Hexagon Shelving Progress

I am extremely tired today for some reason, so I'm just going to keep this short. (Even when I try to keep it short, I always manage to go on and on...) I want to take a shower, put on super comfy pajamas, and try really hard to fall asleep early tonight.

I don't have a ton of progress to show on the hexagon shelves I'm making, but I don't really have anything else to write about! I did get the first shelf put together and I LOVE it. It's not totally done--I'm going to put a backing on it and use a French cleat to hang it on the wall. I'm also going to paint it.

If you missed it, I am working on a sort of "jungle gym" wall for the cats and I am starting with some hexagon shelves/honeycomb shelves. Here is a picture of what inspired me to do it...

(I don't know who to credit for this photo--I couldn't find the original source)

I had cut out six sides and beveled the edges so they would form a hexagon, but I was dreading putting holes in two of the faces (the shelves in the photo have four holes, but I want to make a couple of the shelves with just two holes). I HATE using the jigsaw and it's not easy to make a perfect circle with it anyways. There are hole cutter drill bits you can get that cut holes 6 inches in diameter, which is about the size I needed to cut, but they're expensive and I doubt I'd ever use it again.

After staring it down in the garage for about an hour and racking my brain, I decided to try my router. I'd never cut circles with a router before, and I don't have a circle-cutting jig, but I managed to rig something up that I thought might actually work. I made a temporary plate for the router out of small rectangle of plywood that would rotate around a nail in the center of the circle. (Like using a compass to draw a circle, only it would cut it out instead of drawing it.)

I don't have a plunge router, which is ideal for this. (The best way I can describe it would be like drawing a circle on a piece of paper--with a plunge router, you can just place the tip of your pen anywhere on the paper and start drawing. With a regular router, like mine, it would be like having to start drawing with your pen at the very edge of the paper.)

I decided to try it anyways and just make a super shallow cut. (I'll spare the details.) Long story short(ish), the bit didn't lock into place where I'd planned for it to (to make the shallow cut). I wasn't able to move the router and suddenly the wood started smoking and it smelled burnt. I turned off the router only to see that I'd accidentally pushed the bit through the board and right down to the concrete in the garage!! It destroyed the bit and burned the wood.

Thankfully the weather was nice enough to put me in a great mood--I just shrugged it off and moved on!

I switched out the bit and figured out how to make extremely shallow passes to bypass not having a plunge router. After lots of rotations of the router, the circle was finally cut--and it was PERFECT. (Well, aside from the burned edge! Haha. When I sanded it, the burn came right off and now you can't even see it.)

The second one was much quicker and I was really excited that I'd managed to make it work. Cutting through solid oak with a jigsaw would have taken FOREVER, would have really bothered my carpal tunnel, and would have made a very imperfect circle. (Now, I'm going to make a proper circle-cutting jig for the rest of the boards.)

Once I cut the circles out of the two pieces, I started working on the glue-up. I laid out a couple of pieces of painters' tape and then placed all of the pieces side-by-side on top.

Then I spread glue on the beveled edges and basically rolled the whole thing up to form a hexagon. I was so excited that it was actually doing what it was supposed to do, haha. I put a strap clamp around it to hold it tightly together. 

I let it sit overnight and then today I took the clamp off--I was thrilled to see it looked exactly how I'd hoped. I sanded the glue off and then I brought it in the house to see if the cats would fit through the holes. I didn't want to finish the whole project only to find out that the holes were too small for my porky kitties!

I set it on the floor and immediately, the kittens were drawn to it. Cats are so predictable! Haha. 

I still have to cut out a hexagon-shaped piece for the back. And I have to make about four more of these! Now that I kind of know what I'm doing, though, it should be easier.

If you want to see all the ridiculous inspiration I may be putting into action for the cats, you can check out my cat wall Pinterest board. I really am crazy, I think! ;)

I need some transformations so I can post a Transformation Tuesday tomorrow--so please share what you have!

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BOOK REVIEW : 'She's Come Undone' by Wally Lamb

I'm actually late getting this up; this was my October pick for the Friends-themed read-athon that I am participating in this year. (You can find the details on this blog post: 'The One Where Friends Meets Reality').

The theme for October was:

Monica: "Now, I need you to be careful and efficient. And remember, if I am harsh with you, it's only because you're doing it wrong." Read a book with a strong female lead.

