Daylight Savings Time and spring feels like it could maybe arrive sometime!  It feels more like spring, although looking a bit wintery out, still

At least sidewalks are pretty much clear so walking is much easier now. I think we will be getting more snow in a couple days, but at this point does it matter? LOL.

My inner (and outer) gardener is taking charge with moving spring along. This week I will be starting some seeds:

I don’t really need to start zinnias indoors since they will bloom on their own, but I want to get some started early so I have earlier blooms. The marigolds I just can’t seem to get to bloom before frost. I don’t know why, so these I’m going to do inside.

Had another Instant Pot success with some cheddar broccoli soup. I just put in 1 bag of frozen  baby broccoli florets, 2 cups of veggie broth, and a little bit of frozen chopped onion into the IP, pressure cooked for 15 minutes. Then I added one 12 oz can of evaporated skim milk that I whisked a tablespoon of cornstarch in and stirred in 8 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese (2%).

Sprinkled with a bit of hot sauce. This was really tasty! I’m keeping that one in the wheelhouse. John won’t eat it. The man does not like broccoli, which I don’t understand 😀  I had 4 soup meals to nosh on, though.

Have you tried any of the yogurt flips?

I thought this sounded kind of good and was something different to have for lunch. Seriously, though, what a tiny portion. I bulked it up with 1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt, which also cut the sweet down.

That’s the bulked up version. How do people stay full on these things?  The crunchy topping was quite good. It had these coffee flavored brownie bits that I would like to eat just by themselves.  While good, I don’t think I will have these very often. I can make my own version that is bigger and less sweet when I’m not so lazy LOL.

Another old favorite has returned – the protein pancake! Except I made it waffle style.

I found using an immersion blender works almost as well as my defunct bullet blender did, so I can have these again.

I had some nice sister time on the spur of the moment this weekend. She was coming nearby and texted me to have some coffee – of course!

We even had hearts on our beverages 😀

I can’t believe we are almost halfway through March already. The lighter evening today really felt great. We’re almost on the other side of winter!

It is March, isn’t it?   When will winter be over?!?!?  A big storm is on its way Wednesday, but more on that in a bit.  How about a couple food pics first?

For some reason, I’ve gotten my eating really on point lately.  Maybe it was a new month or something, but I’ll take it.  I’ve been on the broccoli train again big time.  Long-time readers know of my love of broccoli, but I kind of got away from it in my winter carb fest. 😀

Cheese omelet paired with the green:

I usually eat at least a cup of broccoli when I have it, most of the time pan sauteed.

It was added to dinner tonight. When John and I eat the same main meal, it obviously will be vegetarian.  I normally don’t eat the fake meat stuff (which John really likes), but I do like this one:

They are pretty tasty. We added some pineapple chunks to it and I added in the broccoli:

This was really good. It’s very filling and the pineapple added the perfect touch to it. This entree usually gets paired with rice.  Gardein brand does the meat analogs pretty decent, I have to say.

Since snow is predicted – and a lot of it, I knew I had to try to get the bike out today despite it being about 37 degrees.  That meant a lot of bundling. Meet my evil-looking twin:

Who knows what lurks behind that getup?  My helmet was reaaally tight LOL. I almost couldn’t get the straps buckled.  I only went out for about 40 minutes and that was enough. It wasn’t too bad and I actually was sweaty when I finished thanks to the face mask.  Not sure when the next ride will come.

Here is the latest forecast for us:

That pink band is much too close for comfort and it seems like when they predict amounts, we end up way over. I think we can say at least a foot will be coming. Boo!  At least we have the small snowblower now. It will be getting a workout.  Stay safe anyone impacted by this storm!

We’ve had a bit of a warm up here the last couple of days. It was in the 50s yesterday and upper 60s today!  All that snow is starting to melt.

The bike path isn’t really clear yet, though. 😀

I do tromp on this when I’m out walking and the asphalt is starting to show more. I was soooo close to getting the bike out for riding, but it was just so wet on the streets with all the melting snow that it would have been really sloppy.  Too bad it’s going back down to the 30s starting tomorrow 🙁

Our new snowblower does seem to have scared away any snow, though. Purchase well worth it if that is the case!

Things have been the same old here, which is why I haven’t posted much.  A lot of time has been spent working on listings for Amazon. A few years ago, I would never guess that pretty much anyone can sell on Amazon and now we have the businesses on there. It’s not a ton of business, but being on that platform gets you in front of a lot more eyeballs and multiple income streams is never a bad thing.

