Currently : November 2024

I used to love joining another Currently linkup each month, but I discovered after I stopped blogging for a while that the one I used to join doesn't happen anymore. I was excited to find a new Currently linkup to join! 

Loving : The attempts at cooler weather. I'm a summer girl, and I love warm weather, but at a certain point, temperatures in the 80s get a little old, especially when you're sweating on Halloween because you wanted to wear the cute thin sweatshirt you got before you pack away your Halloween clothes for another year. I'm ready for crisp weather, but this week, we're still having highs in the mid-70s, so I guess I'll love and appreciate the cooler-ish weather and the much-needed rain we're supposed to have. 

Looking forward to : Thanksgiving Break! Listen, these kids at work have been wound up since the Tuesday before Halloween. I know this happens every year, but I'm feeling it extra hard this year for some reason and am so ready for a week off!

Smelling : Pumpkin stuff...for just a little bit longer. I have a very weird and specific schedule when it comes to pumpkin flavored and pumpkin scented items. I'm usually ready to flip the switch to Peppermint and Peppermint Mocha by November 1, but this year since I have some pumpkin scented items left that I want to use up, I'll smell that pumpkin-y fresh smell just a little bit longer than usual. 

Preparing for : Christmas shopping by trying to tighten up our budget and Christmas decorating by cleaning and decluttering. It's a coin toss for which one I'll be more successful at! 

Thankful for : My family! I'm always so thankful for how supportive and loving they are, especially when I come home crabby from work or am not myself. 

Linking up with Jenn! 

Top Ten Tuesday : Books with Election Day/Voting elements on the cover

Hello and happy Tuesday! I'm joining the Top Ten Tuesday linkup because I like the different book-related prompts each week and hope it'll push me to read even more!Today, the prompt is the Top Ten book covers with an item of my choice on them. Since today is Election Day, I thought I would share ten books with Election Day or voting elements on the cover. I haven't read any of these and am 1,000% judging the books by their covers so I'd love feedback from anyone who's read them! Also, all of these are geared towards younger readers, but I still think they would be interesting and informative, plus a little more fun to read than political books for adults!

 

Just a heads up - the product links are affiliate links, so if you purchase anything, I'll earn a small commission...that I'll probably spend on books! 😉

1. Duck For President

2. Grace For President

3. One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote

4. I Voted

5. If I Ran for President

6. The Little Book of Presidential Elections

7. My First Election Day

8. What Is a Presidential Election?

9. Leo's First Vote

10. V is for Voting

 

Linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl!

Prime Purchases : November 2024

Happy Monday! I'm joining the Prime Purchases linkup today because I love to share the cool things - and the duds - that I've purchased, plus I like looking at what other bloggers have bought and enjoyed, especially as we head into the holiday season and I need gift ideas (for myself and others!). 

Just a heads up - the product links are affiliate links, so if you purchase anything, I'll earn a small commission...that I'll probably spend on more Prime Purchases! 😉

Yoga Pants

I'm always looking for comfortable clothes to wear on the weekends, so when I discovered these yoga pants with the cool leg detail, I decided to give them a try. I really like how these fit, plus the way the legs are designed make them look a little more put together than just plain sweats. I got these in black, but I think I want some dark gray ones too!

Smile Graphic Novel

Guts Graphic Novel

Our daughter has gotten into graphic novels lately, and as a librarian, I love that she found a book format that she enjoys and wants to read! She got Sisters from her book fair back in September and read Smile and Guts from both of our school libraries. She's read them all multiple times, so we decided to order them for her so she'd have them to read anytime she wanted to. 

USB Charging Port

I'm trying to set up a device charging station on the narrow table behind one side of our sectional couch. I've got a little wooden box with dividers that I've been using, but the plug situation isn't great. I got this smaller USB charging port plug in hopes that it would solve the issues that I had with the charging station. I haven't set it up yet because I haven't taken the time to do it, so we'll see how it actually works once I make myself do it!

Chipboard Sheets

This is 100% a purchase for my husband! He plays Warhammer and watches Warhammer terrain creators online. A couple of them suggested using these chipboard sheets to build various terrain items, so he wanted to test it out. I'm curious to see what he'll end up building with these!

I Am Wednesday (Little Golden Book)

Our daughter had book character dress up day at school on Halloween. She wanted to wear her Wednesday costume, so we ordered this I Am Wednesday book for her to have since she wasn't wearing a "traditional" book character costume. Turns out, there were a couple of other Wednesdays that day, including her teacher's daughter, so she never even got this out of her backpack! It's a short, cute book, plus it helped me get a book toward this month's goal of reading 8 or more books!