I had no idea what book to pick, and I was down to just a few days left in October before I finally realized I'd better get started. I actually looked through the books I already had and ended up picking 'She's Come Undone' by Wally Lamb; I read it before, but it was a very long time ago (when Oprah raved about it for her book club).

It's really interesting how much my thoughts about the book have changed since then; I've been through quite a bit in the last 15 years!

First, the general synopsis. WARNING: I am going to post what *might* be considered a spoiler or two, but I don't believe they are. An incident happens in the first 25% of the book and the rest of the book is basically based around it. It's hard to even write what the book is about without saying it. So, if you don't want to read what may be considered a spoiler, then skip this post from here.

Also, I want to give a trigger warning about a few subject matters in the book: there are topics of domestic abuse, mental illness, rape, and eating disorders.

The protagonist is a young girl (in the beginning; at the end she's in her late 30's) named Dolores. She's an only-child, although her mom loses a baby boy during childbirth. This causes her mom to go into a deep depression and her parents' marriage is rocky. They get divorced and her dad leaves and starts a new family. This causes Dolores severe trauma because she had been very close with her dad and he all-but forgot about her when he left.

Her mom ends up going to a psychiatric hospital and Dolores goes to live with her grandmother. When her mom gets out of the hospital, she lives with them as well. At age 13, something horrific happens to Dolores: she is raped by someone she trusted.

From there, the book skips ahead to when she is finishing high school. After the rape, her mom felt really guilty about knowing the person who'd raped Dolores and desperately wanted to make Dolores feel better, so she showed her love with food--she bought Dolores all sorts of treats every day, hoping it would make her happy. Her weight gets up to 257 pounds after high school. Dolores blames herself for the rape and for another tragic event that happened the summer after high school; she then believes she deserves bad things to happen to her after that.

I'll stop here with the synopsis because then there really would be spoilers if I go on. When I first read this book, I LOVED it. I can't remember why I loved it so much, but it was one of my favorite books I'd ever read.

This time around, I still liked it but it didn't have the same effect as before.

Things I like about the book:

As unlikeable as Dolores is sometimes, I can't help but really like her. Considering all that she goes through, it's understandable why she does some of the things she does. I feel terrible for her! I wish I could have hugged her and told her that she did NOTHING to deserve being raped and that she's not the bad person she thinks she is.

I like that the timeline of the book spans a couple of decades rather than just a short time period in her life. Because of this, we get to see the "butterfly effect"...

The butterfly effect: we can see how one moment/choice/incident leads to enormous effects and consequences. I've always liked this philosophy when it has good effects. It's just really sad that Dolores's life was forever changed by terrible experiences; in her case, it started with her dad leaving and then by being raped at age 13. It makes you wonder how different she would be in so many ways if those things hadn't happened.

The topic of mental illness. The book takes place in the 1960's-80's (I believe Dolores was born around 1951-52, based on worldly things that were happening throughout) and mental illness was much more stigmatized than it is now (even now, there is a stigma, but back then, it was very hush-hush). Still, I liked that it was talked about.

Things I dislike about the book:

The biggest one is that Wally Lamb had NO CLUE about what "fat" means. Dolores is 257 pounds, but the way he describes her makes it sound like she should be in a circus freak show--for example, she can't fit into a Volkswagon; when she sits in a truck the entire truck slants under her weight; Lamb describes her "mounds of flesh" and "fat rolls" as if she is the size of a house. I was 253 pounds before I lost the weight, and yes--I was fat. But cars didn't sink under my weight and people didn't gawk at me like I was a zoo animal. I was treated badly, yes; called names, yes; but I still don't think it was anything like he described and Dolores was only 4 pounds heavier than me.

That said, however, I do take into consideration that this took place in the 1960's-80's, when it was much less common to be that size, and definitely not as accepted.

In retrospect, I think that's the only real dislike that I have about the book.

Lamb did a good job writing about topics as they would have been looked at from that time period: domestic abuse (back then, it was considered a "private family matter" that people didn't get involved in; mental illness (it was rarely talked about and getting a diagnosis/help was nothing like it is today); bias and even hatred of homosexuality (not to say that the bias doesn't still exist now--it certainly does--but the language and acceptance and education about it is different now); and the "fat" bias (again, it still exists and is terrible, but it's more common and accepted to be overweight now).

