May Wrap-Up 2020

Hi friends. On the one hand, I want to say “how is it already June?!” On the other, I feel as though May took its time this year, and I treasure that. It’s been quite the month and I have so much to share with you! In this post, you’ll find my May adventures (or lack thereof), favorites, what I was generally up to, and some photos from this month scattered throughout. Intrigued? Let’s get into my May wrap-up…

What happened in May?

This month I completed my third year of university – which means I have one year left before I receive my degree! I was so happy to finish the tumultuous semester and celebrated by going outside and enjoying the nice weather with my dog. It just felt right to go outside after submitting my final exam, especially considering that normally during finals I would be trekking across campus to the testing center for my exams! Finishing in my bedroom felt a bit anticlimactic.

There weren’t many other “happenings” this month – my state hit the numbers required to move to stage one of opening and my county along with many others promptly responded with officials stating that they’re not comfortable moving forward with that because of the concentrations of Covid-19 in our counties.

This doesn’t really affect my family at all, as my dad is only going out to get groceries and my medications while the rest of us remain safe at home. Have I started to have some questionable redecorating ideas? You bet – according to my mother. But if a few frustrations from being in close quarters with my family for so long and questionable design ideas are the extent of my problems, I’m not one to complain. We’ll be continuing to stay in to weather this storm, and I hope that you are all well and safe, wherever in the world you are.

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Moving on, here are some things I’ve been doing this month:

Towards the very end of April, I started practicing yoga. Nothing too intense, by any means! I asked a good friend of mine who also has chronic health conditions that deeply affect her joints and mobility for her yoga recommendations, as she is a huge fan of it. She shared some videos with me that she personally loves, I watched them through, made a YouTube playlist, got the okay from my physical therapist for a few specific moves, and modified as needed. A few mistakes quickly taught me my limits, and I did some sort of yoga practice for 24 days in May.

I’ve been strongly anti-yoga for a while now, as it was always thrown in my face as a “cure” for my incurable health. Now, I think that the people who do that and say those things to people like me are doing yoga an immense disservice. For me, yoga is a low impact means of strengthening without causing further pain and damage to my body – if I pay attention to what I’m doing and know when I need to take a day off. I know that it is thanks to my consistent efforts in physical therapy for years that my body is strong enough to even attempt this; I wasn’t in a place physically nor did I have the energy to spare for something like a five-minute flow even just last fall.

All of that to say, right now I am enjoying the simple yoga I am doing. It will not cure me, nor do I recommend it to anyone if they do not have the medical clearance to try it. However, if you’re looking for a short, low impact practice, I’ve been enjoying this one before bed: 12 Minute Bedtime Yoga.

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Let’s talk about food!

I baked a cake while procrastinating writing a final paper and it was quite delicious. Sadly, I do not have any photos of it completed, but I do have some from the baking process!

I tried Holly Tree Kitchen’s Melting Potatoes Recipe and it is *chef’s kiss* incredible! I have never had (to my knowledge) potatoes prepared this way. They reheated beautifully which if you’ve tried to reheat potatoes before, especially in a microwave, you know that is not usually a term attributed to reheated potatoes. The flavor was amazing, the house smelled amazing when we were making them, I cannot wait to make these potatoes again soon! The recipe is in metric terms, but the conversions are simple. Funnily enough, it calls for 1 kg of potatoes, and when my mom weighed the potatoes she had been planning to use for the dish, it came out to exactly 2.2 pounds. Simply meant to be!

I also don’t have a picture of the shaken lemonade I made with my mom, but we made shaken lemonade! It was so simple and so good! I was in the kitchen and happened to mention I was craving lemonade, and my mom was just like “Okay, let’s make some.” It was probably one of this month’s highlights. I don’t know why it has never occurred to me that making lemonade at home could be really simple, but it hasn’t. Thinking about it now makes me want to go make some more…

When it comes to making gluten-free cookies, my favorite recipe at the moment uses King Arthur Flour’s Gluten-Free Cookie Mix to make chocolate chip cookies. When I stored them in a cookies tin, they stayed soft and reminded me of Chip’s Ahoy. Of course, I haven’t had Chip’s Ahoy for years, but this was confirmed by my mother who can eat actual Chip’s Ahoy. We kept the cookies small, and I loved them. I used Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips for these small cookies!

