Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Things I'm Looking Forward to in May!

 April went by pretty quickly and was busy and full of good things (along with a lot of neutral things and a few blah things, because that's life!). As per usual, I'll do blog posts about it in a few weeks. For now, these are things I'm looking forward to in May, one of the nicest months!

A work photoshoot at one of Cape Cod's best beaches

John getting home for the summer until he leaves on his mission in August! 😱

Going on a Caribbean cruise with the boys and my mom! It will be our first cruise in six years, and it's my mom's first ever. It's a delayed graduation trip for John and something he wanted to do before his mission. We have two stops in Mexico, one in Honduras (where we've never been before), and one at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas (it will be our first time there too). I'm excited, but a little nervous--among other things, it will be my first time cruising without a husband, and I have a lot to do to get ready for the trip and to get done for work before I leave. But I'm excited and I think it's going to be so much fun. (I may need a vacation from it when I get back, however!)

Another fun meal at Pickity Place in New Hampshire

Lunch with various friends, one of whom I haven't seen in awhile

Memorial Day weekend. I've got the boys for it this year. 🙌 We'll do something low-key but fun. Most All of our activities are going to be low-key for awhile after the cruise!

Getting a big work project done, or well on its way to being done—developing and creating a space on our new member website for the Op-Ed Lab that I manage. I've never done something like this before. Hopefully it works! I'm actually kind of anxious about this, but it's a healthy "growth and learning are good" kind of anxious.

For my other editing job, there's a media party I'll be attending. I've never been to a media party. I'm in the big leagues now! 😄

I have a feeling that May is going to fly by!

Friday, April 26, 2024

March 2024 Randoms

I had this Rainbow Brite doll as a child and my sister Elizabeth had the other one. Fun memories!


I found the perfect birthday card for my nephew Rocco, who likes fish, except that it was for an uncle, not a nephew. So I just crossed out the "uncle" parts and wrote in "nephew." Genius, I know. It worked, though!


I liked this article about "rucking" and I want to do it since my favorite form of exercise is walking and hiking, and I'd like to get a little more resistance into it to help build my strength. This might be the perfect way! I'm looking forward to giving it a try this summer.


In March I read Remarkably Bright Creatures, a book that I really enjoyed for book club. The very day we were meeting, I came across this information about the remarkably bright octopus (one of the main characters of the book—weird, I know, but it worked really well!). Octopuses sure are smart.


Car selfie, probably while waiting during one of Sam's activities. In the first one, my hair is mostly free and flowing, and in the other, it's tucked behind my ears. I conduct hair experiments while I wait because I'm scientific and inquisitive like that. 😂


I went to this re-enactment at the library and it was very enjoyable. 
I like the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and last fall I bought an autographed copy of a new historical fiction book about her, The Lioness of Boston. I'm reading it now and it's okay. It's actually making me like her a bit less, to be honest!

It's Donna Summer, but it works for me too, right? 😁

After many years I got a new clipboard for the list that I print out every week that helps me to be organized and productive. The new clipboard is on the left and has a nice flat clasp, which is the main reason I got it. The old one is on the right, and I bid it a fond farewell for its service to my life and then put it in the "Donate" box.


My planner is the other essential that I use every day in planning out my days, weeks, and months. These are my not-so-secret weapons of living an organized and productive life. 


This was an interesting and mostly accurate article in The Wall Street Journal about the Church and its offshoots in light of the Church's purchase in March of important historical properties from one of the biggest offshoots. I'm so glad the Kirtland Temple is back under Church ownership again!


This is from a team leadership meeting for Wicked Good Mom Media (my Cape Cod Moms editor job) that was posted on Instagram or Facebook (or probably both). I love this job and am learning and growing so much from it, as well as from my MWEG job. I feel so blessed in my career opportunities.


More reassurance about retirement assets. My retirement savings are far greater than this right now and are higher than the amount for married couples, too. Now it just needs to stay that way and grow even more, barring an epic crash or dramatic change in life in America in the future (which as you know I think is more likely to happen than not).

I didn't have this as a child, but I want it now! 😂 Baths are one of my favorite things, and I miss having a jacuzzi tub!


Ode to a purse! This is another thing that I used for years and bid a fond farewell too. 


Green is my favorite color and this was a great purse that I got at Kohl's years ago. I switch out my purses each month and I mostly used this one in December and March for the holidays in those months. It still worked but the handles were getting pretty worn at the top (which you can't see in this picture). So I took a picture, thanked it for its service to my life (this is Marie Kondo's advice in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and it actually helps me to let things go!), snapped a picture, and put it in the Donate box. Farewell, my pretty green purse; may you go on to new adventures in life! 😄

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Wisdom, Humor, and Inspiration in March

 Bonus points for me today: I organized these by category! 

Wisdom

Caesar was a pretty wise guy, minus some pretty major mistakes (like adultery—with Cleopatra (among others), no less). I'll always be grateful for his invention of the modern-day calendar. 😀 I appreciated this reminder of how things happened with his life and death because it's easy to get mixed up on the details.


General Humor

My love language is Acts of Service. It definitely applies here, too, but in this case, they all do. 😄

True 😆

Very true! In my life, John and Sam are living proof of this.


Religious Humor

 I've thought of this before in this very context! 😂

I'm not bald or anything, but my hair is super thin, which is why I often wear "extra hair" clipped into it. Without that, it definitely wouldn't take God long to number the hairs on my head. 😆



Political Humor






Religious Inspiration


These basics are the building blocks of living a good, healthy, happy life.


This is one of my favorite scripture stories.



I've long been fascinated by life after death, spirits/ghosts, and the spirit world. I'm thankful that I know so much more about them because of the gospel.



Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Crazy Times Scrapbook, March 2024

This was of particular interest to me because I'd been working on op-eds for an advocacy campaign about the child tax credit for this very bill for my nonprofit job. Unfortunately, the bill stalled, but hopefully the op-eds helped change some minds, particularly amongst the politicians who will be voting.



Immigration

It's the classic airplane-in-distress wisdom: Take care of your own needs first, and then you can help others more effectively. 

I think this is one of the reasons for and "benefits" of so many immigrants being allowed in. It does help the job numbers look better.
Common sense.

Trump/Biden



I can't believe she actually said this on the air! "Unfortunately for America, the court isn't necessarily wrong that this is the way the Framers wanted it to be." Unfortunately!?


Trump wins the election in this poll at this time.

TikTok and China

I've been saying it for years: get rid of TikTok in America until it's out of China's hands.
News alert! It just passed yesterday in the Senate! 👏

Read all of this! 🠋🠋🠋

Americans as a whole can be dumb and shortsighted...


Culture

Bring back marriage and children.



Miscellaneous Craziness

This is happening right before our very eyes.


I have zero regrets about giving the Covid vaccines a hard pass.

This was a crazy and tragic disaster.