongs. 

These steps are helpful when mid-February comes along and we start to dream of building huge additions to the house so we can have more space to live. 

I have to admit, we do cheat a little. Last fall, we bought a 7 person outdoor hot tub. It's had a huge effect on our lives. It's like we added a room to the house that is the size of all outdoors. We often talk ourselves out of an expensive home addition while soaking in that thing. 

What kinds of things do you do to adjust to "moving in" in the winter?