Monday Gratitude 5/9

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“It’s only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.” – Margaret Bonnano

Happy Monday friends! I’m starting to wonder if posting on Friday’s isn’t ideal anymore now that I work Tuesday through Thursday. Friday has turned into more of a catch up day while Monday is my blank slate, start fresh day for the week. Either way, I still hope to be on here at least once a week-ish for the time being! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

  1. Garden starters. I stopped in to my local Costco’s pop-up garden center last week and picked up some really healthy looking starter plants for my garden. Parsley, basil, mint, spinach, zucchini, and strawberries! I’ll get some tomato plants, peppers, and cucumbers to round out the veggies. And probably some sage and rosemary to finish off the herbs. I love having a garden to eat from in the summer!
  2. Yard work. This weekend I had free time that coincided with nice weather and I was finally able to get outside to do yard work! I grow wildflowers in our front yard instead of a lawn, but we have some persistent weeds that I have to keep on top of or they’ll take over. I have a few thoughts on new plantings in the front yard and then also some thoughts of how to make our backyard less of a dirt pile (thanks to the chickens) so this weekend was just the start to a hopefully fruitful summer of working outside.
  3. Hosting. This year Tyler and I invited my parents over for a Mother’s Day brunch and it was so fun to have them in here. We don’t usually have people over, but over the past year we’ve put a lot of work into making our house feel more like our home so it’s nice to invite people in on occasion. It’s far from perfect right now, but I’m proud of what we’ve done and it was fun to play hostess as well. I made a quiche that was served alongside fresh fruit and some pastries that Tyler picked up from a local bakery. We had a very pleasant little Sunday all together.
  4. Solitude. Tyler was away for work a couple nights last week and while I always miss him when he’s gone, I am usually grateful for some forced solitude. I am the definition of an introvert – being around people sucks my energy and I need to be alone to replenish. While I haven’t been physically around people much recently, I’ve been talking and interacting a lot more with my job. I don’t think I was realizing that it was still zapping my energy bit by bit. My evenings and weekends with Tyler and the occasional friend are pretty low key, but it’s not always the same as having dedicated solo time. So it was good to have last week and good to remember that I need it from time to time.
  5. Yoga. I decided to challenge myself to do a little bit of yoga every day this month. I’m going for consistency over quality or quantity, so just running through a few poses for 5-10 minutes. So far I’ve done it every day! I can feel some of my poses getting stronger and overall just feel a little more in tune with my body as well. Hoping it sticks as a habit even after the month is over.e

Friday Five Things 4/29

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“Let’s start by taking a smallish nap or two…” – Winnie the Pooh

I read something the other day to the effect of we should all be like Winnie the Pooh. He wore a crop top, ate his favorite food all the time, and loved himself fully. I also love that he valued rest. This week Tyler and I were supposed to be on a big family trip that was postponed to the fall, but we took a few days to go to the mountains and rest. And it was good.

  1. Reading. But like, doing nothing but reading. I did a lot of that this week while we were away and it was so nice to just sit and read for hours without feeling like I should be doing something else. It reminded me that I need to build that time back into my new routine.
  2. Spring skiing. Breckenridge got 4-6 inches of fresh snow when we were up in the mountains, so we popped over there Monday morning to ski for a few hours. The thing with spring skiing (post spring break timing) is…there usually aren’t very long lines so you can get more runs done quickly but the snow is usually wet and heavy so you get tired faster while skiing. This is especially true when you have several inches of fresh snow! So we did four runs in about two hours and called it a day because our legs were screaming! But it was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun!
  3. Fake it til you make it. Even though my new job is with a company I used to work for, the stuff I’m working on is pretty new to me. So I’ve been adopting a fake it til you make it attitude to get by. Not in the sense that I’m lying or hiding anything, but more in the sense of having confidence that I will figure it out. I think a big mistake that people make early on in new jobs is sitting quietly and waiting for something to be explained to them because they don’t want to look stupid asking questions. Ask the questions! People are often happy to give an answer if they know it. The good news is that I feel like I’m actually getting things figured out enough to add value!
  4. Escape chickens. Part of our fence blew down and when we got it propped back we thought it was enough to keep the chickens in. We were wrong! Tyler looked out the back window and two chickens were out in the field behind us! Luckily it’s a vacant field and the construction that is happening is pretty far away at the moment. So Tyler had to go out there and shoo them back into our yard! Backyard chickens just provide so much entertainment.
  5. Kitty snuggles. My boy Buzz has been very snuggly with me recently and I think it’s because I spend more time sitting at my desk during the week. So when I’m on the couch, he is almost always curled up next to me or right behind my on top of the back cushion. I am always so grateful that we brought home this boy and his sister. And that they are so affectionate with us. I mean, they still have their moments of being crazy little monsters, but it’s also so apparent that they love us.

Friday Five Things 4/22

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“An understanding of the natural world and what’s in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.” – David Attenborough

Happy Earth Day! I hope the weather is lovely wherever you may be reading this and that you take time to get outside, even just 5 minutes can be enough to change your outlook on the day.

  1. Sleeping in – Most days I’m up by 6:30am, but today when my alarm went off I listened to my body telling me I needed more sleep and I slept until 8:30. I know this is a luxury not afforded to most people, I mean, I couldn’t have slept that late any other day this week. But today I was able to just sleep until I was done and it felt really good to wake up on my own.
  2. Plants and propagation – I spotted a little peperomia while I was at Target this week and decided to bring it home. I love bringing new plants into my house because it forces me to take stock of all of my other plants and move things around to fit better. This week that also spurred on some new propagation attempts! Excited to see if I can get some new little plant babies to root in the next couple weeks. It’s been awhile since I had a full propagation station going.
  3. Sticky bug traps – Speaking of plants, I’ve been having some issues with fungus gnats. I saw someone on instagram recommend these and decided to try them out. OMG. They have caught so many more little bugs than I thought were there! Highly recommend. I will say if I have to repurchase I will look for them at my local nursery because I am trying to be less reliant on Amazon for things…
  4. Upcoming work travel – Once upon a time I had a job where I traveled all the time and it got really old. Then I changed to a job where I had very little travel and it was lovely. Then the pandemic hit and I didn’t get on an airplane for over a year! Anyway, I have some work travel coming up and I’m actually looking forward to it! I also can’t complain about getting some points action with Southwest and Marriott.
  5. Baseball game – Tyler and I got to go to a Rockies game last weekend and even though they didn’t play very well, it’s always a fun experience to go to a live sports game! The weather was pretty nice and we ate frozen lemonades, hot dogs, and ice cream! Rockies lost the game, but we had a good time.

Friday Five Things 4/8

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.” – Dale Carnegie

Hello there for the second week in a row! This has been a week of some ups and downs, but I told myself I’d get back on here and I did it! Taking action and hoping that confidence and courage will follow!

