CR Withdrawals

OK now the wildfire smoke is impacting my new "work from home" routines. Yesterday, due to air quality concerns, they canceled our downtown farmers market. Today, citing the same concerns, they canceled the big one south of here in the town of Rome.

What does this mean?

No crab rangoon for me!

It's become a new random summer staple for me. And yes, I know, I am weird. But they're so good! The ones in Rome were top of the line – but I can't recall the vendor. My bad. I think LK Cuisine or something like that.

The good news is that the air is clearing a bit. And oh, while looking for an image, I found a recipe link for a crab rangoon dip! Say what?

I might change out a few things, but this is something future Robyn is going to tackle. Here's the link if you want to check it out: https://www.thegraciouswife.com/crab-rangoon-dip-recipe/

I wouldn't be drawn to a "warm" dip in the summer necessarily, but hubby and I do like our crab meat. And dips! 

I'm overthinking it!

Hope y'all are still able to get out and do your normal things. Just keep praying for the firefighters, homeowners, and wildlife!

Shut Up!

Thanks to AI probably, my favorite "It's so hot it's madness" cartoon is now a bit more 3-D-ish. Still makes me laugh. 

Despite dripping in sweat.

I went outside two times today. Once mid-morning to water my hopelessly fried flower baskets. And then after work to get a few trifle ingredients and supplies for a family reunion. I really thought the chocolate would melt before that 8-minute commute home. 

Oooof. Car just couldn't cool off.

Turns out our 92-degree high in Rapids was 10 degrees "warmer" than average. And you know I love summer. I'm 100% solar powered. But dang, this is gross.

On the flip side, the A/C is so cool in the house I had my little space heater running in my office today. 

Yes, I am officially at the age where my body doesn't know what it needs or what it wants or what to do with it when I got it!

Just breathe, stay hydrated, and be safe my friends. I promise not to whine about the weather tomorrow. (Honest... it's Trifle Tuesday!)

Flower Girl

I realized today a distinct advantage of working from home during the summer is that you can set your "lunch hour" to whatever time you want and you can use it to run into town for the farmers market. 

Today my lunch was from 9:30-10:30 a.m. I bought sour dough bread and cinnamon rolls from friend Christina and then, on a whim, bought flowers for myself. Well they were all purple and white Glads and I couldn't resist! We all deserve flowers so it was just the right thing to do! 

That pretty much brightened my mood for the rest of the work day, that's for sure.

Golf league should have been – and well, was actually fun – but I had my worst round of the summer. Still, who cares, we were up against the first-place team and we still had a summer's eve out on the course. Gotta remember that when I look at my high score!

Plus, we made it a pre-birthday celebration (er, acknowledgement) so that was fun, too.

For those keeping track of my t-shirts – I think just you, Lisa – today was one of the shirts I made when my sister Nell and I went to Alaska in June of 2021. Since all of us kids start with the letter R I had to make that part of the design. I had 2 other shirt designs, too, so I'll have to dig those up. Greatest most breath-taking trip ever! If you haven't been, go! If you are going soon... do you have room for one more?

My T-Shirt Era

For us working folk, there's not many casual days in our lives, if you think about it. Saturdays might be an occasion, but there's usually a little dressing up for church on Sundays. After yesterday's fun coincidence of matching my neighbor, this morning I thought, "I'm going to start wearing all these t-shirts I insisted on buying but don't get an occasion to wear."

First one off the pile – King Cone of course! It's a pretty cool shirt, if I do say so myself.

Don't worry, I'm not boring you with a picture everyday. Just had to prove at the same time that I am leaving my desk and getting out walking. A must-do when working at home can keep you chained to your desk. 

I discovered today that 3 laps around the neighborhood "larger circle" will net me 5,000+ steps. So that's a start anyway. Each lap is a nice short break. Just have to keep reminding myself to do it!

Today was also highlighted by military jet training overhead and sonic booms and a nice thunderstorm. All ending before Jim's golf league, naturally.

Also, thanks to the internet and livestreaming, I was able to watch my cowboy nephew Zach compete in the AQHA Versatility Ranch Horse World Championships in Amarillo, Texas. He's doing pretty good. Now I feel the need to watch The Man From Snowy River, which helped fuel his horse obsession as a young boy!

Don't be to jealous of my exciting life these days! 

Blizzard of '26 :: Round 2 (Ditto)

Blizzard of 2026 first thought this morning: "Crap" and "Thank goodness I work from home on Mondays anyway." Honestly, with the extra 6-10 inches while we were sleeping, a lot of us in Wisconsin were sort of trapped.

This top picture is after the early morning snowblowing effort.

