Jana Says

Simplifying in December

December 4, 2014 by Jana 34 Comments

Third month of Choose Your Own Adventure challenge is in the books. And I’m pleased to report, it mostly went well.

So that’s good.

As a refresher, I focused on organizing three areas of my house, with a plan to work on my Pinterest boards as well (you can read the full post if you want). With regard to Pinterest, I did eliminate some pins and boards, but I’ve decided this is a work in progress. There’s just too much in there to have dealt with all in one month. I’m hoping to have this all done by January as long as I can follow my new rule of one pin in, one pin out.

With regard to the three areas of my house I wanted to organize this month–my living room table, my front entrance closet, and my daugther’s homework station–I got it all done. I only remembered to take a before picture of the homework station so forgive me for the lack of complete details.

Here’s the results. I’ve highlighted all the things I used to complete the challenge and I only needed to spend $1 (on the crayon caddy) to do it. Everything else was ~~taken~~ repurposed from another part of the house. Not pictured are the trash bag of coats and shoes for Goodwill and the mountain of paper tossed into recycling. I apologize for my shitty photography and also the puke green color of my wall. I hate it and haven’t yet picked a new color to replace it.

The theme for December is simplify. I like this and I actually got an inadvertent head start when my husband and I decided that our daughter would have a choice–a big birthday party again or just a few friends for a sleepover and then a family activity of her choosing on her actual birthday (which is a Saturday so that makes for easy planning). She chose the sleepover. And this is awesome because her friends are great kids, mostly well behaved (two of them are sisters from a set of triplets; the third is a boy and is definitely not invited), and they all get along. They’ll be at my house around 8 so it’s cupcakes and snacks. I’m not even buying crafts for them to do. They’re creative. We have Frozen. It’s easy, cheap, and I don’t have to put on pants. Simplified birthday FTW!

I felt like I needed to come up with something else to simplify because I had the birthday thing already planned and settled before this theme was announced and using it as the only challenge seems like cheating. It proved to be harder than I anticipated. I’m not really one to make things complicated. I’m pretty good at keeping things simplified. I know my limits, don’t pack my schedule, am good at saying no to things I don’t want to do (unless it involves my family), and clutter makes me anxious. This list had some great ideas to focus on except I already do a whole bunch of them. Christmas Eve is just the three of us and we have our simple traditions down to a science.

So I got stuck.

Then I started looking around and I realized I can simplify my blogging life. I have no fewer than 6 notebooks full of ideas and two planners I’m working from. It’s very easy to get confused. If I can consolidate all of that, and perhaps start using some automated tools and an editorial planner, I can focus on other blogging stuff and my two(!) new projects for 2015. So that’s my focus. Simply blogging tasks.

Are you guys participating in the simplify challenge? What are you focusing on?

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Amazon gift card giveaway if you haven’t already!
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10 books that changed my life and a giveaway for you!

December 3, 2014 by Jana 78 Comments

I think it’s pretty clear that books are some of my favorite things ever. And while I read a lot, I sometimes wonder if I read the “right” books. I mean, there are dozens of classics I’ve never read (even though every year I promise I’ll read some of them) and when I see books like My Ideal Bookshelf, I get so intimidated because a) I’ve never heard of half of the books people mention and b) they seem way above my intellect. And then I get sad.

And that lasts 5 minutes.

Because even though I might not read the right books, I read the right books for me. That’s pretty much all that matters.

So when my friend Sally (who blogs at Tiny Apartment Design) nominated (asked?) me to list 10 books that changed my life, I was first nervous and apprehensive but then excited and enthusiastic. Because I want you guys to know what books have made a difference to me. It’s hard for me to say that these books changed my life, per se, but they have all had a long lasting impact on me and have affected how I think about life, writing, storytelling, and made me feel all the feels (or some combination).

These are my books in no particular order except the way PicMonkey cooperated:

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Rest Rabbit Rest from the Sweet Pickles series
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Alex: The Life of a Child by Frank Deford
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Late, Late at Night by Rick Springfield
The Pact by Jodi Picoult (I could also have picked The Storyteller)
Our Town by Thornton Wilder (I know it’s a play but it counts to me)
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Start by Jon Acuff

Honorable mentions include:

Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

I’m sure the list is longer but we have something important to get to.

