End of day blabbering

Another day comes to an end. The stars were bright and beautiful tonight and I secretly stood outside of my house for a couple minutes to try to find some I knew. I can only ever seem to find Orion's belt. I can't even find the dippers anymore. I think it would be amazing to lay on the beach on a clear, warm night and try to find constellations.

I'm in the last stretch of Frankenstein. Who knew that Frankenstein was actually the name of the scientist guy and not the creature he put together? I didn't. (SPOILER ALERT) Soooo...he was a bad creator and royally pissed his creation off. The monster has now killed everyone he's ever loved and they are in a wild goose chase all over the globe. What's going to happen?! I don't think I ever knew the end of this story so I truly don't know. lol. Will Frankenstein manage to kill his creation once and for all or will his creation keep tormenting him until he dies? Would the creation die eventually as well? All questions I hope to have answered in the next few days. I love stories. :)

My kid asked me yesterday for a bottle of plain Elmer's glue, food coloring, and old fashioned foam shaving cream. I procured these items at the store this morning and sat them on his bed. When I came home from work tonight he was proudly waiting inside the door with some kind of slime he created! What am I going to do with this one?!? I haven't yet looked into his laboratory a.k.a. his bedroom but I'm scared of what I might find. Gee whiz.

I applied yet again for a bigger, better job so we'll see if I can make it this time. Not much to say there. Just playing the waiting game again. Sigh.

Well...I'm off to bed. I've been honored with the opportunity to read a short story that one of my coworkers wrote today called, The Soulist. I have no idea what its about except that apparently there is a creepy apple somewhere in there and that it holds one of the best lines she's ever written. I'll try to find that.

Goodnight world...

Sleepy, Shuba, Powerlifting, Lighting round!

Hey, you. Today has been for sleeping apparently as every time an activity was attempted or I sat down somewhere I fell asleep again, for hours. Every. Time. I don't think I've been tired in this way for a long time. I'll try to make it through this post.

Here are some things that have happened as of late:

Assassin's Creed Origins has begun! You can see more about the game here if you like. I love it so far. Love the music, love the setting, controls are similar to AC Odyssey so its easy to pick it up.

Another kitchen adventure has gone down and this time I made and tasted Shuba for the first time; a Ukranian, or Russian it seems as well, salad made with herring and various veggies. I do have a "thing" about fish but its not fishy at all and was pretty good! I'll make it again so the recipe I used is here. Next time I'll put less mayo on the top and instead add it to the middle layer as my top layer seemed to be less of an intense red than most of the pics I saw online. Overall, good stuff!!

Yesterday, I went to my first powerlifting meet. Even though I was up for 23 hours straight it was the best adventure I've had in a long time. It was in another city so there was a fun road trip component, world records were broken, I got to help support a fellow gym member in his first meet, see where I measure up against other women lifters, and spent the whole day with my best friend. I feel rich for being able to have so much goodness in one day and for getting to keep those memories for a lifetime!

The other day I took the black weed cloth off the garden beds that was supposed to block out all the sun and kill everything off. Yaaaaaa, that was a fail. It does seem to have killed the grass but most of the weeds remained. This soil testing kit (below) and a gallon of distilled water are ready to go for soil testing as soon as the soil dries out from today's rain. More on this in a later post.

Home Soil Test

Ok, I'm fading fast so let's enter "Lightning Round"!!!! :) Quickly...

• I did my first bodyweight tricep dip! Getting stronger all the time!!!
• Savings goals are on track and running smoothly despite a couple potential snags throughout January!!
• I want to remember this book for later. Basically, its full of signs found throughout the world that display bad English. A coworker had it at work, it was hilarious, and I want to peruse it for myself!

• Cooking as been fun lately and there have been lots of meals that make me happpppyyyy!!! Like this one!

• I parked next to someone who had this sticker on their car and laughed. Genius and so true!!! To all the people whose cars have been dinged by my kids during their lifetimes, I'm so sorry! I really am.

• I learned about Venezuelan atrepas from someone I was helping at work. They showed me a couple YouTube videos of people making them, I'm intrigued, and wanted to save this here for a future cooking adventure.

• Last but not least, I hung some more art on my walls. Geez!!! lol

That's all for tonight folks but let's end with some quotes!

"Always keep in mind that sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step in your life."
-Paige Hathaway
Ah, and haven't we all looked back and seen the truth in this statement. Good words.

