My attempts at "Winter Wonderland Wednesday" fell apart after the holidays. I guess I grew disenchanted by the sudden ferocity of a late winter. Last week started with sub-zero windchills and I couldn't feel my face, hands, or legs after walking into work in the morning. But this weekend brought glorious sunlight and a taste of spring. It made me think of my favorite thing about winter: IT ENDS!
On February 2, Puxatawney Phil promised we had less than 6 weeks of winter left. I know this week finds us back to 30s and 40s (thankfully above zero, though) and we have a good month or more before consistent spring weather sticks around, but this weekend I was so thankful for the warms spell and spring winds bringing in fresh air and the promise that it's never too late to start anew.
Showing posts with label winter wonderland wednesdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter wonderland wednesdays. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Winter Running
I must admit, we've had a mild winter. No piles of snow on the (minimal) shoulder of the road. No ice. No sub-zero wind chills during daylight hours. This is just what I needed to show myself that I can remain active in the winter even without a gym membership. (Well, this, and a new-found love for my workout DVD collection-- although I'm sure our downstairs neighbor loathes them.) I even ran outside the week before Christmas when it was in the 20s and 30s!
Despite the spring-like sunshine, 40-degree temps, and wind at a minimal 9-11 mph, today's run was still a winter run, right? I wore layers. I sucked the cold air in through my nose and blew out through my mouth. I zoned out to a new playlist and ran. And it made me feel strong and tough.
 |
| P.S. It's a good year to be a Horned Frog! |
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Plaza Lights
The Plaza lights will always hold a special place in my heart. Seeing them makes me think of big family dinners at Hibachi (you know, one of those Japanese restaurants where they flip shrimp into your mouth) and slow, leisurely walks through FAO Schwartz, in awe of how many toys exist! Hearing the clop clop of horse hooves pulling carriages through the lit streets takes me back to my childhood.
I haven't been to Hibachi since we moved back to KC, FAO Schwartz is long gone (sad), and I've still never been on a carriage ride (those people always look so cold!) but I still love the lights. Ross and I walked around last week and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Christmas!
Plaza lights = Christmastime. Warm memories on the cold streets!
I haven't been to Hibachi since we moved back to KC, FAO Schwartz is long gone (sad), and I've still never been on a carriage ride (those people always look so cold!) but I still love the lights. Ross and I walked around last week and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Christmas!
 |
| We HAD to follow this couple into Victoria's Secret and get a picture: Mr. and Mrs. Claus! |
Plaza lights = Christmastime. Warm memories on the cold streets!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Snowball Donuts
When my brothers and I were little, we always looked forward to the first snow of the season. Even if it wasn't enough snow to cancel school, it still meant our mom would make snowball donuts! Mmm little bites of heaven. I'm pretty sure we ate them just as fast as she pulled them out of the fryer and powdered them. I introduced Ross to the concept of snowball donuts when we moved here last year, and he's hooked. Starting in November, I made sure to have the necessary ingredients on had so we'd be able to celebrate whenever the first snow came.
Thankfully, it's been a mild winter and we only had our first real snow last week. But it accumulated, and that's enough to justify donuts!
Snowball Donuts
Ingredients:
1 can buttermilk biscuits (not the 'Grands' rolls, just plain buttermilk ones)
1-2 cups Crisco
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Directions:
1. Scoop Crisco into a sauce pan and turn burner to medium-high.
2. While Crisco is melting, cut biscuits into quarters and mix the two sugars together in a bowl.
3. When Crisco is fully liquid, drop 1-2 dough balls into the hot oil at a time, turning quickly. If they brown almost instantly, turn the heat down to medium.
4. Remove from fryer when balls are browned on both sides. Place on plate lined with paper towels.
5. Every so often, dump all the "snowballs" from the plate into the bowl with sugars and roll around to coat. Repeat until all the donuts look like snowballs.
Pretty unscientific, I know, but so fun and easy to make!
Thankfully, it's been a mild winter and we only had our first real snow last week. But it accumulated, and that's enough to justify donuts!
Snowball Donuts
Ingredients:
1 can buttermilk biscuits (not the 'Grands' rolls, just plain buttermilk ones)
1-2 cups Crisco
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Directions:
1. Scoop Crisco into a sauce pan and turn burner to medium-high.
2. While Crisco is melting, cut biscuits into quarters and mix the two sugars together in a bowl.
3. When Crisco is fully liquid, drop 1-2 dough balls into the hot oil at a time, turning quickly. If they brown almost instantly, turn the heat down to medium.
4. Remove from fryer when balls are browned on both sides. Place on plate lined with paper towels.
5. Every so often, dump all the "snowballs" from the plate into the bowl with sugars and roll around to coat. Repeat until all the donuts look like snowballs.
Pretty unscientific, I know, but so fun and easy to make!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Spicy Hot
I've been known to drink hot green tea year-round, but there's something about cold, dark winter days that call for a little something extra. Any hot beverage tastes better when the temperatures dip below freezing.
Generally, stirring milk into my coffee is as complicated as I get with hot drinks at home, but a recipe for homemade coconut chai latte changed everything. This has been my study drink of choice lately and it doesn't involve venturing out into the cold!
Coconut Chai Latte
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. almond milk
• 1/2 cup strong chai tea, brewed for 10 mins (I used 2 tea bags)
• 3 Tbs. coconut milk cream (thick, creamy part at top of can, NOT low fat coconut milk)
• 1 Tbs. pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of cinnamon, to garnish
Directions:
In a small pot on medium heat, combine milk, chai (after 10 minutes of brewing), and coconut milk. Bring to a simmer and then lower heat for 1 minute. Stir in maple syrup and vanilla. Add mixture to blender and blend until frothy for 60-90 seconds.
(Alternately, I used my Aerolatte whisk while the mixture was still on the stove.) Pour into mug and sprinkle with cinnamon. Makes 1 delicious mug of chai.
Spicy chai lattes make me love winter a little more.
 | |
| They also taste better in a Holiday Cup from Starbucks, despite this year's scary snowmen! |
Generally, stirring milk into my coffee is as complicated as I get with hot drinks at home, but a recipe for homemade coconut chai latte changed everything. This has been my study drink of choice lately and it doesn't involve venturing out into the cold!
Coconut Chai Latte
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. almond milk
• 1/2 cup strong chai tea, brewed for 10 mins (I used 2 tea bags)
• 3 Tbs. coconut milk cream (thick, creamy part at top of can, NOT low fat coconut milk)
• 1 Tbs. pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of cinnamon, to garnish
Directions:
In a small pot on medium heat, combine milk, chai (after 10 minutes of brewing), and coconut milk. Bring to a simmer and then lower heat for 1 minute. Stir in maple syrup and vanilla. Add mixture to blender and blend until frothy for 60-90 seconds.
(Alternately, I used my Aerolatte whisk while the mixture was still on the stove.) Pour into mug and sprinkle with cinnamon. Makes 1 delicious mug of chai.
Spicy chai lattes make me love winter a little more.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Hot Yoga, Cold Day
Winter Wonderland Wednesday is already getting difficult for me. Which is the point, I guess. It's definitely cold here. Getting to work involves windshield scraping, numb fingers, and frozen ears. You'll only hear me say this once but I miss night shift right now. Garage parking suddenly seems so worth it!
Anyway, I'm here to celebrate things I love about winter. Today, I love Bikram Yoga. I can't afford a year-round yoga pass, but I don't know that I'd want to. I appreciate hot yoga more when it's cold outside. Put me in the salty, sticky air of the Florida Keys and I'm in heaven. Partly because my nailbeds will no longer be blue, but also because humidity is the great equalizer. Nice clothes? Makeup? Smooth hair? What's the point? In a tropical heat wave, my style (or lack thereof) is finally in fashion!
