HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Can you believe that it’s 2023?! 1.01.23!
This day also marks the 200th blog post of the Artsy Otter! I met my goal, guys.
#200postsby2023. :)
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
A Quote for the New Year
We are so close and quickly nearing the end of 2022.
What a year!
I saw this quote, and, as a writer, I just loved this quote! It’s such a good reminder too.
“[January First] is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one!”
It sounds so simple, but I am loving it (and it can actually be quite deep if you think about it)
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Monday, December 26, 2022
Christmas
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I did!
Things were a little different because my dad was working days (leaves at 4:30 and gets home around 7 pm).
After the Christmas Eve service we had dinner, our Advent reading and opened our Christmas Eve gift. In the morning we opened our stockings, had breakfast, then opened another gift. When my dad got home, after dinner, we opened our last present and our family present and my dad opened his stocking.
Here's what I got! In my stocking: wool socks, gloves, charger, chocolate, zip fizz, grapefruit, gum, two pouches, and a tiny utility tote from thirty one. My presents: Five-Minute Devotional (Christmas Eve), Elf Squishmallow. and a portable smoothie blender (it's so so cool!)
All in all it was a great day and we had tons of fun! Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 24, 2022
Photo Dump [Alaskan Scenery]
I decided to do a photo dump of my 10 favorite pictures I've taken this year...scenery wise.
Most of these aren't even edited and some (like the Venus' belt one) aren't actually good photography on my part, just beautiful. I have an old iPhone 5se, by the way...it does way better photos than I thought! Comment your favorites!
on the way to Seward...a rainbow pillar!
On the way to Anchorage...beautiful purple Venus' belt!
Headed home from Seward...I am obsessed with the clouds.
Headed home from Anchorage...along the arm!
Headed to Seward...I love this photo!
Moose Pass for the win! Driving home after a football game!
(I actually took this photo on a friend's phone :) Fourth of July!
Flowers in Walmart parking lot in Kenai .
The Grand Canyon from YL trip '22…I know this isn’t Alaskan, but it’s one of my favorites
Just the sun peeking from behind our shed!
Goals
Here are a few goals that I have put in place for 2023 (its coming up so fast!)
- Complete Second Semester Refresh (January)
- Do Ocean Science Bowl (March)
- Save up enough to go to YoungLife camp (May)
- Get my license (in June)
- Finish my NaNoWriMo novel (reworking, editing etc) by June
- Keep my budget tight (save, save, save) ((read that like an enthusiastic chant ;) '
- Buy vehicular transportation (I might rent my brother's old truck for the summer so I can continue to save for a nicer car/truck)
- Horse Work
- Start an herb plot in the garden
So yes, that is just a few that I am going to work on in the new year! It's going to be a pretty busy year with everything. I also never got around to the herb garden last year (we didn't do much in the garden at all with all the horse things) so it has been transferred to 2023 list-and I am determined!
Christmas Cookies
Believe it or not, I'm not a huge fan of making cookies. There's just something a little more tedious and menacing about them. I don't know.
Buuuut, I've actually made several Christmas cookies this year!
My aunt and I made dairy free (and egg free) sugar cookies. They were the first cookies I could eat this year and they were so delicious!
I also made Keto shortbread cookies for my mom and chocolate crinkle cookies for everyone. There was also sugar cookie tree stacks.
Today I am going to make lemon crinkle cookies because they are my dad's favorite. For the people who are house sitting for us while on vacation I am making chocolate mint cookies and maybe chocolate chip cookies as well.
Any cookies you have made this Christmas season?
