January -> February (and a happy announcement!)

January is always a weird time for me. It's cold, the days are short, and it's that slumpy time after a marathon of holidays. Slumpy apparently isn't a word, but I bet all of you know the feeling.

We also had back-to-back winter storms. One weekend we had an inch of ice (sleet, freezing rain) and then it stayed below freezing all week, which meant nothing melted. Then the next weekend we had over a foot of snow. I'm in the south and we don't do that kind of weather. It's fun for a bit but we just don't have the infrastructure to clear the roads. And I'm in a rural area with a well so no power = no water. I bought water and then filled containers just before the first storm. We ended up not needing any of it but there were days where the temps were in the single digits. We just hunkered down, stayed home, tried to stay warm.

We brought some snow to the bunny, who enjoyed it for a couple of minutes before deciding he was glad to be an indoor bunny

We went out and did some sledding on the hill though. The first weekend with ice was better because the snow was too deep and too fluffy. We walked around the neighborhood, fed the birds, and that was enough for us.

But now we're well into February and that's when I start thinking about my spring and summer gardening plans. We're taking a different approach this year after some lessons from last year. I'm not bothering with green beans because we just didn't get enough yield. Same with squash - too much work, not enough squash. We've got garlic still going, and definitely doing tomatoes again. We're going to try corn again now that we have more sun. Same for sweet potatoes. I haven't done okra since 2020 so we'll try that too. And my oldest wants to do potatoes and those should be here this coming week. I got sweet potatoes and we're working on getting slips from those. Just need to start tomatoes soon!

I've also been continuing to plan a lot of events for the school and that's kept me from getting into too much trouble. So far this year I've hosted craft club, social committee, a parent hangout group, a parent group to meet with the teachers, I compiled recipe submissions for a school cookbook... and then there are the events for the kids. Meeting and working alongside the teachers, we did a Valentine's exchange event where over 120 kids signed up to send gift packages around the world. Then we had a zoom get-together with 80+ kids (I lost count!) to celebrate. That was a lot of fun!

Next week we're having a global event and those are tons of fun, but they take a bit more coordination. That event will be a creative showcase, which is a good lead-in to the virtual market we're working on for kids to sell their handmade items this spring. We're getting ideas about what other events the kids want to have and will work to plan some of those for the remainder of the year.

I've enjoyed all of this so much and I'm elated to share that I'll be joining the team this July!

I'll be doing a lot of the planning and events that I've been doing, and I imagine my role will expand as the need arises. I tell everyone I love learning new things, taking on challenges, and to please let me know where I can best be of help. I've learned so much, and continue to learn, thanks to everyone at the school being kind, helpful, and encouraging to me.