My dad bought me some of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Hot Cereal to try since I am a big fan of overnight oats but don’t like regular oatmeal. Hot cereal is not soggy or liquid-y, which I really enjoy. I’ve made it about four or five different ways so far. Below I was feeling like trying to make them chocolate-y, so I put some mini Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips on top. From the same bag that I used for the cookies! Not my favorite combo, but I’ll keep experimenting in June!

And lastly, I decided to try my hand at Holly Tree Kitchen’s Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding – I’ve never had anything like it! While I think there are a couple of mistakes I made putting it together, this was overall a satisfying dessert that I definitely want to make again. The ingredients are so simple! It got pretty good reviews from my family too. Sadly no photos, but I will be sure to take some next time!

In conclusion, yes – I made a lot of food this month. I don’t know if that will continue into June as I don’t bake anything or use heat in the kitchen to cook when it gets hotter outside, but hopefully the weather will be on my side! We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

I published six blog posts.

Yep, six blog posts. I’m back at it and I’m so excited for you to see what’s to come this month! Here’s a list with links to everything I posted in May:

• May Holidays (this came a bit late, oops!)
• Everything You Need for an At-Home Graduation
• 9 Must-Have Items You Didn’t Think to Bring to College
• June Holidays
• 20 Graduation Gifts for the Class of 2020
• 9 Content Creators to Check Out Today

What were this month’s favorites?

Stickers

Okay, this may sound a bit odd. I’ve never been big into stickers in planners but when I started with my current planner back in August, I decided I was going to try it out. I purchased a sticker pack with my Simplified planner last summer and as academics winded down I really started making use of my stickers. It’s a cute visual cue, and I like seeing the reminder of my accomplishments on my monthly spreads. I’ve assigned certain stickers to mean I completed a yoga session that day or published a blog post or did some other type of workout, etc. As an enneagram type 3, I find a lot of satisfaction in getting to mark the day with a sticker for my accomplishments, no matter how small.

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Podcasts

The JET Real Podcast

It took me until this month to understand why I listen to and enjoy the JET Real Podcast so much. Jill Treece, the host of the JET Real Podcast, talks about horse training, which isn’t so different from dog training. As someone who is constantly thinking of how to best approach teaching new tasks and skills to my dog, I enjoy hearing Jill’s experience training horses and problem-solving. Jill is a psychology student in her early twenties, who lives in a tiny house on a horse farm. If any of that sounds interesting to you, the JET Real podcast is linked below or click here to be taken to the show’s Spotify page!

Coffee Table Conversations

My sweet friend Ashley, who I met through blogging, and her best friend Lydia started a new podcast this month! Ashley had been teasing its release for a while on her Instagram (which is adorable and so cozy, you should totally follow) and as an avid podcast listener, I was not disappointed. At the time that I am writing this, the first three episodes are live! Ashley and Lydia share everything from stories on friendship to how they’ve been doing during stay-at-home orders to what it’s like growing up in the Midwest. In short, Coffee Table Conversations focuses on Ashley and Lydia’s viewpoint as midwestern girls in their early twenties.

Personally, I found the episode “Signs You’re from the Midwest” so interesting, as someone who has spent her entire life on the East Coast. After listening, I had to go watch the Pure Michigan videos and now I just want to go visit!

Click here to check out Coffee Table Conversations on Instagram!

Morning Walks

Getting outside in the morning, even if I just take a leisurely stroll around my yard or play fetch with my dog, is perhaps my favorite way to start the day. I’ve even planned my wake up time to beat morning showers! The fresh air feels great before the outside world gets too hot to be enjoyable and I retreat indoors. This tends to be when I listen to podcasts, like the two I just mentioned!

Family Dinners

Getting to have a family dinner with everyone at the same time has become harder and harder as my siblings and I have gotten older and everyone has become busier. When we first began to stay at home, the concept of a family dinner felt like a treat. Now, it is normal again. With some nicer evenings this month, we have also gotten to eat outside on the patio something I rarely manage because over the past few years, by the time it was summer and everyone was available to eat dinner together, it would typically be too hot out for me to join in outside.

I know that the majority of my family dinners are now behind me, which makes these feel even more special. They’re a bonus.

And that concludes my May wrap-up!

I hope you are enjoying these new monthly wrap-up posts, they’ve been quite fun to write so far! Things were busy at the end of April while I finished up my semester, so I did miss that one, but hopefully it is smooth sailing from here! What have you been up to in May? What are you enjoying at the moment? Leave me a comment at the end of this post, I would love to hear from you!

In the meantime, if you’d like to keep up with me more from day-to-day, be sure to follow me on Instagram!