I realized quickly that a clear-ish driveway isn't a victory for long when the street hasn't been plowed. My low-riding Honda couldn't leave for quite some time!

So throughout the day I naturally took pictures. Remember our poor robin yesterday? Look at our poor cardinal! Granted, a solar version, but still a good representation of the overnight additional snow.

Anyone want to join us for a party on the back deck today? I don't want to disturb that 2-foot frosting coverage of the table!

When main plowing was done late afternoon, I realized those of us in shorter vehicles are challenged like in the '70s and '80s when we needed styrofoam balls on the radio antennas so other drivers could see us at intersections.

Official measurements for Wisconsin Rapids are still to come, but we have 20 or so inches here. In my meteorological opinion, that is.

Considering these are more "official" measurements and Plover is pretty close to us, I think my report is OK.

Late this afternoon we could leave the house and travel about on the "best conditioned" roads and they were not the best. Snow covered. But drivable. Just need to be cautious come morning, that's for sure!

Finally Something Positive

After starting the day at -14 degrees, we reached the level playing field of ZERO degrees at noon, and have inched our way into the positives.

Isn't that great to have something positive? And on a Monday, no less?

I did get out a bit after work and I'll tell you right now, it doesn't feel very positive out there. But the weather app doesn't lie. So I'll take its word for it.

I did get to see some friends I hadn't seen in awhile. So in the end, that was where the positives were.

That's what warmed my heart! 

Hope you find something / someone to warm you this week!

Well Something's Freezing Over

Laughed at this a few days ago as we knew "it" was coming. The Deep Freeze. The Polar Vortex. Whatever you want to call it.

And this is what wake-up temps looked like here. 22 Below with "feels like" of 45 degrees below stinkin' zero. Wow. 

Thank you, God, for a roof over my head and heat. And a job that has me working from home on Fridays! It all worked in my favor today, that's for sure. We did not venture out at all. Well, hubby went to the mailbox but that was a quick trip!

Tonight I made some comfort-ish food.

My first attempt making homemade Chicken Pot Pie. I should've taken the picture before I broke off some of the crust accidentally!

Anyway, it wasn't so bad for my first attempt. Only a few things I'd tweak for the next time, if Jim ever wants it again. And we do have some leftovers so we'll see how it holds up on Day 2. Otherwise, I'm not feeling like venturing out tomorrow either. Might have to get inventive!

Full disclosure: I can do that with trifles. But nothing to do with cooking, that's for darn sure.

Hope you stayed warm today. This isn't over. Bundle up and keep thinking safety first!

On the 18th Day of Christmas

On the 18th day of Christmas (aka Sunday), I decided to un-deck the halls. This was part of my Winter Self-Care. I was noticing what was thriving (lower left on chart). Granted, we have an artificial tree. But still I figured it was time or I'd end up delaying it until Super Bowl weekend or something!

There's such a difference in decking the halls with enthusiasm during Advent. Preparing and anticipating Christmas.

Now I have the tree down and decorations put away and all we have to anticipate is... maybe 3-4 more months of winter! Hey, that's reality in Wisconsin.

I'm sure a lot of us are in the same boat, er ice shack or whatever. Take some ideas from the Winter Self-Care chart and try to keep some optimism.

It you'll try it, I will, too. We got this!

B-b-b-east Mode!

 

I can't recall the first 6 months of 2025 but I know today was definitely the coldest day of the second half of the year!

And wouldn't you know it, we had the guy coming over to clean out/vacuum whatever our duct work. With the heat turned off!

His giant suction machine was called Beast so we were literally in Beast Mode rather we wanted to be or not. Thankfully he got done in less than the 4 anticipated hours. I promptly took the hottest shower of my life when he left!

Today was the Rudolph Christmas celebration but with the ultra cold temps, all outdoor activities (including petting the reindeer) were canceled. Jim went up there to go to church with his guitar choir peeps and socialize after.

I stayed home and opted to buy a Powerball ticket to get us out of Wisconsin Winters...

And catch up on a cozy Hallmark movie or two. (Duh!)

After getting a Hallmark BINGO yesterday on my day off – where the prize is eating the spicy gumdrop game pieces – I had to try again. Looking good so far!

Be careful out there and stay warm!

Northern Lights Envy is a Thing

I was so frustrated with our cloud cover on Bluejay Drive last night. I literally stepped outside every few hours to hopefully catch sight of the Northern Lights.

Especially after viewing stunning photos from family Up North in Wisconsin and from the Twin Cities on up in Minnesota (like my niece's photo above). So lucky! So envious.

