Briefly | January is a month that I just try and get through. Between work travel and personal travel, I just never feel like I get to settle in. February is a month where I burrow in at home and enjoy not going anywhere.
Time and Place | About 8:45 a.m. with my laptop on my couch — you can expect to see a lot of this during the month of February!
Reading | Because I was gone for most of this week, my reading has changed from last week — I’m still working through The Lonely War by Nazila Fathi, a memoir/reported look at the challenges of modern Iran. I also started reading Duplex by Kathryn Davis, a super weird little fiction book from Graywolf Press.
Listening | I’ve got Spotify’s Afternoon Acoustic playlist on repeat. I have a soft spot for acoustic covers of pop songs, of which there are many in this playlist.
Buying | I got to visit a Barnes and Noble over the weekend and enjoyed browsing, but only came home with one book — The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs, a biography of “the short life of a talented young African-American man who escapes the slums of Newark for Yale University only to succumb to the dangers of the streets—and of one’s own nature—when he returns home.”
Cooking | If I can get myself motivated and to the grocery store, I’m going to try making a whole chicken in my slow cooker. I might try this kale and apple soup as well. Adventures in cooking!
Blogging | This week I shared a review of Flappers by Judith Mackrell (such a great read) and what books arrived in my mailbox this month.
Sharing 1 | I loved this article on why we should all aspire to be Leslie Knope instead of settling to be Liz Lemon. I hadn’t really thought about the characters in this way before, but it’s absolutely right.
Sharing 2 | My new favorite Tumblr is Politicians and Hip Hop. Given my recent binge-watch of The Tudors, I especially love this one.
Celebrating | Last week I attended the Minnesota Newspaper Association annual conference, where our newspaper received several awards (first place for best website and second place for best use of video in our category). I also received a third place award for best business story. It was really exciting and fun.
Loving | I managed to exercise or hit my step goal (lower than average, at 8,000 steps per day, since it’s winter in Minnesota) for 28 of the 31 days in January! I’ve been keeping track of this goal on my Fitbit and this habit progress tracker from Elisa Blaha.
Anticipating | Later today the boyfriend and I are heading out to a Super Bowl party. Then on Monday, I’m going to start my second Whole30. My eating has gotten off track thanks to the holidays and January, so I’m excited about doing this reset.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday, everyone!
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Congrats on your award–that’s awesome!
Yay for snuggling in and hibernating for February. Unfortunately my busy season+lost of travel is gearing up – Boo Hiss! I’ve done the crockpot whole chicken a couple of times and it works like a charm and is SUPER easy. Probably my favorite thin about it is following it up and making the over night chicken broth so much so that I think this will be an every month of 6 week things so I always have broth on hand.
I did the overnight broth too. I haven’t used it quite yet, but it seemed like it turns out well.
Congrats on your awards!
Thanks for sharing that Liz Lemon / Leslie Knope article; I hadn’t seen it yet, and it was really fascinating and insightful.
Ooh, I LOVE that goal chart you have for exercise/step goal. I might try something similar!
Three cheers for snuggling up as winter really sets in.
I’m a little surprised at how motivating the chart has been — it’s satisfying to mark off a circle at the end of each day I make my goal.
“Flappers” sounds like an intriguing read. Thanks for the rec.
Congrats on the awards!! So happy for you and your newspaper!
Congrats on the award, that’s really great!
That’s a great Spotify playlist! Thanks for sharing I’m always looking for a new playlist.
The curated playlists are some of my favorite things about Spotify — I don’t find much new music otherwise.
Same here, I don’t listen to the radio in the car so the Top 100 lists are the only way I know new music.
Congratulations on the awards!! Also, thanks for sharing that kale and apple soup recipe. I’m trying to cook more seasonally and this fits the bill perfectly. Will you report back on how it turned out, please? 🙂
Yes, I will. I didn’t get to it on Sunday, so I’m hoping to try it this week.
Enjoy your Super Bowl party! I’m abstaining from Super Bowl festivities this year as two of my least favorite times are playing (maybe my absolute two least favorite teams? hard to say), and I can’t root for anyone. I am hoping for a draw. :p
It came pretty darn close to a draw, didn’t it? The group I was watching it with also didn’t have strong feelings about either team.
Enjoy your Super Bowl party and congrats on the journalism award!
Congratulations on all those awards for your newspaper and you! That makes all that travel worthwhile, doesn’t it?
That Liz Lemon/ Leslie Knope article is awesome. It makes me want to watch the entire Parks and Rec series from start to finish again.
Have a great week and enjoy settling down for the month!
I’m so excited about Parks and Rec right now! Once S7 finishes up, I’m going to rewatch the series from the beginning. I love that show.
Congratulations on all the awards!!
Congrats on the awards for your paper and your own writing!! I’d be looking forward to February too if I was you.
I’ve been mostly good about buying books this month, in fact I think I only bought three books at a book signing, one to give away, one from author’s backlist and a fun one I felt I needed, ha ha. I also went all last week with no book mail…a very good thing since the two weeks before were loaded down…ugh.
Have a great week.
That’s pretty good for an entire month! I’ve already bough quite a few in February… the addiction never stops 🙂
I am impressed with the steps in the cold, snowy Minnesota winters. We had bitterly cold weather this weekend and I only hit 5K steps each day because I couldn’t tolerate being outside for too long. I toyed with heading to the treadmill at the gym but that never materialized. I will have to get some winter plan in place because it is not warming up anytime soon! Have a good week!
I’ve been going up to our local gym and walking on the track most evenings — it’s too chilly and, now, too icy to walk outside much. I don’t love walking on the track, but it’s better than nothing.
January is pretty blah for me at work too. I’m waiting for March, when it feels like winter might let up soon and I know the school year is almost done!
Yes, March does always feel like winter could end. It usually doesn’t, but it might 🙂
Those awards are exciting. 🙂