Tag: happiness

Sunday Post | Kitchen Not So Confidential

Posted April 13, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 28 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

Kitchen Not So Confidential

There’s been a lot of cooking this past week. There’s no special occasion or anything, I just felt like it and had the time, and maybe I’m also enjoying the cleaner kitchen and want to take advantage of that.

I made Butter Prawns, some random soups with everything thrown in, Braised Pork Belly with hard boiled eggs, napa cabbage stir fry, and other stuff I didn’t take pictures of. I’ve been eating well but I’m not sure if I can keep this up! I should probably try to get better at taking food pictures if I do!

I’ve finished watching 911: Lone Star and I was going to start watching the original 911, but a couple of other shows caught my eye so I’ll probably alternate when I have time. I started watching Renegade Nell on my own and I’m quite enjoying it even though I’m still not sure what the end game is and why Nell is special. My husband and I are watching Fallout together. Neither of us play the game but that’s not going to stop us enjoying the show. We’re only on the third episode at the moment. I’m really loving Lucy’s character. Not too sure about Maximus.

The weather has also been pretty nice and we took some walks around the neighborhood. That made me very happy and I hope the weather keeps getting better and we get to take more walks. It’s supposed to snow again later this week but I won’t mind it too much as long as I get to walk outside a little more.

All the happy things:

  1. All the food!
  2. The walks and the warmer weather!
  3. I bought a couple of organizers to organize my sticker collection and I love them!
  4. I bought a few skeins of yarn I’m excited to use, soon!
  5. Had a nice chat with a friend who made me feel encouraged about things I’ve been wanting to do
  6. Got started on organizing my closet

The Books

Books I read last week:

  1. Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett – I’m so happy I finally finished this book! I’ve been anticipating it so much. I think I like the characters we meet in the first book more than the ones here, but I like them too, and I’m glad we were able to see more of Poe. I’m looking forward to the next book too!
  2. Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree – Another one I’ve been anticipating. I loved the first book, and I love this one too! I love that it’s so much more about bookshops and books. And I love Viv as ever. She’s someone I’d love to be friends with, and I love how her character is written so well that you just feel drawn to her the same way the people in the book are drawn to her.

Books I’m (still) reading:

  1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – I meant to finish the rest of this book but was distracted by another audiobook. Plus the next check-in is still some weeks away so I’ve got time!
  2. Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent – I’m 65% in and enjoying it very much! I promise I’ll get back to The Count of Monte Cristo after I finish this!

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I’ll finish up my audiobooks of Daughter of No Worlds and The Count of Monte Cristo, and I’m starting a buddy read for The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden this week. If I can make it, I’d like to get started on The Kite Runner for my in-person book club before the week is out.

I’m also hoping to get caught up on my book reviews and update my books read on Goodreads and The Storygraph.

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Sunday Post | Spring Cleaning, Sorta

Posted March 30, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 21 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

Spring Cleaning, Sorta

I cannot believe it’s the end of March already! Where did the month go? I feel like I didn’t get much done this month, and I didn’t get a lot of books read either.

It’s the first week of Spring Break, and I’ve been taking it as an opportunity to do a little spring cleaning. See, when I imagined it in my head, I was all super-powered and I was able to clean and organize the whole house to make it look like one of those model homes. The reality though… I cleaned my kitchen. Only the kitchen. Ah well, better than nothing.

In regards to the weather, since everyone’s invested now; the beginning of the week started out promising. There was still snow on the ground but it was melting and the weather was getting warmer. Cut to Friday, and it’s snowing again. A lot.

Sigh… I am resigned to my fate and I have decided to embrace it.

All the happy things:

  1. I got the kitchen cleaned and somewhat organized!
  2. I signed up for a few buddy reads on my online book club, and I’m excited about those books!
  3. A friend from the USA may be visiting for a couple of days in May, and I’m excited to see her!
  4. My in-person book club met for the second time, and we had a great discussion about our book of the month, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.
  5. We are talking about a road trip for the summer! Nothing’s confirmed, but it makes me happy to have that possibility.

The Books

Books I read last week:

  1. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell – It took me the whole week to read this one. It’s dense, and a little bleak, but it’s really good and there’s so much to think about. This one took up a lot of my time and energy, so I didn’t get to read a lot of other books last week, but it’s for my book club and I’m glad I read it. I haven’t written a review because I wanted to have our book club discussion first, which happened this morning (at the time of writing). I’ll write a review soon!
  2. Bear by Marian Engel – This was a sort of gag buddy read for my online book club. It’s short and I managed to finish it in a couple of hours. It’s…interesting. Weird, confusing, and I’m still waiting on others to read it so we can talk about it.

Books I’m (still) reading:

  1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – The readalong is ongoing and the next check-in is Saturday. We’re reading Chapters 60-86 for this check-in. I’m currently at Ch 78.
  2. Blitz by Daniel O’Malley – I stopped at Chapter 19 (of about 30?) because the audiobook had expired and had to be returned. I have the physical book, so I’ll probably continue with it instead of waiting for the audiobook.
  3. A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal – I just started this as a buddy read! I’m only a couple of chapters in.

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I’d like to finish Blitz and A Tempest of Tea this week. I’m losing a bit of momentum on Blitz to be honest, and I’m contemplating dnf-ing it. It’s not bad though, I’m enjoying the story, it’s just that I’m itching to read other lighter books at the moment, and there have been too many dense ones.

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Sunday Post | You Know Nothing, Spring Snow

Posted March 23, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 26 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

You Know Nothing, Spring Snow

I am not happy that it’s snowing again, I just want to get that out of the way. I can’t believe how much I talk about and fixate on the weather, but I wouldn’t if it would only do what I want! Or maybe it’s time for me to toughen up and get friendly with Canadian weather.

One good thing about cold weather is having soups to warm you up! My husband made Bak Kut Teh and it was soooo good. The picture below is not the actual dish he made. I was too hungry and we weren’t thinking of plating for aesthetic purposes so we didn’t take pictures. It’s just a random picture taken off the internet for illustration purposes only.

Bak Kut Teh is a Chinese herbal pork soup/stew that’s sweet and savory. The main focus of it is the pork, but we often add tofu, different kinds of mushrooms, some vegetables, and we usually eat it with rice and garlic in soy sauce. The garlic is the best part for me!

I’ve often wondered if a vampire gave me the choice of eternal life but I’d have to give up garlic forever, would I do it? Such a dilemma; garlic vs. eternal life. What would you choose? 🧄or🧛‍♀️

On my husband reading The Count of Monte Cristo, he managed five chapters and decided it was too verbose for him right now, so he’s putting it aside. I can’t say I blame him; I tend to skip flowery descriptions most of the time and just focus on important events that happen in the book, but he likes to pay attention to details and there were just so much here.

On the bright side, he’s still open to taking recommendations from me and reading the books I love! He’s on The Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher right now, because it’s the only one currently available from the library, but I hope to get him on the other Kingfisher books as well.

Unfortunately, a couple of days ago I somehow sprained my right shoulder. It hurts to move it or to spend too much time on the computer – I think because of the height of the table and the way my arm/elbow rests on the table and the position when using the mouse, so I have to take frequent breaks. Thank goodness I did most of my blog posts earlier in the week! I’ve been trying to rest it more, but it seems to be hurting more today than when it started. Hopefully it will get better soon.

All the happy things:

  1. I got more blog posts than usual up last week! A few reviews, and other fun memes.
  2. I finally got caught up with updating my books read on Goodreads and The Story Graph.
  3. My husband and I had a really fun night dancing and singing to music while he made Bak Kut Teh.
  4. The fact that he made Bak Kut Teh!
  5. I bought some new stickers for my journal!
  6. Tax is all done!
  7. My library had a webinar with Madeline Miller : On Retelling Greek Classics: An Exploration of the Modern Epics with Madeline Miller. We’re encouraged to share the link to the replay, so here it is if you’re interested.
  8. We watched The Greatest Night in Pop, and it was so amazing to see how it all came about. I loved it!

Books I read last week:

I did not finish a single book last week but I did finish a short story that Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl highly recommended; Signal Moon by Kate Quinn.

From the title and cover, I thought it might be some futuristic scifi story, but it wasn’t what I expected at all. I’d say it’s more of a historical fiction with paranormal elements, and I loved it. It’s short and sweet, and I thought it was perfect on its own, but it also made me really want to read Kate Quinn’s other books. I’ve never read any of her books before and I need to remedy that.

Other than that, I’ve been reading a few books;
The Count of Monte Cristo is still ongoing – the timeline is until the end of April and we have multiple check-ins,
Blitz by Daniel O’Malley – the final book in the Checquy Files, and
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell – for my book club discussion next week.

They are all relatively thicker/denser books, so I can’t just breeze through them. I’ve been wanting to take a break and read something light, but I also feel like I don’t want to add another story into my mental space until I’ve finished at least one of these. I’ll probably take some time this weekend to make a dent in one or two of them.

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

Working on Blitz, The Sparrow, and The Count of Monte Cristo!

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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Sunday Post | Good Food, Good Week

Posted March 16, 2024 by Haze in Sunday Post, Weekly Book Memes / 28 Comments

Welcome to the Sunday Post, a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer to share weekly news and updates on what we’ve been up to on our blog, with our books, and book-related happenings. 

Good Food, Good Week

I made dim sum from scratch last week! I made a bunch of siu mai and crispy wontons and they were delicious. My husband made stewed pork hock too for the first time and it was pretty good. There was no special occasion except to feed our cravings. It might have backfired because now I’m craving them even more!

I know the pictures are kind of brown, but we made veggie dishes too; we had steamed okra and shiitake mushrooms, I just didn’t take pictures of them because I was more excited about these ones! I’ll be sure to take better pictures next time.

We watched a couple of movies; Argylle and Ricky Stanicky. They were both really cheesy, but just so much fun! And coincidentally, John Cena acts in both of them. I promise we didn’t watch either shows just because of him, but his performance on Ricky Stanicky was really something. I especially loved him in his Britney Spears costume!

I am also taking a page out of several blogs I’ve seen do this happiness/gratitude list thing. I haven’t been mindful about all the good things happening in my life, so I’d like to start incorporating it into my weekly updates.

All the happy things:

  1. My husband finished The Storyteller by Dave Grohl! I’m so happy and I loved that we got to discuss it together!
  2. He asked for recommendations for his next book, and I said The Count of Monte Cristo, and he’s actually willing to give it a try! I’m so excited for him! And for me because then I’ll get to talk about it with him!
  3. We took a walk around the neighborhood because the weather was nice.
  4. I had some chocolate this week! Yum!
  5. My online bookclub is doing a readalong for The Count of Monte Cristo; we had a midpoint discussion for the book yesterday and it was fun!
  6. I made cookies!

Books I read last week:

I finished The Bodyguard by Katherine Center in two days! Yayy! So it did kind of get me out of my slump, and then I started reading The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo next. It completely lived up to expectations and more. I loved the story so much! I haven’t written reviews for either of these books yet, but I’ll do it soon!

The Count of Monte Cristo is ongoing because of the readalong, and I’m enjoying it more because of hearing other readers’ thoughts. I am also really enjoying Canadian Boyfriend by Jenny Holiday right now. As of this writing I am 72% in, but I’m sure that by the time you read this, I’d have finish the book because I fully intend on going back to reading it after I finish writing this post!

Last Week on The Blog

This Week

I have the final book in The Checquy Files, Blitz by Daniel O’Malley, ready for me on audiobook, so I’ll be reading that. I also intend to start The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell before the end of the week for my book club’s BOTM.

How was your week? I hope you had a great week last week, and I hope you have a great one again this week!

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