Goodreads Book Challenge

Hello again,

I am a member of Goodreads and I love the site. This year I noticed they had a book challenge where you can enter in a goal of how many books you want to read in a year and then they keep track and you can watch your progress. You do need to be sure that you click that you are reading the book currently and then say you finished the book for it to count. It tracks your progress of how many books you have read and how many books you are ahead or behind. It is actually quite neat. It also keeps track of how many pages you have read as well.

Originally I thought I would make a goal of 100 books until I realized that meant I had to read through a whole book every 3.65 days. lol that isn’t happening. So I chose to have a goal of 75 books in one year which means I have almost 5 days to read each book. That is much more doable. I am 3 books ahead currently. I have finished 19 books since the beginning of the year. Except on my challenge it says I have read 20 books because I accidentally got one of the Harry Potter books on there twice by accident. So I raised my challenge to 76 books to make up for it. lol

Someone I know suggested that I should do mini reviews of the books I read and post on my blog which sounds like a neat idea that I can combine with this challenge. I can share what I think of each book, how I am doing on my book challenge and what I learn from them. I love reading and learning new things and it doesn’t really matter what it is about as long as it is something I didn’t know before. Any topic is interesting to me. which can make my list of books I want to read very long! lol

As I stated above, I have completed 19 books so far. The books I have read are: Expressive photography, The Applause of Heaven, Why do Cats Bury their poop (I found this filled with inaccurate facts), Chicken Soup for the Soul My Cat’s life, The Northern Gardener (an exceptional gardening book!), If you want to Walk on Water you have to get out of the boat, Lois Hole’s Tomato Favorites, Waking the Dead, Kitchens: The Smart approach to Kitchen Design, Kitchen Ideas that Work, Vegetable Gardening for Alberta Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Tomatoland (an eye-opening read!), and all 7 Harry Potter books. I might write another post on what I thought of the books I have already finished but I will leave that for another post because it would make this one too long. So if you enjoy books as much as I do and you are curious about what I think of the books I read, you can follow me here and on my goodreads page as well. Thanks for reading my blog!

 

The big 3-0

Hello again,

I know it may or may not be right to share one’s age but to me it has never really mattered. I don’t care. If you want to know my age, I will tell you. So today I want to talk about how I am nearing the big (to me anyways) 3-0 birthday and I realize that for the first time, entering a new decade of my life feels sad. Every other time I have entered a new decade of my life, (turning 10 and then 20) it was exciting and I was growing up. I wanted to grow up and escape childhood. But turning 30 feels sad and feels like it has all of a sudden hit me that I am getting older and it makes me feel like I want to hold on to my 20′s just a bit longer. I know 30 isn’t old by any means but it’s like I am starting on a journey that I don’t want to take quite yet. Maybe it is because I grew up thinking my 20′s would be fun years where I could experience life more and have fun. Yet instead I spent most of it going through surgeries and recovery and very little of the past 10yrs has been much fun. Yes, I can still have the fun I expected in my 20′s but it feels different somehow. Like I am without a doubt an adult now and should be responsible. I also feel like my life is passing me by and I haven’t really had a chance to live yet. Another thought that is scary is 40 is only 10yrs away! Is it normal to dread turning 30 or is it unusual? Does it feel worse for me because I spent most of the past decade dealing with health problems and limitations?

One thing I do appreciate is that I always try to live my life to the fullest that I can so that I don’t feel like I just drifted through my life not living as much as I could. So I can’t be accused of wasting time I have been given. To me that would be the greatest tragedy and regret. I do wish I could have had the ability to do more with my life though too. That I could look back and see that I accomplished a lot and had a very full life. But I know I am not alone on that wish. I think it may be normal to wish for better health, or more money, or more free time to have fun. But I also know that I have the life that I have been given and I can only do the best I can with what I have. Some days when my back is really bad, the best I can manage is to read books that I have wanted to get through which I tell myself is an accomplishment. I love books and if I am not learning something new, I am not happy. Other days, I am able to do more so I do. But it is still difficult facing my 30th birthday and feeling as though I haven’t accomplished the goals I had set in place to be done by this milestone birthday.

