Things Already Bought

Posted on February 7, 2018 by TheJessicaness

Q&A a Day: What are three things you have to buy?
1) peanut butter, creamy or crunchy, by Crazy Richard’s, with only one ingredient

2) things to go with peanut butter — apples, bananas, carbs, carrots, and eggs

3) things to add peanut butter to — oatmeal, smoothies, and yogurt

I received three gifts today, one of which I don’t think I was supposed to open yet, but Caleb told me it wasn’t supposed to arrive till he got back (so I got an anniversary gift early, but you’ll have to wait to find out what it is). The second gift was our third shipment from Mighty Nest; a reusable LunchSkins sandwich and snack bag. The third gift was my third paycheck as I work towards making that amount grow.

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Then I get on my computer for my nightly post and see the Sunshine Blogger Award given to me by Helen at smart-diet.loveandjoy.net. I will thank her kindly and answer her eleven questions, but I won’t be nominating others and passing the award torch.

  1. What are you blogging about? I write about myself mostly.
  2. When and why did you start your blog? 2011, I have always loved to write and started getting into photography; this was a great way to share those passions.
  3. What are your goals for your blog? To improve my writing and the lives of others as  some of my readers travel vicariously through me.
  4. Do you have a special strategy to get more followers for your blog? I’ve heard you can write on a schedule, have a certain amount of tags, and follow tons of other bloggers. I’ve never worried about this or I would invite more friends and family to read it, but I prefer organic interest.
  5. If you were invited to a talk show on TV what would you like to talk about? The learning process of writing every day, trying to take a meaningful photo (or not a blurry one) every day, and enjoying the creativity flow that comes with it.
  6. If you had the chance to live your dream – where would you be and what would you do? My dream right now is to train at night and scuba dive every day, or to train during the winter and scuba dive in the summer. I would read books on the beach or by a waterfall while my husband rubs my feet and we eat fruits and veggies with plenty of peanut butter. We would sit for hours watching the sunset.

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    It’s not a Tide Ad, it’s Nike.

  7. Do you spend more time per day writing your blog or reading other blogs? I used to spend tons of time reading my favorites (which made it super easy to nominate others in these cases), but a lot of us had huge life changes (or just got lazy or distracted) and took a long break so I stopped having so much to read. How much time I dedicate nightly depends on the question of the day and how different my day was to give me writing material.
  8. What are your three favourite blogs? Greg Nuckols @ Stronger by Science, Austin Kleon, Béa Johnson @ Zero Waste Home, and Shing Yoong @ The Culture Map
  9. What would your best friend tell me about you? That I’m very understanding, a great listener… actually, they’d probably tell you how happy, crazy, sexy, kind, and fantastic I am; and that I love peanut butter.
  10. If you had the power to change any grievance in the world in the blink of an eye, which problem would you address? Suffering children; that should sum up everything but incurable diseases.

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  11. What’s your favourite inspirational/motivational quote? “One step, and one day at a time.” My generation was brought up to believe that everyone earned a star or trophy just for showing up. Ads having us believe that miracles happen over night (learning a language, losing 50 pounds, paying off debt), and kids these days get upset if they can’t learn something proficiently the very first time they try it. I also like, “one minute is better than no minutes.” Better to try your best every day and get a little accomplished than to let the negatives get in the way of your positive.

Thanks again Helen for the inspiration. I always enjoy a challenge and a change of pace.

Posted in fitness, Inspiration, Marriage, Media, People, Things | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

In Chance

Posted on February 6, 2018 by TheJessicaness

Q&A a Day: Are you seeking contentment or excitement? I’m content with where I am, as I’m in the process of learning and growing every day in the: gym, classroom, car, kitchen, playground, and sidewalk as I set more goals and am given more responsibilities moving forward. We are attempting to expand our elementary exercise program to other schools and I will be helping to write, teach, and supervise the program’s success.

Tom Liguori: Connected to the Source

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The Sound of…

Posted on February 5, 2018 by TheJessicaness

ipod

Q&A a Day: What are you obsessively listening to? The Sound of Silence and The Sound of Music; both answers and titles. I listen to the gym radio in the morning (unless I bring my headphones, which is rare), Duolingo (a language-learning app) while I’m walking dogs and their feet click on the sidewalk, country or classical music in the car, loud high schoolers while waiting for class (because they borrow our campus gym), a professor’s spiel for at least an hour, and elementary kids for at least two hours.

The evening routine changes on whether I go to the gym on the way home, if the neighbors are out to talk to, whether we’re making dinner or eating leftovers, how Caleb’s day went, if I get any video clips or phone calls, the typing of keys nightly to post, the turning of pages as I start a new book Artificial Minds, water from the shower and doing dishes, doggy guts digesting food as they dream loudly, and cars whizzing by outside as I finish crunching on dessert.

Posted in Animals, Art, Books, Food, Media, Music, Water | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

What’s Outside?

Posted on February 4, 2018 by TheJessicaness

Q&A a Day: Outside, the weather is… delightful. It was in the 50s F when I dropped Caleb off at the airport at 6:30am. The temperature hadn’t changed when I arrived to a closed gym at 7am, but it climbed into the 80s for the afternoon.

