What’s Saving Me Right Now- 2019 Edition

Last year I joined Anne Bogel at the Modern Mrs. Darcy and shared what’s been saving me lately – a post dedicated to the little things that help me get through the cold and dark winter. Because it’s February 1st, it’s time to do it again!

This winter has been a strange one – it hasn’t been consistently cold or snowy, but when it’s been cold it has been very cold. And it snowed a lot earlier in the season, but has been a bit slower as winter wore on. However, I am so ready for spring – tulips and daffodils and pussy willows and crocuses – please come visit me! Until then, here’s what I’ve been leaning on to get me through.

---

My husband got me an electric kettle for Christmas! He went with the Nostalgia Kettle in Aqua and could not have made a better choice. I’ve used it nearly every day. Of course, I had a stovetop kettle that worked perfectly fine, which is the main reason I hadn’t just bought an electric one already. But that’s the point of gifts right? To let someone get you something that you’d feel guilty buying on your own? I think so. There’s nothing better than filling up the kettle, flipping a switch, and knowing that you won’t burn down the house when you walk away and forget about it.

---

Around Christmas, I started a sourdough starter. I won’t show you a picture of it because it’s not pretty, but I named her Patience and I just love her. Being able to bake nearly daily has been awesome – sourdough biscuits, sourdough bread, sourdough pancakes… the list goes on and on. It’s also great to have so many goodies to eat while drinking tea made with water from my new kettle!

---

My public library has been a saving grace. What’s better than a giant stack of library books just calling your name? That is, as long as it doesn’t give you an anxiety attack first. I’ve gone in nearly weekly for the last couple of months and depend heavily on borrowing Kindle books as well.

In the stack of books pictured here, I must have saved $100. Money is tight for almost everyone and it’s so great to know that we can all still access almost any book that we want to read when we have great relationships with our librarians.

---

These three wacky kiddos are just the best. Sometimes I want to scream and shout. To skip town for the weekend. To curl up into a ball and disappear. But mostly, they make me want to be a better person. To be kind and gentle. and to greet stress and aggravation with a softness.

---

How about you? How do you get through these doldrums of winter??