January Recap

Here's my monthly recap.  I kind of like this kind of post.  Hard to believe February stars tomorrow!

January Recap:

Books read:
When It Happens To You by Molly Ringwald
Wool Book Five by Hugh Howey
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenger (in progress still)

Movies watched at home (criteria for this is movie I've never seen or movie I haven't seen in years):
Jackie Brown
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Forrest Gump
Pitch Perfect
Ted

Movies in the theatre:
Still none, hoping to get out to one this weekend so there will be one in the February recap!

On TV:
Shameless
Californication
Bunheads
Pramface
Amish Mafia (yes this is a thing.  It's awful and yet we can't stop watching)

Food and beverage:
Dangerous Man Brewing - grand opening
Pour Decisions Brewing - special releases
Nye's Polanaise Room

Shopping:
NONE!  Can you believe that?  I mean yes, I bought groceries, etc, but I did no shopping (like clothes and such) for myself.  It was not on purpose, it just worked out that way!

Couch swapping

Ok, so cute kittens aside, in the photo below is a couch in my house I hate.  I have always hated it, though when we first got it, Nate was living in his apartment and the couch he had prior to this one was worse - so we just went with it.  Especially because it was free.99.

It made it's way to our house and lived in our basement for awhile until we rearranged the living room upstairs and needed more seating.  It was always my intention that we would replace it at some point because I really do not like it.  The back is too low, the cushions pop out anytime anyone sits on it - even tiny skinny people - and the floral pattern just leaves something to be desired.  But seeing as we still have big home projects (some of which we are starting this spring, yay!) that need more of our attention and money, new furniture hasn't been high on the list.

Well, my generous wonderful in-laws are replacing the set they have in their family room and had long ago promised it to Nate if they ever did - so, we'll soon be the proud owners of a new to us couch and love seat in far better condition than the stuff we have.  And the set will even look nice in our living room.  I cannot wait.

Bye bye you awful junky couch.  But kitties, you stay.  You'll love the new stuff, I promise.

Reflecting

I found this post today I started back this summer - and never finished and posted.  It was some quotes I found on Pinterest that were inspiring and making me feel better on a not so good day.  I don't remember why I never posted this.  

I had a good weekend, but it was tainted by a few things that made me feel less than good today, so when I came across this post and re-read all these quotes, I realized I needed to hear them today and decided I would share this post finally. It's helped me feel a little bit better.

I think I've talked a bit about Pinterest a little bit before.  I am not quite as addicted to it as I was when I first started using it, but I do still love pinning recipe ideas, clothing ideas and lately, inspirational quotes I don't want to forget.  I wanted to share a few I've been reflecting on lately.  All of these were found on Pinterest and there are links to the original pieces from the Pin.  I do not own any of these.

I have found myself slipping a bit in my pledge to be a better and less cynical person, probably due in part a little to my falling off of She Reads Truth a bit, but also due to other things in my world that were causing me to slip down into a darker place and I just don't want to be there.  So I love this quote.  I want to be happy and I choose to be happy.  I don't want to be made to feel bad for being happy.  As Phoebe from Friends says "Get out of the bitter barn and play in the hay."  I'm going to play in the hay.  And in light of what happened in Colorado last week - life is definitely too short to not be happy.  (*author's note, this was originally written in late July 2012, same feelings apply even stronger now after what happened in Connecticut*)

I loved this one, my mom and I joke about how our family is kind of good at the holding a grudge thing, it's kind of in our blood, you just don't mess with the Millers I guess.  But at any rate, I really take this one to heart as I have had my feelings hurt a couple of times in the last month or so, but I'm just not going to dwell on it.  My head space is my head space and does not belong to anyone else!

Sometimes I feel judged or like I am not doing enough for a given situation or that I don't matter - I think that's human nature, we all feel like we are not good enough.  Well guess what?  You are enough.  I am enough.  We are all enough.

And this last one makes me smile - I do live in the moment as much as I can, but cookies do help when the moment kind of sucks.  It's funny.

I'm really glad I found this post today and I hope to come back to this whenever I'm having a bad day or even a bad moment.  These are good thoughts to reflect on and I hope they inspired you as well.

Delayed holiday letdown

Whew.  I have spent most of the beginning of 2013 in a fog.  I was gifted with a lovely headcold of the stuffy nose and ears variety, so I have been feeling pretty groggy and foggy.  Heh, that rhymes.  Anyway, I'm starting to come out of that fog and am just now kind of coming to the reality that the Holidays are over.

I know, where have I been?  It's already January 8th, of course the holidays are over.  But like I said.  Head cold fog.  I kind of went through the motions of taking down my Christmas stuff without really even thinking about it on New Years Day, which maybe was a good thing, because it wasn't as depressing in that moment, but I think I'm getting a little case of delayed holiday let down now.  I'm not depressed, but it does sort of feel like, oh...it's over now.  Bummer.

I used to have a harder time at the end of the holiday season because I was the girl who really, REALLY loved Christmas.  But in recent years I have had more of a love/hate relationship with Christmas.  I mostly still like it, but it's not my favorite holiday as I've been an adult.  But this year we had a nice peaceful holiday season, so as I'm coming to that realization that it's over, I am finding I'm a bit more melancholy about it than I have been in recent years.  It won't last though.  There will be other things to occupy my time and life will just be life.  Right now though, I'm looking back and saying, like I do many years "how did that fly by so fast?  Can we go back and do it again?"

Oh well.  On we go.

December Review

Yes I know I posted a "2012" recap, but this is something a little different.  I saw on another blog a monthly recap - movies watched, books read, etc and I thought, I like this idea, it'll give me a way to keep track of some of those things.  So starting in 2013 here I'll do this at the end of each month.  So here we go.

December in Review

Books read:
Divergent by Veronica Roth

Movies watched at home:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (be prepared to see me list a lot of these this year, going to watch them all)
Home Alone
The Goonies
O Brother Where Art Thou

Movies watched in the theatre:
None sadly

Food:
Brunch at Hell's Kitchen for Christmas Eve
Newly refurbished Cossettas in St. Paul

On TV:
Still working through The Soprano's
A Young Doctor's Notebook (from UK)
All of our other usual shows - HIMYM, Big Bang, It's Always Sunny, Parenthood, Glee, Revolution, 2 Broke Girls
Continuing to catch up on Modern Family and Parks and Recreation

Adventures:
Como Zoo

Shopping:
Thrift shopping after Christmas - new coat, purse, sweater and jeans
Jeans and sparkle top from Target