I can’t tell you how much I truly enjoyed your feedback on yesterday’s emotional whiplash post. It’s given me a lot to contemplate. One thing that I always enjoy and feel fulfilled by though? Blogging. It gives me a space to write my thoughts, connect, and share. It doesn’t feel intrusive; it feels like a friend that is simply here if you want to chat. Blogging just works for me.

Which had me thinking. Have you read any of those What I Know for Sure posts that people often write around their birthdays? I always enjoy reading those. I’m not feeling quite introspective enough to crank that out right now but I did spend some of my not-scrolling, mental free time yesterday thinking about what is working for me right now. By the end of the day I had a short list of things I can confidently say feel good and right and work for me right now. Here they are:

Frozen Soup

A small thing I’ve been doing for myself lately is making a batch of soup on Sunday, freezing it in 2 cup Souper Cubes, then putting a single cube in my mini slow cooker in the morning on high, and having hot, homemade soup ready for me when my stomach starts to grumble midday. Something about just having it ready and waiting is so nice. And if decide to have a sandwich or leftovers instead? No big deal- I just keep the freezer stocked of homemade, perfectly portioned soup (I pop the cubes out and store them in labeled freezer Ziplocks; each bag holds four 2 cup cubes).

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Telling People What I Love About Them

I love people. I really do. I admire what makes each person unique and clearly see their individual strengths. The girls and I have been reading through How to Win Friends and Influence People (teen girl version) and one of the points discusses sincere compliments.

I’ve taken it to heart and pushed my worry of sounding like a fan girl aside and have started vocalizing my admirations. I’ve always been good about pointing out the girls’ strengths to them, but I’ve been more open about telling David how brilliant I think he is (I truly admire him so much; I think he’s the most brilliant and talented man in the world- shouldn’t we all feel that way about our significant others?), and pointing out to friends how much I appreciate their unique talents (her ability to make a house feel like a home, her knowledge and helpfulness on natural medicines, her impressive time management and organizational skills). I learn so much from others and appreciate when they share their gifts.

Essential Amino Acids

Two of my most health and fitness minded friends were drinking this Kion Essential Amino Acid Powder and both highly recommended it so I gave it a try. My initial impression was it tastes fine but leaves a funny aftertaste. Still, I stayed consistent with drinking it during each strength training session and now two months in, it’s totally working for me. My muscles aren’t as sore, they are recovering much more quickly. And, this is the part I love most, it has definitely helped me build muscle/define muscle. The difference is visible so we’ve now added it to autoship.

Snuggly Homeschool

This is a different homeschool year for us, as the co-op we attend has homework for the kids to complete during the week. It’s shifted the dynamic of our homeschool and the jury is still out on whether I’m sold on it or not, but there are a lot of things I’m liking. One thing is that in some subjects I’ve shifted from ringleader to assistant. They have their assignments and I’m just there to help as needed. This has lent itself to us all spending the morning hours hanging out together in the homeschool room- candle lamp on, fuzzy blankets in tow, chillaxing on the floor and sac. I love this cozy feel we’ve got going on right now.

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Twice a Week Grocery Shopping & a Stocked Pantry

I haven’t shared a lot of grocery hauls or full weekly meal plans because I really hadn’t found my groove in our new home. It’s only now I’m starting to see what’s working for me and it looks a little something like this: twice a week grocery shopping, once at Whole Foods and once at Ingles or Swamp Rabbit Grocery, and keeping a stocked pantry and freezer.

Living a little further out, it’s really working to keep a well stocked pantry. I load up on unperishable items when they’re on sale (condiments, vinegars, rice, pasta, tuna, etc) and have gotten in a good rhythm of always having a back up ready to go. I get as much produce as I can on my Whole Foods trip, then supplement with Ingles or Swamp Rabbit.

I still have a solid portion of the half cow we split with a neighbor in the freezer and use Butcher Box and AMPM Farms to fill in the gaps. My next adventure, inspired by my friend, is canning meats. She walked me through the very simple sounding process using this digital canner and I can’t wait to give it a try! As a fan of canned chicken (I often open a can to add to leftover rice and veggies for a quick lunch), I’m very excited about this prospect. I’ll report back with my experimentation!

Amazon Review Videos

I’ve only recently realized in the past couple months that I can make Amazon Review Videos with my status of being an Amazon Influencer. I’ve never been an Amazon Influencer superstar because I’m only going to share items I buy, use, and can vouch for, which has me sharing the same items over and over again. I’ve been fine with that and always appreciate when you shop through my links and use my gift guides and such, as it helps pay the hosting costs and other blog expenses, but long story short, I’ve never really focused much on it.

Well, I just realized that Amazon gives me recommendations for products I’ve bought that need reviews. As an Amazon consumer myself that heavily utilizes reviews and the videos when making a purchase decision, it thrills me that I can make review videos and help others without having to link it on my blog to my readers (friends). All my review videos show up on my storefront but even cooler, Amazon can pull those videos and put them on the product page. Helpful for a potential purchaser and also helpful to me, because if you watch my video and end up purchasing, I get a small commission from that.

This may be super niche and nothing you care about, but I’m also always happy to offer some transparency on how money is made on the internet. 80% of my income comes from display ads, so pageviews. That’s why I balance writing these chatting type posts (my favorite!) with recipe and parenting content that is more polished and better for search engines. If you ever have any questions about it, just ask; I’m an open book!

I’m starting ramble now, so this is me signing off, but thanks for the conversation in the comments yesterday. I love that so much. And if you feel up for sharing, what’s one things that is working for you right now?