Christmas Movies We've Watched This Year
Here are ALL of the Christmas movies we watched this year! (along with my own personal ratings :)
- The Man Who Invented Christmas - 6/10
- The Grinch - I like it, but I've seen it too many times. 5/10
- The Christmas Choir - 7/10
- Shazam - also seen too many times 4/10
- Christmas with the Chosen - always 10/10
- Home Alone 2 - 2/10 (I just don't like them)
- Santa Clause 1 and 2 -6/10
- Once Upon a Christmas Miracle - 6/10
- Elf - 4/10 (not a huge fan, but a few laughs)
- Christmas Movie Christmas - 10/10 (one of my favorites)
- Christmas with the Kranks - 1000/10 (absolute favorite)
- The Christmas Fix Up - pretty cheesy but 6/10 (there's a slow mo snowball fight :)
- Second Chance Christmas - this was actually really good 9/10
- 12 Dates of Christmas - I liked it, but not great. 6/10
- Snowed in for Christmas - it was okay 6/10
Saturday, December 17, 2022
Life Lately
I would like to apologize for not posting this sooner :)
Life Lately | November
November was quite busy for me with a few big highlights.
Undergoing writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.
that took up so so much of my time, but I don't regret it at all. it was so challenging, and sometimes I doubted myself (both as a writer and if I would ever finish). there were no tears, but I tend to internalize tears in that kind of situation. We'll just say there were tears on the inside. But it was so worth it. I was sick the last two days of it unfortunately, but I still felt accomplished and fairly satisfied with the end result. Will I continue to work on this novel? Yes, yes I will. I took a big step away from this project after I completed it. I know a lot of Nano writers use December as their editing time but I knew I needed to have a mental break from thinking about it, and also to get more inspiration. I fully intended to go back through and edit and rewrite portions etc...my goal is to finish it by my birthday!
Working with our horses.
this has taken much time up over the course of the month. Since we are in the process of starting an equine therapy program we really want our horses to be ready, willing, and able to work with children. So we've been working so hard on their manners (no, Zeb, you have to stand...Promise, don't be pushy etc), on their tricks (passing a ball back and forth with Zebedee) and other (kid proofing Promise and her riding manners). Plus, all the chores. It's a lot, but it's also very satisfying.
School
oh school. I love school, I really do, but it is school. So far, math is still a struggle, even though there are lessons that are quite fun that I like. Marine Biology is great. Writing is good. Shakespeare was pretty great. Economics is a bit hard. Latin is easy enough (I'm doing a school year course in one semester, but it's going pretty well). Music and P.E are good. I'm very excited for second semester so I can kind of get new habits in place etc.
Thanksgiving
thanksgiving was very fun. We celebrated with our friends like always. One of the few downsides to Thanksgiving this year was that I was dairy free and relatively corn free, so I had to make separate portions of food for me...but it wasn't a huge deal. I got stuffing which is the best food and made a DF peach pie so I'm all good! :)
Other
I have some more allergies again. I figured out that I was reacting to dairy (since it's recurring it wasn't a huge surprise). So I got oat milk. But, I was still reacting to something. So we went to our allergy doctor and he figured out that I was allergic to dairy, oats, oranges and intolerant to corn, chocolate, tomatoes, and pineapple. So, that's something I've been having to work with!
I was on the Youth Worship Team as well in November. And I was able to be the lead guitarist (instead of having a more experienced guitarist on stage as well), it was really fun and we actually played for church that morning and then youth service that night.
That's really all to share about! Thanks for reading and again, sorry this is so late!
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
I made chocolate crinkle cookies on Thursday night and I used this recipe (click here for link)
They were so quick and easy-one of my favorite things about crinkle cookies. And they were delicious.
The one thing I always forget about crinkle cookies is that they need to set on the pan-so one batch came out a little more done that I would've preferred. But, still good!
Here's the recipe!
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (for extra Christmasy you could also use a bit of peppermint extract)
- I cup AP flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup (I used a bit less) mini chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 and grease or line a cookie sheet. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add in the egg and vanilla extract. After that is combined, add your dry ingredients until the dough comes together. It will be a bit sticky. Fold in chocolate chips. Roll dough into small-ish balls and generously coat in powdered sugar. Bake them for 9-11 mins in smaller batches because they do spread! When they come out, let them sit on the baking sheet to set. Enjoy!
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