January Review ~ COVID, Wild Life and Macarons

 Well, it took almost three years, but COVID finally made a visit to our house. My dear husband got it at a supervisor luncheon at work in which all but one supervisor got COVID. Thanks to his vaccines and boosters, he only got marginally sick. We have strict home isolation tactics for sick family members, including home testing and K95 masks, the rest of the family was spared and none of us got sick or tested positive. I still had to take a week off from work because the parents of the little one I take care of didn't want to take any chances (which I completely understand). We are very thankful that it didn't spread through our whole family.

Tim had an excellent cardiology check up. He will have to go to Duke again in 4 months and then again in 6 months while they work to get through some extra tests and get all of his doctors coordinated into the same time period for check ups. This time they checked his new pacemaker and did an echocardiogram. We are very thankful that this January was calmer than last January when Tim had three cardiac surgeries. 

My little guy that I take care of turned two this month. He loves all animals but is especially partial to moose. I bought him a plush moose and the book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin. He loves them and asks for the book to be read over and over again. I think we will make some sock puppets soon like in the book. 

Dear Husband and I had a fun outing to a local bakery called Old Europe that we love. They just opened a new location that is very charming. I realized that I could not remember ever eating macarons. We decided to try all the flavors they had. I must admit, I didn't really care for them. It is probably the first thing from this bakery that I haven't loved. I will stick to key lime pie, thank you. 

My goal is to read two books a month. This month I read The Gown and The Light We Carry. I really enjoyed both of them. The Gown is a historical fiction that is exciting and a fast read. I really liked getting a more behind-the-scenes look at how Queen Elizabeth II's gown was made. The Light We Carry is one of those books I could see reading more than once. It is very inspirational and talks about so many tools that help to conquer fear and live confidently in these challenging times. 

The kids are doing well. They are working, doing their social activities, dancing and doing school. It is a busy season of life. 

Lastly, we have had so much wildlife in our yard this month. Besides our mama bear, we have a falcon family and a possum that keeps visiting our wood pile. 

February is right around the corner and promises to be busy. The year is ramping up. I always feel like January is slow and every month after that gets faster and faster. 

Blessings, Dawn

Goals for 2023

I have thought long and hard about my goals for 2023. I did accomplish most of last years goals, but not all. That is perfectly all right. I use these goals as reminders of what I am hoping to accomplish instead of just being carried away in the flow of life, which can easily happen. 

Home Repair Goals ~ 

1) Replace the Roof ~ This is a very necessary repair. We hope to have it accomplished in the next month or two. We are getting quotes over the next week. 

2) Buy an Electric Fireplace and Finish Brickwork ~ My last project in the rec room is to complete the fireplace area and hopefully get that room warmer in the winter. It can get down into the 50's in there.

3) Replace Bathroom Floor ~ The boy's bathroom has peeled up tile floor in one area and damage to the subfloor. I am hoping to get that repaired and the floor replaced this year. We might add in a new sink cabinet at the same time.

4) Paint One Wall of the Laundry Room ~ Ok, painting the laundry and basement walls has been on my list for two years now. So now I am making the task really small this year and saying I will only paint one wall. Hopefully, the momentum will kick in and I will get more walls done. 

Self-Care Goals ~ 

5) Walk 800 Miles ~ I came within 20 miles of this goal last year. Maybe, I will pass it this year.

6) Read 23 Books ~ I read 18 books last year, and I have a little bit more time for reading currently, so I am hoping that I can read 23.

7) Stretch and Strength rotation ~ I did manage to touch my toes pretty consistently last year. However, I noticed it can easily be lost, so I hope to continue maintenance and start working on holding on to my strength. The body stops just doing it automatically after the 40's.

8) Widen My Friend Group ~ My friend group is smaller and narrower than I wish it to be. I think the issue is that, as we transition away from homeschooling, some of our connections have been lost. Also, we have experienced many, many years of isolation due to raising such a special needs family that took us out of having time for or fitting in with lots of different social groups. Also, our special needs support group isn't the greatest fit. I am going to hang on to some of the people from it, but I am tired of the drama and not completely fitting in because "your family functions too well under the strain of raising special needs kids/adults" (comments such as this have been said to me, revealing some jealousy).

