This morning I had proper tea.
Warmed my little green pot, boiled the water in the kettle and popped in a bag of Yorkshire Gold.
A bit of milk and sugar and my wedding china tea cup and saucer and my day is off to a fantastic start.
PS: Affiliate links included.
I'm a reader. I love books. I love the smell and feel and look of them. I love libraries and bookshops and random bookshelves in other people's houses. My eye goes right to books and I can't help but peruse the shelf of them wherever I see them.
Books come at me from various sources - magazines or newspapers or facebook groups or podcasts or radio shows. I don't remember where I heard about Washington Black but I knew I wanted to read it. I like history and the main character, a slave to start, then a free man, and how he makes his way in the world. It's not the standard story you expect at all. It takes place well before the American Civil War and includes hot air balloons, the arctic and aquariums. Unexpected all.
I'm also trying something new. Only reading books written by women. This is a pretty easy thing to do and why not? Men have dominated literature for eons, so why not just read women's work? This rule applies to all new books that I seek out. If I already own a book written by a man that I haven't read yet, then fine, I'll read it. Eventually.
I have finished two books written by men recently. These were specific books whose exact material I wanted to read about. But majority of my book reading will be by women. Try it.
PS. Affiliate links included above.
I bought me some basic pencils today. Bog standard pencils.
Harper is in first grade and we are drowning in pencils. They are given as party favors and valentine favors and rewards at school and come flying out of piñatas. And most of them are CRAP. You can sharpen them over and over, but they break so easily and so often. With all the "oooh look! We can print pencils with anything cool on it!" enthusiasm, they forgot the basics about ACTUALLY USING A PENCIL.
I know I know, kids today barely use writing instruments of any kind (past a certain age).
But I recall pencils not only being used for writing, but for PENCIL FIGHTS! Raise your hand 🙋if you had pencil fights during recess or on the school bus! I certainly did. Armed with my trusty Berol Mirado #2 or the Eagle, I would challenge my friends. (All this in between Chinese jump rope and marbles and milk caps.)
I never grew out of my love for writing instrument. You might know I'm obsessed with office supplies in general, writing instruments in particular. So much so that I once did a Writing Instrument Census in our house. (Gosh that was in 2010 - I have two years to prep for the next one.)
PENCILS!! Get yourself some. You know you want to (affiliate links in this blog post):
Cleaning up / clearing out your space, no matter that space, challenges you to think hard about what you want to keep and what you truly don't need. We packed up most of our personal belongings when we went left for England this year. (Friends were renting and we were making space for them.) Upon our return, we pulled out the essentials from their boxes and left the other stuff to get around to.
I finally got around to a big plastic bin of random t-shirts, bathing suits, work out clothes and my jewelry. "My jewelry" sounds fancy, but really it's a bunch of cheap and cheerful bead bracelets, glass earrings, etc. Nothing upscale at all. I just hadn't wanted to take two sandwich sized bags of stuff with me.
Since we've been back I've had only what I had in England: four pairs of earrings, five necklaces and one ring. And it's been plenty.
While unpacking yesterday, I made a pile to give away and cut down my jewelry load by 1/3 or so. That feels good.
But these. These will never go. Never ever.
These were made by a dear friend I knew from high school. She died in a house fire with her two little children in 2003. Devastating.
You could never put Jai in a tidy box. She couldn't be defined. Quirky gets close, but is not quite enough. She was an artist and made lovely jewelry. These are the only things of hers I own and I will keep them close.
If you've seen the tattoo on my right ankle, that's her website logo design. She's always with me.
Cleaning out stuff always brings up memories and emotions and joy and pain. And so much to celebrate, even in grief.
I miss the green! This was in the park behind out house and we walked there often. Soothing to the soul.
I miss Waitrose! This was my last visit to our local Waitrose and I was so sad. Not sure why I loved it so much. A bit nicer than your standard Sainsbury's or Tesco, but not crazy fancy by any means. But they had this brand of prepared foods that we fell in love with. So YUM.
I miss the tea. Good strong black tea. The Tea aisle in any grocery store in the UK is much more fascinating than our "coffee and tea" aisles in the states.
I miss the pubs - Especially ones with excellent food and lovely gardens. Like this one - The Holly Bush. (Even better - it's in Potter's Crouch!) Pubs are family friendly, dog friendly, friendly friendly. It's a different type of place that we don't have an equal to here in the US.
I miss school uniforms. I never went to a school that required uniforms, so this was a total novelty for me. They are so sweet! I know, I know, anyone who went to school in England is rolling their eyes at me. I loved shopping for these.
Gawd I can't wait to go back. Until then I have to get my fill with The Crown, British Baking Show and Doctor Who.
*Bog standard is a phrase I learned there and love. I use it still, and always will.
Note: Affiliate links included in this post.
HASHTAG HOME:
I can't say for sure what my main project is right now. There are a lot of sides projects going - and going strong!
My Menopodcast partner, Sarah, recently mentioned a book called The 12 Week Year. It sounded intriguing to imagine jamming a bunch of goals into 12 weeks instead of 12 months. I was curious (skeptical?) and had a free Audible.com credit so I got the audio book and started listening.
