Wednesday, December 17, 2025

It’s Hodgepodge Day with Joyce! Here we go! We will be on a Hodgepodge break until December 31st, by the way. I am also going to take a short bloggy break that I will tell you about.

1. What’s one thing on your to-do list that you want to get done, need to get done, or that must get done before the year ends? 

Nothing! I have a little more shopping to do but I am not stressed about it. I have to do the wrapping. Do you wrap stocking stuffers? I wrap some and leave some naked. I need to plan food and put it in my Kroger app. I realistically have two or three more Kroger pickups before it’s all said and done. I like to declutter before Christmas, and I have done ok with that. I could do more.

This is my first year NOT working in the crazy weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and honestly, I am not sure how I did it all for so many years.

It’s been nice to be able to shop on a weekday morning. I almost always saved one personal day to do this when I was teaching or combined it with an appointment.

2.  December 17th is National Maple Syrup Day…are you a fan? Do you like maple flavor in other food items such as candy, cookies, donuts, oatmeal, hot toddies, coffee? 

I like it but I don’t go crazy about it. I actually like a bourbon drink called a Maple Leaf or Canadian Maple Leaf with bourbon, maple syrup, and a touch of lemon juice.

3. Time magazine names a person of the year every year.  The tradition started back in 1927 with a ‘man of the year’ but has since changed to recognize not only an individual, but also to consider the impact of a group, movement, or idea that most influenced the year. The selection is not always someone or something good (think Hitler in 1938 and Stalin twice). 

This year they’ve named The AI Architects as their ‘person of the year’. What say you? Is this a good choice, an obvious choice, a logical choice? Who do you think should have been named person of the year? 

I don’t know. I had to look up what that even means and I found “the creative force during the planning and implementation of AI initiatives”. I think AI is already so integrated into our daily lives and we probably don’t realize just to what extent it is at play. I had an idea to “live like the 90s” one day and see how I did.

4. What’s a city, state, or country you’ve visited that you never care to visit again? Tell us why. 

This is a hard one. I think I am glad for the opportunity to visit any place I’ve gone. I love Michigan in the summer. I think it’s underrated. I probably don’t care to go back to Panama City Beach. I probably don’t care to go back to Myrtle Beach. I feel like both of those places became too touristy and I could see airbrushed t-shirts everywhere I turned? No offense to anyone who likes airbrushing. Honestly, I would go to those places and not turn my nose up at putting my feet in the sand and water.

5. Next Sunday (December 21st) marks the first day of winter (or the opposite if you’re living down under). What’s one thing you love about this new season? 

I feel like it’s already been winter for so long already, so this is hard to answer! My favorite thing used to be a snow day! Now, I guess I would say the absence of lawn mower and leaf blower noise.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I feel like it was just Thanksgiving last week! Time has flown! How is it already December 17th?

Amy

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

I didn’t have a great idea for a post today so I thought I would just be random! This is just how I talk to my friends which YOU are!

I found these Boursin balls at Target – their Good and Gather food brand is supposed to be really clean and I find myself looking through their food selections sometimes. Some of their prices are really good and they carry different products than my Kroger.

They inspired me to make an omelet and then I repeated that for a few breakfasts.

I found the perfect ratio for me – two whole eggs and one egg white. I have the perfect sized pan for this omelet.

I did fresh chives, bacon bits, grape tomatoes cut up, and three Boursin balls crumbled up. I do spray some Pam. The secret is patience. Leave it alone. Fold it over with your spatula when it’s pretty done as you see here.

Voila! And, it’s red and green for Christmas – just sayin’! I can even flip it with my wrist and one hand. Bragging!

Fernando Mendoza – I loved how he thanked his abuelos in Spanish. I love how humble he was and how much credit he gave his mom. Yes, we moms are awesome. I hope all of my past sporty students thought of me. I would have started class with his speech. I liked to be of the moment with current things and relate Spanish to their real lives.

Broccoli soup a la Jenn – wow! It turned out great! I always feel like such a chef when I make a soup. The chopping and the stirring, you know?

I did carrot along with the onion instead of celery. I did two bags of broccoli. I added Tony’s Cachere’s cajun seasoning. I did not use an immersion blender, but I used my potato masher to make the broccoli a bit smaller.

I have done stocking stuffers by going to CVS, Walgreen’s, Dollar Tree ($1.25 Tree), World Market, and Kroger. Most everything is consumable or practical.