9) Have a Game Night Party ~ This is a carryover from last year. I really want to have a fun game night and play the Victorian cobweb game and Saran Wrap Ball game. Also, a gingerbread house contest would be fun. Perhaps a 12th day of Christmas party? I am thinking about how to fit this in and with whom to share this fun experience. 

10) Catch Up on All My Blog Books ~ I think I am 4 or 5 years behind in my blog books. I plan to take some of my earnings from my nanny job and catch up these books. These are basically our family photo albums. 

11) Organize Loose Photos ~ We still have boxes of photos from my childhood through the present day that really need to be organized and hopefully stored/displayed in a way that they can be enjoyed. 

12) Cook My Way Through Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader ~ I tried to do this when the kids were young, but there were too many food allergies. Most of those have resolved now, so I am going to give it a go. This is a cookbook that complements the Mitford series. I highly recommend the book series if you like gentle Christian fiction. 

Global Citizen Goals ~ 

13) Reduce 365 Things From Our Home ~ I accomplished this goal and then some last year. I am going to continue to reduce more, but attempt to do it in a more ecological way. Unfortunately, giving to Goodwill often means the stuff ends up in a landfill, even if they are just overstocked on a perfectly usable item. I plan to donate more carefully. Also, this does not include the constant rule of one thing in and one thing out rule, which has been in place for years in our home. 

14) Drastically reduce plastic bags in our home ~ I hope to get down to having almost no plastic bags coming into the house. This is going to take some serious practice. We are also using compostable trash bags as well as reusable food storage bags, such as Ziploc Endurables.

15) 52 Acts of Kindness ~ I heard someone say recently, "If everyone was just 10% kinder, imagine how pleasant our world would be." Now there is a motto to live by. I will be keeping a count of my bigger acts of kindness...beyond holding a door for someone or other moments of politeness. 

16) Chemical-Free Household ~ I am not likely to get to 100 percent, but I am trying to transition us to use as many environmentally and family-safe products as possible. We mostly use Tru Earth and Method as well as homemade vinegar products.

Travel Goals ~ 

17) See a New State ~ Arkansas, Michigan and Iowa are actually the closest. Also, we missed Vermont and Rhode Island (I have been to RI but others in my family have not) on the last New England tour. 

18) Go Somewhere by Train ~ Yep, this was on the list last year. Maybe this year.

19) Visit a National Park or Site ~ Our country has so much to offer. We have seen some amazing things in the last few years. 

20) See a New to Us City ~ This shouldn't be too hard a goal to obtain. 

21) Take a Weekend Trip to Roanoke, Virginia ~ Rebekah is interested in their ballet company, and it is supposed to be similar to our own city (mountains, small city, liberal, artsy and four seasons of weather). We would like to check it out for her...and maybe even ourselves someday. 

22) Visit Another Country ~ Hey, a girl can dream and we really didn't think we would get to NYC for Christmas at the beginning of 2022, but we made it! Canada would be the most likely or a cruise to the Bahamas. Dreams...

Family Goal ~ 

23) Weekly Family Game or Movie Night ~ This has been a goal that we have successfully accomplished for a few years now, but it gets harder and harder as the kids' lives expand. I find it extremely beneficial to all of us, so I will continue to try and keep it a mandatory activity. 

Blessings, Dawn

NYC ~ Day 3 ~ FAO Schwarz, Central Park Zoo and Times Square

The morning of Day Three found four of us in line at FAO Schwarz. Yes, another line. This one was about 15 minutes long, but they would have served the shoppers better by making us wait even longer. The store was so crowded when we were let in that we had to shuffle through and could hardly get close to the merchandise. We certainly didn't get the FAO experience that I had felt in past years. I did manage to get a new FAO Schwarz bear. Mine was eaten years ago by one of our dogs. I also got an Elmo book (which my daughter had to toss to me because we couldn't get back across the crowd to each other) and FAO Schwarz stuffed Moose for my nanny child. His birthday is right around the corner. 

