Another month gone in the endless winter (seriously, is it spring yet?) so it’s time for another update.  Despite the biting cold and the never-ending ice and snow, we’re doing our best to stay as upbeat as possible around here.  That means getting out of the house, because as much as I like our home, I cannot handle being trapped inside for months on end.  We’ve been getting out for an indoor activity or two on the weekends if possible, and we even made it out for a hike at the end of February!  Hoping to get one more hike in before the end of winter and the arrival of Nugget (who is due on the first day of spring, but let’s be real, it’ll still be winter around here when he makes his entrance, even if the calendar says otherwise).  Here’s what we’ve been up to (in progress items are bolded, and completed items are bolded and struck through):

• Clean out and decorate Nugget’s nursery!  In progress – hubby and I (but mostly hubby) cleared out the nursery to get it ready for paint and furniture.  As you know, we had a major setback when Land of Nod informed us (prompted by a call from me, and after they’d already charged us for the furniture we ordered) that they weren’t actually planning to deliver the furniture we’d paid for.  Fail.  We scrambled to place an order with Pottery Barn Kids, and the dresser and upholstered rocker arrived on Monday (the nightstand preceded them by a couple of weeks).  We’ve also consulted with our painter and hope to have paint on the walls and a new closet door next week.  More on this to come (with pictures!) but progress is at last being made.  And not a minute too soon, because I’m 38 weeks pregnant today.
• Hike at Reinstein Woods – the first of our seasonal hikes for 2015.  Done!  We really enjoyed our January visit to Reinstein Woods and I’m looking forward to seeing the place this spring.
• Have friends over for dinner.  Done!  Zan and Paul joined us for a football-watching, Peanut-chasing, nacho-and-chili-eating, and cookie-baking evening back in December.  Zan assures me that the evening totally counts even though she brought the chili.  We had a ball, and we’re so grateful to have found such wonderful friends here in Buffalo.  (So funny that we all moved from DC within a month of each other.)
• Build a snowman with Peanut.
• Eat a lot of citrus.  In progress, and will be until citrus is out of season!  I love pretty much all citrus fruits and can’t get enough.
• Knit a baby blanket for Nugget and a pair of cozy socks for me.
• Cook up a freezer full of meals for the first few sleep-deprived newborn weeks.  Working on this, and my freezer is gradually getting more and more full!  This week I contributed a chicken noodle casserole, the weekend before I made a batch of eighteen turkey meatballs, and this weekend I’m planning to cook up and freeze some lentil soup.  I’m trying to add at least one dish every weekend, and I may even try to make some big batch dinners during the week.
• Go cross-country skiing, pulling Peanut along on her red sled.
• Buy, assemble, and organize shelves for Peanut’s playroom.
• Visit the Botanical Gardens so Peanut can hang with her besties in the koi pond.  We made it to the Botanical Gardens a few weeks ago and it was just as warm and beautiful as I remembered from last winter.  I can’t get enough of that place and I think we’ll be making a return visit very soon.
• Bake an olive oil citrus cake.
• Plan a garden to plant with Peanut this spring.  The garden planning is underway!  I’ve decided to do planters on the pool deck rather than a big in-ground garden this year, and to buy plants when the weather is warmer rather than starting seeds.  In future years we’ll be more ambitious, but I’m trying to set myself up for success and give Peanut a good experience.  We’re definitely going to do herbs and tomatoes, and I’m thinking about a few bean and strawberry plants too.
• Get my books unpacked, finally.  In progress – I’m gradually filling up my shelves.  I’ve made it through most of my book boxes at this point but have just been sticking books in any empty space I find.  The next step will be to organize them – one more thing to do before Nugget’s arrival, hopefully.
• Take a winter hike at Knox Farm in East Aurora.  Done!  The weather finally warmed up enough for us to get outside for an hour or so, and we had a lovely morning breathing in the fresh air at Knox Farm.  Hubby rocked his Tubbs snowshoes (a Christmas gift) and loved having them.  I don’t have a pair, and I didn’t rent, so the hike was a bit more strenuous for me!  But I had a great time nonetheless.
• Have a date night with hubby – we’re long overdue for one, and they’re going to be even harder to come by with two kids.  Done!  My parents kindly agreed to babysit over Christmas, and hubby and I had dinner out and caught the third Hobbit movie.  My mother-in-law has offered to watch Peanut for an evening to let us get in one more night out before we add another kid to the family, and we may take her up on that as well, although we’re currently having a hard time tearing ourselves away from Peanut as we know her time as an only child is almost up.  We’ll see…

Just a few more weeks left in winter… there’s no way I’ll get through this entire list, but I’m pretty impressed that we’ve been able to do as much as we have!  Between frigid temperatures, busy workloads for both of us, and third trimester fatigue for me, it’s an achievement just to get out of the house and make fun activities happen, so any little thing we manage to do on top of our regular responsibilities feels like a victory!

Did you make a winter list?  How’s it going?