What's Happening Around Here

The month of February just flew by, didn't it?  After a freezing cold spell over Valentine's Day, we have had temperatures in the sixties the past two Sundays, necessitating several hikes through the woods.  Last weekend, our woods looked like this with the snow turning slushy and the ice starting to thaw.

The children were actually sliding around on ice patches while wearing t-shirts.

Over the past week, we received a lot of rain and wind, and everything melted completely.  

Today no snow remains anywhere, just mushy grass and lots of mud.

The only downside to this is that the melting snow and heavy rain meant lots of water rushing down the mountain...and into our basement.  So our rustic farmhouse cellar is now covered in water yet again.

 Along with getting more exercise now that everything has thawed, I have also been on a quest to lose a few pounds this year.  This has proven to be way harder than I ever would have imagined.  I am trying to eat more healthy foods and cut back on desserts, but I'm not sure if the above combination of Nutella and dried banana chips counts as a healthy snack or a dessert.  All I know is that I was looking for something sweet to eat one day and there was not a cookie or dark chocolate in the house, so I dipped a banana chip into the jar of Nutella when no one was looking, and I thought I had just discovered the greatest thing ever.  This is now one of my favorite treats, and I've decided to include it in my healthy foods category.

While I'm on the subject of sweet treats, our teen daughter spent Sunday afternoon baking and decorating fudge marble cupcakes for a poetry reading party her English class is having Monday.  We won't be getting any of those, but I suppose I should be thankful.  I'd love to go to a poetry party and eat cupcakes though; how about you?

Friday night our youngest daughter and her daddy went to a Father/Daughter Dance at her school.  She returned from it late that night all hyped up on sugar, chocolate, and excitement about dancing for hours and doing the Hokey Pokey with her dad.  I think Hubby was just relieved he didn't get dragged onto the karaoke floor to sing a duet of some song from the Descendants movie.

Now that we are in Lent, I have finally put away my snowmen and any remaining winter decorations.   I have also given up checking my blog stats until Easter.  Since I'm trying temporarily to not look at them, I've realized just how often each day I had been studying them.  This is not a good use of my time, and as you can see, Google Analytics reveals a rather small number of users, sessions, and page views---much lower than what Blogger stats show.  This just depresses me, but I'll save that monologue for another time.  For the next four weeks, I will be fighting the urge to check out how popular or unpopular Preppy Mountain Farmhouse actually is and turn my attention elsewhere...

...Like starting a new cross-stitch project.  This time instead of a Christmas ornament, it will be a baby bib.  And you know what that means!

And while I am working on my own projects, my husband and eldest two sons have been working on finally installing a new shower in our cabin.  God willing, it will be up and working and not leaking for our next round of out-of-town guests.

This morning after returning from Church, I noticed these snow drops blooming in the flower bed next to our driveway.  They let me know that we are definitely coming to the end of another winter, and spring will soon be here.  Yeah!