Thankful Thursdays #38 – March 18th, 2021

This is one of my favourite posts to write about. I love expressing gratitude, and sharing with everyone what I am thankful for throughout my life.

I would love to hear what everyone is thankful for, as well.

  1. I am thankful that I was able to say goodbye to my Papa, before he had passed away, and during his funeral. I know in most countries that people weren’t able to have a funeral because of Covid-19 protocols. My sister and I talked to my uncle who was visiting his Dad, and we talked to him via FaceTime. It wasn’t how I had wished to say goodbye to him, but I am thankful that I was able to say goodbye to him. I was able to thank my Grandpa for all of the memories, and love he gave to me.
  2. As I looked back I realize how lucky I was to have all of these years with my Grandpa. I know a lot of people from my school, and others growing up with, they didn’t get to have as many years as I did with my Grandpa.
  3. My family and I haven’t been able to see each other since Christmas of 2019, but we able to see each other from a distance during the funeral. That was bittersweet.
  4. When I was with my niece the other day, she was listening to music, and one them had said, “I love you”, and I heard her say that to me for the first time. She even looked away from her iPad, and said that to my face. So precious!
  5. I am thankful that I am able to find comfort of the loss with my books. I had a bit of a reading slump for a little while.
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Caramel Shortbread Latte

This is one of my favourite Christmas lattes. I like to save some so I can have throughout the year. It’s so creamy and rich. I love it so much. I have so many mugs, that I have to rotate them throughout the seasons, and soon it’s almost time to put away my Christmas and Winter mugs and bring out my spring and summer mugs! I thought I would enjoy it in my cozy sweater mug.

This is an herbal tea. I enjoy it so much, I wish I could order it all year round.

Ceremonial Matcha

Every Tuesday, I like to dedicate a post to Tea Tuesdays. I love tea, so I enjoy writing and sharing photos with everyone about my tea obsession.

Today, my boyfriend and I had Ceremonial Matcha, which was one of our Christmas presents from last year. It was an interesting matcha. This one is more of a natural matcha, and as of lately, we have been enjoying flavoured matcha, so it ta\sted a bit bitter for my liking. I think I am going to have the rest, by mixing it in my flavoured matcha.

My boyfriend and I had this a hot latte, with our matching mugs. Well, same design, but different colour mugs. Mine is the pink, and his is green. These are our matcha mugs.

Matcha is super healthy for you, since it comes from a whole green leaf, so you get more antioxidants from the leaves. It is finely grinded green leaves that is made up of a powder from Japan.

Up! – Shania Twain

I love representing my Canadian girls! One of my favourite singers is Shania Twain. I remember my parents bought me a Shania Twain CD for Christmas. I was so happy! I love listening to her music. I remember begging my parents to play that CD in their car. So I thought it would be perfect to include her for Music Mondays.

The song that I picked for Shania Twain is Up!, it is about learning to remain positive after something bad has happened to you. Shania is telling us that things can only go up from here.

“When everything is goin’ wrong
Don’t worry, it won’t last for long
Yeah, it’s all gonna come around
Don’t go let it get you down
You gotta keep on holding on”

-Shania Twain, Up!

Thankful Thursdays #29 – January 14th, 2021

I cannot believe how fast January is moving on by. It feels like it is just going by too fast.

I love writing and talking about what I am thankful for. I feel like I have a lot to thankful for. Here is a list of things that I am thankful for. I would love to hear what you are all thankful for.

  1. I got to unwind last weekend, by watching all of the football games. I love watching football! It’s one my favourite sports to watch. Although I am sad, because it is almost the off season again.
  2. I got to babysit my niece. Her and I always have a lot of fun together. I love her so much.
  3. She got a plastic musical tea set for Christmas, so her and I had a mini “tea” party. She is almost two, so it was all pretend, but it was still fun. The plastic set also comes with pieces of cake, and plates.
  4. It was a nice enough day so I was able to take her to the park. She loved it.
  5. My boyfriend and I have been enjoying our home cooked meals since we have been cutting back on take out. And cooking is a lot of fun. I have been cooking in the crock pot, which means I cook and prepare in the mornings, and don’t have a lot of dishes to do later in the evening.

Holidaze

How to clean up from Christmas. Every year we find ourselves all stressed out, in a mess from all of the extra stuff we got. And sometimes, not to sound ungrateful, we don’t need all of these things.

But here are some simple solutions to help you out. Although some of these tips would have been helpful last week. But that’s okay, we can still fix this. And some of these tips help out with every day lives.

These tasks may seem daunting at first, but it really shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes, which is probably the length of your TV show.

Clean Your House as Much as You Can Before Leaving

Whenever you leave the house to go to a family gathering, especially those where you know you will be accepting gifts.

Sort Each Gift Bag

Once you come back from the event, you can bring to go through each bag. Perhaps you have gotten a duplicate, you can always give it back to another person, where you know they would appreciate it, too. Although please don’t give it back to the person who originally got it for you. Or perhaps you don’t like a gift. You can always donate it, too.

Assign a Home For Every Object

Keep like items together. Put books on the bookshelf, or on a coffee table, or a desk, because maybe you want to read it right away.

Sweep and Mop

Once you have finished a good sweep and mop will be a good idea. Or even a vacuum for all of the glitter from the gift bags.

Relax

Sit back and relax, reward yourself with a book, or a TV show.

How to Have a Merry but Stress Less Christmas

I know this is a bit late. But I know they are some people out there that start Christmas shopping right after Christmas, for the sales, and whatever else. Shopping is an addiction. I hope this helps other have a more cheerful Christmas with less stress, and more money in your pockets. These ideas can be applied to birthday presents, too.

Everyone knows how stressful Christmas can be. And yet, everyone we swear next year will be different, it will be less stressful. But the cycle just continues and things become more extravagant than the year prior.

If you are sort of in a holidaze from the stress, or from the mess of Christmas. I have solutions for you!

Cut Back on Gift Giving

Instead of going into thousands of dollars in debt, like some do. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can have a family discussion via Zoom, or Skype, depending on your restrictions. What I am trying to do is keep it simple as possible, but still enjoyable for others.

Buy them the following;

  • Something they want
  • Something they need
  • Something to wear
  • Something to read

That way you just only need to buy four things for everyone, instead of your typical pile of gifts. This is a good solution if you are looking for ways to cut back on buying some many presents for everyone.

Or another solution is to have everyone pitch in money for one big present.

Cut Back On Presents

Or perhaps you want to cut back on presents completely. That way you just enjoy each other’s company. Perhaps it has become too much hauling all of these presents to peoples’ houses. Or maybe you just don’t want to buy people actual presents, and objects. Then perhaps an idea for you would be to give people an experience. I hope things are different next year, where more things are more available for us to do.

Some ideas of experiences are,

  • Concert tickets
  • Movie/Plays/Stand up comedy, etc.
  • Spa Outing
  • Wine tasting (depending on the age of the recipient)
  • Other festivals if they are too young, or don’t drink

Give Others Your Time

Another solution is to give others your time, it’s free!

Perhaps you can offer a sibling, or a friend, or a neighbour a night off from their kids, so they can enjoy a night out. Or perhaps you know how to cook this delicious meal, you can teach someone else to make it. Or you know how to crochet, or knit, you can always offer to teach someone else how to do that.

By cutting back on giving out presents you don’t have to wrap any presents, which is a plus, too. Less work to do. And it also helps the environment, since most places don’t allow wrapping paper to be recycled, so all of that just ends up in a landfill. If you are still handing out gifts, perhaps you can use dish clothes, or scarves, or a blanket, instead.

Secret Santa

Secret Santa is when you put names in a hat, and you secretly place names of everyone in the group. Each person pulls out a name from the hat. That is who they are supposed to shop for. You would have a discussed budget, of how much money you want to spend, and you have to stay under that amount. You can discuss some things you would like to receive for Christmas, and your Secret Santa will buy you some of those things for you.

Don’t be a Michael Scott

I don’t know how many of you watch The Office, but there was this one Christmas episode, where they did Secret Santa, they had a $20 limit. Michael bought a $400 iPod, and got mad because Phyllis was Michael’s Secret Santa, and she knitted him an oven mitt. Please don’t be that guy that overspends on Christmas, especially when you know this person doesn’t have a lot of money. You don’t want the other person to feel bad that you didn’t get as many presents as much as you had given them.

Respect Their Wishes

Sometimes people say they don’t want any gifts. Please know they really mean no gifts. Some people realize they are already happy with everything they already have, and would not have someone go out and spend money on them. There is no secret language to “No gifts”, that isn’t their way to trick you, and making you wonder if they actually mean. Or if it means they just “don’t know yet”. If someone tells you no gifts, please honour their wish.

Shoe Box Ideas

I just heard of this idea not too long ago. You can fill a shoe box, filled with envelopes with different gift cards to different occasions for each month. You can only open an envelope on the first day of the month, and you make plans sometime throughout the month to do that activity. This works great for children, because they get the activity and the anticipation of not knowing which adventure they will be partaking in. I think that is an amazing idea. And if you can’t afford to buy all of the gift cards at once, you can just write a letter and letting them about each activity. That way you just have to budget this in once a month, instead of having to come up with x amount of money before Christmas.

Or another idea is that you can ask other people for money, or ask for mini hygiene products, and perhaps a backpack they no longer use (but it’s still in good condition). You can fill up a backpack with toothbrushes, toothpaste, money, shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, etc. You can give this to a homeless person, or to a shelter. I suggest using the traveler size of things, so it is easier for them to carry around, and you can fit more stuff in the bag.

Christmas doesn’t have to cost a fortune to be memorable. Christmas is about helping others, spread love, and happiness. We should begin to refrain ourselves from the commercialization, that we have suddenly allowed to be the norm of Christmas.

Thankful Thursdays #27 – December 31st, 2020

I cannot believe this is the last Thankful Thursday of the year. But don’t worry I will definitely keep on posting this every Thursday in the new year. I really enjoy writing these posts.

I have a lot to be grateful for this week. I would love to hear about what everyone is grateful this week, and even throughout the year, too.

Here is my list.

  1. I had a lovely Christmas. My roommate made us steaks and baked potatoes, with a Caesar salad. It was really delicious. It was a fun night considering we couldn’t really see our families with the new restrictions.
  2. Disney+ released a new movie called Soul, it was an amazing film. It’s about discovering your purpose in your life. I loved watching that movie. I feel extra inspired to start the year off with having watched that movie. I can’t wait to watch the new series on Netflix called Bridgerton. Especially since Shonda Rhimes produced the show. It is based off a book series.
  3. My boyfriend and I enjoyed four days of watching football. It was even better, because our team won.
  4. I briefly saw my family for an exchange outside of our house, maintaining our distance from one another. I got a bunch of cool stuff, stuff I needed like body wash, a candle, money, and gift cards.
  5. Our room is all clean for the new year’s arrival. That is always exciting. 🙂

Candy Cane Matcha Iced Latte

Here is another post for Tea Tuesdays.

My sister-in-law bought my boyfriend and I this cool matcha kit for Christmas. It comes with the whisk, and a bowl to whisk the powder. We already have a bowl, and whisk set, but I am still happy that we have another. Now my boyfriend and I can make our own matcha together. She also got us a set of four stackable mugs, which are really cool. I’ll for sure post photos in an upcoming post.

Here is our matcha bowl.

The matcha tea I picked was Candy Cane, which shockingly I haven’t had any this whole season yet. I was saving it since I didn’t have much left.

First thing I did was I began boiling the kettle. While the kettle was boiling, I measured my matcha powder into the bowl.

I added some ice cubes to my mug. I used my cozy sweater mug, because that one is my favourite one.

Next, I poured the boiling water over the powder to form a liquid.

I began whisking the liquid to ensure everything dissolved properly.

Whilst I was whisking to make it frothy, I let my eggnog frothed in my milk frother.

Once finished, I poured my matcha tea over the ice cubes, topped off with my frothed eggnog.

It was delicious! 🙂

Day 187 of 192

Hey, sorry I’ve been in a bit of a holidaze, as some might call it. But here I am. I hope everyone had a festive and safe holiday.

This item is from Saturday, as I am a bit behind with my posts.

I haven’t worn these socks in awhile. I thought they were cool, but now I see them as ineffective, design wise, because no one can see the cute reindeer. Instead they just look like a regular pair of brown socks. So, perhaps someone can enjoy these socks more than I do.