Boho Hexagon Earrings

I love earrings. I won't talk about how many pairs I have, but it's my biggest collection! This is the first of three earring orders from Amazon this month (plus a couple from a fall festival). These boho hexagon earrings are so small and pretty! I like all of the colors on them because they can go with a lot of different things. Plus, they're lightweight, which my ears appreciate!

Birthday Candle Earrings

Earring order number two was this set of fun birthday candle earrings! Even though my birthday isn't until July, I saw these while browsing, and they were a decent price, so I decided to order them and give them a try! I like how it includes multiples of some numbers, although I think I'll be out of luck when I turn 66, but I guess I can order another 6 sometime in the next 25 years...

Tiny Screw Back Earrings

Our daughter got her ears pierced about a year ago, and my mom got a couple of spots in her cartilage pierced about a month after that. Because of that, we get free earring coupons once a month. We discovered that we like flat back earrings, especially for cartilage and for wearing all of the time. Unfortunately, the store we get the coupons from has a limited flat back selection, so I decided to find some flat back earrings online and came across these tiny screw back earrings. There are a lot in this package, but I wanted to wear them in my bottom three earlobe piercings, and I wanted my mom to have some for her cartilage piercings. The backs of these are hard to screw on, but once I got it, they've been so comfortable and haven't moved! 

Mermaid Gymnastics Leotard

Our daughter's gymnastics gym has a night near Halloween when they encourage the students to wear costumes or themed leotards. I didn't want to get her a Halloween specific leotard since I knew she'd only wear it a couple of times at the most, so we browsed until we found this mermaid gymnastics leotard. It still had a costume vibe, but it's something she'll wear over and over again until she outgrows it.

Platform Snow Boots

My final purchase of the month was these platform snow boots. They just arrived, so I haven't tried them on or worn them yet, but they looked so comfortable and cozy that I wanted to give them a try. Of course, it's going to be in the 70s for the next week here, so I don't know when I'll get to wear them. I guess I'll miss this weather in January and February...

Linking up with Tanya!

Monthly Goals : November 2024

Hello, November! I love a new month, and I love to set goals for new months. Unfortunately, I haven't set many goals lately, so it's time to start sharing goals publicly again and giving myself a little bit of external pressure to finish them! ;) 

November 2024 goals:

1. Read 8 (or more!) books

My goal for the year was to read 100 books, and I'm currently at 84 books, which leaves me 16 books for the rest of the year. So, if I read at least 8 books this month, and 8 books in December, I'll hit my goal!

2. Start tracking my food again

I don't necessarily want to dive into counting calories and macros and trying to lose weight this month, but I do want to at least start tracking my food again and being a little more aware of what I'm consuming, especially since we're heading into the holiday season, and there's a lot more junk food available. 

3. Implement a weekday - and weekend - bedtime

I'm such a night owl, and while I don't think it's terrible to stay up late during school/work breaks, I've found myself staying up later and later, even on work nights. I've been hitting snooze a lot more and am so rushed in the mornings, and I'm tired of doing that! My goal is going to be 10 PM on weeknights and midnight on weekend nights. 

4. Deep clean/declutter living room

This was a goal in January 2021, but I never finished it. Lately I've been really tired of how cluttered and messy our house is, so this seems like a good time to start taking steps to improve things. Plus, it will help us have space to start decorating for Christmas!

5. Switch out Charli's summer and winter clothes and shoes

Even though it's supposed to be in the 80s here next week, eventually it will get colder, so I need to finish switching out her summer and winter clothes and shoes. It's a tedious process because she has so many clothes and shoes, plus I have to put the things that don't fit somewhere that I'll remember when it's consignment time, but it has to be done!

6. Blog and social media schedules

I've got ideas for this blog and a couple of other blog and social media projects. I've started making schedules for everything, but I need to finish those so I can really get things rolling.

7. Stick to our budget and spending/income trackers

I started a new way of budgeting and tracking our incomes and spending last month, and it seemed to help. This month, I want to be more proactive about tracking our spending and making sure that we're sticking to the budget. 

8. Find one new quick dinner recipe

We've gotten really bad lately about getting fast food or eating frozen meals for dinner. I want to find one new quick dinner recipe for us starting this month and going until I've got a list of items that we can throw together to keep us out of the drive through and freezer section. I'll take any suggestions that anyone has!

9. Make Charli's eye appointment

I've been so behind on making her eye appointment since we had to cancel the last one when she was sick. I know she's overdue for it, but I'm so bad about calling and doing it, especially because I don't want her to miss school, and since her doctor only works at one location now, so we'd have to see another doctor. I need to just do it!

