As mentioned in a previous post, I love dark chocolate and strongly dislike (being polite) white chocolate. However, when it comes to cakes and cupcakes….
If you ask me: Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate or White Cake?
My answer almost every single time is going to be…
White cake. Vanilla ice cream. Unless strawberry is a choice, then my answer is…still going to be the same. I might take carrot cake over the strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla choices though.
I’d really probably rather have a slice of pie and even then, I’d prefer apple over chocolate. Still with the vanilla ice cream. I don’t want to think about the type of person who’d put chocolate ice cream on apple pie! No. Please, just don’t do that.
So to review: white cake and vanilla ice cream unless there’s pie. Then, I’ll have a slice of pie. Only ice cream? Still vanilla, please. Unless you happen to have spumoni? Then, I’ll be very happy with just a bowl of that.
What about you? Do you prefer chocolate or vanilla? What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
Happy Monday! It’s almost Spring, 27 days away according the my Farmer’s Almanac daily email.
The countdown is upon us. Winter is starting to pack his bags. Although I’m not so naive as to think he might not do some last minute sightseeing.
It’s also a holiday around here (President’s Day) so a bit of a later start today. Time to plan this shorter week with Sandra and her link up over at Diary Of A Stay At Home Mom.
The Weather
It’s a beautiful sunny day. Currently 58 degrees. It’s supposed to hit the 60’s a couple of times this week. Also, rain on Wednesday. And cold for the end of the week. Then, we yo-yo back up to the 50’s for Saturday and Sunday.
As I Look Outside My Window
Sunny blue skies, saw this bird (I think it’s a hawk of some sort though at first, I debated if it was an owl) across the street early this morning.
Right Now
I just got back from dropping off some donations. We went through a tub this morning. Or rather I did, an emotional one of things from my parents’ home. Kept very little of it. Time to let it go.
Thinking And Pondering
Quite a few things. Main thing on my mind is the meeting I have on Wednesday with J’s school counselor. Hoping and praying it goes well.
On My Bedside Table
Nothing but the lamp and phone charger but here’s a glimpse of my dresser. I don’t do as well at keeping it cleared of stuff. (Clothes, coupon book from store, framed photos that do belong there)
On My TV Tonight
Nothing tonight but I might watch an episode or 2 of the second season of You later today.
Listening To
I can hear G playing some online video game with his friends.
On The Lunch Plate
Nothing, wasn’t really hungry
On The Dinner Plate
Probably rotisserie chicken and salad.
On The Menu For This Week
I had this all worked out in my head at the store and now I’m drawing a blank!
MONDAY: Rotisserie chicken, asparagus, and salad *J has a baritone lesson at 6:30*
TUESDAY: It’s pancake Tuesday so what else would we have? Pancakes! Probably with either bacon or sausage as well.
WEDNESDAY: Chicken sausage, broccoli, and orzo skillet*I have a meeting with J’s high school counselor at 8:30*
THURSDAY: Steak sandwiches (stuff I bought at store, we’ll see…), potatoes
FRIDAY: Taco salads
On My Reading Pile
I’m between books but I’ll find one by tonight to read during J’s lesson. I did finally finish Kurashi at Home by Marie Kondo. Enjoyed it enough I’m pondering buying my own copy, it’s a pretty book.
Might look for another one from Loreth Anne White for tonight. Read The Patient’s Secret last week and it was pretty good.
On My To Do List
Grocery store *DONE*
Drop off donations at thrift store *DONE*
Spend some time outside
Finish paying bills
Get bird seed at Menards
Take back embarrassingly late library book (on Tuesday)
Plans This Week
Not sure, meeting at the high school, give the house a bit more of a cleaning, work outside on the nicer days clearing off the porch.
What I’m Creating
Really need to get started on that diamond art kit.
Simple Pleasure
Sunshine!
Looking Around The House
I did clean a bit over the weekend but it’s kind of hard to tell. Need to do it again. Trying to make our tiny entry area more welcoming. Time to lighten things up for spring as well.
From The Camera
Mostly took pictures of my flowers this week.
Quote For The Week
I stumbled across this a couple of weeks back and I keep thinking on it. Seems a pretty powerful sentiment:
That title seems clunky. Anyone else have trouble with blog post titles? Or is it just me? Maybe I should stick to the basics like the name of this category: Books and TV Shows. Anyway, I thought a long holiday weekend (Monday is President’s Day) might be a good time to share what I’ve been reading and watching lately.
