This and That

It has been a long, cold, snowy, windy winter.  The weather has not been conducive to much playing or working outside.  It's not been ideal for half-marathon training either!  I stretched the borders of my comfort zone throughout January and February-- often running in the cold and wind, and even in rain and sleet.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring, but this was our scene on Monday afternoon. 

Kind of reminiscent of the beginning of last spring.   To be fair, last weekend was gorgeous.  We spent most of Saturday outside.  I ran 11 miles {!}. Then the kids made kites out of garbage bags and flew them in the front yard while Brian and I put up a small fence at the entrance of our driveway.  Two days later, the mercury plummeted and we had 4 inches of snow.

Brian stayed home from work because of the weather so I used the snow day to do a little baking for the week.  I made a batch of sourdough bread for the freezer, a dozen banana crumb muffins for weekday breakfasts, a loaf of egg bread in the bread machine for sandwiches, and a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (some for the freezer and some for eating warm from the oven). 

I also experimented this week with a slow-cooker rice pudding that uses coconut milk.  It had a delicious coconut undertones, but the rice absorbed too much of the liquid. I prefer a creamier pudding. My other kitchen experiment was making hard-"boiled" eggs in the oven.  I eat an egg every morning with my breakfast and I thought this might be an easier method, but I found the baked eggs harder to peel. 

Temperatures promise to be in the 60s again by the weekend, but in the meantime, we are bringing touches of spring to the inside of our house.

Our van is the repair shop so we are using that as an excuse to stay home for few days.  The kids have been asking to play with the Kool-aid Play-Doh again. 

They like its bright color, but they like even more than it smells like cherries. I need to try making another batch with a different flavor/color of Kool-aid, too.

I'm not sure what to do with my at-home time. Maybe I'll do some spring cleaning...or maybe I'll just settle for vacuuming the Play-Doh crumbs out of the carpet. A little readingsounds more appealing.