The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist

Some Things We Ate in April

Apparently, people are interested in what ends up on our dinner table. (Wait – is it dinner? is it supper?) Either way, I’ve been asked to share more about our everyday meals, so I…

Family, Food, Life
May, 12, 2025
43 Comments

Happy (and Hard) Things Friday: 9 May

This week was not my favourite. Nothing objectively terrible happened, but it felt like walking around with pebbles in my shoes. (For people I care about, it was more like giant boulders.)

If you’ll allow…

Gratitude in Practice: Laura Vanderkam!!

If you’d told me five years ago that I’d have a blog, I probably would have believed you. After all, I’ve always loved writing and seem to have an endless supply of things to…

Blogging, Friendship, Gratitude, Guest Post
May, 08, 2025
33 Comments

Cool Bloggers Walking Club: The Final Roundup (April 2025)

The second I typed that title I started humming The Final Countdown. Anyone else? Just me?

Moving on.

Just like that, we’ve wrapped up our daily(ish) walks in April! A huge thank you to everyone who…

On My Shelf: Books I Read in April 2025

My reading activity picked up again in April, and there were some winners in the mix!

I only rated one book 5/5 stars — what can I say, I’m a tough audience — but there…

Reading
May, 06, 2025
48 Comments

Demerits and Gold Stars: February — April

Apologies for the unusual double post today. But…

Gah. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve thought about writing about my Demerits and Gold Stars over the past few months. I’ve even gone…

What Is Hurkle-Durkle? Move Over, Hygge

You know I love any excuse to talk about language. Give me all the discussions about spelling, pronunciation, and idioms. If it’s quirky and has a good backstory, I’m in.

So you can imagine my…