I have ordered from Amazon (can’t avoid it!), Quince, Target, and Banana Republic Factory. I am almost done.

Now, I need to plan an Eve meal, a Day meal, and the food I am taking to in-laws and to my extended family. That’s a lot of planning.

I thought this was so funny. Did you know you can totally renew your passport online now? Well, if you meet certain criteria. We first got passports for our kids in 2016 and renewed ours at that time because we hadn’t used ours in such a long time. Well, kids’ expire in 7 years so they had to get new ones in 2023 but Tom and I didn’t. Tom and I took the worst pictures of each other for the online renewal:

But they worked! I renewed our passports online and it took like 5 minutes and $130 each! Gone are the days of going to Walgreen’s to get your picture taken and standing in line at the post office. Now, I found this easier to do on my phone. Sometimes a laptop is the way to go and sometimes the phone is the way to go. Because the photos were on my phone, it was such an easy process to choose them from my camera roll. #Tip!

I have been asking Alexa to play quiet Christmas music for Eddie Otis. It drowns out the outside noises that put him on edge like car doors slamming and those pesky delivery people dropping things on our porch. He likes it when I dance to the music and he goes in circles. He likes the quiet carols and he falls asleep.

Did you like this random post?

What random thing would you tell me?

Are you stressed out or calm, cool, and collected regarding the holiday?

Amy

Monday, December 15, 2025

It’s Monday and that means linking up with Sarah and Holly to share our weekends in the rearview mirror.

Thursday night we had a winter weather advisory and Mason came down with a cold. He thought chili sounded good and it was!

I think we got almost 4 inches of snow! What a snowy year so far for us! We normally don’t get anything until January and sometimes not even until February. Tom left for work as usual and the schools in our district were online, so it was pretty quiet. I can’t say I hated a quiet morning!

It was a fluffy perfect snow to walk in and we stayed out quite a long time!

I’ve started receiving some Christmas cards and it makes me nostalgic. This photo turned out so good. I got a Groupon (remember those?) and the photographer did such a nice job. Do they look identical to you? They look so different to me. Jack is on the left, Mason is on the right.

This was a Spanish teacher turned photographer friend and she did such a nice job but Tom is smiling like a 19th century person – not. I was wearing a white bra – why Amy? – and it showed up under my knit consignment dress. She fixed it through the magic of photographer sorcery! Look at Ernie! He sat pretty. Remember those Kendra Scott necklaces? I had white, black, and maybe one more. I wore them ALL the time! Jack is on the left again; Mason is on the right again.

My Aunt Sally made a card with this great picture of my mom and her siblings and spouses and the first four cousins – she put more photos on the inside – so sweet!

My mom is in red with her eyes closed and my dad is in the plaid pants, and I have a shag haircut right in front of him! Eek!

Sorry for the bad photo, but it’s a good product! I picked this up while doing stocking stuffers. It’s a little hint of sparkle. Burt’s Bees champagne if you can’t read it very well.

I didn’t leave the house Friday or yesterday – that is some January level vibes for me – but I did shower and put on real clothes. I liked how the stripes look under my new sweater that is soooo soft and warm. It could have used an iron!

Cutie boy!

The snow melted quickly on Friday! We stayed home and had frozen pizza.

I’m really having trouble getting out the door in the cold to go to the gym at 6 am. Add snow to that and yeah, no… but I did make it to the gym later in the day on Saturday. I think this is my 12th week of going to the gym?

I cleaned and got some steps in while Tom had EO out of the house. I can get so much done when Tom takes him on his Saturday long walk. I leave all the doors open (what a luxury!) and smash the cleaning. They got home and we hung out until we had to get ready.

Mason was supposed to go, too, but was still sick. We went to an Argentinian restaurant that was hosting a special paella and flamenco night. They were making a chicken and chorizo paella and a seafood paella while you watched and then you ate while you watched the performance.

Sangria!

You could also order appetizers because you had about an hour to wait to eat. We got their pommes frites with dipping sauces. I asked Tom which sauce was his favorite and he replied “ketchup”. How American!

I got half seafood and half chicken and chorizo and it was so good. They were so sweet to box up a generous portion for us to take home to Mason since we had paid for him.

