We had our first snowstorm of the year. It coincided with my weekly trip to St Charles to teach, so that meant my drive home afterwards was long and harrowing since the Missouri Department of Transportation has no idea how to deal with snow and ice. Once I got back on St Louis City streets, they were completely clear, which meant that the whole trip could have been easy and pleasant, but no, there’s just no way, evidently. I’m only a little annoyed that my 45 minute commute turned into 1 hour 45, and that I almost missed a student. I lose money on snow days, which I don’t mind once or twice as it’s nice to get a surprise holiday, BUT if it’s going to happen a lot, then I need somebody to figure out the road situation.

But otherwise, the week is going quite well. My home students are getting ready for a recital next weekend, my college students are looking forward to the end of the semester and are therefore completely swamped with work (which they often use as an excuse for not practicing, as if I will appreciate that they care less about my class than the others). Louie and I finally finished watching The Handmaid’s Tale (I may have mentioned that already) and started Outlander the other night. I’ve read all the Outlander books and so I’m hoping Louie likes the show well enough. We put on English subtitles as the Scottish accents are pretty heavy and that helps a lot!

Oh, and I finished my Thanksgiving cross-stitch project! I wasn’t sure if I would, but then I had a lot of free hours when students canceled so I got some more stitching in, and once I was close, it seemed to go by quicker.

I got to see my friend April over the weekend—she and her boyfriend were in town for a wedding. We had a nice brunch together and caught up a teeny bit…it’s never enough time! I regret that I haven’t had time to take a weekend and go visit her recently. I’ll have to work on that. (I do work too hard). The rest of the weekend was weddings and opera…this weekend is a wedding, rehearsal and concert for a small orchestra concert, and some makeup lessons. It’s a busy time of year for musicians—not even counting the upcoming holiday gigs and concerts, there are tons of regular concerts and then rescheduling lessons here and there.

I’ve been using cross-stitch kits I’ve ordered on Etsy. I wanted to get a handle on how to do things before trying to put stuff together myself (i.e. just use a pattern and get my own cloth and string organized). I have a couple of Christmas themed ones to do next,  and I also ordered two really cool ones from the place I got the turkey to work on afterwards: one with a scene from Yellowstone National Park, and one from Glacier NP, which is just kind of crazy. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with all these things afterwards, but the truth is that I’ve been a bit happier this semester with my crafting, so I’ll keep at it.

The ice on the roads has stymied my runs this week. I don’t currently belong to a gym, so there’s no indoor running option…there are indoor workout options of course, but I can’t run around the house. I hope after today gets into the 40’s the sidewalks will be better, so I think I’ll make up today’s planned run on Friday morning. Louie and I are running another 5K two weekends from now…hopefully it isn’t icy then. I know running regularly has also been helping my happiness, along with allowing myself time to read. I remind myself that I’m living my life, right now, and I should do the things I enjoy