My own elf
In yesterday’s post, I didn’t emphasis how extremely grateful I am that my mom wrapped all my Christmas presents* and several birthday presents. I dislike wrapping so much – I get upset every time I do it.
It comes down to me not being good at it, and being upset for long it takes, and still comes out looking like crap. Would it look better if I practiced more? Yes. Am I going to practice more? No. Am I trying to think of ways to get my mom to wrap our remaining Christmas gifts*? Yes. Ha ha.
But all that to say – thank you SO MUCH, Mom! You saved me time and a lot of aggravation, and now my gifts are beautifully wrapped and even have bows and ribbon and sh*t.
*Purchased so far, for my family. We still have to shop for Steven’s dad and brother. And I still have all of Steven’s birthday gifts** to wrap.
**This includes things his dad and brother send me to wrap 🫠🫠🫠
Come see our tree
We had such a fun weekend with my parents! When my mom asked about coming out the Friday after Thanksgiving I was really excited – when we get a Christmas tree, that’s when we get it, and I knew she’d love to be a part of that, and that I could really use her help decorating it!
So after lunch at El Famous (a mandatory stop) on Friday we went to pick out our tree at Kroll’s Harvest Farm near our house. We’d gotten a Canaan fir the year before and didn’t care for it and decided to go back to our old standby, a Fraser fir. We went tall – our tree is between 10 and 11 feet!
Ha, the guy who works there tried to sell us on a Canaan again. That must be why we tried something new last year.
We picked out our tree in record speed and got home and realized the trunk was too big for our base, so Steven and dad cut some of it off, then stood it up. We let the branches out and gave them the night to settle before we decorated.
The cats immediately checked it out, of course.
Mom and Dad brought this cat scratcher truck for the cats and they love it!
For the rest of the evening, Mom wrapped most of my Christmas gifts. I hate wrapping, and she loves it, so I made sure to buy as many gifts as I could before she arrived. I only wish I could have figured out a way for her to wrap her own!!!
Steven and Dad hung out with us while we were wrapping, then we had chili and cornbread for dinner, then watched Love Actually, and went to bed quite late. Oops.
Dad and I were both up early on Saturday and he rode his bike with me (it was 24°F out!) while I ran.
After I got home and cleaned up, I got some holiday decorations up and put Judy (our garland) up on the stairs, then got to work on prepping a giant appetizer spread featuring foods Steven sells on FakeMeats.com. Steven and I cooked and prepped it all, while taking video and film, and Mom set the board up (and Dad worked on figuring out which of our Christmas tree lights were good). It took about two and a half hours. Crazy, right?
I’m so glad Mom was there to make the board look so nice, and that Mom and Dad were there to help us eat it, and Josh (Steven’s flight instructor) came over too! Whenever we’re eating a meal with him he asks if the food is from FakeMeats so Steven figured he might like to come over and try all the products. And he did try everything – even the vegan caviar and shrimp.
It was fun to have Josh over and visit. Mom kept saying we needed to have people over to see our tree and I was like “this is it! Josh is here and seeing it!” Ha ha. (We rarely have people over – not because we don’t want to, we just don’t hang out with a ton of people around here and none of our family lives here and our friends are spread out all over the states/world. COME SEE OUR TREE.)
We hung out and chatted then headed out for Dad’s birthday present. In his (October) birthday card I had written that we’d give him his present when he was at the house in November but he must have forgotten, because when I said it was time to go for his birthday surprise he was very “huh”? Ha.
The present was a sunset skyline tour of Chicago, with Steven piloting. On the way to the airport we asked Dad if he knew what his surprise was, and he said yes, and we asked what gave it away, and he said it was when Josh left the house and said he was going to the same place as us, ha ha ha.
We took the Cessna 172, which is what Steven flies most often.
(Mom didn’t want to fly, so she went to the outlet mall while we did this)
It was a tight squeeze for two full size adults in the back, but totally fine for a less than an hour flight!
Steven had never done this flight before, and said it was nice and easy – you just follow the shoreline down to the city and back. You have to stay below a certain altitude because of ORD traffic, and watch out for other sightseeing aircraft, but we only saw one other plane near our altitude.
I have done helicopter tours over downtown, but hadn’t done anything like this, and I really enjoyed it. It was fun to see all the landmarks from the sky, and we saw a beautiful sunset too.
And Dad really liked his gift, yay!
