Are you sitting down? Yes? Okay, great. I have never played a Pokemon game. Ever. I grew up when Pokemon began getting very popular, but never really understood the hype and thought that it was pretty childish and for some reason, my attitude was pretty stuck up when it came to Pokemon. It just looked and sounded dumb to me, but I never actually picked up a Pokemon game. I knew who the infamous Pikachu was and considered him cute, though overrated and the other characters such as Squirtle and Charizard looked really cheesy to me. What was going through my head? I have no idea.

About two weeks ago I picked up Pokemon X, deleted J's file (sorry J) and started playing with an open mind. What happened was inhabited happiness and lots of squealing. I was immediately addicted to catching new Pokemon and seeing what I could find next. I was pleased with how easy it was to get into the game and that there weren't long cutscenes of story to get through. It's very much a pick-it-up whenever you want type of game and I enjoy that I can easily put it down or pick it up.

So, my first impression is that I wish I had given Pokemon games a chance sooner and I apologize to all the kids I insulted when I said their favorite characters were weird.

I love smoothies, but the cost of going and having someone else make it for me can get quite expensive. I always saw blending to be such a chore for some reason, but recently decided that I wanted to give it a try and see if I could incorporate smoothies into my diet. I struggle with getting fruits and vegetables into my diet partially because I try to only buy and budget for what I need for particular recipes, so getting extra ingredients for something that I may not eat because I'm not hungry usually results in a waste of money. However, I do know that I struggle with eating breakfast. I am NOT a morning person. If I am going to have something for breakfast it's either because my husband was nice enough to make it for me OR it was something I could just pick up and eat like a banana or some other fruit I can just grab. Then again, since I don't usually budget for fruit and mostly focus on lunch and dinner recipes, I end up not having anything fast for breakfast and being that I'm not a morning person anyway, I tend to slug my way through the morning until I can finally feel like eating which is typically around 11AM.

This isn't healthy for me and I know it! So I am trying to change this, one delicious smoothie at a time. I dusty off my blender that gets used on rare occasions and made a trip to the grocery store with a minimum list so that I didn't overwhelm myself with too many options. Here is how I came out!

In total with taxes I spent around $17. So far I have been able to conquer a smoothie every morning for the past two mornings and I am sure I can get another week if not a little bit more out of my stash, so as far as feeling like I would spend too much, it comes out to about $1.88 a day or perhaps a little less if I stretch out my recipes a little bit more. Currently I am enjoying about a cup of froze fruit, a cup of spinach and kale, about a half a cup of almond milk or less, a half to a whole banana, and a few pieces of ice to add a little bit of water. I have yet to try the peanut butter, but I am thinking a banana and peanut butter smoothie would taste good. 

This is what my concoction looks like! It could probably be a little smoother, but I'll need a new blender for that. It tastes surprisingly delicious considering there is spinach and kale in it! But then again, spinach and kale don't really have a strong flavor so I am not sure what I was expecting. I think I will add more next time!

I have seen some recipes that call for chia seeds, protein or other additives and I am not quite ready to take that kind of plunge, but eventually I hope to venture into adding more healthy options to my smoothies. For now, I will continue to push myself to have breakfast every morning. I have struggled with not eating breakfast since I was a kid, so I have a lot of years of habit forming to undo and redo. 

Until next time! 

Lately I have been feeling overwhelmed with those normal adult things that we have to do in order to keep functioning in society. I was sitting at my desk wasting time as I do and bumped into one of my old YouTube videos where I was hauling a horde of books. Wait, what is a group of books called? A pack, a gaggle, a murder of books? A bountiful bunch of books? Anyway, I remembered how happy I was to just sit and read for hours and hours. I've been an avid reader since I was a child and have always been able to escape in the pages of a good book, but as I am ashamed to admit, it's probably been about two years since I have been able to sit down and enjoy reading. I have tried a few times and my mind would either wander or I would get distracted by something else and get frustrated with trying to finish. 

Well, I want to read a book and get back into regularly reading and occasionally reviewing books when I have the time. My brain feels slightly more like the consistency of mush from my lack of indulgence in one of my favorite pastimes. So, now the only question is what to read. I have a few books on my shelves that I haven't dug into, so I think I will just close my eyes and point and whichever one I point at I will read and report back to you, blog. I want to hold myself accountable somehow so I a putting it out here on the internet so that if I don't do it, well, I just might be embarrassed at the fact that I didn't do what I said I was going to do. 

The next time you hear from me, it should be about said book. :)

-Panders