snuggling the kittehs. Gizmo keeps sleeping on me at night and I’m not entirely sure why. Normally she plops on Wood Sprite for the night but lately she wants to sleep with me. Then there’s Pumpkin, who wants to live on my desk, especially if it means knocking everything off it.

gently stretching. Sleeping through the night comes with stiffness in the morning! Naps don’t do that to me, and I’m much more used to running on them.

reserving a bunch of DVDs for “Musical March,” even though we watched maybe 1/3 of Fantasy February!

writing so hard and still not meeting all of my goals. Wood Sprite and I did hours of homeschooling yesterday and I wrote 12 blogs and a long outline before leaving for a class… and I still have a bunch of goals yet unmet. I know I set our goals a bit too high every day, which is something I need to work on, and I’d love more time to read…

cursing my ancient laptop. Now that I have an up-to-date phone I’m even more impatient with my machine. I’m going to have to stop dawdling and get one. I just hate making big purchases like this because, unlike most areas of my life, I’m never 100% sure if I picked the right one. Indecisiveness is one of my pet peeves and it’s super irritating, especially when I know how many fake reviews of products there are out there. I’m the same way with mattresses and shoes, of all things, and will take recs of all three.

trying to make sure I give to the Survivors Ongoing Support Fund each week

loving my dates with Indy. Standing classes multiple nights each week means multiple dates!

playing witchy BINGO with my sister, who, when I said, “I got a BUNCH of BINGOS!” said, “I’m not surprised.”

cleaning up for company this week

loving Mrs. Maisel

flirting with my husband. After our date, he texted me, “Not to be clingy but that was fun. Do it again soon?” I wrote back, “OMG it’s been an hour stalker!” Speaking of which, I’ve been super, super choosy about what I share on social media lately and it delights me. I share photos with specific people I want via messenger or text, and I’m keeping the most beautiful, personal, heartbreaking, wonderful, hilarious and moving stuff in my journal, just for me. It makes me so happy and it’s funny how many times I’ve learned this lesson.

loving my Grounds for Change coffee, which may become a new staple in this house

planning birthdays and vacation days (and hopefully a trip or two; it’s been a while!)

trying out perfume samples: Hexennacht’s Sinterklass, which I love, and Morning Star, which is nice but not a favorite. I also used my Haus of Gloi points up to make my own perfume and while I like it, I don’t smell the main ingredient I’d requested.

trying out different phone limits for Wood Sprite. Brains that are 14 years old don’t need all that tech. I’m firm on this. That said, without it, they don’t stay in contact with friends in 2020. They just don’t. Tech has always been a difficult road to walk, even in setting my own limits, as you can imagine for someone who works from home.

What are you up to?

Just Sara

Monday’s Music

February 24, 2020 sarajschmidt Leave a comment

Blogs, Writing

Weird Food Substitutions

February 23, 2020 sarajschmidt Leave a comment

What are the strangest ones you’ve ever heard of?

Hungry Bloggers
Weird Food Substitutions

Cat Talk
130+ Cats And Dogs Taken From Puppy Mill

Northwest Specialties
PAWS Cat City

Poison of Choice
Best Sugar-Free Vodkas

Party Games
Board Games of the Past

Blogs, Writing

Daily Writing Warm-Ups

February 22, 2020 sarajschmidt Leave a comment

What’s your favorite source of writing warm-ups?

Poetry Talk
Daily Poetry Warm-Ups

Garden Report
Sometimes Fuzz is Just Fuzz

Good Drinking
The Most Mouthwatering Teas

That 80s Blog
I Am Not Okay With This

Freaky Phenomena
Ambient Sounds to Save Coral Reefs

Blogs, Writing

The Dead Charters 100 Albums

February 21, 2020 sarajschmidt Leave a comment

This is a really impressive milestone!

Grateful Dead Music
100 Albums Chartered For The Grateful Dead

Female Talk
Women May Not Run the World, But They Sure Run Finland

Medicine Report
GPS Shoes for Alzheimer’s Patients

Weird Animal Report
If Badgers And Coyotes Can Do It…

Frog Source
Nic Bishop’s Frogs

Family Guy Talk
Meg’s Going to College

Just Sara

Things I Love Thursday

February 20, 2020 sarajschmidt Leave a comment

Today’s a rough day for gratitude between multiple family members sick, one in surgery, a canceled co-op event, a bunch of little snafus, miscommunication and a deep tiredness I can’t seem to shake this week (not to mention stress eating!), but those are always the best days to count the things you’re grateful for. So today I love…

…my dad being home recovering and my mom being able to take off to care for him, especially since Indy came home sick from work and we couldn’t go visit

…critter snuggles. Wood Sprite wasn’t feeling well today so we had a light homeschool day with plenty of critter snuggles just in time for Love Your Pet Day.

…my niece feeling better

…Ecosia, a search engine that will plant trees for you. I’m trying to make more choices like this, like using Smile Prime, dark mode on my apps, apps that raise money while my phone is charging, etc. Also, why isn’t Google doing this?

…seeing so many friends and family this week, mostly just from deliveries and picking up things we ordered at kids’ fundraisers. On Tuesday alone we saw seven friends and three family members!

…a clean bill of health for Noke’s leg, which is healing beautifully! The vet said we were rockstars for bandaging it so well but honestly I’m still perplexed about this. She was so shocked that we’d been doing it for three days before bringing him in and I asked what do people normally do? Let their animals bleed to death? Sheesh.

…my new Chinese Evergreen from my aunt, whose name is Katniss Evergreen. This brings my total number of houseplants to 17, which is still probably half of what my aunt has!

…the library’s seed lending program, which I’m using to start an indoor herb garden. I love that they get seeds from Baker.

…Grounds for Change Coffee

…Elizabeth Warren. I’m kind of stunned by the people surprised by her passion. They must not have been following her before. I’ve seen her this passionate for well over a decade.

…the Frozen 2 soundtrack. Wood Sprite and I are loving the “hidden” tracks that didn’t make the film and cracking up over a certain song. Also? I could really listen to Idina Menzel all freakin’ day. I don’t care if you’re sick of Let It Go. It’s the song I would have made mine as a teenager (heck, I’ve made it mine as an adult) and I’ll never get sick of it. It could really be the anthem of first born daughters everywhere. I’ve had “Into the Unknown” (the Panic at the Disco version, too!) and “Show Yourself” on repeat this week.

…Wood Sprite’s braces coming off in 8 weeks! We’re all very excited about this. I have to say I also loved sharing the ins and outs of the Uncalendar with the receptionist.

…dates while Wood Sprite is in class on Mondays and Wednesdays, as usual

…TV with Indy. We finished Locke & Key over the weekend and liked (but didn’t love) it.

…cuddling the pets of friends. We saw SO many dogs this week but I fell head over heels for a friend’s elderly cat, who also happens to be a shameless flirt.

…perfume samples, as ever. This week I tried Hexennacht’s Bomb Pop and Sunday Mourning, which weren’t for me, and Haus of Gloi’s Strawberry Angelfood Cake, which was so-so, but when I tried Hexennacht’s Wouldst Thou Like the Taste of Butter, I fell in love immediately. Called it! If you want to sample yummy indie perfumes but don’t want to spend money on a whole bottle without trying it first, I highly recommend Ajevie’s decanting services. They are fabulous and you can sample several perfumes for under the cost of a single bottle.

…reading with Wood Sprite. We’re deep into indigenous history but we’re also enjoying fiction like Labyrinth Lost.

…walking and doing my weights while watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Last week I finished the third season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina while walking and liked it, although it wasn’t my favorite season.

What are you loving this week?