Today it is pouring outside. It is yucky, stinky, miserable weather. Inside it is warm and cozy, even though we have not lit a fire today.

I am sipping hot cocoa and getting ready to read a book when I am done writing this blog post.

Then we are planning to visit my parents later today and have a dinner of homemade pizza with them.

The weather was, once again, the big event of the week this past week as we were given warm temperatures only to have them snatched away violently with a rain storm and then temperatures that plummeted about 17 degrees in a day.

It looks like we are going to get our early spring, however, as next week we are set to have more warm temperatures.

The day the temperatures dropped my dad and I had headed 20 minutes away for appointments. I had an eye check up so I could have my glasses replaced (the anti-glare coating is coming off the lenses) and Dad got his taxes done. Yes, very exciting appointments.

While I was in the eye doctor’s office, the wind and rain started whipping around. I had to sit and wait for Dad (who luckily didn’t chat as long as he usually does) so I was able to watch sheets of rain fly by. When we headed home there were broken tree branches across the road in some areas and right before we reached Dad’s house there was a car off the road, half into a ditch and up an embankment.

I was glad I was able to get home and make some tea and just stay in the warm house the rest of the night.

Warmer weather coming will mean I will be leaving the house more, which is something introverts don’t necessarily enjoy. Mainly I will be visiting playgrounds with my youngest and even though I don’t like leaving my cocoon of blankets on my couch I will because Little Miss absolutely needs to get outside more.

She’s been spending far too much time inside playing games on her phone while video chatting with her friends.

I’m glad she can hang out with her friends through the phone but she really needs to get out and interact more with people.

I don’t need to interact with people anymore because I did enough of that when I was younger. I’ve reached my people interacting quota so I sit in the car while she plays on the playground.

I have been trying to encourage her to do art more during the week so she is doing something a little more creative than online games – though her friends do makeup stories together as they play and are using their imagination.

I keep an eye on the games they are playing and she only has permission to talk to two friends on a private message app, in case you were wondering. You probably were not, but regular readers know how I over explain.

One way Little Miss has been entertaining herself this winter is to place her little stuffed animals in various boxes and cover them with “blankets” which are actually my dishtowels, dishcloths, and washcloths.

I thought I was missing dishcloths one day and it finally hit me that is what she was covering her animals up with.

When The Husband saw my old Teddy bear in an old Aldi box on top of our daughter’s dresser he asked if we were now doing stuffed animals funerals.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

That’s when he told me that Little Miss’s set up looked like an open casket. He had a good point so I mentioned it to Little Miss and she set Teddy up on his side instead. He looked much more comfortable then.

It is sort of creepy how all the animals are bedded down for the winter all over her room.

I took some photos so you could also feel the creepiness – er – coziness.

Speaking of photos, I hope to take more photos with my big Nikon camera soon.

I walked by it the other day and realized how much I miss it.

I miss photographing natural moments of my children’s life. I miss just having fun editing photographs and looking at other photographers’ work and just being a part of that world.

Photography was such an escape for me during some very lonely years and as I enter a stressful season of getting old and watching my parents get old, I think it will help me get through again. Writing also helps during these seasons so I will also continue to write.

I really hope to finish writing the book for the multi-author project this week. I’d like to get the first draft out of the way so I can start tightening it up and then begin to work on book three of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries.

Writing and visiting playgrounds will probably be mainly what I do for the upcoming week.

How was your week last week? Do anything exciting or interesting?

What are your plans for this week?