  1. Lists – I have been making lists for as long as I can remember, but the past few weeks they’ve been my lifeline! I’ve been thinking a lot about the systems I use and realizing that I have a lot of duplication in my processes for tracking things. But, you know what? It’s working for me! At the beginning of the week, usually Sunday afternoon, I plan out everything I want to get done in a weekly planner (this one). This is also when I put together my meal plan for the week and create my grocery list. Then every evening I create a more detailed checklist on my phone. This can include daily tasks too, like walking the dog and meditating. I also list out what I have planned for dinner so I can remember to leave time if I need to cook. This list will also carryover tasks that I didn’t get to the previous day, so it’s more of a living document than my weekly plan. On my work days, I sit down at my desk in the morning and write down in a physical notebook what I need to do for that day. It will include meetings I have to attend, emails I have to send, and other tasks. This gives me a more complete idea of what is going to take up my time vs just looking at my calendar. So…things get repeated or put on multiple lists but again, it works for me so why change it? Also, I know it sounds like a lot but I’d say the weekly plan and meal plan take me…maybe 30-45 minutes at the beginning of the week? My evening list takes 5-10 minutes. And my morning work plan usually the same. So not very much for something that saves me time in the long run by allowing me to better manage my energy and get the important things done.
  2. Paved “hiking” trails – I don’t hike in the winter or spring because of the snow and then subsequent muddy season. But we have a few pretty great paved trails nearby that go through open space or even up into the mountains a bit. Now that it’s nicer weather, I’ve been taking the dog for longer walks on these trails and it’s such a lovely way to ease back into hiking season without the mess of a muddy trail.
  3. New growth on houseplants – I think I’ve talked about my dieffenbachia before and how it just keeps growing and growing and giving me baby plants. I think it has given me an unrealistic expectation of how quickly houseplants grow! Several months ago I picked up a little rubber ficus at a local store and while it’s been staying alive just fine, it hasn’t really shown any signs of growth. But just this week a new little baby leaf is starting to peek out and I’m so excited about it!
  4. Costco – I’ve had a Costco membership for a couple years now and I’ve always been a fan. I used to go maybe once every 4-6 weeks to stock up on the essentials (paper towels, toilet paper, medications, etc…) I’ve recently been going more frequently. I think part of the shift is that as I get better at meal planning/prepping, buying more things in bulk makes sense because I know exactly how and when I’ll use it. Also, don’t sleep on their clothing section! I decided that I wanted to explore wearing skorts this summer and I everything I tried (Target, Athleta, Columbia) either had weird bunching of the skirt at the waist or the undershorts were too short/rode up. But then I saw skorts at Costco for like, $12 each, and bought one to try it out. Perfection! I went back to buy another color. In the past I’ve also gotten a Patagonia down jacket from Costco and cute summer dresses from Columbia. So if you have a membership but have never perused the clothing section, give it a walk through next time you’re there. You might be pleasantly surprised!
  5. ZillowGoneWild on Instagram – I stumbled upon this account and now I’m obsessed. If you are someone who loves clicking through houses on Zillow and finding really wild decor, you should totally follow this account. They just repost pics from Zillow and some of the stuff is…truly indescribable. Love it.

Friday Five Things 4/1

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while, the muse shows up too.” – Isabel Allende

Hi friends and happy April. I know I haven’t been showing up here recently, but, like my daffodils in the garden, I seem to be re-emerging with the spring. The truth is that real life has been taking a lot of energy and I just haven’t felt like showing up anywhere else. Part of it is that I feel the muse has abandoned me so I’m trying to hold tightly to the quote above. If I commit to showing up myself, she might just come back around.

  1. Springtime – January and February are always a drag for me. They were a little less dismal this year thanks to the magic of bright light therapy, but it still felt like a slog. I am always grateful when spring shows up and brings back sunshine and warmth into my life.
  2. New routines – So in a big change, I’ve gone back to work. A former employer reached out to see if I would be interested in coming back in a temporary capacity to help get a project finished up. I said yes, so long as I can just work part-time. Thankfully they were on board with that so I now find myself back in the workforce on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. This has forced me to create some new routines around getting my creative stuff done as well as all the other household things. I actually thrive with external structure and I’m enjoying settling into a new weekly routine! I might do a separate post sometime and get all into the nitty gritty because I love seeing day-in-the-life/week-in-the-life type stuff from people so I assume there are others with the same kind of curiosity!
  3. Meal plan/prep – Since I’m working three days a week now, I’ve changed up my meal planning and prepping game to be more intentional about picking quick & easy dinners, prepping ingredients ahead of time, and leveraging leftovers. For the past two weeks I’ve made a pasta dish that we also eat on Tuesday. Then Wednesday/Thursday is a curry dish using vegetables that I cut up earlier in the week. Neither dinner really needs a recipe and you can choose vegetarian or not, you can change up the proteins you use (FYI – salmon curry is delightful!), and you can mix it up with the veggies. Also, I’ve made my own curry sauce and found that the store bought simmer sauces are often just as good (if not better in my case…). And right now I’m all about an easy shortcut like that when I know I can make the rest of the meal super healthy. It might seem like a super simple tip, but doing these easy throw together meals and prepping as much ahead of time has been a game changer for me as I’m adjusting to a new schedule.
  4. Yoga – A woman I follow on Instagram posted a three minute yoga flow a couple months ago and I’ve been loving doing it a few times a week. It seems to help with my posture as well as some little aches and pains, not to mention settling my brain for a bit! Here’s the link if you want to try it out. 3 minute yoga flow
  5. Reading nook – Several months ago we finally got rid of our broken treadmill that was just taking up space. All of a sudden I had an empty corner that needed to be filled and I decided I wanted to create a cozy reading nook for myself. I shopped around for the perfect chair, then had to wait until that perfect chair came back in stock. Tyler bought me a cute succulent shaped pillow and made a beautiful side table. Then I added a rug, blanket, and lamp. And now I have the coziest little place to sit at night and read before bed! It’s so fun how even after living somewhere for seven years you can create a new space and make it all feel brand new again.