Books
I recently read two very good books right in a row! They were very different types of books though both extremely well-written. Made the book I read after them both stand out for its glaring mediocrity.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
The first book, I somehow had mistakenly thought was going to be a comedic book. It was not. AT ALL. This was the heartbreaking memoir of the actress who played Sam on the show, iCarly. G used to watch that show when he was in middle school, I think.
Sometimes when I read memoirs, I question the claims of the author. She wrote this in a way that I didn’t do that. What I did question was how so many adults could fail her. Basically this is a story of child abuse. She spends so much time trying to please her mentally unstable mother that she loses herself, to a career she never wanted, to eating disorders (her mother basically teaches her to be anorexic!), and the wrong relationships. There are adults in this book who notice but then, seem to do nothing. It is truly heartbreaking but not without hope as by the end of the book she’s beginning to find her voice and her calling as a (clearly very talented) writer. Worth your time.
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
I’ve been a fan of Celeste Ng since first reading Little Fires Everywhere. By the way, I never could make it through the Hulu series despite loving the book. Not sure why. Her newest book, does not move at a fast pace. Honestly, the beginning is a bit slow, considering this is a Dystopian novel of sorts. In this story, a law passed by congress after a “crisis” makes it possible to remove children from parents who are suspected of working against the government.
It focuses on a young Asian boy and the disappearance of his mother after her poem is used in several protests. Is his mother a traitor? The law in the book is used and abused to discriminate again mostly Asian families. It’s hard to give a proper plot summary without spoilers but while the book could feel a bit political yet doesn’t, it seems a lot more chillingly possible than the likes of something like The Hunger Games. Even the ending felt realistic to me. If you are looking for a work of fiction that makes you think with well-developed characters, this is it. Each character made me consider how I would want to react to things vs. how I would actually react to the things happening in the book.
I do suggest having a good light romantic comedy or something funny lined up as your next read as both the books I mentioned here were pretty intense. I just finished Smells of Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman (#4 in a series) which while not her best had just enough sarcasm and snark to balance out some of the heaviness of my last few reads.
Or just plan to move on and watch some TV instead.
My TV Viewing Lately
Did you know the Amazon fire stick doesn’t work if it’s super outdated? We had to get a new one! Annoying but at least now we have special buttons to go right to Netflix or Disney.
Streaming Shows:
My oldest is happy because I finally started watching You over on Netflix. Somebody, please tell me why I am cheering for a psychopath stalker over here? What is wrong with me?
Still watching the one episode a week of the David Tennant era of Doctor Who.
And I started casually re-watching my favorite show of all time, Fringe over on HBO Max.
Regular TV Shows
The Masked Singer is back! So excited to be watching that one again. That said, I do wish they’d go back to the format where they only did one unmasking a show. I’m kind of over the whole battle royale set-up of it all.
I also enjoy Next Level Kitchen though I missed most of the season premiere of it for some reason.
Things I don’t go out of my way to watch but will sit and watch if they happen to be on when I have time to watch: Just Call Me Kat, The Rookie: Feds, Whose Line Is It Anyway, the new Night Court one. Random PBS documentaries.
If my husband has the remote, he’s usually watching either Forged in Fire, Pawn Stars, Swamp People, the Tree Logging one (that one really annoys me!), or one of the bazillion seasons of Top Chef. And I’m reading one of my books.
This is a bit of an overdue post on my Galentine’s Day dinner as well as our Valentine’s day. Wanted to share before the details faded any more from my mind. I’m going to work backwards and start with my Valentine’s Day. I’ll have a lot more to say about Galentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day
This was a work day for me and a pretty low key day. Our work party (for the preschool kids) was fun though the weather wasn’t cooperative. They keep this holiday very simple at my work. The kids decorate paper lunch bags with stickers, have an ice cream party, and then exchange Valentines. It was tiring entertaining hyped up on sugar kids with no outside option but the kids had fun.
At home, we were very low-key. I’d started losing my voice on Monday night and working all day Tuesday didn’t improve things. We planned to order in from our favorite Chinese restaurant but they were closed for Valentine’s Day! So we made do with Hawaiian Bros which was very good and probably a little (a lot) cheaper than the Chinese restaurant. I just gave all the boys a package of Kit Kats and my husband a card. He gave me flowers and a card. The kids just gave me a card (which they actually forgot to give me until last night). It was a nice, relaxing night. Much needed since I worked the next day as well.
