The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist

Drumroll Announcing My Ten Favourite Fiction Reads from 2025

This was hard! For the first time in years, I have had an absolutely banner year of fiction reading and I give all credit to the blogging community. The number of incredible suggestions coming…

2025 on the Blog: Stats, Stories, and So Much Gratitude

Last year I wrote a post summarizing my year of blogging (2024 summary here) and I thought it would be fun to do something similar again! (It looks like a long post, but there…

Blogging
Jan, 05, 2026
48 Comments

Ginger Sparklers: A Beloved Christmas Recipe

A reader asked if I would post my recipe for Ginger Sparklers and since they are my all-time favourite cookie, I had to oblige!!!

I was going to tack this onto another post, but decided…

Christmas, Food
Jan, 03, 2026
27 Comments

Happy New Year (Friday): 2 January

This is the first Happy Things Friday post of 2026.

I feel like I don’t have a lot of “new” Happy Things to add to my list, but I jotted down items that were…

On My Shelf: Books I Read in December 2025

Happy New Year!!!!!

Today seemed like a fitting time to recap the books I finished in December (I’ll be back next week with a roundup of my Top Ten fiction and non-fiction picks for 2025).

January. February. March. April. May. June. July. August. September. October….

Reading
Jan, 01, 2026
35 Comments

Ideas for a Frugal-Friendly Christmas (It Can Still Feel Abundant!)

While things are decidedly more comfortable for us financially these days, we’ve had many Christmases—both in childhood and as a married couple—when money was tight.

And yet we’ve always tried to make Christmas feel abundant….

Christmas Recap 2025: Gift Edition

I know gift guides can be polarizing. Feel free to skip this post entirely if they’re not your thing. I happen to love looking at gift ideas—even if I never buy a single item…