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!