Friday Five Things 2/4

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“The human mind always makes progress, but it is progress in spirals.” – Madame de Staël

Hello again! I ended up taking more time off from writing than I had planned, but it was restful and relaxing so no regrets! December was full of festivities with family and friends and then we basically hibernated through a very chilly and snowy January here in Colorado. February is shaping up to be more of the same, but I can’t stay holed up forever, right? So here’s to the new year, just a month late!

  1. Rewatching Star Wars. We have a family trip to Disney World coming up in a few months and it will be my first time getting to go see the new Star Wars land that opened a couple years ago. As a big lifelong fan, I am BEYOND excited to be immersed in a galaxy far, far away. To prep for it all, Tyler suggested that we rewatch all the Star Wars movies. Even including the prequels. We started this week and it’s always fun to jump back into something so nostalgic.
  2. (Partial) Kitchen Renovation. Ever since we moved into our house six years ago, we’ve been strategizing how to redo the kitchen. To do everything on our list would be expensive and time consuming. But this year we decided to pick one area to work on and I’m kind of kicking myself for not doing it sooner! We are removing part of a wall that shuts the kitchen off from the rest of the house and reconfiguring the central island. We are putting in new shelves, a decorative beam, and a new butcher block countertop for the island! It’s a budget project and Tyler is doing all the labor, but it’s really going to make a big impact to our main living space. It’s a good reminder that when a big project seems too daunting to take on, sometimes you can find a small piece of it that is more doable and will still move the ball in the right direction.
  3. Salmon and Corn Chowder. I love a cream-based soup in the winter. I usually include one in my meal plan for each week and with two of us, most recipes make enough for two dinners. Last week I made a Salmon and Corn Chowder for the first time and it was SO GOOD. I didn’t really use a recipe (what’s new…) but I did look at these for inspiration (here and here). For mine, I cooked some diced bacon in my Dutch oven, removed the bacon and left about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease. Then I sautéed some diced onions and garlic in the grease for a couple minutes, added a few tablespoons of flour and stirred that for a few more minutes. Then I poured in a few cups of chicken broth and stirred to combine the flour. Stirred in some frozen corn and a can of diced new potatoes at this point (I used a canned so I wouldn’t have to worry about them taking forever to cook). Then added my salmon that was diced into small chunks and stirred that in with a good amount of dill. I added enough half and half so that everything was submerged in liquid and left it to simmer for a bit until the salmon was cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste and finish it off by adding the bacon back in and a few squeezes of lemon juice to help cut through the creaminess. YUM.
  4. Wordle. I hopped on this bandwagon a little later than some, but I’ve been enjoying starting my day with the little word game. It’s so simple but still challenging enough to get your brain going. I also find it fascinating how people have independently developed their own strategies for solving. And it is fun to see a small thing that someone made for fun gain so much popularity and love in such a short time.
  5. Theme for 2022. For the past few years I’ve noticed themes come up when I’ve made plans and goals. For 2020 the theme was being comfortable in the gray area between black and white, the uncertainty. 2021 was to be intentional about my decisions and actions. And I’ve been torn between two for 2022…so I might just keep both! This year I would like to be more courageous in saying yes and putting myself out there. But I also want to focus on what is essential in my life. I think these two ideas dovetail nicely into a practice of me identifying what is essentials and then using that as a benchmark for saying yes to more things. For example, helping people is a value I hold very highly and feel I haven’t put much effort towards in recent years. But so far this year I’ve had a handful of situations arise where I had to step out of my comfort zone to help people and I’ve said yes with no regrets.

