February Pointless Lists

Valentine's cookies from my mommy.

This has been a weird February. Usually we're dealing with an inversion and don't see the sun all month (let alone the other side of the street). But this year it's been absolutely gorgeous. We're a month ahead in the spring game--trees and flowers are already in bloom. Which is scary because we live in an agricultural area and one good freeze is going to really mess up a lot of people.

But jeez, we got the good end of this weather stick. Poor Boston.

Well, anyway. The other day I was walking into work, and the sun was shining, and the wind was brisk, and I had my coffee, and I couldn't help but smile. This is exactly where I want to be, you guys. I am one lucky chick.

Colleges trying to recruit Abby this month:
St. Martin's University (my Dad is an alumni, so he was pretty jacked about this one)
Willamette University
Linfield (she's been waiting for this one)
The College of Idaho

...And a few medical leadership conference invitations. Abby was all, I want to be a physical therapist, not a doctor! as she looked through one brochure of seemingly happy kids in their surgical masks. Cool beans, yo. Can you do something about my shoulders? That'd be great.

Also, side note: She's pretty sure none of these colleges actually expect her to attend; they just want her $75 application fee. Huh. Well, that seems like a tough way to increase funding, but what do I know?

Another side note: It looks like the letters spree is over. Mail time is boring again.

Books read:
I finally finished The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas, which ends on SUCH a downer (and you thought Empire Strikes Back was bad). Even though it was mostly just sad (because I already knew it was not going to end well for our heroine), I thoroughly enjoyed the backstory of Celaena Sardothien. And Sam! CRY.

Give me a minute to collect myself, you guys. I felt this one deep.

This month I also tackled Fairest by Marissa Meyer. I love Cinder, Scarlet and Cress, and am very much looking forward to Winter being released this fall. Meyer just spins a good tale.

But this one was only okay. I already knew Levana, the villainous queen of Luna, was freaking nuts, and I suppose her backstory should have made me feel a little bit sorry for her, or maybe a little more understanding, but not so much. She was just crazy. And the book just read different from the others. I don't know, less detailed, less... everything.

But hey, I did learn a few things, and it was sort of interesting to see characters introduced through Levana's eyes, I guess. Whatever. Abby just told me it wasn't supposed to be another Cinder, just a "little bit extra." Well... I suppose mission accomplished, then.

BUT! There were FOUR CHAPTERS of Winter at the end, and it was everything I love about this series. How the hell am I supposed to wait for the next one?

...And then I reread the Throne of Glass series again because I wanted to. So there.

Movies watched:
Johanna has been bugging us for a movie night, and we finally broke down last Saturday and watched The Lego Movie. And oh em gee (to quote Joey), that movie was hilarious. We were prepared to take one for the team for this kid, but we all ended up thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Who knew?

Project 333 update:
Let's see. I'm down a blue long sleeve t-shirt (wasn't wearing it so I turned it into PJs) and my grey sweatshirt skirt (bummed but for the best--that thing is hard to style for some reason). My new black turtleneck sweater wins the Workhorse of the Month Award--I wear it constantly and always feel like a rock star when I do. I have one exactly like it in grey. That one does not make me feel like a rock star. It's still in my closet. I'm kind of forgetting why.

Oh! And the weather has been so nice that I pulled out my black/white dot tank top and beige jacket to wear to a function of the girls'! And then froze my ass off! I guess sunny skies and 50ºs doesn't exactly translate into THAT kind of an ensemble yet, but hey, I tried, and I did look rather fabulous if I do say so myself.

Now my list looks like this:
Grey: Pants, skirt, cardigan, turtleneck sweater, pullover sweater (4)
Black: Pants, long-sleeve T-shirt, (black and white) blouse, (black and white) tank, cardigan, turtleneck sweater, scarf, boots, ankle boots, flats, coat (11)
Purple/Maroon: Zip-up sweater, pullover sweater (2)
Red: Scarf (1)
White/Beige: Blouse, skirt, pants, long sleeve t-shirt (4)
Teal: Zip-up sweater, t-shirt skirt, pullover (3)
Navy/Blue/Light blue: Cardigan, (navy) long sleeve shirt, (light) long sleeve shirt, jeans, denim skirt, scarf (5)

If my math is correct (and I'm not placing any bets on that one), that make 30. Weird. I would have never believed that possible a year ago. Have I mentioned lately how happy I am that I found Project 333?

Light update
My January attempts at food decluttering continue to go pretty well. My pantries (um, yes) are looking great. My freezers, however, are still kind of a wreck. This is because, while I am using up items from both, I've been using Sunday as my meal-prep day and usually end up with two or three dinners/sides in the freezer for the coming week. But we don't always eat everything I've made, so basically I've traded one form of clutter for another. On the upside, we haven't had Random Crap in a Tortilla Night ALL MONTH. It's like a February miracle. Still much work to do, but wow. I feel very good about this!

