Afternoon Thoughts

When you've gone without water and heat for three days, a neighbor's kind offering of space heaters  and a warm shower becomes the greatest of treasures. #readyforspring

Tunes, Vol. 8

Here's a little Lorde for your wintery Saturday. Mark and I have been watching Spartacus on Netflix. So this song nicely coincides with the gladiator theme we have going on in the Hobbs house. My personal favorite line from this song: "Let me in the ring; I'll show you what that big word means."

Stay warm, friends!

In So Many Words

"'Everything you do is at full speed, like a rocket taking off,' I said. 'You live each moment as if it were the supreme one, requiring every ounce of energy. You have to just let a few things slip by you, rather than being always pitched at the highest key...Force yourself to relax at times. It is not necessary to do everything as though your life and honor depended on it.' I doubt my words had any effect on her."

These words were written by Julia Child to her friend and fellow cookbook author Simone (Simca) Beck. Taken from one of my all-time favorite memoirs My Life in France, Julia's cautionary words seemed to perfectly describe how I go about daily life. Mark is always admonishing me to take a few steps back, to breathe, and to just enjoy the day. Like Simca, I doubt I pay enough heed to his words. Some of us just plunge into life, fully committed and at full throttle, and find it hard to be any other way.

image source: Meryl Streep as Julia Child in Julie and Julia. Image found here.

Our Weekend in Photos

1. Opened the door to a husband with an armful of roses. The "farmer's bunch"--an ombre array of red, pink, orange, and yellow long-stemmed roses--filled our little dining room with rose perfume.

2. Enjoyed the bright flowers and oil paintings in our dining room, colors that livened the inside despite the dreary weather outside. 

3. Cooked chicken vino bianco with linguine, homemade sourdough bread, dark chocolate vinagerett, and creamy peanut butter pie for dessert. Why venture into the holiday hordes when you can do romantic at home?

4. Considered a blind date with a book at our local book store. Is this not the best idea?

5. Finally finished this squishy-soft baby blanket for a sweet friend whose baby is due in a few weeks. I love the colors, a gradient of burnt oranges and creams.

6. Snuggled with this fluff ball. Even after a year, his polka-dot ear still kills me. And look at that teensy little paw.

How was your weekend? Did you survive the onslaught of winter weather?

Book Club Reminder

Just a reminder to all our readers... The first discussion of the our book club collaboration with Wit & Spice is coming up! We will be discussing Maria Semple's Where'd You Go Bernadette, photographed here with a convenient ray of heavenly light on the famous yellow velvet chair. We are aiming for the last Wednesday of the month for our book chat. So if you're planning to join in, you may want to start flipping those pages! Because, believe it or not, February is nearly over!

Living Small: Green Products

It's been a few weeks since I've added a post to the Living Small series. Today, I wanted to share my favorite green household products.

But first of all... why go green? Let's face it. Often, green products are harder to find. Fewer stores carry them. (Although, thankfully, more and more are starting to.) Not to mention, green products sometimes are more expensive. The latter was the main obstacle preventing me from buying green household products. Why spend more money when I could just buy Clorox? What if I paid those extra dollars only to discover that the product didn't actually polish my floors, remove the soap scum from my showers, or get dirt stains out of a contractor's work pants?

Despite these worries, I decided to give green household products a try. I started by buying Method floor cleaner. Hesitantly, I squirted it all over the hardwoods and gave them a swipe with the mop...and discovered that wow, this hardwood cleaner didn't just clean the floors, it did an excellent job. The floors gleamed, absent the waxy film other cleaners had given it. From Method floor cleaner, I moved onto other Method products and then onto the Seventh Generation brand.  Now, our cleaning bucket is filled with non-toxic and green goods.

A few of my favorites:

• Method hardwood cleaner
• Method wood polish
• Method countertop cleaner, grapefruit scent
• Seventh Generation disinfecting wipes
• Seventh Generation dish soap, lavender scent.
• Seventh Generation laundry detergent. 

While using green products in our tiny house may not even be a drop-in-the-bucket on the grand scale of environmental issues... it does make our home happier, healthier, safer, and of course cleaner. So, if you've been wondering about using green household products, as a recent convert, I certainly recommend it. 

What the Georgia Girl Learned about Winter

Today, as the wind blew me down the sidewalk, I realized I've grown accustomed to the damp, bone-chilling ickiness that is Maryland winters. Not. Teeth-chattering, I leapt into my car, slammed the door, and curled into a little ball. I may or may not have smacked the dash a few times, urging the car heater to get its butt in gear. I won't even go into details about my most recent winter debacle. Let's just say it involved yours truly stranded on a snow-covered road with mascara-stained cheeks. If it hadn't been for a concerned farmer with a Tahoe capable of overcoming said snow-covered road, I would probably still be stranded there today.

Here are a few things I've learned in my attempts to survive Maryland winter despite being a clueless Georgian.

Give up and buy the big poofy coat.
In Georgia, you could easily get by with one or two light, stylish coats in winter. You might need your big wool coat, once or twice a year. But for the most part, that soft little Northface you've worn since October will continue to serve you well in January and February. But in Maryland...you need to buy the big poofy coat. And trust me, you'll be wearing the beast well into March.

Don gloves and scarf.
This second winter lesson I learned much to the benefit of my chapped. bleeding paws. When the wind is howling and sucking every bit of moisture from your skin, it pays to have one more protective layer.

Buy gas when the weatherman and everyone else says "buy gas." 
To be honest, I still don't know why we all do this. I think it has something to do with frost getting into your fuel lines. Either that or we're all preparing to make a quick getaway South.

Invest in fuzzy socks.
Wearing a pair of extra-thick, extra-fuzzy socks not only has kept my footsies warmer but just downright makes me happy inside. Yes, I may have on a tailored, distinguished pencil skirt and blazer... but little do you know, I secretly have absurdly bright and fluffy socks inside my boots.

Protect your flower beds and rose bushes.
This task was completely unnecessary in Georgia. Generally, in that southern state, I could ignore my rose bushes, which grew wild and tangled. In Maryland, however, my roses require a bit more pampering in the form of mulch and a burlap winter blankey.

Buy the salt, the snow shovel, and the windshield scraper.
The three tools for success in the winter months. Mark and I agreed that we feel like "real" homeowners now that we have winter weather equipment. Your coat sleeve and determination will only get you so far when you have a foot of snow on your windshield.

Become addicted to coffee.
This strategy is my personal favorite winter-weather safeguard. At the moment, I'm addicted (once again) to Starbucks' caramel macchiato.

What are some of your winter weather strategies? Because, trust me, I can always use more!