Friday Five Things 12/17

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.” – Martha Graham

Firstly, sorry that last week’s post published late! I wrote it and scheduled it for last Friday but must have hit something wrong in the publishing process. And second, this will be my last Friday Five Things of 2021 as I take the next two weeks off from having deadlines! I hope you and your friends/family/pets/whoever take some time to quiet your lives and enjoy each other. We’ll see you in the new year and probably start talking about 2022 goals (I can hardly believe it!)

  1. Feeding giraffes. This week Tyler and I took my parents to the zoo for the annual Zoo Lights and an up close encounter with some giraffes! It was so cool to feed them and get to see them in such close proximity. We couldn’t touch or pet them, so I don’t know what they feel like. But the thing that struck me the most was how HUGE their heads are! They don’t look that big in proportion to their bodies, but man, when they bend down for a piece of lettuce it’s pretty crazy!
  2. New favorite salmon recipe. I tried this salmon recipe last week and loved it so much that I put it back on the menu for dinner this week! It looks and tastes so fancy, but it was literally the easiest way to cook the salmon and sooooo yummy (I think that can at least partially be attributed to the butter!) I served it with some roasted veggies and mashed potatoes, but I think it would be good over some buttered pasta or rice as well. Enjoy!
  3. Tyler’s birthday! It was Tyler’s birthday earlier this week and I just felt so grateful that a) we were together on his actual birthday this years which didn’t happen last year or maybe also the year before, and b) we didn’t have anything that we “had” to do that day so we just got to do fun celebratory things that he wanted to do! It was a fun, fun day and I am so thankful to have him in my life!
  4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife. One of the fun things we did was go see the new Ghostbusters movie in the theater. I found it really enjoyable and very entertaining! Without ruining anything, they definitely bring in elements from the original movies and sometimes they hit really well and other times I felt that they missed the mark a little. But all in all, I’d recommend! Definitely not a theater must-see, so I think you can wait until it’s streamable if you want.
  5. Little to no damage after wind storm. This week we had one day with super high winds in our area with gusts up to 80 mph! It was pretty crazy! Amazingly enough we had very little to no damage from it, even though our fence already struggles to stay upright on a good day. I lost a few bows from my Christmas decorations and our chimney topper thingy ended up in the middle of our backyard. I’ve seen a few trees down as I’ve driven around the past few days and our neighbors had some fallen branches. So I definitely count ourselves as lucky!

Friday Five Things 12/10

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control.” – Jack Kornfield

This time of year is for joyful celebration as well as thoughtful reflection for me. In January I’ll be sharing some of my intentions and goals for 2022, but for now I’m thinking about this year, how well some things went, and also how much didn’t go to plan. The great thing though is that I came into this year with a mindset of letting go of control and acknowledging that sometimes the universe throws curveballs. So instead of feeling defeated about my missed goals, I feel peaceful knowing that I did what I could do and the rest was out of my control. This perspective lets me continue to focus on the present moment and the little things that bring me joy.