10. Order new glasses

Rounding out the month is a task that I've been needing to do since at least July. I've had my glasses since March 2020, and I'm so tired of them! I went to the eye doctor in July and got my updated prescription, but I haven't managed to order new glasses yet. I have decision paralysis because there are so many good options on so many sites! I may have to crowdsource to figure out my best option!

Ten goals may seem like a lot for the month, but a couple of them shouldn't take too long to complete, and a couple of the goals will be fun to do, so hopefully I don't overwhelm myself!

Do any of you make monthly goals? If so, I'd like to hear about them!

Tiptoeing Back Into Blogging

Why hello.

How's everyone been for the last...two years?

Some things have changed in our world. I'm back working in an elementary school again. This time I'm a library assistant instead of a librarian, and although it's a lot easier, I'm still not sure if I'm made for the school world (except for when there are breaks, like right now, then this is THE BEST JOB EVER).

My husband is at a warehouse for a pet company and likes it most of the time. Our daughter is 8 and in third grade now, which seems unbelievable to me, especially after going back and reading through the archives on here. Our dog is 11 and still acts like an overgrown puppy. Last night he got a paper out of my work bag and one of our daughter's boots when we weren't giving him all of the attention he so richly deserves. That dog...

I'm not sure what's made me want to start blogging again, but I've had the urge a lot lately and decided to finally jump back in. Of course that also means that I've got 800 tabs open from blogs I used to read, linkup ideas, and another new blog that I want to start. Go big or go home, right? 

(Wait, does that phrase actually work here, since I'm at home writing it? Discuss amongst yourselves.)

I'm working on a posting schedule, so it shouldn't be another 2 years before my next update. 

How's everyone been? Let me know what's new in your lives!

What's Up Wednesday : August 2022

I've seen a few other bloggers participating in the What's Up Wednesday monthly linkup, and it looks fun, so I'm joining in this month!   

1. What We're Eating This Week: Pizza tonight for spirit night at Charli's school. Beyond that...who knows? I'm so bad about meal planning!

2. What I'm Reminiscing About: Taking Charli to the fair with my parents when she was little - maybe around 1.5 years old? Since Mom and I took her to the fair a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about it and how we had to change her diaper in a historical building while she was screaming. Fun times! This was also the first time any of us have been to the fair since we lost dad, and since he loved it, we talked about him too. 

3. What I'm Loving: Charli's independence! Although sometimes it's tough when she gets frustrated doing certain things, I'm seeing this independence more and more each day, and it's so cool to see her work through things on her own!

4. What We've Been Up To: Decluttering and cleaning thanks to help from my aunt and grandma, going to the fair, first grade math homework (ugh), gymnastics and Girl Scouts for Charli - August has been busy!!

5. What I'm Dreading: I can't think of anything I'm dreading right now!

6. What I'm Working On: Finishing tagging items for an upcoming consignment sale (I always procrastinate!!), the never-ending process of decluttering and cleaning, finding and sticking to side hustles

7. What I'm Excited About: Life changes! =)

8. What I'm Watching/Reading: I need to catch up on all of the episodes of America's Got Talent that I have recorded. I'm sure the season has probably ended or is about to at this point, so at least I can get through all of it at once! I also need to start on my Marvel list too! I'm reading books on my Erin 17.0 book challenge list, plus children's books for a potential side project I've been mulling over. 

9. What I'm Listening To: "Top Hits" on Spotify in an attempt to know at least a little bit of music from this decade. 

10. What I'm Wearing: Lounge clothes or old comfy dresses whenever I can!!

11. What I'm Doing This Weekend: Going to Charli's Girl Scouts event, swimming, working to implement some routines, decluttering, making a few things on the ol' Cricut, cleaning, and enjoying an extra day thanks to Labor Day

12. What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month: Football and (maybe) cooler weather! Although in Tennessee, fall usually takes its sweet time to get here and stick around! 

13. Favorite Amazon Product Of The Month: Since I've been in consignment tagging mode, it's gotta be the 100 pack of hangers that I'm quickly using up! FYI - that is an affiliate link, so if you click on it and purchase hangers or something way more fun on Amazon, I'll make a few pennies from your purchase, which I will then use to save towards more hangers for the next consignment sale...    

What's up with you? How has your August been? It's felt like it's only been about 15 minutes long here...

Linking up with Sheaffer and Shea

40 by 40 : Month 1 Update

I'm nearly one month into being 39, so it's time for my first 40 by 40 update!

1. Get another tattoo - Not yet, but I did find out that a tattoo artist who I follow on TikTok for her amazing glittery looking tattoos will be at a convention in Chattanooga in March. I want to see if it'll be possible for me to go because I would love one of her pieces!