After we got back home we had Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner, then got to decorating the tree.
I always feel like out tree is a bit plain with only lights and balls and asked Mom to bring some ribbon and I think it really spruced it up!
On Sunday we woke up to snow, and it was still snowing. Dad and I went on a walk, then came back and I filmed a reel for Fake Meats, then we all had breakfast and hung out for a bit. Steven and Dad did some switch projects in our bathrooms (installing a fan timer), and Mom and I looked at sunglasses on Goodr that we don’t need, and she made ribbons for Judy, then they took off around 1:00.
I got a little less than 6 hours of sleep each night they were here and it really hit me hard. I was a bit delirious and out of it before they left, so after they left and I ate some lunch I took a two hour nap. I hadn’t done that in ages and it felt amazing. I was even able to fall right asleep at night. I must have really needed the rest!
2023 has been good to me
I normally wouldn’t write a thankful list but it’s been an awfully good year and I want to document it! And I just finished a long run where I had a lot of time to think about it. So here goes! I categorized it to make it easier for skimming, ha. And this is not an exhaustive list, just a few things on my mind.
I’m thankful for:
Family & Community
- Steven (my husband) – we’ve been together since September 2002 (21+ years!) – more than half of my life – and I fall more in love with him each year. It kind of blows my mind, like, how is that even possible? But as you go through stuff together, and are always there for one another, you just grow closer and open up new depth to your relationship. It’s pretty exciting.
- Christina, (my snister, aka sister) – I feel so lucky to have a sister who is my best friend and who has always shown me what true friendship should be – someone who accepts me for who I am, is always there for me, and tells me the honest truth (like that day I FaceTimed her at work to ask if my hair was such a disaster I should pull it back and she said yes ha ha ha). And we have so much fun together. And she’s my hype girl. And she will research and find me things to buy that I don’t want to. And etc etc. I could go on and on.
- My family (parents & siblings) – they’ve demonstrated to me from a young age that I should be exactly who I want to be and not worry about what other people think of me. I’ve always appreciated that.
- My friends – I have a lot of friends who really care about me (in real life and on here) and accept me for who I am, and that means the world to me. Thank you so much.
- Our cats – we love our fur babies so much and our lives would be dull without them.
Opportunity
- For new friendships & community – it just continually blows my mind that I make new friendships and connections each year. I’ve met people from all over the world though my painting account on Instagram (some whom I will meet in person for the first time in April), we’ve made friends with people through Steven’s flying, and I’ve joined a wonderful community at WWM, where I work out. It’s so exciting to make new connections with people.
- For adventure – we’ve had such a busy social/travel calendar this year and it’s been exhilarating. I’m going to be cliche and say it’s felt like we are living life to the fullest – but that is how it feels. And all the fun adventure we’ve had has helped combat the (sometimes) monotony of our daily lives.
- To fly – Steven working on getting his pilot’s license/certificate has been so exciting, and I cannot wait to be his copilot. All my years of loving navigation and memorization is finally coming into use.
- To support Steven’s small business – this was so stressful at first – trying to figure out how to work for Steven and do all the other things I want to do, and it turned out I couldn’t and I needed to reprioritize. I’m grateful this got me back to therapy and spending less time on social media and more time in the real world. I’m more present and enjoy life much more since I’ve stopped being on social media as much (but am still so grateful for the connections I’ve made on it – what can I say – it’s complicated). And it feels really really good to be able to help Steven and be a part of the team.
- At work – the position I am in was revamped in March 2022 and I’m at a higher level than I was before and have a lot of interactions with leadership locally and nationally.
Health
I’m so glad I’ve focused on my health this year, both physical and mental. It feels so good… to feel good – to wake up with energy, to not be out of breath, to go up and down the stairs and not feel it, to want to eat foods that make me feel my best most of the time, but also have my favorite junk foods too, to be back to running and lifting 3x a week… I just feel really good, and am grateful for it. And am grateful for the health of my loved ones too.
Thanks for reading and being here! I appreciate you!
Random Thoughts Thursday 431
RTT… on Wednesday!
- Our holiday cards went out Monday. Woo hoo!
- I love getting messages like the one below. Amy in Belgium got hers already because I sent our EU ones last week. I wasn’t sure how long they’d take to get there. That was fast! And my friends in Australia got theirs this week too (I mailed them November 1).
