Happy Friday! January was a slow month (mostly spend fighting off colds), but I thought I’d pop in with a little update on what we’ve been up to lately.
We’re in the thick of winter here in Ontario and as much as I love the snow, I’m definitely daydreaming about spring days more and more. We’ve been making the most of it – staying bundled up, making cozy dinners at home, visiting friends whenever we get cabin fever – but I’d be happy if spring arrived any day now. Even Lucy seems to be ready for warmer days spent outdoors. We have a trip to Florida soon to visit family and that will help break up the winter a bit, but until then I’m just making the most of it.
Part of my desire to see winter go away is because I am really looking forward to our third season of growing speciality cut flowers. My mother and I have spent the last few weeks selecting seeds for Cloverhill Flowers this year and making plans for the summer season. I’m thinking I’ll put together a post soon about how we do the planning and what resources we’ve used to help anyone else interested in growing cut flowers.
A month in and so far my resolutions have been going well. I was able to be sugar-free for the most part, with the exception of maple syrup in my morning tea, a square of dark chocolate some evenings and the occasional dessert if we were visiting friends or family. As soon as February 1st rolled around I did immediately make a batch of my favourite Coconut Macaroons, but I am definitely eating much less sugar than I did leading up to the holidays. Once you’re not eating it all the time, things that are sweet taste so much sweeter (especially fruit), so you don’t crave it as much.
As far as the other resolutions, most nights the kitchen and living room are clean and tidy, which is such a lovely way to start our adult time in the evening. I’m still working on the photography course and I’d like to be more consistent with yoga, but it’s a work in progress! I finished a fiction book and a non-fiction book before January ended and I’ve already finished my February book (so good!). I’ll be sharing my fiction books in my monthly newsletter the first Friday of each month. If you’re not already signed up, you can subscribe here.
I’ve had a few readers reach out to me because they haven’t seen our younger dog Cola (the black one) on the blog much lately. With a busy toddler running the roost right now, he was feeling stressed out and Garrett’s parents kindly offered to let him move in with them. Apparently, living with a toddler can be stressful. Who knew, right? He is much happier in a quieter household and we still get to see him every week. Our older dog Whiskey is also enjoying being the only dog again, with exclusive rights to anything that falls down from the high chair.
The big house project I’m working on right now is planning out what we want to do to our farmhouse kitchen. Every day we’ve been discussing plans, testing out cabinet arrangements, looking at tile samples etc. We have a long way to go until we start making permanent changes, but all the planning is still so exciting. I’ll share more on what we’ll be doing later this spring.
I hope you have a lovely weekend!
