Here is a quick roundup of recent things that all seem to have been influenced by podcasts and blogs.
I got my hair cut and dyed and I that is a BIG Rachel thing off my list. I've decided I want to go back to my natural-ish colour and then let my hair go grey naturally. I'm excited! If I hate it I can always dye it again later. I think it was the Girl Next Door podcast which made me think about aging and how it's odd that we talk about "grey haired old ladies" when most women actually go grey in their 30s or 40s. So why is Grey hair only OK in your 60s or 70s? I'm all for hair dying but I am loving the grey haired 30 and 40 year olds that I see and the more I can help normalize what is normal (going grey) the easier it will be for anyone else who doesn't want to dye hair forever or have to make the "big decision" to go grey.
I signed up for the Modern Mrs Darcy Patreon so I could get the Summer Reading Guide. Now I just need to find a colour printer so I can print it off because it looks SO COOL. I flipped through it super quickly (on my phone - total demerit there) and reserved a few of the books at my library hoping to avoid the flood. 25 library hold a month on Libby isn't enough for me so I had to drop a few off my already on hold list. I am not going to read Outlive by Peter Atilla soon. And I have had The Lincoln Highway on there for ages too. Those both went off the holds and onto the TBR list.
I made this chickpea salad from NoraCooks which I think was on Birchie's blog? And Jen? Or elsewhere.. but anyways it's SO GOOD. My husband tried it and he said "this seems like an American approximation of a coronation chicken salad. Which is true - coronation chicken is a super gross (IMHO) British salad made from mayonaise and curry powder and chicken. But somehow switch to yogurt and chickpeas and it is yum. The only problem is the gastrointestinal issues surrounding my consumption of chickpeas and cashews... but the babies don't seem to mind.
I really enjoyed this podcast on Grocery Shopping from About Progress. My grocery bill is HUGE right now and although it's not really a problem I thought there were some interesting ideas in this one. Mostly the idea of shopping every other week, and of doing a two week meal plan. I feel like we are *always* planning meals and maybe doing it for two weeks at a time would make it feel less like we were *always* planning? There are some things (milk and fruit) that we would need more often but how much of my grocery shop is random bits because I am putting an order in? Although saying that... I didn't buy any cookies during last week's delivery and I have regretted it every afternoon. I did buy courgettes with the intention of making courgette brownies, but I still just have two courgettes and no brownies.
And finally, I was influenced by... me! I took a trip down memory lane of this blog and found a post about Gym Day which I wrote in 2012. My gym buddy Geraint and I are still good friends but we have not been gym buddies for a while due to the sheer quantity of children and pregnancies I've had in the last 6 years (4 children, 3 pregnancies). Anyways, I sent him the blog post and we were reminiscing about gym and then I realized I *could* made it work! So on Thursday I went to the gym with him and we did an arms set. It was great. While I have been busy having kids he has been busy getting strong and now he lifts weights so heavy I couldn't even load his rack for him.
And while this isn't influenced at all, I really love taking photos of babies and making it look like they have hair. Is that a tic tok trend? Here is Audrey the baby hair model:
What's your best tip from the internet or podcast sphere recently?