The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist

Drumroll Announcing My Ten Favourite Non-Fiction Reads from 2025

Since my mid-20s, I’ve been a non-fiction gal through and through. This year, I read far fewer non-fiction books than normal (I’m hoping to reverse that trend in 2026)!

After pulling together a HUGE post…

Holiday Leftovers, Clearance Finds, and Other Recent Frugal Wins

Who’s ready for a look at some recent frugal decisions/outcomes in our household?

1 | Leftovers!

We are a leftovers family. I’m so glad we have relatively little food waste, and nothing brings me greater…

Frugality, Money
Jan, 07, 2026
39 Comments

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….