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Posts Tagged ‘february’

Wolfy’s Favorites – Episode 1

February 29, 2016 4 comments

Hello my lovely readers!

I had a few things from the month of February that I wanted to tell you all about, but all of them were kind of short for their own posts. I got to thinking how a lot of bloggers have a favorites post they do once a month, and I thought that’s such a great idea! It’ll be a monthly feature that will showcase a range of things I’ve enjoyed in the last month.

We’ll start off with the two biggest things.

February Favorites

Screenshot of a quick video I took about a new book I received on PaperBackSwap. That little wolf is my periodic “Wolfy” representative for myself in videos or pics (although you *do* get to see the real  life non-Wolfy me sometimes too!)

Snapchat (username: opinionsofawolf)

I finally got on the Snapchat train! After hearing so much about it, I just had to download the app and see what all the fuss is about. I have to admit, I love it. For those who don’t know, Snapchat lets you post photos or videos (and annotate on top of them) that last a maximum of 24 hours before they disappear. It’s very stream-of-consciousness, and I love having a new format to talk about books, writing, and life in. (And there are definitely some videos of my cat). If you have (or get) Snapchat, friend me! My username is opinionsofawolf.

February Favorites

Instagram collage of my reading location one weekend when I attended my friend’s wedding. The lower left is the wallpaper in the hotel room, the upper left is the view, and on the right is my kindle with the two mugs that were our wedding favors.

Instagram lets you easily manage multiple accounts. Finally!

I’ve had a personal Instagram account for years (sorry, you can’t have that username!), but I found trying to manage a personal and a professional/hobby one to be frustrating, because the app forced you to log out entirely of one account before logging into the next one. There was no simple tapping back and forth between accounts. Well, this month Instagram finally fixed that! So I get to join my fellow book bloggers in the virtual world of #bookstagram. Please do check it out for shots of reading locations, real time mini-reviews and pictures of books as I finish them, and quotes from books as I read them, among other things! Username: opinionsofawolf.

Next up, two smaller, but still exciting to me, things this month.

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Nuun

I actually have another book blogger to thank for this discovery. The awesome Running ‘N’ Reading posted a few times about the recovery drink Nuun. Replenishing electrolytes and rehydrating are very important after working out. It helps with muscle recovery and just general hydration. I’ve struggled because I’m not really a fan of Powerade and Gatorade, especially for the calorie content. (The ones with zero calories don’t taste good to me). I love coconut water, but it’s full of calories and expensive to buy. Nuun comes in tubes that each contain 12 tablets. You drop the tablet into water, and in two minutes it dissolves into a drink. Each tablet contains 8 calories. The tablets make it easy to order online and stockpile into your home, as well as convenient to take with you on longer fitness excursions. My husband and I are both pretty addicted to them now! And we’ve both noticed less DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness) after hard workout days. Our favorite flavors are lemon-lime and tri-berry.

February Favorites

Bunnies at HomeGoods!

I love bunnies, and this month HomeGoods stocked up their spring holdings. I was hard-pressed to select only a few items (I’ll find almost anything with a bunny on it adorable), but I did my best to stick to what we need. My husband and I each have our own bowl for mealtimes (they do not match) but mine was a bit small for meals like soup or stew. So I picked up one that is about the same size as his. We also had large plates and small plates but no medium-sized ones, so I picked up two of those. Finally, I can always use more kitchen towels, so I got a set of two with this cute bunny on them.

Finally, a book!

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Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola

I want to wrap up these monthly favorites posts with a quick comment about my favorite read of the month. I devoured Blackout in a mere two days in audiobook format. I basically was searching for any task I could do as an excuse to listen to it. It’s that good. First five star read of the year! Review to come.

So that’s it for February. Be sure to tune in next month for episode 2 of Wolfy’s Favorites!

What were some of your favorite things in the month of February? Have you tried out any of the things I’ve mentioned? Tell us about your experience in the comments! (Especially feel free to let me know your Snapchat or Instagram usernames).

Friday Fun! (FI Steps and One Year Gym Anniversary)

February 3, 2012 4 comments

Hello my lovely readers!  Wow, can you believe it’s February already?  Craziness.  It seems like January just flew right by.

So you know that I’ve started following the steps laid out in Your Money or Your Life.  One of them is tallying up your categories each month to see where your “life energy” went.  My first month of tallying was December to give me a clear idea of where I was starting from.  So this was my first real month on the plan, thinking through everything as $7 = 1 hour of my life.  When I did my tallies, I am shocked to report, that my expenditures went down by 83.7 hours!!  And I wasn’t even really trying!  I just stopped and thought if each purchase was really worth X hours of my life.  The book said thinking that way just naturally curbs spending, but I really truly am shocked at how much it did in just one month.

In other exciting news, this weekend marks my one year anniversary of gym membership and commitment to my health.  I’ll be doing my measurements and such with my trainer, but I don’t even need them done to know it’s working.  I just feel so much healthier than I did a year ago.  I have more energy, sleep better, have more enthusiasm, can handle things better.  It feels so much better to go take your stress out in the gym than in other unhealthy ways like drinking, eating, or vegging out in front of the tv.  It’s a real positivity boost.  Anyway, in honor of my one year achievement, I’m finally going to let myself get a real gym bag.  I hadn’t let myself because I refuse to spend money on things I might not stick with, but it’s obvious this habit is here to stay.  I can’t wait to have a real gym bag with compartments for dirty clothes and shoes and straps to hold on a yoga mat.  It’s definitely going to be worth the life energy it costs for the purchase. 😉

This weekend I’m going to be very busy with a couple of projects I’m excited about.  February is going to be awesome.  🙂

Happy weekends all!