Winter

Most of my readers know that I live in New England. And unless you've been living under a rock, you know that over the last 3 weeks New England has been hammered with several significant snow storms. Much to the point that we now have several feet of snow on the ground and we are running out of places to put it. We are on track to have one of our snowiest winters.

Got to keep the birds fed

At this point I am just sick of snow. It's so deep I can't have Mister Mans play in it, it's up over his head. We have this hill on the back side of our house that is perfect for some beginner sledding. But it's just too much snow to even get over to it. With the snow comes cold weather. I heard on the news last night that for the entire month of February we have only been at or above freezing one day. That day the high was 32*. With the cold weather I haven't been able to go outside with Mister Mans much. He is never patient enough to get bundled up to go outside and for the first 2 weeks of February he was battling with a cold/cough. He even had croup for a few days.

At least it's pretty to look at

I am getting at least my upper body workout in. We have literally been stuck in a cycle of snow and clean up. The clean up takes days. First is the initial clean up, snow blowing the paths around the house and the driveway, which is what my husband does. I shovel out all the doorways and access to our fuel fills (oil and propane). I also shovel off the back deck, mainly to keep the snow load off of it, but also to have access to the bird feeders so I can fill them. The next day, we usually take care of the roof, which typically includes roof raking, but since we've had so much snow my husband has had to actually get on the roof a couple of times to get some of the snow that we cannot reach with the roof rake. Then he has to snow blow that snow away, because it usually fills in the paths he's made the previous day.

Mister Mans makes a good supervisor

Then I head over to my parents place and help them clean up their place.

Mister Mans and I helping out at my parents

So it takes roughly 2-3 days to clean up after the storm. With storms coming every 3-4 days it makes it quite tough to get anything else done.

Hubby taking a break

Definition of insanity... This Winter!

Paint Nite!

Recently a girl friend and I had a chance to get away for a GNO (girls night out)! Shaun is a friend who is also a fellow blogger (Go give her some blog love, here!). We signed up for Paint Nite, where you can meet up at a local restaurant, drink and paint. Now I am by no means an artist, but I really enjoy this type of outing.

So Shaun and I met up at the Riverworks Tavern in Newmarket, NH. We met up a little early so we could grab a quick bite to eat. Then we grabbed our drinks and headed to the other side of the restaurant, so we could start our painting.

We met Patrick who would be our instructor for the night. And he showed us the final product, what we would be creating.

Hi Patrick!

Before we began, we had to take an oath, and pledge on our canvas! Poor Shaun could barely make it through the pledge, without breaking out into a giggle fit.

And then we started! The instructor was very good at explaining the steps and was very chill. I enjoy the casual aspect of the night. That we can just go and have a good time. There were people painting their own picture, or their interpretation of the picture of the night, or the painting itself.

The first few paint strokes...

Of course you have to take a selfie

Then we added some mountains in the middle ground.

While we waited for the paint to dry we took a break for a picture.

Shaun and I shared some laughs over randomness and nothing. Truly one of the better nights I have had in a long time. I am so glad we are friends. I was able to talk shop with her and get some blog tips, which kind of reinvigorated me about getting back into the blog world.

So are you ready to see the final product?

Viola!

It was such a great time! This is the third Paint Nite that I have done, and I really do enjoy this type of outing. It's not your typical outing; it's something different. I like that you can still talk with the other people in your party, that you can drink and you get to go home with something. If you don't want to paint what is being instructed, you don't have to, you can make it your own thing.

Photo credit: Paint Nite Portsmouth - Facebook

If you are looking for something to do, I would certainly recommend checking out Paint Nite!

Leaves

With Fall quickly coming to an end, and Winter just around the corner. Which by the way, did I hear the weather people right? Are they calling for a significant snow storm Thursday evening into Friday morning? And it was 54 degrees today.... my goodness, it's New England weather for sure!

Anyways, we took the opportunity to introduce Brenden to leaves and the joy that is playing with them. He went right in, and ever since, whenever we see a pile of leaves, he must run through it.

Obviously it made for some pretty fantastic pictures...

We also took part in a community event, the Touch a Truck event to benefit the Richie McFarland Children's Center. There were so many people there! We ran into many of our friends from the Seacoast. There were a lot of things to do and see. I honestly think that Brenden was a little overwhelmed by the crowds and by the number of trucks/things to do. I think in another year or two this will be a great event for him. However we still enjoyed the family outing.

I can't believe that this week is Thanksgiving. Today we had our Christmas card photo shoot done. So I am excited to see what those pictures will look like. Brenden wasn't super cooperative today, so hopefully the photographer managed to get a few good shots!