Repurposing A Wine Bottle and #COYER Spring Challenge! Join us!

 The other day my other half picked himself up a bottle of wine from Walgreens and I thought to myself, that is a good-looking wine label.  So once the wine was gone.  I repurposed the wine bottle and added it to my bookshelf. I am tempted to find books to put on the shelf that goes with the Firefly theme. 

In case you are wondering what I did, I just took a string of LED lights I got from Aldi over the holidays and stuck the little lights into the wine bottle to get the effect of having fireflies in a mason jar, and then I used some velcro to attach the battery pack on the back of the bottle. Easy peasy, that is the extent of my DIY skills. 

As you may recall this year I am joining reading challenges.  To the right of this post,  you can see the Read a Series in a Month Challenge button which you can click to join!  My post on that challenge is here:  Two Challenges To Talk About.

I am also participating in the COYERS Seasons Challenge, which means it's time for my COYER Spring Challenge post!  You can read all the details and join me in the challenge here.   I'm really excited for this part of the challenge because now that physical books are included it gives me an incentive to read the books I got for Christmas and some books I won in contests. 

In addition to the gentle nudge to read books that I already own,  COYERS offers community! I love being part of the group.  It's nice to read with others, and have a chance to talk about books outside of a traditional book club. 

I hope the beginning of March is going well, the anniversary of when the pandemic began to affect most of our lives is just about here. I hope you are in a good place and soon to be vaccinated or already vaccinated! 

Did He See His Shadow Or What?

According to my Aunt who resides in the keystone state AKA Pennsylvania, Punxasutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow.  Early Spring!  Or maybe not, here in Chicagoland the sun is shining for the first time in 183 days and so any local groundhogs definitely saw their shadows.

Oh well, at least January has finally ended. Don't get me wrong it wasn't terrible.  It wasn't great either. Do you have monthly goals? Did you make New Year's Resolutions?  How are you hanging in there?

Here is how my January went:

1. First and foremost, 80% done with radiation!  Wahoo! My skin looks red like a sunburn but it isn't peeling so great news.
2. I ran every day of January.  I hit my goal of running a long run of 6.5.  I raised money toward my goal for Imerman's Angels! 
3. My goal to blog 2-5 times per week was achieved.
4. I listened to 2 audiobooks and read 3 books so that meets my goal of 5 books for the month.
5. I tried two new things! 1. I attended a phone bank and made calls for Abdelnasser Rashid for Cook County Board of Review and 2. The Man and I went to CONEX the Conservation Expo.

Here is where I fell short: I wasn't able to make it to three events I really wanted to go. For one, I was too tired, two, The Man was sick as a dog with a nasty cold and three I didn't get the book of the month from the library until the date of the monthly library book club (#3 was poor planning on my part!).

Overall I give myself an A- for achieving my January Goals.

Another meal from the workshop,  two thumbs up from The Man! Chicken Enchiladas

Here is what I'll be up to in February -- reminder all -- we have an extra Saturday in February. Plan something fun for that day!

February Goals:
A long run of 7.5 miles
Dinner with Friends x 2
Blog 2-5 times per week
Create my first DIY Pinterest Project: A coffee bar!
Try 2 new things (still working on what that will be)
Lastly, have a very uneventful laparoscopic preventative surgery and celebrate being done with medical interventions for hopefully ever. (not including routine tests)

Welcome to February 2020!  Today is the same forward and backward 02022020!!

First Annual Family Halloween Craft Day #ThrowbackThursday

 

With the kids being teens, I see the writing on the wall, our time together as a family under one roof is limited.  Therefore, I'm on a memory making mission.  Heck I even put Throwback Thursday on this post so it will be easy to find in 5 years when Anna goes off to college and I'm a giant puddle of nostalgia.

This past Saturday was declared by me as Family Craft Day.  The craft I chose was Halloween Mason Jars.  You may notice we didn't actually use Mason Jars. Being frugal and ecofriendly, I saved jars, soaked off the labels and we were set. I still have about 6 jars we can use for Christmas Crafts. 

 Should you be looking to make your own Halloween Luminaries, there are literally thousands of different webpages like this one, and Pinterest Pins devote to this craft.   I got buy-in for this craft project from 2 of 3 kids, so I took it as a win and we are now enjoy the whimsical fruits of  our labors.

 I also spent some time being creative in the kitchen and here is what I came up with for Sunday Dinner.  Jewel had a sale on pork loin, so I paid $11 for a loin I cut into 5 pork roasts. Such a Deal!  I froze all but one for future meals. This one I first covered with Garlic Garlic, Onion Onion, salt and pepper and seared it on all sides in a cast iron skillet.  Then I placed the roast in a roasting pan and added a couple of sliced apples, an onion, 4 potatoes and 4 wedges of cabbage.  I seasoned the vegetables and poured 1/2 cup of Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar over everything.   I covered the pan with aluminum foil and roasted  until the pork roast was fall-apart tender ( 300 degrees F for about 3 hours). It worked out really well. The sweet/sour/savory flavors melded together quite well. Tom and I enjoyed ours with a Ballast Point Pumpkin Ale.

Above Average Temperatures

Checked out the old weather forecast and it looks like the next 7 days in Chicagoland will continue to be above normal.  Rain is supposed to show up on Tuesday and Wednesday so I'll have to remember not to wear sandals on those two days.  Sandals in October?  Yes.  I'm going to keep on wearing my sandals until the daily temps go under 60.  Why not right?  Plus I need to buy a new pair of black boots and have not gotten around to doing that and right now since we are paying for 2 kids to go to Disney on school trips in 2018- I'm trying to put as much $ toward getting those trips paid off as possible as quickly as possibly.

All this warm weather does make it rather hard to remember Fall is here.  The trees aren't bursting with gold, orange and red leaves, and you can leave the house without a jacket. I am sure this will change shortly, but for a bit longer I'll stick with my warm weather clothes. 

That being said I do realize Halloween is fast approaching.  I have amassed a collection of glass jars that I am trying to prioritize DIYing into cute Halloween décor.  I did my Googles and found this blog called Crafts by Amanda-easy craft tutorials for adults and kids.  My plan is to follow through and get crafty the weekend of 10/21- 10/22.  My goal is to get at least one of the kids to make the crafty luminaries with me.  Wish me luck!

Countdown to Halloween...3 weeks from tomorrow!