Ms. Pixie says to say hi to everyone and she’s working on trying to get her mom to post more!

We are kind of on the other side of winter now almost mid February. It seems that every year around Valentine’s Day, there is a big snowstorm. This year it came a little early. That was on top of the big storm we had Super Bowl Sunday.  Our driveway is piled with snow now:

These are almost 5 feet high! It stays too cold around here for the snow to melt much between storms, so it just piles up.  John ordered a snowblower, which arrived on Friday. This guarantees no more storms for the year!  We didn’t have one before because there really isn’t much room for us to store one in our 1-car garage. Plus we don’t want a gas powered machine for eco reasons.  We did end up with an electric model, 20 inches, which probably won’t be able to handle really heavy icy snow – especially what comes at the end of the driveway from the city plows, but it will take care of the bulk of the work.   I’ll have to take a picture of it. It’s green and I named it Kermit. 😀

Temps are supposed to get to 50 on Thursday, so it will put a bit of a dent in all the snow. Problem is that it refreezes overnight and makes everything slick. I actually wiped out in the driveway today. Ouch.  It leaves lots of icicles. This is a building downtown:

Here are some more food pictures. John and I are both really focused on tracking food.  I was way too snacky over the weekend.

A staple dinner for us is tomato soup with pasta added.

I found these cute baby pears at the store.

My goal is to eat fruit for snacks instead of cereal. Or a Pop Tart.  John ordered a big box of them on Amazon because they were really cheap LOL! I actually like Pop Tarts, but those things are pretty caloric at 200 calories for one thin pastry. Seriously – where do they moosh all the calories in?

Egg salad with eggs done in the Instant Pot.

That pear above was actually supposed to be with lunch, but I got hungry early.

Cookie with latte:

Maple cookie. Again, these were on sale and they ended up coming home with us. Blargh.

I’m hoping the snacking will get a little better now. I was having an insomnia period since before the Super Bowl, and I end up over snacking when that happens because being tired makes me hungry and also I’m awake for more hours of the day, which contributes to being snacky. I finally crashed and had a good night’s sleep the last couple days. Fingers crossed it stays that way for a long while now.

On a final note before Mardi Gras:

This sign cracks me up. It was at a local restaurant.  It suits John and I to a T  😀

Instead of posting photos of white, white snow – how about some color?  We are socked in from snow on top of what we had Sunday. Ugh.  So sick of shoveling. John did end up ordering a snowblower, but it won’t be here until next week, which guarantees there will be no more storms this year. 😀

Anyway, there were some requests to see John’s stained glass pieces.  Now that Christmas is done and these are now in the hands of the giftees, I can post.  John started doing glass last year and he seems to enjoy it quite a bit.  I love the colors.

These are going to be kind of big. John took and sent these to me. I didn’t resize them before uploading them. (lazy)

Tree. This was about an 8×10 piece.

Owl. This one is maybe 6 inches? I can’t remember now.  The pupils were drawn in 😀

Celtic knot – one of his first pieces with colored glass. He practiced on window glass at first to get used to cutting and soldering. We scavenged windows that people put out at the curb LOL! Free practice material at any rate.

And look – you can see the ground! We won’t be seeing that until, oh maybe July with how big our snow piles are.

Moon: Again, I think this was an 8 x 10 size. The pictures make them look huge, but they are just in a regular picture frame.

Cardinals:  I love the clear glass texture in this piece.

All but the knot left the house. It was fun having all these in the windows until Christmas came along. Now they are bare!

Tonight is sitting by the fire under a fleece blanket. Even though we have shoveled twice already, it’s going to have to be done again in the morning and I’m just going to pretend that we will wake up to bare ground and flowers. 😀

Hey there! Remember that goal about posting 3x a week? Oops. 😀

How many of you had football parties on Sunday? Because of scheduling, we turned the Super Bowl into St. Mardi Bowl, combining the game, Mardi Gras (next week) and Valentine’s Day into one party.

Let me tell you getting down to Saratoga was pretty beastly because of snow. 3-6 inches was predicted, which is fine to drive in around here. Road crews are pretty good. Figured the Northway would be nice and clear. Nope – it was snowy and cars were off the side of the road. A heavy snow band developed over our area. I was driving on the way down and my hands were cramped from gripping the steering wheel. We wouldn’t have gone had we known how bad the highway was.

Anyway, feast time!

Some N’awlins food like red beans & rice and gumbo. I made pralines. Heart candy for Valentine’s day.  Yums.

