Reaching Beyond Mediocrity: Friday Favorites: Snow, Snow Days, Menu Plan

Happy Friday!
The buzzword last week was "winter storm".
We braced for a big one last weekend.
They weren't sure if it would be all snow, snow and rain or what combination.
If I'm being honest, I was hoping for snow.
I love a big snow, but I pray people stay at home and are safe!
We went to bed last Friday night anticipating snow all day Saturday-the forecast was about 8 inches.
I jumped up out of bed Saturday morning and found rain-ALL. DAY. LONG!
Without further adieu, it's a Friday Favorites kind of day!
Let's see what this week had in store...

As always, I'm linking up with Erika, Narci and Andrea.

We're sharing our favorites from the week.

Grab their graphic and linkup with your favorites from the week, too.

Winter has returned!

Winter made her return a couple weekends ago!

We had big plans to go to the outlets, which then led to just go to a mall, which then led to stay at home!

I ran Saturday morning.

It was calm with a dark winters sky.

I got to run with the deer across town; this is one of my favorite things because they actually are the same exact deer that I used to look out my bedroom/bathroom window and see.

Over the years I just started talking to them like they are regular people or animals.

When I saw them I asked them what they were doing so close to town.

They turned around and ran back up to my parents house.

There's something about those creatures that always make my day, except when it involves driving and deer!

By evening we had this amount of snow.

We got a few inches and thankfully it fell over the weekend, so we didn't have to miss a whole day of school.

Fast Forward one week later and we got all rain...

That then turned to snow Saturday night and we woke up to about 8 inches Sunday morning.

We shoveled and shoveled and plowed.

I made soup and a cake for comfort food.

Fast forward to Monday morning when it was negative degrees with a -14 windchill.

We had a professional day on Tuesday, so while the kids didn't go, the teachers did! Yay!

I about biffed it getting out of my car.

It was too cold for the salt to work and there was a layer of ice beneath all of the snow.

Then, we jump to Wednesday when it warmed up to almost 50 degrees.

50!

It rained all day Wednesday, and then early this morning (I'm writing this on Thursday) it turned back to snow.

I honestly have no idea what's in the future.

We are currently on a two-hour delay and I'm hoping we actually go, so that we don't have to take anymore days off.

Insta Posts

I always enjoy seeing quotes on Instagram.

Who doesn't love every shade of black?!

At our team meetings we have a weekly agenda.

On the week that you are in charge of hosting the meeting, you are in charge of the agenda and adding some memes to it just for fun's sake.

This was my meme for last Wednesday.

Then, it was freezing snow/rain and school got cancelled (again)!

I listened to a podcast with Christine Caine the other day.

I loved how encouraging she was, so I jumped online and looked her up a bit more.

This quote really spoke to me!!

Snow Day Fun

We actually haven't had as many snow days as it seems!
Thankfully, a lot of our big snowstorms have fallen on the weekend.

While I feel like I have cabin fever, a lot of it is from staying in all weekend for the last few weekends straight.

We are crossing our fingers that this weekend we can get out and about.

In the meantime, I've spent a lot of time sippin' cocoa and watching my girl Kelly!

I love Kelly and Ryan!

I've also spent a ton of time reading and drinking milkshakes.

You need to read Girl, Wash Your Face-->More on that on another day!

This was the coldest day of the year.

Literally the high that day was about 12.

Alex thinks that's too cold to run outside, so I worked out inside that day.

Then, he brought me home a milkshake.

On the coldest day of the year!!

It was good nonetheless.

I've also been doing a lot of cleaning.

I'm getting our Spring cleaning out of the way now, so that we can enjoy the sun and warm weather when that time comes.

I know we have a good at least two more months, but I'm getting it done!

Last week I cleaned out the bathroom and all cabinets, both bedrooms and the living room.

Dusted, swept, washed the floors, dusted blinds, washed, ironed and rehung curtains!

Seed Sowing

It's almost time to start sowing my seeds for this coming summer.

I ordered my seeds last week.

They've arrived, and I just need to get some soil when I actually make it out of the house again.

Then, we are all set for planting!

I'm working on making a yearly menu.

At the end of last year I felt so overwhelmed with meals.

I was still trying to plan ahead, and I was asking Alex for ideas on what he wanted.

I just felt like things were chaotic.

I never felt like I had the recipes in one place.

I'd look here and there and still forget something.

Somewhere along the way I decided that I would make a menu for the whole year.

This has been an ongoing idea in my head.

I wasn't sure how I would make it happen, but I had been keeping track of meal ideas in the notes section of my phone.

Now, I've transferred that over to a Google spreadsheet.

I'm currently making a tab for each month and putting down our meals on there.

If I'm using a recipe from someone who blogs (like Shay's recipe books below) then I simply put a hyperlink to the already blogged recipe.

If I'm using a recipe that hasn't been blogged (like the recipes below) then I take pictures and plan to add them to my blog and put a hyperlink to them.