Hey guys! I have an exam in 45 minutes (as of this typing), so I do not have time to do a full-on Thankful Thursday post right at this moment.  And I have an appointment shortly after my exam. But I know that you guys are used to sharing your lists here as a habit, so I didn’t want to not post before I go! I’ll pop back in when I get a minute and fill out my list, but this way at least you all can do your usual routine. ? And for now I’ll say: I’m thankful that I have a lot of leeway in this class (my maternal/newborn/women’s health class). I’m sitting at a 99.3%, so I do not feel a lot ..read more

The gray hair in question: In the inadvertently selfie-heavy Five Frugal Things post yesterday, reader Crystal left this comment: I especially love your hair! Lovely! My hair is going gray and I find that people are uncomfortable with it. I am 50 and I am just weary of coloring my hair. Maybe you could do a blog post about this? Aww, I am sorry to hear that other people are foisting their gray-hair opinions on you. I really dislike the cultural narrative around aging, especially for women, and I wrote a fairly long post on the whole topic of aging. A lot of what I wrote in that post is rel ..read more

I didn’t realize until I put this post together that it was gonna have so many pictures of me. So, it’s the Inadvertent Selfie Edition. 1. I got another $10 symphony ticket Last Friday, I ducked out to the college parking lot on lunch break and bought a student ticket over the phone ($10 for a $77 ticket!). And that night I went to the symphony. I’d been wearing my student scrubs all week, so it was nice to wear something else for a change. I wore my black $25 Target dress again, because I have decided no one at the symphony cares if I repeat outfits. I met a new retired friend, and I also s ..read more

As you guys know, I am a big fan of sauces. In my book, pretty much everything is better with a sauce, especially if the sauce is creamy in some way. And as you’ve seen, a lot of my egg/potato/veggie bowls have sauces on them. So, on a recent post, a reader asked for sauce suggestions, especially if they can be made at home. You can buy sauces at the store, of course, and I would not judge you for that. Anything you buy at the grocery store is gonna be cheaper than eating out, and if a jar of sauce helps you eat at home, go for it. But if you do want to try making your own sauces, here are a ..read more

This week, I am thankful: for the green that’s spreading through the trees I know this happens every spring, but my goodness, every year I am amazed at just how quickly the trees go from bare and brown to having a visible green tinge to being decidedly green. I love to watch this! for a lovely day yesterday The weather was perfect (70s and sunny!). I had an OB lecture all morning, and once I got home, I went for a walk in the lovely sunshine. Then I lifted some weights, showered, and ate my lunch on my front steps. While I ate, I watched the bumblebees, who are currently obsessed with a bus ..read more

On a podcast, I recently heard Ira Glass mention that sometimes, he finds himself eating meals and paying no attention to what he’s eating at all. You know how sometimes you drive somewhere, arrive, and have basically no memory of getting there? What he’s describing is kinda like that!  This statement of his piqued my interest, mainly because I almost never experience life this way.  For better or for worse, I am generally very IN whatever moment I’m experiencing. I notice the good, the bad, and everything in between.  As I thought about this more, I wondered if this is a key ..read more

I have an entirely food-themed Five Frugal Things today. Ready? 1. I used a stretched-out coffee filter to make Greek yogurt You know how sometimes toward the end of a coffee filter package, you get one that’s so stretched out, you know it’s not going to work very well in your coffee maker? That happened to me. Sooo, I used it to drain some homemade yogurt to make Greek yogurt. 2. I rescued my celery I had a bunch of celery from Hungry Harvest that I inadvertently put in the wrong part of the fridge. And then I completely forgot about it! It was a little wilty when I took it out yesterday mor ..read more

Otherwise known as…stream of consciousness. I don’t have any Meet a Reader submissions in the queue, so here we are. ? Six more weeks! My classmates and I are definitely counting down to the end of the semester; as of today, we have six more weeks of school left before SUMMER!!!! This week is gonna be a little crazy for me; I have clinical on Monday and Tuesday, a four-hour OB lab seminar on Wednesday, a five-hour OB lab on Thursday, and a two-hour OB simulation on Friday followed by a three-hour lecture. I’m pretty sure I have to be in uniform for all of those days, which means I’m gonna nee ..read more

What I Spent It was sunny yesterday! I took a picture because I was so happy that my kitchen was bright. I spent: $29 at Safeway $32 at Aldi $22 at Chick Fil A So, $83 this week. What We Ate Saturday pre-frying, obviously I made homemade chicken fingers and potato wedges, and we dipped both in buffalo sauce. What did we have on the side? Man, I don’t know. And I didn’t catch a picture. Sunday At dinnertime, we were both home, just the two of us, so we ate sandwiches and watched Gilmore Girls together (with Shelley too, of course, because she always joins us when we watch TV!) Monday Th ..read more

A quote from James Clear, a best-selling author: “Some people get addicted to chain-smoking their problems. They spend all day going from sorrow to sorrow. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can live each day going from joy to joy—like a sunflower that turns to face the sun as it moves across the sky. It’s not about having a problem-free life, but about focusing on the light. Sunflowers still have shadows, but they are always behind them.” I think this is a beautiful way to describe what it’s like to focus on the good, although I think it is slightly inaccurate. I think of it more like a ..read more