The performance was so good and rivaled the one we saw in Spain a year ago to be honest! Flamenco involves guitar, singing, dancing, and the rhythm of clapping, foot work, and in some types – castanets, which are the wooden things worn on your hands. They ended with three dancers using castanets. I was really too engrossed to take photos – sorry!

Tom really liked it, too, in surprising Tom news. He was missing the UK/IU basketball game for me.

It had started snowing while we were inside and I didn’t even notice! We had a pretty snowy drive home and my heart was full from “taking a trip to Spain”.

This weekend I got to pick up some library books:

Do you watch Southern Charm on Bravo? Ms. Pat is the matriarch of the show.

Do you know much about The Blue Zones? There are some really good recipes in here, but I like to check out cookbooks from the library for space saving reasons. Some foods that stick out to me that I want to eat more of are beans, kale, and sweet potatoes and they talk about drinking tea – They eat very little meat – in fact this cookbook has no meat – and very little dairy.

In NOT Blue Zone news…

An amazing new find – at Target – these are so awesome! You can spread one on a cracker, put it in your pasta, or use it in an omelet like I did.

And, oh my goodness. I used to order the regular Built bars and my mom did, too. They were so good – almost like eating a candy bar. But, this is even better. I am not a fan of any protein bar so for me to say this is something. I have only tried the cookie dough, and I was only going to have a bite to see what I thought for my something sweet after a meal. I ate the whole thing and ordered a whole box!

I made Jenn’s broccoli soup and it is so good! I didn’t have celery so I used carrot. I could have used more. I used up random cheeses and even put in some good old Velveeta.

I finished this – so cute and it did pick up for me after a brief stall:

And, I started this and I am into it:

It’s a good thing since I only have 7 days!

So, it looks like today we will be up to 30 degrees, and we even have 50s in the forecast this week!

Tell me something you did this weekend!

Amy

Friday, December 12, 2025

Linking up with Andrea and Erika to share some favorites and some comedies of errors from my week!

I like to do something fun on Sunday afternoon and Tom and I went to 3rd Turn Oldham Gardens Brewery which had a Christmas market and three different food stalls – pizza, bbq, and grill/bar food. It is the second largest beer garden in the country and the largest in Kentucky.

I purchased two of these painted oyster shells. I think they are so pretty for a jewelry holder or just decor.

Monday morning, we woke to this! I wasn’t expecting it but it was so pretty. The snow kept falling until about 9:00.

Eddie Otis was trying out doggy daycare and was getting evaluated. I dropped him off and went to a coffee shop.

I found my ring that had been lost for about a month! It was tucked in a pocket of my purse!

I had just settled in at the coffee shop when I got a call from doggy daycare. EO wasn’t having fun. He flunked out and I had to go pick him up. He liked one of the trainers and became besties with her but he was nervous with so many new people and dogs and he growled to let them know.

When I picked him up, his new bestie came out to the car with us, and he kept giving her his paw and giving her kisses. It was so sweet. We went home and he didn’t move for several hours. The experience was exhausting for him. I was hoping he would enjoy playing with other dogs.

I was supposed to go tutor that afternoon and my student was sick so that got cancelled.

I was making cod for dinner and I opened up the package and it smelled so bad that I had to throw it out. I did get a refund for my “bad cod” from Kroger. Yes, I did!

But, this was so nice…

a random phone number texted me to see if I wanted crocodile meat!

You just have to laugh at days like Monday. Luckily, I had a book I couldn’t put down:

I read it in two days! It’s been a while since I have had a book that I couldn’t put down. I am going slowly through my Christmas novel – not sure why.

I made these this week and sent them with Tom to work to try to help him be more popular – kidding!

It felt good to donate some clothes this week!

I am happy with my $7 Target candle. If you don’t have a real tree, just light a tree scented candle!

I’ve been using one of these each day! I really like them.

I went to World Market this week and I was so happy! Look what they have! I didn’t get them for myself because I was shopping for others but I think I might go back and get four.

They had so much good stuff!

I found lots of stocking stuffers and a few gifts.

I started this – Do you ever feel like someone is watching you?

This is my husband’s name! That was freaky! His middle name starts with a “J”!

The good news is that no kids are playing on the playground behind our house because the weather is so bad so EO and I have all day to go there.

The bad news is the weather sucks!

We’ve had ice, snow, the coldest rain you can imagine, and wind.

