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100th Blog Post!

Lauren1 Comment

It’s my 100th Blog Post!

Huzzah! Hooray!

Holy cow.

There were a few days (months really) were I didn’t think the blog was gonna last this long. For reals though.

I started this blog as a way to write about anything and everything that crossed my mind.

In the early days I wrote about my cat. I mean look at how cute she is!

Or about a cup of tea. Yes, I really wrote an entire blog post about a cup of tea. What? I love tea. Don’t tell me you don’t love cuddling up with a cup of tea and a good book.

Okay, so maybe you like coffee and a good book. I’m not gonna judge you.

Let’s not forget the fabulous girls weekend in New Orleans. That was a good time. I miss those ladies.

I also wrote about the first time I made my family’s sacred chicken and dumplings recipe after my dad died last year. That was a healing experience for me.

Then I wrote my very first book review and got bit by a bug that just wouldn’t go away. Hello The Power. Spoiler alert, I wasn’t really a fan of this book.

I got really excited to join my first book club this year. So much so that I decided to write about it. We read the Princess Bride!

I started a little plant menagerie. One the plants has since died. But most of them are alive, and that’s all that matters here!

We cancelled our trip to Disney because of Covid-19. While it was the responsible thing to do, it still hurt my heart to do it.

I started playing Animal Crossing in April, wrote about it in July, and have still managed to play every day since. I’m not saying I have a problem, but I just flattened my island to redo it…again.

Then I read a book a day in August to get my reading engine kickstarted. It worked. Cause now I have a book blog.

I started review books with more regularity. Like, for example, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn.

I also decorated the front room of our house with books. Because how could you not use books everywhere?

The Hubs and I did end up going to a quaint B&B for our 40th birthdays this year. Twas fun.

And then I reviewed on of my favorite books in a long time, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. Yes, it’s safe to say I loved this book.

I really have enjoyed blogging over these last two years and I’m excited to see where the next two years will take me. I loved that I have evolved into a book blog, as books really are one of my passions in life. They bring me loads of joy. What blog posts have you enjoyed?

Martha and Marley Spoon-First Impressions

Lauren3 Comments

So as you know we broke up with Home Chef. And here we are, a month into using Martha and Marley Spoon as our meal delivery service. What are our initial impressions?

Pro: The food is great. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had at least one dud meal. But it was still edible. Which is saying something. But the food really is good.

Con: We had some shipping issues with two of the boxes. But we were told in advance, by the company, that there were shipping issues. We were able to plan accordingly as a result, instead of guessing where our meals were like with Home Chef.

Pro: The packing is more environmentally friendly. With Home Chef, everything was enclosed in plastic, down to the garlic cloves. With this service the packing is paper bags with as little packaging as necessary.

Con: The cooking time listed is a lie. It usually takes about twenty minutes longer to prepare your meal than what it says on the recipe card.

Pro: It’s very easy to select your recipes online. The website is very user friendly and all allergens are listed plainly for you to see on the individual recipe page. This is great for me with my egg allergy.

Con: The recipes are a little complicated. Some of that has to do with them wanting to save plastic waste, some of that is just that the recipes are a little complicated. This goes into it taking an additional 20 minutes to prepare the meal.

Pro: The price is very reasonable. Our three meals a week for two people cost $53.99 plus $8.99 shipping. This is on par with other meal services we have had.

So there you have it. A pro and con list on Martha and Marley Spoon. We are liking it so far and it’s worth the cons for us to have the service. What are your thoughts on meal delivery services?

Home Chef-An Update

Lauren3 Comments

Well, it looks like we are breaking up with Home Chef.

I know, I know. I waxed poetical about them back in March. But a lot can change in 6 months. And so, it seems, it has.

See, what had happen was they change distribution centers, at least for us. Our packages used to come from Georgia and now they come from California. And ever since then we have been having problems.

Specifically with the chicken. It keeps coming in bad. And when that’s the main ingredient in your Truffle Butter Chicken Breast, well, you can see where that could be a problem.

At first it was a box every month that the bad chicken would appear. Home chef would make it right with credits and we would go about our business. But then it started happening more frequently. This last time we got two in a row. I told the hubs I was done.

So now. Well now its time for a change.

We’ve decided to change to a new meal service. We happen to like meal services. They do the shopping for you, prep the recipes, and cost less than going out to eat. It’s a win win!

