“January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow.” – Sara Coleridge, ‘The Months’

January 1

Let’s go for a walk

New Year’s Resolutions 101.1: Exercise more

New Year’s Resolutions 101.2: Eat better

This is why I don’t make New Year’s resolutions

January 2

Snow!

January 3

Heavy wet snow

Maybe four inches?

In these parts here, we measure snow by eyeballing the accumulation on the deck furniture

Oh yeah that’s at least four inches

It was a beautiful snow

It started to melt by late afternoon when the sun came out

January 4

Granddaughter Ella likes to pretend she’s a doctor sometimes, so we got her a doctor’s coat

January 6

Snow! Again!

Covered the roads

Our resident squirrel enjoyed the peanut butter

He’s the only one we’ve seen so far this winter. Not sure where his buddies are.

“Winter perches like a bird. Wings tucked in so the soul is heard.”  

~Angie Weiland-Crosby

Once again eyeballing the deck furniture measuring standard,

I’d say this is probably four inches give or take a flake or two

January 7

Neil, Kerry, Kelly, Knox, and Ella went sledding in the hilly woods

across the street from our house

January 11

Granddaughter Shelby enjoyed several weeks off during Christmas break from college classes

Ocha, our fave Thai food deli, is a must go-to when she’s in town

We don’t get to see her much these days so we enjoy spending time with her when we can

January 14

Grandson Elijah is loving his art class and doing very well,

judging from the looks of his pencil drawing

January 16

Got snow? Here comes round 3
I’m probably in the minority here, but I like a snowy winter

January 17

Neil got out, once again, and scraped off the snow and ice so we could go do this ….

… brunch at Grandma’s Pancake House

Ella’s favorite Disney movie is Frozen

She loves dressing up like her favorite Disney princess Elsa

So Ella and mom Kelly took advantage of the latest snowfall

to do a Frozen photoshoot which turned out perfect.

Elsa Ella was very brave and for just a minute pretended she was not really frozen.

Let It Go, Elsa! Time to go back inside!

January 22

Would you like some chili with your crackers?

They will give you two packs or they will give you twenty. There is no in between.

January 23

Neil and grandson Knox enjoyed hiking the trails around Burgess Falls

January 28

Anyone for round 4?

Schools closed after one o'clock in anticipation of snow, which was a good call

The snow started around three thirty and made for some slick streets

January 29

As you can see by the deck furniture measuring standard, this one didn’t amount to much

Jaggedy zigzaggedy

I don’t think I’ve ever seen icicles melting this way

January 30

Neil took Knox and friend hiking around City Lake

January 31

Epic sword battle between Ella and Grandpa this afternoon
I don’t know who won, but there was no bloodshed or broken eyeglasses

“Here she comes!”

She loves to watch the page inch out of the printer and onto the tray

She’s into all things Disney princess right now and picks out the pictures on the internet

that she wants to color—from Snow White to Frozen. And with every page,

she exclaims, “This is my favorite!”

When I was her age the only two so-called Disney princesses were Snow White and Cinderella.

Am I old, or what? Never mind. I already know the answer.

January hurried by in a snow white flurry

but left us with a beautiful winter sunset

"JANUARY, The first month of the year, A perfect time to start all over again, Changing energies and deserting old moods, New beginnings, new attitudes." ―Charmaine J. Forde

January 1

Walking toward the blue sky

on New Year’s Day

Ella cooking some hot dogs in her kitchen

Knox playing Fortnite with a friend

January 3

A yummy cup of boiled custard

Even better with a dollop of Cool Whip

My mother’s mother made the best

boiled custard ever for the holidays way back when

January 9

Ready for anything

Her mom shared these pics with me

The bathroom makeover has begun

The last time it had a makeover

was 1993 when I was still immersed

in “country style”

I got over that about two decades ago

We’ve been putting it off because it’s

you know….hard work

January 10

We haven’t been to Poet’s coffeehouse on the square

since I can’t remember when, usually because

it’s packed with college students and there’s 

nowhere to sit. We popped in after lunch 

on the Sunday before the college crowd poured 

back into town after winter break.

Empty and quiet

They sell a lot of cool stuff like mugs and t-shirts

Ella and Knox found these tubes filled with

puzzle pieces that fit together into

whatever you wanted to create

Picture by Kelly

Using the included instructions

Knox built the Lunar Module

’The Eagle has landed’

Picture by Kelly

January 11

Snow Day!

We’ve had several snows, starting end of 

last November. We even enjoyed a white Christmas.

Our snows lately don’t stick around very long though.

The last big snow (ten inches) we had was five years ago

January 12

Hooked on Wendy’s chicken nuggets

with sweet and sour sauce

Wendy’s is one of the few fast food restaurants

open here where you can eat inside the dining room.

January 15

Shelby and Ella 

making art on the magnetic erase board

Elijah discovered the joy of playing old school

Ms Pac-Man on a smaller version of the

arcade game that Kelly and Kerry bought

for Christmas

I think he prefers his digital video games

Ella rarely lets anyone touch her hair

No combing, brushing, smoothing it down

But she allowed her Aunt Holly to make

her very first pony tail

She looked so cute!

<That cheek, though …>

January 16

Milkshake run to Chick fil A

Yum!

January 19

Beautiful winter sky

January 21

Ella after school

She always wants to color when she’s here

January 22

January 23

Looking out my front door

"The color of the sun is white. 

The sun emits all colors of the rainbow more or less evenly 

and in physics, we call this combination "white”. 

That is why we can see so many different colors 

in the natural world under the illumination of sunlight.”

Y’all probably already knew this, but if you didn’t then

don’t say I never taught ya nothin'

January 26

Ella after school

If she’s not coloring 

then she’s placing alphabet/number magnets 

on the fridge

She asks me what this is

I say it’s an M

She says No it’s not. It’s a W.

What do I know?

January 27

We enjoyed having supper with Shelby at BBQ’s

And then we hit Ralph’s for a dozen

Well, a dozen for her to share with her family. Maybe

January 28

After school game of Yahtzee

Knox won both games

January 30

Neil stripped all the wallpaper 

off earlier this month and cleaned the walls

He had to spend a lot of time 

underneath the house

 to level and shore up the bathroom and kitchen floors

Then he hit the bathroom walls again, 

wet sanding all that adhesive left behind from the wallpaper. 

Stubborn stuff.

No more wallpaper for us

January 31

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:24

“Ten Things To Do In January:

(or any month …)

• Read a good book
• Get a Library Card
• Walk 30 minutes a day
• Send a Birthday card to a friend
• Invest in a Fitness Tracker
• Buy a Coin jar and save those quarters and nickels
• Donate to a Charity
• Volunteer 45 minutes of your time to an Organization
• Take a Yoga Class
• Volunteer at Bingo night at a Nursing Home” 

― Charmaine J. Forde