By Golly, Ollie!

  • Five January Favorites

    Five January Favorites

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    The first month of the Roaring Twenties is over! And so soon, too. It usually seems like January drags by, but I don’t even know where this month went. Hopefully, that won’t become a mantra for this year– I don’t even know where this month went.

    January was a cold and soggy month filled with ice and snowstorms and perhaps going a little stir crazy so even spending the afternoon grocery shopping sounded fun. But, not everything in January was so dreary. It’s always good to take a moment to reflect on all of the positives, so here are my Five January Favorites:

    Discovering the Great Start Parent Coalition

    I said I wanted to both explore in 2020 and find new experiences to bring enrichment to Oliver’s days, and I discovered a wonderful program– the Great Start Parent Coalition, which provides a plethora of resources to families in the community.

    There will always be this thought badgering me about whether or not being a work-at-home-mom was the best decision for Oliver. I often feel selfish for keeping him home with me, and I feel like being in daycare, at least at his current age, would provide him more enrichment and definitely more socialization. Lately, I have been considering enrolling him in a morning program two or three times a week so he has the opportunity to be around other children more, and also so I can have a few hours of uninterrupted work without all the mom guilt associated with not giving him my undivided attention. But, until I finally make that decision, I have the Great Start Parent Coalition and their biweekly play dates to break up the week.

    I’m not sure if this is something Great Start does in the summer, but at least in the winter, kids from infants to five years old meet up every other week on a giant indoor soccer field and run around like little maniacs. Oliver loved his first play date, and we are eagerly waiting to go back next week.

    Watching Oliver Turn into a Tiny Human

    One of the reasons I love staying home with Oliver is I get to watch him accomplish new things. This January, he learned how to point to his belly button, ears, nose, teeth, and head. He jumped for the first time, and he loves to stomp his feet. He is obsessed with climbing steps (with mom right behind him, of course). And he knows how to hiss like a snake, growl like a lion, and quack like a duck!

    Family Dinners

    Every Parenting 101 book emphasizes the importance of family dinners, but we have been without a kitchen table ever since Jon and I moved into the house three years ago. We’ve spent the last year hovering around Oliver’s highchair and the kitchen counters while eating, but we finally bought a kitchen table.

    It feels like the family dynamic shifted the first day we sat down to dinner together. We were forced to tune into each other, and it was great. I think Oliver appreciated that we were finally sitting at his level too because he just kept whipping his head back and forth to look and Jon and I, and he had this huge smile on his face.

    #TeaMail

    Japanese Green Tea Co.
    CraftedLeaf Teas
    Plum Deluxe
    Matcha Life Co.
    white2tea
    white2tea
    Esteas

    I think I received packages every week with tea-related goodies. Some of them were sent for review (thank you Japanese Green Tea Co., Esteas, and Plum Deluxe). Some were sent to test the interest in a new subscription service, like the Adagio communiTea. And some I purchased because I wanted to step out of my comfort zone; I wanted to explore more single-origin teas and new steeping styles. I am so excited to dig into all of it though.

    The Burgeoning Desire to Create

    This really started back in December when I overhauled my blog, but I haven’t stopped since. Granted, I took a break from blogging last week, but in my defense, I was filming, editing, and posting a daily YouTube video! I have also made it a point to post daily over on Instagram, and I’m just really loving the tea community over there right now. I’m learning and discovering so much!

    Honorable Mentions

    Visits from family. Re-establishing my 8 glasses of water routine. Finally tackling the stairs which became shelves at the end of my pregnancy. Destroying Jon in a game of Rummikub…twice. Finishing the Flatshare by Beth O’Leary. Amy’s Black Bean Burritos. The library, always the library.

    How was your January? Share with me in the comments!

  • Five Picture Books We Have Read for the 500th Time This Week

    Five Picture Books We Have Read for the 500th Time This Week

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    Oliver is sick. Again. Which means I am too. This also means Oliver only wants mom-and-dad-snuggles and comfort reads despite a teetering stack of library books we borrowed over the weekend. Here are five favorites that we are re-reading this week for the…well, I’ve lost count, really…

    Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada by Jimmy Fallon, illustrated by Miguel Ordonez

    Oliver’s first word was “dada” despite my efforts to make “mama” his first word. Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada explains to me exactly how it happened! It shows animal dads try to teach their animal children how to say “dada”.

    It’s funny, I was on Goodreads to capture the link for this book, and I found myself in the comments section. This is such a polarizing book, I suspect because of the star power behind it. It’s always amusing to read comments and reviews from people who are not the intended audience. This book caught so much grief for being “boring”. I bought this book during Oliver’s infant days, but he seems to appreciate much more at 15 months. We read this book (and Everything is Mama) almost daily. There isn’t too much to this story– the text is almost entirely the word “dada” and animal sounds. But, simple and repetitive with bold illustrations are important none-the-less for developing minds! (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, illustrated by Jill McElmurry

    When a dump truck, who believes he’s too important for the countryside animals, gets stuck in the mud, Little Blue Truck is the only one willing to help. Until he gets stuck too! Little Blue Truck, a story about the power of friendship, features wonderful rhyme and rhythm, truck sounds, and animal sounds. Oliver was hooked from the first time I read this story to him. Our collection of Little Blue Truck stories has since grown. (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    Hooray for Hat by Brian Won

    When Elephant wakes up, he is very grumpy until he discovers a surprise package on his doorstep. When he opens the box, the gift inside brightens his day, and he cannot resist sharing with his friends. This story is all about sharing, and how giving gifts to a friend can sometimes feel better than receiving a gift for yourself. (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood

    This is a favorite story from my childhood, that Oliver loves now, too. An unseen narrator scares a little mouse into sharing his strawberry by convincing him that a big hungry bear is going to STOMP STOMP STOMP through the forest to find the freshly picked strawberry. The story and illustrations are the cutest! (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    I Love All of Me by Lorie Ann Grover, illustrated by Carolina Buizo

    I Love All of Me is a recent addition to our personal library, but it quickly became Oliver’s favorite. The story celebrates loving their whole selves from wiggle toes to waggle rumps! Pointing to the parts of the body as we read along makes this book even more fun. The cherry on top? I add a creative spin at the end by saying “I love olive-you, Oliv-er!”, and Oliver crawls up to me and gives me a BIG BEAR HUG. It melts my heart. (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    What stories do your little ones find irresistible?

  • Five Books that Teach Colors We Are Reading

    Five Books that Teach Colors We Are Reading

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    Before Oliver, my experience with little kids was essentially ZILCH, and that’s being generous and rounding up. So, I’m always researching child development and monthly milestones, which to be honest, causes a lot of anxiety because from what I can tell, I’m doing everything absolutely wrong. However, I read recently that even if they cannot communicate it well, children start understanding different colors around 18-months old, which is right around the corner for Oliver. Of course, I couldn’t resist finding books that focus on color, so here are five books that teach color we are reading:

    Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman

    I don’t know about you, but in our household, stories featuring woodland creatures are always a hit. Bear and Mouse explore the woods and meet their friends along the way. Each page is dedicated to one color, and children are invited to seek out things in the picture that are certain colors. (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle

    Can any list about learning colors be complete without this classic?! Simple sentence and big, colorful pictures of animals entrance Oliver. We’ve been reading this one since he was born. (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    Mixed: a Colorful Story by Aree Chung

    Reds, Yellows, and Blues used to get along until Reds started shouting that they were the best. Then, their community becomes divided until one day and Blue and Yellow fall in love and mix. This is one part story that teaches colors and one part analogy about the importance of diversity in the community. (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

    When Duncan goes to retrieve his crayons, he finds instead a letter from his colorful pals informing him they have quit because they are tired of only being used to color wheat, or they are exhausted from coloring massive grey animals like elephants and rhinos. This is such a cute story, and any book that features illustrations by Oliver Jeffers is a must-read. (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin

    The only thing monsters like more than colors is to scribble, scribble, mix, dance, and wiggle to come up with new colors for their grey monster pals. This book also associates color with more abstract ideas, like “Red is the color of ROAR and SNORE and more, More, MORE!” We will be purchasing this one next time we go to a book store because it is Oliver’s new favorite book. I have to read this at least four times a day. (Goodreads | Indiebound)

    What are some of your favorite books that teach colors?

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  • Word of the Year: Explore

    Word of the Year: Explore

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    I have had this thought in the back of my mind nagging me for the past couple of weeks. I hoped I could just keep it buried there amongst forgotten To-Do Lists, knowledge only suitable for trivia games, and abandoned dreams, but it keeps bubbling up to the surface during the quiet moments of my day, begging me to address it. Lately, I have read a lot of posts about embracing a word of the year. It’s one little word that embodies how you want to move forward (or perhaps slow down and stand still) in the new year, and I realized, I have a word that needs to be embraced too.

    Explore (verb)

    1. to travel to a new place to learn about it or become familiar with it
    2. to search and discover; learn about
    3. to think and talk about something to find more about it

    There have been small signs popping up around By Golly, Ollie! that “explore” is meant to be my word of intent for 2020. I write about diving deeper down the rabbit hole of tea and finding ways to bring more enrichment into family life in my 2020 Resolutions post. I write about experimenting with writing what makes me happy in Silencing the Internal Pressure to be the Blogger I’m Not. I even mention in my sidebar that one purpose of this blog is to reflect on personal rediscovery one cup of tea at a time (which, btw, I’m drinking a cup of Gyokuro right now).

    But, “explore” is a scary word for an introvert like me. First of all, it’s a verb, an action word, and most days I’m perfectly content curling up on the couch with a cup of tea and watching Netflix, thankyouverymuch. Second, it’s one of those words that challenge me to be present in the world when it feels safer and more comfortable being hidden away. I’m not meant to be hidden away though. As much as the hermit inside tries to convince me I am, I know in my core that I am supposed to exist out there, shiny and effervescent and vibrant. I mean seriously, my star sign is a Leo. I’m not meant to be caged; I gotta stretch these gams!

    So 2020 is the year of exploration. A year of exploring tea. A year of exploring writing. A year of finally exploring my community. A year of exploring activities and playgroups to bring enrichment to Oliver’s life. A year of exploring who I am becoming.

    Do you embrace a word of the year or a word of intent? Tell me about it in the comments! If you haven’t embraced a word, join me in exploration!

  • 20 Things I’m Really Doing During Social Media Hiatuses

    20 Things I’m Really Doing During Social Media Hiatuses

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    I recently wrote a post about Silencing the Internal Pressure to Be the Blogger I’m Not, and that wasn’t even the article I set out to write that day. I planned to sit down and write this slightly self-deprecating list of all of the things I do instead of work on my blog, create new videos, or post to Instagram:

    1. Drink coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. That way, I definitely cannot write about/film videos/take pictures of tea.

    2. Borrow a bunch of books from the library, and then I proceed to binge-watch the Office again because, you know, it’s been a few months since I watched it.

    3. Change my layout.

    4. Stare at my phone with a finger hovering over the Instagram icon, debating internally whether to open the app before ultimately setting it down and walking away to rummage around in the fridge, because nothing is more distracting than eating food when you’re not really hungry.

    5. Open the Youtube Creators app and then quickly close it before it finishes loading because I don’t want to see how many subscribers I’ve lost.

    6. Brainstorm my way through a blog branding workbook before realizing everything I wrote down is exactly the same as the last three times I brainstormed my way through a blog branding workbook. (My ideal audience is always “me”).

    7. Change my layout.

    8. Try to do Twitter again. Like, why am I so bad at it?

    9. Have a sudden bolt of inspiration to launch a new blog, as if that were the answer to my inability to sit in a chair and write.

    10. Proceed to brainstorm my way through another blog branding workbook for the new blog only to realize it’s still the exact same as the blog branding workbook for Books & Tea By Golly, Ollie!, just with different fonts. (Also, my ideal reader is still “me”).

    11. Give up on the new blog and finally sit down and hand-write a long list of blog post ideas.

    12. Type up a hand-written list of blog post ideas onto Trello cards.

    13. Change my layout.

    14. Move all of my bloglovin’ subscriptions to a Feedr account.

    15. Decide I don’t like Feedr that much either, and move all of my subscriptions to my Feedly about.

    16. Binge read blog posts but don’t comment because I don’t want someone to click through and see that I haven’t posted in two months.

    17. Type up a blog post and let it sit in drafts for a month before ultimately scrapping it because it’s not as good as I thought it was the day I wrote it.

    18. Change my layout.

    19. Begrudgingly type up another blog post just to get something out into the world even though it’s definitely worse than the blog post that was sitting in my drafts for over a month.

    20. Write a second blog post, hope for the best, and pray for continued writing momentum.

    Do you experience anything like this? Tell me I’m not the only one who suffers from blogger’s block!

About the Blogger

My name is Jackie, and I am a millennial / mother / Michigander / blogger / wannabe runner / accountant / local library enthusiast / gamer, kinda. This is a personal blog, which means I’m not entirely certain what you’ll find here, but it will definitely not show up on the first page of Google search results.