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Good morning! I hope your week has been a good one so far. We’ve been really busy at home with work, school, chores, and a ton of housekeeping for me. You see, the strangest thing happens at our house… The minute I arrange one room, another one explodes in an uncontrollable mess, as if a very naughty house elf would get immense pleasure out of making this mama work overtime. It feels like I’m fighting a losing battle most days, but not this morning. Dishes are clean, the house is swept and arranged and I can breath a sigh of relief for another hour or so, before the house elf is done with school for the week 🙂 Overall I’ve been feeling less productive yet more anxious and fatigued than usual, and I blame it on the lack of time outdoors which always grounds me and brings me to a positive place. So this afternoon I’m planning a snow escapade for little elf and me to a small pond near our house to look for ducks.

Happy MLK Day! I hope you are enjoying a peaceful extended weekend at home. Thank you so much for your kind comments and advice after Friday’s post! You had some great ideas to share!! Per your request, I’ll do my best to keep you posted as we (hopefully) progress. But we’ve been taking it slowly over the last few days, sneaking in some well-deserved moments of rest and relaxation and several Antiques Roadshow episodes. We ran out of bread on Friday and wanting to avoid a trip to the store, we (OK, my husband) found a recipe online and baked bread at home instead. Yum. I also got to experiment with a new pasta sauce recipe this weekend and it was a success (but then again, pasta always is, at least at our house). I’ll share it soon if you’re interested, along with a long-promised Transylvanian sweet bread I baked this Christmas. My mom’s recipe. No kneading necessary. 

As we’re wrapping up the second week of 2021, I feel like digging a small hole, crawling in and crying for my mommy, whom I haven’t seen for over a year now… But the ground is frozen solid so no digging is happening any time soon. Maybe screaming and crying, yes. No digging.  Anyway, ahem… I hope you had a nice couple of weeks into the new year. I thought I’d share with you where we’re at in terms of home and garden proclivities.