The line to get in wrapped around the building. 

Eve loves the new bear, "Brownie York".

The FAO experience so wore Elijah out that he decided to skip our afternoon activity. My Mother also decided that she had no more walking in her. Later, Tim, dear husband, Rebekah and I went to the Central Park Zoo. This is a sweet little zoo. The animals are "exotic" but there aren't any large animals like lions. They did have some very sleepy grizzly bears. Our favorite areas were the Red Pandas (which were very active), the seals, bats, and the tropical bird aviary which we walked around in for a long time. 

We returned to the hotel and had a NYC hot dog and pizza picnic dinner from food trucks around our hotel. Then, Rebekah, Elijah and I headed out for our last night in NYC. We went back to Rockefeller Center and Saks Fifth Ave to take in the lights and then walked down to Times Square. The lights were great and the streets were crowded. We saw several street performers and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Times Square. 

The police closed this street to traffic right as we got there.

Standing on a crossing island in the middle of the street. 

Rockefeller tree

Loved this church ~ St. Patrick's Cathedral

I love the way NYC mixes the old with the new. They do it very well.  We felt safe the entire time. The police were everywhere, and with good street smarts and careful precautions with our purses, nothing went wrong. We honestly felt safer in New York City than we do in our small little city of Asheville, which is extremely overrun with drug addicts and raving, mentally ill, homeless people. (My heart goes out to the homeless and we do try to help them, but many of them are scary due to their mental health issues.) We returned to our hotel for a good night's sleep. The next morning we went out for NYC bagels. The first place had more than an hour wait line, so we Googled and moved on to one deeper in a residential neighborhood. That one had a tiny line and was obviously a place frequented by locals. We got our bagels and packed up to head home. Everyone was so eager to get home after a wonderful, but exhausting trip. We ended up driving the entire 11 hours home and got home around 3 am.  

I will be posting my 2023 goals in the next day or two. 

Blessings, Dawn

NYC Day 2 ~ Shopping and The Rockettes

On the morning of Day 2, we awoke and got ready for our major walking day. Rebekah and I walked more than 9 miles this day. The guys walked a little bit less because they bailed out of some of the shopping  half-way through the day and took an Uber back to the hotel. My Mom skipped the shopping day to go to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), which she had wanted to see since I was a baby. 

The rest of us headed out to the Harry Potter store. This just opened in June and there were lines to get into the store. However, the line wasn't very long and the employees managed the line well so that the store wasn't too crowded to move around. We loved exploring all the merchandise, taking lots of selfies and finishing off with a butterbeer in the little cafe. Butterbeer is so sweet. It tastes like root beer with a butterscotch marshmallow whip cream on top. We got to keep the cups as souvenirs. We also made a few small purchases in accordance with our assigned Hogwarts house (as determined by online quizzes we have taken in the past, such as a Ravenclaw pen for me and a Hufflepuff scarf for my husband. The boys always come out Gryffindor on the Hogwarts quizzes and I always come out Ravenclaw. Rebekah comes out Slytherin (which always cracks us up because she is so nice...but she is extremely ambitious) and my husband always comes out Hufflepuff. 

Rebekah also bought a wand from Fantastic Beasts, because it was her favorite. 

We then moved on to a Warhammer store, which was supposed to be open but unfortunately was not. Such is the reality of very small businesses sometimes. The boys weren't terribly disappointed because when they peered in the window, they saw that the shop was so small that they could buy the same things at home from one of our game stores. We had lunch in a small coffee shop and walked on to the Yumiko (dance leotards) store, passing Macy's and their amazing window displays along the way.  At this point, the guys were exhausted and getting distressed, so David, Tim and Elijah took an Uber back to the hotel. 

