High winds are prompting my to write this earlier than usual on Tuesday. Fires are already breaking out and the winds are supposed to get worse. I haven’t seen winds this strong in a long time.

But today I’m here to talk about the Reading Monster I’ve created: Wizard! So I had two books sitting around that I hadn’t had time to read, “That Will Never Work” by Marc Randolph (one of the founders of Netflix), and “Play Nice But Win” by Michael Dell (founder of Dell computers). Wizard stole my Dell book and started reading that.

Then he read the Netflix book.

Then last night he wanted to go to Barnes and Noble to look at books. I showed him how to find more biographies on business, he found one and suddenly he was hooked. By the end of the evening browsing, he had three books but finally chose three on various subjects. I was like a proud mom, LOL!! Wizard will read occassionally, but I’ve never seen him WANT to go to a bookstore and look at books because he was afraid he’d run out of books at home to read. That’s new and awesome!

I’ve read the Netflix book and am 2/3s of the way through the Dell book (it was a slow start for me but now it’s interesting). I have other books on my Kindle so I’m not stressed I’ll run out of things to read.

Happy Wednesday!

My weekend was generally good. But I was defeated by a security tag…

So Friday I went shopping at Macy’s because I had a gift card. I found six shirts on sale at great prices. One shirt, however, came home with a security tag. It was the one shirt that didn’t have a tag so I brought another one just like it to the register so she could ring it up. Somewhere in the process of making a duplicate tag, the clerk 1) never put the tag on the shirt and 2) forgot to remove the security tag. In here defense, we were chatting the whole time she was ringing me up as we like the same brand of clothes. Anyway…it’s a LONG way to the store so I tried a couple internet hacks to get the tag off. I think I could have eventually gotten it off without setting off the dye, but the efforts were beginning to fray micro holes into the fabric. Annoyed, I threw it away.

But the rest of my shirts are great Stuff happens and I’m over it. By the way, this security tag situation happens more often than people might think, and therefore I usually double check before I leave the store. The one time I didn’t…and here we are. So that part is my fault.

I should also mention that I ruin shirts on a regular basis — usually in the kitchen while cooking or baking. I mean this way of ruining a shirt is new, but the overall experience is sadly familiar, LOL.

Otherwise, my weekend was good. We just did typical stuff on a normal weekend, nothing too exciting. If anyone’s wondering, I love my new weight bench! Mostly because it’s safe and much more stable for me. I really don’t love risking injury! I mean I can hurt myself walking down a hallway, so the least I can do is not invite injury with makeshift weight benches!

How was your weekend?

We had a good weekend, except for Wizard’s cold and cough. It seems to be running it’s course, but it’s not fun for him.

Saturday I finally broke down and bought a small weight bench. The makeshift one I was using wasn’t the safest set up! I consulted on weight bench with Youngest since he works out at home and he approved it. He also offered to help me pick it up. I am proud to announce I was able to get it all by myself Well, okay, the guy who worked at the store put it in the car for me, but I carried it in the house with no problem.

Now we just have to assemble it, hopefully today. Wizard will help because he wants to, and he wants to make sure it’s safe. I’m thinking he doesn’t fully trust me, LOL. But I’ll take the help!

Sunday I went to Oldest’s house to hang out with Turbo. I haven’t had a chance to just chill with my grandson in a while and that was fun. They told me that with all the viruses Turbo and his friends bring home, they weren’t worried about me spreading Wizard’s cold. It was such a nice day! I watched Turbo play Minecraft (a video game), then we went outside and played some catch and kickball (I watched because I didn’t want to reinjure my ankle that’s healing so well), and finally we went to lunch followed by a trip to buy Turbo a small toy. I loved the low key easy day! I got home two hours later than I thought I would, but Wizard was fine. He ate soup and slept a lot. He probably got more rest with me gone.

Today I hope to get to Trader Joes, assemble the weight bench if Wizard is up to it, maybe buy some heavier weights, and we’d like to draw up a yearly budget for things beyond our standard monthly stuff. It’s not set in stone, but it helps us narrow down things we’d like to do and figure out if we can budget it. It also helps motivate us to actually do them. A lot of people would hate that, but we found it works for us. I know some couples feel stressed just trying to plan ahead. To each their own!

I miss Baby Girl but I don’t want to risk getting her or her parents sick while she’s still so young. She’ll be there when this virus leaves. So far, I’m fine, but there’s no predicting if I’ll get sick or not.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve! I can’t believe it! We plan to stay home and I should be here on New Year’s Day if any of you are around.

