Five on Friday: What's Saving My Life

Two of my favorite authors/podcasters, the Lazy Genius and Modern Mrs. Darcy, take this idea of "What's Saving my Life Right Now?" from the author Barbara Brown Taylor. As the Lazy Genius, Kendra Adachi says: "It’s really important to me that we pay attention to seasonal practices so that we get off that train of a linear life that goes from start to finish. That’s not how life works, so let’s remember what is working for us, bringing us joy, and saving our lives right now."

The things that are saving our lives don't have to be monumental. It's simply a practice of looking at what's making life better these days. Here are mine:

1. More daylight! At this moment we're getting 46 minutes more of daylight than we did on December 21st, and I am feeling it! Although the increase happens every late Jan/early Feb, it still feels like the best surprise every year.

2. This fleece neck gaiter has been a game changer. Scarves and I have been on and off friends, but I usually get fed up with their bulkiness. Enter the fleece neck gaiter. I am so much warmer when I wait for the kids to get off the bus.

3. Funny TV shows. Thank goodness for shows that make us laugh at the end of our day. Current favorites for the family, for the grown-ups and for me personally: America's Funniest Home Videos, Dog with a Blog, 30 Rock, SNL, Only Murders. My current "fluff" show is the 3rd season of Emily in Paris. Escapism at its finest!

4. Leaning into lazy winter days at home. We all had a snow day together last week (kind of rare when both Steve's school and the kids' schools cancel simultaneously), and it was my favorite kind of lazy day. We put on an epic movie, "Gone with the Wind", and we all worked on various projects- Lego, coloring, work, as it was going. Once in a while I'd leave my spot on the couch to go put a few pieces in the puzzle. It felt particularly cozy, and it's the kind of day that makes me appreciate this slower season. 

5. Curating my treadmill time. I love the treadmill, and I particularly love setting up with my iPad, phone and wireless headphones and taking "me time" while exercising. I put on one of our many Amazon music playlists and use the time to browse websites like Pinterest and Etsy. I also have a few blogs I only read while on the treadmill. A new addition has been to get back into Wordle. My 3-mile hour flies by! I look forward to exercising every day because I'm pairing it with other enjoyable activities.

So, tell me: what's saving your life right now? Big or small, I'd love to hear it. 

Five on Friday: Foundation Habits

 ... and somehow, someway, it's almost mid-January. Huh? In lieu of traditional resolutions, I made a 23 in 2023 list as I've been doing for a few years, thanks to inspiration from author and podcaster, Gretchen Rubin. I'll expand upon that in a future post. Along with my 23 in 23, I'm trying to double down on my foundation habits: the things I do that make me feel like myself and like I'm living the kind of life I want to lead. 

A fantastic day encompasses all of the following, but life has other plans. Here are the five foundation habits that I strive to do every day:

1. Yoga & a devotion in front of the wood stove in the morning. I have a little time between Rosie getting on the bus for Hampshire, and the time I go upstairs to wake Buddy for his school day. I roll out my yoga mat in front of the wood stove (and usually have to ask our dog, Angel, to move), and settle on the mat with the current devotional I'm reading. I finished a great one last year: The Helper: Growing as an Enneagram 2 and am currently working my way through Pressing Pause: 100 Quiet Moments for Mom to Meet with Jesus. Starting my day with a short God message helps set the tone. I then start my 15-minute yoga sequence. It always feels so good to stretch out.

2. Drink 72 oz of water before lunch. Seems strangely specific, right? That's the size of my favorite water bottle. I try to drink 3 of these between 5:30am and 12pm. I don't keep track after lunch, so this is my way of knowing I'm getting most of my hydration in the first part of the day. To my family and friends' dismay, I think water is the solution to most everything. Feeling sluggish? Drink more water. Think you're hungry even though you just ate? Drink more water. Headache? You're dehydrated. 

