It's been a long year and even longer month I feel like just waiting for 2020 to end. After Christmas we took a drive up to Portland to have dinner for the evening and spent some time driving around different areas in the city. It was strange to see the populated areas with hardly any people, but it was nice to see the city less busy. It was honestly a perfect setting for some podcast pictures and other spooky photos. But, I will say, Portland looks better without so many people around and less traffic.
Five Simple Things (December 25)
Hello.
Merry Christmas. I'm posting this between "cooking." I don't really cook, but I mostly heat things up and use a lot of frozen things. It all tastes the same, though, and we get a lot of our things from our local co-op. The Dreidel to the left was from the local co-op. We aren't Jewish, but the chocolate is from Lake Champlain Chocolates and their chocolate is one of our favorites, so we couldn't pass it up. The co-op marked it down for the holidays and we snagged it and a few other chocolate items that were marked down. This Dreidel is a top and spins just like a real one. We played with it for a bit and then hit it with a spoon and shared the chocolate. On another aspect, I feel like I haven't been sleeping well lately and my anxiety has been troublesome, but I think it has a lot to do with everything from the year coming to a close. The only thing that helps keep me focused is knowing that in 2021 things will start to get better. It's hard to process everything that's happened this past year, but we must either process it, or let it drag us under. I am looking forward to the good things that are to come. I have a long needed haircut scheduled for tomorrow and I am looking forward to that, too. Skylar was excited to see what his gift was this year. Although he couldn't get the actual item, it is on backorder and he knows it's his. We got him a new surfboard, so he was excited about that. We also bought us all our own wetsuits, too. It's been a long time coming to get our own, so I am thrilled about that. It's the little positive things that really help process the negative. I can't wait to get back out on the water with our own suits and boards. Our boards will come later, but for now, we are eager. Here are five things this week.
1. This Kid.
2. This Tree.
3. These Subscriptions.
4. This Test.
Five Simple Things (December 18)
Hello.
We have been going through our two Christmas boxes this week and getting rid of a lot of it. I haven't been into the holidays for the past three or four years now. I honestly am just blah about holiday time and the decorations over the years have just been sitting in a box in the attic. So, this week we decided to remedy that and only keep things that have earned a place in our house. Some older decorations, like bubble lights I've had since my first Christmas tree in my first place didn't make the cut. They are cool, but I haven't put them on our tree in several years, so I decided to just let them go. Other decorations that I didn't buy myself, and weren't my style ended up in the donation box, as well. We ended up getting a fake tree this year because I just haven't had the energy to do much since my surgery. It's slowly coming back, but isn't 100% yet. Other than minimizing holiday décor, we've been having a mellow week. We were hoping for a bit of snow, but nothing has been seen so far. Oh, well...maybe sometime after the new year we will see some flurries. My anxiety issues have been intense lately and I've done everything I can think of to calm myself down. The breathing techniques I've learned have helped a bit, but I'm hoping once the new year comes and we put some time between 2020 it will help. Here are five things this week.
1. This Award.
2. This Calendar.
5. These Edibles.
Five Simple Things (December 11)
Hello.
We put out a podcast this week, but other than that, we did nothing. Well, we did clean up some of the backyard more and placed more things out curbside. We are getting to the point where we are happy with the downsizing we've done do far in the yard and the garage. There is still more to go, but we are definitely able to let go easier than we thought. We got rid of an air compressor, a smoker, a gazebo structure, lawn chairs, weed eater, garden structures and decorations, garden tools, an outdoor rug, and a few other things. Oddly enough, the moment we set all of it out on the curb with free on it, it was gone in less than an hour. We hope it comes in handy for people to use and helps someone out during this time. It's not much, but who knows, everyone can use something, sometimes. Here are five things this week.
1. This Picture.
Day trip to Camp Sherman/Metolius River
Skylar and I took another day trip to Camp Sherman. We stopped along the way to take a few pictures around the area. It was such a nice day, even with some areas having snow on the ground. Camp Sherman is an area hidden within the Cascade Mountain Range and the Metolius River runs down the middle. It's an unincorporated area and there's plenty of camping, a store, RV park, and even a resort and other lodging. It's a beautiful area and even more beautiful after it has snowed.