not necessarily in this order

Inspired by the many similar lists I see (and have seen) from favorite bloggers over the years!   Lately, I’ve been  watching … As a family, we’ve been watching  Stranger Things  for the first time. We are currently at the end of Season 3 and completely obsessed; we’ve also been watching  Hot Ones   and  Kids Baking Championship . On my own, I’ve been watching  Shetland  on BritBox, but am not loving the non-book-inspired season and lots of Phily Bowden’s YouTube channel… Cardinals I found when cleaning out my aunt’s house!   Lately, I’ve been  using … I got influenced to try  VIOLETTE_FR ’s  Bisou Balm in  Bêtise   which was said to be “the perfect French-inspired matte lip”. Wouldn’t you know, it’s pretty spectacular? As someone fighting their designation of being in the Pale Lip Club, I had been using a lip stain every day but it looks quite bright with my paleness (especially on video calls). This new color i...

  ENJOYING  / My boss told me to take off  at noon today  because of how busy this week has been, so I’m going to take her up on that and go for a walk in the woods before I pick Lil Momma up from school. Maybe I’ll get my elusive Cool Bloggers Walking Club picture?!?!   EATING  / I had to go to a wake after work on Wednesday that dropped me into rush hour traffic and arriving home  around 7pm . The idea of making food was not appealing at that point – and the Mr. was off picking up LM from Matilda Jr. rehearsal – so, I took advantage of the lack of witnesses and had frozen cookie dough for dinner. It was glorious!     SAVORING  / I’ve been doing this Beginner Runner program and I’m really enjoying that I don’t feel like I’m going to collapse after the workouts. It’s not that I’m not working hard or am not challenged, but in previous attempts over the last 15 years or so, I feel like I’ve pushed too hard to try and keep up and crash...

Finally, a day off! We get some stuff done and then we laze about spectacularly! 7:30 : LM comes out of her room and wakes us up. She jumps in the bed once the Mr. heads downstairs to advocate for a “lazy” day and I boot her and scroll a little.  7:50 : I go the bathroom and head downstairs. The Mr. and I whisper about what we could do today while LM eats breakfast with a show in the other room (and Bella begs when we aren’t looking).  8:15 : LM tries on the new hiking shoes we got her. Oof, just a bit too tight ?and I hate returning things) (but that’s a future me problem). We decide the Mr. will go food shop and LM and I will go look for spring / summer clothes and shoes for her because it’s still pretty cold and raw out and I don’t want her get-over-the-cold progress to fall apart if we go walk somewhere. 8:50 : We dig our LM’s various shorts from last year and figure out her size. She negotiates one tv show in my bed before we go and decides on dessert-first Saturday (we u...

  an in-office Thursday (which doesn’t happen every week), feelings, and short pants  6:24  Wake with a start that I missed my  6:35  alarm. Decide to turn it and my backup alarms off, go and put my contacts in, and shower.   6:4? : LM comes into the bathroom and emotionally rants about state testing. All I can say is “I hear you, girlfriend” while I rinse my hair.   6:55 : Moisturize, deodorize, take meds, scrunch the curls and hope for the best with air drying, put on the outfit I had in mind and regret how short the pants seem, remember jewelry AND the notes I had on my work from home desk. Head downstairs.    7:05 : Give LM and Bella their hellos. Pour my coffee and make my smoothie while it cools off. Consider the weather (it’s a rainy nor’easter and flooding is a possibility) and get myself moving faster. Tell the Mr. to give LM a fun extra for breakfast to ease her state testing anxiety. She squeals when he gives her a brownie with her...

  I was inspired by   San   and wanted to share some of my currentlys today, too!   ENJOYING  / some fun nail color that Lil Momma and I got done over Feb vacation. I have never been a “nails” person (it always felt like my fingers were suffocating), but this time hasn’t been that bad and I appreciated them shaping them.   EATING  / I’m in the office 2-3 days a week and if I pack and bring my lunch like I am supposed to, I’ve been having my favorite Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups on one day and a fun coffee on the other (apple crisp oat milk shaken espresso… mmmm!). It’s been a nice way to incentivize getting everything ready the night before.   SAVORING  / This may sound weird, but last week I started a new workout plan (aka “little things done consistently are better than big things done once or twice”) and it’s honestly been really gratifying to feel a little sore from working out. Maybe it’s because I’ve felt “injured” for years – and I’m sti...

How did this week “figure out” over here? Let’s take a look!   1   sick burn . Oof, Lil Momma hits hard sometimes. It’s like when she asks me what the 1900’s were like… We were talking about how to learn lines and I mentioned some ways I used in college… LM: “You did Shakespeare?!” Me: “I was a theatre major - we did all styles.” LM: “Did you do HAMILTON?!?!” Me: “That didn’t exist yet…” LM: “oh, was he still alive?” OUCH! 1  of our 8 male cardinals!    5  (which is the episode of the  new  Percy Jackson  series  on Disney+ we are on). LM has plowed through the Percy Jackson books over the last year or so and watched the movies – she loves them! She was super excited when she heard there might be a Broadway musical coming about  The Lightning Thief  – but even that fails in comparison over just how jazzed she is about this series. LM and I have read the books, but the Mr. hasn’t, and all three of us are really enjoying the perf...

  All the Light We Cannot See   Anthony Doerr, 2017 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I waited 33 weeks for this book on the library hold list after loving the complexity of  Cloud Cuckoo Land , the first book I read this calendar year. It floored me and I could do nothing but read it until I read it so fast I had regrets about not savoring it more.  But when I finally got its predecessor in early August, it just sat. I couldn’t bear to start it. With so many sad moments that last handful of years, I haven’t had it in me to read or watch sad things; when I realized this was a World War II novel, I froze. I had rushed the hold without reading anything about the book (although I’m sure I read    raves from blog friends when they read it) and all  those months of waiting became weeks of a standoff  - and an overdue book!! <gasp> - while life lifed and I tried to find the mental curiosity to just start reading it.  Ridiculous?  Possibly.  Overdramatic?...

aka I love a good tangential list Ack! My bulbs are coming up too soon! We’ve had such dynamic temperature changes here lately; last Friday, it was in the 50*s, today it's snowing with big flakes… Hopefully, these are hearty and motivated flowers and survive till spring (because I’m sure a few frigid nights and half a snowstorm isn’t all the winter we're getting here in Massachusetts)! We started watching Severance this week. As someone who’s worked in a corporate office building for more years than ever expected - well, until the last 3 when I started working from home mostly! - the style of episode 1 really resonated which is an eerie feeling - I feel so seen! The whole concept of having a work self and a outside self is super interesting to me: how authentic is my work self? Do I still have a customer service voice? We only made it through one after a weirdly stressful week ( The Great British Bake-off is our comfort programming ), but plan to keep on with season 1 and se...