  1. Tiny Christmas tree. With two cats in the house I never feel comfortable with a traditional Christmas tree setup. In previous years we’ve put ornaments on a tall faux birch tree (similar to this one). But this year I wanted something real and green in the house. So we went to Home Depot and picked out the tiniest potted Colorado Blue Spruce. It is too small for ornaments but I found a skinny strand of twinkle lights for it and it have been bringing me such joy. We also got a real greenery wreath from the Boy Scout who lives down the street and have that hanging in our living room. Now, I already have a lot of green in the space with my usual houseplants, but the decidedly wintery addition of spruce and fir needles is festive and fun for the season.
  2. Finishing Christmas shopping! Just this week I bought all the last items on my list! Feels great to have shopping finished early this year, especially because I’ll need to ship a bunch of stuff and earlier is better for that. I still have a couple gift cards to order and crafts to finish, but all of the physical things have been purchased and are just waiting to be wrapped and shipped.
  3. Bright light therapy. My doctor recommended that I try bright light therapy this winter to help combat my mild seasonal affective disorder. It involves sitting by a very bright LED light for 30 minutes every morning when I first get up and I started it last week. So far I love it! I sit for 30 minutes every morning while I journal or read emails or do some other sedentary activity. I feel like it’s helping a lot with resetting my sleep/wake cycle to the point that I’m waking up without an alarm and falling asleep faster than usual. I’ve also had a noticeable improvement in my motivation during the day. I have read that there can be negative side effects (I haven’t experienced any) so this isn’t a recommendation to go out and buy a lamp, but maybe if you have trouble during the winter months it is worth talking to your doctor about it. I wish I had started this a few years ago!
  4. Paint-by-number. One of the things I’ve been doing during my 30 minute light sessions is a paint-by-number. When I’m sitting with the light I have to have my eyes open, so meditating during that time isn’t an option. But I wanted to find an activity that would help me focus my mind since I’m already sitting there. I found a botanical paint-by-number kit at Target the other day (this one) and I’ve been working on it for 20-30 minutes every morning. It’s actually been a great alternative to meditation for me because I can block out distracting thoughts and just focus on what is in front of me. Highly recommend!
  5. Being able to throw together an unplanned dinner. For the past year or so I’ve been meal planning all our dinners. This has helped a ton with keeping our grocery bill under budget and cutting down on waste. I use this template each week. By the way, I LOVE her planners also. I use the weekly page, but she has monthly and daily version in digital or print that are just fabulous. Anyway, I had planned for a meal of chicken fajitas to make enough for two nights and I just didn’t buy enough chicken for that. We had leftover peppers, onions, cheese and tortillas though. And I had a sweet potato I hadn’t used last week and a can of black beans in the pantry. So I made sweet potato and black bean enchiladas for night two! It felt like such a success that I could pull something together to use up leftovers without needing to purchase anything extra for the week. (FYI – I used this recipe as a guide, but catered to what I had available.)

Friday Five Things 12/3

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder

Let this be your reminder to allow yourself to grow tender and childlike this season. In the midst of to-do lists full of shopping, baking and cleaning, as well as calendars full of events and obligations, let go of the expectations and look around in wonder at the magic of the season. Someone was recently talking about how the holidays seemed more magical as a child and I think it’s because when you are a child, people create the magic for you. As adults we often are the magic makers. So don’t forget to make a little magic for yourself!

  1. Thanksgiving in Alabama. We just got back from spending 5 days in Alabama with my husband’s family and it was a week FULL of hustle and bustle. We celebrated my brother-in-law’s birthday with a team scavenger hunt around the town, had Thanksgiving on the front lawn with 28 people, opened Christmas presents with my nieces and nephews, and watched Alabama pull out a close win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl! It was full of fun and laughter and love.
  2. Three days in New Orleans. After all that intense family time, Tyler and I drove a few hours west to stay in New Orleans for a few days. We had a short list of things we wanted to do, but no real agenda or itinerary. It was so refreshing to just have time to relax and explore. We ate beignets, poboys, gumbo, oysters, cafe au laits, crawfish, and shrimp. We walked along the river, through the French Quarter, around an old cemetery, and down Magazine street. I got some great ideas and inspiration for my book as well!
  3. Christmas decorations. Some of the big mansions on St. Charles had put up their big fancy Christmas decorations and lights when we were there and it was so fun to drive past them all. And before we left for the week, I set up a few inside decorations so we could come home to a festive house! Just this morning I put up our outside decorations and I’m really happy with how it turned out this year. Taking time to make magic for us and our neighbors!
  4. Promised Land Eggnog. Guys, this is my favorite eggnog I’ve found so far. They were out of stock when I went to the store last week so I bought a generic brand and it just wasn’t as good! Now, I very rarely drink just a straight glass of eggnog anymore but around this time of year I start using as a creamer in my evening cup of decaf coffee to make it a real seasonal treat. Promised Land delivers on this front! So… when I went to the store yesterday and they had it in stock I bought it even though I already had a mostly full carton of the other brand in my fridge. Because this season is too short to drink inferior eggnog! (But don’t worry, I won’t waste it. I already found a good cookie recipe to use up the rest.)
  5. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah – No November book report this week because I legit only finished one book this month. I didn’t get into anything enough to finish before my library loans were up, so I have a few half finished books that I’ll finish when they’re available to borrow again. That being said, I did finish this book and it was so good and so heartbreaking. Set during the Depression, a woman makes her way to California with her two children and has to find a way to scrape out a living for them. It is such a real picture of what life was like for people who left their homes and farms during that time and how California was not the great salvation they were promised. I would recommend this book over Grapes of Wrath any day to someone who wanted to read about this time period. I mean, I love Steinbeck but I felt more connected with these characters and their emotions felt so real and raw. Hannah wrote another book I absolutely loved (The Nightingale) so now I feel like I need to read through her whole bibliography! 5/5 stars, highly recommend if you are mentally and emotionally well enough to handle the hard stuff.