This was Tom’s plate one night. I made broccoli, potatoes, and chicken, but offered him a McDonald’s cheeseburger, too. I told him I wanted to always keep him on his toes and scare him a little. I am taking a broccoli break now. I have been making it so often and I’m tired of the smell.

I don’t know how much longer this is going on, but if you go into your Amazon orders and type in the search bar “thank my driver” you get an option to tip the driver $5! How cool is that?

Someone asked about coconut oil. I put it on my face before showering and I look like a glazed donut.

It melts your makeup right off and you wash your face normally in the shower but it leaves your skin so moist and soft.

If you are a blogger, I am having trouble commenting on some blogs; it’s telling me to “sign in with Google” and I try and it’s not letting me. But, others I am signed in with Google. I will try to figure this out!

Tell me a fave from your week!

Amy

Thursday, December 11, 2025

I am linking up with Kellyann and Jill per usual!

I have moved all my Christmas tops to one section of my closet, and I have worn all but one at this point. I have also included anything red or green in this section. I have my Christmas headband and a couple of other hair doodads laid out to remember to wear. I have one pair of Christmas tree earrings that I haven’t worn yet. And, I am trying to rock a red lip most days!

I’ve been enjoying my two pairs of Matilda Jane red pants this week! I think Matilda Jane is back? They went out of business, came back as something else, and now I am seeing the name again but on Instagram ads, so I’m always cautious with those. Yes, they are the brand that made the cute little girl clothing, but they also carried women’s. The quality is great on the pieces I have of theirs. My mom found an ex-dealer of MJ (not drugs) in her hometown and bought me several things, and I also found several things at a consignment shop! I really don’t need or want more, but I appreciate what I have. I love the flare pants that have what look like different layers at the bottom and you will see those in my first photo.

I wore the dark red flare pants from Matilda Jane with an older Walmart white sweater and my Paris ballcap to go to a coffee shop. I wore my Koolaburra boots because it was snowing.

I found my Amazon ring in the little pocket of a small purse! It had been lost for about a month! Yay! Also, I consider my nails to be part of my fashion!

I didn’t end up wearing this Sunday but I put on my New Balances, my Land’s End track pants (navy with a light red stripe down the side), my North Pole Cocktail Club sweatshirt, and my headband. Tom came out more dressed up so I changed…

into my brighter red ruffle Matilda Jane red pants, a black long sleeve tee, and my black/red/green cardigan that I love.

For dinner out I wore jeans, a Green Walmart sweater, and my coatigan with a new scarf my friend gave me for my birthday. I don’t like the booties I wore.

I wore this to an indoor Christmas market and I knew it would get warm inside. I wore Halaras, my new New Balances, a white tee, my Amazon Essentials cardigan, and my headband. Yes, the headband got a lot of use this week!

This is the green sweater I wore under the coatigan to go out to dinner. It’s old from Walmart and has cute little buttons on each side. I wore this earlier in the day to run an errand. Notice I am also enjoying my very old Amazon black purse with my red/green strap that I bought separately.

Before we went to England and Scotland, I purchased a few sweaters from Walmart that were surprisingly good quality and worked great on the trip and beyond.

I bought these “Scotch tape leggings” maybe 10 years ago at a local boutique. I tried the young girl sock thing (socks over leggings) and paired them with a black sweater and a black vest.

I wore the black flare Matilda Janes (like the dark red ones in the first photo), a wine-colored long sleeve tee (hard to tell the color in the light) and my leopard vest to run some errands.

A few years ago I bought several Target A New Day long sleeve tees. They are surprisingly thick and well made and I wear one almost every day in the winter.

In new purchases this week…

I bought a Target sweater that I couldn’t resist! It is so thick and soft and says “Les Alpes” .

I have a friend who is a police officer and she was requesting clothing for some folks in need. I was brutal with fall stuff I never wore this season and some winter stuff I no longer want to wear and I had two coats that I never wear. I dropped off two big bags for her, and I appreciate her helping me out and I am happy that someone else can use them!

I think of my closet as a constantly evolving entity. I try to keep it cleaned out and organized and functional. I like to organize by type of item and color.

What have you been wearing this week? Do you have any favorite outfits of mine?

Amy

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

It’s Hodgepodge with Joyce!

1. Do you struggle with the commercialization of the holiday season? What helps you keep your focus when the season’s busyness and commercialism start to take over? 

