Settling In - an update

Aside from the insane amount of snow on the ground, which was far more than I had anticipated based on what all the locals had told me to expect...just sayin'....  Anyway, despite all the snow I feel like I am finally feeling well settled here in Salt Lake. (Maybe legitimate boots would actually make me feel like a real Utahn, instead of wearing ballet flats walking in a foot of snow.....hmm I should look into that.)  The librarians are beginning to know my kids by name, our freezer is slowly restocking itself and the grocery budget is coming back into control. I don't have to google search my destination every time I get ready to go somewhere, only half the time. The kids have non-Portland based friends, very few, but still it's a win...even some home-schoolers! Chicken planning has begun for the Spring as well as opinions from all on the garden. Still no furniture in the living room, but things are good.

We had our first non-extended family Thanksgiving this year. We invited a few friends over and somehow managed to pull off a rather enjoyable and totally stress-free Thanksgiving meal. This week we've been enjoying a lot of leftover turkey based dinners.

On the day after we attempted a crafty afternoon with friends, but it was sort of disorganized and unsuccessful. Though it did motivate me to get a little crafting kick-start to a new endeavor I'm planning to share next week!

  

St. Nicholas Day is just around the corner and my gifts for the kids are still semi formed ideas in my head. Hopefully in the next few days I'll pull it together. I'm going to attempt to have the kids help me with their siblings gifts this year. When I'll find the time to separate children and work on that I haven't figured out yet.

Life is starting to get busy again, which is good. I need busy. When I've got lots to do I'm much more engaged and energetic and require far less sleep. When I have no obligations or activities to get to I tend to enjoy my sleep too much and fall behind on things like laundry.