I realize I probably make this book sound completely unappealing! Heavy topics, doom and gloom, etc. It's not all like that--I would like to write more, but that would spoil it.

I used to have it on my "Top 10 Best Books I've Ever Read" list; but I just removed it because I just don't feel the same about it. I like to do a giveaway with books that I really love, but I can't say that I really love this one anymore. It's good. I'm glad I read it (twice). But it's not one I would read again.

If you're interested (even after that terrible description! haha) you can find the book here (Amazon affiliate link).

Now, for this month, the Friends-themed topic is:

"The One with All the Thanksgivings" - Read a book centered around family.

I've actually already made my pick and I've started reading it! I chose 'Educated' by Tara Westover. (Amazon affiliate link)

It was on a list when I googled "books about family". After reading what it was about, I searched my library website for the ebook; that's when I realized I'd seen it a million times on the site but I always ignored it because of the cover! Because of the name and the cover, it just made me think that it was a self-help book about education or something. I never even read what it was about. But it is apparently a wildly popular book--it has over 57,000 reviews on Amazon. Here is the publisher's description:

"Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home."

I'm only a few chapters in, but I think I'm going to like it! It reads more like a novel than it does a memoir, and I like that. (I love memoirs, but I just haven't been in to them lately).

I've you've read 'She's Come Undone' I'm curious about your thoughts!

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HERITAGE RECIPE : Grated Raw Sweet Potato Pudding (A Very Old Southern Recipe)

I will start by saying that this should definitely just be called "Sweet Potato Pudding" because the "grated raw" part is a bit of a turn off. However, it was that wording that caught my eye when I was looking through the heritage recipe book. And I'm so glad I chose it, because it turned out to be delicious!

With Thanksgiving coming up, the sweet potato dish sounded like the perfect dessert to try--a change from sweet potato casserole (my favorite Thanksgiving dish!!) and sweet potato pie. I highly recommend adding this to your Thanksgiving dinner spread!

This recipe was submitted to the Rockwood, Michigan Area Historical Society by Jeanette Herzog. From what I could find, it seems Jeanette is still living; she's actually the vice president of the historical society! In 2007, she and her husband celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

I'm not sure of story behind this recipe, but she wrote the title of it like this:

GRATED RAW SWEET POTATO PUDDING
(A Very Old Southern Recipe)

So, perhaps the person who handed it down to her was from the south. Regardless, I'm glad it made its way north, because it's really delicious!

This pudding tastes a lot like rice pudding, only it's a bit sweeter. The texture is actually similar, too. And if I had bought orange sweet potatoes, I'm sure it would be much prettier! (It kind of looks like cheesy hash brown potatoes, haha). 

I had no idea that there was such a thing as white sweet potatoes. When I was grocery shopping, the organic sweet potatoes were actually cheaper than the non-organic ones, so I chose to get those. All it said was "organic sweet potatoes"--nothing about them being white!

So, I was a little bummed when I peeled them and they weren't the beautiful orange color I'm used to, but they taste the same.

Okay, so as always, my rule for making recipes from the heritage cookbook is that I cannot make any modifications or substitutions in the recipe at all. Here, I've typed it out exactly as written in the book (the "printer-friendly" version is rewritten with my notes included). Make sure you read my notes below the recipe for any clarifications.

Here is a printer-friendly version!

Grated Raw Sweet Potato Pudding

3 med. eggs
1 c. sugar
1-1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. melted butter
2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
3 c. grated raw sweet potato (reserve 1 c. for crust)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Beat eggs, add sugar and milk, butter, vanilla and salt. Add 2 cups potato. Place in 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle reserved cup potato over top. Bake 25 minutes. Serves 6.

My Notes:

First, the eggs. I didn't notice that it called for medium eggs; I always buy large eggs. So, I googled the weight of a medium egg and then picked the smallest ones I could find in my package of large eggs; it turns out that they were the perfect size for a "medium" egg. (I'm not sure it matters, but like I said, I don't want to alter anything.)

I bought three sweet potatoes, not sure how many it would take to get three cups of grated potato. It turns out that three is way too much! I grated two of them (in the food processor) and it was packed full. I only ended up using about half of that. So, I'd guess that one large sweet potato would work for the three cups called for in the recipe. (I weighed out the shredded sweet potato just out of curiosity, and each semi-packed cup weighed 110 grams, or 1.4 pounds.)

Also, the recipe didn't specify peeling the potatoes, but I think that is common sense.