- I’m a federal employee and only get federal holidays off work, but our Administrator granted us 3 hours of leave today. WOO HOO! And this Friday is my Friday off so I get an extra long weekend.
- Steven and I are having Thanksgiving for two at home tomorrow, then my parents are visiting Friday-Sunday and we have ALL THE PLANS. Mostly Christmas and fitness and eating related. And there is a surprise too. I’m excited.
- Poor Tywin! He had a horrible wheezing cold last week and wouldn’t eat and sounded dreadful. He is thankfully feeling better and eating again. We were so worried about him.
- I made an appointment for Tywin to get neutered on December 8th. Sigh. I wish whomever he belongs to would do it, but I cannot on good conscience let him galivant around impregnating female cats. Sorry Tywin. He will convalesce inside our home then go back outside before Christmas. WE CANNOT HAVE ANOTHER PERMANENT CAT INSIDE (all caps because I am yelling at myself).
- I will be at the vet’s office a ton in December. I was there last week with Starbuck and Apollo for their annual visits (they are healthy, Starbuck was a feisty b-word at the vet, no surprise there, even though I gave them all drugs), then on the 8th with Tywin then later in the day for Starbuck and Apollo shot follow-ups then back later to pick up Tywin, then there on the 15th for Khali and Ned’s annual appointments, then back some unknown time for their shot follow-ups. Oh kitties. You expensive.
- Proof that Snow Jr lets me feed him a food tube:
- And last but definitely NOT least… there’s been a lot of death in our lives recently. Two close (separate) friends lost their mothers, and one of Steven’s long time friends passed this week. It’s just… *deep breaths*… tough. We feel so sad for our friends and the shock of losing Steven’s friend is still settling in. It doesn’t feel real yet, at least to me. I’m not sharing this for sympathy, but just to keep it real and let you know it’s been a roller coaster over here, and that if you’re feeling that way too, you’re not alone.
Reading Update (2023 #62-64)
[62] The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand
Fiction / Women, saw in “Available Now” on Libby/wanted to read an author I like, Kindle
TW: Child loss
Synopsis: Harper and Tabitha are identical twins that only live miles apart from one another on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, but they haven’t seen each other in years and don’t speak. When their parents divorced and made the sisters live separately the divide started, and only worsened as adults. But now their father has died and their mother is injured and they need to reunite and help one another out.
Review: I knew Hilderbrand would not let me down, and this book totally got me out of a reading slump. Hilderbrand has a talent for writing complicated messy drama in a format I can actually follow. It’s basically a soap on paper. I despised Tabitha and was rooting for Harper, and that made me even more invested in the story. I was supper annoyed that the sisters kept mentioning something that happened years ago to drive them apart and wouldn’t explain what until near the end, but when it was explained, it made me dislike Tabitha even more. Ha. This was a fun read.
Recommend? Yes!
[63] Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Fiction / Romance / Workplace, saw on Stephany’s blog, Kindle
Synopsis: Chandler Cohen is feeling low – she finally hooked up with her crush of years but then he told her he didn’t want a relationship, and the woman she just spent months communicating with to ghostwrite her memoir didn’t even recognize her at a book signing. Things seem to be taking a turn when Chandler meets a charming stranger she instantly connects with… but then she has the worse sex of her life with him and escapes before he wakes up the next morning. When her agent contacts her the next day with a new ghostwriting gig the last person she expects to see is the man from the night before, yet, there he is. He’s Finn Walsh, a has-been actor known for a werewolf show from a decade ago. Chandler agrees to ghostwrite his memoir, and after she tells him how horrible the sex was, offers to give him some help there too.
Review: I really thought I’d love this book, but it was just so so for me. There was definitely some spice, and the behind the scenes acting world and ghostwriting world stuff was interesting, but I think I didn’t buy these two as a legit couple? Didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it.
Recommend? Nah
[64] The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, saw in “Available Now” on Libby, audiobook
Synopsis: It’s Olive’s identical twin sister Ami’s wedding day, and Olive is just hoping to make it through the day without killing the groom’s brother and best man, Ethan. She absolutely cannot stand him. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning except for Olive and Ethan, Ami insists the two of them go on her nonrefundable honeymoon in Hawaii. And as much as they can’t stand each other, the idea of a free vacation is irresistible, so they go, and find out they don’t hate each other as much as they thought.
