A Wednesday list...

1. I spent all morning yesterday cooking. A photographer friend who is in a super busy season right now asked if she could pay me to make her a weeks worth of meals to keep in her refrigerator and then to reheat during the week. It worked out pretty well because I made the recipes big enough for our family to also have this week's meals done. I even ended up with a couple of meals in our freezer. So, while it was definitely work (so. many. dishes.) I was also basically getting paid to make my own food! And the rest of the week will be easy-breezy. I have to credit my friend Nicole with helping me be efficient and organized during the cooking process -- several years ago she organized some freezer cooking parties, and we learned how to most efficiently cook multiple meals at one time. Plus, I've watched her schedule prep for big holiday meals in a way that is quite the thing of beauty (that is, if you love detailed organizational plans...which I do).

2. I've started thinking that maybe it's time to have a garage sale. I'm usually a get-rid-of-things-in-the-moment person, rather than save-everything-until-I-have-enough-for-a-garage-sale person. So I end up doing a lot of donating, or selling the occasional bigger item on Craigslist. But right now I have just enough things I'm wanting to get rid of that it makes a garage sale seem almost possible. I'd save it until I have more...except our garage is too full to handle much more storage at this point. I'd try to sell it on those community facebook groups...but that always feels like too many steps. Maybe I need to realize that if selling stuff online feels like too much work, a garage sale may also feel like too much work. Honestly though, what turns me off of posting stuff online is taking and posting pictures. Blah. I'm just too lazy.

3. I was looking through a Target ad yesterday and there's a whole spread with "retro" gift ideas, including....a portable cassette tape player. I'm sorry, what?! Guess I should have kept my Walkman (it was a fantastic yellow, in case anyone was curious). I probably shouldn't be too shocked, after all I did add a record player to my Christmas wish list this year. Although, I think part of the appeal that records still have is the actual difference in sound -- some people prefer it. Is that why a cassette is appealing all of a sudden? Or is it just people's fascination with things that are old? Is it the kind of fascination that stems from a place of curiosity (wow, that's so different! so weird!) and fascination with things that are "exotic", or is it a desire for a seemingly simpler time? Am I overthinking this Christmas ad? Most definitely.

4. I blew through Skyward, by Brandon Sanderson over the long weekend. It's real good, y'all. It's a sci-fi novel (I'd classify it as  accessible sci-fi) with a fast-paced, interesting, and well-developed story; a teenage heroine with anger issues; some interesting supporting characters; and a broken-down spaceship with a snarky and sarcastic AI. In addition to the well-crafted story, I think this book's biggest strength was the journey that the main character went on through the book. I love good character development.

So here are my questions today:
Would you be more likely to pay someone to cook for you, or get paid to cook for someone else?
Are you a garage sale person, online selling person, a donate everything person, or a keep everything person?
Do you still have any cassette tapes or a cassette tape player?