You know what’s happening this Sunday night? The Oscars! And I’m pretty sure you all know how much I love the movies and the Academy Awards since I gush about it every year around this time. As is our tradition, Dale and I have seen all of the Best Picture nominees as well as a majority of the Best Actor/Actress and Best Supporting Actor/Actress. Today I’m going to break down these three categories. For Best Picture I am sharing the movies in order of my most to least favorite. And for the Actor/Actress and Supporting Actor/Actress I’m sharing who I think should win but this one is quite subjective since I haven’t seen all of the performances in these categories. Please note – these are not predictions – just a list of my personal favorites.

Best Picture

• Green Book
• A Star is Born
• BlacKkKlansman
• Vice
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• The Favourite
• Black Panther
• Roma

Best Actor/Actress

• Lady Gaga
• Rami Malek

Best Supporting Actor/Actress

• Rachel Weisz
• Mahershala Ali

We’ll find out on Sunday night how it all plays out. It should be an interesting event without a host . . . I’m just hoping for great fashion and fun night of television.

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Let’s get right to business this week, shall we? I’ve got three things making me happy and I’m excited to share them with you.

Thing 1: It’s Valentine’s Day and that means I’ll be making cream puffs. It’s a family tradition that you can read about here. And also, hooray for Valentine’s Day! It’s a day to celebrate love . . . all kinds and any kinds of love. And by that I mean romantic love, of course, but also the love between friends, the love of a parent and child, the love of a pet. All I’m saying is love is love and it’s a day to celebrate that.

Thing 2: Vacation! That’s right, next week is February school vacation week around here and that means Dale and I are off on an adventure. I’m calling it The Off-Season East-West Tour of Massachusetts. Why a tour of Massachusetts, you ask? Because I don’t like the idea of flying in February. Listen, I’m mature enough to know that I’m immature enough to not handle the cancellation of a flight to somewhere warm. Plus, I want a new dining room floor more than I want a tropical vacation right now. So, we’re going on a mini road trip for part of next week, revisiting some places and also going to new places we’ve always meant to visit. Sometimes it’s fun to be a tourist in your own backyard.

Thing 3: A new car! We traded in Dale’s aging Forrester and got me a brand new Outback. It’s black with black interior (which is what I actually wanted 3 years ago when I leased my current Outback but they made me such a deal on the red one I couldn’t pass it up.) and her name is Veronica . . . as in Veronica Lodge. She’s sharp and sexy (well, as sexy as a little glorified station wagon can be) and loaded with lots of bells and whistles. I think our road trip next week will be a fantastic opportunity to get to know her. And yes, I know you want photos but it was dark when we picked her up last night. They are coming, I promise.

And those are 3 things making me happy today. I hope you’re having a terrific Thursday and I wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day! If you wrote a post for today I hope you’ll include your link below.

You know what term gets thrown around a lot? Self care. It seems like I hear it all the time lately and I’m glad because it’s important to take care of yourself. Certainly no one else will do that one for you. I’ve been thinking about how I can demonstrate self care. I don’t want it to be about manicures or massages, I don’t want it to involve shopping or lunch with a friend, and I don’t want to count reading or knitting since those are things I do all the time anyway.

I want self care to be about . . . self improvement. I want it to be about thoughts and feelings and growth. I’ve grouped my ideas into actions and I’ve come up with . . . wait for it . . . three verbs to remind me of my goals and help me with my progress.

I vow to do more . . .

Listening. I will listen to myself and trust myself to do something that feels right and, by the same token, to not do something that feels off. I will listen to the people I love, Dale and the kids and Jackie (his little voice is so cute right now and he actually says Nana and Grandpa now). I will listen to my colleagues at work and on the Board of Selectmen. I will listen to people I agree with and people I don’t agree with, I will listen to people who have vastly different life experiences from me and I will use listening to improve my understanding.

Writing. I will write my story in a way that is authentic. I will write about things that have been difficult and things that have brought me joy. I will write to understand and reflect because writing helps me to process my feelings. I will write for you here on the blog and I will write privately in my journal. I will write long paragraphs and lists and quotes and nonsense. I will write to increase my creativity and I will write because all kinds of ideas are born and feelings are resolved when I put words on paper.

Pausing. I will pause to consider my options. I will pause to give myself time to think before I respond. I will pause to be still and be present. I will pause for gratitude and contemplation. I will pause and concentrate on breathing. I will pause to allow myself to rest, to think about possibilities and options, to make room for ideas and new concepts. I will pause to give myself time to consciously respond and by doing so I will access my intuition and increase my wisdom.

I’ve got to admit this post is pretty out there with the woo woo stuff. But guess what? That makes me love it all the more!

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Thank you all so much for your kind comments on my blog anniversary! I have to say, I’m feeling a little lame today since after 14 years of blogging I can’t come up with three things that go together for Three On Thursday. Or maybe it’s because of 14 years of blogging. Yep. That must be it. In any case, today is a random three-fer.

1. As part of my daily tasks at the library I catalog the magazines we receive. I enjoy doing this because I like to see the pretty covers and I like having the chance to flip through and see what the latest celebrity gossip is (People), the newest fashion (Vogue), and the best home ideas (Good Housekeeping). One thing that makes me absolutely crazy though? There is zero consistency among magazines as to where they put the publication information. And I need that information in order to enter the magazine into our software. Some magazines put it on the spine. Some put it on the cover. Some put it on the title page. Some put it on the back page. Some (I’m looking at you, Men’s Health) put it somewhere different every.single.month. Should I ever rule the world you can bet that consistent publication information for magazines is going to be at the top of the list of things I make happen.
2. I’m thinking about Super Bowl food. Our living room is small so we’re only having Doreen & Mark and Jo-Ann & Shawn over for the game which means I don’t need a ton of food but still . . . it’s the Super Bowl and the Pats are playing. (I know. You hate us.) The plan is to gather in the afternoon for pregame snacking and drinking so most of the food we eat will be before the game even starts. I’m thinking these chicken wings for snacking and then venison chili with corn bread for . . . dinner . . . except it’s not really dinner but you know what I mean. I’m open to suggestions, though, if you can think of something fab I should be making.
3. I am so happy that today is the last day of January because man alive but this month feels like it has lasted forever. You would think it would feel like it passed quickly since we had holidays and a long weekend but I think it’s just such a letdown after Christmas and it’s cold (super cold today although not as extreme for us as other places!) and I’m ready for spring. I know that’s ridiculous but it’s true. Actually, it’s not true at all. If I’m being completely honest I’d just as soon skip spring and go right to summer. You know those lovely June days that are warm and the evening seems to last forever? Yeah. Let’s do that now. No? Okay then I’ll just look forward to February. There’s vacation (I don’t know yet where we are going but it will be a short-ish local-ish getaway) and there’s Valentine’s Day and at the absolute end of the month I’m heading to New York City with Jo-Ann to see Hamilton. So yeah. Buh bye January and helllllllo February.

And that’s my random thoughts for this week. If you wrote a post for today please include your link below and thanks for joining in!

Remember the picture from last Friday? The one of Jackie in the swing? Well hold on to your hats because today I’ve got three (surprise, surprise . . . it’s Thursday) more.

I call this one: “Hey lady! Stop taking pictures and give me a push!”

And I call this one: Swinging is my favorite.

And finally, I call this one: what happened to that little baby.

When I say he brings us joy every day I’m not kidding.

If you wrote a post for today please include your link below. And thanks for joining in!