Winter Chill

Well, it has been a very cold and icy winter so far. We might be getting our one and only big snow of the year tonight. Our local weatherman, and a darn good one, says up to 8 inches, maybe more. As can be seen in this picture from a few days ago, our hens are struggling a bit without their nice green pasture and bugs to eat. Paco brings home lettuce and tomato scraps from the restaurant which they greedily devour. We didn't think eggs this small were possible til we held one in our hands. Lillian was eager to see what was inside such a small egg so it was quickly cracked. Just a white. Poor ladies. They have plenty of food and water, but nothing can replace fresh pasture. Our eggs are sooooo good, now we can see the difference of a non-pastured chicken.

Lily's Layers is full steam ahead. She has more customers than eggs and school and yoga class deliveries make it super convenient. She has saved enough to meet half the cost of expansion. I ordered 25 rare breed egg layers, 2 Araucana males, 1 rose combed leghorn male, and a partridge red rock male. These 4 potential Romeo's will be participants in the Serrano version of survivor. The one or two guys who have the nicest vocal chords and turn into good protectors of their harem get to stay and the others will be destined for the freezer.

I have ordered seeds from Seed Savers and Baker's Creek and am very excited. It will be a fun year with Hmong Red Cucumbers, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge Tomatoes, Opopeo Amaranth, Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries, 3 colors of Tomatillo's, and Rainbow Inca Sweet Corn to name a few. What a miraculous bounty of color. Lilllian is especially excited about the corn. She has a passion for it and has discovered she can almost always beat her dad at a corn on the cob eating contest.

The real news of this winter is the fact that Lily and I are healthy!! I cannot remember any winter being so healthy. Dr. Lightstone has worked miracles. One of these miracles was just the last time I saw her. My sleep quality has been going downhill and she suggested a tea. What a difference! The one night I made it and then forgot to drink it was my only poor night of sleep in a week. Of course, I still have hurdles to cross but it is amazing to me how far I have come.

Lillian is loving school and was very happy to get back after break. They are working on their letters this semester and she is really enjoying it. She is also enjoying having Pepita, aka "bad doggy", inside for the winter. Pepita stays on Lily's bed each night while she goes to sleep.

I am enjoying the knitting group I started and am making some good friends. Suni gave me some free passes to her BodyFlow class and I have enjoyed this too. It is a combo of Pilates, Yoga, and Tai Chi and I always feel great after it.

We are now the owners of a Wii. I am pretty anti-video game, but I was interested in the interactivity. We played it a little in NH and when presented with the opportunity to use our Best Buy card and get 3 years no payment/no interest if we bought the Wii at the same time we purchased a much needed CPU, it seemed wise. My 6 yo laptop has been slowly dying for awhile and after Christmas decided to lock me out of certain functionality so the new cpu was needed. This being January after the worst financial year on La Scala history, we had no option other than to use our card. And because this is the land of buy now, pay later and buy much more, pay much later, we got a good deal.

Lillian and I toasted the inauguration with sparkling pear juice. It feels like a collective sigh of relief. It s like I have been living my life so long knowing that there is a crazy man driving the bus and now I can relax knowing a really great driver is in charge. I think often of the Obama girls and how all of this will impact them. I am glad they have their grandma with them.

Paco is driven to distraction by the economy and the restaurant and I am working hard to redirect his feelings of powerlessness into usefulness. He is starting on a project to move the washer and dryer into the guest bath and at the same time, completely redoing the guest bath. The washer and dryer will be stacked where the toilet now is and the toilet will go where the cabinet is. To accomplish this a smaller sink/vanity will be installed. The floor will have to be redone as well, so it is a big domino effect. All this so we can come closer to realizing our dream of getting the washer and dryer out of what will become the dining room!

A New Year, A New Look

to kick off a new year both La Scala and Lily got new looks. Lily insisted she wanted her next haircut to be very short and have her "ears out." Paco took her to his Mexican stylist and she has the world's cutest pixie cut. She looks fantastic and is thrilled to have hair so short she looks good just messing it up with her hand every morning. I am very proud of her for bucking the pressure to have long locks like most girls. She has the kind of fine features that pulls this look off great.

Paco spent the entire La Scala hiatus repainting the main dining room, the bathrooms, and the stairs at La Scala. It was the biggest bang we could make for the smallest buck and it looks amazing. It is a rich, deep terracotta, with white trim and brown accents. I called artist Bill Cross. His giant abstract canvases graced our walls for years until he moved away. I heard he was back and he is thrilled to reinstall his work this weekend. Yeah!! La Scala will look better than it ever has.

We had a wonderful Christmas both here and in NH. It was so wonderful to spend the holiday with our family. Lillian played with her cousins every day until she passed out practically. Paco relaxed in a way I did not think he was capable of. I had a great and relaxing time myself relieved of many of my mother/wife chores.

The week was complicated by the fact that I was convinced the very suspicious mole surgically removed form my leg just one day before we left for NH was indeed a malignant melanoma. Dr. Thomas said maybe, but the surgeon was convinced. I did not want to taint Christmas for my family and Paco and I decided we would wait to tell them until we got results on the 26th. No results until the 29th, so we told them on Sunday the 28th. This way I would not break the bad news and then hop on a plane. But, before we lift we got the good news that it was benign on Monday morning. I could finally exhale.

Now we are home in back in our routine. Lillian is happily back at school, we are back in Yoga Together and she starts tap today. La Scala reopened yesterday and although business is not mind-blowing, it is not horrible. I am running knitting club once a week to meet the demand and making some good friends. I am going to a local gym to take a class call BodyFlow with my friend Suni. It is yoga, pilates, and cardio all in one. I am amazed, knock on wood, that it is mid-january now and I am hanging in there without any major health crisis yet.