I do. When my kids were young, I felt strongly that they receive some gifts of things they needed/practical things. I was very worried about them being spoiled and especially grandparents giving them too much. They always got a new toothbrush, new underwear, new socks, and I liked the “something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read”. They always got clothing, too. I never felt like we went overboard. We always included some surprises, though, because surprises are very important to me. Tom was a big help with ideas and shopping.

Planning for special non-material things helps me. I like to think of the time off, the time at home, movies we enjoy, events we can attend, and things like that.

2. What’s one small thing you want to savor before the year ends? 

I just want to savor the time I have with the people I love. That gets to be less and less as your kids get older. I am hoping for some quality time with both of my kids at the same time and with my extended family.

The decor is everywhere this year and I love it! The gym tree:

3. December 9th is National Christmas Card Day. Do you still send Christmas cards? If so does yours include a photo or is it a more traditional card, or maybe homemade? How do you feel about the tradition of exchanging cards at the holidays? If Hanukkah is the holiday you celebrate in December do you send cards to mark the occasion? 

We did a photo card for many years. It either had just the kids or the whole family. Most years it was just a picture I took or photos we had taken throughout the year. There were two years that we did professional family photos. It was a lot of work to mail them out but I also enjoyed it.

I do miss the tradition of receiving and sending them. We only get about 10 now. And remember that I sent my kids’ quotes for years along with the photo card! Click on the red font if you missed that post. I have more to do a follow up. I do feel like Facebook took some of the fun away from receiving those photo cards.

And, I have framed all of our cards throughout the years. This collection is really special to me!

One of our card photos:

The last one we sent:

I believe this was 2019 right before 2020 and you-know-what.

I think it would be really funny to send one of Tom and Eddie Otis this year – hugging.

4. What’s your least favorite holiday related task? What’s your favorite? 

I really don’t enjoy putting ornaments on the tree. I enjoy wrapping, baking, planning for shopping and then doing the shopping.

5. Let’s do a little holiday this or that? 

• shopping or wrapping – shopping is more fun but I like wrapping, too.
• baking or decorating- baking is more fun to me.
• eggnog or wassail – I like both but wassail is better.
• real tree or artificial – we used my parents’ old artificial tree for about 20 years and then we switched to a pre-lit tree.
• turkey or ham – turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas
• white lights or colored lights – white but I do like seeing colored lights, too
• ugly sweaters or matching pjs – we have never done matching pjs
• peppermint or cinnamon – both but peppermint more for December
• presents Christmas Eve or presents Christmas Day – we always had to wait until Day when I was a child. I started pjs on Eve with my kids

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

My mom was very big on Christmas cards.

Here is one:

She kept doing photo cards of her travels with my dad and pictures of all the grandkids. She even wrote a poem each year. She thought it was horrible when I stopped sending them! I like that she did this.

Here was one she did when she only had two grandchildren – my kids:

“We whisk you a Happy New Year” – pretty sure they were fighting over the whisk.

This one was funny – she had all the grandkids pout:

Molly’s first or second card:

One of Kate’s cards – her daughter Nora exhausted from shopping at Target:

Also, I have a confession…I collected braggy Christmas newsletters and then liked to perform/read them aloud. One year my sisters and I wrote our own newsletter from our family as a joke.

I even asked friends to give me really good ones. One was three pages long – single spaced.

I got such a kick out of this slip of paper addendum:

“While the information provided in our newsletter was correct, it was outdated by the influence of _____’s recovery from her bout with food poisoning. Because the time available for mailing has been further reduced, a new newsletter is not possible. At this point ____ is essentially recovered.”

Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like sharing your food poisoning that got left out of the newsletter.

I also like the use of the third person in the newsletters. Who wrote it? The dog?

Amy

Tuesday, December 9. 2025

Spoiler – I have already done some of them since this post is late!

I will do another one for Winter in general!

These are just the fun things that go along with the true meaning of Christmas. Those are obvious so I am not listing those.

Go to holiday open houses/events – when I see announcements I put them in my calendar and try to go

Go to hotel lobbies to see decor (sounds weird but they always have beautiful decor) – not talking about Best Western, you know? The Brown, The Seelbach, The Omni, Hotel Genevieve – those are some I could go to in my city of Louisville, KY

Have a drink in said hotel lobby bar for bonus points

Go to Miracle on Market – holiday pop up bar that is so kitschy and the drinks are $$$

Do festive nails

Go to Whirling Tiger – went last year and I was delighted. It looks like your Grandma’s 70s living room. They had adult juice pouches called “Naughty” or “Nice”. I’m a sucker for stuff like that.

Re-read the Fiona Ferris Christmas book

Read Christmas or seasonal novels

Have a fire in the Solo Stove outside

Add more lighting to my dark living room for the evenings

Go through Christmas decor and donate what doesn’t make my heart sing

Buy all the seasonal products that make me happy – hand soap, kitchen cleaner, cranberry Sprite, etc.

Make gift list and buy gifts

Turn my errands into outings and include/ask a friend or make a date of it with Tom

Wear my festive clothing, headband, and earrings

Make baking list, buy supplies, enjoy baking while watching a Christmas movie

Watch all my faves – The Holiday, While You Were Sleeping, etc.

Wrap presents leisurely while watching movies

Make holiday plans – plan the activities and itinerary for the Airbnb with my side of the family

Plan meals and make grocery lists

Get my yearly one Chick Fil A peppermint shake

Get my yearly one Starbuck’s peppermint mocha

I think that’s it! What’s on your list?

Monday, December 8, 2025

It’s Monday and that means it’s time to link up with Sarah and Holly and it is already December 8th so that means we are even closer to Christmas! I have got to work on some shopping! I have the traditional pajamas for my kids (well now just pajama pants) and I have something for Eddie Otis but that’s about it! I think I have some ideas now so that’s a start.

I am happy with my mantel now. I love turning the lights on in the morning and evening. I have a white glittery deer head panting I bought at a craft fair, fake greenery, bottle brush trees, my 20 plus year-old stocking holders and my 23-year-old Pottery Barn stockings. I splurged and I am so glad I did. These are the only ones we’ve ever had! The photo is weird, but just trust me on the contents.

I did a final run through of my decor on Friday night and I have a donation pile. I put some decor away that I’m not using this year. Done. Friday night I made dinner at home – ham and Swiss sliders with Hawaiian buns (the ham was frozen from my Thanksgiving re-do meal), homemade potato chips air fried, and apple slices.

Saturday morning I had a Target pick up, a Kroger pick up, and a library pick up. I was tickled to see someone had built a snowman atop the book return:

I picked up:

Sorry for the weird lights – I took the pics near the book scanner. Thanks to my blogger friends for all my recommendations! I wouldn’t know what to request without you.

I ran my errands and was home by 11 or so. Saturday morning my friend Victoria had texted me about attending a holiday fair at 1. I am so glad she texted me. I had wanted to go but hadn’t made any plans.

A good reminder that sometimes last minute works out!

The fair was really good, but as you can see it was really crowded. We both got a bit overwhelmed. I didn’t buy anything but Victoria got a few gifts and I did enjoy looking at all the stuff.

They even had a holiday bar set up, but we refrained.

I stopped at Haymarket on the way home and they were having Christmas tree sales and a winter fair so it was quite festive.

The snow was really melting Saturday! Yay!

I started watching With Love, Meghan: Holiday Collection Friday (in time to add some things to my Kroger order) and I enjoyed the first part of the first episode where she made puppy chow/muddy buddies/reindeer chow and cacio e pepe gougeres and Christmas crackers (the British kind that you pull apart and find a little toy inside). I have made regular cheese gougeres before and they are worth it and not really that hard. I have the New York Times recipe written out by hand because I don’t have a membership and there is a pay wall. It is similar to this recipe.

Anyway, I don’t love the show, but I did enjoy the content that I talked about above. There is just something off about her.

Saturday after the holiday market, I enjoyed some of my Meghan Markle Reindeer Chow.

Tom and I had a comical time trying to take each others’ passport photos from my iphone at home. Did you know that you might be able to renew your passport from home totally online without sending in your old passport? Ours qualify but the sticking point will be the photo.

After attempting our photos we went out…

We went to a favorite neighborhood to try to go to a particular restaurant but it was too busy at 5:30! We ended up at Alchemy which I really like because it is Venezuelan and my former student waited on us so that was nice, too.

We got the fried yucca appetizer and Tom got empanadas, beans, and plantains for his meal and I got…

a salad with chicken. It wasn’t the best salad of my life but it was fine.

We went home and fed Eddie Otis his dinner and then the three of us had a fire and watched tv and then the IU/Ohio State game came on. My niece Samira is a sophomore at OSU.

