Reading

Quite a bit actually, although most of it has been fluff.  After finishing up ‘Maine’ (which didn’t improve) I started reading ‘Dad is Fat’ by Jim Gaffigan, which was a nice light, funny read. Now I’m reading ‘A Casual Vacancy’ by J.K. Rowling. I had heard it was going to be a television show, so I thought I should probably check it out finally.  So far it’s all right.  There are a lot of characters to keep track of and I could see how it might actually work out better as a show than a book.  There are times when I find my mind drifting and have to reread paragraphs.  Maybe it’s just that I’m not in the right mood?  I’m still interested enough to keep reading, it’s just a little slow.

Watching

Sad that Call the Midwife has ended for another season, although I await the Christmas special.  I’m almost done with Season 3 of Scandal, but thankfully Season 4 is on its way to Netflix this month. I really hope the final season of Mad Men follows suit. It was really hard to avoid spoilers for a while, and even now I still have to watch out. We also started watching Daredevil on Netflix, which is pretty decent.

As for movies, we haven’t had as much time this past month to watch movies or TV in general.   We did watch The Maze Runner, mostly because the Honest Trailer made us laugh.  This movie has a lot of holes and is meh.  I felt the same way about Divergent and really the only Dystopian YA movie series I’ve enjoyed is The Hunger Games, and I like the movies more than I liked the books. Go figure.

Playing

I told Josh he should move the PS3 into our bedroom, and while I’ve mostly watched him play games, I’ve been playing a little myself.  I decided to play Heavy Rain again since it’s been a while and I’d like to see a different ending.  Plus, I like that there isn’t a lot of heavy button mashing since it’s been a while since I’ve really played anything.  We also started playing Lego Marvel together, which is a lot of fun.

Drinking/Eating

We made our first batch of ice cream this year.  We went with peanut butter and jelly and it was awesome (if I do say so myself).  I’m thinking of maybe making a s’more flavored blend next time around.  Oh the possibilities!  I also need to make some more bread with our bread maker and I want to try out the jam setting as well.  Mmm… perhaps I’ll do that this weekend.

Thinking About

Road Tripping!  Just a little over two weeks to go!  How the heck did that happen so fast?  Thankfully the really important plans are pretty much made.  Our friend Dave is going to stay with the cats (which will make them very happy – they’re big Dave fans), and this past weekend we bought a new-to-us minivan.  While definitely not a necessity, boy is it really awesome.  There’s so much room and while the sheer amount of electronics makes me a tad bit nervous (hello, so many things that could break) it’s hard not to be a little giddy.  Never in a million years did I think we’d own a minivan. Getting older is a strange process at times.

Reading

I just finished Call the Midwife – Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth.  They’re interesting reads (especially if you like the show), but I admit I enjoyed the first one more. The second book doesn’t really have anything to do with midwifery, but focuses more on the workhouses and the lives of the people affected by them, and.  Not really surprising considering the title of the book, but I admit I had hoped for a tad more birthing tales.  I’m about ¼ through Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan and it’s another story where most of the characters are downright annoying.  One girl is incredibly annoying as she can’t seem to realize what an ass her boyfriend is – and he’s not even hiding it.  The matriarch favored her son and helped screw up her daughter because she never seemed to like her (from birth it would seem).  One of those situations where you want to smack half the people and tell them to get over themselves or to grow a backbone or… just something!  Ack!

Watching

Still watching Gilmore Girls now and then, but more as background noise when I’m doing other things because sometimes Lorelai Gilmore (played by Lauren Graham) can actually be quite annoying. The funny thing is that even in Parenthood, Lauren Graham’s character was often quite bothersome too… maybe it’s just Lauren Graham I don’t care for? Anyhoo, sometimes the fast-talking and hyperness can be annoying and other times I just want to smack her because she needs to grow up and get over herself.  Funnily enough I felt the same away about her character in Parenthood, so there you go!