Galentine’s Dinner
Fresh Strawberry Cheesecake
This happened last week but today is the first day I’ve had time to share about it. We all met for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza. And we all exchanged “tokens of love and friendship” which stressed me a bit trying to figure that one out.
The Galentine’s Day Gifts I Put Together:
I opted to go simple by filling a gift bag with a few meaningful small gifts. Homemade chocolate chip cookies to start.
And, since the price of eggs lately is so high lately, I did this:
Not the best photos here. I took plastic Easter eggs, filled them with Hershey’s Kisses (strongly recommend the Lava Cake flavor if you can find it!), and added Fortune cookie sized strips of paper with the words “our friendship is priceless” printed on them.
Finally, I added small flower rockets and small Valentine’s day cards where I wrote “may our friendship continue to grow” as my message. I also gave everyone a heart necklace from the Dollar Tree just for fun (and wore one myself).
My Galentine’s Day Gifts From My Friends
Such wonderful, thoughtful, and fun gifts! A new plant, a homemade bracelet, a beautiful scarf, more flower seeds to plant, and of course, candy!
It all worked out great in the end. I’m very blessed to have so many wonderful friendships in my life. The Galentine’s Day dinner was with a group of my mom friends. We’ve been friends for over 20 years now as we met through our local Mom’s Club. We were actually the founding members of the group in this area.
A Few Funny Moments From The Night
Chicken Bellagio from the Cheesecake Factory
Shall I just confess to you all that I’m a mess? See my lovely dinner pictured above? It was delicious by the way! And the Cosmopolitan drink back there? (Also delicious) I managed to spill my first one all over the table before our food even arrived!
Side note here: While the food was very good indeed, let me just say we were all a bit startled by our bills (drink prices mostly). Cheesecake Factory is definitely a special occasion location. Or maybe a lunch date place.
Then, at home, I look in the mirror and I have a red “rash” all over my neck. Start panicking thinking I’m having an allergic reaction to the drinks or something in the food. Until, I realize my allergic reaction is wiping off on my hands. Cheap plastic Dollar Tree necklace turned my neck red from the beads. SIGH. I know for sure it was the necklace because I wore it again on Valentine’s Day and had the same issue.
This was the first time we’ve ever had a Galentine’s Day celebration. Imagine it won’t be the last.
Have you ever celebrated Galentine’s Day? How was your Valentine’s Day and/or Galentine’s Day if you celebrated it?
This is just a quick post. I had another unexpected day of work. This is a day I’d normally skip posting. Too tired to think. However, I wanted to do a quick check-in for the Blog 365 goal. No pictures to share from my day. Time for me to read my book or spend some time with Netflix. Still need to do the post on what I’m reading and watching as well. So many posts in my mind. So little time to sit at the computer.
Have you ever seen red snow? Me either. However, it’s what they call it when the hometown football team wins the Super Bowl and they cancel almost all the schools so parents/kids/staff can attend the victory parade.
Note, I said almost all schools. Most of the public schools closed for today. However, no red snow at my work where I’ll be today. Hoping we might find a way to watch the parade but if not, that’s okay as well.
The Weather
While we aren’t really getting red snow (unless it’s in the form of confetti), we are under a winter weather advisory starting at 9PM tonight. Right now though it’s pretty mild for February around here, 38 degrees and cloudy.
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Hopefully, I’ll be spending part of this winter Wednesday outside with the preschool kids before the weather moves into our area. (I know it says 9PM tonight but they don’t always get the timing of things right around here)
Is it odd that I don’t have spring fever any more? And wouldn’t mind just a touch of winter weather? I thought it was so strange yesterday driving through the park how it still looks like fall and not winter even now near the end of the season. (32 days if you’re counting down to spring)
Yesterday, I lost my voice, it’s still pretty scratchy and I’m pretty tired today. Looking forward to the end of the day when I can come home and relax for a few days at least.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to share posts that are bit more polished the next few days as well. And of course, visit all of you. Trying to sneak a few visits in the this morning but I do need to watch my time!
Just a quick check in post to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day! In a very few short minutes, I’m off to work. It’s a rainy day here in KC, so wish all the preschool and elementary teachers doing Valentine’s Day parties luck today.
