It’s cold everywhere but I’m happy to sit here in the 20s in North Texas when my family is near 0 degrees up in Maine! So let’s turn on the heated blanket and discuss a few midweek musings.
I nearly abandoned all my adult responsibilities to read Onyx Storm yesterday. I was up early and went to bed late and it was worth it. It tugged at my heart strings and I feel like there’s a clear path forward for the next two books. I’m anxious to see if it goes the way I suspect. Tell me all your theories, I can’t get enough.
I’ve had a few emergency items I’ve wanted to have at the house, but didn’t do a great job prioritizing it. I finally ordered a combination locked fireproof/waterproof bag and stored all our birth certificates, passports, marriage license, and other irreplaceables in it.
I also grabbed this emergency radio that has a crank charge, flashlight, sos button, and obviously radio capability. Just in case.
I also got a “landline” for our house. In the next year I’ll have a teenager and she’ll obviously be left home alone at times. She doesn’t have a phone, I don’t want her to rely on her Gabb watch being charged (and that she can locate it, tbh) and I wanted a quick and easy way for our kids to call 911 (or us) if there’s a problem. It is wifi based so it isn’t a complete solution (if the wifi is out the phone obviously won’t call out), but it’s a nice bridge for us until she has a phone, which won’t be until she starts driving.
Speaking of which, it’s hard to believe I’ll have a driver in just three years! My car has nearly 100k miles on it and I’m treating that old gal right so she can hang on a few more years and be Olivia’s car. Just wild to me.
As of today, I’ve got 263 alcohol free days under my belt and I’m so grateful for all your encouragement with this very personal journey. As it’s January, lots of my chats with you all have been about Dry January or cutting back on alcohol. The resource I’ve been most frequently pointing friends to is called Reframe. It’s an app for your phone that provides accountability, community support (if you want it), and data based perspective with insights on how much money you’re saving, sugar calories you’re cutting out, and how many nights of improved sleep your alcohol reduction/removal has helped provide. Just in case you are looking for something!
Saturday is Isabel’s birthday and I think having an eight year old means I finally need to confront that she isn’t a baby anymore - something I’ve really resisted. She wants to go to the trampoline park with a friend on her birthday and I imagine she’ll request hibachi for dinner (twist my arm). We haven’t done big birthday parties in a few years (think the last one was for her 5th) and while sometimes I wonder if we do “enough” (obviously yes), having simple and easy birthdays is such a gift for all of us.
Her classroom treat needs to be non-food and I won’t cross another mom by sending slime so I think we are going to go with these mini pop-its and a tag that says “thanks for making my birthday poppin’!” or something along those lines. I’ll list the finished gift tag in my Etsy printables shop.
With that, I’m off to fold another 3 loads of laundry and get this Costco order put away. Hope you all have a great one!
xo
MB