I went and finished my Netflix movie in the basement after a while – My Secret Santa. Don’t judge. Lol.

Sunday morning I got to use my new creamer!

I added a few sprinkles!

I did some cleaning and then Tom and I went to a small Christmas market…

His friend makes these beautiful boards:

It was at the second largest beer garden in the country and the biggest in KY. There isn’t much indoor space, though.

I got the pineapple upside down mimosa again:

And, we split a really yummy pizza:

They have three different food stand options.

Then, we left and did an REI return for Tom and went home and I read/napped and he watched football.

Long PSA:

I spent a good deal of the last few days trying to get out of a cult.

Do you remember me telling you about seeing a deal for $19 for 3 hours of house cleaning? I had a fairly good experience on the day the cleaner came but after she left, I saw that the job was not very well done and I’m not even that picky. It was November 12. Well, I had originally had another person scheduled for November 1 and they cancelled on me last minute so I had to get a new person and wait 11 days. Not that big of a deal. The November 12 cleaner agreed to come back December 3 – a little more than two weeks apart but that was ok.

She then cancelled that day and made a plan to come back December 8. Then December 5 she cancelled for December 8 and made a new plan to come back December 22. At this point I felt I was being played and I was done.

I also didn’t realize that the $19 voucher (by the way I tipped $40 ) would sign me up for a $59 a month “forever clean” that you were locked into for 6 months.

I was told that in order to cancel I would need to pay $110. I wrote a not nice email to the company because there is no customer service number. I repeat, there is no customer service number. I also found some bad reports on Instagram and on the BBB website that I should have checked before ever joining the cult back in October.

Do not do Homeaglow! I really hope no one did it on my recommendation.

I got them to only charge me $54 instead of $110 and just said lose my credit card number and get me out. So, $19, $40, $59, $54 = $172 and I got 3 hours of house cleaning out of that.

Hangs head and goes to grab her cleaning supplies…

Tell me something you did this weekend! Did you also get out of a cult?

Amy

Friday, December 5, 2025

It’s Friday and link up day with Andrea and Erika! Let’s share some favorites from the week!

Monday marked December first and it was time to start advent calendars…

This is the tea advent calendar I found at Aldi for like $8 as opposed to $40 from World Market. Mason was so tickled! He gets two tea bags each day. He has had fun opening to see what type it is and then having them that day. He is 23 going on 65. He has always been an old soul. Did I ever tell you that he did a break-dancing routine to a Ray Charles song in kindergarten?

I had my second week of tutoring a high school boy in Spanish this week. We meet at a Starbucks. I get there a bit early, get a coffee in a real mug, and get prepared.

He drives himself so I texted his mom afterward to tell her how it went. Her response made me feel good.

Driving home Monday evening there was brine on the road which only means one thing..

Snow Day! Just kidding – every day is a snow day for me! But this is a significant amount of snow for us and on December first, no less!

Tom came back in the house before he left for work and shut Eddie Otis in the bedroom on accident. I couldn’t find him and opened the door, and little boy was just chilling.

Can you spot Tom’s spine device? He lays on it for back pain. Ouch! Can you spot EO’s alligator? Her name is “Ally-Gator”.

My two Christmas magazines arrived on the snowy day! How fun is that?

All of our labs have loved snow. It’s so fun to see EO frolic in the snow!

I’m weird about snow. I only like it on the first day and then it gets ugly and a pain in the butt. It has been so cold this week that there has been no melting of any kind. We have rain and higher temps in the forecast in a few days so it will be gone soon enough.

Do you remember I found these rolls at Walmart? Why would you? Well, they have them at Kroger now, too. They are so good – too good.

This is really good salmon rub – use it sparingly.

The complete meal:

Good old comfort food – spaghetti:

I also made chicken cordon bleu and then after three nights of a pretty decent meal I was done. I decided to order our favorite mediterranean last night.

Sadly, Tom and I finished A Man on the Inside this week – it was so cute! I think I liked the second season more than the first, but they were both heartwarming.

I went to the mall this week and it looked pretty!

I went in Anthropologie. I usually just look and rarely buy.

I went in Sephora where I easily get overwhelmed. But I found a new fave product. Well, I found two new fave products. The Ilia Lip Sketch Hydrating Crayon is amazing. I bought it in the color Untitled. It is a liner and a color, I think. I think I will buy an Ilia sharpener (for its bigger size than a standard one could sharpen) and another color. I am very picky about my lip products – texture and smell. I have recently gone through old lip products – I save them way too long – and thrown several old and mediocre ones away.