We are going to try Martha and Marley Spoon for a little while. If we stick with it, I’ll do a review on it for you in a couple of months.

Sometimes change is scary. But sometimes, change can be tasty!

A Great Love Affair

Lauren2 Comments

No, I’m not talking about the love I feel for the hubs, though that is epic (Epic I say!). And no, it’s not some Regency romance where the man gets the girl but only after he’s been an accidental jerk to her and she’s been uppity to him for the whole thing.

I’m talking about my love of Animal Crossing: New Horizons!

This game with all its cute little villagers has somehow managed to capture my whole heart to the point where I have played it, everyday, for the last three months, for at least an hour.

I may have missed a day at the Nook Stop, but I haven’t missed a day playing yet!

I’m not actually sure if that’s something to be proud of or sad about. I guess it all depends where you are in life. Right now, I guess I’ll take proud!

I have loved everything about this game, from Flick, to C.J., to Celeste. Lets be honest, I freaking love Celeste. She pops up when there are meteor showers! How cool is that?

I love being able to pick where my villagers get to live, where the shops all go, what paths I get to lay. I love all the things!

If you’ve played, then you know the joys of which I speak.

Who would have thought a simple game (that I wasn’t even sure about to begin with would turn out to begin with) to be so much fun?

Well That Didn’t Take Long

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Well, I did it.  I changed my mind.

About what, you may ask?

The wall!  I changed my mind about the wall!

If you’ll recall from this post, I really wanted to paint.  Specifically, this wall in my house.

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I felt my home really needed an accent wall, but I was going to do my best to wait until the pandemic was over.

Then I got an itch.  And I needed to do something!  So I went out and bought paint samples for the two colors I liked best.

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But as time has passed and I lived with the colors, I came to a very different conclusion.

I don’t actually like either one of them for this room!

Yup.  They gotta go.  It didn’t take too long.  I noticed after about a week that the colors weren’t quite what I wanted, and they pretty much stayed that way.

It also doesn’t help that both colors made me want to paint the rest of the rooms that the wall is visible from, i.e. the kitchen and the dining room. That’s a no go.  I know I have the time, but that’s a lot of work and I have very high ceilings.

Whine.

So it’s back to the drawing board.  I still want to paint that wall, I just have to find a different color for it.  More researching on the internet for me!

When the “Worst” Thing Happens

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Okay, so not the worst, worst thing.  But still.

The worst thing happened!

My Nintendo Switch died!

I should maybe explain that I started playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons recently.  I had never played an Animal Crossing game before.  I found it highly entertaining.  I played, according to my Switch before it died, for 125 hours or more.   Not to mention the hours I had put into my replay of Breath of the Wild.

Then on Saturday, I put my Switch to sleep to go make dinner, and it didn’t want to wake back up.

I did everything I could to bring it back.  I even called my husband down to come and look at it.

Nothing worked.  It was well and truly dead.

Bother.

My husband did have one minor solution though.  See, we are a two switch household.  We discovered a while ago that we both like playing Switch game and taking it on trips and the like.  So two Switches quickly became a necessity in our lives.

The hubs just suggested I use his until we could send mine off to Nintendo for repairs.  Which will be a while, since the repair center is closed due to Covid-19, as it should be.

With the hubs’ great sacrifice, I was off!

I did have to start the game all over again, but I learned from the last time I played.  What took me almost two weeks to do last time, took me a day and a half to do this time.

I’m trying hard not to do things the same way.  I picked a different roof color for my house, for example.  And of course, the island is different.  And I got all new villagers, which is great, though I did like my old villagers.

Oh!  And because I had gotten Nintendo Switch Online, I didn’t lose all my gameplay for Breath of the Wild!  Still wish you could back your Animal Crossing island up though!

 

When Life Has Got You Down

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Well hello!

Mental health check!  How are you?

Me, I’m on a mild downswing with my bi-polar disorder.  For me, that means mild depression.  Oh joy.

I say mild because that’s what it is.

I find myself having a lack of desire to do things other than sitting around my house playing Animal Crossing.  And I only want to do that because it involves just sitting around my house!

I’m having trouble falling asleep at night and then, in the morning, I’m having trouble waking up!  That’s what you call a no-win situation. It’s because of the lack of sleep the night before leads to a desire to sleep in, but the alarm I set to try and wake myself up every day says no.  Bother.

