Life Less Ordinary: Currently: January

Currently living/working in: Still property caretaking of Fenton Ranch in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico … and January finally produced the winter we expected with FEET of snow!

Current mood: Content to be snowed in and cozy by the fire most of the month (except for almost every afternoon when we went out to move snow).

Currently excited about: Visitors!! The end of the month produced 2 sets of back-to-back visitors braving the long haul to see us! More details about their visits to come.

Currently not excited about: Some logistics involved for our summer plans … it will all be worth it in the end, but we have to throw a few curveballs to make it happen.

Currently thankful for: Finding a forever home for the two kittens! I worked with a local program, Animal Amigos, and we quickly found new owners that would take the cats together earlier this month! We are hanging onto Mama Cat (Gibs/Gibby/Mrs.Gibbles) for at least a little while longer. We have some ideas about what to do with her come spring, but we shall see. I think she was depressed at first about losing her kittens, but now she is very affectionate with us and follows us everywhere!

Currently regretting: The LACK of wildlife we are seeing here in the Jemez Mountains. Our cabin window faces Santa Fe National Forest and a huge meadow. There are mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, elk and bear in the area and I fully expected to have some sightings! We’ve seen prints and scat a few times, but no live ones!

Currently amazed by: Our friends! Gosh I can’t say it enough. We have an amazing support system. I cannot believe how some have gone above and beyond to do special things for us. Also, thank you for all your comments, e-mails and texts from J’s blog posts about Crohn’s.

Currently proud of: I feel particularly bad ass this winter. J feels very, very bad about not being able to do as much as he usually can (who are we kidding, he would normally be doing the bulk while I stay inside). But, as we said, he is still not fully recovered, so I am doing 80% of the work around here. I tell him no worries! I will gladly hand over duties when I know he is back to normal.

Current confession: I love cooking (we both do), but I really haven’t tried a new recipe since the summer of 2015! I tend to get into a cooking rut where I cycle through the same dozen recipes over and over again. J’s diet has changed a little bit and I knew I needed to track down a few new ones. I’m happy to say I found many keepers: Slow Cooker Massaman Curry, Shrimp Scampi, Pasta a la Carbonara and Butternut Squash Soup. (For the record, I will only make the Butternut Squash Soup one on very special occasions because, well, working with butternut squash is expensive and a lot of freakin work!)

Tears in the Wind by Larry Semento — Not surprisingly, this is another Denali climbing book with a tragedy. A good friend knows the author and sent us a copy, knowing we would enjoy it. And we did! I will say it read like a journal, but it was still a very quick read.

Minus 148 by Art Davidson — This is about the 1967 winter ascent of Denali. It is a harrowing tail and truly unbelievable what this team of 8 went through, so thus a compelling story. But I didn’t find the writing to be particularly good. The author babbled a little too much for my liking.

Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly - I don’t love it so far, but it’s meant to be one of those deep, inspiration reads and it is short, so I am determined to get through it.

Currently watching on Netflix: We finally decided to upgrade to the 2 DVDs-out-a-time program … Our mailbox is 30 minutes away and we only go once a week, so we were growing too impatient with having only one DVD out at a time. And I suppose I should rephrase the “we upgraded” part to “my parents upgraded us.” Netflix was a Christmas gift to us in 2013 and we share the account with my dad. Since he is now Netflix-addicted, we decided it would become a Christmas gift that keeps giving year after year.