not necessarily in this order

A handful of helpful things that are keeping me going recently! One : Scoopable salads. Game changers. (I’m so behind the trends haha!) I’ve been trying to eat more veggies and beans lately and discovered all of these wonderful make ahead salads that we’ve been playing since my birthday. Last week, I made one with black beans and roasted corn and feta and lots of chopped veggies. This week, we have pesto and navy beans and chickpeas and mozzarella. Quick and easy lunches for me and a bonus has been Lil Momma asking for “scoops” in her own meals.  Two : the mood brighteners that are holiday lights. Thanksgiving weekend, we put strands of lights up across our windows in the living room (which we’ve never done) and it’s just brought a new level of cozy joy to our late afternoons and evenings - especially with it getting dark so early. A cup of tea, a book, and fun lights? Yea, please! Three : Big dog cuddles. Maysie is the biggest dog I’ve ever had: She’s at about 35 lbs so far and so...

We took a day trip to Mystic, CT on Saturday. After some aquarium fun (I love the penguins), we wandered around Olde Mystik Village for some shopping and snacks and ended up in an artisan honey tasting room (words I’ve never put together before, haha!). Lil Momma had a whole moment when trying some of the “hotter” ones and I was able to find a few to buy and try out at home: lemon honey, ginger honey, and salted caramel honey. We are trying the ginger tonight as part of a stir fry! My arch/ankle saga has gotten a bit worse, sigh. The PT is definitely helping “raise” my fallen arches, but has also identified that I stand on the outer edges of my feet (no wonder balance is hard for me) so we are doing lots of work on that, too. The new challenge, though, is that I seem to have torn/strained my right peroneal tendon and have a ton of swelling in that ankle, which is also stiff any creaky. I’m off to an orthopedist who specializes in feet in a week or so, so hopefully I can get back to wal...