The unseasonal January warm spell melted all the ice and snow buildups around the yard and left stretches of shallow standing water on top of the partially frozen ground. The ducks were ecstatic, sounding like a fleet of tiny motorboats as the worked the area over. The chickens were out in the mud, too, though with markedly less enthusiasm than the ducks.

Knock on wood, the weather this winter has been mercurial, but thus far Duncan's managed to avoid traveling in the ice storms that have been a part of the wild weather mix. Just after we had the meltdown, the temperature flipped overnight and I woke up to a winter wonderland again the next morning. I'll take snow over ice any day of the week, though. Much better traction for driving and walking.

Speaking of walking, my sprained ankle is still on the mend. I'm still working to strike the right balance between rest and movement. My sons are still tackling the heavier chores, but I definitely don't like the way my body stiffens up if I rest too much. (You rest, you rust.) I started to slowly work on range of movement exercises this week, but had to ease up to allow more time to heal. It's a process.

Hubs was frowning at our solar electric system numbers this week, and starting to wonder if something could have possibly gotten knocked loose during recent ice and wind storms. I reminded him that more often than not recently, the sky has been gray - with a side of gray, and some clouds, and more gray. Plus, there was snow and ice buildup on the top panels during the bitter cold that was not safe to remove at that time. Plus, these are some of the shortest days of the year with the lowest sun angles.

Sure enough, when the sun finally poked out for a while this weekend, the system started humming, and energy production was back up to more normal levels. Little to no sun periods like this are why we are still grid connected. Our solar electric system is sized to cover our load, but the sun doesn't always shine when you need it, and batteries only go so far. It's the nature of the beast.

I watched video recently that talked about how our brain processes activities differently when they are routine or new, and how it impacts our perception of time.

The presenter pointed out that when experiences are new, and this engages a certain part of the brain (the hippocampus). It records richer, more detailed memories. Because those memories are dense with detail, they take up more mental space in hindsight — which makes time feel longer when we look back on it.

As we get older, often our lives become a series of routines, which are routed through another part of the brain (the basal ganglia) - and all lumped together. Less detail is recorded, because nothing new needs to be learned. When we look back, those days blur together — making time feel like it sped up.

Children experience far more novelty, so their hippocampus is constantly engaged. → Time feels expansive, full, and slow.

Adults often move through established routines on autopilot. → Fewer distinct memory markers = the feeling that weeks, months, and years fly by.

So how do we mentally help "slow down time" and savor the moment - without running off to Tahiti or spending a ton of money?

This Week’s Resilience & Abundance Boost: Wake Up the Hippocampus

• Change one small routine. Take a different walking route, switch up the order of morning tasks, or try a new recipe with familiar ingredients.
• Learn something hands-on. Identify a bird, study a plant, trace how a household system works, or learn a new stretch or movement.
• Pay close attention to one ordinary thing. Notice textures, sounds, smells, or subtle changes — the way ducks move through water, or how light shifts across a room.
• Do something slightly uncomfortable (but safe). Cold air on your face, balancing exercises, or working a different muscle group signals the brain that this moment matters.
• Name what’s new. At the end of the day, jot down one thing that was different — even a tiny shift counts.

A little curiosity and intention can turn routine days into ones that feel fuller, slower, and more memorable.

All our best to you and yours,

Laurie (and August IV, August V, and Duncan)

This week's featured articles...

It's all about those eggs... The older chicken ladies are finally finished with their molts and rejoining the younger hens in laying, and it won't be long before the duck hens join in, too, so I figured it was a good time to update our boiled egg cooking guides.

The original article about how to boil an egg was one of the oldest on the site, dating back to 2011. I added a soft-boiled egg cooking guide, and one for hard cooking eggs in the Instant Pot.

If you have fruit rolling around in the freezer that needs to be used up, or maybe a local orchard that is clearing out the previous year's harvest, a batch of homemade fruit leather is a good way to use up fruit that's less than picture perfect. You can skip the added colors and sugars of commercial fruit snacks, and save money, too.

Lots of folks have been down for the count lately with various sort of bugs, so I figured it was a good time to share this flu prevention and treatment article.

What I'm reading: Fascia, Fluid, and Forks​