Like free stuff.

Now that you know some of the books that impacted my life, I want to help you find the next one to impact yours. To do that, and to thank you guys for being THE BEST readers ever, I’m joining with a bunch of other bloggers in a giveaway. From me, you get a $25 gift card to Amazon (my favorite place to shop) and another gift of your choice, not to exceed $10 (nail polish, Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts gift card, more money to Amazon…whatever you want). Just complete the entry form below and when you’re done, keep reading to see what awesome stuff 8 other bloggers are giving away. You know you want it.

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1. Ellie: Ellie Petrov / 2. Sarah: Beauty School Drop Out / 3. Shelly: DIY Mama / 4. Karen: Book Delight / 5. Lisa: Expandng / 6. Dean: Mrs. AOK / 7. That’s me! / 8. NJ: A Cookie Before Dinner / 9. Kathleen: Kapachino

Good luck!

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#inthedrawer: Holiday Instagram fun

December 1, 2014 by Jana 15 Comments

I know today was supposed to be the final post in my cheer mom series but I need to share this with you guys instead. The cheer mom series will wrap-up next Monday instead.

I’m not sure if I ever talked about this before but I loathe the Elf on the Shelf. It creeps me out, I’m too lazy and forgetful to move the thing every night, and I really don’t want my kid thinking there’s a crazy miniature stalker temporary living in our house, reporting back to Santa every night. Plus, if the elf “makes a mess”, who has to clean it up? That’s right. Me. I barely like cleaning up every day messes. Why would I purposefully make an extra mess?

I mean, I know she’d enjoy the whole Elf on the Shelf thing. But I just can’t do it. And I do other stuff. Just not the elf. I’m fairly certain she’ll survive (also, I feel like since there’s now the Mensch on the Bench, I’d be discriminating if I just did one of them).

However.

Remember this meme Nadine posted a few weeks ago?

We decided to turn it into a fun Instagram challenge (I don’t know that challenge is the right word but I don’t know what else to call it). For the next 24 days, instead of the Elf on the Shelf, bust out your old Barbies (or buy one. They’re like $5 for a basic doll. You can get them at Walgreens or most drug stores) and, using the themes below, be as creative as time allows.

Make sure you follow me and Nadine on Instagram so you can see all of Barbie’s drunken Christmas adventures. And use #inthedrawer (we decided not to use the word “whore” because, you know, Instagram creepers and porn) so we can see what you did.

I know you’re thinking “Jana, if you can do this, surely you can participate in the Elf on the Shelf”. You’re probably correct.

But Barbie is a drunken whore.

The Elf is a stalker.

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Friday Favorites: Cover Songs

November 28, 2014 by Jana 9 Comments

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are remembering to wear loose pants today. I know I am.

You know how there’s this trend where movie people and TV people and kids programming people are taking all the stuff that was popular in the 70s and 80s and giving it a facelift and calling it new even though it’s really just recycled and the old stuff is clearly better (yes, Annie remake, I’m looking at you. You, too, Karate Kid and My Little Pony and all your friends)?

It’s mostly out of hand at this point.

However, sometimes, it’s pretty cool when something is redone or remade. Specifically, when musicians do it.

It might be my college years spent in bars listening to cover bands but I enjoy a good cover song. There are bands like Boyce Avenue whose entire catalog is cover songs (and you should really check them out. They have a YouTube channel and they are amazing) but sometimes, a band will perform a cover song and it’s so damn good I can’t stand it. Occasionally, I think it’s even better than the original #noshame

Here are five of my favorites so you can enjoy them, too:

Metallica, “Turn the Page” (originally performed by Bob Seger).

Shinedown, “Simple Man” (originally performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Volbeat, “I Only Wanna Be With You” (originally performed by Dusty Springfield)

Alien Ant Farm, “Smooth Criminal” (originally performed by Michael Jackson)

Dynamite Hack, “Boyz in the Hood” (originally performed by N.W.A) If you listen to nothing else in the post, please for the love of all that is holy listen to and watch this video.

