Friday, October 13, 2023

This week, I am embarking on a silly challenge; swapping coffee for tea. It's frankly a test of my endurance because sometimes proving to myself that I can do something is more important than actually doing it. 

Related: remember when I did dry January? Why? Because I could (or at least, I wanted to prove to myself that I could). 

Truthfully, I drink a lot of coffee. I consume at least a full pot before I leave for work at 7:30. And on my work from home days, I'll treat myself to another pot around 2pm. 

Is this why I'm always nervous? I don't know, but it's really that word "treat" that bothers me. I've been thinking this week that I'm very indulgent with myself. I'm literally a parent spoiling a child, and as confusing as the holy trinity, I'm somehow parent and child all at once. 

Or maybe it's more like cartoons, where there's a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. The devil is a dark-haired barista with tattoos on his fingers and he's like "yeah girl, brew that pot. Yeah girl, grab that Coffeemate. Pour with abandon." The angel is more like a British grandmother wearing a lovely cinderella blue cardigan, asking "dear, wouldn't you prefer a cuppa tea? Or maybe just some water with lemon. That's the ticket."

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At the same time, I've been feeling so melancholy lately. This isn't coffee withdrawal, this is weather and seasonality. It's discouraging because we're literally on the front end of six months of gray, precipitation and early sunsets and as much as I'm trying to hype myself for this oncoming cozy season, the truth is that I get very sad. 

I know that we'll come out on the other side and eventually May will come around again, but that's a long ways away, so I'm working on a little personal project, writing a guide for surviving winter. So far, action item number one is to cozy up this house like never before. I have a standing"cozy winter kitchen" search on Pinterest and it would seem that twinkle lights need to be everywhere. 

A few other things I have on my survival guide:

I've written about this several times, but this is the season I will cook my way through a cookbook. I've chosen this Half-baked Harvest collection. 

Related: I'm very inspired by this piece I read recently "I Started a Dinner Club and it Changed My Life." Sold. 

Obligatory weekend fun. I've mentioned this before, but the gist is this: plan something interesting every weekend. EVERY weekend. 

Shop yourself silly, and really get good boots and coats and anything warm that you can be excited to wear. 

Also get yourself some candles and perch those babies anywhere. 

See, for reference, the vision I have - 

Can't you see yourself, just like, enjoying winter in those pictures? I just imagine myself thinking thank God it's so cold out there and so warm in here. Actually, I don't, but I'm talking myself into it. Attitude is 90% of the battle. 

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PS Happy Friday the 13th! I'll be blaming every problem I have on the date today. 

Big plans for the weekend are to finally get our Halloween decorations out of storage and perch half a dozen fake pumpkins up all over the place. Fall festival is happening in Frankfort on Saturday, so I'll be swinging through with Duke and landing over at the Garden Theatre for the annual showing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! I highly recommend if you're in the neighborhood. 

Cheers!