Life is heavy, you guys. I feel weird not acknowledging the cold-blooded murder of Renee Good or the completely enraging response by the White House. I feel helpless and sad and scared. I knew life under another Trump regime would be horrifying, but man did I underestimate how dark things would get.
And yet… there is also hope and joy and activism. Protests and fundraisers. And there are silly blog posts to write about my silly privileged life where I can put down my phone and forget about what’s happening. Not everyone gets the chance to do that, and my hope is that this silly blog post delivers a little bit of lightness to you. <3
1) My new morning routine
One of my big goals this year is to figure out my daily routines. I have long struggled with this aspect of full-time remote work, even though it feels like something I should have done to a science by now. This week I finally implemented a new morning routine and I am loving it. I set my alarm for 6 a.m., let it snooze once, and then get up, feed the cats, and make coffee. Then I sit down in my new reading chair in my office and read a book while drinking coffee. Once my cup is empty, I’ll take a shower, make breakfast, and then sit down at the table to eat breakfast and read blogs. Then, it’s time for my morning skincare routine (+ other tasks like emptying the dishwasher, taking my meds, making my bed, dealing with my CPAP machine, etc.). Lastly, I sit down with my planner to write out some to-dos before logging onto work. So far, I am enjoying this morning routine so much! It’s nice to get 20-30 minutes of reading time before my day even begins!
2) Worldle
I haven’t played Worldle (that name is so clunky, ugh) in many years, but I decided to start playing again this year with a very nerdy twist. Worldle is a game where you’re given the outline of a country and have to name what it is. You get six guesses and with every guess, you learn how far away the mystery country is to the country you guessed and its position. For example, yesterday’s answer was Lithuiana and when I guessed Australia (don’t judge me!), it told me the mystery country was 13,553km from Australia and to the west.
And listen, I am terrible at geography so I am terrible at Worldle. I barely ever get the country right unless it’s one of those obvious answers. But I love it because once I find out the country of the day, I open up ChatGPT to ask questions. I ask about the history of the country, the climate, the geography, the culture, what it’s like to live there today, etc. It’s fascinating! I also pull up Google Earth to see where the country is located geographically because my knowledge of where countries are situated is very poor. One of my friends said that Worldle repeats a lot of their answers, but that’s okay! It’ll show me if I’m learning anything from this nerdy project of mine.
3) Bookly
Last year, I used an app called Bookly to track my reading. I wanted to use it for a full year just for shits and giggles. Bookly is an app that tracks how long it takes you to finish books. You can manually enter time or you can use the timer, where you start the timer when you sit down to read and stop the timer when your reading session is over. At the end, you mark down what page you’re on, and then it tells you how long it will take you to finish a book. I also used it to track my audiobook listening hours, which was fascinating!
I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep using Bookly, but once 2026 rolled around, I decided to give it a rest. And OH MY GOD. I had no idea how stressful I had made my reading life! Do you know how satisfying it is to sit down to read and not have to worry about starting a timer? Or listen to an audiobook and not keep track of what time you started listening and what time you stopped? I feel so FREE. I can just read without opening up an app on my phone first! What a concept.
Am I glad I did a full year of book tracking? I guess so? I don’t know what I learned, other than the fact I never want to do it again.
4) Two weeks of feeding training
I spent a lot of time procrastinating about getting my cats’ new microchip feeders set up. I think I got the feeders in early December? And I didn’t set them up until a few days before New Year’s. Oops! My girls eat wet food in the morning (a 3-oz can split between two bowls) and then they free-feed on dry food throughout the rest of the day. And while they are still going to be able to free-feed, they will only be able to eat at the feeder linked to the microchip on their collars. There’s a lid that only opens up when the right cat is at the right feeder. Once the cat leaves, the lid closes.