3. 3+ miles on the treadmill or a long walk outside. This really makes me feel like myself. I love to walk. And I enjoy pairing it with podcasts, TV shows, checking out Pinterest, etc. This serves double duty as much-needed exercise and me time.

4. One Line A Day Journal & reading before bed. This year I started my third (!) one line a day five-year journal, which means I've journaled daily for over 10 years. It's literally a line or two about our family's activities. I love reading over the past years, and seeing how much has changed in our lives. After writing, I settle in with my current fiction book. I realized a few years ago that right before bed is no time for non-fiction. I need a story to escape into and ease my mind into sleep.

5. 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Nothing ground-breaking here; we all need at least this much sleep. But, like any adult, I find it hard to go to bed when it feels like the evening is my only downtime. I can work with 7 hours sleep, but my body craves 8-8.5.

These are five foundation habits that ground me and make me feel like me! What are yours?

Five on Friday: Favorite Books of 2022

2022 was the year I got my reading mojo back! I finished 35 books, up from 31 in 2021, 27 in 2020, 25 in 2019 and 27 in 2018. My goal for 2023? Simply to read more than 35. How will I do it?

• Continue my habit of getting to bed early enough most nights to fit in 20-30 minutes of reading.
• Continue my newly developed habit of choosing reading as my cool down activity after exercising, instead of scrolling on my phone or iPad.
• Search out more books by favorite authors that I have a good chance of enjoying. (I know this sounds obvious, but in the past, I felt beholden to the books on my shelf, even if I didn't really want to read some of them.) 
• GIVE UP ON A BOOK if I find myself struggling through it! Why do I still do this to myself at times? When I'm not looking forward to picking up my book, I know it's time to dump it, but I still get caught up in the feeling that I "should" finish it. Here's to dumping more books that aren't the right fit for me because there are too many great books in this world, and too little time.

Without further ado, here were my top five books of 2022!

1. Apples Never Fall by Lianne Moriarty. The newest book by one of my favorite authors did not disappoint. It had me guessing until the end. Amazon's summary: "From Liane Moriarty, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, comes Apples Never Fall, a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest."

2. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. 2022 was the year I discovered Kristin Hannah, and this book of hers in particular really took me for a ride. She weaves a tale like no one else can. Amazon's summary: "In Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, a desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in human nature."

3. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Need I say more? I know you've read this book or at least heard of it, since it also came out in movie form this year. A story that spans decades and is impossible to put down. Amazon's summary: The #1 New York Times bestselling worldwide sensation with more than 15 million copies sold, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature.”

4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Reid is another author I am thankful to have "met" last year. This is my favorite of hers. Amazon's summary: "From the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & the Six—an entrancing and “wildly addictive journey of a reclusive Hollywood starlet” (PopSugar) as she reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine."

5. Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand. I had seen Hilderbrand's books everywhere for years but thought (mistakenly) that her books were just romantic fluff. I was wrong! Is there romance? Of course. But there's also SO much more going on, with wonderful characters and plot turns. I am glad I finally took a chance on her, because now I plan on reading some of her books every summer (the one good thing about discovering an author several years in is you have a lot of books to catch up on!) Amazon's summary: "Four siblings experience the drama, intrigue, and upheaval of the '60s summer when everything changed in Elin Hilderbrand's #1 New York Times bestselling historical novel."

Because it was such a great year of reading, it was hard to nail it down to five favorites. Honorable mentions include City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, and Verity by Colleen Hoover.

Happy Reading! What were your favorite books in 2022?

Five on Friday: Christmas Edition

 It's the eve of Christmas eve and it's raining cats and dogs. Awfully glad this isn't snow! It's still dark outside even though it's almost 7am. When Steve took Rosie down to the bus this morning, I heard a giant thud in our side yard. Here's hoping another inconvenient tree hasn't fallen, like what happened to us a few months ago! Onward...

