Thoughts, books, and stuff....

Fall is here.  The sky was grey this morning but the sun broke through and now its a sunny seventy-five with little humidity  I had today off work.  Gotta love the PTO.  I took today off to have a broken tooth fixed and spend some Q time with my thirteen year old daughter.  That consisted of matching dental appointments, matching numbness, a two and a half mile walk around town, a Subway run and a Walmart run and then the break down.  Anyone else have a teen kid?  Show of hands?  This school year has been a slight nightmare.  I am guaranteed my kid is going to breakdown any evening between the hours of seven and nine because of....math.  It's not that she can't do it it's that she has to have reassurance that she can do it.  Oh thee of little faith...  We always end up checking her work and its correct.  Of course on our wonderful "Girl's Monday" she would need to get to cracking on her school work because school never stops even if you only go two days a week.  Of course that led to the break down of the day.  Which led to me getting super frustrated because the kid can do it she just is thirteen and says the stupidest ish ever and I'm like WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?  But today I went ahead and reached out to the teacher who told me all is well in COVID School and not to fret.  

If I didn't have ball I think I would trade my afternoon coffee for an afternoon whiskey.

I do love my kid.  A lot.  

And here are some other things I am loving...

1.  Panera App

In a world of not really wanting to touch anything or talk to people my Panera App has made my lunch life so much easier.  Even more awesome is there new Duets menu with a half size salad or sandwich and a cup of soup for $5.99.  Download the app, get the free pastry, and thank me later.

2.  The Dearly Beloved

Have you read this book?  No?  OK read it.  It's such a good and thought provoking book about the good and bad in life and faith and lack of.  It's set in days long gone by (fifties, sixties) and it is the story of four people...two couples as they maneuver about their youth and young adulthood into their careers and lives.  There is heartache and there is joy and there is the desire to slap some people.

3.  All Things Reconsidered

Good book by a favorite podcaster, Knox McCoy.  I feel like I know he and Jamie Golden like my own close friends.  Knox's sophomore release is a nice follow up to The Wondering Years.  In All Things Reconsidered he seriously talks about the things he has reconsidered in his life - from Big Bird to God.  Read it.  And if you haven't read The Wandering Years - its awesome.

4.  Pumpkin Spice Coffee Great Value K-Cups

In layman's terms the Walmart brand k-cups in pumpkin spice.  I am not a huge pumpkin spice fan but these are pretty good.  Not so overwhelming and you are in charge of how you make your coffee so it doesn't have to be a diabetic's nightmare.  They will never top the caramel creme ones Great Value makes.

5.  Fall ball...

The joys of being on the field with a dozen middle school girls.  God save us all.  I don't know what it is but this age is such a challenge that I love yet hate all at the same time.  Our team has lost two of their two games.  Glad I'm a Cubs fan...I'm used to these kind of seasons.

6.  Dove Beauty Bar

I made a vow to cut the plastic.  That means back to bar soap.  I enjoy it.  Weird - its nostalgia maybe to being three years old and my mamaw only allowing me an inch of water in the tub to get clean in because you don't play in a bath tub.  Everyone knew that playing in a bathtub meant busting your face open.  Swear she told me that.  I get the pink Dove Beauty Bars - those are the best things in the world.  I wash my freaking face with them and I must say my skin is looking great (I also use toner...) and they smell so good.  I'm really going back to basics I should type more about that.

7.  Challenge accepted....Tide in a box.

Another nostalgic piece of childhood - powder detergent.  Yep...switched back to it too!  OK I know you can get the liquid in the paper carton now but I like powder.  I didn't realize how much I liked powder until I started back on it.  Whoa that sounds like I'm referring to something else I did use powder and started back on it in the same sentence.  TIDE not anything else people.  TIDE.

8.  Stuck on some Outlander.

That freaking Scottish porno has really got me sucked in.  Oh?  Its not a porno?  Coulda fooled me.  Actually, I just finished season three and its more like when they bow chicka bow wow it looks like animals on Discovery Channel but anyway....My sister-in-law said it starts to suck when they "come to America" - spoiler alert they never really came to America the whole show was filmed in Scotland.  My only issue is when they go to the "West Indies" its blatant they are in Ireland.  You can agree NC and Scotland look a like but the Caribbean and Scotland - no honey no no no.  Anyway since I'm watching on Netflix I have to wait ever so patiently for season four to reach the 'flix because they stop at season three.  Major bummer.  

9.  Election ads are killing me smalls.

Between the deforestation that both sides of the aisle are doing with their mailings and the horrid ads they paid too much to make I really need everyone who strives to be a politician to take a freaking pill and go to sleep for like fifty years.  Please and thank you.

10.  Bye Facebook.

I have an account but I took the app off my phone.  I hate Facebook.  I really hate it.  What I hate the most is this...

Person:  Did you hear so and so died?

Me:  Oh my gosh!  WHAT?

Person:  Yeah.  Why didn't you know?