Shopping for a leotard at the Yumiko store was Rebekah's main Christmas gift. This brand is very popular with dancers because it is extremely comfortable and also durable. We ended up getting more than one, because she bought one of her own. They had some great sales going on so I bought two. My favorite one is the one below. 

Rebekah and I started back to the hotel via the Lush store. If you have been around my blog long, you know that we always stop at a Lush cosmetics store if there is one where we are vacationing. All their bath bombs and bath melts were 50% off. We had a delightful time picking out the treasures shown below. Rebekah and I break off pieces to make these last for many baths. 

Along our walk back to the hotel we passed the Main Public Library with it's famous lions out front. The architecture inside and out was amazing. We walked through it for just a few minutes and then stood in a long line to get out of the library. There were long lines everywhere in NYC. 

Main Public Library

The line to get out of the library!

The grandeur of the past. This is a working water fountain in the library.

Grand Central Train station

Once we were back to the hotel, we went out for dinner with the whole family; and then Rebekah, Grandma, Tim and I went off to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. David and Elijah returned to the hotel for a sleepy and calm evening in front of cable tv. The Rockettes put on a stunning show! It truly was spectacular from beginning to end. 

That completed our Day Two.  Day One can be viewed here.

Blessings, Dawn

New York City at Christmastime ~ The Metropolitan and Saks Fifth Avenue Light Show

For years now, we have been trying to get to NYC at Christmastime. This year we finally made it. This was not our first trip to NYC, but it was our first at Christmas. The trip was hard but amazing and worth the many difficulties. Truth be told, we are a special needs family, and when we are taken out of our routines, things can get dicey. We took the five of us and Grandma. New York City can be a very overwhelming place and was so much more crowded than I anticipated it would be when I was planning this trip. Our last trip to New York City was in the summer of 2016, and we were in a hotel on the west side of Midtown, which was much more residential and calm. This time we were in the heart of east Midtown very close to the Rockefeller Center, and it was much louder and absolutely packed with people. 

We drove to New York City. It is about an 11 hour drive, and we did it over two days. We arrived on day two at lunch time. Since we knew we couldn't get into our hotel or leave our vehicle for a few hours, we had made plans to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art which has a parking lot. Wow! NYC traffic is intense. Hats off to my husband for driving in it. We got settled into the parking lot and visited the museum as planned. It was incredibly crowded. The artwork was inspiring and it was like visiting old friends that we have looked at so many times in books. You just can't replace standing in front of them in person. The Met is way too big to do in a day. We spent our time in the Impressionist, Old European Masters and Ancient Egypt sections. We did split up for a while, and the boys visited the armor section and Rebekah and I  visited the furniture sections. We looked for the bed we would sleep in if  we were Claudia in the book The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Grandma spent her time with the masters. 

Goya

Rebekah in 2016

Now in 2022 

Van Gogh

Monet

Monet

The crowds, hunger and our limits on being able to take in the beauty of the Met pushed us out into the Upper East Side to find dinner a bit before the Met closed. We left our car in The Met parking lot and headed for a pizza place several blocks away. The pizza was good. We then went back to our car and moved to our hotel on 52nd street. We stayed at the Hilton Garden. They messed up our room assignment and ended up giving us three king size rooms with one of them being complementary. It worked out. Some of us were done for the night and completely worn out. Rebekah, Elijah and I decided that we wanted to walk up to see the Saks Fifth Avenue light show and window displays. It was a short walk and we loved the show which runs every 10 minutes.  The window displays were animated. It was fascinating to see window displays that were so fancy and unique. Rebekah had just completed her college course in Visual Merchandising, which concentrated a great deal on window displays which are lacking in our little city. Needless to say, she drank the window displays all in!

We then moved on to the H&M clothing store, which Rebekah works at in our city and is Elijah's favorite clothing store. This one was five stories tall and had an H&M Home included. We shopped until 10:30 pm. We wrapped up the night with a hot chocolate and pastry at Paris Baguette, which became our stomping grounds for breakfast or dessert most days. 

Blessings, Dawn