Review: My synopsis is crap but I absolutely adored this book and had several laugh out loud moments and smirking moments while listening to it. Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes, and there was a lot more going on that just that – running into Olive’s new boss and (separately) Ethan’s ex at the resort and the lies that unfolded, Olive finding out a lot more about her sister’s new husband from Ethan (scandal!), Olive’s large and invasive but very loving family, and Olive figuring out what she actually wants to do for a career. It made me want to read a part 2, or a follow-up book on Amy!
Recommend? Yes!
Well that was unusual
Last night I taught a rock painting class at my gym and I did something really weird – I didn’t take ANY photos of the students or rocks. I took ONE photo, of my plate of food to send Steven, because he had sent me a picture of his dinner.
(I ate more when I got home – there was not a lot of vegan food, nor did I expect there to be and was totally fine with that! I don’t like making my veganism a thing.)
If you know me, you’ll know it’s unusual for me not to take a ton of photos – that’s kind of my MO – I’m always documenting.
But I just wanted to be in the moment, and it felt nice. I didn’t even know where my phone was for half the class.
Did I regret it when I got home? Just a little. It does feel odd to have that photo as my only documentation. But I swear it happened!
About 15 people showed up, and everyone brought dishes to share because it was wwmsgiving – we even went around the table and said what we’re grateful for (mine was a poorly explained version of this post and how grateful I am to find new friendships and community in unexpected places). Everyone did an awesome job painting and many said how calming and relaxing it is. I’m really glad I could share it with them and they felt that way – that’s what it is for me too.
Photo I took of their rocks this morning!
Special shoutout to Bobbi for helping me set up. I got there at 5:30 for the 6:00 pm start and we were setting up for almost that entire thirty minutes. I left at 9:00 pm and still need to organize and put all my painting stuff away. Eh, I will get to it. I did get all the rocks resined and ready to take in on Monday for people to pick up though, so that’s something!
Noticeable progress
Ha, I’ve been forgetting to share workout stuff in a public post, since I write it in my private training recap, and my brain gets confused and thinks I’ve written about it, and I have, but kind of haven’t?! Anyway!
I had TWO noticeable improvements at the gym this week! On Monday, I shoulder pressed 55 lbs. I could barely do the 45 lb bar when I started! Woo hoo!
And on Tuesday I did box jumps! They’ve always scared and intimidated me, but I was able to do them!
I’m feeling proud! And so glad I joined WWM. I love our trainer, Marybel, and all the students that go there, and have so much fun strength training this way.
After talking about regretting not taking measurements at the beginning of the year, I took some in late October and think I’ll make that a monthly thing. I doubt I’ll have any noticeable progress there for a while, but maybe in several months!
Random Thoughts Thursday 430
- These photos are not great, but here is the mani I got last week. I also did a matte finish on my toes for the first time, and love it.
- I feel a lot of relief that I was able to get so much painting done in LA. I’m teaching a rock painting class at my workout studio tomorrow night and I didn’t have much prepped for it! I normally don’t do rocks with lettering but figured the positive messages made sense for a gym!
All the words ones are mine
- Ahh, speaking of rock painting, I said no to cohosting a challenge (#felinefestive) with a group of friends that I’ve hosted with previously. I really hate saying no because we have fun doing it, but the timing and my mood just aren’t right for it. I don’t want to force myself to create art for the challenge prompts, and I don’t want to spend a lot of time on Instagram looking at the entries of people who participate. I will promote the challenge and participate when I can, and maybe feel like hosting again for #felinethelove in February? I should be less busy in January and able to prep?
- I didn’t have a list of things I wanted to talk with my therapist about on Tuesday so I was just shooting the sh*t, then right when my session was ending I had a breakthrough on a big thing I need to work on. I felt silly about not realizing it beforehand until I was talking about it with Tiff and she reminded me that things often need to be talked out to get to that point. I feel good knowing we’re going to work on that at my next session! And I feel weirdly proud for continuing my therapy. Like, look at me, attempting to take care of my mental health. Ha.
A New Treasure
When we were driving back to LA from Carpinteria Saturday night, one of the questions Tiff asked me and Val was “what’s the ideal number of close friends?” Val said 5 or less. Tiff and I struggled to answer immediately, and the three of us ended up having a long discussion on what defines a “close friend.” I couldn’t define what it is succinctly, it was a lot of:
- They’re there for me when xyz
- I go to them with good and bad news
- I can be 100% myself around them
- I can be honest with them
- We give each other grace
- Etc, etc
Tell me! What defines a close friend for you? And what’s the ideal number?
(Tiff and I both settled on 10 or less)
I need to gush on them just a bit more. Val and Tiff both had thoughtful custom gifts for me [insert tears in eyes emoji] when I saw them. Tiff gave us koozies with a photo from our July trip, and Val had poems written for us!
D.M. Kingsford sets up a table with a typewriter and will write a poem for you on the spot. Val said “I told him I have a friend who is the most generous friend, she loves to help and give presents. She’s an amazing friend who is a great listener and loves to run. I told him that you’ve run marathons and ultra marathons and that you love to paint rocks.”
[seriously, insert all the tears in eyes emojis!!!!]
LA November 2023 Day 3 & 4
We had two things planned for Saturday – getting vegan donuts and meeting our rock painting friend Danny and his family in Carpinteria.
Right before I left for the trip Veg News came out with their 2023 list of best vegan restaurants. There was a restaurant in the LA area in almost every category, but the one that really caught my eye was Donut Friend, which was voted the #1 vegan donut place.
Oh! Let me start at the beginning of the day though. Val and I went on a short run around campus, then went to Tiff’s where Val braided my hair (she did the day before too – thanks, Hair by Valerie), then we headed to the donut shop.
Val and I both have major sweet tooths and were so so pumped to get donuts. I walked in and my mouth with agape with how beautiful they all were. I had a hard time deciding on which I wanted. Thankfully, we each picked out two so I got to try a lot! We got X-Ray Speculoos, Caramel on Parade, Custard Front Drive, Pumpkin Piebald, Saves the Danish, & Jimmy Eat Swirl.
We tried the custard and pumpkin in the shop and they were amazing. I think that custard donut may be the best I’ve ever had (I brought one home for Steven, which he ate Sunday and enjoyed). I wish I could go there more often, but it’s probably a good thing it’s a couple of thousand miles from home.
We stopped at Starbucks on the way out of town and picked up drinks courtesy of my snis – she sent us a gift card to use on Thursday. Thanks so much snis!
Then we continued on to Carpinteria, which took about an hour and a half. We chatted the whole way, of course.
When we got to town we met up with Danny and he showed us around until his wife and daughter came and joined us. Their town is so beautiful – just a small downtown right next to the ocean. It wasn’t super crowded, which I appreciated. Very chill vibes!
We walked a bit more then got lunch at The Good Plow. Tiff and I split the falafel burger and fried cauliflower tacos, and Val and I split the brussels sprouts.
After lunch we checked out a makers market in Summerland (and I got a chai from Red Kettle Coffee),
then we headed back to Carpinteria and Danny’s family went home. Tiff, Val, and I went to a t-shirt shop,
then we continued on to Rincon Beach. Danny had mentioned the tide would be low so we could check out the tide pools. I’m so glad we did – it was super neat! We saw starfish, anemones, a million clams, crabs, and other creatures I’d never seen before!
We set up a little camp and each painted a “create” rock,
then we took some silly jumping photos,
and headed back. While we were walking back to the car, we saw dolphins jumping the waves! That was truly magical for this Midwest girl.
It was awesome to get so much time with Danny and his family, and to see the beautiful area they live in. We had been talking about going to the ocean but I hadn’t thought about how fulfilling that would be. I’m really glad we did.
I drove us back to Tiff’s, which took about 2 hours and twenty minutes, yikes. But, Tiff googled some great questions on her phone to ask and we had deep, connecting conversations, which made the trip so memorable. Thank you Tiff!
We went to her place and shopped her homemade ceramics, painted a bit, and ordered a mediocre vegan pizza from Jay’s (sorry, gals) then finished our rocks and called it a night early so we could get packed up and ready to go for our early flights. Wah!
While there, I kept saying the days felt really long but went by so fast. I know you know what I mean. I love how time moves slower with them, since I am truly focusing on things I love doing each hour, and feel absolutely present. I’m so grateful for our time together.
I packed up Saturday night and went to bed and was delighted both cats slept with me! I was up at 4:45 am the next morning (I should note, we all went to bed at reasonable times on this trip and I tried to get a decent amount of sleep) and did a bit on my computer then got ready and took care of a few house things. Tiff picked us up at 6:15 and drove us to LAX. It was a bummer to say goodbye, but we’ll all be together again in February!
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
