Happy Monday!!!

Happy Monday, Everyone!!

I mean, I know people usually don't like Mondays, but how can anyone be down this week? It's Thanksgiving week! Which means people with regular jobs have off on Thursday and probably Friday, too. Which means it's a short work-week!

I mean, for most people.

I actually have to work every day this week, including Thanksgiving (Which I'm pretty upset about, but I already posted a really long rant-ey post about that so I'm just going to let you check that out on your own by clicking here). 

But I'm not gonna let that get me down! It's gonna be a great week!

To start with, I just started reading I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and I'm pretty excited to read about the youngest Nobel Laureate in history. I'm only about 40 pages in, with a goal of getting to at least page 90 today, but so far it's been really interesting. She does a great job of explaining the culture that she was raised in so that the reader isn't just thrown into this world that may be completely different from the one they live in [like, I knew a little bit about Pakistani culture, but I would have been completely shocked if she hadn't explained the culture of the Swat Valley where she grew up, because it's so completely different from what I've experienced in my life].

I'm looking forward to learning more about the culture she grew up in and her activism to promote education for girls, because that's a cause I care a lot about. So I'm probably going to read this book much faster than I would normally read, but that's only if I can actually get myself to sit down for a while to do so. 

Anyway, other than reading, my day is supposed to include a long run, which I have postponed due to the fact that it was below freezing outside when I got up and I'm not about to try and run in below freezing if I don't absolutely have to. So I'm probably going to head out for my run at about 11, to give the sun a chance to get high enough in the sky to actually produce some warmth and hopefully it will be like in the 40s by then (It's 36 now at 9:45, so it's looking solid).

I also did one of my training modules for my instructor position at Mathnasium, and that was a good time. I am really appreciating the way that we instruct at Mathnasium because it makes more sense than how I was taught in school growing up and if I had been taught the way that I'm learning to teach others now, I would have been much better off throughout my education.

And, finally, I am scheduled to instruct this afternoon/evening, and I'm excited because the students I work with are all pretty cool and helping them is always a fun time for me.

So, ta-ta for now, I'm going to log off the computer and get to my reading for the next hour and 15 minutes.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist

#SelfCareSaturday Math, Chili, and Cat Cuddles!

Happy Saturday, everyone!

I hope everyone's had a lovely day so far and is looking forward to a wonderful evening as well.

Today's #SelfCareSaturday is about making some delicious and warm autumny comfort food (which is what's happening in my house right now) and cat cuddles and snuggling up with a good book.

So, I actually had work this morning because today was the annual "Trimathlon" for some of the Mathnasium centers in the area, and I was working as event staff for one of the centers, but we finished earlier than anticipated, which was nice, and it meant I got to go home early, which was even nicer!

When I arrived at home, my mom was working on putting the ingredients for the chili that I wanted to make with our acorn squash together (I found a cool recipe in a vegan cookbook and was like "this would be a great idea since we already have an acorn squash" so I told my mom about it and she was like "okay, yeah"). However, the recipe technically calls for 8 hours on low in a slow cooker, which caused some logistical issues since it was nearly 4 when I got home, which would have meant a midnight dinner (not so nice) but we're modifying it a little bit by cooking it on the high setting which should cut the time at least in half, and if that's not enough, we'll move it over to the stove for a little while to get it done in time for supper. 

There was also the small matter of the recipe calling for cubed acorn squash but not mentioning if it should be pre-roasted or not. We went with not. That was a silly idea, because it meant we had to peel the acorn squash (because while the skin is full of fiber, it's not really the yummiest part). So we're thinking that next time we want to make this one, we'll probably roast it and then dice it and do it as a stove-top dish, rather than a slow cooker thing because it'll be quicker and easier. But I'm super excited because the whole house smells like this delicious acorn squash chili and I can't wait.

In the meantime, however, I'm getting some cat cuddles with my precious lovebug Lucy and catching up on my reading of Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton (I didn't get a chance to read yesterday because I was busy doing my prep for an evening training session/class for my new job.

My precious Lovebug Lucy 

So, all in all, a pretty good day, since the event this morning was a lot of fun and I have the pleasure of the entire house smelling like acorn squash chili and also cat cuddles and reading--what more could someone want on a Self-Care Saturday.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist