Copper Country Living

Okay, so hate might be too strong a word, but I really don't like the practice of Black Friday. I'm not a monster, I like a good shopping deal, but I have issues with Black Friday in particular. For starters, it isn't just a single day anymore. Retailers (Walmart being by far the worst offender I've seen so far) have been advertising Black Friday sales since before Halloween. HALLOWEEN! Which is 2 months before Christmas! Are we even going to bother celebrating Thanksgiving?   Probably should just skip it, since that holiday doesn't net nearly enough profit for retailers. On that note, it's the commercialization of holidays that really grinds my gears. The moment Halloween sales begin to dwindle, they jump right to coaxing people into the store with all things Christmas season... it's just disgusting. None of the holidays, Halloween included, are meant to be about SHOPPING. Gift giving is meant to have meaning. Sure picking out something you g

Hubby and I have almost finished painting at the new ho use.  We've been living here a few weeks now, but it's starting to finally feel like ours and not just someone else's place we are squatting in. As I mentioned in my previous post about moving while pregnant , we bought our new family home from smokers- who were gross enough to smoke indoors. Which meant there was no removing the smoke from some things. After lots of cleaning (hello vinegar), throwing away of window treatments (they were ugly anyway), odor sealing primer, and fresh paint you can't tell there were once smokers here. And damn was I shocked at how much the smoke residue was stressing me out. I haven't always been such a neat freak. I used to spend a lot of time in places that reeked of cigarette smoke in college, and didn't think twice about it. But when I got pregnant, the reading material about foods I couldn't eat sent me into a spiral about all the poisons out there that we can

Winter is unavoidable here. Winter in the Copper Country starts in November and lasts until May. This means that no matter when you're due, if you're pregnant in the Upper Peninsula, you will at some point be pregnant in the winter. That means shoveling. Shoveling while growing a tiny human inside your body is a game changer when it comes to this particular winter task. Ideally you won't have to shovel while you're pregnant (here's where Hubby needs to do his best to help). Having someone else to shovel isn't always practical though, so sometimes it takes a little SISU** to get by. But let's start with the basics. In order to successfully and SAFELY pull off snow removal in our pregnant state- we must first be shoveling by the rules everyone should follow. *Disclaimer: Every pregnancy is different. Consult your doctor regarding what is best for you as an individual.* **SISU is a Finnish word. It kind of means "perseverance" but it

I have a strange appreciation for this time of year. Starting in September, Hubby goes out to his camp almost every day. It's about a 15 min drive from our house, maybe a little longer now that we've moved, and it's where he's been preparing and watching for his prized deer to kill. This year has been a quiet one, and he hasn't seen many. On October 1st, bow season started, and I've become what locals jokingly call a "deer hunting widow". This year I've been much less a widow than last fall, since we just finished moving, but now that we've finished that project (thank heaven) he's started disappearing at dawn and dusk, or over night on the weekends. Should deer hunting ever make me an actual widow I'd be devastated, but I actually really like this time of year. I enjoy having the house all to myself, being able to watch whatever I want on TV, get cleaning projects done uninterrupted, and in general have alone time. I love my