"Water which is too pure has no fish."
-Ts'ai Ken T'an
This one goes out to all the perfectionists out there, myself included. Life is messy and can be hard but those very things also bring out the best stuff sometimes. Things like heartfelt music, risks that turn out in the end to be rewards, love, great stories, growth as human beings, perspective, insight, character, etc. Embrace the messy! We're all going to end up dead anyway, right? So let's do the things!

Goodnight!!

Finding lights in the dark

There were many good things today and it all started with slathering mayonnaise in my hair. Haha, ok not really.I did deep condition my hair today but that's not.... Let's just get started. :)

I woke this morning and before leaving the warmth of my blankets, cracked open a completely new story, a book called Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom. I believe it's something of a Russian love story that begins with two strangers on a train leaving Moscow. I read only two pages and had to put it down due to my excitement for the start of this journey. lol I'm saving it for times when I can be alone. Here's the cover.

On the docket for the day was having some family photos taken which, according to various angry members of my extended family, are about five years past due. Oops. Apparently, mine is the only family photo missing from the wall at my Grandma's house and it's gotten to the point where I'm dodging her phone calls. On top of this, we don't even have a professional family photo that includes my youngest--and he's eight!! It was time. The pictures took about two hours of the day, turned out  well, and I can mark this goal for 2019 off the list. Yeah!!

Overall, everyone was tired today so after pictures we all settled into our respective spots to do nothing for the rest of the day. I spent many hours curled up on the couch in pajamas with my dooder head (see below) and a fire crackling in the fireplace, playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Felt so good!!

The dooder

Anyway, I earned the last bit of trophies for the game and worked on clearing the map. Favorite side characters in this game would definitely be Alkibiades for being able to add sexual innuendo to anything and always making me smirk and probably Sokrates for always urging others to examine all sides and never seeming to take one himself. Love it! lol 

Lover Boy

Sokrates

Moving on! 

My oldest is currently learning to cook and is in charge of dinner one night each week. He's starting to get a bit more confident and adventurous and it's very fun to watch! Last night, I received a text  from him that he wanted to make us all spaghetti and meatballs, completely from scratch, and was wanting to know how difficult that would be. I advised that he maybe tackle one at a time so today he created a small army of his first meatballs. So cute and he was beaming when we all raved over his meal. :)

First meatballs ready for cooking

The icing on today's cake was when we all realized that due to MLK Jr. Day there would be no school or work tomorrow. Therefore, I'm off to play more of my game but I'll leave you with two songs that are in heavy rotation for me at the moment!

There also were, and will be, some hard things to deal with, think about, and overcome today. I made a conscious choice at the beginning to look for the little good things that would be sprinkled throughout the day and look at all I found! And there were so much more!! :) I'll hold those things with me in the dark. Goodnight, Internets!

Pit stop!

Don't want to be gone from here for too long so I'm swooping in for a quick pit-stop of my ramblings and then I'll be out.

Things that have either happened or are rolling around in my mind:

1. I noticed my kid gathering Popsicle sticks and asking me about the wood glue in the garage. I gave him instructions for use and said nothing more. He proudly emerged later from his room with this--a rubber band gun that cocks, has a trigger, and loads and shoots three rubber bands. Both my pride and horror swelled. Lol

Rubber band gun

2. Without even really knowing what they were, I ate tamales and Mexican street corn for the first time. Fortunately, they're great! I would try to make tamales myself but I've since learned how time-consuming and laborious they are to make so probably naaaaaaaht. :)

First tamales and Mexican street corn

3. We're two weeks into the new year and I'm already getting antsy for new projects. However, first things come first so I'll need to finish painting the trim and doors throughout the living room and hallway. I'll reward myself with a new project but it can't be too costly so I could...

• paint another room in the house which is badly needed
• build something. I really dig Ana White (website here), a woman online who makes building stuff look super doable. My kid's bed is broken and I think I could decently swing one or two of the plans on this site for a twin bed and headboard (and learn another thing or two along the way!). I also have my eye on building plans for a picnic table and/or some outdoor furniture made from cedar 2x4's for summer
• tackle another small section of the landscaping plan. My backyard is literally still bare and it bugs me.
• deep clean all the windows in the house

4. There's about six weeks until spring planting begins in the garden so its time to start making a plan for that. I've got to figure out what is going on with the soil and make corrections before that time comes as well so I might get a little kit or something to do some soil tests. Mmmm, chemistry gets me excited!!

So many more things still floating around in my mind but I need sleep so will go for now. Laters!!