And I'm not kidding that there were clouds at 9 p.m., 10 p.m., and 2 a.m. But I could see something was hiding behind them!

Then.... shout out to Mr. Tiny Bladder for awakening my body at 5 a.m. I look out the bathroom window and see... stars! Holy crap! No clouds.

So I run out the front door and onto the driveway in my slippers and PJ's and finally caught a beautiful view above our tree line!

It was a brilliant pink! And because I was not exactly dressed to hop in the car and find an unobstructed view in an open field somewhere, I don't know if our pinks were attached to any greens like other photos I viewed. 

In retrospect, I should have. Because I didn't fall back asleep anyway for my 6:20 alarm.

So tonight I caught colors early...

As in sunset colors on my drive home from work. But because the Northern Lights are supposed to be visible like everywhere tonight, I will try again. Between sunset and choir practice. Then between choir practice and realistic bedtime.

Good luck to all of us Northern Lights dorks! 📷

Eating Humble Fry Pie

When I had my holiday shopping treat of the coconut cream Amish fry pie for "breakfast" this morning, I had no idea I'd be eating some humble pie later on today.

I keep my life schedule organized on the calendar on my phone. But also put everything (I thought) on our kitchen calendar too. And urge (well, nag) hubby to do the same.

For as often as I've been checking the calendar to confirm we are indeed still in early autumn, I can't believe a completely empty Monday square didn't alarm me. At one point I checked the school sports calendar today thinking maybe I had another middle school hoops or game or something. Nope.

Did I check my phone though? Nope. I must have brain freeze!

At 4 p.m. my phone dings that I have my 6-week appointment with my hair artist at 4:30 p.m.! Whoa. THAT'S what I was missing. Or almost missed.

Since working at home on Mondays is a very casual dress environment, the first thing I said to Jim was, "Well I guess I do have to wear adult clothes today!" I quickly changed out of my warm and cozy "casual wear" and headed into town.

The first bonus was sitting under the dryer for 15 minutes and finally feeling warmed up!

The second bonus is that Miss Sarah does a fabulous job in front and back. Maybe I should have appointments at 6 a.m. so I can walk around all day with great hair and a "toss, toss" attitude! But I'd probably forget to set my alarm.

Whew. Crisis averted. (Hair artists are hard to get appointments with, seriously!) So I already have my Dec. 22 appointment on the kitchen calendar. In orange "alert" Sharpee. 

Now if only I could convince Mother Nature and Old Man Winter to look at their calendars!

Waiting For The Magic To Happen

 

I almost titled this blog "Ditto" because not much has changed from yesterday. The Magic Pills we finally got late last night from the pharmacy didn't exactly kick in and cure everything. Or much.

Yet.

We are terrible patients with no patience. 

So for caution's sake, I professionally distanced myself from work and stayed in the home office today. I socially distanced myself at choir practice, sitting 3 pew rows back during practice. (Jim tackled practice at his church tonight as well.) 

And maritally distanced myself as both Jim and I pretty much stayed to our own offices/separate rooms. Based on our back-and-forth hacking heard across the house, we're still on the Respiratory Struggle Bus. Where is that darn next bus stop so we can get off??

Thanks for the kind words and prayers. We're adults. We've got this. I just happen to have a blog that allows me to whine about it. SORRY!!

Be careful out there!

TGIX

TGIX? Well that means its XC or cross country day! Actually, just a normal Friday with an afterschool cross country photo shoot of our amazing seniors. Gotta admit, it was a hoot!

And taking pictures outside meant I could just click and not worry where my next cough would land. Also good that another day into recovery meant fewer coughing spells anyway.

Mostly I was surprised that many of these super YOUNG LADIES were actually seniors now. I hate when time sneaks up on me like that. But I also was incredibly happy to see them not shy at all about showing off their personalities. 

Thank you, class of 2026 leaders for reminding me why I appreciated so much that my son was in cross country and we created amazing bonds as parents and fans!

Airborne for the Win

I rarely do any type of product endorsements here, but about mid-morning when I remembered we had this in the medicine cabinet, it was a win. I worked from home again to not spend the day coughing on co-workers.

But that magical effervescent tablet in mid-morning was really the cure for me. (Unfortunately not for hubby so much.)

So I got through work, got through a middle school volleyball photo shoot, and fake suffered (LOL) through an always wonderful Girls Night Out (with Mexican food) that I hoped would clear up my sinuses. Pretty sure it helped, at least.

Now if us non-Brewers fans could just help them win tonight. Hey, when our teams are out, the Blue Jay Drive team is like "go, Wisconsin!"

