Daily Highlights and Favorites from January: 2023

 We had a lovely start to our year and, for the most part, enjoyed the weather too.  Even those times we got snow it usually rained within 24 hours and was all gone! 

1. It was beautiful out so by 9:30 Evan, myself, and my husband were already hitting the trails.  We hiked around Leadmine for an hour then headed home for lunch where I then spent my afternoon reading, blogging, and crafting. 

2. Knowing it was our last day of winter break we all enjoyed another lazy day at home. I spent my morning making cards and then whipped up a chicken pot pie for dinner and we watched the final episode of Friends. 

My favorite card of the day (I shared ALL my January cards in this post)

3. With everyone back to work and in school, Evan and I settled down to work on his schooling then we cleaned the whole upstairs and I ran a few errands right after lunch-- picking up Alec's book at the library, buying bread at the grocery store, etc. It poured all day-- again; I'm getting so sick of rainy, dreary skies. 6,421 steps.

4. Evan, myself, my mom, my step-father, and my mother in law had reservations to eat at the restaurant Alec's school runs out of their culinary department.  We had a wonderful lunch and got to meet Alec's fellow students and his teacher too.  The food was delicious and even with 5 meals, and 2 desserts to go it was under $50!  8,390 steps. 

Both my stepfather and I got the chicken cacciatore (which we found out later Alec made!)

Evan got a chicken parm. pizza

My mom got the fish tacos and my mother in law (not pictured) got chicken Caesar salad

The chef came out to say "hi"

5. As soon as Alec was out the door, I headed out grocery shopping.  Once home I put everything away,  helped Evan with school, while also making banana bread and some homemade granola.  7,015 steps.

My to do list for the day

6. I had great plans to run all sorts of errands but another rainy and even snowy miserable weather day caused me to lose all ambition! I did get schooling done with Evan and worked on cleaning several more rooms in the house so it wasn't a total loss of a day.  It started snowing in the late afternoon and I dragged out my new tripod and my big camera to get some practice with my tripod. 5,424 steps. 

7.  The sun FINALLY made an appearance on Saturday so I talked the two younger boys into hiking at the Thompson Dam-- we walked for an hour and then headed home where I spent a good portion of my afternoon reorganizing my crafting supplies.

I still had not sorted through a few drawers of brads and odds and ends from when I was gifted a whole truck bed worth of crafting supplies so I took this messy drawer... 

And turned it into two drawers sorted by color

8. I spent my whole day in the craft room working on the blog and some scrapbooking pages; I got 5 pages completely done and 10 more started (they just need titles and embellishments).  In the afternoon I played Uno with the family and then we headed out to dinner at the Whistle Stop

9. After finishing up school with Evan we took some outfit photos for the blog and then I spent my afternoon finishing up some scrapbook pages I had started yesterday.  

10. I had a day of errands and my haircut planned so we cut school super short. 

11. Evan and I flew through his schoolwork and then after lunch I dropped him off at his friend's house; I went in to say "hi" and ended up talking to his friend's mom for 2 hours! (It's one of the families we hike with and I hadn't seen them since before Thanksgiving). 

12. Evan talked me into setting aside his schoolwork for later and we went out hiking in the falling snow at 9 o'clock in the morning.  We hiked for nearly an hour and the snow was really coming down by the time we made it back to the car then we tackled all his schoolwork and ate some lunch.  I decided to try a new cardmaking technique and then curled up to finish my latest book. 7,240 steps. 

13. I drove Alec to school then worked on schoolwork with Evan; I sat down to work on some scrapbooking after lunch but we lost power just as I managed to finish one page.  It was time to get Alec and bring him to his dermatology appointment then I picked up his dinner and got ready for a date night out with my husband (we were dropping Alec off at a Ninja Warrior/Wipeout party and heading to dinner while waiting for Alec to be done).  Luckily we had only lost power for about 2 hours so the boys were all set by the time we left to drop off Alec. 3,342 steps (I don't wear my step counter on date nights).

I actually wore a dress for date night! (in case you didn't know I rarely, if ever, wear dresses)

14. I spent my morning making food in the crock pot (lasagna and diced butternut squash) then 4 of us (not Ian) headed out to see Cirque Du Soleil Corteo.  It was a fun show and Ian had dinner all ready for us when we got home (set the table, put out salad, heated up garlic bread, etc). 3,088 steps. 

15. We slept in on Sunday and spent a lazy day reading and relaxing. In the afternoon all 5 of us played a few rounds of Scattegories and then we ended the night with 8 Simple Rules (on Disney+) and some delicious tortellini soup. 2,843 steps. 