As for movies, we’ve watched a few. Interstellar was really good. It’s almost 3 hours, so leave yourself enough time, but it really didn’t feel like 3 hours at all – this coming from someone who has a hard time staying awake in the evening if we’re watching TV in bed.  The mere fact that I stayed up until 11:00 without even getting sleepy is a testament of just how much I liked this movie. I’m not even sure where to begin… as far as imagery and sound go, this movie is perfect.  It’s thought-provoking and emotional and fulfills my sci-fi needs.  When I was younger I wanted to be an astronaut, but math is my nemesis, so it was never going to happen.  Honestly?  If I didn’t have a family or really bad motion sickness, I would have applied to go to Mars in a heartbeat.

We also watched Birdman, and… not as impressed.  The acting is phenomenal, really, but I was tremendously bored – we both were.  I wonder if the movie would have been better had he actually been a superhero and not just an actor that portrayed one.

If you haven’t watched The Theory of Everything, then do so immediately.  The acting is really, really good and I learned new things about Stephen Hawking.  He is such a brilliant and fascinating man, and it was interesting to get a more personal look into what his life was like when he was younger and the relationship between himself and his wife at the time.

Most importantly, The Avengers: Age of Ultron was AWESOME!  Lots of action, and a lot of humor, perfectly casted… what more can you ask for?

Organizing

We knew we had plenty of stuff to sell at a garage sale, but I think I underestimated just how much.  I’ve gone through at least 8 bins of baby clothes and haven’t even touched toys and other miscellaneous yet. We’re pricing it all to sell, though, so someone is going to score some really good deals.  Plus, we’ll get some much needed storage space back, which is a big bonus.  Now that we’ve started, I’ve begun looking around the house at everything wondering what we can add to the growing pile. It’s so liberating!

Drinking/Eating

Its ice tea weather finally!  I love Tazo’s Iced Passion Tea best and even though I like my tea sweet, this flavor doesn’t need much sweetening.  The kids are also huge fans, and since its herbal, I don’t feel bad sharing.  I plan on making a cake this weekend for my sweet tooth, but otherwise we’ve been grilling lately and trying to stay away from DQ because it’s also so easy to stop when the kids are napping and really not good to do on a weekly basis.

Thinking About

Road tripping! We’re heading out to Colorado this Summer and have opted to drive since we want to hit up a few places and prefer driving to flying. Time will tell whether we’ve chosen poorly or not based on how the kids do. We’re going to do the majority of the driving overnight in the hopes that they’ll sleep for most of the drive and keep from getting too cranky.  We’re crossing our fingers and planning for as many scenarios as we can possibly think of and are not above bribing the kids to keep tantrums at bay.  You can bet I’m bringing M&Ms and movies and whatever else it takes to get through this trip with as few meltdowns as possible.

Reading

Reading The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty*.  So far I’m enjoying how the characters are starting to show how connected they are and I’m just about to get to the part of the plot that pulls you in to begin with.  Just what exactly does the mysterious letter say? I honestly don’t have any theories, but I’m very curious because of character development.

Watching

We finally finished Fringe… sadness.  So now we’re watching Sherlock.  It’s kind of shameful that it took us this long to watch. Admittedly, the long episodes were part of the reason considering we don’t always have a lot of time in the evening, but it’s such a good show!!  The casting is perfect and we’re both big fans now.  I also started watching Scandal after hearing it recommended so many times, and I am now on Season 2.  I thought it was going to be different – more cheesy and sleazy, but I’m really hooked and enjoying it.  More importantly, though, Call the Midwife started Season 4!  I may or may not have cried, but that’s fairly normal. As far as movies go, we’ve watched The Judge, which was good albeit a little slow at times. The Imitation Game was really good and seemed fitting since we’ve been watching a lot of Benedict Cumberbatch lately. It was very interesting and worth a watch.

Eating/Drinking

So many avocados.  I’ve been eating half an avocado almost every day… usually on toast or as a sandwich with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and some sriracha.

