with quirks & all.

mid-30s. bibliophile. homebody. brunch lover. working on finding the harmony in family life, work life, & just being me. ✌️

[colie-says]

Yesterday, I was listening to a Choir Classics playlist on Spotify.

Today, it's "ABCDEFU" and "Are You Ready for It" and my girl power "burn it all down" playlist.

I contain multitudes.

[lizclimo]

[colie-says]

Wrung myself out ugly-crying in the kitchen to my husband last night, and then again during therapy this morning. 😭

My oldest nephew is a full decade old today. Having some Feelings about this. 🥹

Painted something cool at the library's adult-only creativity workshop. 🎨

Swapped numbers with a new potential mom friend. 📱

Debating between an iced coffee and a nap before the kids get home. Maybe both. ☕️ 😴

[colie-says]

help me figure out the title of this book!

Alright, Tumblr, I need you to do your thing...

My SIL is currently on a quest to find a specific book from her 1980s childhood, and she's having zero luck. Here's what she's got:

"It was a large, hot pink hardback picture book (approx. this shade) with a picture of the tree house on the cover. It was large, taller than an encyclopedia.

Talking animals lived in a tree. I think they were chipmunks? Or maybe squirrels?

The mom had to go somewhere and leave the little one with a babysitter, and it was a Very Big Deal.

It could possibly have been a Weekly Reader or other mass-produced type."

Ring any bells? Her birthday is coming up in a few months, and I'd love to surprise her with the title (and a used copy if I can get my hands on one)!

[geezerwench]

In Prince's funky name, amen.

[greywrenn]

Millennial here. All the above and:

Please send me the training or tutorial in a written format with maybe some screenshots if necessary. I don't want a video tutorial. I don't want to waste time trying to scroll to the exact moment in the instructions that I need and then have to pause and replay it because I missed the .01 seconds of actually relevant information.

Please. Text. Maybe some images for clarification. I can read. I promise.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Skimmable, SEARCHABLE instructions. If they're long, there should be a hyperlinked table of contents.

[colie-says]

Elder millennial here. But yes. Freaking ALL OF THIS. 👆👆👆

(Also why I have to listen to audiobooks on hyperspeed... my brain tunes out otherwise because it's processing at Book Speed 😂).

[colie-says]

I swear, managing my children's schedules, clothing, appointments, and paperwork is basically a full-time job. 🤪😂

This post brought to you by yesterday's seasonal wardrobe-assessment-palooza, sorting outgrown clothes, processing my bins of school papers & artwork from the last 18-24 months, and all the various (scheduled & unscheduled) appointments this week. 😴

[colie-says]

when you're not ~exactly looking for a new house, but you're not *not* looking...

and a house that checks all your boxes pops up on Realtor.com...

[colie-says]

Update: The showing went well, I'm glad we did it. It had a lot of great features, and also some things that were of concern (i.e. spots from water damage on multiple ceilings) that could be indicative of bigger problems.

It's an older home, which we liked, and it would need some updating in places. That's not unexpected, but some of the changes we would make would be major renos and therefore $$$$$.

It also had some features that would be great for someone else, but not things that have value for us (and therefore, don't want to spend the money on those things that add to the total price of the house, lol).

Given that it was listed at the very tippy top of what we think would be a comfortable price range for a long-term investment (when we move, we want it to be somewhere we foresee ourselves staying for the long haul), and it was a "liked, but didn't love," we don't foresee putting in an offer.

However, it has lit a fire under our bums to continue prioritizing some of the things we need to do to get our house ready to sell.

And also, probably engage a Realtor sooner rather than later because what we are looking for is not as common in this area.

[colie-says]

when you're not ~exactly looking for a new house, but you're not *not* looking...

and a house that checks all your boxes pops up on Realtor.com...

[colie-says]

Had my first appt with a new counselor today (referred by my GP) and tl;dr: I'm using 90% of my energy in my brain thinking* through things.

No wonder I'm freaking exhausted by like 4 PM every day.

(* worrying, ruminating on, trying to solve, fixating, etc etc etc)

[colie-says]

in case you want to know what it's like in my brain:

Earlier, I jokingly referred to the youngest as "madame."

And then my brain went:

madame ➡️ dame = woman ➡️ ma dame = my lady in French 🇫🇷 ➡️ ma'am comes from madam ➡️ calling someone ma'am originates in the aristocracy of saying "my lady"

*cut to me googling "etymology of madame" to verify*

[colie-says]

I have a client coming to my house on Wednesday morning, so I need to tidy and clean a bit.

I decided to spend yesterday regrouping after a hard weekend.

So naturally, one of the noodles has some kind of rash/ hives/ reaction and I have to take them to the doctor today. 🤦‍♀️

[colie-says]

Cannot overstate how much I love my GP.

[colie-says]

Ramblings/ MH brain dump after the cut.

I have a check-in visit with my GP this week re: my anxiety meds.

And I'm not sure how to say, "Yeah, it seems to continue to keep physical manifestations of anxiety from spiraling into a full-blown panic attack, but it's doing nothing for my daily existential dread."

Honest to god, I've done EVERYTHING I can think of to preserve my mental health. I've gotten off social media (which was a HUGE trigger for me). I'm very intentional about the news media I consume/ when/ how much.

I've limited my caffeine consumption even more than I already was (another thing that exacerbated my physical anxiety symptoms).

And yet.

The lack of control I feel over the alarming pace at which ~*things*~ are being dismantled is a struggle. I feel angry and helpless and frustrated and guilty that I'm not doing more and just... AHHHHH!!!

My dread over doing anything work-related hasn't been this bad since my last year in the classroom. And there isn't even anything work-related fueling my anxiety... it's more that everything I'm trying to do feels futile in the face of *gestures vaguely around.*

I've been actively learning not to catastrophize everything over the last, idk, 5-6 years, and yet I'm constantly evaluating if I'm being gaslit because, like, this is really bad. Right???

*rage yelling into the void because my therapist once told me that making those primal sounds does help*

tl;dr... idk, maybe I put this in a word doc and print it and bring it with me so I don't pull a high-functiong anxiety "smile and nod." 🙃🙃🙃

[lizclimo]

[colie-says]

This parent is now my sworn enemy...

Along with the one that bought KAZOOS for their child's valentines. 🫠🫠🫠

[colie-says]

🧶 Yarn-crafty friends... this is going to be my 2025 project. Just got lots of beautiful shades of brown yarn yesterday for the faces and I'm starting my first one today.

I don't do New Years resolutions, but if I had one, it would be a mission to do small things to put goodness out into the world.

[colie-says]

My children, on weekdays, when they have to be leaving the house by 7 AM for school:

Still sleeping when their clocks go off, don't want to get out of bed, whiney, grumpy, we practically have to wrestle them into their clothes.

My children, on weekends, when we have nowhere to be, and we (the parents) would like to sleep in:

Up and raring to go before 6 AM, full of energy, loud and chaotic.

🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️