And I'm in.
I bought a hard copy so I could write notes, highlight sections, easily reread bits, and flip around for different sections. My key takeaways are to FOCUS ON ACTIONS, not results. Also to write everything out, build a schedule that works for me every day and STICK TO IT. There is an aspect of this plan that I love: Scoring. You have to score yourself each week-score yourself on tangible tactics and "to-dos" on the plan.
You also have to stretch and sacrifice and be uncomfortable because that is what change requires.
Some days it SUCKS. But one of the tips to get you back on track is to review your big vision. What do you want your life to look like in 3 years? I realized today I need to have that vision statement nearby my work desk so I don't forget what I'm working toward.
I'm in week 2 and have achieved a decent amount of my weekly goals set for week 1. I'm doing well so far here in week 2 (and yes, blogging is scheduled as it is part of a bigger goal.)
I won't review my goals with you now. I would much rather review what I accomplished at the end of 12 weeks. And even if it's not 100% - even if it's only 65%? I will be proud. Proud because I started now and will have accomplished something.
Stay tuned for the review of my first 12 week year. Coincidentally it ends on December 29.
Give it a shot!
Note: My links (and/or images) often connect you with Amazon Affiliates products. I write about things I love and use. I don't get compensated to write about them. (I'll tell you if I do.) However, if you do decide to click through and end up buy something, I'll get a little bit from that sale.
Preamble: I'm not really a food blogger. But I do like food very much!
My breakfast routine is pretty routine. Usually nonfat greek yogurt with fruit or berries and sliced almonds on top. Occasionally I'll have cereal, but that's kinda more like dessert in a way. (Even if it is made up of high fiber twigs and flakes.) I love oatmeal, but it's not cold enough for a big bowl of hot breakfast yet (I live in Los Angeles - go Dodgers!)
Overnight Oats have been on my radar for a while, but I didn't pay attention, thinking they were too prep heavy. Turns out I have idiotic thoughts and in fact they are SUPER EASY!
That's it! Here's my before/after shots. I like using frozen cherries in oatmeal or the yogurt/fruit combo. And almonds. Lots of almonds! PS - also kinda healthy for you.
Note: Many of my links (and/or images below) connect you with Amazon Affiliates products. I write about things I love and use. I don't get compensated to write about them. (I'll tell you if I do.) However, if you do decide to click through and end up buy something, I'll get a little bit from that sale.
Mason Jars:
Quaker Old Fashioned Oats:
I love to cook. I try new recipes, I buy cookbooks, I subscribe to emails for recipes. The food comes out well, I think, at least 9 times out of 10.
One thing I'm not great at is improv cooking - looking into the cupboards or fridge to see what's there and then whip something up. Following rules is something I'm better at. And one of my current goals is to be better at improv cooking!
Last night I took the leftover squash (butternut and zucchini) in the fridge and decided I could make a veggie lasagna. In my cupboard were boxes of whole wheat lasagna sheets (no boil style) I'd bought a while back but hadn't used. (I just looked at my amazon history and see that I bought the lasagna noodles in, ahem, 2015! Luckily the expiration is Dec. 2018. Guess who is going to be eating LOTS of lasagna before the end of the year??!)
Glancing at a few basic veggie lasagna recipes, I made a bechamel sauce (I did look at a recipe for that!) and built a decent lasagna. There was also mozzarella and parmesan in my fridge.
These days, with a shift in life and work priorities, I'm working harder than ever to save money and not just buy whatever I need the moment I think of something. Therefore, the improv cooking. Or better to call it the "USE WHAT YOU HAVE!!" method of cooking. In our pasta/rice drawer, there is a lot of both that need to be used. (Hint: Rice casseroles coming soon!)
The pasta sheets I bought were whole wheat and organic. (See images below to click on the affiliate link and try some for yourself.) Nobody really seems to notice the difference between regular and whole wheat these days, so I usually opt for whole wheat.
As for the finished product? Not bad! I had sauteed the butternut and zucchini but the butternut squash went weirdly dark brown after the baking. Tasted fine, just looked, um, odd. Also, I think there needed to be more filling. It all went very flat. I'm still pleased with myself and I'll do it again.
I used my trusty pyrex baking dish. I swear I used to have two of these, but can only find one....hmmmm. Maybe in a frenzy of "clean out all the crap!" I did away with one. Or maybe it lives at someone else's house now because I made something and took it for a potluck. Maybe I need to put this on my Christmas wish list. I like the glass better than a metal pan. I like seeing the layers cooking.
I will continue to practice my Improv Cooking skills. Stay tuned for my next adventure, probably rice related!
P.S. Many of my links (and/or images below) connect you with Amazon Affiliates products. I write about things I love and use. I don't get compensated to write about them. (I'll tell you if I do.) However, if you do decide to click through and end up buy something, I'll get a little bit from that sale.
Click the image for Pryex dishes:
Click the image for Whole Wheat Lasagna (set of 6):
In my mind changes happen in an instant. In real life they take longer than you think. And it's not always because we procrastinate!
Growing wings is step one.
Stepping out of the nest is step two.
Soaring is step three.
My wings are still forming, but I can see over the nest walls and can't wait to leap.