Everything was pretty self-explanatory. Here is what it looked like before I put it in the oven... (Because the sweet potatoes are white, it looked like a lot of cheese!)

After 25 minutes, it barely looked any different and was still VERY liquidy. So, I put it back in and I set the timer for 10 minutes. Still, the center was not set. 10 more minutes. Nope. Finally, another 10 minutes did the trick and the center was set (very soft-set, but it wasn't liquid). So, you'll probably have to bake for close to an hour.

When I scooped out some pudding, I noticed a lot of liquid on the bottom of the dish--it was clear liquid, so it wasn't due to being under-baked; I think the liquid was from the sweet potato. (After some googling, I am pretty sure that's correct.) When using raw sweet potatoes, the liquid is released into the dish as it cooks. The liquid was extremely sweet--almost like a syrup--so it wasn't gross or anything.

Definitely allow the pudding to cool completely before serving, and then stir it well and the liquid will be absorbed into the pudding. Mine was still warm when I scooped some out, so there was a lot of liquid. Later on, after it sat for a couple of hours, the liquid was easily stirred into the pudding.

I don't think that this dish needs cinnamon or any sort of spices; I think it's perfect as-is! It's a great Thanksgiving dish :)

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Friday Night Photos

Yay--it's Friday night! Here is what I have as far as pictures this past week...

After seeing all of the pictures you shared of the skeleton displays, we just decided that we had to get a skeleton. Not just for Halloween, but to have fun displaying in random spots all year. We didn't want that skeleton to get lonely, so we actually got two. And then we saw that there were SQUIRREL skeletons! So naturally, we needed two of those as well.

Today, there were SIX squirrels on the back deck at once, so when I went out there to feed them, I decided to grab one of the squirrel skeletons for a photo op. I set the skeleton on the squirrel picnic table along with a few walnuts, and then took some pictures of the squirrels dining together ;)

Then I figured, heck, might as well bring the whole family out for some pictures, too!

Squirrel skeletons aren't nearly as cute as the actual squirrels, hahaha. But it was fun taking pictures!

And speaking of skeletons pictures, here are a couple more. It's funny how you can totally tell whether it was Jerry or I that posed them. When the wife poses the skeleton...

...versus when the husband poses the skeleton:

*eye roll* 

This week, I decided to try and eat breakfast and lunch. Usually, I'll skip breakfast and sometimes lunch (not for trying to lose weight or anything, but because I just hate taking the time/effort to prepare breakfast and lunch; and I'm rarely hungry until mid-afternoon). So I'm trying out spreading my calories throughout the whole day like I did up until a couple of years ago.

Today, I made a dill pickle sandwich for lunch--it's been so long since I made one of these, and I forgot how good it is! (The recipe is on The Noble Pig. And even though there are only four ingredients, it is super important to make sure they are the exact ones listed. Her recipe post explains it well!)

For breakfast, I actually made a batch of steel-cut oats (four servings so that I can just microwave it for a minute each morning rather than cook it daily). This was the perfect way to eat some of the peach preserves that I made! I tried it with peach preserves and banana--the peach preserves were better.

I couldn't find Duck anywhere when it was time to go bed (I still "make a bed" for him on the couch in my bedroom every night, which is where he likes to sleep). And usually when I call his name he makes a chirping noise, so it's easy to find him. I was starting to worry about him when Jerry saw a pair of glowing eyes in the dark hallway. When he turned on the light, there was Duck.

This morning, there was frost on the ground! The first I've seen this season. Fall is going by too fast. It seems like just yesterday I was saying how excited I was that fall is here.

Remember how I was trying to make an extension for my table saw but I got super frustrated while trying to route miter slots? (Probably not.) Well, I'd given up on it because I messed one of the slots up. But then recently, I tried again--I built a table similar to Tamar's from 3x3 Custom (I LOVE her YouTube channel! She's the only YouTuber that I watch faithfully.)

I took my time and I was thrilled that it actually turned out great. The whole purpose for making this was to have enough space to hold larger boards--it's hard to cut a large board on a small table. This photo below is the table before I attempted to route the miter slots. The legs on the out feed table fold under and then the top folds down. (As you can see in the second photo).

This is what it looks like with the out feed table folded down. You can see the miter slots on this picture--I managed to position them perfectly and get the size just right. That was the hardest part about the whole table. The table is on caster wheels, so I can move it around as needed. I love it!