Five on Friday: Christmas Edition

1. Tonight we'll be watching our last Christmas movie of the season: "It's a Wonderful Life". While we don't mind taking a year or two off from other holiday movies, this is a must watch for us annually. The kids have been old enough to join us the last few years, and they like it too. I like to save it to the very end of the Christmas season because it just embodies everything that the holiday is about. Time to make sure I have enough tissues nearby to dry my eyes...

2. My Christmas playlist on Amazon currently has 72 songs and runs 3 hours and 21 minutes! I know I'm late to the party, but this was my year of discovering Pentatonix and they are delightful! My favorite of theirs is probably "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". 

3. Just as I had my rotation for fall, you can bet that my December Yankee Candles are in full swing! Just finished Red Berry & Cedar (no longer made, found it at a flea market!) and now onto the classic Balsam & Cedar.

4. Last Friday Steve and the kids had their first snow day of the year (a joint one- very unusual!), and we took the opportunity to make our favorite seasonal M&M, Hershey Kiss, Pretzel treats: Chocolate Pretzel Treats Recipe (allrecipes.com) Side note: We melt ours at 200 degrees for 4 minutes. Every oven is different! We're going to make more this weekend. Shout out to SIL Erin, who first introduced me to them over 12 years ago!

5. A simple pleasure I look forward to every evening is getting cozy on our recliner couch with the family next to the twinkling Christmas tree with a throw blanket tucked around me, and my feet up on the footrest. These blankets from Target, in twin size, have become our favorite. We have three of them for the living room, and one as a blanket on each of our beds: Full/queen Microplush Bed Blanket Gray - Threshold™ : Target They remain soft and luxurious after many washings.

This Five on Friday has been brought to you by the five senses. Hope you, too, are enjoying the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of the holiday season! 

Five on Friday: It's Fall, Y'all

 Ok, there's no denying it now. It's the first morning in months that the temperature has been this low (38), and the woodstove is ticking behind me as I type this. It's Fall, Y'all!

1. With the acceptance of Fall creeping in, I've been enjoying some seasonal favorites: pumpkin spice coffee in my morning cup, and an occasional Shipyard Pumpkin Ale in the evening, in a glass with a cinnamon sugar rim. Yum! I think it was in 2020 that I tried other pumpkin beers but found this original to be the best tasting. Do you have a favorite pumpkin or fall flavored beer?

2. Since I last blogged, I have also planted our mums and put out other seasonal decorations, inside and out. I have at least some fall decor in all the main rooms downstairs. At the flea market last weekend, a lady was selling her handmade decorations, and I had to get one of her fall swags. It goes perfectly on one of the doors in our stove room. It is satisfying to purchase that one piece that looks like it was meant to be in your house, in that exact location that you placed it.

3. Steve and I have enjoyed burning Yankee Candles for as long as we've lived together. The fall and winter candles are our absolute favorites, and we have a rotation that we burn every year. We used to start off every fall with their Apple Cider candle, but wouldn't you know it, they discontinued it. So, this year we've started with Apple Pumpkin instead, and it has not disappointed! We place it in the center of our dining room table, and it fills our home with such a warm and cozy smell. Our other fall favorites include Autumn Leaves and Harvest.

4. Yet another great thing about fall? The return of favorite TV shows! Survivor is back on, and it's a weekly treat for Steve, Rosie & I. (House rule: you have to be 11 to watch... Buddy enjoys playing Minecraft during that time and will be joining us for the next season in 2023!)

5. You know that one author you like to read who never disappoints? One of those authors, for me, is Lianne Moriarty. I'm reading her latest, "Apples Never Fall", and I CANNOT PUT IT DOWN. So good! My excellent 2022 reading journey continues...

Have a great weekend!

Five on Friday: A Wedding, a Falling Tree and Other Things

Happy Friday!

