After just over a week, we finally got our new furnace installed yesterday.  It was not a moment too soon, as we’d weathered two sub-freezing nights and my kerosene heater was starting to act up a bit.  We ended up deciding to have B’s car repaired rather than try and purchase a new one, as we realized that having the furnace repaired and hosting my visiting parents and sister was too much to deal with while also trying to purchase a car.  In general, I think having cars repaired is usually a better financial decision than buying a new one anyway.  We’ll probably get a new vehicle in the next two years.  We test-drove a Toyota Camry and Rav-4 and liked both of them, but not having visitors and a broken furnace to deal with would allow us to consider more options, like several different brands of vehicles as well as used cars.  Almost my parents’ entire visit actually took place without a working furnace, but it was so much better than being without power because we could use our electric space heater, and of course, we had light.  Still, it was a nice dry run and my kerosene heater performed admirably overall.

Having a child eats up much of your spare time.  Having a broken heater and car and visitors eats up any shreds of spare time that might remain.  It is so nice to have the heater and car mostly taken care of.  (The car should be fixed Monday.)  I really value having time to just chill out and watch Netflix, sew or knit or really just stare at the wall.

Yesterday, I tried cooking with L for the first time.  We made a cranberry-apple pie.  Overall, it went exceedingly well.  L was very good at dumping things into bowls and stirring things, and there were no major spills and no on got burned.