And speaking of saws, I bought something for myself that I've been wanting for a couple of years but have just felt too guilty to spend the money on. I rarely buy anything new for myself, and I even looked on Facebook Marketplace regularly for two years for this miter saw. (Jerry kept telling me to just go ahead and buy it, but it's expensive and I just couldn't justify it in my mind.) It's listed on Marketplace a lot, but the price is usually $350-$450 for a used one on Marketplace. To buy it brand new on Amazon (or at Home Depot) it's $400.

Finally, I decided to save up for it and just buy a new one. I sold a few things and I saved up cash back points on the credit card and finally... I bought it! The Dewalt Dual Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw... when I opened the box, I swear I heard Tim Allen's "Argh argh argh!" man-grunting from Home Improvement, hahahaha.

I've been excited to make the hexagon shelves for the cats, but with the table saw being so small (before building the table around it) and my miter saw being way too small, I just couldn't figure out how I was going to build the shelves. So, my first project with the new miter saw is the hexagon shelves. I spent this morning cutting down the oak boards that I'd milled out of the dining table (bought for $25 on Marketplace!).

I haven't glued or screwed anything together yet; there is still a lot that I have to do before piecing them permanently. But as I was cutting, I set them out on the table to see the size. I'm making one pretty large hexagon and 3-4 smaller ones. (Chick and Duck are huge cats--I'm just hoping these are big enough! Haha)

I'm going to cut large-diameter holes in the sides so that the cats can climb in while the shelves are on the wall. This is a super fun project that will probably last me a few months--I have several ideas for a "jungle gym cat wall", so I'll likely just continue to add to it. The hexagon shelves are first, though.

The cats are spoiled rotten, for sure. After getting the skeletons in the mail from Amazon, we had three huge boxes (each skeleton was in a box and then those two boxes were inside one large Amazon box). When Jerry woke up and came out into the living room, he just shook his head and said how spoiled the cats are. I'd spent a good 45 minutes making a three-story fort for the cats out of the boxes, haha. They loved it! There were little holes and dividers inside to make it more maze-like. 

I only kept it for a couple of days because it was definitely a big eye-sore.

Have a great weekend! xo

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Return to Running Recap : Week 23

This week wasn't ideal, based on the same reasons as my Wednesday Weigh-In yesterday. I just had a bad week all around! I feel like yesterday was a big wake-up call, though, and I've had two great days in a row. I feel my determination coming back after a long lapse.

I managed to get in two runs this week. I'd planned to do four (the full first week of my MAF80 plan) but two is better than nothing. That actually reminds of something I read recently, and I thought it was really smart:

My knee feels back to normal and the weather is perfect for running, so there is no reason not to take advantage of that!

So, even though I only did two runs, I'll quickly recap...

Week 23, Run 1 : Run 40 minutes at MAF heart rate (131-141 beats per minute)

I was FREEZING while I waited for my Garmin to find satellites--I have no idea why it took so long, but I literally waited probably five minutes in the driveway. I was so relieved when I was able to start running so that I could warm up.

I ran super slowly to keep my heart rate in my MAF zone and I felt great. It felt just how I remember my MAF runs feeling. When I looked down at my heart rate, though, it said it was 160! I was shocked--I wasn't breathing hard, I was going slow, I hadn't broken a sweat. I tried to go even slower, but my heart rate was still high.

At that point, I just decided to forget the heart rate monitor and run by feel. It felt TRULY easy and my pace was around what it would be if I was running at MAF. After a mile or so, I noticed that my heart rate was in the 130's. Then it occurred to me...

It was cold outside and I'd forgotten to wet my heart rate monitor before putting it on (it needs to be wet for good conduction--once you start sweating, it's totally fine). When it's cold and my skin is dry, it takes a few minutes to get good conduction (the more you sweat, the better the conduction). When the conduction is poor, it shows a really high heart rate (or no heart rate at all).

So, the data for this run ended up being pretty much useless. In the graph below, you can see how wonky the first 8 or 9 minutes were.

Week 23, Run 2 : Run 8 minutes at MAF, then 4 repeats of (3 minutes hard, 5 minutes at MAF)

I was actually looking forward to this run. The intervals make the time go by quickly and the way I wrote the plan allows me to make "hard" be whatever I want it to mean--just running at a higher heart rate than MAF. I was curious to see if I'd be able to run in between the intervals or if I'd have to walk them to maintain my MAF heart rate.

