Hello!

I first saw this acronym (or is it an initialism?) on TikTok and I kind of love it – it stands for Reading, Eating, Playing, Obsessing, Recommending and Treating (i.e. self care) and I thought it would be a nice way to do a sort of little life update! A lot of these prompts are quite open ended which is a very nice way to be able to talk about the things I really want to!

Reading

My current reads are The Fine Print by Lauren Asher in physical and Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas on audio and I’m actually really enjoying both! I really didn’t expect to like The Fine Print, but the writing style is much less cringey than I thought it would be and I’m finding I’m taking any opportunity to read it – I don’t often try to squeeze in a chapter here and there because it can make reading feel really disjointed, but I can’t say I’m feeling that way at all.

House of Earth and Blood is a bloody long book – it’s my first ever Sarah J Maas and so far I really like the writing style. I’m definitely not retaining all the information about the different houses and there’s been a lot of characters introduced but I think the world building is really solid, I love the writing style and how immediately I felt immersed, and I really like the protagonist characters! It’s another one I’m looking for any opportunity to read and I’m definitely intending to finish it before the end of the month.

I only have one more book after these two to finish my monthly TBR and I’m absolutely stoked about it.

Eating

One of my goals for this year was to try a new recipe every month and this month I tried baking an Apple cake! I finished the last of it yesterday and I must say it was amazing when I reheated it in the microwave and added some vanilla fudge ice cream, but I don’t know if it was worth the faff. I had to prepare apples in three different ways – one of which involved grating an apple which was a very odd experience. I love cooked apple but I think I’d rather try making cinnamon baked apples in the air fryer before I go through the faff of making this again! It was yummy though.

Savoury wise, I’m back on my HelloFresh hype – my husband and I have been intermittently subscribed to HelloFresh since about 2021 and right now, I’m trying really hard to make it work financially! I like trying new ingredients in what feels like a ‘safe’ way (i.e. in small quantities so there’s no waste if I don’t like it), I love being able to choose from a limited menu each week and having controlled portion sizes that I can’t misjudge! But it is more expensive than doing an average weekly shop so not sure how much longer we’ll be able to keep this one going!

Playing

I think most people using this format would use this to talk about music, but as I realised recently I don’t actually listen to that much music – I listen to audiobooks when I drive and when I’m at home, I can’t concentrate to music with lyrics so I only really listen to actual music when I’m having a kitchen dance party with my husband.

So I’m taking this as an opportunity to talk about the video game we’ve been playing – my husband and I started playing Stardew Valley this summer and I am fully obsessed, and a very good farm manager if I do say so myself. We don’t play it every night unfortunately – my husband works predominantly away from home, I teach a couple of dance classes in the evenings and I’m currently doing the NaNoWriMo Writing Challenge of trying to write a novel in a month so video games aren’t my priority! But if I have time, you bet I’m adding to my million-gold-worth in Stardew Valley.

Obsessing

Since I left school, the obsessive part of my personality that practically defined me as a fangirl kind of fizzled out. I’m definitely not as ‘obsessed’ with anything as I used to be. I don’t know if I’m perhaps taking the word too literally but I suppose the things I’m borderline obsessed with at the moment fall mostly into the category of clothing, which surprises me as much as anyone else!

I bought this rugby shirt from Asda, of all places, at the beginning of October and I love it so much – I feel really cute in it, it’s really comfortable and I love the colours!

And adding to my green collection, I also got a pair of bright green joggers from New Look in the end of summer sale in September and I would wear them every single day if I could. They ended up only being £7 and they’re so comfy. If only it wasn’t a bit too green if I wear them with the rugby top!

And then a hoodie that was a Cricut project my husband and I worked on! He’s a big old Pokemon nerd and found a meme of my favourite Pokemon Oddish edited in to the Adidas logo. So we obviously made our own version. We had to make him a shiny Oddish (hence the glittery sparkles) because we didn’t have the right vinyl to do a normal coloured Oddish, but I love him! The hoodie is a Primark mens hoodie and it’s very cosy and (so far) the whole thing has made it through the wash unharmed!

I should probably also add that since seeing the new Wicked movie on release day, I am also wholeheartedly obsessed with that – Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero is my new personality trait and as my husband will verify, I leaned over to him during the movie and said ‘it’s okay because I’m married and he’s gay’, but I am going to need the year it takes for the second part to come out to mentally prepare for the songs he sings in Act 2. I genuinely think that movie is perfection – considering they’ve turned Act 1 into a 2hr40 movie, it felt so well paced and I wasn’t bored at all. The music is spectacular, the costumes are incredible, the casting is astonishing and we are already planning another cinema trip. Full on, obsessed.

Recommending

There are two things I would recommend right now and one of them is more short term and one of them is more long term.

Short term – I’d think about making a list of everyone you need to Christmas shop for before Black Friday next week. Personally I’ve got pretty much everything I want to buy for our families in our Amazon basket and I’m waiting to see if I can save any money on Black Friday, but a lot of places seem to be doing a week of Black Friday deals and they’ve already started! If money is a bit tight, making the most of these deals (and getting the Christmas shopping ticked off early!) is definitely something I’d recommend right now.

And secondly, I’d recommend starting (or at least thinking about) setting up your 2025 journals if you’re into journalling! I’ve done it many times before where I leave it to be one of those ‘between Christmas and New Year’ jobs but then I either end up being away from home with family or I end up rushing to get them finished before the year officially starts.

I thoroughly enjoy setting up both my bullet journal and my book journal spreads each month so I think I’d like to start making the 2025 journals now so I can do it at a bit of a slower pace and really enjoy the process!

A very generic and an oddly specific recommendation – take your pick!

Treating

I didn’t know what this goal meant initially, but I realise now that it refers to what I’m treating myself to – any self care or things I’m doing to nurture my soul rather than tick off my to do list!

I have started buying myself the Superdrug Foot Mask packs to do on a weekly basis – I have horrible feet and even talking about them on my blog feels weird af, but I love these masks and it feels like a real treat to allow myself the time to do something just for me! It’s probably not helping my budgeting (though they’re not super expensive) but for something that doesn’t break the bank, it’s nice to feel like I’m doing something completely selfishly with no consequence!

Otherwise, I’m working really hard on allowing myself the time to treat myself with care with regards to my mental health and my energy levels, whilst also establishing a sustainable routine but I’m not very good at consistency at the moment! I’m trying to listen to what my body is telling me when I can’t maintain the consistency I want, but it’s hard to be forgiving and not get frustrated! But I do feel like I am slowly but surely moving in the right direction.

And that’s my REPORT! As usual, I yapped for much longer than I thought I would, but I hope that’s okay! I might make this a more regular kind of post because it’s a nice way to check in and talk about the things I’m enjoying! We’ll see, shall we!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx