We got a smidgeon of snow last night. Just enough to mess with Don’s midnight drive home from work. What a bizarre winter this is! No snow until last night, if you don’t count the freak 10 inches we got in October, when it wasn’t officially winter yet.

I’m happy not having to contend with shoveling and salt and all the mess that happens with a snowfall, but snow, if you’re going to come, at least cover the ground, okay? This just looks messy.

My head is spinning (just a little) from the font thing. Most of you said you liked the new font just fine, but that you also liked the old font. A few of you took the time to write me and say that my old font (Century Gothic) was more me and suited my blog. Most of you, I’d say 98%, said you had no trouble reading the old font.

What the heck should I do? I’m going to leave the new font on the blog for a while. I like it, so I’m going to give it some time, just like a fine wine, to age and mature. I loved the old font, though. Who knows? It may appear again.

I thought I’d mention a couple of products that I’m liking very much these days:

This line is carried at Target. When I was working in Wisconsin last summer and a trip to Target and Trader Joe’s was the most exciting part of the week, I tried a little sample of this. I love the texture of the cream and the scent is heavenly. I bought a big old tube of it around Christmas time just for me. Wouldn’t you know it? That darned Don is using it, too. Apparently, he’s decided to say Yes to Carrots. I wonder if it’s possible to hide it from him?

One of my Christmas presents from the aforementioned Don was this candle from Barnes & Noble. This is part of a series of library candles by Paddywax. It’s made from soy, rather than paraffin, which makes it more eco-friendly. This one has a quote from Oscar Wilde:

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

Oh, that Oscar. Besides writing my favorite play ever, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” he was one witty guy, always coming up with a quote that makes me chuckle.

These candles are a bit pricey at $20. But both of us love the scent (which usually isn’t the case in this household) and I like to burn it in the den which sits right on top of a dirt-floor crawl space that can be a bit musty smelling at times. Besides, you can reuse the deep purple glass candle holder. Love it.

I redesigned my sister’s blog yesterday. She will be the first to admit she is seriously tech-challenged. It needed some updating. She may be seriously tech-challenged but she is a seriously talented knitter, weaver and crocheter!

For everyone who might be checking in to read a Defending the Small House post, Brenda and I are going to run this series once a month on the first Tuesday of the month. It’s a challenge to keep coming up with ideas and this change will eliminate the pressure of having to coming up with a fresh post every week. Yes, we’re brilliant, but we’re not that brilliant.

Have a great day!

It must be January, right? This must be a photo from years gone by that I’m reposting.

Ummm, no.

On this quiet Sunday morning in October, this is the view from my kitchen door.

Stunned doggies have had to deal with a slippery trip up the hill to the dog corral.

You can see that there are still leaves on some of the trees.

The contrast of the beautifully colored leaves against the snow is striking. That’s our clothesline at the top of the photo.

I shoveled a few times before Don got home. If you’d driven by, you would have seen me out in the front yard with broom in hand, shaking the snow off bushes, trees and hydrangeas. Don’s usual half hour trip home turned into a 90 minute white-knuckled drive on country roads full of cars that had spun out. More than once, he thought he was going to have to abandon the car. Thankfully, he arrived home safely.

The lights in our house flickered countless times and I was sure we would lose power. We cooked dinner early in case we lost the use of our electric stove. Unbelievably, for there are hundreds of thousands without power today, we didn’t. We are very lucky.

This will all be a faint memory in a day or two, as temperatures rise and everything melts.

It’s still October, isn’t it? This all feels like some bizarre dream in which somehow I have jumped forward in time; where the calendar tells me one thing but my eyes tell me another.

Happy Sunday. We’re grateful this morning.