My Monday Musings…

I had an eventful week (that didn’t include much reading). We are definitely in fall now and our rainy season has started a few weeks early so I’m all about cold weather food and Halloween right now.

Top left is the beginning of my indoor decorating, top center is a funny little thing I found on the shelf while shopping – seems someone has a sense of humor, top right is from our local chocolate shop – he’s practicing his chocolate sculpting. 

I’m trying more things in the Instant Pot and top left is risotto – very good and super easy! 5 minutes!! I used this recipe from kitchn. The liquid wasn’t fully absorbed when I opened the lid but I stirred it a bit, added the cheese and it was perfect. I sauteed my veggies and added them in at the end, bottom center is my first batch up chicken broth using the Instant Pot and it came out fantastic. Dump in a chicken (I used my leftovers from a roasted chicken), veggies, herbs, water – 30 minutes and voila!  We went to our local theater downtown and saw the first show of the season, AUREUM – an aerial and acrobatic adventure tale (video). The group revamped their show and trained her this summer and put on the show before taking it on tour. It has a really cool story and great performances. 

The story:

AUREUM

The benevolent White Queen of Aureum and her warrior guardian welcome twins into the world. Knowing that the White Queen’s bloodline is the only way to gain control of the powerful magic of the Seed, the Red Empress, seeking to gain ultimate power over Aureum, hatches an evil plan to kidnap one of the twins setting our tale in motion.

The Seed commands the forces of nature and imbues its carrier with immense power and strength.
In the meantime, a young academic has discovered a key that magically transports him to Aureum where he stumbles into a world of wonder and the fascinating characters who staunchly defend it. Through the sorcery of the Red Empress, a gathering of dark powers threatens the tranquil world of Aureum, and its inhabitants must find a way to protect it at all costs.

Aureum is a story of finding love in the most unusual places, and how the bonds that unite us are stronger than those that divide us. 

Very YA sounding right?? lol Honestly, I was a little surprised by how good it was. If you live in WA/OR, I recommend checking out these upcoming dates. 

Then we went to Storyboard Delights (the chocolate shop) for a crepe, salted caramel mousse and a latte. They’re one of the only places that stay open late around here but they’re perfect for date night or a post show treat. I really want to bring my book here to take some pictures for IG one day. 

I also spotted this creep ass doll in one of the street gardens on the way to the show. Spiders…skeletons…ALL the creepy Halloween things don’t scare me. This flower doll thing?? SCARES ME! lol

But wait! there’s more! I had my first visit with my new Dr and she’s fantastic. Spent at least an hour with me going over my entire medical history, doing an exam – offering a few suggestions and changes from what my old Dr. had said, ordered a few labs. But seriously – a WHOLE hour, patiently asking questions and listening to my answers!! Then I went o have my RX’s filled and it was $10 for my 2 prescriptions. In FL – over $200. So SUPER happy about that. And I’m hopeful she can help me with a few things that have been going on but my FL Dr. mostly ignored. 

We’re house hunting and that’s not going well at all but we keep plugging along. 

Reading:  well……  I read Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev (review coming this week) and I’ve been attempting to read Match Me If You Can by Tiana Smith but I just haven’t been in a reading mood. We’ll see what this week brings.

As so many of you know, we lost Grace from Rebel Mommy Book Blog in July to cancer. I still don’t think I’ve fully processed that it happened and it’s such a blow every time I see old DM’s in my Twitter from her. 

Lauren from Bookmark Lit has put together a reading challenge in honor of Grace to take place on her birthday – October 14th. 

The idea is to read FOR Grace and choose a book from her favorites and TBR pile. Lauren has included links to spreadsheets for Grace’s reading lists by TBR posts, reviews, TTT favorites, Goodreads. 

Thank you so much to Lauren for putting this together and I will definitely be joining in with that and also donating to Grace’s  favorite charity – METAvivor. 

Both Grace, and this challenge represent the best of this community. I hope you can all join in or help promote it if you are unable to.