For the first week, I kept the feeders unplugged and just let them free-feed as normal. I wanted them to get used to the feeders before we moved on to the scary part! Then, last Saturday, I put their collars on and closed the lids, but since Eloise kept taking her collar off, I decided to give her a break from the collar and keep the lids open. Monday morning, I tried again! I tightened up Eloise’s collar and put it on her, and she hasn’t taken it off since then. I closed the lids and they were curious about the opening and closing mechanism, but wouldn’t eat from their bowl. In the evening, I opened the lids and then kept them open for a few days to show them that the feeders were their friends!
(At this point, I also moved Eloise’s feeder so it’s on the opposite side of the hallway. They were only eating from the right feeder when the lid was open, and some Googling led me to believe the problem was the corner location.)
First location
New location
Thursday, I closed the lids again and they were still a little wary, so I decided to serve them a little bit of Churu in bowls and place the bowls in front of their respective feeders. Eloise went first and as she started chowing down, her feeder lid opened and she was a little perturbed, but not enough to abandon her yum-yums. And then Lila did the same. I figured I’d just keep giving them treats in front of their feeders until they figured out that they didn’t have to be scared of them. But because my girls are geniuses, they figured it out quickly and both started eating from their feeders last night. I think we finally might be on the path to feeder independence. Fingers crossed!
5) Weekend plans
It’s the freakin’ weekend! It’s been a long week, especially getting back into the swing of things after such a long time off work. Tonight, I’m going over to my mom’s to watch the premiere episodes of The Traitors US. (YAYYYY!) Tomorrow, I have book club and then I’ll spend the rest of the day at my mom’s to watch playoff football. And Sunday is a writing date and then more playoff football!
Yes, light and cheery posts about routines and cat feeders are EXACTLY what I need right now, Stephany. Thank you.
I had no idea this kind of cat feeder technology existed! How cool — and how nice that your cats figured it out.
Your Bookly experience made me laugh. Good for you for trying it out! I finally downloaded Storygraph, but I am already kind of regretting it… I have been using Goodreads for so long, I don’t really want to give up on it without knowing Storygraph is *better*, but I also really don’t want to track my reading in two apps. I already struggle enough as it is.
I am still getting used to Storygraph and I’ve been using it for over a year now. I still prefer Goodreads for the social aspect, but I do enjoy the additional stats and ability to to quarter/half star ratings. Plus, the monthly wrap-up is really fun! But I totally understand not wanting to track reading in two apps and my thought is to do what feels best, and if that’s using Goodreads, then use Goodreads!
I have never heard of worldle (that is hard to type). My son got me hooked on these map games that I do on my laptop a couple of times a week where you pick a continent and then match the country to the name. They are HARD but I feel like it’s educational!
Your morning routine sounds really good!
My goal is to be able to fill out an entire map of the world, but that’s going to take me some time! There are so many countries!
Ha, the feeders- that sounds about right. Cats NEVER do what you want them to, but it sounds like you’ve gotten it sorted out now. I’ll be interested to hear updates.
Yes, that morning routine sounds great. But you go to the gym some days, right? I guess this is your non-gym day morning routine.
YES TO PLAYOFF FOOTBALL!!! I’m excited for the Bears game tomorrow night (if the Dolphins are out of it, I root for the Bears). And- I’m so sad- they fired MacDaniel!!! : (
I can’t workout right now with my joint issues so I haven’t been to the gym since mid-December. 🙁 Hopefully once I get a diagnosis and treatment regimen, I can get back to my gym routine (which means then I’ll have to adjust this morning routine!).
I wasn’t too surprised by the firing. It was time for McDaniel to go, unfortunately. I liked him, but I hope a new GM and a new head coach (and a new QB??) will inject new life in our team!
Do I need another quick daily game in addition to all of the other quick daily games that I play? Maybe!
Bravo for ditching Bookly! I was getting stressed out just reading about it. I disagree that what gets measured gets managed…sometimes what gets measured just gets measured for no reason.
Yesssss. “sometimes what gets measured just gets meaured for no reason.” That’s exactly what happened by tracking my reading time! There was really no point to it and I’m glad I don’t have to do it anymore!
