November cookie exchange

Still waiting for it to get truly cold, it rained today so there's mud everywhere which is horrid. It's been hard to get the motivation required to get Christmas off the ground this year and I am sure that's weather related.
Tomorrow I am at a cookie exchange which was a great idea three weeks ago when I signed up for it, not so great this morning. The prospect of whipping up 6 dozen cookies broke me out in a cold sweat, but Pinterest prevailed and today I discovered the beauty of cake mix and Kool whip and peppermint chocolate chips. Voila I have managed 6 different cookies and impressed myself actually.
I had some help to be honest, Lily hung around and got involved which turned it into a great afternoon.

M&M and confetti cookies

 Peppermint and white chocolate bark

Lemon crinkle cookies

My little sous chef

Oh and I discovered how incredibly easy it is to make fudge too - go me!

And then I went to the barn and hung out with the cuddliest horse on the planet:

Here's one from September with his pal Tommy, they are a funny pair:

I know I will regret this statement come mid February - but here goes - "bring on the snow!", it looks all kinds of wrong to have a lit snowman on the lawn when its still green. There its out in the Universe now!!!

my trip to England

Its raining outside - buckets! But its warm, at 12C I think its one of the warmest November 13th I have seen since moving to this spot on the planet.
I feel thankful that I have a window at work, the sound of the rain against the glass is soothing (although frankly it can stop by the time I need to leave work, please and thankyou)

So I had a week in England recently and it was pretty nice actually.
It was warm.
People know how to drive and I mean they know. I zipped around in a Kia Piccanto and navigated narrow streets and congestion pretty expertly if I say so myself. This is entirely due to the way English drivers conduct themselves and also due to my traffic jam attitude of "lets bypass the time of sitting here by gazing around at my surroundings" - namely the English countryside outside of Arundel - its beautiful there. (And I really miss stiles and footpaths and I was stuck right next to one - happy days).

I took in (in awe) the 89p price for 2 litres of milk at Asda (how are farmers feeding their cows?) and the 3 pounds for a bottle of wine - 3 pounds!!!
And it wasnt any old wine either, this is wine I would happily drink and did!
I discovered too that I had forgotten the depths of English bath tubs differ to Canadian ones. I nearly broke my leg stepping down way further than I had expected when getting out and taking a slide across the floor.

I ate way too much chocolate and spent way too much time getting lost. It was a case of "yes I can drive to Lingfield, absolutely" and then the realization that I can no longer remember which village is which and there is some distance between Lingfield, Cuckfield, Ditchling and Faygate. I had to resort to GPS and then I couldnt easily recall the best and fastest routes. I was a true tourist in my home country.

So back to here in Nova Scotia. Its raining, its warm, its windy and I am wondering if having winter tires put on in October (new ones too) was the smartest choice.

Halloween and my Fitness pal - yes they dont have to be mutually exclusive....

So I have failed dismally at really enjoying Halloween at its finest. I didn’t make toffee apples, I didn’t dress up (walking around in my Wonder Woman onsie under my winter jacket doesn’t count when you have short blonde hair!) I didn’t make my children amazing outfits and I didn’t manage to watch a Halloween horror movie – AT ALL!

I have come to the realization that my horror movie options are a tad limited. I cant do these new fangled ones with “jump scenes”, I can’t do chase, I cant do gore, I can barely do paranormal and that’s limited to pots and pans moving around on their own and absolutely does not include scenes of people twisted into abnormal grotesque shapes as they fight off some demon. I cant watch anything that suggests that 3am is a dangerous time to suddenly and for no reason wake up at night…

I decided to watch The Conjuring as it had almost 5 stars but sensibly opted to check out the trailer on you tube first. I didn’t make it through. Waaay too freaky for me.

So with a lack of easy to watch Halloween horrors on Netflix I gave up. Nothing on there that I can deal with. No Poltergeist, no original Amityville (the new one is hideous), no Scream, no Jeepers creepers, no Stephen King anywhere at all….

Girls were happy though, they came home with an abundance of sugar and fat laden treats that now mock me because I am not allowed them. I have decided to have a “good” November so that I can enjoy December (in a conservative eating fashion admittedly but still EAT without too much guilt tacked on)

We are now on November 3^rd. 3 days in and I am updating my Fitness Pal religiously and climbing stairs at work like theres no tomorrow. I am embracing the 10 minute brisk walk from where my car is parked to the office and back (so 4 lots of that trip each day – get in!) and trying to ignore my inner voice that pipes up that its easy NOW of course as its not actually what one would call “cold” yet. I gleefully complete each day on that bit of software and its promised me each day so far that “if every day were like this you would lose like 10 pounds in 4 weeks” Now this all sounds good but I have in fact seen this before and I think it lies frankly to keep you going. Still that completion each day is still something to look forward to.

Watch this space... I am hoping to be able to report in at the end of this month that this time it told the truth.