Make My Heart Sing Monday

Hi friends!  Well I've taken a little hiatus from blogging lately...and by a little I mean 4 months.  Lots of changes going on in my life the last couple months.  But more on that later...Anyway I figure whats a better way to get back into it then a make my heart sing monday??  So heres a few things that are making my heart sing lately...

Snow

I LOVE snow.  Upstate eastern New York gets quite a bit of it too. I'm not talking Buffalo status but we have our fair share.  I start praying for snow in about late September and this year we had our first real snow fall on Thanksgiving and it was so pretty. It was the kind of snow that you get when its not too cold out. Perfect snowman making snow.  It sticks to all of the trees and just looks gorgeous. My family spends our Thanksgiving at a hunting camp in the woods and this year all of my younger cousins were able to go sledding because of all of the snow.  It was a perfect day.  Anyway back to the snow.  I just love it.  Its just peaceful and beautiful.  This year I'm the new proud owner of my own set of skis too so I'm sure I'll be posting some skiing adventures

My family

Speaking of the perfect day on Thanksgiving it was mostly just because I have the greatest family.  They have been super supportive and just basically awesome these past couple months and I cant imagine my life without them. 

Whats making your hearts sing this week friends?

                                     

Buck mountain

So last week I convinced 3 of my lovely coworkers/ friends to go hiking with me. We decided to start with a smaller mountain and did Buck Mountain in Lake George. Ends up being about 6 miles round trip and has really pretty views at the top.

At the beginning...pre sweaty mess

Seriously the Adirondacks are amazing. If you haven't explored them then I highly highly recommend it!  Anyway we ended up having basically the perfect day weather wise for our hike. There was us four girls, three dogs, and two of the cutest identical twin 7 year old boys. 

Pups and kids

The two dogs on the right are my Glavine and Nellie and then on the left is Emma who belongs to my dad but was visiting us for a few days.  My two dogs are hiking pros but Emma was a first timer. She hiked like a champ though, despite the fact that she decided to roll in poo about five minutes into the trip. 

View from the top

No matter how hard the hike is...the view at the top always makes it worth it. Buck mountain looks down over Lake George and on this day you could see for miles in each direction. Beautiful. 

At the top

Also...I just want to take a minute to say how lucky I am to have such amazing coworkers. I've been at the hospital for two years now and not only are these ladies amazing nurses but they are amazing friends. With everything that's been going on in my life lately I'm so thankful to have these girls in my life. 

Can't go wrong with ice cream!

We finished the day with some super yummy ice cream! I've decided I should fill my life with lots more adventures :)

Truth

You guys taking any adventures lately?

Make My Heart Sing Monday!

Just a quick post this week! Things making m heart sing recently

- a good book

The kind of book you lose yourself in. One you can't put down and stay up late into the night trying to finish. Then when you do finish it you're sad that it's over and you have to pull yourself back to reality.

- tea

I have a huge collection of tea and I often forget about it. Then I'll make a cup and think huh why don't I drink tea more often?

Make my heart sing Monday!

Well... I accidentally deleted my new post...new to blogging remember? So I'm redoing make my heart sing Monday on a Tuesday...oh well!

Things making my heart sing this week!

completing a project

Since we've moved into out new house I've redone two bedrooms I patched holes, caulked, sanded and painted. My biggest accomplishment was to teach myself how to change out outlets (thank you YouTube!) Seriously how much better does a fresh white outlet look compared to an almond outlet with a white cover which is what we had. Also I love any opportunity to try out power tools.

early mornings

I love to wake up early and sit in my living room drinking my coffee with all the windows open. I can hear all of the birds singing and I usually have one of my pups curled up beside me. Everything is so calm and peaceful...makes getting up at 4:30 in the morning before work totally worth it!

What's making your heart sing this week?

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Runner Girl

I'm trying to make running a habit. I've been running on and off for years now.  I have periods where I'll run pretty often and then I won't run for months. I've done tons of 5Ks. I've done 2 (slow!) half marathons.  I posted a few weeks ago about running in Ragnar. But I still feel like a fraud to call myself a runner. I'm not a die hard. I get lazy and take months off. I don't like to run when it's super hot.  I'm mentally weak. I don't want to be like that though. I want to be a runner. Does that make sense? I know I'm rambling...
My husband is a runner. He coaches varsity cross country and varsity track. He runs daily. He has to buy new running shoes every few months because he puts too many miles on them. My dad is also a runner. He's in his 50s and has run a few marathons.  I love to do races with them. I love to do races in general. The running community is awesome and fun.
So I'm going to be a real runner. I've told myself this a thousand times but I always quit so maybe if I post it on here I'll stick to it. I love to run. I love how it makes me feel. I get such a sense of accomplishment from finishing. Running makes me strong both physically and mentally. Plus in this house we eat, sleep, and breathe running. Between my husband's job, my dad, and my little brother who also runs...I know he names of most of the good runners in the area. I spent my Saturdays at cross country meets in the fall. We have a running closet. A whole closet dedicated to running clothes and shoes!
So no more excuses.  If you need me....I'm out for a run.

Deep cleaning

So I just recently switched to working 12 hour shifts which means that now instead of 5 days a week I'm working 3 so I've got 4 days off every week now! I'm not sure what to do with all this free time! My trusty fall back is to go shopping but I'm trying to be better about blowing money on stuff I don't need. Seriously I need less in my life. So shopping is out. So today I decided to tackle some of the projects I've been putting off since we moved in a little over a month ago. I wanted to clean my washing machine and dish washer. 

I started with the dish washer. I looked up how go clean your dish washer on Pinterest and most of the links were the same basic directions. So I filled a measuring cup up with vinegar and put it on the top shelf and ran a cycle with no soap. Then when that was done I sprinkled baking soda all over the bottom of the dish washer and ran another cycle. That's all! So easy and my dish washer came out super shiney on the inside! 

Next up was the washing machine. This was seriously gross. It has been since we moved in and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I've been using it anyway....

Gross right? There's a freaking dirt ring! Ick!

So anyway all of the directions I found online said to use baking soda and either bleach or vinegar. I try to not use bleach on stuff because I try to limit the chemicals I use plus it never fails I always always always get bleach on my clothes so I went with the vinegar. I let the washer fill with hot water and poured in some vinegar and let it agitate a few minutes then I just dumped in some baking soda and let it agitate again to mix it all up. The I let it sit. 

The tools I used. I'm real high tech. While the hot water/baking soda/vinegar mix was sitting I used the same water to scrub down the lid and corners and the dirt ring off the inside of the basket. It took some serious elbow grease but I finally got it all clean. Then I just closed the lid and let the cycle finish.

See? Sparkly clean washing machine! 

The same day I also pulled out the stove and cleaned all the grim from the sides and back. I'll spare you the pictures but trust me it was gross.  And there was this...

Yup that's a phone cord from a land line phone. It was wedged between the counter and the stove. Apparently instead of pulling the stove out someone decided it would be easier to just cut the cord? But this makes me think it's been a few years since the sides and back of the oven were cleaned. Gross. 

So that's what I've been working on lately. Exciting I know.