Smitten with the Mitten

...aka January Goals.  The first couple weeks of January were frigid, and I was really feeling the inactivity.  So the second half of January brought some hard labor outdoors - regardless of temperature!  The biggest accomplishment?  A snow sculpture!  A local photographer (Phil Stagg) captured this shot before we hard started doing any carving.

Here's the middle stages - we started carving, but didn't have a ladder.  It's Michigan!  We're participating in the NASF Snow Sculpture contest.  Check out our entry in the park, right by the parking lot across the street from the Consumer's building in Cadillac. :)

So let's get into it.

• Get back on track with healthy eating and working out.  I did this!  Maybe not as healthy as I was last November, but I've been getting my workouts in, either weightlifting or outdoor (!) activities.
• Breakfast recipes!  Check 'em out:  homemade protein bars and hashbrown quiche.
• Birthday!  Pics below.  We went to Short's Brewery and enjoyed some music by The Accidentals.  Check out both - highly recommended!
• Go through my closet and get rid of clothes I don’t wear anymore.  Well...this one is still on the list.  Oops.
•  Make a photobook.  I am 95% done with it.  95%!  So that's close.  I just got to the point where I needed to take a break from it and come back with a fresh perspective.

Look!  It's a crappy photo of the The Accidentals!  And my brother's doppelganger.

It occurs to me that I need to pick some goals for February.  Truth be told, I am EXHAUSTED from some long days at work + working on snow sculpture.  So these are going to be non-goals.

• Get the photobook ordered.  Only 5% to go.
• Go through my clothing and get rid of the stuff I don't wear.  Yeah, it's still on the list.  
• Win first place with our snow sculpture.  The competition's pretty weak at this point so I'm getting a little arrogant.
• Bottle the peach wine.
• Make a nice warming soup to survive the revenge of the polar vortex.

So I hardly took any photos in December, and I made sure to take extra this month.  So prepare to be bombarded, starting with my birthday flight at Short's.

A big thing we did this month was going snowshoeing with some friends!  It's always hard to convince myself to go outside when temps are this low, but it was a nice sunny day and by the end of the walk I was even shedding some layers!

We left some cool snowshoe prints, and even scared up a few deer (they are dead center in the photo below - very small and far away though).

And...whatever, one more snowshoeing photo - one with actual people!

Here's an action shot from our snow sculpture.  Just so you have an inkling of how much work it is.

Okay, I think that's all I've got.  Sorry about all the cellphone shots, I actually have some good ones on my camera but I have been so busy trying to keep warm that I haven't had time to get photos from my camera.  Happy Friday!  (for more on the mitten, click here)