This week I told myself I was going to start doing things.  I know, doing things won’t snap me out of my depression, nor do I expect it to, but my house won’t clean itself.

When I looked at the idea of cleaning my house it felt too daunting, so I skipped doing something on Monday.

On Tuesday I told myself that I was going to clean the master bathroom.  That didn’t happen.  It felt like an insurmountable task.  Like Sisyphus and his boulder.

Then, on  Wednesday, I decided to try something different.  If the idea of cleaning a whole room felt too huge, why not just clean part of it.

So I cleaned the shower.

Finally, a win!

I did something.

Thursday, I woke up early and met with my psychiatrist.  He doesn’t recommend changing my medication at this time, because, like most people, my change of mental state can be directly related to the chaos caused by Covid-19, even though my day to day life hasn’t changed much.

So for now, I just have to remember to be not to harsh with my self when I find it hard to get out of bed and to practice good self-care.

Oh, and lots of cuddles with this one.

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Happy Star Wars Day!

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May the 4th be with you!

I love that pun.  nevermind that it is a very clever marketing tool to get Star Wars fans everywhere to buy new merch and watch the movies.  It totally works.

I mean, I woke up this morning to buy a pair of Star Wars Minnie ears from Disney for my upcoming trip only to find out that they were more than I was willing to pay for something I was only going to wear once.  $80 for a pair of Minnie ears Disney?  Really?

They were cute though.

Droid Ear Headband by Ashley Eckstein for Her Universe – Star Wars – Limited Release

It may be a day for merch, but it’s also a day for nostalgia.

See, my first memories of Star Wars are shared with my father.  He was the first person I saw the original trilogy with.  And I’m not gonna lie, after the last movie, Rise of Skywalker, I may have cried in the theater as the credits were rolling because I wasn’t able to share this final movie with him.

It was bittersweet.

So today, I’ll watch that original trilogy.  I’ll celebrate all things Star Wars.  I’ll remember my dad and the times we spent watching the movie together.

Today, I will be unapologetically nerdy.  Just the way May the 4th is supposed to be.

That’s It, I’m Giving In

Lauren1 Comment

Well, I cracked.  I did it.  I gave in.  I decided to listen to my inner mental health cheerleader and paint the wall!

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Yes, this bland fireplace wall is gonna get an update.

And the hubs will be so relieved that he no longer has to listen to me complain about it.  Heck, I will no longer have to listen to me complain about it!

Right now I’m in the color selecting process.

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I did that by going online to various paint-related stores and searched their online catalogs.  Lowes and Sherwin Williams both had tools where you could upload your own home photo and see what the color would look like in the room that way.

I narrowed it down to two colors, both in different color families.

HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams Caviar Interior Paint Sample (Actual Net Contents: 8-fl oz)

Caviar by HGTV Home By Sherwin Williams.

HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams Dark Night Interior Paint Sample (Actual Net Contents: 8-fl oz)

And this is Dark Night by HGTV Home by Sherwin Williams.

Now I am choosing the colors by not painting them on the wall but on a canvas.  I have no access to posterboard right now, and I have the blank canvases in the house and I figured, why not.

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This method helps me choose a color without committing to painting the wall should I decide that I dislike either color.

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Use as many coats on your sample as you would on the wall for maximum opacity (is that actually a word or did the beauty gurus make it up?).

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Each color is so very different.   I have one I am leaning towards though.  Which one do you think it is?

 

A Musical Day

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Like so many us, my mental health hasn’t been great lately.  I have generalized anxiety, among other things, so pretty much everything has the opportunity to make me anxious.  And lately, there’s been a lot to be anxious about.

So I decided to take a day for me.

That’s right, I’m taking a self-care day!

I know I’ve talked my friends and family to death about this on social media because it makes me happy, but this past Friday all the musical things came out.  There were two Disney musical experiences and Phantom of the Opera!  I also watched some Golden Girls in between my musicals.

Yup, my self-care day was full of musicals and the Golden Girls.

And also cake!

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I made a vegan chocolate cake the other day, so I can eat as much of it as I want and not upset my egg allergy! Mind you I only had one piece on my self-care day.  It’s a self-care day, not a make yourself sick on chocolate cake day.

Time for self-care has never been more important.  If you can’t break away for a whole day, try for an hour or two.  Just make some time for yourself.

You deserve it.