And this Selena Gomez Rare Beauty gloss has the perfect texture and smells amazing. I am putting mine over a dark lip and you can see it has stained the applicator, but that’s ok. I love buying lip products but… fun fact… Since I started using coconut oil twice a day on my face which encompasses my lips, I don’t need Chapstick of any kind. I don’t even need my Laneige.

While I was in Sephora, I also bought the iconic Clique Black Honey. My cousin Julie, the makeup guru, will be glad I finally got it! It’s a great everyday color and works on everyone apparently and it’s called “Almost Lipstick” so it’s a very light formula.

Here is Black Honey:

Here is Black Honey with Selena Gomez Rare Beauty gloss:

“Honey Gomez”, “Selena Honey”, “Black Beauty”, “Rare Black Honey Beauty”, Rare Selena Honey” – Anyway, Clinique and Selena, call me. By the way, it’s hard to take a lip photo and even harder to look at it.

This all started because I wanted a nice red lip for the holidays. If you give a mouse a cookie…

Did you notice that I purchased nothing red?

Let’s talk Black Friday/Cyber Monday! My kids still haven’t given me their wishlist so I am kind of at a stand still for gift purchasing. I do have a few ideas for each of them, but I’m still thinking.

I have had New Balance 530s on my wishlist for quite a while. I still had some birthday money to use, too. I went to Dick’s and tried them on, but they didn’t have the color I wanted. I went to my car, googled the model I wanted, and a Macy’s ad came up for half off the price of what I thought I would have to pay.

The 90s called!

I’m in love and I’m also loving wearing longer socks. They are so much warmer than the little socks.

I’m still reading this and it’s cute.

Tell me a favorite of yours from the week!

Amy

Thursday, December 4, 2025

I am happy to be back today linking up with Kellyann and Jill to share a bit of what I have worn this week.

I wore this to the German Christmas Market as it was pretty warm out. I have on Halaras, my TJ Maxx faux Birk clogs, a fun graphic tee that I found in store at Old Navy a few weeks ago – it has stars, bows, cherries, wine glasses, etc. and I thought it was a bit Christmasey so let’s pretend it is – and the best cardigan for the best price. I have always loved Amazon Essentials brand and I wanted a red cardigan. It was $17 and it’s the pretty heft and length.

I wore this outfit – Halara jeans, beige Adidas, black tank, star cardigan on the Monday before Thanksgiving.

A shoutout to my sister Molly on our closing day and adventure in our hometown. She is wearing the Nikes I gave her for her birthday, really cute jeans (can’t remember where she found them) and the cutest $12 TJ Maxx sweater with a crocheted-looking collar.

I forgot to get my photo this day, but I ended up spilling coffee on my shirt so that was not cute.

Sunday, I wore my “North Pole Cocktail Club” sweatshirt, red Matilda Jane pants, Adidas, and red/green barrette to do some shopping.

Hair:

Monday I wore Halaras, barefeet apparently! (No, I put on the faux Birks), a white t-shirt, and my Christmas tree button sweater that is 3 years old maybe.

Tuesday, I wore my other red Matilda Jane pants, my short Koolaburra by Ugg boots, my Prosecc Ho Ho Ho shirt, a red/green headband, and my fuzzy vest. I look kinda crazy but I was warm and comfy.

Yesterday I wore my “Merry and Bright” sweater with light Halara jeans and sneakers.

My Black Friday 40% off Impress nails order came in! I may have gone too much in on the reds and burgundies. I have a red with sparkle, burgundy, burgundy with some white accents (I probably won’t use), a holiday set, a milky white, a navy, a blush pink, and a blue French mani. The blue French will have to stay a bit longer than I prefer or I would cut off the blue tips.

My niece Brooke came over Tuesday for a tutorial! How fun! Here is my blog post where I explain my method.

My new lifestyle is very casual, but I am trying to dress each day/get out of workout clothes and actually put on an outfit, albeit a casual one.

It’s fun to move the stuff in your closet to one section – all your reds, greens, holiday attire – and it’s often shocking how much you have. I think it helps me get into the spirit. And, then I turn more to my blues, blacks, whites, greys in January. It just mixes up my winter clothing for me, you know?

What have you been wearing lately?

Amy