New Year, New Look

While the new year has long since come and gone. I decided it was time to give my blog a face lift and return to my weekly posts. It's hard to believe I stopped writing for an entire year, but I suppose the stresses of life are bound to take hold and derail you from your hobbies and passions. It's a daily struggle to find even the tiniest amount of balance in this life.

As I write, the rain - freezing rain really - is failing steadily outside my window and people seem tucked away in their homes looking for refuge from the damp chill under thick blankets and in steaming cups of cocoa. In short, it is the perfect day for rest to take a priority over stress. As the rain slowly coats the ground with thick ice, I am feel more and more carefree. There is nothing like a bad weather day to restore the soul. For me, bad weather means an unexpected day off work of which I, like most people I know, am in desperate need.

So, what will I do with my extra time? As much as I would like to be that industrious person who does the laundry, cooks several delicious meals to freeze-and a fabulous dessert-and cleans the house top to bottom, and knits a blanket; well, that's just not me. I waste my day away on the sofa listening to the hum of the furnace, and watching my neighborhood woodpecker go to work search for food in a frozen tree. Well, maybe the TV has been on too. Mostly, I luxuriate in the little details I don't get to enjoy on a daily basis. Like enjoying a full pot of properly brewed tea during breakfast, and sipping from my fragile Russian teacup. This afternoon I even decided to make a pot of hot chocolate.

Now the day is slowly coming to a close. Ice still lingers on the ground outside, and I am now just waiting for the call that work will be canceled yet again tomorrow. I feel relatively confident that Mother Nature will help me out with this one as temperatures are dropping back down into the mid twenties tonight and will not rise above freezing until noon tomorrow. For now I am keeping my fingers crossed and burrowing deeper into the sofa.