Snow days, soaring trees, and macarons

Inexplicably, I'm pinballing between two blogs now. I'm trying to gather my thoughts and rein myself in to some level of organization. Bear with me. You can read about New Year's Day HERE.

Since then, here is my accountability update. To recap, my goals:

***GOALS for the NEW YEAR***

1. Make my bed every day (we are one day into the new year and so far I am 0 for 1. Well I can only go up from here, right?!)
2. Organize my entire house (no seriously this is going to happen)
3. Finish what I start (no one said they couldn't be lofty goals...)
4. Train for a half marathon by myself in 12 weeks. (This one scares me. I've trained for and run a half marathon before, but certainly not by myself. My attention span is so short. I can scarcely run 3 miles alone without getting bored.) Wish me luck!!!

Progress Report:

1. I have made my bed for 5 consecutive days now. Didn't you hear? January 4th is the new January 1st.
2. Organizing - So a while ago (fine, 2.5 years) I read Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and found it life-changing. I went through my clothes using her methods and was amazed. Then I stopped there and we moved so really all sense of order and control in my life ended. I recently reread her book with my book club and jumped back on the boat. This time my closet clean-out took about 15 minutes (not 3 days). I was stunned that, as promised, her paradigm shift actually does stick! I had very little to part with that didn't "spark joy" (and they were items that I could see were beginning to lose their shelf life in my esteem), and I had not accumulated anything new that I didn't love. Incredible. On to the rest of the house! (More updates on this later!)
3. I can think of at least an average of 3 occasions per day that I've consciously done this when my reflex was to "do it later." Improvement at least.
4. Half marathon training. Wow. By last spring, my running buddy and I were running 5 miles a day, and the first time we hit 5 miles it was by accident. I mean we were just talking and ran an extra lap without noticing. It was so easy I was not really nervous for my first "long" run, which was yesterday, and was only 5 miles. Oh my gosh, you guys. I thought I was going to die. I also ran a new route that ended up being hilly and had a stretch where I had to run on a lumpy grass hill covered by ankle-deep snow. It was 20 degrees (I had to wait til 2 pm for the temp to climb that high!) and there was a bitter wind threatening to tear my face off. It was not fun. I was tired. And I also walked a little. Upwards from here, right? I felt like this:

"Mom, can you get me off the floor?"

That is actually what he's saying to me here.

We did have a snow day this past week, which was ridiculous but also perfectly timed because that particular day was jammed packed with so many things that ended up being canceled! And I don't have a car this week. I'm getting a new transmission for my birthday. Yay. Also Brooklyn is sick for the 3rd time in a month, so that is one less day of school she is missing. I think they think she is never coming back.

It was probably 4 degrees, but we had to go sledding. I haven't been sledding in forever. But I wanted to be a "fun mom" for once, so I suited up and marched out that door! I grabbed a sled and plopped it down at the top of the hill beside the house, my two boys jumped in my lap, and we sailed down! All the way down! Both hills! Luckily I have huge feet, so my big sturdy boots acted as brakes just a foot before we crashed into a tree. Later I learned from my kids that you can actually steer the sled. They taught me how. They were actually sledding down only the first hill and then veering to the right into the upper backyard where they could coast to a comfortable stop. It's an art.

I also didn't know that they had trained the dog to pull the sled back up the hill for them. Genius! I hauled it up myself. Like a sucker.

The Macarons:

Consensus: super easy (only 4 ingredients!), time consuming (here Kate is sifting almond flour and powdered sugar. For like an hour), pretty yummy (light and crispy and maybe a little too sweet).

I'm pretty sure they are not supposed to look like this:

I'm also pretty sure I know where I went wrong. After beating the egg whites and adding the dry ingredients, you're supposed to fold actually kind of a lot. I didn't read that part carefully and just kind of freaked out when it turned all weird, so I just dolloped into a piping bag and went to work. I think if I had whipped them until they were smoother they would have turned out. Also I probably overbeat the egg whites. Anyway, these were lemon filled with lemon and raspberry buttercream. I thought they were pretty good, although I actually don't know what they're supposed to taste like. We used Martha Stewart's Basic Recipe for French Macarons.

Totally random, unrelated things:

I got a pasta maker for Christmas!

Here I am making egg noodles for chicken noodle soup (remember how everyone was sick).

Our Christmas tree came down:

Doesn't it look as fresh as the day we bought it??? We've never had a tree stay so green and soft for this long before!

Then of course there was the annual Christmas Tree Toss:

It will rest there in the backyard until spring when it will be chopped for firewood for our backyard fire pit. I will tell you it is terrifying to watch a single branch of a Christmas tree go up in flames. I mean, Hollywood-quality flames. From one branch. Makes me so scared of potential house fires during Christmastime! Those things are SO FLAMMABLE!

THIS WEEK'S GOALS:
{My plan is to implement one tiny goal at a time, and not add a new one until I feel like I have a handle on the previous one. This is how I function. Baby steps.}
DISHES:
1. Don't leave the house unless the kitchen is devoid of dishes - clean dishes put away, dishwasher only contains dirty dishes.
2. Kids do the dishes after dinner. Not parents, late at night, after everyone has gone to bed. That's just bananas.