the weekly seven III

Since my last seven, we survived another snow storm. Thankfully, it’s mostly melted now and warmer temperatures are moving in. Having temps in the 50s feels amazing after such a cold and icy February.

drinking

My mom came to visit for a bit and I took her to another South Jersey winery – Balic. I hadn’t been to this one before despite it being the oldest in the area. If you’ve ever driven to the shore, you’ve probably passed by one of their two story wine bottles on the side of the road. The tastings were free, and while I didn’t try the fruit wines, I did enjoy their Alexander the Great red wine and their Cream Sherry, which is like a port. We bought a bottle of the Napoleon Bonaparte white wine to open and enjoy. Bonus- I’m pretty sure the wine helped me get over a cold I was fighting.

The whole family is into these new “healthy” sodas. I bought some for myself, to help ease me off Coke, but of course once everyone saw the colorful cans they wanted to try them. Tony and I love that they have fiber in them (because we’re old), and the kids love the various fruit flavors. I hate the cost. Pretty sure it was cheaper when I was just buying a lot of Coke Zero for myself. Ultimately, I only buy a few cans and no one gets the flavor they wanted (because someone already drank it) and we’re all unhappy – but hey, FIBER!

watching

A couple years ago, one of my resolutions was to find a way to workout at home that I enjoyed and could stick with. I didn’t succeed that year, so on the days I couldn’t get to the gym, I didn’t lift weights. With our new schedule, I had to seriously commit to lifting weights at home since going to the gym was no longer an option. Thankfully after a week of searching YouTube I found the Nourish Move Love channel. While I like being able to lift heavier at the gym  and use machines (sadly we’re not investing in a home Smith Machine or Leg Press), Lindsey’s workouts use a lot of the same moves I was already doing but because she keeps it moving, I often finish more tired and sore than when I was at the gym. I had a bad habit of getting wrapped up in a podcast and taking too long of a break between sets, meaning I was barely breaking a sweat and my workouts were taking a long time. I like that following along with NML means I still get a rest period, but I’m not wasting time. And I find her less annoying than many other fitness instructors (though her frequent ‘Holy bananas!’ is probably my least favorite exclamation ever.) 

After finishing Only Murders in the Building, Tony and I went back to Breaking Bad and man, it seems even more dark and depressing after watching five seasons of a comedic murder mystery series. I’m not sure we can handle more than one episode at a time right now. So we started watching Cobra Kai. We’ve heard that a lot of people (of a certain generation) have liked it, and it’s fine- definitely a palate cleanser after BB- but it seems so cliche and predictable. I’ve seen two episodes and I feel like I can predict the story arc of the whole series, but maybe I’m wrong and they’ll be some fun twists. We’ll see. Don’t give me spoilers!

reading

I’m in the middle of a few things, but nothing I love which means its taking forever to make progress. I’m also mostly reading at bedtime, so inevitably my eyes start feeling heavy after only a couple pages. I mean, I really am enjoying German Holiness and Western Sanctity in Medieval and Modern History, an 89 page research paper, but I’m trying to take notes and struggling to find a time to read when I can focus on it. Also struggling through Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni and Life of Christ, by Ven. Arbp. Futon Sheen- which of course is amazing and moving but not really a fun, light-hearted read. I’m trying really hard to not pick up one of the other books in my ‘to read ‘ pile because I know I won’t make progress on my Lenten read. 

As I try to work on focus, I found this blog post (and related podcast episode) very interesting. I see this in my own home as those of us with phones will pull them out during family movie night. I’ve started enforcing a strict one screen rule when we’re watching movies together which I’ve only been able to enforce because “It’s Lent! Offer it up!”

messaging

I don’t keep Instagram or Facebook on my phone because they are a huge distraction for me. But, until recently, I kept the Facebook Messenger app because it was my main form of communication with a few groups of people. But then they released an update that featured a notification button at the top of the screen, and when you tapped it, Facebook opened up on your phone’s browser. As much as I tried, I kept tapping on the notification button. I didn’t want to delete the app, so I searched around for another option and thankfully I found Beeper. You can link a bunch of accounts to Beeper and all it shows you are the chats, so now I can keep up with my Instagram and Facebook chats without the apps being on my phone. I don’t get a lot of messages on Instagram, except for all the Reels my kids send me. I can’t watch the Reels in the Beeper app. but once they’ve flooded our group chat with a bunch of Gen Z humor, I’ll log onto Instagram on my laptop and view everything. Give it a try if you want to streamline all your chats.

As we head into March, I keep expecting our schedule to start filling back up. Plus, I know we’ll be getting out of the house more now that temperatures are constantly above freezing and the driveway isn’t a sheet of ice. I’m just trying to enjoy the relative calm. I hope your month is off to a good start!