SUNDAY SIPS-OCTOBER 4TH, 2020

Good morning!

Thanks for joining me today. I’m hoping to put out a new blog post every Sunday. This is where I’d like to share a little about my reading, writing, and momming. In these posts you’ll get a little sneak into my week as well as find out what new tea I’m trying and hopefully what I’m loving. It’ll probably change each week but that’s the plan right now.

So let’s start, shall we?

First up, tea. That’s how I start my day and I’d love it if you’d share a cup of whatever your preferred drink is with me on this Sunday morning.

Today I’m drinking a tea I got in a birthday edition box from a company called Sips By. Side note: I have no affiliation with them or the tea maker. I was able to find a coupon code on instagram though. Use code FALL50 to get 50% off your first box. Sips By is a subscription box that you fill out a tea preference survey and they create a box full of teas they think you’ll like. I’ve done one of those before and really liked the four teas they included. This time I just bought a prefilled box with a Birthday Theme since it is my birthday month. (Coming in hot 34!) This Caramel Vanilla by Republic Of Tea was inside, along with three other brands/flavors and it’s my favorite that I’ve tried so far. It’s made up of black tea, sweet blackberry leaves, carob bits, natural caramel and vanilla flavors and it literally tastes like a caramel vanilla treat.

By the way, how do you take your tea? It’s worth noting I always sweeten my tea with real maple syrup and usually with a splash of milk at the end for creaminess.

Next up, my week. I’ve been fully immersed in full remote schooling for my 3 kids. My 8th and 5th graders are basically hands off as they navigate their school day almost entirely by themselves but with my 1st grader I’m all hands on deck. haha. She’s a nervous little creature and gets incredibly anxious about messing up on one of her google meets and needs me within arms reach for her entire school day. And it is a full school day. From 8am until 2:30pm Monday thru Friday our home is in session. My 8th grader attends all of his regularly scheduled in-person classes virtually from his bedroom while my 2 elementary kids have meets throughout the day with their other remote classmates and teachers. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it and as hectic and confusing as it can be, I’m so proud of my kids for being able to pull through and thrive in our new normal. Needless to say with three kids on three different schedules, I have to write it all down. I’ve been using a Happy Planner to map out each day’s meets and it’s been LIFE CHANGING.

When my laptop is not in use by my youngest, I’ve been editing, editing, editing. The way I edit is I print out the entire first draft then read through making notes but mainly getting the flow down. Then, I sit down with it and pull up a whole new document and start fresh. With Detour, I literally rewrote the first half from scratch then switched to copy/pasting/heavy editing/lots of deletes for the last half. I’m doing a bit more of the latter with Beckett’s book because I was a better writer my second time around but believe me, if there’s room for improvement…I’m doing it. By the time my beta gets Beckett in her hands, he’ll be shiny and new and oh so pretty. In the meantime, I’m having a blast spending so much time with him. I wish I could record myself as I’m working on his story. The amount of times I stop to put my head in my hands and just full belly laugh for a minute, gah! He’s a lot of fun.

Let’s see what else…oh! Music. I’ve had “ok on your own” by mxmtoon featuring Carly Rae Jepsen on REPEAT all week. Not even kidding. It’s so good. Please give it a listen and tell me I’m wrong. I bet you can’t. Also, Machine Gun Kelly just released a new punk/pop album that is giving me major nostalgia. Think Blink 182 days.

I took a 2 week break from social media and got some major reading in. I blew through Freestyle and Lyrical by Bea Paige. It’s a reverse harem series featuring dancers and OMG I was so into it. The dancing scenes were so unique and so FUN. I loved escaping to her Stardom world. She’s a new to me author but I’m glad I found her. It, not even kidding you, inspired me to work out again. Zumba anyone?

Here in upstate New York, the leaves are in full change mode and I am loving it. Holy Wow there’s a ton of colorful foliage right now. Fall is one of the reasons (reads as: the only reason) I agreed to leave the Northwest for the Northeast. My current address may be in New York but my heart is and always will be in Washington State. Maybe I’ll try to share some of the gorgeous scenery on Instagram. If you’re not already following me there, that’s the social site I’m most active on.

I think that’s it for now, friend. Thanks for hanging out with me this morning and I hope you have a great week coming up. Stay safe.

Ashley