Wasn’t the game great?!  I give the Eagles much thought ever, but I was their biggest fan for this game LOL! I’m tired of the Patriots. Super Bowls are so much more enjoyable when they are close like that than a blowout.

The drive home was better as the heavy snow stopped and plows got a chance to catch up. However, my parent’s road hadn’t even been plowed yet! The Prius made it through, though.  We got back to our house near midnight and our driveway was completely plowed in by the city. We had to park around the corner, shovel out the driveway, then bring the car in. Ugh. Midnight shoveling sucks.

It looks really pretty today.

More snow is on the way for Wednesday, too.  Yay – not.  We need to get a snowblower. I have a bad shoulder and now John’s shoulder had been bothering him =  no bueno. Our garage is too small to hold one plus the car, so that creates a problem.  We’ll have to figure something out.

On the woodpecker front, Woodrow came to the new feeder twice this week. He’s pretty noisy and I’ve learned to recognize his call so I check the feeder when I hear it.

He’s balancing his tail like he’s supposed to, so my contraption worked! He actually seems to prefer the feeder on the other side.

It made me very happy to see this. I love wildlife so much and it really could care less about me LOL!  Another visitor at the feeder was the Carolina Wren.

These birds have a nest in our brush pile or near it. I hadn’t seen them so far this winter, but I guess they stay here.

And now, note to self: post again this week 😀

I posted pictures of the bird feeders the other day. Kim asked about the baffles that I use. I have 2 different kinds and they work really well for me.  Here is a picture of them from a distance:

With a cardinal sitting on one of the feeders, too.  The trick for these baffles is that they have to be high enough from the ground so a squirrel can’t jump over them and they also have to be far enough away from any tree or other type of launching platform for them to jump onto the pole on the top – which is at least 6 feet.  So, these are kind of in the open.

You can see how the poles are bent over a little from squirrels messing around trying to get up there. When the ground is soft, the squirrels thrash and push the poles while hanging onto the baffle before they fall off.  I know not everyone has luck with these, but I might get a few more poles and baffles when the budget allows since they have been so successful for me.

Here is a bit of a sad update on the woodpecker. He has officially been named Woodrow (not the sad part). The other day he came out to the suet feeder again. It was bright and sunny, so it was good picture taking weather:

I was happily snapping away when I noticed something weird:

Something definitely off there. It wasn’t until he flipped around that I could see the problem:

His leg is broken 🙁  It just dangles there. I get the feeling this isn’t a recent injury because he doesn’t seem bothered by it, but what do I know about birds and their pain threshold?  You can see an issue with him feeding. Woodpeckers like to rest their tails for support when feeding. This guy’s tail was split over the pole and without the use of his other leg, I wanted to figure out some way to help him balance.  They do sell woodpecker feeders, but you know me and my penchant for Macgyver-ing everything.

I scrounged for some thin scrap wood and cut a couple pieces for 2 different suet feeders:

This was one of those times when scrap I saved actually was useful instead of just making me wonder why I have it 😀

And yes, that is the suet cake still in there. Too messy to try to take it out, although it was just messy in general working with the cage.

One of the feeders is a double, so I decided to make another one with a single cake feeder in case the birds find that easier:

I drilled a couple holes in the wood and attached it to the feeder with some wire:

After some finagling and moving of feeders, I put them back to back:

Of course, today nobody came to the feeder. I haven’t seen Woodrow today. Nature is hard sometimes. I hope he will be able to survive and maybe this will help him eat easier. I keep you updated if he comes back.

We had a wonderful weather change this weekend. The temps were in the 40s on Saturday! Plus it was sunny and we went out and soaked up some vitamin D.  I also participated in the Women’s march here locally:

I don’t think there were as many people as last year, but it was probably fairly close. The warmer weather sure helped, even though the sidewalks were still pretty sloppy. Seriously – not many people do a really good job on clearing the walks.

I still work too much on weekends. Lots of computer related stuff with the businesses. I’ve been taking some online marketing courses.  Skill Share has a promotion now for 3 months for 99 cents, which gives you access to tons of videos on all subjects from hobby stuff to business stuff. It’s like a rabbit hole looking at all the possibilities there, including metalsmithing, photography, and kanzashi ribbon flowers (so cool!) I’m trying to concentrate on business stuff right now, but I have a few hobby things bookmarked to watch. Like I need anything else to do…

John started working with stained glass last year. He made a lot of christmas gifts for others and now that is all finished, he can do things for us. He had done my business logo in glass, which came out really nice:

Now he is working on trying mosaics.  Here is the glass after he cut out the pattern:

It’s going to get mosaiced (is that a word??) into that frame and grouted in.  I have all of these visions for him to do a million garden stained glass pieces for me. I’m not sure he has those same visions, though LOL!   I’ll have to have him send me pictures of his other pieces he did that were sent to others. It’s very cool!