My February attempts at morning yoga have been much easier. Well, aside from the actually having to get up in the mornings, but even that has ended up not being so bad. I feel so much better in general after I practice, and practicing regularly has done amazing things for my neck. I missed a handful of mornings for various stupid reasons (like Tuesday, when I felt like crap), but I'm picking myself up and brushing myself off and counting it as a win. I think I'll be able to keep this one up.

Since apparently I've got a theme going here, I'm going to concentrate on getting the crap out of my little reading retreat. It's the one place in my house that I actually despise, which is unfortunate because it's so cute and I used to love it so much. It's not something I particularly want to tackle, but I think it's time. Look for that post, I guess.

Zero Waste Wednesday: Coffee! part I

You guys, I love coffee. I love it. There are no words to adequately describe the way I truly feel about those magic beans. Coffee is the highlight of my morning.

And afternoon.

And sometimes evening.

I just really love coffee is what I'm saying. It's probably not surprising that the bulk of my Christmas gifts this year were in the form of coffee cards. (BEST. GIFT. EVER.)

In our little tourist trap of a town, we're lucky to have a few coffee roasters. Not all of them open their doors to the public, but my favorite one happens to (um, that might be why it's my favorite, come to think of it), and the owners, aside from being super chill and awesome, allow me to bring in my reusable container for my coffee fix. And then punch my card so I get a free pound after every 10.

My jar holds roughly 1.25 pounds, which equals about a month of beans in Trishaville. Let me walk you through the process:

1. Peg's behind the counter! She's so great. We chat.
2. She takes my jar and weighs it to find the tare, like so:

My jar is apparently heavier than the coffee it holds.

3. She takes it in back to fill it up with Decaf Sumatra, my favorite.
4. I pet the coffee dog for a while, but feel bad when I scare him with my scarf.

Source.
Not THE dog, but a near identical representation.

5. Peg comes back with my jar and sets it on the scale again.

Hi, pretty beans!

6. As you can see from the photo, the scale is set up for tare, so it subtracts the weight of the jar from the weight of the beans on its own. Pretty smart, scale!

7. I had over my credit card. Buying this locally roasted coffee is more expensive than buying a plastic bin of some industrial coffee, but I don't care. It's totally worth it. Then Peg punches my stamp card and I pat the dog one last time and that's that.

It's really not that hard.

I've also seen people come in with a recycled paper bag. We'll call that Plan B.

Pros
COFFEE!
Locally roasted
Good relationships with its growers and treats them fairly, which is important to me
Tastes great
Less filling (wait, no, that's a beer commercial)
Nothing to recycle or throw away later

Cons
Truthfully, it's an extra step, going to a roaster instead of just getting it in the grocery store. Although...

P.S. You could do the same thing at the grocery store with a bulk coffee display. Con negated! 

'Doughnut Lottery'

I've mentioned before that Johanna is a powerhouse of creativity, and, thanks to an after school program that ensures she gets her homework done BEFORE she even gets home (uh, that's awesome), she found herself at a bit of a loose end the other night and ended up making what I'm sure will be the Next Big Board Game.

May I introduce you to Doughnut Lottery?

Homemade game board with doughnut markers!

She reused a shoe box for optimum game storage.

How to play. Deceptively simple.

If you like board games that have no real point and where the worst that happens is that you are awed by a cat cookie and lose a turn, then this board game is for you! Johanna says that all you have to do is go around the board 10 times (and then changes it to 12... then 15...). Whoever ends up with the most "dough-llars" (um, that's a play on "dollars" in case you're not a fourth grader) wins it all! Since she didn't make nearly enough dough-llars to cover the insane amounts of cash giveaways included in the game, you'd think that would shorten things up a bit.

But wow, would you be wrong.

I land on "Awed by cat cookies" EVERY TIME.
It's like this board game has read my diary.

"Risk it all" is kind of overselling it. It's more like,
"risk nothing, just get more dough-llars."

"I LOVE this game!" Johanna can be heard saying whenever one of us breaks down and agrees to play with her. She was so excited to have a friend over yesterday so she could play it with someone she's not related to.

Side note: Her little pal Hayley was way more interested in why she made a game, why there weren't more dough-llars ("You're cheap. Let's just make more!"), and whether or not she could be the pink doughnut. Extra mom points for me because I got the girls actual doughnuts to eat while they played. I know. My awesomeness shocks even me sometimes.

While I can't take orders (because there is only one of these games in existence), this is just a note to say that you're more than welcome to come over and play with her yourself because jeez, you guys, there are only so many rounds of this I can take I believe in spreading as much Doughnut Lottery joy as possible into the world.

'Cause I'm a giver.