But I digress. Few things are better than walking into a dressing room with 4 layers on, stripping down to spandex, racing across the cold concrete floor by the reception desk, prying open the door, and sighing with happiness when that wave of heat hits you. I finally thaw. Yesterday's class was especially sweaty, which was welcome after our coldest week yet. (It's hard to believe that just 2 weeks ago, I was running outside in a tank top. You probably couldn't pay me to do that this week.)
This is my 3rd winter doing Bikram Yoga and my 8th class this season. I am finally seeing improvements and I consistently try every posture, pleased to find that I can almost always hold some form of it the entire time. It's also been a great break from running, but I'm hoping that it improves my running as well. Aside from the obvious cardiovascular benefits (the high temps really get your heart pumping), yoga helps me figure out what needs the most stretching from one week to the next. I also love leaving class with quivering jelly legs instead of the board-stiff brick legs I get after running.
Hot yoga makes cold weather much more bearable.
Anyway, I'm here to celebrate things I love about winter. Today, I love Bikram Yoga. I can't afford a year-round yoga pass, but I don't know that I'd want to. I appreciate hot yoga more when it's cold outside. Put me in the salty, sticky air of the Florida Keys and I'm in heaven. Partly because my nailbeds will no longer be blue, but also because humidity is the great equalizer. Nice clothes? Makeup? Smooth hair? What's the point? In a tropical heat wave, my style (or lack thereof) is finally in fashion!
 |
| Striking a (Standing Bow) pose at home after class |
This is my 3rd winter doing Bikram Yoga and my 8th class this season. I am finally seeing improvements and I consistently try every posture, pleased to find that I can almost always hold some form of it the entire time. It's also been a great break from running, but I'm hoping that it improves my running as well. Aside from the obvious cardiovascular benefits (the high temps really get your heart pumping), yoga helps me figure out what needs the most stretching from one week to the next. I also love leaving class with quivering jelly legs instead of the board-stiff brick legs I get after running.
Hot yoga makes cold weather much more bearable.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
'Tis The Season
I love Advent. It's a celebration of warmth and light in a season of cold and darkness.
This Sunday marked the first Sunday of Advent and the pastor at our new church gave a great sermon on Psalm 42. We always talk about Advent of a time of waiting, but it's more than that. It's hopeful waiting. It's longing. A longing for Jesus to come save us from ourselves. I can certainly identify with this feeling.
All too often, I fall into the "if only" pattern of thinking. Ross calls me out on it a lot:
If only the weather were better...
If only I could manager my time better...
If only I were in better shape...
If only we had more money...
If only you were done with grad school...
The pastor pointed out that the "if only" pattern is futile because it implies that we're placing our hope in something besides God. Will what I'm hoping for really satisfy me?
Catholic that I am, I love communion; thankfully our non-denominational Christian church has it weekly. It's a good reminder of the only true Hope in our lives. Only in Christ are we fully known, fully accepted, and fully forgiven. And thankfully, it's not the amount of faith we have, but the Object of our faith who saves us and helps us endure our brokenness. We just need to take the first step and recognize that our unnamed longings are actually longings for a peace only God can give.
Have you found yourself futilely placing hope in the wrong place this holiday season? C.S. Lewis said, "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this earth can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." This Advent, I'm taking a good look at my priorities and taking the time to name my longings instead of wandering to the fridge when I feel restless.
Psalm 42
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
This Sunday marked the first Sunday of Advent and the pastor at our new church gave a great sermon on Psalm 42. We always talk about Advent of a time of waiting, but it's more than that. It's hopeful waiting. It's longing. A longing for Jesus to come save us from ourselves. I can certainly identify with this feeling.
All too often, I fall into the "if only" pattern of thinking. Ross calls me out on it a lot:
If only the weather were better...
If only I could manager my time better...
If only I were in better shape...
If only we had more money...
If only you were done with grad school...
The pastor pointed out that the "if only" pattern is futile because it implies that we're placing our hope in something besides God. Will what I'm hoping for really satisfy me?
