When speaking informally, I am not very eloquent. Words evade me. I ramble. I stumble through what I am saying, rarely getting my point across. And I mispronounce words all. the. time.

Some of the top culprits on my mispronounced list? The words February, plethora, glutton, hierarchical, reconcile… and I am sure many others that I cannot think of right now. It’s bad. Like I never learned how to speak (and to a greater extent, read).

I do feel better after reading this list of commonly mispronounced words – there are a lot of words on the list that I say correctly (although I am guilty of pronouncing the “t” in “often.”).

And there is one word that many mispronounce and I do not – mischievous. I think I learned in high school that it is not “mischievious“* but I still hear many people pronounce it that way. In fact, before the holiday, I was at Hallmark looking for a specific ornament I always buy for my mom – the Mischievous Kitten ornament. A lady working at Hallmark asked if I needed help finding something, and I told her yes, the Mischievous Kitten ornament, to which she replied “Oh, the Mischievious* Kitten ornament?” thinking she was correcting me. I didn’t say anything at the time, but later asked Steven if I had pronounced the word correctly, and he said that I did. Phew.

This is the 1999 ornament, not the 2010 one

Are there any words you habitually mispronounce? Or do you go crazy when people mispronounce words?

I go crazy when people use words that don’t exist, or say idioms incorrectly!

*Dad, this is spelled incorrectly on purpose.

CSN Stores has offered for me to do a review! Which is awesome, because there is a lot of things on their site I want:

1. My own swing set or trampoline
2. This awesome Peek and Play Box for Data
3. Some yoga blocks
4. A home gym
5. Maybe some drapes since we are returning the ones we bought at Target
6. A waffle maker since I never got the one I wanted
7. A headboard to complete our bedroom
8. This sweet tea box

Okay, some of the things on my wishlist are a bit more realistic than the others, so we went with the tea box. Because we need a space for our tea.*

Right now, some of our tea is in a plastic shoe box in our pantry, and the rest of it is out on the counter.

All together – not such a good solution for our tea…

The new tea box will look pretty out on the counter and give us some more space in the pantry.

So let’s talk about our pantry. And how full it is!

Steven and I don’t plan out our meals for the week. We kind of fly by the seat of our pants. We go grocery shopping once a week and stock up on the items we have used (as well as buy fresh produce). We keep our pantry (and fridge) full with our normal staples so we** can cook whatever our heart’s desire come dinner time.

Is that odd? Do other people keep a full pantry? Do other people feel like they need to be “stocked” on certain items (for example, we like to keep a back up can of veggie stock and garbanzo beans, as well as keep grains, pastas, baking supplies, dry cereal, and canned items).

How full is your pantry? Do you shop by what you are planning to cook for the week or do you have a list of items you like to be stocked up on?

I sometimes feel like we don’t need to keep our pantry as full as we do – that it’s kind of weird that we keep it so stocked. It’s not like we grew up during the Great Depression or something. But at the same time, we aren’t wasting food either. We just like to have a lot of options.

Of course, others disagree about how full our pantry is. My younger brother said, “Your pantry is like an optical illusion – it looks like there is food in there, but none of it is edible.”

Ha. I supposed Steven and I do have different eating habits than my brothers (plural because they have both made comments on how there is no “edible” food in our house. Don’t worry – it makes me laugh. I am the only vegan (vegetarian) in the family.).

*My second cousin introduced a new flavor of tea to me – Green Tea with Jasmine, and I mostly like it!
**Meaning Steven

I think my snowshoeing adventure yesterday resulted in a slight sunburn on my cheeks.

That’s okay. I am just happy to have seen the sun. I don’t get to spend much time in it during the winter season. During the work week I normally arrive and leave work when the sun is down (or if I am lucky, just rising or setting). Not seeing the sun much during the week makes me really crave it on the weekends, hence why I try to workout outside if I can.

Do you actively try to increase your sun exposure during the winter season? Do you think a lack of sunlight has any affect on how you feel (physically and mentally)?

Of course, don’t forget your sunscreen! That snow amplifies the effects of the sun!

This is a follow-up from the post I wrote earlier today!

January has been a surprisingly happy month for me. And I don’t say that in that sense that I am normally unhappy, just that January can be dreary! But I came up with a list of the things that have been making me feel so happy:

• Being social – I joined the Grayslake Running Club and felt like I instantly fit in. Steven and I had a blast at Erin‘s birthday party on Saturday. I got to run with Bobbi on Saturday. And we’ve been making other dates with friends and family! Sure, I am busy and tired, but I feel happy. Steven and I just watched Into the Wild (SPOILER ALERT!) and at the end of the movie, the main character, who has abandoned his family to be alone, comes to the conclusion that “happiness is only real when shared.” Maybe.



Helping make bean burgers before the party – Erin found this recipe to use, but used red beans instead of black. The burgers were a hit with everyone!




The Birthday Girl!!!



• Doing fun things with Steven – even though we’ve been busy, Steven and I have still been spending time together doing the things we enjoy.
• Keeping busy/organizing – we’ve been staying busy at home, organizing (clothes, cards, and other things I haven’t mentioned), cleaning and building – Steven is making a workbench in the garage.



Bringing part of the MDF in to the garage for the new workbench

• Planning fun events – beside upcoming running events, Steven and I are taking a vacation in February, and going to Iowa in April for my younger brother’s wedding!
• Healthy eating and exercising
  
• Busy with new projects at work
• No more holiday stress

What is making you happy lately?

I recently read a Women’s Health article (read it here) with some very interesting insights on happiness. I am always interested in reading articles/books on happiness. That’s my biggest life goal – to be generally happy.

This post got really long, so I am going to do another post later today listing what has been making me happy lately!

Basically, the article said that psychologists categorize happiness in to two types, below (their direct words in quotes):

• Moment-to-moment happiness – which comes from the “small spurts of joy you get from everyday occurrences,” like getting a compliment or seeing a friend for lunch. According to the article, “quantity trumps quality when it comes to happiness,” and these small daily occurrences are what balance out life’s lows. “All you have to do is notice and appreciate them.”
• Reflective happiness – the deep satisfaction you get when you examine your life as a whole and are happy with the direction it’s going.

The article had four recommendations for boosting happiness:

1. Have an attitude of gratitude
2. Banish the comparisons
3. Find meaning in your work
4. Hang with happy people

Reading this article, two parts stuck out to me the most. The first is that “scientists say each of us is born with our own happiness set point.” I definitely believe that! And the second is that “happy people take pleasure in the successes of other people rather than using those successes as a yardstick to measure their own lives.” Then it went on to say you should not compare yourself to others, but also not abandon your goals – just run at your own pace.

I cannot agree with this last part more. Seeing my friends happy makes me happy. Their accomplishments make me feel proud. At the same time, I feel their struggles, sadness and frustration.

Holly recently posted about something similar – a Facebook friend who posted her workouts, until she took them down because people were calling her exercise obsessed and saying they felt like she was bragging. Seeing/reading the friend’s workouts would make me feel motivated (and hopefully if I knew her well enough I would say something if I thought she did have an exercise issue) and I would feel happy for her. But other people apparently didn’t. It is a little bit different of a situation, but I think it’s worth mentioning.

What do you think about the points from the article? Do you think people have different happiness set points? Are you able to take pleasure in other people’s successes, or do you struggle with self comparison?

(the quote is a joke guys (family), don’t freak out!)