HOUSEWIFE DUTIES

Whilst being unemployed usually signals that things are not going so great, for me its been the complete opposite. I have finally had the chance to spend lots of time reading, cooking and crafting, all the things that seemed to get squeezed out of life back home. Each week I seem to have lots of time to just simply enjoy, or get better at, the things I love. I've spent plenty of time learning how to crochet and am currently whizzing through a crochet chevron blanket. I've got time to bake Andrew cakes; which during our marriage prep he stated were one his practical expectations of marriage. Plus I've got time to read books, lots and lots of books. Its amazing. 


 








I'm pretty amazed that I get all this time but I don't want to make you all too jealous. It does get a bit overwhelming at times as there can be a lack of structure and I can get stuck in a maze of endless possibilities, so much so that I don't end up picking any project but rather get sucked into the world of Netflix. There is also some jealousy from my end towards those who are working because I wish (at times) I could be back in a classroom, with my class doing all those fun things I miss planning for. But I know that being a housewife is my role right now, and to be quite fair looking after Andrew is almost a full time job!! You've met him right?!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

It's going to be a quick post today. Macintosh has been fairly good of late but that could be due to the sunny and warm weather. He's spent most of the day lounging around outside soaking up some rays! He really loves sunbathing and always look quite cross when you make him come inside, unless you're about to feed him, then he positively runs in. 


But just in case you are beginning to think he's a wonderful dog who is just so photogenic and in no way crazy. I wanted to remind you that he's also quite weird. You see Andrew and I were attempting to start a Christmas puzzle we had been given by his parents, and well, Macintosh thought he would help. Naturally dog's are good at puzzles. See....


He stayed like that for quite a while. He was ever so helpful as you can imagine. What a weirdo!  
H

WINTER DECOR

Once the twelve days of Christmas were over our Christmas tree and all the decorations came down pretty quick. In fact it was too quick as Andrew confessed he felt some withdrawal symptoms. Apparently the house looked too bare and empty. Now I feel that has less to do with the decorations themselves and more to do with the 9 foot tree he dumped in our lounge, but judge for yourself on that one! This withdrawal worked out positively for me as it meant he actually helped to create our winter decor. I started the whole thing and then he edited it until it was just right. 

Our theme is based loosely on Scandinavian interiors, with the decor being simple, clean, white or neutral colours and not fussy at all. I spent a lot of time (too much probably) on Pinterest working out what to do but so far I love what we came up with. It's a fresh look that's low maintenance and just looks clean. After all the fuss of Christmas its nice to have a simple, clutter free decor.







Accurately capturing the white-ness proved difficult so in some photos things appear more yellowy, sorry about that! Blame the photographer. That would Andrew of course!

MACINTOSH MONDAY

So its Tuesday. Sorry about that. We had Martin Luther King Jr Day yesterday so Andrew was off work and we decided to go out and enjoy the day, as a result I never quite got round to posting something. 

Anyway, on Sunday Andrew and I took Macintosh for a walk on part of the Pacific Crest Trail. This trail runs from Mexico to Canada and covers a lot of different terrain. Part of it runs through the general area we live in so we drove for about 20 minutes and picked up part of the trail. We only did around 4.6 miles of it but it went through the wind turbine area near Tehachapi and it was beautiful. 

Macintosh loved being on a new trail and able to sniff out the new wildlife. There were even a few cows roaming around, which I was wary about at first, not because of the cows themselves but because rolling in cow pats is a favourite past-time of our disgusting beagle. Thankfully due to the Californian climate they were all dried up and therefore not worthy of his notice. 

We managed to snap a few shots of the surroundings and Mac in his happy place. 





We definitely tired him out because he then spent the evening curled up on the sofa snoring away. Andrew and I may have curled up and nodded too at some point....
H


MACINTOSH MONDAY

Those of you who have followed the blog for a while will realise that Macintosh used to be a bit of a pickle when it came to chewing things. He has a long a distinguished chewing career and has amassed quite a list of items he has destroyed. Some of those things include; the dining room table, wicker baskets, tea towels, my watch, books, cushions, all but one pair of Andrew's shoes and doormats!

Coming over to America the desire to chew seemed to have disappeared and we were left in peace. The ominous silence no longer filled us with dread that somewhere Macintosh was busy munching his way through something that we would need to replace....again. Instead we could allow him to roam the house knowing that we would no longer need to worry. In fact we began to buy him nice dog toys again! Once upon a time he would maul to death any toy we brought home for him and within 20 minutes the toy would be a useless pile of smaller, spit covered pieces. Now he plays with his toys, the stuffed animals last for longer and he genuinely seems to enjoy them! 

