Holidays

  • Holidays,  Life

    2018 Has Been A Rollercoaster

    So 2018 has been a weird year.  It’s been filled with the highest of highs, and yet also somehow has been overwhelmingly not-good as a whole. Even those highest of highs have been undercut by other pressures which have left me feeling at the end of the year just very… tired. I’m wholly ready to leave 2018 behind and start fresh. Which is kind of saying something – because while I always make New Year’s Resolutions and whatnot, I never *really* see it as a fully fresh start. And this year, I’m really hoping it’s gonna be. The Highs: 1) It’s been the first full year in the house. Which…

  • Holidays,  Life,  Lists

    Hello, 2018

    I’m really no different than anyone else when it comes to having a, well, not-so-great track record when it comes to sticking to New Years Resolutions. And yet, here we find ourselves, year after year after year after year… making more goals, and not always keeping them. But while I’m definitely one of those people who isn’t good at keeping to the letter of the resolutions, I still see a lot of value in making them anyway. For me, making resolutions provides a concrete goal to aim for. Even if you miss the target, any forward movement towards it is still valuable. This year, my goals are all about small,…

  • Holidays,  Home Dec Love

    My Home Office Christmas Decorations

    When we bought our house, we quickly decided that the extra two bedrooms would be an office for each of us. Both Jim and I have work-from-home components to our jobs – his when the weather is bad, and mine during breaks from teaching as I plan and lecture write – and it’s immensely helpful to have our own spaces in which to do all that. Particularly since the kind of bad weather that forces him to work from home usually happens when I’m on winter break, and so we’re often working from home at the same time. Looking down the road, if we decide to have kids before we…

  • Holidays,  Life

    November Wrap-Up and December Goals

    Once again, November has come and gone, and I’m left confused and dismayed about how it passed by so quickly. Like, seriously – I swear it was just the beginning of October the other day. How did this happen? How is Thanksgiving over already? How are we almost two weeks into December already and I’m JUST NOW posting my November update? Well, I know how that one happened… my photoshop updated and it took me until now to figure out how to get it to work properly again… but anyway… I guess time marches onwards, and while I haven’t been super active on the blog here, that’s not to say…

  • Book Love,  Holidays,  Life,  Lists,  Pet Related Posts

    Happy New Year Everyone!

    Well, it’s that time again, blogosphere. It’s a new year. And of course, inevitably that means it’s RESOLUTION TIME. Yes. Once again, as I always do, I’m going to come up with a list of things I want to accomplish/work at in 2016. I haven’t been terribly successful with this kind of goal making in the past, and last year was no different (I’ll have a post next week assessing my successes and not-so-successes from 2015), but I don’t really feel like that’s a huge problem. My general attitude about these things is that it doesn’t hurt to try. I’m a big believer in the process – the idea that…

  • Holidays,  Nail Polish Love

    Mani Monday (Tuesday? Whoops): Christmas Edition

    I’m a day late for Mani Monday because I was hanging out at my parents’ place with Hilde and the Plooper (and my parents too!), but I do want to share my Christmas manicure with you guys before the year ends (like, holy crap, where did the rest of December go exactly?). Like last christmas, I went rather simple this year – mainly due to time constraints. Christmas Eve is always a hectic day for me, because in addition to prepping all my presents for others and packing a bag for my parent’s house for the next few days, I also have to prep myself for work (I sing at…

  • Holidays,  Music

    Happy St. Paddy’s Day!

      Just popping in to wish you all a Happy St. Paddy’s Day with an offering of some of my favorite Irish folk songs as an apology for having been so absent lately. Things have been crazy, and I’ve been dealing with some personal and family stuff, and blah blah blah, excuses, excuses. So here! Irish Music! First and Foremost, we have The Holy Ground by the Dubliners’ (my favorite Irish folk band, like EVER). And next, another Dubliners’ song – The Rising of the Moon, which is a song that recounts a battle during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.*     And I’ll leave you with one with a…

  • Book Love,  Holidays,  Life

    What’s Up, Thursday?

    Because we’ve had a bunch of pre-scheduled posts in a row, I wanted to do a quick “currently” post yesterday (The title “What’s Up, Wednesday?” just sounds SO MUCH BETTER), but I kiiiinnnndddd of let yesterday get away from me. It all started when I started trying to find the text of the eyewitness testimony by John S. Smith about the Sand Creek Massacre to share with my students. Then before I realized it was happening, I found myself in the middle of a four hour primary document bender. Historian problems. Psh. But anyway, better late than never, I guess. Currently I’m… …working on: some book reviews for on here.…

  • Book Love,  Holidays,  Lists

    12 Books for 2015

    As I said in my New Year’s Goals post, I read a ton throughout the year – but rarely get the opportunity to read a whole book solely for myself. I’ve just slipped out of the habit of using my free time for pleasure reading. And I miss it. So this year I made it a goal to read at least 12 books that I don’t NEED to read. Specifically: The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers by Thomas Fleming I picked this book up several years ago when Borders went out of business, and like most of the stuff I picked up during that sale, it’s just kind of…

  • Holidays,  Nail Polish Love

    New Year’s Mani Monday

    Just a quickie for our first Mani Monday of 2015. Apologies for the slightly blurry photo – I had to use my phone for this one since I forgot my big camera over the holidays (although it shows off the sparkle quite nicely!). My manicure for the Christmas holidays was a simple one, with polishes that have been on my favorites list for years, so no untried review today. The main manicure is two coats of China Glaze Ruby Slippers (one of my absolutely favorite sparkly reds) and the accent nails are Funky Fingers Star Studded, which is a great gold glitter because it’s really dense and builds to opacity…