It’s the first day of spring! Hooray! And it feels nothing like spring and we’re under a winter storm watch for tomorrow and Thursday. Booo! Here’s what’s going on with me, currently.

Trying: To look my best all the time because that’s the life of a candidate. And feeling jealous of all the male politicians out there who don’t have this added to the list of things that they have to do.

Reading: Hum If You Don’t Know the Words. It’s excellent but my reading time is so limited right know that I’m having a hard time finishing it.

Loving: Fridays with Jack!

Watching: We caught up with the latest season of Grace & Frankie and loved it. We’ve only watched 2 episodes of Stranger Things and it just hasn’t grabbed me yet. And we haven’t watched any episodes of Homeland yet.

Sleeping: Better since I started using the essential oil blend of coconut oil, lavender and cedar wood we made on Sunday. Plus it smells great!

Eating: Healthier as much as possible. I’m really committed to bringing lunch from home and have been for about 6 months. It has saved me money and it tastes better and only takes a bit of planning on my part. Also, lots of hard boiled eggs. They are so easy to make in the Instant Pot and the perfect little low cal protein filled snack.

Drinking: More and more tea. I love licorice tea and also ginger tea. Yogi tea has great inspirational quotes on the tags, too.

Listening: In the car, podcasts, including Happier in Hollywood, This American Life, All the Books, and Radiolab. At home, Spotify. I love the Daily Mixes, Release Radar and Time Capsule playlists.

Planning: Easter Dinner. It will be a nice break from the campaign stuff and I’m looking forward to a relaxing day with family and friends.

Hosting: A Meet & Greet tonight at the public library. It’s open to everyone and if you’re local I hope you’ll come.

Hoping: The spring weather arrives soon!

Ready for a brain dump? Let’s go.

• I read yesterday that Thanksgiving Eve is the biggest reading day of the year. Seriously? Who has time to read on this day? Men, I bet. And then I thought, well, it’s probably connected to the traveling that happens. If you’re in a car or a bus or plane I guess you might be reading.
• Speaking of Thanksgiving travel, the traffic people on the news are as pumped about these reports as the weather people are about a gigantic storm. C’mon, people. It’s traffic and it’s not that exciting and certainly doesn’t warrant extended coverage.
• We’ve reinstated a weekly dinner night with the kids. This was something we did when Patrick was younger but we’d gotten out of the habit in recent years. Now that we have Jackie we’ve started this up again on Tuesday nights. Can I tell you, though? I can’t believe I used to cook dinner for 6 every night and I’m definitely out of practice when it comes to feeding a small crowd on a week night. So far I’ve made chicken and rice, baked ziti, white bean chicken chili, American chop suey, and roast beef. Really, though, it’s not about the food, it’s about gathering around the table and visiting and, (if I’m being completely honest) holding that sweet little baby so that his mama can get a hot meal.
• Speaking of Jackie, I’m using him as leverage to convince Dale that we should get an artificial tree. That might not make sense to you but here’s my approach: “Dale! Look at how Jackie loves to look at the twinkle lights! Just think how he’s going to love the tree! Oh, but how sad that he won’t get to really enjoy the tree more than a couple of times since we put it up so late. That’s a shame, really, because look at his little eyes taking this all in. Hey! If we got an artificial tree we could put it up right away.” Apparently this genius approach has worked because I am now researching artificial trees. Got tips? Share them for me, would you? Because this is overwhelming.
• That’s all I’ve got for today. Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

 

November 1st is here, my friends! How about a catch up post on the things going on for me right now?

Planning: NaBloPoMo posts and topics. It starts today and I’ve been participating since 2010 and I see no reason to stop now. Join me!

Writing: A speech I have to give this Friday night. Dale’s family is being honored by a local scholarship group and somehow I wound up being their choice for talking to the crowd. I don’t necessarily mind doing it but I want to get it just.right.

Cooking: Lots of things in the Instant Pot. It’s so awesome for cooking chicken breasts to us in recipes, for hardboiled eggs, for rice, and so much more. I use it several times every week.

Selling: LipSense and ShadowSense and more. Let me know if you want to try any of it, this stuff is a game changer.

Watching: Grey’s Anatomy, This Is US & Outlander and loving them all. I didn’t see that exit on Grey’s last week coming and I’m a bit bummed about it, honestly.

Knitting: Socks for Hannah. I’m in the home stretch and need to get these finished so I can plan some fun knitting for a road trip we have coming up.

Reading: See What I Have Done. I started last night at bedtime and literally fell asleep after 1 page.

