Ahhhh yes! Winter!

Remember those days? We did this. I loved it! :) 

We had a really warm winter until about 2 weeks ago. And then it was like someone flipped a switch. So now, instead of mud we do, indeed, have ice. And snow. And very cold temps.
And in some places, there's been lots of wind. Which is why I've been alone this whole week. Sometimes when you go make a short visit to your parents you end up getting 'wintered' in there. N was supposed to be there for a couple days but they've had so much wind that they can't keep the roads open and no bus has been by in days. (Or hadn't been.)
Yesterday, I made a pot of this (sort of) potato soup- only there's not much in the recipe that we actually can get here- like canned soup (which isn't good for you anyway, right?)- boiled chicken on the bones and used the broth and milk and white sauce for the soup and the broth in the recipe; no hash browns- used potatoes; no cream cheese- used a local sort of same thing; no cheddar cheese- used regular cheese; no bacon bits- used fried, diced ham. So- um, I guess that's the whole ingredient list. The thing is, while it needs some tweaking (not thick enough, needs more pepper in the actual cooking), it's pretty good was very easy to make and didn't take long. One thing living here does is break your dependence on processed foods... there just aren't many.
And then, when I needed a break in the evening, I went back to the kitchen and made these fun little donut-y things- also found here at PW. Ok- they need to be eaten while they're hot. But they sure are yummy! And kind of fun. I saw them on someone's page- don't remember whose- but Thanks, Whoever you are!
And I found this in my newsfeed- a fun first-lines-of-various-novels quiz.

And if you've been around Facebook, you maybe know that my parents got hung up in the Atlanta Snow Jam. Let me tell you- from across the ocean, it suddenly felt like they were tiny, helpless children caught up in a mad crush of danger. Ok, I'm sure it wasn't quite like that. We were all really really glad when some very nice people helped get them into a hotel room for Night #2 in the Snow Jam. (All the time they were holed up in that Waffle House, I was nourishing this hope that they were in a booth where they could sort of fall over sideways and catch a nap...which turns out to not have been the case.)

This is for Mom who had these nervous kids that kept calling and texting to make sure they were still frost-bite free and alive and not starving...every time she'd just managed to doze off again. See when we were little, we kept her up with our incessant crying (I suppose); now that we're not little, we keep her awake with our incessant worrying. ;)