Making

Essential oil blends for my aromatherapy course. I’m slowly working on the “client” portion and once I finish my first 2 people, I’ll add on a couple more people.  Its fun creating the blends and figuring out what works with what person as everyone is different.  Sure, I could have skipped the whole certification thing since everyone and their mother is into essential oils right now, but it was important to me to become educated so that way I can safely make recommendations and help others use their oils safely and effectively as well.

Playing

Sims 4.  I know… so silly.  I’ve been a fan since the original first came out, though, and Josh bought me the latest version and I’m hooked again.  I really can’t tell you why I like this game so much… it’s such a time waster and doesn’t take any skill.  I had some fun with Enzo, though, and let him help create a person and a house so that’s been fun.  He likes telling his “little boy” where to go and what to do.

Thinking About

Doing some essential oil blogging – perhaps some fun recipes and blends.  I feel a tad overwhelmed lately by projects and things I want/need to do, so I’ve been procrastinating… which is not at all helpful, but is what I always do when feeling overwhelmed. I really just need to pick one or two small things that need doing and slowly it will start to feel less overwhelming.  Perhaps a new routine as well, though those are harder to plan considering that the kiddos are often very unpredictable, which is partially why things have not gotten done. There are nights when the kiddos have trouble getting to sleep, so it’s either up and down the stairs a dozen times or just giving up on whatever because the interruptions are too distracting anyway and flop in front of the TV.  Oh well, I just need to get my motivation back and I’m sure once we get nicer weather again, that will help.

*I’m trying out affiliate links… figured it doesn’t hurt, right?  

Because sometimes it just doesn’t fit anywhere else.

Reading

Finally reading ‘The Princess Bride.’  I know, I know, how can I even consider myself a fan when I’m only just now reading the book.  There you have it, though. It’s a fun read so far and I’m enjoying it. I can often hear the voices as I read along and will most likely watch the movie for the 100^th time as soon I finish.  I really don’t feel like either take away from each other and both can be enjoyed for their similarities and differences.

Watching

Well, I was watching Downton Abbey (of course), but now that the season has ended, I’ll probably just keep watching Gilmore Girls and movies.  Josh and I are almost done with Fringe… I feel like we’re dragging out this final season because we have no idea what we’ll watch when we’re done.  We never did finish The X Files or Star Trek TNG for that matter.  Perhaps we’ll go back to those.  As far as movies go… the last one we watched was Lucy and that was a bit of a dud.  Fairly ridiculous, although there was this one moment where we both laughed a lot. I’m not sure if we were supposed to be laughing, but it was so silly.  We also watched Gone Girl and thankfully Josh felt the same way about it as I did. Surprisingly, I liked it better than the book, though.  The ending remained a huge WTF that we both felt was absurd.

Eating/Drinking

Probably way more chocolate than I should. I’m an emotional eater, though, and have been eating so many sweets lately. Time to cut back, I think.  We’ve been roasting kale sprouts lately, though, and I really just want to have kale chips every single night.  I’m also trying to cut back on coffee and drink more tea (especially green) and more water.

Making

I’ve been trying to bake more lately, but that doesn’t always work out. I did make some yummy little blueberry almond tea cakes, but the kids weren’t huge fans, so I’ll probably make something like cookies with them this weekend.  Plus, I haven’t made a loaf of bread since before we went to California and I have that huge cookbook with different ideas for bread to make.  Although we do have frozen pizza dough that I made in the freezer, so perhaps we’ll make pizzas this week instead of ordering out!

Planning

Not much, to be honest.  With warmer weather we do plan to get out more, though.  We have our zoo membership we plan on using a lot and there’s a new space exhibit at the Science Museum that I want to check out as well.  With Phoebe getting better at walking each day I’m trying to think of more places to take her where she can stretch her legs now and then without getting lost in a crowd.  We didn’t go camping last year either, and have decided we want to give it a try with both kids this year and are going to cross our fingers it’s not a total bust due to mosquitoes (like the last time we went with Enzo).