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Breakfast was a piñata apple with peanut butter; and lunch the farm collection from yesterday to consist of tomatoes, chard, a cubanelle pepper, broccoli, eggs, fava bean leaves, and Thai basil (with added pepper). I had a probiotic apple cider vinegar drink, turmeric-ginger flavored, throughout the afternoon. I was going to go paddle boarding and remembered that my car is in the shop as of yesterday.

I went outside after 2pm for some vitamin D and the neighbor’s kid wandered over and offered to trade me some yard work help for some time playing with his bubble guns. We didn’t shake on it, but he was enthusiastic and got his sisters to help us. So instead of just trimming around the walkway I was able to accomplish raking and weeding most of the front and side yard in an hour and a half; and ruined my pink gloves in the process.

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Dinner would be a homemade white bean-lentil burger with some leftover tempeh-kale pasta and a mushroom coffee with two figs for dessert. Caleb will enjoy a less-than-a-mile walk to Wal-Mart in Mobile, Alabama for a turkey sandwich and some almonds for dinner. He got left behind for the beer and football party bus while he was showering.

Caleb got his much-wanted aisle seat for both flights and first-class leg room while he watched The Glass Castle, a film he’s been waiting to watch since its release after he read the book. It’s about 60 degrees now, in both states, but Caleb has rain to look forward to this week while my location shows nothing but a big round and bright sun.

What’s outside for you?

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Sad Stories

Posted on February 3, 2018 by TheJessicaness

Q&A a Day: On a scale of one to ten, how sad are you? Why? 10 being the saddest, I’m a 1. Why, because I’m a month away from my anniversary and already celebrating. I got told today that my dogs are well-behaved (they’re blind, there’s a difference). Caleb is leaving for work for a week, but I’ve already got plans to stay busy — gym, school, work, garden, paddle board, dogs, homework, study, eat all the leftovers he made me today so that I wouldn’t have to bother (with the cooking or the cleaning), and call him every day to make sure he’s still reading my posts and see how his day went.

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broccoli tots with sriracha

This year will mark the third year since my mom passed and it has gotten tons easier to at least think about her now without crying abruptly, but has also added distance between the siblings and I since I haven’t been back to Texas since. I wished my older brother a happy birthday three weeks ago via Messenger by sending him a cake emoji and haven’t heard back. I talked with my sister who is expecting her fourth child with her fiancé Mikey, and my niece Irie who is almost three, over video. I haven’t spoken with my little brother since I wished him a happy birthday last June.

I don’t talk with my dad as much as I used too and definitely miss seeing him as often, but he was off changing the world one glorious step at a time, and now I’m busy making changes to mine, planning for my future, setting goals, and being happy. He visits with my grandmother who is still recovering from her stroke in a care facility and I hope to come out and visit soon and see Caroline while I’m there. It would’ve been nice to see my aunts as well, but I was, and am still, recovering from my broken toe and not ready for so many stairs and no bathtub.

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hello salad

Caleb and I are closer to his one uncle than we are the rest of both of our extended families combined. It probably helps that he comes to visit, lives in a beautiful area, has a very nice wife, and messages us from time to time. Caleb got to meet some of his family for the first time in 20 years and we were only disappointed with one person. I’m used to seeing my family every five years when my mom would miss them most. I got invited to a cruise this summer and had no idea where we would be by then, but I think it too strange to do something I’m not ready for with people I barely know.

That sums up family, and as far as friends go… I spent a decade keeping in touch with childhood classmates, military memories, and crazy coworkers. I’ll never forget their faces but the rest begins to fade as the years stretch on without a word. Most people are temporary in your life and the lesson can be a difficult one, but others will always be there with a couch to crash, a joke to tell, and food. I try to hold onto these ones, though I’ve got my best friend with me and he holds on tight and always will. I’m not sad. I’m not allowed to be, because I’m too spoiled for that.

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more greens! more veggies!

As far as my day went, I got to sleep in and listen to a European Starling before the gym opened. They are an invasive species but I wouldn’t mind having one living in the backyard (if I had the tree for it that was sadly cut down). We got a bit sweaty, did a good shoulder workout, and then went to the store for veggie sausage to have with our eggs and broccoli tots for breakfast.

We took the dogs to the estuary and ran into one of the farmers tending his crop of tomatoes, chard, eggs, broccoli, fava bean leaves, and Thai basil — just to name some of the items he gifted us and invited us to come back. I hadn’t planned on being in the sun so long, but we reddened our skin and got a salad in the process. Our shiny new double-handed pots arrived today to replace the antique ones with flowers on the sides, handles falling off, and holes wearing in the bottom, that my mom gave us long ago.

Caleb made lentil burgers and chickpeas burritos while I wrote out my internship goals, read articles about mental toughness and developing relationships, and helped with laundry so he could pack for his trip. The burgers will go in the freezer and most of the burritos in our mouths. I’m grateful that Caleb gets so inspired by my passions and loves me enough to rub my feet; we’ve been hesitant with the broken toe, but it went well. I cleaned up so he could sleep and I could post.

What’s your sad scale number and why?

Posted in Animals, Family, Food, Friends, Marriage, Military, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment