If We Were Having Coffee

I saw this over on The Perpetual Page-Turner‘s recently, and I LOVE this idea…so I am going to join this wonderful blogger in her idea of sharing my life with y’all over a hot cuppa coffee/tea/hot/cocoa/chia/glass of water.

So, curl up with your computer, your drink of choice, and let’s share (and by share, I mean you need too…down in the comments section).

If we were having coffee… I’d probably start by telling you that I got a new (to me) computer. Let me start by saying, having been fearful that my beloved MacBook Pro from early 2011, Imgene (yes, I named my computer—don’t judge) was going to die
I started talks with my trusty computer expert (the guy who lives across the street—that’s where everyone’s personal-unofficial Mac Genius lives right?) about what I should do. Through months of fruitlessly searching for an older Mac tower for updating, he found a late 2015 iMac in excellent condition and worth the asking price—and more then what I had wanted to spend. I bit the bullet and make a Facebook Marketplace transaction.I was honestly COMPLETELY scared, more dough then I wanted to spend AND it was more than I have EVER spent on a person-to-person transaction. But with a big prayer and a leap of faith, I did it and it has been great!

Say ‘Hello’ to Talllah!
**Desktop graphic.**

If we were having coffee…I’d tell you what I have been reading. This month I finished Educated by Tara Westover, Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York by Roz Chasst, Murder at Archly Manor by Sara Rosett, Chocolate Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke, The Thirteen series (The Glass Castle, The Ruby Moon, and The Paper Boat) by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins, and lastly My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman. My favorite being My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry. I love the relationship between our main character Else and her kooky grandmother. I do wish I had read it before I had read Britt Marie Was Here (also by Backman), which I had also really enjoyed and will now be doing a reread. Have you read either?

If we were having coffee… I’d tell you how much I used Hoopla this month. I ‘read’ the majority of my books via audio and this month I used my local library’s Hoopla service a little more then I used my library service of Overdrive. Both are a huge part of my life. I do NOT subscribe to Audible or any other audiobook service. Why?

I’ve never needed too…between Overdrive (or the Libby phone app), Hoopla and just checking out physical CDs from my library I have been able to find more than enough to keep me occupied.
I don’t need to keep the things I read. If I want to ‘re-read” I just check out again. I don’t need to take up valuable space with physical books and I don’t need another digital library to keep track of. It’s not like you can ‘sell’ my used digital books once you have them. Transferring ownership isn’t a thing. Thank you, Apple for leading that charge with digital music.
If I ever run out of books with my local library system…I can always get always purchase a state-wide library card. And that cost for one year is cheaper than a couple of months with Audible.

Can you tell that I love my local library? If you don’t have a library card get one today! Your taxes pay for the library, so…use the resources you have. Find your local library system here.

If we were having coffee…I’d tell you about how I have been going through my old cookbook collection and making things. I would even tell you about how I am thinking about doing a whole series on cooking from said cookbooks (perhaps something similar to the Dinner, Dining and Desserts thing I did a couple of years ago).
I’d also tell you that these are not all ‘professionally’ published cookbooks. Some are, things like Pillsbury’s Best—winners of Grand National Bake-off’s or other such single brand focused ones. But they also include community/churches/school fundraising cookbooks. They have great old forgotten recipes in them—make with butter and shortening and all those things that people don’t use anymore. But they did SO regularly in the early 1940 and thru the ’90.

If we were having coffee…I’d tell you about how I have been thinking almost constantly about what I want to do with this blog and how I am sometimes paralyzed by what I want to do—stress paralyzation is a real thing. So please hold tight with me and believe me when I say I love blogging, I’m not particularly great at it, but I know I need to be consistent and have a plan. Those things will only make me better. But perhaps a little encouragement from someone who is reading would help as well.