Just Your Garden Variety

 

I'm patting myself on the background for keeping this flower bouquet alive since I received these fresh cuts Saturday evening. 

I was particularly interested with all the angles around the vase. 

I loved that no matter the angle, it was a pretty splash of color.

And that the Glads made my hubby say he was happy to give me some GLADness with flowers. Well done!

Not Quite Extreme Makeover

While I love "before and after" comparisons, I couldn't find a ton of BEFORE pictures in recent years of our house. But you can tell above that we had vertical siding and what you might not see is that is was some type of wood that included holes and was prime territory for bees and wasps to make nests. Also note we had 2 lights on either side of the front door to serve as yard lights and that the trim around the windows and doors matched the light-colored siding.

While we pretty much stuck with the same color for our new "smart" siding we also agreed on a contrast color for the borders and as previously mentioned, our sexy soffits. Here's a few of the final results...

It's a clean horizontal siding look with some amazing accent frames around windows and doors that bring out the darker brick colors in the bottom half of the front of our house.

Maybe every builder is this meticulous, but I appreciate how everything lines up perfectly around every corner!

We did have two garage windows on the west side that never closed completely and were definitely not weather-proof by any means. Now we have siding on that full side of the garage but lighting x3 on the inside to make up for it. They thought of everything.

We not only have new siding on the backside of the house but new matching doors in the garage (at right) and on the deck door outside our living room. They are so much more "snug" to ward off the elements. We love them already!!

As for the sexy soffits and new lighting scheme... I can't love it enough. Wow. Makes our house seem way cooler than it is. And after living here 20+ years, we couldn't agree more! And we deserve it!

Side note of advice: If you're just THINKING about some home improvement project, get after it now. With all the tariffs and ones that might be coming, it's only get to get way more expensive. So do it now.

Second side note of advice: As we learned while remodeling our kitchen, don't just make improvements to improve the value when you want to sell your house – do them now so you can enjoy them and your house!

Weekend Plans

Before I get to the "weekend starts on Thursday" plans, be assured the Circus Trifle was a success today. As many called it their "favorite" to date. I also thought it was sweetly spectacular with an emphasis on super sweet!

Now for the weekend...

Our home is within hearing distance of the Wisconsin State Water Ski Show – which is 1.5 miles away as the crow flies. As I've shared in my excitement as the team Shermalot photographer, these performances are such a cool thing to see. Three days of non-stop shows, all with different themes and "tricks", etc. And it's all free. Park your lawn chair on Red Sands Beach (or anywhere around Lake Wazeecha) and catch some of the action. For me these are skills I have never had and never will, so it's just impressive.

For sure I'll be there Sunday shooting 📸 my team. But maybe I'll get there some on Friday and Saturday, too. We'll see.

My Friday is actually a vacation day tomorrow. I'm in the Royal Scramble (aka fundraising golf outing to benefit all Assumption Royals sports). If you can believe after my friend and I had battery operated fans to cool off in our golf cart on Tuesday night that tomorrow morning it will be a cool 57 degrees when my foursome has our shotgun start at 7 a.m. Wow. 

I don't even know what to wear. I have hot weather / nice weather gear and nothing below (lower temps). I might just power through until it hits mid-60s during our round! I'll let you know how it goes. Of course, the main thing as that I win one of the raffle baskets/prizes like last year. Gotta keep that streak going!

Other than that, if you're local, don't forget Rome has the ultimate Farmer's Market on Fridays. Amazing! Or get some pretty cheap and delicious crab rangoon at the Rapids Farmer's Market on Saturdays (the last booth at the south end of 1st street, ha).

Or if you're handy, help our builders finish siding tomorrow. Yes, it's THAT close. Yay! Before and After pictures to come. 😊

Inch-by-Inch Influencer

As a blogger, I was riding high this morning as I overheard members of our construction crew talk about my recently "published" label that our new soffits are sexy. I'm just lucky that one of my friends who reads my blog has a hubby on the crew.

Still, I'm like, "yes, they are!"

Naturally one of them installing soffits outside my office today shouted through the window "Are you sure it's the soffits or the crew?!" I promised to take photos and compare and let him know. But I never got out there while the guys were here. 

But I do have a few progress photos.

I mean you'll completely agree that even without the inset lights in the front side of the house, the soffit on the backside is still sexy, right?

And the progress on the east side of the house is why I heard pounding all day in my corner office (far right). No pain, no gain, I guess!

And the backside of the garage is looking so good! I love all the progress each day. I know there will be some hot weather coming in so we'll be grateful for whatever they can do without melting. But I prefer slow and meticulous and perfect to progress any day. Love this dedicated crew!