Just For Fun

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start.

1. Can you change a tire?

Probably not! I wish I could. It seems like one of those life skills everyone should learn in high school, but…ya know. I did not.

2. Liquid, pencil, gel or cake eyeliner?

Pencil, because smudgy lines and diffused edges 4 life, baby.

3. Summer, spring, winter or fall?

Spring, assuming there are allergy meds around, because apparently I’m allergic to life as we know it.

And my second favorite season is fall.

4. How many TVs are there in your house?

Just the one in our living room. El Hub has been lobbying for a second TV in our bedroom for years, but I’m not having it, LOL!

Of course, every phone and tablet screen substitutes for a TV nowadays, so I don’t know how much it matters.

5. Favorite color or colors?

I’ve always loved purple, but I’ve been drawn to pastel coral, pink, yellow and orange more than ever lately.

Essie Expressie Update

Hiya! I’m off to work at the bakery in just a few, so before I remove my nail polish and say g’bye to my pink Essie Expressie weekend mani, here’s what the polish looked like after two days…

The nails on my left hand, which is my usual swatch hand, survived Saturday and Sunday with minimal chips at the tips.

There were a few decent dents on my right hand, all of which showed up immediately after I was futzing with some Legos (#MOMLIFE) on Saturday morning. To the polish’s credit, the chips didn’t get bigger over time.

All in all, it held up pretty well, considering that I didn’t use a separate base coat or top coat. If you need to quickly paint your paws for an event, or if you’re like me and only need your nail polish to last a couple days at a time, these polishes do the trick quite nicely.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon.

1. Can you change a tire?
2. Liquid, pencil, gel or cake eyeliner?
3. Summer, spring, winter or fall?
4. How many TVs are there in your house?
5. Favorite color or colors?

For years — decades even! — I thought of myself as a person who didn’t like to exercise first thing in the morning. The last thing my body wants to do upon waking is jump around. Or run rapidly. My bones don’t need jarring early in the day.

But I’ve come to realize that that’s no longer the case anymore. Just because my booty, legs, core and arms are averse to high-impact burpies and jumping jacks at the crack of dawn doesn’t mean they won’t do other things, and let me tell ya, this has been a revelation. IT’S BEEN LIFE CHANGING.

I’ve finally started exercising early, ideally within half an hour of waking, and I love it, because it gets me going even better than coffee, and there’s nothing like the sense of accomplishment from finishing a workout early to set the tone for a good day.

The key has been doing low-impact activities that are easy on my joints, like Pilates, yoga or non-jumping cardio, or working out with these thingamabobs: sliders!

Slider workouts (also known as “glider workouts”) are my new favorite way to torture myself in the morning, ha ha ha!

OK, so I realize I’m not selling it, but really, if you want to do a workout that doesn’t involve the intense clanking of joints, these are great, and they’ll get you sweating like CRAY.

Basically, sliders/gliders are disks that slide across the floor. You put your hands or feet on the disks, and much like in Pilates, you move your limbs in controlled ways that involve lots intense muscle squeezing, and even though you aren’t jumping around a lot, you’ll feel spent by the end of your workout.

So…what is the Monday Poll?

Excellent question! It isn’t, contrary to its name, an actual poll, like with little clicky buttons. It’s just a list of five more or less random questions I’ve been posting on this blog every Monday morning for the past quadrillion years (since 2007). I love reading your answers, and it helps me get my week off to a good start.

1. Is bronzer an everyday thing for you in winter?

Currently, no, but circa 2014, when I loved wearing ALL THE THINGS, I’d wear at least two (sometimes three!) different bronzers every day.

Ah, my makeup maximalist days… They were fun.

2. What’s better — the Super Bowl, or the Super Bowl snacks?

The snacks, bruh. And no, I’m not salty about the Niners losing! (Gotta hand it to any team that can turn things around when it counts, and the Chiefs did it in less than five minutes.)

Mostly, I really look forward to all the snacks.

3. I no longer have time for…

Paying any mind to strangers who make critical comments about my appearance. I’m done with it.

4. You must choose! — a vanilla ice cream sandwich, or a Neapolitan one?

A simple vanilla ice cream sandwich would be great, please. I’ve always been partial to regular vanilla ice cream sandwiches, even when I was a kid.

Funny story, but when my mom was pregnant with my brother and home on maternity leave, I remember telling her that I wanted to eat a vanilla ice cream sandwich for lunch one day, and then she got up, went into the kitchen, pulled out a loaf of bread, and put vanilla ice cream in the middle of two slices for me, and also made one for herself.

I remember eating the very literal “ice cream sandwich” and thinking it was weird, but good.

5. Where are you going today?

First, to drop off Connor at preschool, then to Target (seriously, when am I NOT at target) and maybe Costco if I have the time, and then to work.

It’s a good morning!

How are ya, my friend? 🙂 I woke up this morning in my warm, comfortable bed with a roof over my head AND a functional heater, so ya know what? I’m living like a queen. Seriously! Most of the time I wake up on Mondays feeling kinda crabby because the weekend is over, but not today. Lately I’ve been reminding myself first thing in the morning to be grateful for everything, even the little things, because those things aren’t guaranteed. It checks my attitude RIGHT QUICK.

I make a list of things, like the food in my fridge; my functioning spleen (shout-out to all my organs, woo-hoo, which are doing the damn thing!); and the ability to provide Connor with steady, calm, routine mornings.

Gonna carry these good feeling with me into this week. 🙂 Are you with me?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Here are the questions to copy/paste with your answers in a comment. Talk to ya soon.

1. Is bronzer an everyday thing for you in winter?
2. What’s better — the Super Bowl, or the Super Bowl snacks?
3. I no longer have time for…
4. Which would you prefer – a vanilla ice cream sandwich, or a Neapolitan one?
5. Where are you going today?