We had a lovely Valentine's Day. It's always a little extra special for us since it is also the anniversary of our first date! This year, we went for a hike:

In December, we said we were going to start hiking very Saturday to get ready for the Old Man of Storr, and this is the first weekend it didn't snow since then! This hike was about the same distance as the Old Man, but only about a quarter of the elevation.

Brad also made us a fabulous steak dinner complete with two sauces.

I also finished a very seasonally appropriate book six this weekend:

 It is just lovely fluff and I thoroughly enjoyed every page!

Book 5

Book 5 was a professional development book:

 Published in 2015, it's a seminal work in the higher ed field. I have read a million things that cite it, so I decided I should probably actually read it.

Here is the problem. It is not ground breaking. I think most people would agree with the arguments and paths forward in it. I'm super annoyed, though. This was published 11 years ago and it still totally applies. Sigh. Onward...

Valentine's Fun

I may work at a college, but the teacher in me runs deep, and sometimes I just need a little of my K-12 days back in my life. Holidays seems to make that desire stronger. Enter some extra time because of snow and ta-da:

 You can't tell in the picture, but each of those hearts has the name of a licensure student. It's been fun to watch students looks for their heart--totally worth the time it took to make them all.

Snow Days and Book 4

I fear Evan may never return to school. He was out all last week because if the ice storm, and Saturday we got another almost five inches of snow:

We very much enjoyed snuggling in with a fire and watching it snow, and Bella is living her best husky life:

I also finished book four:

This is our next book club read. It was an interesting story, but it was not particularly well-written, and I wish it had ended a chapter sooner. 

 

Book 3

I finished book three for the year:

This was a really interesting read that looked at da Vinci's biography through his habits of mind and the daily practices he used to stay creative. I have been fascinated by him for a while, and this provided a lot more insight into his journals and process rather than just his work. Highly recommend!

I am hoping for some extra reading time in the next few days. We have a winter storm headed our way, and if it hits the way it looks we will be home for a while. Fingers crossed we don't lose power and just have a cozy few days.

 

What a Season

We finished the regular wrestling season last night. I honestly don't know what his overall record is, but he finished the season as the 144 starter and we saw a lot of this:

Thankfully, his worst injury was some gnarly mat burn:

And he finished his regular season with a pin last night:

And this team, they are Conference Champs:

More importantly, they are the best group of guys. I have loved watching them cheer for each other, grow together, and just generally be hysterical. 

I still have to look away from the mat occasionally, but I love being there to watch Evan do his thing, and I'm a little sad we only have one more year of these shenanigans.

 

BINGO

Last year, instead of resolutions Issa proposed we make New Year's BINGO boards. Instead of one big thing, we put a goal in each square. Over the course of the year, you put a star in the box when you meet that goal. I ended up with two bingos last year:

None of us imagined that we would be able to check every box, but it was fun to set the goals and then watch the progress over the year. This year, we made boards again. Some of the things that didn't get accomplished last year moved over. Some goals were just released. It's good.

This morning, I was able to put another tally on my board. One of my columns is a series of reading goals, and I finished book two this morning:

This is a professional development book that our campus is reading together. I'll be very interested to see where the discussion takes us tomorrow!