Highlights and Favorites from February 2024; One Sentence a Day

 We had a good February but all the same I am glad to see it ending! We did manage quite a few more winter walks and hikes this month. We enjoyed some fun milestones; finally celebrating Alec's 18th birthday, Evan getting his license, and attended Alec's Senior Culinary Arts Project presentation. 

1. After Evan and I finished his schoolwork we spent a quiet day at home; I worked on making some more cards.

2. Gym with my mom, school with Evan, and then a lovely hike at Natchaug State Park after lunch with our friends. 

3.  A quiet Saturday spent mostly at home (other than one trip to the grocery store in the afternoon); I did make a delicious soup and some fresh homemade rolls to go with it. 

4. We were so excited to see the sun for the second day in a row... but still mostly just spent my day lying around the house working on the blog, reading a few books, and baking up some cookies. 

5. After the gym with my mom and school with Evan, Evan and I went hiking and then I went to get a haircut and decided to add some wispy bangs and a few more layers in.

6. After school with Evan I had him drive and we took some outfit photos for the blog but cut our plans to hike short since it was so cold out. 

What I really wore for the majority of the day

Stacked ice pushed against shore over and over by the water before freezing solid

7. Gym with my mom, school with Evan, we went driving and ran a few errands and I spent my afternoon cleaning the whole upstairs while Alec (who had a 1/2 day) headed out for a belated birthday lunch with my MIL.  

8. School with Evan and then both him and I worked to clean the whole downstairs (not the kitchen though; I won't clean that until Sunday morning after the dessert and all food prep is done!). 

and yes I did swear slippers all day!

9. Gym with my mom, driving for an hour with Evan, hiking for 2 hours with friends... I was wiped out by lunchtime after a lousy night sleep the previous evening and my "to do " list was still a mile long.  But in the light of day that hugely long to do list that kept me awake running through my head all night just didn't seem all that important anymore.

10.  Spent my morning paying bills/balancing the checkbook, then I cleaned a few more rooms in the house and made Alec's raspberry & Oreo cheesecake. 

Foggy mornings on the frozen lake usually mean warm weather! 

I walked to the mailbox in this; thank top, thin cardigan, and pants. 

It's an Oreo/raspberry cheesecake with a layer of ganache

Then a layer of raspberry mousse 

Finished off with crushed Oreos 

 

I had enough of everything left to make 8 cupcakes-- that we ate that every day!

11. Sunday started with a grocery run, then we got ready for Alec's party in the evening; I roasted a turkey and made some butternut squash, broccoli, and rice pilaf to go with it (at Alec's request). We had a lovely, if far belated birthday celebration.

12. Monday Alec had no school so my mom and I met at the gym a bit later than usual and then my mom, Alec, and I went out to lunch while Evan went driving with his instructor.

I spent my morning mixing up my favorite pantry mixes

Mediterranean chicken wrap with sweet potato fries

13. A snowy, snowy day; no school for Alec or Evan and Ian was out plowing nearly all day. I spent my day in front of the woodstove, reading, working on a puzzle, blogging, and watching TV.

14. Gym with my mom, annual mammogram appointment and then school with Evan.

A new dinner recipe we tried; ham and cheese sandwiches baked in the oven like sliders

15.  I worked in the kitchen all morning prepping food and making some meals then school with Evan before settling in to finish my puzzle while listening to my latest audiobook. Just before dinner I got a whole stack of scrapbook pages roughed out and ordered my next batch of photos. 

16. Gym with my mom, school with Evan, and then settled in to scrapbook and listen to my audiobook. 

17. We woke to some light snow showers and Evan asked if I wanted to go on a short hike (he drove!) and we had a great time hiking in the woods & taking pictures. In the afternoon my husband and I hit up both Bj's and the grocery store then got ready for a lovely date night out at Bella's. 

18. My husband and I spent our morning preparing all our tax documents for the accountant and then I sat down with Ian to get his taxes all finished up.  In the afternoon I read my book, worked on the blog, and did my nails.

19. My mom and I went to the gym later since Alec had no school and I didn't have to be up (no school for Alec means no school for Evan either!).  Alec and I ran to the grocery store to get his food items for his SCAP meal and then he spent the day working on making some mint truffles while Evan and I headed out for a short hike in the snow.

20. Getting Evan's license turned into a whole day affair since they were running more than 2 hours behind with testing but he passed and we celebrated with a late lunch out since we were both starving!! I did manage to get all my errands run on the way home. 

we went to the Railside Tavern 

I got a vegetable flatbread sandwich 

with a side salad

21. A morning workout at the gym with my mom, a quick morning of school with Evan, and then we were off to Alec's school for his SCAP meal (I wrote a full post on it here).  

22. A lazy day spent at home, I helped Evan with his schoolwork and spent the day doing laundry and reading my book. 

23. We spent a rainy day running to Target for new pillows for the boys then I baked up some banana bread, worked on a new puzzle, and did lots of laundry.

24. We picked up our 1/2 cow and spent the entire rest of the day prepping the meat for our freezer... it was so much more meat than we had anticipated and now I kind of don't want anything to do with meat anymore! LOL

25. I started my day menu planning for the whole month of March then hitting up the grocery store for our weekly grocery haul.

26. Gym with my mom, school w/ Evan, Library, post office, bank and then hiking around the dam with Evan. 

27. After Evan and I finished up school we went to CVS, a hike around Ross' Cliffs and then another stop at the library before heading home for lunch. I picked Ian up at work (after forgetting he asked me to!) and dropped him off to drive the 1 ton pickup where it needed to go then spent a quiet afternoon reading, blogging, folding laundry, etc.

28. Gym with my mom, school with Evan, we worked on picking out next year's curriculum too then headed to a dermatologist appointment for him; we'll go back in a year unless he needs to see them before them. I spent my afternoon baking bread, making soup, and blogging. 

29. After Evan finished school we went out to lunch with my mother in law; she's finally been cleared to begin eating all foods and is so excited to be feeling better. 

I splurged with an eggplant parm. grinder and French fries. 

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