I’ve been encouraging Phil to play Worldle with Paul since they both are interested in geography. I have too many word games to add another to my rotation. Lol. I play so many, it’s kind of ridiclous!
It has been a bleak freaking week here at the epicenter of yet another horrible situation. The boys’ school was closed yesterday/today and while it’s been hard to scramble to figure out care for the boys, we are lucky we have more flexible jobs and can WFH. I did hire the babysitter on our block today from 10-2 since I have 3 hours of meetings with no breaks and that would not go well with a 5yo around, even with screens.
We are also cheering for the Bears!!! I just hope anyone BUT the Eagles gets into the superbowl for the NFC!!
Bleak is the right word for it, and I’m sure you feel the bleakness even more being in that community. What a scary time. I hope your community is able to heal from this. <3
My mom is a Bears fan, so their win on Saturday was fun! It's crazy that all of the playoff games (well, until Sunday night I guess) came down to the final 2 minutes. So many nail biters!
Well, your girls ARE geniuses! What good kitties! Yes, reading about your schedules and kitty feeders made me smile, and the world desperately needs that kind of thing. I desperately need that kind of thing! Hooray for a weekend of football!
I’m always here to deliver silly stories about my cats and cute photos of them to take everyone’s mind off the news. The news gets darker and darker every day.
Oh I love that morning routine! It sounds so satisfying and calm. So inspiring!
Your Bookly experience reminds me of when I had a Rent the Runway subscription- it was supposed to be fun (and it was, mostly), but choosing the clothes was kind of stressful and a huge time suck. And then I realized I don’t need new clothes all the time, cancelled my subscription and was glad to get my time and mental energy back.
My Husband is a huge Bears fan, so we are very invested here. One bright light in a crap week.
GO BEARS! 🙂 What a great win!
It’s amazing the things we do that are stressful and are things WE DON’T HAVE TO DO. Gah!
Your opening statement rings true with me. I never could have imagined just how crazy things would get under Trump.
Hooray for a great morning routine. I’m second hand relieved (if that’s a thing?) that you are no longer Big Brothering yourself in terms of your reading habits/times. I know without trying that app that the app would eventually tell me something along the lines of: you suck. You are so slow at reading, why bother? (OK I may’ve gone a little SNL skit on that but you get the idea) . Honestly it took me a few lines before I realized that you weren’t talking about Wordle. Worldle- I think I would so benefit from this game. I’m in a similar boat- geographical cluelessness. .. . . It’s real. Look at your bright cats and the robotic method that now feeds them. So fun. I wonder if they have something like that for teenagers who ALWAYS NEED TO EAT ha ha.
Luckily, I did not fall down the rabbit hole of thinking I suck or I’m a slow reader. I really thought it was interesting to see how long it would take me to read a book! But it was just an added nuisance to my daily life that I didn’t need. So glad to be done with that little project!
You are not alone in your current feelings 💔
Worldle sounds fun and I love how you are taking it even further and doing research!
Hells yes for stopping Bookly and feeling FREE!!!
Yay! I hope the girls continued to use their feeders this weekend! Great work easing them into it.
It is so nice to just READ without starting and stopping a timer. Gah, I didn’t realize how much that was annoying me!
Uff, yeah, this year is not off to a good start (but why in the world should we have expected anything different?) Thanks for the distraction. Your new morning routine sounds delightful – so, is that about 2 hours of “morning” before you start work? I mean, I wouldn’t mind for my day to start so leisurely but that is not what happens in my house LOL
Also: Microchip feeders, WHAT?? My mind is blown.
I started reading this post and than I hopped over to the App Store to download worldle… And then I was sucked in and played and read stuff. I love that little nerdy project of yours and I could totally see myself doing it too. I am spending too much time on phone games these days bit this might be a trick to do something more useful with my time.
I am excited for your new morning routine. It sounds like it is really working for you. Fingers crossed it carries on.
Yeah for the cats figuring out their new feeding system. Would that work when you are not at home for a weekend?