Friday Five Things 11/19

~ kofriedery ~ Leave a comment

“Live, and be happy, and make others so.” – Mary Shelley

Have you been able to get into the holiday spirit yet this year? I sure have! After really struggling to feel jolly last year at this time, I’m in full blown holiday mode! Honestly, if it wasn’t for Tyler being home, I think I’d be watching Christmas movies already by now. But I’m respectfully refraining until after Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I’ve still found plenty to be happy about this week!

  1. New movies starring Dwayne Johnson. In the past week I watched The Jungle Cruise on Disney+ and Red Notice on Netflix. Both are basically live action cartoons (Red Notice is more for just adults due to some strong language and lots of guns). Both movies have over the top action and fight scenes with plots that really ask you to suspend belief at times. But I’d recommend either one if you are looking for a movie that is just pure entertainment and isn’t going to really ask too much of you as a viewer. I call them action/distraction movies because they are designed for you to take your mind off the real world and just sit back and enjoy. (Also, I recently rewatched San Andreas while folding laundry and it also falls into the action/distraction movie category.)
  2. Christmas decorations. I received an amaryllis bulb from my mom this week which feels like an unofficial kickoff to the Christmas season. I feel like I need to decorate my house for the season! Since we are traveling a bit next week, my plan is to put up some holiday decor before we leave so the house is nice and festive when we get home. Then I’ll finish up with all the outside stuff. And I think I’m going to get a tiny little real tree this year, I just have to figure out exactly where it will be completely out of reach of the cats!
  3. Lessons from the Lazy Genius. I listened to a book called The Lazy Genius Way last summer and I think I gave it a lukewarm review. The truth is, I’m still thinking about things that were discussed in that book on a regular basis. The idea of the Lazy Genius Way is to, in a nutshell, stop making things so hard for ourselves! The two of her twelve principles that I’ve been thinking a lot about recently are “Name what matters” and “Decide once”. The idea behind naming what matters is to not get caught up in all the things that we “should be doing” and I think this is especially important during the holidays. So as I’m looking at spending a lot of time with family in settings that will take me out of my normal habits, I am naming what matters to me in terms of things that will keep me sane, but also not trying to do my full daily routine on top of spending time with people. Things like meditation and journaling will matter, but spending time writing every day while we’re with family will not. As for decided once…in the stretch between mid-November and Christmas, I not only have to buy gifts for parents, siblings, in-laws, and nieces and nephews. I also have six family birthdays to shop for. It’s enough to drive me batty if I let it. But thanks to the Lazy Genius, earlier this year I decided once that everyone gets something from a certain category for their birthdays. Which helps take the stress of gift shopping down to a reasonable level, but since it’s in a category, I can also have some wiggle room on personalizing the gifts. Win/win if you ask me!
  4. Budgeting! I know I’ve mentioned budgeting on here before, but it is such a lifesaver and joy giver this time of year. Because I’ve been putting money every month into my Travel and Gifts categories, I don’t stress about the added expenses that come with the season. The money is already earmarked for the jobs and I just have to spend it. Now that being said, the online budget tool I’ve always recommended is going up in price next year and I’m not sure if I’m going to continue with it specifically. But the concept is basically a version of the old-school envelope budgeting where you take cash and divide it into envelopes labeled with specific expenses. The idea is that you only spend the money available in that envelope or budget on that category rather than looking at your account balance to see how much you have available. It’s probably explained a little better here.
  5. Thanksgiving with family. As referenced above, we will be spending Thanksgiving with my husband’s family and I’m excited to see everyone and just be along for the ride, rather than trying to plan everything myself. Last Thanksgiving it was just Tyler and I up in the mountains, which was lovely and relaxing, but I think we are both looking forward to the hustle and bustle of a big family celebration.