Thinking About

The impending arrival of Spring!  The forecast says we have 50 degree weather in the near future and with the snow we received this morning, I could not be more thrilled.  We are in desperate need of warm weather here. There are so many little house and yard projects to complete this year, and the sooner we have nice weather, the sooner we can tackle those.  We’re also thinking about getting a minivan in the nearish future.  Yes, they’re horribly uncool and I don’t really want to drive a big ole boat around since I can barely parallel park as it is, but there is just so much room in a minivan! All I can think about is how much stuff we could fit in one (like everything for camping).

I’ve seen other bloggers do a variation of what they are currently up to, so I thought I’d do the same thing since often it doesn’t fit anywhere else.

Reading

Still reading through the Harry Potter series and I’m on The Order of the Phoenix presently.  I’m really going to do my best to try and read my goal of 26 books this year, but we’ll just have to see how it goes. Some days I just don’t have much time to read even though there are so many books that I want to read right now.  I keep telling myself that as the kids get older I’ll have more time, so I may just have to keep stacking up books in the meantime.

Watching

As far as television series go… yep, I’m still watching Fringe, Parenthood, Gilmore Girls, etc.  We did, however start watching Galavant and it’s a nice change of pace.  For starters, it’s nice to have a short show to watch, and also the cheesy silliness of the show absolutely wins.  I’m also thrilled that Downton Abbey has started up again!  I can’t help but love it.

As far as movies go, like I said above, we’ve been re-watching the Harry Potter series, and whatever animated film Enzo is addicted to.  For a while it was all of the Toy Story movies, but for the past week he’s been completely obsessed with the Chipmunk Adventure movie.  I’m okay with that as it takes me back to my own childhood. 😉 We also managed to go see The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies in the theater, which I mentioned before, but otherwise we haven’t been watching many movies lately.

Eating/Drinking

We just got a bread maker, so already we are enjoying fresh baked bread (both the kids LOVE bread as much as their mama) and since I bought a cookbook with over 300 bread recipes, we have a lot of bread to make.  Let’s face it, I will never be able to go paleo.  I can’t give up bread… I just can’t.  It is my ultimate comfort food.

I’ve been trying to drink more water and tea, especially since I’ve had a very sore throat the past few days and pretty much lost my voice on Sunday.  There are way too many bugs going around.

Enjoying

Phoebe’s many changes lately. Okay, so it isn’t all sunshine and daisies, but it’s pretty cute watching her toddle around with her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth and point to herself and say “Bee-bee.” In general she’s trying to communicate a lot and points to everything and attempts to have conversations with us.  I also really enjoy watching the relationship between her and Enzo, which is good for the most part, but does have some typical sibling squabbling over toys and things of that nature.

Planning

I suppose I’m planning for most of the year, ha ha.  I’m concentrating right now on travel this month and next, but also really trying to organize our house, which has been difficult.  I’m trying to get rid of stuff in stages and it feels good so far, but I’m nowhere close to becoming a minimalist. We are going to have a HUGE summer garage sale, though, and I am looking forward to getting rid of bins and bins of kid stuff as well as all kinds of other things.  Then this summer we’re going to try and drive out to Colorado, so that’s going to take some planning as well.  There are also things around the house that need to get done, so we’ve got to figure those out as well.  It’s going to be another busy (but amazing) year!

Thinking About

Upcoming travel.  I have to go to a very boring work conference at the end of this month, and I’m not super excited about it. I don’t really like traveling alone (yes I’ll have two coworkers there, but they aren’t exactly chatty) and most of all I don’t want to leave the kiddos. The only time I’ve ever been away from Enzo overnight was when Phoebe was born, and never since. Then we’re heading to California, though, which I AM looking forward to.  We’re visiting my mom and step-dad and the kids will get to see the ocean for the first time, so I’m looking forward to that first reaction.