However (isn't there always a however with our dog?!) last week as we were waiting for Andrew to return home from work Macintosh decided to play with his new reindeer toy. He was merrily flicking it about, making it squeak and generally playing nicely. I pretty much left him to it and continued what I was doing until the low throaty growl that often accompanies destruction appeared out of nowhere! I stopped what I was doing and spun round in time to witness some destruction. That poor reindeer! 

Obviously I intervened at this point before the house was covered in fluff and reindeer parts by snatching the poor toy away. I held up one poor antler, looked at Macintosh and said something to the affect that I was disappointed in him and that he shouldn't start this chewing again. Well obviously the disappointment line works on dogs too because he crept right up to me, laid down and looked at me as if to say, 'I'm sorry!'


Come to think of it that might not be a sorry look, it may just be him trying to work out how quickly he could snatch it out of my hand and destroy it. Silly dog!
H

LATELY...

Its the new year so that means there are a few new year's resolutions knocking about and a general desire to start the year well. This month's lately will be focused mainly on that new year's optimism.


I found this on Pinterest and I thought it summed up pretty well a lot of the things I was aiming to focus on this year. I definitely want to ensure that I have more creating this year as I feel the tail end of 2014 was lost in terms of my crafting. 


Another Pinterest find is this yummy Oat Apple Crisp which can be found here. It looks pretty yummy and is definitely on the healthier side, which is always my aim, especially at the beginning of the new year. 


Snow has already been a part of our new year, as we went snow tubing at the weekend. We have been looking forward to taking some hikes with Macintosh in the snow and also the possibility of skiing too. Although I don't usually like the cold there is something stunning about scenery that's covered in a white blanket of snow. 


I got this book for Christmas from Andrew. Three children are sent from the American school system to schools in Finland, South Korea and Poland to see how their education system works and what benefits there are. As a geek when it comes to education I'm really intrigued to read it. I've been eyeing the book up for some time and I'd love to see what they learn. 


I'm determined to learn how to do more simple styles with my hair this year. It's certainly long enough to do plenty of things with but I can never seem to get round to it or learn how to do them. 2015 is the year I will!


And finally, this just made me laugh! So hopefully it'll make you smile too.

Happy new year everyone!
H




MACINTOSH MONDAY

Macintosh managed to stay up with us last week to see in the new year. As you can tell from the photo below he wasn't overly pleased at being kept awake. 


In between all the celebrating I asked Macintosh about his New Year's resolutions for 2015. He thought about it for approximately 2.4 seconds and then proceeded to tell me his top 5.

So here are Macintosh's New Year's resolutions....

1. Eat more - especially the human food that he's not supposed to have!

2. Play harder - he had lots of new toys at Christmas which are still completely in tact. They obviously need destroying.

3. Nap more and for longer.

4. Eat more - pretty much anything and everything he can get his mouth around!

5. Do more tracking - there's such a wealth of a smells around here so he really wants to make the most of those wild scent trails. 





Looking at the above photos taken in the last 5 days I'd say he's got the napping one down. Yesterday on his walk he ate 6 things off the floor, who knows what they were but that obviously meant he's taking his eating resolutions seriously. I think he's well on his way to keeping his resolutions...if only I could do so well at mine!
H

SNOW TUBING

On Saturday Andrew and I went to Mountain High, a ski resort in the San Gabriel mountains, for some snow tubing with friends. For those of you who don't what snow tubing is, it essentially just consists of you going down a small slope on a giant rubber tube! It was a pretty cold morning start but it had warmed up nicely by the end of our session at lunch time. The resort was pretty busy and there were some queues but it gave you time to marvel at the scenery. Amazingly it was completely snow covered where we were but you could see across our valley and down below there was nothing but sand!

                                       
We thoroughly enjoyed tubing and decided that going down 'superman style' was the most effective. This is where you throw yourself and the tub down head first, with you lying on the tube on your stomach. I have to say I was a bit hesitant at first, mainly because I didn't want to slip off and look like a fool but with some simple instruction I managed it. 


Here's a few shots we snapped on our phone as we were busy enjoying. 






We are definitely going to be going up to Mountain High again. It's only just over an hour from our house and there's skiing, snowboarding, tubing and just space to walk around and enjoy, potentially even go sledging!

So that pretty much draws our Christmas and New Year holiday to a close. All we have got planned now is time to get Andrew sorted for going back to work and to rid the house of Christmas decorations. Stay tuned for some winter decorations....once I've got my act together! 
H