1. I officiated my first wedding as a Justice of the Peace this past Saturday. It couldn't have been a more perfect first wedding... it was two minutes from my house, in a beautifully decorated backyard on a picturesque September afternoon. The Bride & Groom are wonderfully matched and I know they are going to enjoy many happy years together!

2. Tuesday morning started off like any other when, all of a sudden, around 7am, we heard the strangest sound from outside. It didn't sound like a crash; it sounded like a huge amount of snow sliding off a roof or something. Imagine our surprise when we looked out and saw that one of our huge Sugar Maple trees just keeled over, falling onto the Ash tree next to it! It really stunned us. This wasn't during a storm, or with any wind present. It just... happened... completely out of the blue. A closer inspection of the trunk found it completely hollow and rotted out. We had no idea! It hadn't looked "sick" from the outside, it had a full canopy of leaves. We called our friendly Tree Warden, who connected us with a local tree service company. They're coming today, which is amazing turnaround time. We are incredibly thankful.

3. I finished our first puzzle of the season this week! We always have a jigsaw puzzle out Labor Day through Memorial Day. Our first one this year was an "I Love Cape Cod" White Mountain puzzle that I bought (you guessed it) when we were on the Cape with family last month. It was so much fun putting it together! One of my favorite weekend traditions is to enjoy some morning puzzle time with Steve and a cup of coffee. The kids haven't shown much interest, but I always try to invite them! I can't blame them...I didn't enjoy puzzles at their age, either. Maybe it's something you have to grow into.

4. The book I'm currently reading is Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman. What a story! I love Backman's books and this one is no exception. It's causing me to go to bed later than I should because I can't put it down. Can't wait to see where it goes next.

5. We have been watching Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, and it's as funny and entertaining as everyone said it was! We're doing just one episode at a time, old school style. That's what happens when kids go to bed at 8pm, and parents go to bed at 9pm.

Have a great weekend!

Five on Friday

School is back in session, the first of my two elections is over, and I have an itch to start writing again. I thought it would be fun to use a favorite blog outline called “Five on Friday” to start with.

1. Did I mention the first of my two fall elections is over?! It went smoothly and the November election doesn’t feel as daunting. One of my favorite traditions is ensuring I have a Recovery Day the next day where I don’t leave home at all. I putter around the house, catch up on podcasts, maybe grab a quick nap, and generally decompress. I felt so refreshed by the time yesterday evening rolled around.

2. While setting up an election during this kind of weather wasn’t fun, the two rainy days we had earlier this week were a welcome surprise. We needed it badly! The crunchy brown grass of our lawn this summer was alarming. According to our rain gauge, we received just under 3.5 inches. Hoping for more soon! Is there anything cozier than a rainy fall day, curled up under a blanket on the couch, watching a favorite show or reading a great book? I can’t wait.

3. Speaking of reading, I am having a terrific reading year! I have discovered three new favorite authors since January: Kristin Hannah, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Elin Hilderbrand. I’ve caught up on TJR’s newest books and have read three KH books and two of EH. I’ve read 23 books total so far this year. I know people who have read double that, but for the season of life that I’m in, I’m pleased with my "number”.

4. Still enjoying summer vibes over here through summer decor and grilling. I used to change everything to fall decor once Labor Day hit but now I find myself holding onto summer as long as I can! It still feels like summer weather-wise. I know that once the chilliness sets in I'll be rooting around the attic for my box of autumn decor. But, until then, let summer reign! It is too short of a season.

5. This was the week that our school routine finally felt normal. Rosie is adjusting to Hampshire Regional with ease, and Buddy is enjoying the new dynamic of having two teachers. We're back to using the bus for the first time since March 2020. My favorite time of the day is when Rosie gets off her bus at 2:50pm, and we chat up a storm until Buddy's bus arrives at 3:35pm. Then the three of us talk about his day. It's super sweet. I hear things may change over the next few years, so I will enjoy this as long as I can. Also, Steve started his 18th year of teaching! Wowza. That makes me feel old...

Happy Weekend!