They're calling it Snovid 2021!

I miss the good old days of just updating you on the quiet meanderings of our family. Lately it just seems like one 'unprecedented' thing is happening after another. As you can imagine, Texas really doesn't ever get much snow. In the 3 years we've lived here it has gotten cold enough for a few flurries but that's about it. They started reporting a major cold front coming through and the potential of snow. Then it was no longer a matter of if, but when and how much. The ENTIRE state of Texas was under a Winter Storm Warning (along with Oklahoma and Louisiana)! That's a lot of parts of the country that aren't used to getting that kind of weather.

At first it was really pretty. Us Coloradans weren't terribly concerned with any sort of emergencies because we're seasoned winter road drivers and even though 6 inches of snow was uncommon for Texas, it wasn't uncommon for us. But we quickly started to realize that the 'unprecedented' amount of snow, plus the wind-chill plummeting into negative temperatures was about to be a major problem. Did you know it had NEVER been that cold here before? Millions of Texans were without power, pipes burst due to homes not meant for this type of weather, and there were abysmal road conditions since the infrastructure isn't set up for good road clearance. I guess the power grid for the state of Texas was minutes and seconds away from a complete blackout which would have led to weeks and months without power. 

We had a pipe burst in our garage wall near the exterior hose. We were able to shut off the main water to the house (a task in and of itself), and we went without water for 2 full days before getting approval to fix it ourselves. If we hadn't done that we'd still be waiting until Friday the 26th for our plumber to come. Even after the water came back on the whole of San Antonio was on a boil water notice for a few more days. We were lucky enough to keep our power the whole time except for about an hour. We did our best to conserve energy when we had power so as not to contribute to the overloading of the power grid. We kept our house at 64 and cuddled under blankets. School and work ended up being cancelled for the entire week as well due to the lack of water and power. 

It quickly turned into a week-long staycation! I'm sure the boys enjoyed not going to school and sleeping in. But they didn't much enjoy living off of beans and spare ribs since the grocery stores were closed and then wiped of their supply quickly. We're still struggling to find some items, but hopefully now that the weather has returned to TX normal, so will the panic buyers. 

Oh! And I forgot. This is what happened to our HVAC on Sunday as the bitter cold was settling in to San Antonio. I guess since our HVAC functions as AC and Heat, it was working as a heat pump and not able to keep up with the cold, of course. Thanks to the Facebook hive mind we learned that if we put it on an Emergency Heat setting it would solve the problem. Didn't know it existed because it had never been cold enough to use it! I was so worried our heater was about to break, it sure sounded like it might.

Dan got the first early morning pics of the snow. This was monday morning

Piled up against the front door

Yay! My weeds are gone!

Icicles in Texas? Yup. Lots of snow AND freezing rain!

Funnily enough, for awhile the boys had been working towards earning an Oculus Quest 2 and we awarded it to them for Valentine's Day. Perfect timing as they ended up having the whole week off to play it! 

And, surprisingly, it wasn't just one storm that came through and stopped the whole state. Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning was all freezing rain. Wednesday warmed up enough to melt everything in the afternoon (causing more of people's pipes to burst), and then freeze that evening. Thursday it snowed ALL day! We basically replenished all the snow that had just melted.

This was Thursday afternoon the snow was back!

What a week. That week felt like a month, I swear. We are back to regular temps and recovering. I feel lucky that it wasn't any worse for us, because it definitely was worse for some of my friends and many other people in TX and surrounding states. In fact, my sister in Iowa had wind chills in the -40s. That's just plain dangerous. My dad in Chicago has had an 'unprecedented' amount of snow this winter. Each storm is dumping 10-12 inches each time, it's hard to keep up! I want life to calm down a bit, but I have a feeling we're living in the end times and these extremes will be more of the norm.

Oh! And a few alex updates to share. The first weekend in February alex wanted to try making his own pie crust and pie that everyone would enjoy. We found a recipe on Pinterest for a French Silk Pie from scratch and it was so delicious! Alex did the decorating himself. Awesome, right?

