Running Into Joy

Today, I embarked on a journey I have long awaited and feared.  Today, I made my first cake roll.  As you may have noticed, I took last week off from baking. Originally I planned only to take weeks off between sections. Then, I got the opportunity to volunteer at (and attend) a local virtual writing conference. Rather than squeeze in the bake and make it feel like an unpleasant chore, I opted to wait on Week 12, instead.  Somehow, one week off felt like months.  I'd love to say I raced back in eagerly, but I'm in the midst of an occipital neuralgia pain flare so my level of enthusiasm in general is a little bit muted.  It doesn't help matters that Azula smacked the already affected side of my head with her bone, adding a bruise to my already painful head.  Still, I try not to let pain flares get too much in my way, especially when they go on for several days like this one has. I took some ibuprofen to help dull the pain, and got on with it. Grumpily.  ...

It's time for another installment of Things I've Been Enjoying Lately, where I generally round up what's been making the rounds in my personal self-care routine of late. The month of January went by quite slowly for me, and yet somehow I'm also surprised we're already in February.  As the weather shifts towards my least favorite form, at below 20 degrees Fahrenheit for several days in a row, I find myself hiding inside a bit less than in prior years, thanks to my energetic pup Azula, who still needs her morning walk every day. In spite of that, I feel called to cozy nights curled up under the blankets with a book or (increasingly) my Nintendo Switch.  Maybe it's just me, but as the "unprecedented" lack of access to many of my typical small joys stretches on, I sometimes reach the end of my workday without much of a sense of how to fill my evening hours. Here's a few of the things I've been up to recently to make the most of that recharge time. ...

 Happy Sunday, internet people!  This week has been a blur of exhaustion, with Battle of the Fandoms continuing, Andy being out of town, and Azula being her usual energetic self.  I am beyond grateful that Andy is home from his business trip and that I was able to approach my bake on Saturday as a little me-time. On with it then, shall we?  This Week's Recipe: Little Pink Rose Cakes Cookbook pictured is Great British Bake Off: At Home The Prep This week's ingredient in question: edible rose petals.  I am not generally a fan of floral flavors, so when I saw we'd be using rose in this week's bake, I got a little nervous. Then I realized most of the flavor is chocolate and raspberry, and the roses are a garnish. Since we're approaching Valentine's Day, I resisted my urge to skip them altogether and began a search for where I might buy edible rose petals.  My friend found some great local recommendations for me, but between having Azula duty and generally a bad...

Hello, internet people!  Remember that time back in July where I wrote a reading recap post and it seemed like I intended to make that a consistent feature of the blog, except then I didn't?  So, round two! I haven't been writing much about books of late with all the blog-off going on, so I figured I'd get back to writing mini book reviews for what I read each month. Hopefully it'll be a fun way to track my reading for the year and also give you some good book recommendations.  Without further ado, here is my reading recap for the month of January! (*Full disclosure, the title links in this list will take you to my Bookshop.org affiliate page. I may receive a small commission should you choose to purchase the book through this link).  A Woman is no Man by Etaf Rum Format: Hardcover (Book of the Month Edition) Why I Read It : Tacking my physical TBR stack  My first read of 2021 turned out to be a real winner. I'll admit it, I bought this book back in 2019 an...

Happy Sunday, Internet people!  I write to you from my couch, where I’m curled up next to Azula. She’s chewing her bone, and I’m nursing incredibly sore, tired legs.  In the Fandom Running Club , we are three days in to one of our virtual race events: Battle of the Fandoms. Divided into teams centered around different movies, books, TV shows, etc, we walk and run as many miles as possible to move our team along a virtual race course in the fantastic Racery platform. It’s fitting that I managed to secure a spot on the Great British Bake Off team, Running Choux. Each race course gives us a virtual tour of someplace new, and this time around, we’re in Greece! In the past 2 days, I’ve walked and run 17.8 miles, and boy am I feeling it! Today, I’m hoping to achieve what we call a “cap”—hitting the daily upwards limit of miles allowed per person: 15. But before I get moving, I owe you a recap of this week’s bake, which I managed to squeeze into my 10 mile day!  This Week’s Rec...

Happy Tuesday, internet people!  I know this post is coming to you a bit later than scheduled, but January has been, well.. a lot. The tension leading up to the presidential inauguration knotted up with continued exhaustion from the pandemic has underscored a slow start to the semester as students undergo entry testing, and I feel a bit like I'm floating outside of time.  In spite of having a three-day weekend to look forward, I reached Friday feeling utterly drained and lacking in enthusiasm. In spite of my low energy levels, I've continued with my New Year's fitness challenges of the Yoga With Adriene 30 Day Journey, Breath , and the PB21 program from Bad Yogi. This leaves my body feeling sore and strong, intermittently and sometimes simultaneously.  Last week, I also added in the beginning of training for the BadassLadyGang winter racing series , which sounds like a lot but I promise you they all fit together more neatly than you'd think with the staggered start dat...