It turned out to go really well! I ran the 8 minutes at MAF, then picked up speed and ran comfortably hard for 3 minutes--"comfortably" just means that I could have run faster, but I wouldn't have enjoyed it. After 3 minutes, I walked until my heart rate reached the bottom of my MAF zone (131 bpm); then I started a very slow run, hoping that my heart rate would stay under 141. And it did!

So for each interval, I did the same thing--run hard, walk until my heart rate hit 131 bpm, then jog at my MAF rate until the next interval. Overall, I ended up running 3.17 miles. My average heart rate overall was 142 bpm and average pace overall was 12:37. For the "hard" intervals, my average pace was 10:27. I swear, the intervals felt much faster! Haha.

Despite only having done two runs last week, I feel good about them. I'm determined to get in all four this week, though!

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Wednesday Weigh-In : Week 23

Good grief, my mirror is dirty! I need to clean my mirror and my scale--I always notice when there is dust on them when I post my pictures for Wednesday Weigh-In, haha. Naturally, Duck wanted to be in my photo.

And just now, as I sit under my electric blanket with my computer while prepping the photos for this post, Duck just plopped himself down on my lap ;)

After last week's very small 0.4-pound weight loss, I vowed that I'd do really well with counting my calories and I wouldn't overeat comfort foods when I was feeling overwhelmed. (I've realized that it's my number one trigger--when I feel like I have way too much to do or catch up on, eating is a way to just put it all off for a little while and "worry about it later".

When my anxiety is bad, I always feel this constant nag in the background telling me that there is something I should be doing but I just can't put my finger on what it is. I hate that feeling! It's almost as bad as having a very long "to do" list and not having enough time to breathe in between tasks.

October was a very busy month. And looking at my weight record, it shows just how busy! On October 3rd, exactly a month ago, I weighed in at 162.8. And today?

Yup, 162.8. Ugh! That means I'm up 2.2 pounds from last week, and I'm not at all surprised. A whole month has passed and I haven't made any progress. Despite all my good intentions last week, it just didn't happen. I only tracked my calories on three days. I didn't completely pig out on the other days, but I know I ate too much (especially over the last few days because of Halloween candy!). Jerry took the rest of the Halloween candy to work (at my request). 

I had a really great day today, though, and I'm feeling super determined to have a great week. I'm already two weeks into my four-week DietBet and I *really* don't want to lose my DietBet. If I am going to win my money back, I have to be meticulous for the next two weeks and I'll have a chance at it.

One of the things I really want to do is to plan out meals ahead of time, and try to utilize my slow cooker as much as possible. If I can get dinner in the cooker in the morning and have it ready before Jerry goes to work, it will relieve a lot of stress.

I know cooking dinner may not sound stressful to most people, but I hate cooking. Then I have to try to work around everyones schedules and choose meals that everybody likes. We have to eat dinner early (before Jerry leaves) so I have to start cooking in the mid-afternoon. Today, I made Southwest Chicken and Beans in the slow cooker and it was SO NICE not to have to think about cooking until we were ready to eat!

So here's a question for you... what are your favorite slow cooker meals? Do you have a favorite recipe? A few of my favorites are: Split Pea Soup, Chicken Taco Soup, Copycat Wendy's Chili, and French Onion Meatballs. The Southwest Chicken and Beans I made today was good, too--I used to make that all the time and hadn't made it in a few years until today. I also make a lemon garlic chicken that's really good--I'll have to post the recipe for that soon (it's super easy).

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Transformation Tuesday #47

I only have one transformation to share today (please send me some for next week!) but this has been a fun ongoing transformation to see. During lockdown, Lindsay bought a cottage in her hometown in Canada because when visiting family, she knew she'd have to regularly quarantine for two weeks. When redecorating, she said she "wants it to be fun and scream 'vacation!'".

First, here are the previous photos she shared, so you don't have to go back and look:

Awesome, right?! Well, here are a couple of new ones from Lindsay...

The kitchen-

We’d already done a lot to the kitchen but it was time to replace the older counter top, it had started to rot. We replaced the faucet, and added a fancy trim. All told the project was only around $300 for the full kitchen transformation!