Me:  I hadn't heard.

Person: Ummm Facebook, Amanda.

Me:  Palm to forehead Ughhhhh.

I hate Facebook, Boomerbook, ugh.  Now I say I will allow FB for Fridays so I can take a glimpse of what "news" I need and then delete that ish back off my phone.  

A few things to add to this post that I'm working on over the course of the next thirty days:

We're All Adults Here - reading this or rather having it read to me.  I am liking Jenna's Book Club.

I was reintroduced to The Nester again a couple weeks ago.  You know what drives me nuts?  When people have super smart yet super non-novel ideas and they can make bucks off of them and make people like me slap my forehead and say, WHY DIDN'T I DO THAT ALREADY? Total respect to Myquillyn on taking the bull by the horns and reminding us of what is important in a home.  So my current plan is to thin out the storage of ish in my house.  I actually started this already by filling up laundry baskets on excess crap I do not need.  Of course this all came on the heels of my husband getting a few boxes of his things from his late father's home.  I'm a tosser he's a sentimentalist.

I have a YMCA membership and they said they are going to start charging me again.  That means I need to carve out work out time - intentional work out time, in a gym, with other people.  Scary!!!

Ratched...I pressed play and Mary Mother of Our Lord...can I get through it?

Pumpkin patch on the agenda of my brain but not the agenda of my agenda....it must happen.

Fall Ball needs a dub.  Here's hoping they will start swinging at pitches and actually hitting them in the next couple of weeks.

Yard sale?

***

That's it.  That's all I gots.

Read It! All Things Reconsidered

 

Today is the day I finally get around to posting about a book I recently read that I liked.  I don't waste time writing about books I do not like.  If I didn't like it then I didn't finish it and well...no point in writing about that, right?

Here's a book that I did like.  I actually read his (Knox McCoy) first book The Wondering Years when it came out a couple years back and that book is one of my most favorite reads of all time.  I was very excited to fiinally get my hands on his second release - All Things Reconsidered.

I am going to be very honest in this and not say too much about the book because I have a tendency of spoiling things.  This book really made me consider all the the things I have reconsidered in my life.  Marriage, country music, religion, recipes, food choices, t.v. shows.  Strangely enough Knox and I are very much compatible in thought.  

The idea that the way we view things evolved throughout our life experiences is not new.  But it is something that worth discussing and bringing into the limelight.  A few things this book had me raising hands and screaming yes to include - Uncle Joey, homosexuality (no link I promise), and faith.  

McCoy makes you laugh and he kind of drives you nuts with how many times he references Hamilton (that was the one part of the audio book that was overkill.  I love Hamilton too but it felt like every other breath was Footnote Hamilton Reference).  This is from publisher Thomas Nelson and Knox is what I would consider a faith adjacent writer but the way he does it very much born-in-eighties-navigating-life-in-my-thirties style (something I can totally relate to.) He's fun and not in your face about his faith.  He discusses it the way you would with friends over coffee on a random Saturday morning.  You laugh - a lot.  You agree - quite a bit.  You disagree - it happens.  

This book is a quick read but well worth your weekend :)

Click here for more information!

See ya later with another book pick...hopefully!

Currently: September Has Started!

Day two of the ninth month of the year from a galaxy far far away...I am linking up with Anne In Residence today to share with you things that we (I) are appreciating, anticipating, collecting, starting, and finishing!  I feel like I need to mix up the order and start with...

Starting

A new month which is really a new year but ONLY this for this month.  I feel more of that new year vibe in September than I feel in January.  January is just blah for me - the holidays are over and its winter and I'm just not in my most lifted spirits then.  But the fresh start of September?  It cannot be beat.  School has returned (it really has here!) and everyone is returning to a routine (though it may be a bit awkward) and that brings balance back.  Balance brings the ability to crush goals, right?

Appreciating

I appreciate teachers who can keep kittens corralled.  I meant to type kittens.  I think of all young animals kittens are probably the least in ease of keeping under control.  They can climb and jump and have very little regard to anything or anyone around them.  Every morning I drop my son off at school and I think about a teacher that is with him and eighteen other kids seven hours a day without much of a break who also has to keep the kids six feet apart.  No.thank.you.  I appreciate their diligence in following all the mandates.

Collecting

Can I say I'm refusing to collect anything?  I'm in a very less is more state of mind so any collections I may have had I do not have now.  However, my laundry room needs to be trashed - the whole thing!  It is a collection of single socks without a match, paper products, and random other junk that needs to be trashed.

Anticipating

The continuation of not watching anything on local television - if it isn't streaming it isn't for me.  The continuation of not listening to local radio - SiriusXM Fly all the way.  Nelly makes my life better.  The continuation of making my way to the mailbox with the recycle in also in hand in hopes that they really do recycle paper and that there really is a recycling center.  The continuation and build up of more people around me chattering more about things such as viruses and political activities - ugh no pass.

Finishing

Well read my post from Sunday for more on that! 

Later tater!