Ever since my teen years, 30 has seemed like a magical age somehow. An age to plan to have stuff done by. I planned to be in a certain place in my life when I turned 30. Most of it didn’t happen. I have mixed feelings about that. Realizing the deadline is a week away makes it quite clear that I will not be completing the goals I had planned. I hate not accomplishing goals I set in place. I feel sad but I also realize that it isn’t the end of the world and I still have time in my life for new plans. Life rarely goes how we want it to even though I wish it would.  I have learned this lesson the hard way and I accept it but sometimes it still bugs me a bit.

As of right now, I am not sure what the future holds or what awaits in the decade ahead but I hope that I can continue to live the fullest life that I can so that I do not look back and have regrets. I hope that 30 will be a new start along with a new decade in my life. I hope that the goals I have planned for the next decade will be able to happen and I don’t hit 40 feeling disappointed. Maybe my 30′s will be what I had hoped my 20′s would be. I just have a minor set back of a decade. lol Anyways, I hope to have some fun during the last week of being 29. I am determined to enter my 30′s on a good note and see it as a fresh start and a new chapter. thanks for reading!

 

Birthday Benefits updated

Hello again,

Last year I posted about birthday benefits and I wanted to add to it and update it because I have discovered more freebies. If you would like to see my earlier post you can click here for the link- birthday benefits. Unless otherwise stated, it is free to sign up for these birthday freebies. I think any of the offers I have posted below are all free to sign up. Some you have to spend some money first to get the free item. Also different freebies are available for different amounts of time so be aware of that. Some are only available on the day of your birthday and some are available for 1-2 weeks surrounding your birthday. Some also offer incentives to sign up like Quiznos. So it is definitely worth checking into!

Montanas apparently offers a free dessert on your birthday. As far as I know, you do not need to sign up for this and you just need to tell them it is your birthday. But I have to still confirm this.

Quiznos – you get something in your email when you are part of Q-Club. It is a free cookie when you buy a sandwich. Also when you sign up for the Q-club, they send you a combo upgrade for signing up.

Booster Juice- offers something free when you join Booster Nation but I am not entirely sure what it is yet. I can update when I receive the coupon in my email.

Orange Julius – offers a free smoothie or drink for your birthday when you join the Julius League. When you sign up for the Julius league, you are offered a BOGO coupon for a drink as well. It is good for 15 days before it “self destructs” lol

Menchies - I have not yet been to Menchies although I keep intending to go. lol They apparently offer free frozen yogurt up to 5.00 for your birthday. I believe you have to sign up for their Smilage program though which you do in store.

Swagbucks - 50 free swag bucks on your birthday. I am not sure though if this is automatic. I love swagbucks as I have got a lot of amazon money through them.

Marble Slab – a free cone with one mix in on your birthday. You do have to sign up for this one though. click here to sign up. I have gotten this for a couple years now and it is yummy although it is better if the weather is nice. For my birthday that can be a challenge as it is at the end of march when it can still quite easily be snowing. lol

Rickis - when you join Fashion + friends (free to join), you get special offers and a birthday offer sent to your email. I am not sure what it is though. I will be able to update after I receive it. Join Fashion + friends

Milestones – this one isn’t available for me because I don’t live near the 2 locations in Alberta but if you have one where you live, it is another one to consider. When you buy 3 entrees, you get the fourth one free. You need to sign up for this one which is free to join. click here to join.

The Comic Strip- if you live in Edmonton and sign up, you get a free ticket on your birthday. This would be kind of neat if you live in or around Edmonton. Click here to sign up.

The Sawmill – (Edmonton Alberta) – I have copied and pasted the info below.

THE SAWMILL BIRTHDAY CLUB

We wish to make your birthday the ultimate celebration!  By making a reservation for 4 or more people and joining us one week before or one week after the special guest’s birth date you will receive $25.00 off your guest cheque for dinner or $15.00 off during lunch.  4 or more regular priced entrees must be purchased.  Discount is applied through your Sawmill Loyalty Card therefore please include your birth date when registering your profile.

full details of the loyalty program here – Loyalty Club

That is the list so far! I have seen that Pizza Hut and IHop offer stuff too but I haven’t been able to confirm yet if they do and what it is. There are likely a ton more offers that I haven’t found yet as well but this is what I know of currently. I will update if I find more. You can also search yourself and let me know if you know of any I have missed. thanks for reading my blog! I hope you get to enjoy the benefits of your birthday!

 

A cute funky dancing bird-so funny

Hello again,

I saw this video on Facebook and it was so incredibly funny and I thought I should share it here as well as on my facebook wall. Something funny for a gloomy Wednesday morning to get us all smiling. If you are already smiling-it is still such a great video to watch. there are actually more videos of Frostie apparently as well taht I want to take a look at. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bt9xBuGWgw

 

Growing Sweet potato plants

Hello again,

In January I was reading through a book where I read that it is possible to grow sweet potato plants in Canada. I love sweet potato so this made me quite excited. I was under the impression that it was something that just doesn’t grow here (in Alberta) considering  the short growing season and cooler temperatures. But after reading this, I quickly got on the internet and googled growing sweet potatoes here in Canada to see what would come up. The plants can grow here but it requires a bit of extra work to ensure they make it. By extra work I mean that the plants will die if exposed to temperatures below +10 and they need at least 100 days above +10. I laughed because I thought this is going to be challenging given that Alberta normally gets nights over the summer below +10 and you can only really safely expect a couple of months of great growing weather. the rest of it is iffy. So am I crazy to try this? oh most likely. could it be fun? I am almost positive it will be no matter what the end result is. I love taking on a good challenge and experimenting with plants. I also have a few ideas to make it more possible.

First off, we have a greenhouse that already gets to about +15 (in March!) during the day but cools off to just a few degrees above what it is outside (which is below freezing). By the end of May though, it is usually easily +30 during the day and about +10-15 at night if I don’t open any windows and we don’t have any cold spells that can sometimes happen in May. then by July it is stifling hot and would likely get about +50 C if I didn’t open the windows and doors for ventilation. usually I open it up to keep it around +30 which is the best I can do. plants don’t do well in there over the summer because of the heat but I have read that sweet potatoes love heat which would be perfect use of the greenhouse. Hopefully I don’t cook them in there though. So the greenhouse effectively takes care of the heat issue and extending the growing season which I hope will be enough. If I am successful it is such a wonderful feeling. If not, I have lots of fun trying and you never know what you can do if you assume you can’t and don’t try right?

Second, where to find sweet potatoes to grow is the next issue to think about. I checked different places online to see if I can buy the slips and Vesseys does sell them but doesn’t ship till June due to the chance they might get cold. That is a bit late for me. So I decided to grow them myself. I read through many articles and watched many youtube videos on how to start your own sweet potato slips. Sweet potato plants come from slips which grow from the potato. They grow by placing the potato in water which I will show in photos below. You are apparently supposed to start this process in April but being an impatient person, I started them the end of January. lol This is probably actually going to turn out ok for me because it will probably give them a bit extra head start in our sun room.  Now I would like to share the photos of my experiment so far.

First off, I needed to find organic sweet potatoes that haven’t been treated with anything that inhibits growth on the potato. I found this bag of potatoes at Save On Foods and on sale to boot! The bag says yams in big letters but in smaller letters on the side it says they are sweet potatoes. They are called both yam and sweet potato which makes little sense to me but you can tell a real yam from a sweet potato quite easily.

Next I had to grow sweet potato slips to plant. You do this by taking a chunk of sweet potato and placing it suspended in a jar of water. I used tooth picks to hold it up as I saw done in a youtube video.

Next I had to wait for something to start growing. It started happening pretty quickly but it was roots first coming out of the bottom. Then the shoots started growing all over the sweet potato! This was quite exciting! The next picture was taken on March 4 just before I started pulling off some of the slips. You are supposed to wait till the slips are a few inches long before pulling them off.

After pulling off the slips, it is time to put them in water to get them to grow roots. this happens quite quickly and they root exceptionally well as you will see in the photo below.

slips in water to grow roots before planting

these roots only took a few days to grow!

planted sweet potato slips!

So far so good. I will try to keep people updated as I go along and hopefully in the end I will have something to show for it. If not, it was at least worth a try. I realize people may think I am crazy but I don’t mind. I am having fun which is what matters to me. thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I appreciate it.

 

New Favorite music

Hi again

I have recently found some new favorite music that I have on repeat often on my mp3 player that I want to share with you. I find my favorites change as I discover new artists and I go through different circumstances and I relate to different songs. Then there are songs I love to hear no matter what mood I am in. The music I am listing today is stuff that is new on my mp3 player and new favorites for me. Some are older songs that I have loved for awhile but have never purchased them before now but I am still listing them as new favorites because they are new on my player. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

The first song I want to share is one that I heard on the radio and I felt I needed that song because I loved it so much. It is by Kelly Clarkson and the title is Stronger. I also recently heard “Dark Side” and ”Catch My Breath” and felt the same way about them too. Especially Dark Side because I really relate to it. I think we are often afraid of people discovering our “dark side” and abandoning us.Anyways they are must haves on my playlist. The last one I want to mention is “People Like Us” I don’t know how I haven’t heard this one before but I absolutely love it. It’s like an anthem for all of us misfits.

I personally love Kelly Clarkson already and have favorites from her that I love to listen to. Some of my favorites from her: Because of You, Mr. Know It All, Already Gone, and Breakaway (a long time favorite). These are the ones that come to mind right now anyways.

The next artist I want to mention is Rob Thomas. I recently heard the song “This is how a Heart Breaks” and I love this song! I am not sure how I have never heard it before but I have now. I have other favorites from him as well.

Another artist I have recently really started listening to alot is Nickleback. Actually a couple specific songs are on my replay/repeat list. Those are “When We Stand Together” and ”Lullaby”.

The last ones I would like to mention are Francesca Battistelli ”Free To Be Me”, “I’m Letting Go” and Downhere “Living the Dream” (which I bought in December so it is sort of new )

There you have it-my new favorites. These join a very long list of favorites which is quite a long list that I might share sometime but not today. I hope you enjoy some of the songs I have listed and maybe discovered new favorites yourself. thanks for taking time to view my blog.

 

The tale of a rogue alarm clock

Hello again,

I suppose this tale isn’t so much about a rogue alarm clock as it is about a misbehaving one. I should probably mention first that I don’t always have the best relationship with technology despite the love I have for it. I sort of have to argue with it on occasion to make it work for me. Maybe make a few threats to show I mean business-you know what I mean right? I hope I am not hopelessly alone in this.

This story begins a couple weeks ago when my alarm clock decided that it would stop working. Maybe it was tired of being shut up when it woke me up and felt unappreciated or maybe it just got tired of going off every morning. Maybe it was annoyed because sometimes it did it’s job and I failed to wake up. It could have been tired of me pushing it’s buttons as well. What ever the case, my alarm clock went silent… no more music to wake me up. None. Not a peep or a beep.

At first I thought I was simply sleeping through it because I was so tired. I went to bed sooner and got more sleep. But I still seemed to be missing the music in the morning. So I checked the clock and discovered there was no sound. Huh. I wiggled the volume control, finally heard music again and I thought everything was good again. Yet I think my alarm clock had other plans because the next morning there was silence once again. No music. As a result, I overslept and was late to go somewhere. Of course I got mad at my alarm clock. I threatened to replace it if it didn’t start behaving. But the threats didn’t work like they sometimes do. My clock wouldn’t respond. Maybe it thought I wasn’t serious?

Each night I would wiggle the volume till it made noise in hopes that it would still work in the morning. Each morning my cat woke me up because I overslept and he was hungry. I am so thankful for my cat being my back up alarm. lol Then yesterday (Saturday) I finally had enough. I decided to follow through on my threat and I ordered a new alarm clock online. I laughed at my clock and told it that it has finally been replaced and I no longer require it’s unreliable services. Plus I rubbed in how wonderful this new model is with it’s temperature display and fancy dual alarm just for fun.

My clock did not appreciate being replaced and had other plans for me. I think it decided revenge is in order. As if to get back at me for replacing it, this morning it finally broke its silence and woke me up way earlier than I should have gotten up. I am not kidding. How does an alarm clock do that? It isn’t just alarm clocks, the printers have it in for me too. To be fair though, my alarm clock has been very faithful for a lot of years but it’s misbehavior has led me to question it and whether it will be there for me when I need it to be. After all, if it does this once, it can do it again right? Am I wrong to still replace it?

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope you had as much fun reading this post as I did in writing it. The events of this tale really did happen. The timing of the clock still really makes me laugh.