I really struggle with the holly-jollyness of Christmas some years – there’s no sense in pretending otherwise. Yes, I have a lovely home and a great husband and son and good family and friends, and I am very, very thankful for them, but there’s a lot of bullshit to put up with at this time of year, too. So I’m…
Year: 2017
Pay It Forward: 25 Days of Grinchmas
“Maybe Christmas,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more…” — Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas December is always a rough month for me – Christmas magic is hard enough to produce without the stress of celebrating with strained family relations and various other non-holiday malarky, such as my husband’s annual…
Philosophy: El Caganer
Instead of storytime this week, I thought I would introduce you gentle readers to the complicated but entirely accurate concept of El Caganer. (If you are easily offended regarding religion, it might be best if you skipped this entry!) Translated as “The Defecator” or “The Shitter,” El Caganer is a creation of the people of Catalonia, Spain, who place a…
No Nonsense November Wrap Up
I had planned to cover a different topic every week this month, but I didn’t stay quite as true to posting about my efforts as I would’ve liked. Such is life! I posted more than zero times, though, so I’m taking that as good progress. Here’s some other progress I made in my challenge: I fought disorganization and “analysis paralysis”…
Happy Thanksgiving
“It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is that you like to do, and the holiday season – like all the other seasons – is a good time…
Book Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck
The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck (2015) is a self-help spin on Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the source of the popular KonMari method of decluttering and organization. Rather than tidying up your house, Sarah Knight encourages you to tidy up your mind by policing the amount of “fucks” (emotional energy) you give over things that…
Video: Gratitude Journal
I made my first flip-through video today and posted it on youtube! Hooray, progress! Here is my Gratitude Journal for 2017 – taa daaaaa! Someday I’ll figure out how to embed it, but for today, just making it and posting it was enough! This project was a fun one, but I will admit that I struggled with it at first. …
No Nonsense November Week 2: Meal Plan and Grocery Shopping
Present Kim is high-fiving Past Kim in a big way this month, and all because I put the effort into planning out an entire month’s worth of food and sundry consumption for my household. This version of No Nonsense isn’t exactly new to me – I used to do this type of thing back when I worked more regular hours…
No Nonsense November Week 1: Cleaning the Carpet
Last week, my biggest project was a household affair that I’ve been putting off for literally over a decade: shampooing my carpets. I am certain that the length of time that elapsed from the last time we had the carpets cleaned (which when we moved into this house 12 years ago) will gross some of you out, and for that…
Storytime – The Ballad of The Snowball
The year was 1992. I was 14 years old, a Freshman in high school, and trying hard to be madly in love with a boy with whom I’d been friends all through grade school and who lived just down the street from me. His name was Jeremiah Fletcher, and he had the most beautiful, long-lashed, big blue eyes I’d ever…
No Nonsense November
This month I want to do something that’s kind of a cross between goal-getting and a 30-day challenge – I’m calling it No Nonsense November. I’m defining it as my absolute refusal to put up with my own nonsense or that of others for the next month in an attempt to be happier overall. via GIPHY (well, maybe not all…
Throwback Thursday – Weird Al Lovin’
So my handy dandy calendar reminded me that October 12 is the 4th anniversary of the day when nearly grinned my teeth right out of my head while I petted Mr. Alfred Matthew Yankovic’s hair like a bunny backstage after a concert. This action may not sound like the achievement of a lifelong goal to some, but believe me, gentle…
40 at 40
Today I am 40! As my son would say so succinctly, “Well, THAT happened.” I’m not quite sure how I’m feeling about hitting this milestone – I’m swirling a little bit of high-fiving myself for making it this far and a little bit of abject terror at what to do with myself in this next season of life into one…