Enjoying: Heat in the morning. We haven’t had a fire in the woodstove yet (although I suspect it will be soon) but our thermostat is programmed to automatically come on when the temperature in the house goes below 60° and I’m glad. I see no point in participating in heat wars and refusing to be comfortable to save a couple of bucks.

Wondering: Why someone thinks Facebook is the place to ask when power is coming back. Yes, it’s inconvenient when the power goes out and I don’t like it either. But if you can get to Facebook then you can get to the electric company website and you can check there. Also, stop complaining and be glad you aren’t in Puerto Rico.

Smiling: At all the Halloween photos on Facebook because this is the upside of Facebook. I love seeing the progression of costumes from super cute to super scary as the kids grow up.

Speaking: Of Halloween photos, here’s ours.

If we do 3 Things on Thursday can we still do other Things on Tuesday? I hope so because that’s what I’m doing today.

Mmmmkay?

I signed up for Michelle’s Just Five Things and it started yesterday. The idea is that you write a list of 5 things 3 times every day. Yesterday’s prompt was gratitude and I found it really cool to stop and think about what happened throughout the day that made me feel grateful. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes for the next two weeks.

Yesterday was also National Cheeseburger Day. I indulged in a delicious cheeseburger at our local 99. It was bomb.

I finished the caterpillar cocoon over the weekend and I’m now working on the hat. The baby is due to appear on 10/4 and I’m just wondering how many more things I can knit for him before then.

I’m trying really hard to plan lunches ahead because so many times I find myself having to get take out at lunch time. This is not good for my wallet or my health so I’m working on it. Yesterday I got up early and made a sausage and rice dish in the Instant Pot and then packaged it up for 3 lunches this week. That’s a good start but I don’t want to eat the same thing for 3 days in a row so I need other ideas. Feel free to weigh in on what works for you!

The drawing class that I signed up for over the same is open for fall sign ups now. I can’t say enough how awesome this has been for me. I’ve gotten behind a bit on the lessons but I’m planning on catching up and I love what I’ve learned so far. If you’re interested you can click here to get more information and to sign up.

Today marks 18 years since I started working for the Town of Carver. It’s a terrific gig and I love my job, both as Library Director and Council on Aging Director. A lot has changed in 18 years (Hannah was 7 when I started working there!) and I’m so grateful to work in a beautiful setting with a fabulous staff.

And that’s all I’ve got for this Tuesday!

It’s a mixed bag of things around here so you’re getting a mixed bag of a blog post. Hmmm. Let’s see . . .

• I left out this picture of the chicken wings I made over the weekend so that I could share it with you today and not have it mixed in with other weekend type things. They were delicious – sticky and slightly sweet and a little bit crispy. The recipe is from Richard’s Garlic Salt and you can find it here.
• My online drawing class is really awesome. I’m not always sure I’m making progress but Virginia Freyermuth is such an awesome teacher (and she’s married to Richard of Richard’s Garlic Salt, FYI) that even when I think I’m doing everything wrong she reminds me that it’s art and it’s mine and mine alone and there is no wrong or right.
• Did you watch Game of Thrones Sunday night? That opening scene was the bomb! I was bummed that Daenerys didn’t show up until the very end, though, since she’s my favorite. I will admit that I am often confused with who is who and which plot point is which but Dale is pretty good at keeping track and he fills me in when I’m lost.
• Speaking of TV, we are completely behind on House of Cards. Summer is in full swing and we’re spending many of our evenings outside on the deck or socializing with friends and I just can’t bring myself to go inside and watch TV. It’ll still be there when the weather turns.
• I can’t believe it’s past the middle of July and I haven’t been swimming yet this summer. It has rained every Friday we’ve had the opportunity to go to the beach like it’s a great conspiracy. I think we will rectify it this weekend, though, with a trip to the lake with Jo-Ann and Shawn.
• I finally caved and bought an Echo from Amazon. I have been waiting (and waiting!) for Sonos and Amazon to work together so that the Echo can play music on the Sonos speakers because I was worried that if I bought one now I’d need to buy a newer one for that to work. I’m pretty sure that if (when?) it does finally happen it will just be a software upgrade so I went ahead and took the plunge. And since then I’ve added an Echo dot and 5 voice controlled lightbulbs and 3 voice controlled outlets and it’s all “Alexa this” and “Alexa that” and my house all the time. It reminds me of that movie Smart House that Hannah loved so much when she was a kid and it cracks me right up.
• I got another Bingo this week. Yay!

And that’s all the random that’s fit for sharing.