Currently 01.09.16

Reading: I've returned to an old habit- reading two books at once. When I was a kid it wasn't uncommon for me to have two or even three books on the go at any given point. The reason I've returned to doing this is that I got annoyed with bringing my book back and forth to work with me. I read on my breaks and now and then at lunch (Starbucks). So I'm reading on my Kobo at home, which is also treadmill friendly. My hard copy books are the ones I leave at work.
Since I've last posted a Currently, I've read these:
Sam's Letters to Jennifer - James Patterson
These was an easy read with a great ending. I've not read much by James Patterson, but I like his writing style.
If I Stay - Gayle Foreman
A YA book I've been meaning to read for quite a long time. I need to see the movie now.
Sharp Objects- Gillian Flynn
This was my favourite of the books I've recently read. It was definitely dark and kind of creepy, but it really held my interest.
Shopaholic to the Rescue- Sophie Kinsella
Another easy read, as are all the books in this series. They're so comforting as the characters are like family now - kind of like Harry Potter in that sense. Reading one of these is like hanging out with a friend.
The End of Your Life Book Club -Will Schwalbe
A great (true) story about a man's journey with his mom through her cancer diagnosis. They read books at the same time, and I got a lot of good ideas about books I'd like to read from the story.

Writing: Over the past few months I've been jotting down more ideas for novel two. I don't like to talk about my writing very much in the planning stages so I won't be revealing many specifics. I've got a broad plot outline and will be working on early chapter outlines in the next few weeks. I really don't have much time to work on it, so it'll be a super slow process. My blog posts have been less lately, the holidays being one reason. I might try to make my Instagram presence a bit more consistent. I received TWO selfie sticks for Christmas (one for home, one for the road) so I should try to take more outfit posts for Instagram.

Clicking:
The usual suspects: Whowhatwear, Facebook, on-line shopping, Bieber News.
I did some on-line shopping after Christmas. Some keepers, some being returned... I'll sum it all up at the end of the month as usual. Did you see what I bought in December and my yearly total?
I've become obsessed with my Fitbit app - in SUCH a good way.

Seeing:
I feel like I'm always "seeing" the same thing in these posts as I almost always write them at the kitchen table, looking out the window. I'm seeing the golf course covered in snow, three dying poinsettia plants, and $7 in winning lottery scratch tickets.

Smelling:
Mom's Apple Pie tea from Davids. My breakfast this morning was so yummy! One slice of toast with the thinnest layer of Cheez Whiz and Piller's Simply Free Smoked Breakfast Ham which logs in at 187 calories (I told you I'm addicted to my Fitbit app).

Feeling:
Motivated. The scale is finally moving. Three pounds down since Dec 30. My problem before was that I was exercising, but not really accounting for calories going in. "Oh I'm exercising, so I can eat whatever... " So. Not. True. Lately I've actually been stepping back a bit from the exercising to get an idea of what my usual day to day calorie burn is. I've been keeping exact record of calories in via my Fitbit app and in order to get back down to my usual weight, I'm operating on a -500 cal/day deficit. Once I get a better idea of my calories in and out when I'm not exercising hard-core, I'll get back to exercising, knowing that I'll have to up my calories at that point to stay on track.

Here's an easy to read article talking about exercise vs food intake.

Watching:
We've been catching up on Grey's Anatomy. I'm almost finished Season 3 of Orange is the New Black. I watched Wild and Still Alice over Christmas holidays - in both cases I read the book first.  The Bachelor has returned! My early favourites are Olivia and Jojo. I also burned through so many DVRed eps of The Social while I was baking/cooking/cleaning over the holidays.

Wearing:
Lulu pants, sweatshirt, slippers.

Hearing:
Football highlights on the TV. Fascinating.

Anticipating:
Vacation! We booked a VRBO for the first time. Flights to LA were actually reasonable. Although we always travel on points, we still have to pay the balance of a flight greater than $750 and the taxes. Our flights were base fare under $750, which was nice!
We're also putting together our new bed today! I can't wait to see what it looks like. Our bedroom was defiantly the room that needed the most work in our house. We had a mattress sitting on two boxsprings for the past 15 months. I got new bedding for a steal at Linen Chest last week - half price! We ordered new nightstand tables from Ikea and we got two sheepskins for Christmas.

Follow me on Instagram! @jennifermerlin14

XOXO
Glitterary Girl