2. Visit the beach - Definitely not yet!

3. Do a cartwheel - No, but I've been debating asking Charli's gymnastics coach for pointers. We'll see if I'm brave enough to do that, or if I'll just keep Googling it...

4. Purple hair - Not yet

5. Ride a bike - Not yet

6. Get a curl cut - Not yet

7. Find a skin care routine - Not yet 

8. Get my nose pierced...again - Not yet

9. Buy a new phone - Not yet

10. Create a will - Not yet

11. Have family pictures made - Not yet. One of our friends who is a photographer does amazing Christmas picture sessions with snow, usually in the fall, so that's the tentative plan for our family pictures!

12. Go to the eye doctor/get new glasses - Not yet

13. Make our family notebook - Not yet

14. Go to Cheekwood during the fall or spring - Not yet since it isn't fall or spring yet!

15. Try five new restaurants/coffee shops in the area - We tried two last month! One was a food truck that was at the farmer's market event I mentioned in my July Sentence A Day post and the other was where we had my belated birthday dinner with my in-laws. They were both really good...or at least I think so since I didn't have all of my sense of smell and taste back yet... (2/5)

16. Go to the dentist - Not yet

17. Take a picture in front of a Nashville mural - Not yet. Charli has a dentist appointment downtown (that I need to...ugh...call and reschedule), so whenever we're in Nashville for that, I'm going to go mural hunting!

18. Stick with our budget every month, starting in August - This one was a little bumpy for us! I recently had a change at work that switched my pay days from weekly to every two weeks, so we had to relearn how to budget our money when we didn't have money coming in weekly. We also both received pay raises, so we had to account for our new incomes, which unfortunately also made us spend a little more since "we had extra money" (theoretically). Half credit here. (0.5/12)

19. Set up a craft area - Not yet. I have a couple of ideas of how I want the space to look, but I haven't done anything yet because my plans involve moving a lot of furniture around, and some of it from upstairs to the basement, which I know Will is going to be thrilled about!

20. Go to a UT football game - Not yet since the first game isn't until September 1!

21. Do a 5K - Not yet. I think I'm going to aim for doing one on Thanksgiving. That gives me a little over three months to get back into the walking habit, plus it's so nice to feel like you accomplished something before stuffing your face!!

22. Take a weekend trip with Will - Not yet. If I can make the tattoo appointment in Chattanooga work, then that might be our trip!

23. Go kayaking - Not yet

24. Pay off most of our debt - Not yet. I'm working on some side hustles/ways to bring in extra income, so hopefully those will pan out and we can start paying extra on these things!

25. Go on six fun/different dates with Will - Not yet (0/6)

26. Go on six fun/different mom/daughter dates with Charli - I'm counting the splash pad and exploring the state park for our first one since it was somewhere she and I had never been to together. Plus, mom kept us supplied with snacks, so that made it even better! (1/6)

27. Try a new workout class - Not yet

28. Watch all of the Marvel movies/shows - I found a list of all of the movies and shows in chronological order of when the events happened in the MCU, and wow, let's just say I underestimated how many titles there were! I haven't started any yet, but I think this will be an item that I make a lot of progress on during the colder months!

29. Try two new recipes a month - We did two pretty simple recipes this month - one, a ham, cheese, and honey sandwich on waffles (Will didn't try it, but I enjoyed it!), and the other was the infamous red bag chicken from Aldi, which was really good! We've eaten that chicken several times in the last few weeks!

30. Read 100 books - So far I've read 6 books, so I'm a little short of my goal of 2 per week, but I'm making progress! (6/100)

31. Get a new tablet or e-reader - Not yet

32. Replace my broken Pandora bracelet - Not yet

33. Make a house projects list and complete one a month - I started lists for all of the rooms, and with the help of my aunt and grandma, we completed one task - clearing off the dining room table (along with the area on the floor around the dining room, Charli's room, and Charli's playroom! Woo hoo!). (1/12)

34. Buy new makeup and start a makeup routine - Not yet

35. Use the Instant Pot - Not yet

36. Play bingo in Kentucky - Not yet

37. Complete a 30 day challenge [TBD] - Nope but I'll look into picking a challenge before my Month 2 update so I'll at least have an idea of when I should do this. 

38. Monthly social media free days - Completed on August 4! (1/12)

39. Make $500 from freelance writing - $0 so far, but I have a few ideas of where to find some fast jobs, so we'll see if month 2 is better!

40. Get Koopa's DNA done - Not yet

The first month flew by, but I made some decent progress! Let's see how month 2 goes!