not necessarily in this order

  I am doubling down on  Finding Joy in Gratitude Collective challenge  Elisabeth is running and both keeping short joys on the tracker and sharing longer ones here on Fridays this month! (or forever?) Saturday : Lil Momma and I went out to lunch and had a nice chatty time catching up on what was on our hearts.   Sunday : I made a “fun” cheese melt Hawaiian roll dinner that everyone liked! (This is mostly sparked at a recent run of tween dinner complaints).   Monday : Bella, our senior population Maltese-Yorkie, came upstairs and chilled in my office while I worked! (She always chooses to stay downstairs with the Mr.) (well, and her treats).   Tuesday : I really felt heard by my orthopedic surgeon and the appointment was both validating and forward thinking.   Wednesday : The Mr. and I chatted on the phone while I drove home from work and it was just so nice to talk like humans.    Thursday : Lil Momma texted me a movie of her scrolling ...

I am doubling down on  Finding Joy in Gratitude Collective challenge  Elisabeth is running and both keeping short joys on the tracker and sharing longer ones here on Fridays this month! (or forever?) small joys in kitchen chaos Saturday  – The Mr. and I had a babysitter for the first time in months and months, but he has some things going on that make going out to eat was a no-go. So, we spent a collective 3 hours in the car driving up to my aunt’s house that I am cleaning out, rescuing a spice cabinet and table, and then driving back. It was really nice to just talk and listen to music and be together!   Sunday  – I had to go to a wake (weird start, I know), but I went with two local mom friends and we caught up in the car waiting to go in and it was so nice to do some tween parent commiseration with people who are going through it, too.   Monday  – The Mr. had a late call so I was the parent in charge of getting Lil Momma to voice and acting. As a he...

What a month, oof. Between PT not progressing as fast as I’d like, the Mr dealing with some medical meh (but on the mend!), Lil Momma’s tween angst and schedule and sass, work being work, and trying to clean out a house 90 minutes away from my house, these goals may not have been top of mind (or on my mind) as much as I would’ve  hoped… However, January is always a month I kind of plod through so I’m proud of my plodding and am ready for a fresh February start!  1 go on a family vacation somewhere new   -Plans are in the works! 2 get through estate planning  3 redo my office 4 read 100 books  -I’m at 5/100 5 enter 3 writing competitions  6 reach out to 3 friends I haven’t lately 7 hang pictures on our walls  8 stretch most days  -I’m probably at 2x a week  9 cut phone screen time by 50%  -I’m down 30% 10 ride 800 miles (bike, spin, doesn’t matter)  -I’m at 14.6/800 11 bake 5 new recipes 12 monthly dates with the Mr  -We finally...

  To recap my 9+ months of injury: last April/May I severely strained my posterior tendon (the tendons that support your foot and arch and help with balance) going too aggressive on a beginner running program. I did some time in a walking boot and then 12 weeks of PT where I learned I stand on my feet wrong and that my other arch had completely fallen. Sometime during those 12 weeks, we believe my peroneal tendon (the tendon that run on the outside of your ankle and leg) tore and then reattached incorrectly as my foot learned how to stand in the right position. I had an x-ray and an MRI and got sent back to PT.   I’ve been in PT for my peroneal tendonitis for 5 weeks now. I am deeply committed to doing the work and figuring this out and truly believe all of this will serve me with my focus on mobility and balance and being as healthy and mobile as I can as I age…   …and, I am a mix of frustration and wondering if this is all in my head. SIGH.   I miss going on walks....

Some quick thoughts from some recent reads! Books and birdcam are my winter plans! Truly, Madly, Magically  By Hazel Beck 3.5⭐️ I really enjoyed the centering of Ellowyn, whose half-human, cursed to truth, mothering backstory somehow made so much sense to me? The magic plot really worked for me here with ghosts and votes and all that - but I wish Zander had been more fleshed out. He is probably the most complex male counterpart - wracked with grief, navigating being a Guardian with avoiding toxic masculinity - but his evolution felt mechanic instead of organic.  Leave the Grave Green 3.75⭐️ By Deborah Crombie Opera and snobs and art and wild chemistry - I feel like this is the book where Crombie started cooking with gas. Almost 30 years since it was written, I have to admit there were some oof Kincaid moments in his reaction to Julia and treatment of Gemma - but how telling to have a mid-90s man in power (who I love, love, love as a protagonist) being so careless with conseque...

  Thanks to everyone for the kind words about my car kerfuffle. I felt so much better knowing there were people out there who understand! My claim with their insurance remains open - I received a letter from them asking me to get in contact so the Mr and I are going to call together later this week.  This was supposed to be a “what I listened to…” from my 90-minute drive each way to start clearing out my aunt’s house this past Saturday, but I had a truly on brand but still eye-opening moment that I’m choosing to write about first, haha!  My aunt’s house is old - 1800s, I believe - and there are so many level differences between the rooms. I was upstairs with my cousin and her son when someone rang the bell. I was so thrown off (this was the first time I’d been in the house, I hadn’t seen my cousin in 10 years) that I got freaked out that someone was there. I flew down the stairs - with her son in hot pursuit! The living room floor was 2 inches lower than the kitchen, so w...

 I was going to share a PT update today, but my yesterday was so strange that I feel compelled to document it here. Let me start off by saying both Lil Momma and I are fine. My car needs a new bumper, but I’m not stressing about it .  A silly reminder from LM’s Christmas haul  On Fridays, I pick up LM after she walks back from school and we go to our local supermarket to pick up her dessert first Friday treat. I had had one of those work from home days where everything feels like a lot after having PT before work which also felt like a lot, so I was excited to grab my girl and go get a treat. I live in a university town. The parking lot at this plaza is notoriously a bit wild - we always approach it with caution. I turned off the main road and took a couple turns to go down one of the center aisles when I saw a car cutting across aisles and not slowing down. Luckily, it was on my side and not  LM’s passenger side. I started honking my horn and tried to stop with the ...

To use one of Lil Momma’s newly favorite words, I’m so confuzzled by goals. I love lists. I love crossing things off lists. I love doing things. I love ideas and hopes and dreams. However, I’ve also had a lot of life pull focus these last few years - as life does - which has been a bit demotivating in terms of personal goals. That being said, I have had some recent reflections that remind me that working on the balance between what I need to feel like myself and take care of myself with all of this other “stuff” is valid.  In that spirit, I leaned into the chaos listmaker I am in my heart of hearts and pulled together this 25 hopes for myself for 2025. Some are small and silly, others sizable and specific - but, most importantly, all are doable: 1 go on a family vacation somewhere new   2 get through estate planning 3 redo my office 4 read 100 books 5 enter 3 writing competitions  6 reach out to 3 friends I haven’t lately 7 hang pictures on our walls  8 stretch most ...