Also, Alex has continued with piano lessons this year despite the pandemic. He does an in-person lesson twice a month and a virtual lesson twice a month. This year the big competition was also held virtually. Alex had to record his two solo pieces back to back and submit them to the judges. He should have his results this week, but I thought I'd share the video with you :)  I love how he plays! He so good at memorizing and performing!

Off to a good start!

How has the beginning of your year been? For me personally, I've had to accept that I can't be nearly as active as I once was. Determined to not waste my days away in front of the TV, I knew I needed some hobbies to keep my mind engaged. 

Goal #1: Read more! I've never been much of a reader, especially with paper books. I decided to follow my husband's example and make more use of my time by listening to audio books. I'm proud to say I listened to 7 books in the month of January! It helped that the first one was during our road trip home, but truthfully this is more books than I've read in two years combined, so.... yay!

Goal #2: Spend less time on TV. I've already shared a lot of puzzle pictures with you, but I've found that working on puzzles while listening to my audiobooks is a great way to spend my time. Not all hobbies go with listening to books because I can find myself not focusing on what's being said. Here are the 3 puzzles I've finished this month.

Dan got me this one for Christmas as a memory of the boys trip he did back while we were living in Colorado. They had a great time visiting Devil's Tower, Badlands, Wind Cave nat'l monument, Wall Drug, Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore!

Have you seen my metal sign collection? This puzzle was perfect for me! I even have a few of these!

This puzzle I decided to complete without looking at the box to help! I enjoyed the challenge.

Alex attempted to pick the puzzle up and he was able to hold it long enough for me to take a picture and then even lay it back down on the table!

Goal #3: Church service. It was hard, but in late summer last year I asked to be released from my calling as Primary President while I focus on this shift in my life. I still want to find ways to serve in my church that may not be the way I'm used to. The first way is that I have a letter writing route instead of a physical assignment of sisters that I befriend and serve as needed. I've never had this assignment, and I have 4 sisters in our congregation that I write letters to. It would be awesome to hear back from them and form a friendship, but for now I share some of my life experiences and a spiritual message with them.

The other way I've found to serve in our church is to do family history. I'm particularly good with data entry, so the Indexing program is a great way to help. You look for different projects like WWII discharge records, land transactions or immigration records and you enter in the vital information to a database that becomes searchable for those looking to find connections to their ancestors! I attempt to index a little bit every day so I made a habit tracker in my journal to help motivate.

Goal #4: Learn something new! I saw a quote online that said something to the effect of- be brave enough to fail at something new. The first new thing I tried was with Alex. He wanted to try making a cheesecake and I had never made one either! He found a purely evil recipe that was chock full of oreos! Topped off with a white chocolate ganache and homemade whipped cream, we had quite the adventure making this delicious treat. It was rich and decadent.

The other 'something new' is a hobby I had no idea I'd love as much I do! I asked for a few things for Christmas to start down the path of brush lettering and calligraphy! My sister had already paid for and taken some online courses so she gave me access to those, along with some pens and tracing paper. I quickly fell in love and have been working at it every day (and buying more pens and paper)! I find it quite relaxing and challenging and interesting enough to keep me wanting to learning more. Who knows, maybe it's something I can turn into a business somehow so I can still help earn some money for our family. Here's a few things I've been up to this month with my lettering!

Drills and practices to hone your up and down strokes

Slowly learning how to add flourishes the 'right way'!

Alex has loved my lettering, so I made him a Spiderman quote

I hope to be able to keep my days full of these things to keep me going. I am thankful that we are in a position that I don't have to work and I've been able to let things go so that I can rest and recuperate as needed. I have plenty of days that the fatigue is too much and only a little of these things gets done, but it will always be there the next time to greet me and keep me feeling productive and sharp. What are your goals for this year?