February was quite the month with my in-law’s away in California for nearly two weeks and Andrew driving back and forth to Rome, NY for CDL training. We also got nasty colds (again) and one week church was cancelled due to snow. We finished up our second term of school and tomorrow we leave for a big road trip! You’ll hear more about that when March is over. For now I hope you enjoy this peek into what I’ve been reading, eating, doing, and listening to lately.
Read
Update on reading goals: For the Literary Life 2024 reading challenge I finished reading two different translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. (Andrew then picked up Tolkien’s translation, but I don’t think I’ll read it quite yet!) Andrew and I finished our first Pulitzer readaloud: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (more of a downer than I was hoping, but great characterization and dual timeline).
Eat
It had been a while since I tried anything new from the Smitten Kitchen cookbooks, but a few weeks ago I made “bake sale winning-est gooey oat bars” and the were scrumptious warm with ice cream.
I also tried some excellent online recipes that you should check out:
For an early Valentine’s date Andrew made me supper (heart-shaped pasta with clam sauce and garlic parmesan white beans with Italian bread) and brought home cannoli and other pastries from an Italian bakery; he even chose some movies set in Italy from the library. <3
I also can’t neglect to mention that Andrew went to a grocery outlet store that had fancy Chobani flip yogurts and all kinds of ice cream (Ben & Jerry’s! Häagen-Dazs!) for 99 cents each. Can’t beat that.
Do
- At the beginning of the month we went to a church skating party at the local rink.
- Our Women’s Missionary Fellowship put together care packages for college students; I had a good time shopping for snacks, school supplies, and other useful or fun items.
- It’s been a strange winter and I’m glad my kids got a chance for some sledding and snow fort building in February (but also playing at the park in 20 C weather!).
- The Ogdensburg library had a science day with experiment stations and in the evening they hosted a talk about the upcoming solar eclipse.
- Shelley took me and the kids to the Nicandri Nature Center in Massena and I was so impressed by the displays, aquariums, activities, field guides, board games, and wildlife (we saw deer and many types of birds right outside the window). I definitely want to try out the nature trails on a less rainy day.
- We met some friends at the North Country Children’s Museum again; I wish it were closer than a 40 minute drive, but I’m sure we’ll be back from time to time.
- Andrew and I went to a college hockey game in Canton, NY. I enjoyed it more than I expected; it was very dramatic, but in the end the home team lost in a shoot-out.
- Another library event was a tea party to kick off an adult reading challenge; it was fancier than I expected with fine china and a really lovely array of refreshments from scones to smoked salmon cream cheese sandwiches to ginger cookies.
- The kids had another art class where they discussed some of Frederick Remington’s paintings in the gallery before making their own art with oil pastels.
Listen
Meditate
With my Bible reading plan, I’ve now finished Exodus, Leviticus, Ephesians, and Philippians. The kids memorize Bible verses for school and we recently decided to do a passage where we each learned one verse and recited them one after the other from youngest (3) to oldest (37):
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
– Philippians 4:4-9