I’m trying to make sure I get relaxing in. We had couch time with football today:

My face is red because I was trying all kinds of angles to take a picture and was laughing too much at how unflattering they were. 😀  Too bad the Jaguars lost. I’m so tired of seeing the Patriots in the superbowl – sorry Pats fans.

On to a new week! My goal this week is to write down a stretching/body weight exercise routine to schedule in. Part of my getting organized plan for 2018. 🙂

Here are a few of my meals.  I don’t always take pictures of my food now and the reason is mostly that I am constantly taking photos for the businesses and editing them. It seems like every day I’m working on photos and so I tend to not take them of my own food. However, I need to get back into that habit for accountability.

Here is one of my regular breakfasts, which you have seen before:

This is the Golden brand cheese blintz. I tried the Manechevitz? (sp) brand and didn’t like them as much, plus they don’t have as much protein per serving as the Golden brand. We keep talking about making our own blintzes with crepes, but never get around to it 😀

A dinner featuring Instant Pot potatoes:

I used a bag of those mini potatoes that comes in mesh. I put the IP on saute and cooked them for about 5 minutes. Then I moved them into a steamer basket, seasoned with herbs, salt and pepper and added 3/4 cup of veggie broth to the IP. Set it for 4 minutes and did a quick release. With the sauteeing, it took 15 minutes from start to finish for the taters. They were tasty! The next day we made smashed potatoes with the leftovers. Yums. We are using the IP pretty regularly a few times a week. It was definitely a good purchase.

You know there has to be bagels, right?

We were at Panera this morning. We don’t go there very often, preferring local places, but with the snowy weather walking downtown wasn’t feasible. So, since we had the car, we went further than downtown for breakfast.

Another IP meal – quinoa! The IP makes perfect quinoa. Or maybe it’s John who does it since he always cooks the quinoa.

John is a vegetarian, so quinoa is good for his protein. I topped mine with chicken and BBQ sauce, having precooked several chicken breasts for the week.

These are in the house right now:

Reese’s Pieces are okay. Not my favorite, but I eat them because they are there. John got a big party bag of them from Amazon. That’s something that annoys me about myself at times. Sometimes I can just not eat stuff without problem, but then other times I do.  Part of it is feeling cooped up from winter weather.

I got a little ahead of myself the other day:

I’m so eager for gardening that I couldn’t resist the seed display. It couldn’t have been set up more than a day or two before I saw it and I already was purchasing LOL!  It’s too early to even start the seeds indoors.  Between these and the flower catalogs that arrive several times a week, I’ve been dreaming of all the flowers I’m going to grow 😀

One of the things I wanted to put down as a goal for 2018 was to get back to blogging regularly again. Oops.  Now it has been a week since I posted LOL!  I also want to read again regularly and comment more on others. Please leave a comment with a link to your blog so I can make sure I have it in my reader. I hit “mark all as read” since there were several hundred blog posts in there and it was too overwhelming to go through them.

I do have to say that I’m struggling a little with eating right now.  A lot of it has to do with the weather. So cold outside and all I want to do is curl up under a blanket and eat all the things 😀   I do exercise pretty much every day either on the treadmill or my bike trainer, but my outside walks have been curtailed with the cold. I was out the other day when it got warm for a day and it was glorious! It’s amazing how great 50 degrees feels after negative temps versus 50 degrees in the early fall feeling freezing cold.

I am going to try to post more food posts. I may not blog every day, but I need to be more accountable with food to focus myself again. So, I’m going to shoot for at least 3 posts each week on the regular.

Update on the wool dryer balls I purchased:

They work really well! John and I do laundry separately, so we have both used them a couple times. There is definitely a reduction in static after using these. Clothes come out soft and maybe the dryer time is reduced as well.  We have so much static in our house because of the dry air that I’m tempted to rub one of these on Pixie to see if I can reduce her static. Her nose gets zapped a lot and I feel bad about it. There are a lot of sellers on Etsy for these, but here is a link to the shop I got mine from .

And in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, my choice of quote for the day: