Lifestyle – By Golly, Ollie!

Five March Favorites

I always seem to start these posts by writing something along the lines of, “I can’t believe [insert month here] is already over. How did another one slip through my fingers?” But alas…here I am…wondering how another month flew by. This is absolutely a reflection of how present I am each day. I’m always looking forward– forward to better weather, forward to when we can feel safe in public again, forward to when my tea budget resets again… Perhaps April should be an exercise in intention and being present. Until then, let’s take a look back at some of my March Favorites.

Word of Intent: Joy

The last memory I have of 2020 is Oliver kicking me in the back as he tried to keep himself from falling asleep. I don’t know who dozed off first– him or me– but when I woke up, it was 2:30 AM in 2021. I missed the opportunity to say “so long, sucker!” to 2020 and usher in the New Year with a strange sense of optimism.

Normally, I have a long list of resolutions that I post this time of year, and ultimately all are abandoned by the end of January, so this year I decided to forego that and instead adopt a word of intent. I tried to do this last year, but ironically, the word I chose for 2020 was “explore”.

Five November Favorites

Did November actually happen? I’m not entirely convinced it did. But, that sort of happens at the end of the year, doesn’t it? February drags on for 100 weeks, but October, November, and December slip by as we scramble to welcome the holidays. I actually struggled to come up with this month’s list of five favorites. That’s not to say November was a crummy month; I just can’t seem to recall much happening! After digging around in my memories, I came up with these Five November Favorites.

Five October Favorites

Normally, I am of the ilk that says, “I’m glad to live in a world, where there are Octobers”. But with election day looming overhead, Oliver having more sick days than school days, and always feeling behind the eight ball at work, I just sort of feel…burned out. So burned out that I replaced my tea rituals with cups of coffee because I’ve needed something stronger to power through this month. I always try to sit back and reflect on all of the good things that happened during the month because perspective always improves my mental health, but this month was tough…so, here goes:

Five July Favorites

I feel like the month of July flew by faster than any other month so far. But, that’s sort of how it happens, right? As the end of the year approaches, days and weeks and months just sort of slip by faster and faster and before I know it, I’m sitting down in front of the computer and typing obligatory year-end blog posts. It doesn’t help that I’m struggling with being present and living with intention. Everything just sort of feels like auto-pilot right now, and I don’t know how to turn it off. So, as usual, I am taking a moment at the end of the month to reflect on all of the great things that happened because sometimes I just need a little reminder. Here are my five July favorites:

Since I Never Formally Introduced My Gaiwan…

There are a couple of moments during my tea journey that forever changed the way I experienced tea. The first was circa 2009 when I randomly asked for a tea kettle and tea for Christmas. I was a heavy coffee-drinker during this time in my life (because college), so I must have wanted one just for aesthetics. But, when I received a shiny, red stovetop tea kettle and some Celestial Seasonings fruit tisanes for Christmas, I immediately became obsessed.

Five January Favorites

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 snow storms 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:

Word of the Year: Explore

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.

20 Things I’m Really Doing During Social Media Hiatuses

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.

Silencing the Internal Pressure to be the Blogger I’m Not

Blogging has been my hobby for two decades now. I mean that quite literally. And during these past twenty years, blogging evolved from inane ramblings on personal websites built on Geocities to polished content creation with the unstated intent to sell something to the readers. It could be a lifestyle. It could be a self-published book. It could be an online course on how to make money from blogging. Heck, it could even be Books & Tea (the former title of this blog for new readers).