16. Monday I woke to a wet wintery mess (rain/sleet/ snow/ ice/ etc) but headed out to get groceries anyway since we were low on everything. With Alec having the day off from school, Evan and I decided to take the day off too and we worked on cleaning the house and went for a hike instead. 8,587 steps. 

17.  We FINALLY had a nice sunny day with warm-ish weather so Evan and I tackled his schoolwork quickly and headed out for a nice long hike along the river. 13,323 steps. 

18. Knowing we were hoping to meet up with our friends for a hike Evan and I tackled his schoolwork and cleaned the basement all before 10 o'clock.  I settled to work on some cards while waiting for them to call... only they couldn't meet up with us so Evan and I decided to just walk to the state park after lunch and hike there. 10,441 steps. 

19. After a quick morning of schoolwork Evan and I headed out for a little hike and then cleaned another couple rooms in the house when we got home.  Alec only had a 1/2 day so he was home shortly after us and then it began pouring.  9,607 steps.

 20. With more rain/ snow all day we had a quiet day at home (well, Evan did go to lunch with my mother in law).  After school with Evan and cleaning a bit more of the house I settled in  to work on scrapbooking and finished another stack of pages! 4,021 steps. 

I kept looking at this page that I thought I had completed and wasn't quite happy with it so I pulled everything off and added some patterned paper.

21. Saturday morning I was working on fishing up our Nashville trip scrapbooking pages while Alec began working on his birthday dessert; he needed to bounce a few ideas off me so I kept stopping to help him; but I finished our entire trip and am ready to move onto our Disney trip pages. 2,538 steps. 

Working on 3 pages all at once

Homemade Chinese food for Alec's birthday

22. Sunday morning while Alec worked on finishing up his cheesecake I worked on the blog and then Evan and I headed out for a hike just after eating lunch.  We only needed sweatshirts and I talked him into hiking for an hour and 15 minutes.  We then hosted a birthday party for Alec with his grandparents and ended our night with pizza and cheesecake. 12,023 steps.

23. I headed out grocery shopping once Alec left for school then worked on putting all the stuff away and prepping food as Evan did his schoolwork at the table.  It began snowing around lunch and I spent my afternoon in the basement near the woodstove watching TV and blogging. 5,283 steps. 

24. We woke to just a light dusting of snow and Evan and I headed out hiking as soon as his schoolwork was done.  We hiked for 90 minutes taking both the Coffehouse Loop Trail and the Cedar Swamp Trail.  It was beautiful out! 12,054 steps. 

25. With a bit more of a snow/rain mix in the forecast Evan and I headed out hiking the minute he was done with his schoolwork. We headed to a trail we only hiked once during the pandemic and found that they added a second trail so we hiked for an hour trying out ALL the trails.  We never really did get any snow but it did rain all night. 10,378 steps.

26. It was in the mid 50's when I woke up which is so unusually warm for this time of year that Evan and I elected to head out hiking the minute we finished eating breakfast; we drove down to the shore and hiked around Bluff Point then stopped and got lunch in Mystic.  It was a lovely day, though it was really windy and cold at the bluff. 12,809 steps. 

27.  After finishing up a quick morning of school Evan and I headed out hiking at Purgatory chasm then I spent my afternoon folding laundry, reading my books, and blogging.  8,963 steps. 

28. I spent a lazy morning in bed watching movies and then spent most of my day working on scrapbook pages; though I did make a quick BJ's run with my husband and we stocked our chest freezer for the next month or two.  3,746 steps. 

All laid out; just waiting for titles, journaling, and embellishments!

29. I spent a quiet Sunday at home working on some cards and finishing up the layouts for our Disney pages; I've started each of the 17 pages.  In the afternoon Ian, Evan, and I played a rousing game of UNO. 1,872 steps. 

30.  I was up early and jumped right into the day so that I was home with groceries by 8 am; it was a beautiful day in the upper 40's and I wanted to make sure Evan and I could head out hiking as soon as his schoolwork was over.  We hiked at Steere Farm for nearly an hour and a half. 12,608 steps. 

31.  After working on school with Evan, we elected to skip our hike and clean the house instead. I had an appointment for an oil change after lunch and headed out early to run some errands then after dinner my husband and I headed out to vote on a special town referendum. 8,521 steps. 

Love how clean my always looks after a quick service appointment! 

I did awesome on my WW goals this month too with 30 of the 31 days in my healthy eating zone!

Linking up with: Spread the Kindness,