Catholic that I am, I love communion; thankfully our non-denominational Christian church has it weekly. It's a good reminder of the only true Hope in our lives. Only in Christ are we fully known, fully accepted, and fully forgiven. And thankfully, it's not the amount of faith we have, but the Object of our faith who saves us and helps us endure our brokenness. We just need to take the first step and recognize that our unnamed longings are actually longings for a peace only God can give.
Have you found yourself futilely placing hope in the wrong place this holiday season? C.S. Lewis said, "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this earth can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." This Advent, I'm taking a good look at my priorities and taking the time to name my longings instead of wandering to the fridge when I feel restless.
Psalm 42
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
What I love about winter
Last week was a cop-out. I declared "Winter Wonderland Wednesdays" and proceeded to hate on winter. Today, let me share some winter joy: I love winter accessories.
I never really got the whole jewelry thing down, and my favorite qualities in a purse have more to do with the functionality than the way it compliments my outfit. Accessorizing is an art that is lost to me March through October. But when winter comes, I am so excited to break out the hats, scarves, and gloves!
I never really got the whole jewelry thing down, and my favorite qualities in a purse have more to do with the functionality than the way it compliments my outfit. Accessorizing is an art that is lost to me March through October. But when winter comes, I am so excited to break out the hats, scarves, and gloves!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Winter Wonderland Wednesday
It's currently 39 degrees out and there's a possibility of snow tonight. Winter weather has officially come to Kansas City.
Instead of dreading winter, I thought I'd practice embracing it this year. Last year was the worst winter KC has had in a long time. Combine that with the fact that I started night shift when we moved (I never saw the light of day) and the fact that I had grown used to warmer north Texas winters, and it was rough to say the least.
So for this first post, let me just get this out of the way. Here's what I hate about winter:
-Scraping my car off in the pre-dawn cold (I think this will be my least favorite part of day shift).
-The fact that my drive to work is just long enough that my car really only gets warm when I'm pulling into the parking lot at the hospital.
-Darkness. I hate the late sunrise and early sunset.
-Bad driving conditions. I love the freedom of driving, but I hate slush and my little car does too.
-The fact that it lasts way too long. The first snow is exciting. The holidays are happy. But below-freezing temperatures in February and snow in March should not be allowed.
-Cold. It doesn't take much to make me so cold that my nail beds actually turn blue.
-Dry skin. Winter + copious amounts of hand sanitizer and hand washing at work = unhappy skin and nails.
-Wind (and wind chill). Running outdoors is going to be a challenge this winter, but I don't have a gym membership so maybe this'll toughen me up (ha)!
I worked hard to get off antidepressants this spring, and I really want to stay off of them this winter. Hopefully weekly posts about the things I love about winter will keep me positive!
Instead of dreading winter, I thought I'd practice embracing it this year. Last year was the worst winter KC has had in a long time. Combine that with the fact that I started night shift when we moved (I never saw the light of day) and the fact that I had grown used to warmer north Texas winters, and it was rough to say the least.
So for this first post, let me just get this out of the way. Here's what I hate about winter:
-Scraping my car off in the pre-dawn cold (I think this will be my least favorite part of day shift).
-The fact that my drive to work is just long enough that my car really only gets warm when I'm pulling into the parking lot at the hospital.
-Darkness. I hate the late sunrise and early sunset.
-Bad driving conditions. I love the freedom of driving, but I hate slush and my little car does too.
-The fact that it lasts way too long. The first snow is exciting. The holidays are happy. But below-freezing temperatures in February and snow in March should not be allowed.
-Cold. It doesn't take much to make me so cold that my nail beds actually turn blue.
-Dry skin. Winter + copious amounts of hand sanitizer and hand washing at work = unhappy skin and nails.
-Wind (and wind chill). Running outdoors is going to be a challenge this winter, but I don't have a gym membership so maybe this'll toughen me up (ha)!
I worked hard to get off antidepressants this spring, and I really want to stay off of them this winter. Hopefully weekly posts about the things I love about winter will keep me positive!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)