Next transformation was the sun porch. It’s an amazing space that just didn’t have a flow with older furniture, and a big bulky fridge. The previous owner had stopped renovations and hadn't finished any of the finishing work (trims, window surrounds, etc). We slip covered the furniture, painted, and decorated to represent the beach.

Lindsay, I am LOVING the transformation of your cottage! I think you definitely captured the fun vacation vibe with those colors. What a great project to work on during quarantine when you visit your hometown.

Okay, Friends, please send me some transformations to post next week! Just email a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Include your name and a description of your transformation, and I'd love to share it for Transformation Tuesday :)

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Would You Rather...? (A few hard ones!)

Well, we ended up getting only SIX trick-or-treaters yesterday! I don't know how it was everywhere else, but a lot of my friends/family around here were saying that they didn't get many trick-or-treaters. That was a big bummer. And now I have 30 29 28 27 candy bars left over. Hahaha! Not at all how I expected it to go.

Jerry and I had fun, though. We watched Scream 3 and played Ticket to Ride in the garage. The weather was PERFECT for trick-or-treating! Not too cold, no rain or wind... I don't think we've ever had such good weather on Halloween.

I wasn't sure what to write today, so I thought maybe a few "Would You Rather...?" questions would be fun. I picked questions that I thought were REALLY difficult ones--questions that really required thought. (Not to say that they are profound, serious questions--even the silly ones can be really tough to choose!).  I'm so glad that we don't actually have to make decisions like this in real life...

(I got these questions from the Parade website)

Q: Would you rather be in jail for five years or be in a coma for a decade?

A: Jail would obviously be terrifying and horrible, I'm sure. And basically going to sleep then waking up 10 years later would mean I missed SO much that has happened. I think I would actually choose going to jail for five years. Of course, I've never been there, so maybe if I spent a single night in jail I'd change my mind! A friend of mine spent a night in jail earlier this year and said it was the absolute worst experience of his life and he'd do pretty much anything to never experience it again.

In jail, I could at least hear about my family and friends and what's going on in the world, and also know that I'd be done in five years. Waking from a coma after a decade would be super difficult to learn about all the experiences I missed (good or bad): weddings, deaths, babies, etc.

(This picture is from when Jerry, the kids and I did an escape room in a jail cell)

Q. Would you rather have a pause or a rewind button in your life?

A. I'm always saying that I wish I could just hit a pause button in my life so that I don't feel so overwhelmed or rushed--that I could just take some breaths and then worry about whatever I'm worrying about next week or even just the next day. Time goes by so fast! But I'm also always saying that I wish I could go back and do things differently (especially as a parent; I think that I've done a decent job as a mom, but I think all parents have things they'd do differently if able).

If I could pick pause or rewind, I think I'd pick rewind. I hate that my kids are pretty much adults now! Spending time with Luke and Riley makes me wish that Noah and Eli were that little again (only if I was still as young as I was then! Haha).

Q. Would you rather hear a comforting lie or an uncomfortable truth?

A. I feel like I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I'd probably rather hear a comforting lie. I'm a super sensitive person and I think that ignorance is bliss in a lot of situations. It obviously depends on the situation, but for the most part, I would want to be feel better with a lie.

A good example would be something like knowing the circumstances/details of a loved one's death; I would ask for the details, but I would also hope that whoever is telling me about them would know to lie and tell me that the death was painless and quick or something like that. I'm good at picking up on lies, though, so they have to be super convincing!

And we'll end with a not-so-serious one:

Q: Would you rather always have B.O. and not know it or always smell B.O. on everyone else?

A: Oh, man. How to choose?! As awful as it may be to the people around me, I think I'd rather always have B.O. (body odor, in case you don't know what it stands for) than to always smell B.O. on everyone else. That smell is so distinctive and repelling, I don't think I could manage to be around it all the time! If I didn't know I had B.O., well, hey--ignorance is bliss, right? ;)

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Happy Halloween!

Jerry and I will be in the "man cave" in the garage tonight watching a scary movie and handing out candy to trick-or-treaters (I love seeing kids in their costumes!) so I am going to skip a "real" post today. 

Let's hope I don't have a ton of leftover full-size candy bars tomorrow--I may have bought too many. We usually only get 5-10 trick-or-treaters (which is why I buy the full-size candy bars--I always loved getting those when I was a kid!) but last year we ran out of candy and had to "borrow" candy from our kids, haha. I bought a large pack from Gordon's for today to make sure we have enough.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

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