Honorable mentions: Basically everything on Brent Smith and Zach Myers (from Shinedown) two cover EPs. Goldfinger’s version of “99 Red Balloons”, Tiffany’s cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” (don’t judge me), Slash and Myles Kennedy’s version of “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, and the Chili Peppers cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground”.

What are some of your favorite cover songs? Any you think are really bad?

Have a great weekend!

Coming up on Monday: The final post in my cheer mom series.

Linking up with Amanda, as always

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Thanksgiving thoughts

November 26, 2014 by Jana 9 Comments

Ordinarily I link up with Kristin and Joey for Stuff and Things on Thursday but since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I’m taking the day off from all things blogging and so I moved my weekly brain dump to today. But I’m focusing on Thanksgiving for this week’s topics.

I’ve done Thanksgiving posts before (you can read some Thanksgiving music stories here, my Black Friday rant here , and how we celebrate the holidays without shopping here) but I’ve never really delved into what I’m thankful for or why I love Thanksgiving as much as I do. So let’s do that now.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the food. I mean, how can you not love it? But more than eating it (which, let’s face it, is basically the best part), I love cooking it. In fact, cooking Thanksgiving dinner is the highlight of my year. No sarcasm. I am a pretty decent cook and this is the one time per year I really get to show it off.
Family time. My family is spread out all over the place and Thanksgiving is one of the few times per year the majority of us are concentrated in one location. My sisters are two of my favorite people in the world and I love getting to spend time with them, watching the Macy’s parade, cooking, laughing, and being all sisterly (including one year when we fought because they got angry with me for not liking Hairspray. Legit angry. I think there was even yelling. I like the movie now so the fight is even funnier). Plus, watching my daughter with my nephew is always fun.
Fall. Spring still reigns as the greatest season of all but fall comes next. There’s something about the changing leaves, the new TV season, the staying indoors to read more books, the smells, the colors, the home decor, the getting dark early, the wearing of sweaters, the eating of casseroles and stews, the naps during football games, and the warmth of cozy fleece blankets that make it special. The fact that the greatest holiday of the year occurs during fall makes it that much better.
Taking time to focus on thankfulness and gratitude. I know we’re supposed to do this all year, and I do, but the atmosphere of Thanksgiving lends itself to be extra reflective. A quick rundown of my thankful list:
- My family. This should be obvious but I know not everyone loves their families so I consider myself lucky that I love everyone in my family, including my in-laws. And most of the time, I’m confident they love me back.
- My pets. They pee on the floor and bark relentlessly and eat everything that’s not nailed down (and a few things that are) and the cat still refuses to sit next to me on the couch but I don’t know what I’d do without them.
- This blog. It frustrates me at times but being able to write on my own terms and have a place to work on my dream means so much to me. Plus, the relationships I’ve formed are some of the best I’ve had in my adult life and it’s amazing how close you can be to people you’ve never actually met.
- Books. Books are basically everything. As long as I have a book, I’m okay. Barring food, water, clothes (for the sake of the general public) and the company of my family and pets, I really don’t need anything except books.
- Music. Music is what feelings sound like and like books, I don’t know what I’d do without it. I love that there’s a song for every situation and emotion and often, when I don’t know how to deal with my feelings, I turn on music. It’s therapeutic and entertaining and it enhances my life every way.
- Things that make my life easier: my whole house vacuum, EZ Pass, the fence around my backyard, the internet, my iPhone, my crockpot, Amazon, the online library catalog and reservation system, and really big purses.

I hope you all (or those of you who celebrate) have a wonderful Thanksgiving, no matter how big or small your celebration is.

I’ll see you back here on Friday for another edition of Friday favorites.

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Simplifying in December

10 books that changed my life and a giveaway for you!

#inthedrawer: Holiday Instagram fun

Friday Favorites: Cover Songs

Thanksgiving thoughts

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