Didn’t have to buy myself flowers this morning. (Ha, if you know the song I just referenced, tell me how often do you hear on the radio? I like it but the station seems to play it all the time.)
And yes, those are marshmallow peeps in the bottom left corner, that’s my husband’s purchase and not part of my Valentine. I told him it was way too early.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday!
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(Probably won’t have much of a chance to visit all your wonderful blogs until tomorrow evening)
You knew I had to do that, right? And it was a good game as well.
Okay, now it’s time to quickly join in with Sandra over at Diary Of A Stay At Home Mom for the Happy Homemaker Monday link up. I’ve only got about 35 minutes before I need to leave for work so this is going to be a quick one. (Let me apologize in advance for the lack of pictures in this post.)
The Weather
Nice today, highs in the upper 50’s. WooHoo, preschool kids get to go OUTSIDE. Rain all day tomorrow. High 40’s for Chiefs Victory parade day and then, I think it turns a bit cooler for the rest of the week.
As I Look Outside My Window
Blue skies and sunshine, going to be a beautiful day.
Right Now
This post, then work, followed by J’s baritone lesson. Grocery store afterward.
Thinking And Pondering
J’s still struggling a bit with getting to school and I’m at the point where I’m just done. I know that sounds awful but I’m so tired of not knowing every morning what’s going to happen. And it just seems like every time I get my hopes up that things are going better, we have a slip. Can I please cut in line to have my breakdown now?
On My Bedside Table
Just the lamp and a phone charger but you don’t want to see my dresser!
On My TV
Chiefs coverage mostly. Earlier yesterday, I did watch the first episode of You. I’m hooked.
Listening To
I started the dishwasher before running down here so I can hear it running upstairs.
On The Lunch Plate
No idea what’s for lunch at work but I’m taking a PBJ with me today.
On The Dinner Plate
I need to go to the store and I work until 5. They’re going to have to fend for themselves. Honestly, I’m thinking about getting an “87” concrete (special ice cream flavor from a local place) and calling it dinner
On The Menu This Week
Chocolate covered strawberries “Chiefs colors” for the Super Bowl Party yesterday
This category is such a mess after we’ve been eating out so much and all having different things.
MONDAY: On Their Own *I work 8:30-5* *J has a baritone lesson at 6:30*
TUESDAY: Maybe roast in the crockpot? *I work 8:30-4:15* OH, I just remembered it’s Valentine’s Day. Maybe OUT. Chocolate pie for dessert. I don’t know.
WEDNESDAY: Roast in the crockpot? *I might work 8:30-5 depending on whether or not school closes for the Chiefs parade, I imagine I’ll be working*
THURSDAY: A day to breathe! Maybe pepper steak that I keep putting on the menu and then, not making.
FRIDAY: No school for J (officially)…maybe spicy potato soup and homemade bread?
All of the above is subject to change and probably will change.
On My Reading Pile
Between books again. Probably going to share about a couple I read in a different post. Yesterday I finished up All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers. It was ok, not the best. Of course, in fairness, the two books I read prior were excellent so it made the mediocracy a bit more apparent.
On My To Do List
Work
Figure out Valentine’s Day
Grocery Store
Probably other stuff
Plans This Week
Work, Valentine’s Day, Watch the Chiefs parade if I’m home, maybe relax at some point?
Simple Pleasure
Hanging out with friends
Looking Around The House
Looks like we had a Super Bowl party here instead of going to one.
From The Camera
Hoping I do better with this category next week. Here’s a phone pic I snapped this morning of my holiday cactus. Looks like more blooms in the future!
On My Prayer List
Friends, family, strangers. The people of Turkey and Syria.
New week. Chiefsmas is the unofficial name of the day in Kansas City. Hoping for a win in the big game!
Still need to take time, however, to post for the Blog 365 challenge. I’m finding my Sunday posts falling into a bit of a pattern where I simply share a few photos and quotes on a topic. Love is the word for the day with Valentine’s Day around the corner.
(Photos are combination of new and old ones)
Love is patient love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. ( 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)
Who being loved is poor? (Oscar Wilde)
Let all that you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14)
A friend loves at all times. (Proverbs 17:17)
Look here and here for my bible verses on love (and in the bible!). Find other great quotes about love here and on Pinterest.
