{ Bitter cold days }

The windows are opened early in the morning, to let the crisp air come in and refresh the house, but with it comes a bitter cold enveloped in ice, that chills you to the core.

 

But as I always say, winter is beautiful, it is magical and when that ice sits on the grass or the branches of trees, it twinkles in the sunshine, as if it were rare diamonds.  I love that!

 

So I thought I would show you what the bitter cold days have been like around here.

 

I know many of you are dealing with really cold temperatures and snow already, so this probably looks very mild in comparison to your area, but keep in mind we are in Texas.  Hahahah

 

I do love Winter, and funny enough as I have grown older, I have started disliking sunny, hot days and much prefer a cold, dreary, cloudy or rainy and snowy day.  Maybe I'm losing my mind, but that is how I feel lately.

 

I caught this grackle mid flight and just absolutely love how it turned out.  Aren't birds just majestic when they fly?  I still get amazed at how just a simple flat of a wing can bring this small animal to flight.

I hope wherever you are, that you are staying warm and safe.

{ Cold days }

It's been so cold here. The temperatures have dropped due to the cold front and snow incoming tomorrow night, but the wind chill makes it so much worse, actually dipping us into negative temperatures.  Not exactly weather that makes you want to leave your house.

 

Mornings have been spent getting the fire started, enjoying my coffee sitting on the couch, in the darkness with nothing but light from the flames and the fairy lights on the fireplace. It really makes for a magical atmosphere and sets the tone for the rest of the day. 

 

I do have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, thankfully before the snow storm rolls in later in the night.  I wish I didn't have to go out for that either, but it has to be done.  If you could send a little prayer my way too, I would appreciate it.  It's just the yearly women's well check, but I've noticed that as I get older, my anxiety when it comes to health or doctor appointments, is incredible.  It drives me crazy!

 

I know everything is fine, but it's also an appointment that is so uncomfortable and awkward, I always just cringe when it's time for it to come around.  Just praying for a good appointment and for me not to get so nervous.

 

It's actually so bad that my doctor told me last year that I apparently seem to now have White Coat Anxiety, which means my blood pressure is perfect except for when I am at the doctor's office, then it shoots up and they have to take it 2 or 3 times to get the right reading, because the first reading is always super high.  Crazy!

I've really grown to enjoy a cup of hot coffee or tea in the afternoons.  Sometimes with a little cookie, sometimes just on it's own.  

My absolute favorite cookie ever is a shortbread.  I am nuts for shortbread cookies, just there is no other cookie that comes even close, matter of fact, I may not have mentioned this before, but I am not a fan of cookies, they can sit in the cookie jar forever and I just won't even think about having any.

But give me a good shortbread cookie and all common sense flies out the window.

One of my Christmas gifts from my Jasmine, was this M&S Cookie Tin from England, filled with Scottish Shortbread, and oh my.  Ohhhhhh my!   Healthy lifestyle be darned, because I could not stop eating those.  They are gone, not even a crumb left.

 

In the tin now sit my McVitie's Digestive Biscuits.  The closest thing I can relate them to, would be a yummy graham cracker.  So good!

I've been sitting here doing my Bible Reading, taking notes and reading my devotional.  At the minute, I am enjoying a hot cup of Decaf Green Tea with Honey.  My stomach is a bit off, not sure what I ate, but it's very noisy and bubbly and just basically getting on my nerves.  I'm hoping the green tea calms it down.

 

Here shortly I need to go and put Kaia's chicken in the oven.  I always buy a big pack of chicken legs and roast them in the oven with just a tiny sprinkle of salt and either turmeric or a little oregano.  Not much at all, just the tiniest of sprinkles to give it a little taste.  That usually lasts her all week long, I add some plain white rice, and then it gets mixed with her kibble.  

 

I also need to get dinner started and all the evening routines etc.  

I may need to start another fire, but we need to chop more wood as our pile is dwindling and I don't want to use it up before Thursday when we are really going to need it.  We have some weather reports indicating that between Thursday and Friday we may see up to 12 inches.  

That is a lot for Texas, but we did have that huge snow storm a few years ago that dumped so much snow on us I felt like I woke up in Alaska somewhere.  

Anyway, enough babbling.  Dinner will be a Turkish Pasta, thank you Mary for the recipe you left in the comments too, I'm going to save it.  

Have a fantastic night friends and God Bless.