5 + 6 / 52 weeks

52 weeks of daily life in pictures: trials and celebrations,
the extraordinary and mundane -- 
whatever is unique to the week. 
Join me if you like.

 

Art work; learning how to replicate a diagram, using one inch grid squares.He did such a good job, he tried another after this one.

The first meeting of the Pony Pals Club was a huge success! 

One gal wasn't able to make it because she had another prior commitment. The other four girls very much enjoyed the afternoon together; crafting, snacking, talking all things horses, and making plans for the next meeting.

A blog post on the club meeting awaits in my draft box.

If you didn't know better, this photo makes one feel as though we live in the an arctic tundra. 

If one only gazes upon the bright blue cheery sky, we can pretend it's summer! It's such a lovely contrast to be out and about driving around, even on this very, very cold day. Check out the possibility of all that Vitamin D consumption folks, all natural!

I'm not sure how I feel about these shoes above! 

Welcome to the Dutch store our newly discovered local Dutch store that is, and finding out about the introduction of yellow Dutch croc shoes. Yes, folks it would appear that crocs are taking over the real wooden shoes now. Slip on ease without the weight, they are apparently selling like hot cakes.

I love driving down this street for it reminds me of our former home and a street I drove every day, the one that held my "Lonestar tree" faithfully and forever guiding me home again. 

This scene, complete with tree is so warm and familiar for me, so peaceful, without much traffic, and country farm fields are also similarly dotted along the side of the road.

Just a little corner of my new redo crafting room, a vintage feel creates an exquisite and sentimental ambiance here, now that  I've decided to hang up my little bitty heritage sewing baby dress collection.

Now, if only I can get a proper photo with the lighting in the room, then I'll be able to show you the finer and more exquisite features these wee gowns offer to the naked eye.

And the Bay is officially frozen! 

The ice fishing crowd are squatting in frozen water territory, obviously quite comfortable in their little shacks by day, some with wooden stoves and satellite TV. 

I wondered why this would be recognized as a fine and fun winter pastime to someone, only to have a friend chastise and correct me because she grew up doing this with her father and loved it.

Times have changed of course, and little heating luxuries are available to keep warm, and the simplicity of family gathering to catch a fish take one back to family bonding moments. I'm awaiting an invitation to try this, um, sport from her, willing to try it just once to see if I change my mind on my initial thoughts of this activity.

As the fish hut population grows with more shacks on the bay, I can't help but grin some more about the comparison to Sarah Palin's Alaska theme... because plenty of adventure also right here on Ontario. 

Oh goodie! 

My library lady called again, and the books shown in the photo below were the ones she was holding for me. Most were ones recommended to me, or ones I saw upon a recent visit to my local bookstore I wanted to preview.

I suppose I've been on a real decluttering kick since last summer and have not been able to halt the progress I've enjoyed from the fruits of my labor. It has never slowed down or stopped for me, still going strong for ensuring a weekly fill within the recycling bins for the weekly roadside pickup, and getting known by name by the Goodwill man who greets us at the door with our (almost daily) donations.

I'm feeling rather attracted to the idea of becoming somewhat of a "minimalist" in various ways throughout my home, mostly ....because I can now that most of our children have grown. It's been utterly freeing to be able to achieve all that I've been able to accomplish the past few months.

For sure - I'll be sharing more about this in another post.

Who doesn't enjoy a winter day when the sun is shining like this scene shown below? And with the exception of a few blizzard days, this is a normal thing here in the east to have this sun so high in the sky each day.

I'm in love with winter here just for this very reason, because it's so darned bright and cheery most of the time in winter, or otherwise I would have been seeking warmer climates myself long ago.

Not a good clear photo below I know, but I've just realized along with Facebook's new profile platform, they have seized control of all posted photos, now not allowing anyone to copy them any longer. 

Dear Facebook;  I am totally dismayed you have chosen to eliminate the ability of sharing photos from FB to my computer's hard drive for my own keeping! I think you stink because this is a photo of our two daughters and our new grandbaby, a photo I get all mushy over when viewing, a photo that I love, and most definitely a photo I WANT TO HAVE!   

(Must get a better image sent to me.)
 

What's a snowy inside play day without a board game? 

A young friend loaned this game to our girls and it's sure a hit around here. Horse-opoly of course mimics Monopoly and there is much to learn while playing it. A horse lover's delight!

A big event in our home, it's more than a novelty when having to replace our furnace and boiler heater system filters, really something else! We were attracted to the system installed in our home for cleaner air and cutting edge filtration systems, but when they require changing, yikes!

These filters are designed to be used for double the normal time of others, but no one told us they were not only difficult to find and one in particular requires a custom ordering, but also quite the ordeal in having to unscrew the doors to perform the change.

Both filters combined together have a value of almost 180.00 when all the taxes are said and done, quite hard on the pocketbook for sure, but being on top of this details is absolutely necessary for proper air quality for respiratory care in our home. I had a tough time getting one out, thus the ripping and destruction of it below. DONE now!

While we're on the topic of winter maintenance in our home, I purchased some sticky insulating foam and went to work with my hubby sealing doorways where we felt cold drafts entering inside. What a difference this simple procedure has made already! 

Next, I bought this "dap" to seal up thin spaces between the bottom and flooring surface of doorway moldings to fill in small gaps. This procedure is more of an aesthetic thing for me, and I like the way it finishes the look after complete.

Candlemas was the celebration for us this past week, a feast day which offered us a lovely pure beeswax scent wafting about invisibly throughout our home while these votive candles were burning brightly, all while sending our prayer intentions heaven bound.

Kneeling for the blessing of the throat on the feast of St. Blaise is always a favorite time in February for our family too. So special!

 

A few schooling books are scattered about, all good, though I spy with my little eye some additional free time reading shown here, a horse book of course. 

Guess whose this was? And that would leave one young gal of ours fending off the temptation to read it before her schooling lessons for the day were complete first.

Last but not least, the photo below shows the scene the morning after the night before last Wednesday when a rip roaring snow squall filled up our small deck with all this weight of white freezing stuff. 

Our younger son and I have been toting around snow shovels often recently to rid all decks, stairwells and pathways of excess mounds of snow, not quite as powdery as in weeks passed.

What a great workout, realized immediately of course once our work was rendered complete.

Working outdoors on crisp sunny afternoons offers all living "in the east" much by way of natural Vitamin D exposure (it;s been recorded one requires ten minutes a day of both hands and face to keep current with Vit. D natural daily requirements), but it's that super sunshine which is always a bonus to our wintry days.

As an aside; It doesn't hurt anyone to use additional supplementation by adding with more into our diets when necessary, and in my own family's experience, it's necessary in winter to do so. I've got everyone on an additional daily regime here supplementing with even more daily Vitamin D doses to keep up the winter smile and ward off any doldrums.

Daily requirements in summer (!) are for 1000mg per day, winter requires up to four times more! It's become the best thing ever to add this into our daily lives and (BONUS), it helps everyone keep smiling through any fair weathered blizzard day.Forget the S.A.D. folks say they suffer from. Add Vitamin D into your day and there will be no more sadness...or depression, or winter blues in your life.

 

Finally, I am now officially caught up, even early this week to post our Weeks 5+6 photos. :) 

Thank you Barbara for hosting a 52 week photography link-up which I've been yearning to join and haven't done so to this date.