How was your weekend?

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!! And sharing a picture of my granddaughter wearing pajamas that Uncle Oldest got her. I hope your holiday is as bright and happy as her smile.

Happy two days before Christmas!!! I hear Santa’s checking his list twice and making sure the Reindeers are resting up and loading up on their carbs to fly! So for the weekend:

Saturday was an amazing and way too much fun family party! I think we all had a great time. It was just sheerly a casual but good time with everyone in a good mood and really to play. Turbo got Dad and one of his Aunties to play soccer. All went great until Turbo took a hit right in the face. Everyone winced at the same time. But Turbo shook that off fast, and got back to playing something else. Later that evening, he finally sat still and began building a leg set that was about three years too old for him. Didn’t matter — his parents have taught him how to both read instructions and to figure out how things work by studying the pictures. It’s awesome to see how long and hard Turbo can concentrate and work a problem when he wants too.

When Baby Girl arrived and Youngest called Dibs from out front. I heard this from inside the house, and raced out to beat Youngest to the car I did politely hug her mom before grabbing her in case anyway thinks I’m rude, LOL. And her mom is awesome to be, happily sharing her daughter which I appreciate (as did Turbo’s mom). This baby is so chill, it’s mind-boggling. She’ll let us pass her around endlessly. She just loves watching everyone and is beginning to explore hands and mouth of course. Everything will go in her mouth if she can manage it. Turbo was (and is) a bundle of nonstop energy with an engineer’s mind. This baby is more laidback, but we’ll see….I feel like she’s absorbing and learning and we’ll see her personality really unfold.

We ate, opened gifts, had dessert and then a Nerf Gun Battle broke out with my sons. Sigh, I got shot like three times by supposedly friendly fire and no one was even sorry. Probably because he didn’t hurt me, but still! Somehow we managed to keep Baby Girl out of the line of fire and Turbo and Grandpa were playing Legos far away from the firefight. But my sons were leaping over furniture and rolling across the floors, cracking the rest of us up. Because we’re all high class like that…obviously.

So it was just a lovely afternoon and evening of family time.

Sunday we were tired, and I tried to give my body a recovery day (from a long super busy week plus a couple careful workout while guarding my ankle). But dang, my brain was drumming it’s fingers going, do you know what we could be getting done? Someone needs to drug my brain, really. I did manage to take nearly a full day to do lowkey things and sit around.

How was your weekend?

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas or whatever version of the holiday you celebrate! I may put a quick post up on Wednesday, but I want to make sure I wish you all a joyous time with your loved ones!

I was getting so irritated at a book I was listening to that was supposed to be a mystery — until I realized I had missed that there was two women protagonists, not one. There’s a single narrator and she’s pretty good, so this isn’t on her. It’s me — I’m baking and doing a bunch of stuff while listening so it just slipped by me. And somehow the book was coming across as one woman whining about a breakup.

Once I caught onto the chapters alternating between the two women’s POVs the book got much more interesting!  There is a women upset about the breakup, but there’s a mystery (or maybe a suspense) brewing up in there too.

I’m not always the brightest, LOLOL!! But seriously, I’d never miss this when reading a physical or Kindle book, but I sure can listening to an Audible book while I’m doing other things at the same time. Especially since I’ve been doing random math in my head while baking for doubling and quadrupling recipes. Plus I change the technique and that requires a shift in baking temp and times. So much math

I’m guessing you all don’t make this same mistake????

Happy Wednesday!

Yep, the weekend came and went with nothing exciting to report. I felt Grinchy on Sunday, but that will probably pass by today. It’s just achiness and a bit of insomnia. Plus I’m not resting my ankle much because…who has time for that? I did minimal cleaning, wrapped gifts, went to Walmart and spent and obscene amount on baking stuff. I’ll have flour, sugar, butter and chocolate left over, but hopefully won’t run short as I bake as I sometimes have to pivot recipes for various reasons and wanted to make sure I have what I need. I’m still looking for cranberries, pistachios and of all things, candy canes.

This morning I’m going to the dentist, then a couple errands on the way home, and get I’ll started on baking and writing out a few Christmas cards. I’m feeling oddly lazy and not motivated to bake, but I’ll probably get into it once I start. Also no one is making me do this, so the only pressure I feel is self imposed

I also need to come up with a dessert for our family party on Saturday…suggestions welcome but I’m not too worried about it yet. That I can conjure up pretty quickly if needed.

That was my weekend, how was yours?