Quill & Cosmos

If you were a kid in the 90’s, you may have seen the awesome packaging of a frozen meal product called Kid Cuisine at the supermarket and BEGGED your parents to let you try it. I mean it had stuff like dino nuggets, fries, mac n cheese, maybe some corn... but what REALLY catches your eye is that chocolate desert that comes with it! Wow what a delight that would be. And if you had cool parents like me, they caved and bought you one of these magical frozen meal things.  So you took it home, opened it up, popped it in the microwave, and it took WAY too long to cook, but you waited with anticipation for it to finish. And then... finally... it was ready. You reached in, picked up one of those steamy dino shaped nuggets... and then immediately dropped it because the temperature is close to the average temperature of the surface of Mercury. It’s HOT!!! So now... after having to wait 3 whole minutes for it to cook, you can’t even enjoy it because you can’t even touch it, let alone ea...

The Importance of Fiction in our Lives When we immerse ourselves in a good book, we often find that we come away changed. Whether it's a new perspective on life, or a newfound appreciation for our own world, fiction and fantasy have a way of impacting us deeply. In this post, I want to explore the ways in which fiction and fantasy can change our lives for the better. I sent this quote written on a birthday card to my son just before he moved into our home as a foster placement. I understood that he grew up in the system and was essentially raised by DHS and a myriad of foster homes and children’s homes. My son was alone in the world for most of his life. And yet, he still clung desperately to the hope that he would one day find a family. Part of what kept him going, he said, was his love of reading. And so one of the ways I have been able to reach out and encourage him is through the lens of fiction and to help him understand that even the “dragons” of his life can be defeated and ...

    Last night, I drank this liquor thing called a BuzzBallz. The weird round shape is what first caught my attention while shopping at the grocery store.  It sort of reminded me of the “thermal detonator” Diet Coke bottle I got at Disney. And if you know me, you’d know I’m a bit of a sucker for novelty. So when I found this little thing, I sort of shrugged and thought, “Why not? I’ll give it a try.” And ended up liking it except it made me sick. Lol. By itself, it was really too strong. It said 15% alcohol, which is way stronger than what I’m used to. But it was delicious. So I googled around online about it out of curiosity. Some people like to drink it by itself while others mix it into something. That sounded interesting, and I found out this chocolate-flavored one I picked up paired well with coffee. Hmm, sounded good! I made myself a decaf ice coffee last night and poured my hard drink into it, and gave it a taste. Now that was good! Very good! And it was a lot...

 Continuing on with our MBTI family interaction stories, I’ve got a great one to tell you about that happened a couple days ago between me (INFJ Mom) and my son (INTP 16). So there I was loading the dishwasher when my son rushes into the kitchen and says, “Mom! You gotta come, quick!” But I could tell nothing was serious, his tone was playful. He grabbed me by the shoulders and started marching me out of the kitchen like a prisoner, lol. INFJ Mom: Where are we going? INTP 16: To the deepest circle of hell. INFJ Mom (pretending to be scared): Y-y-you mean… *gulp*, YOUR room? INTP 16: Yes, my evil lair. Mwahahaha! INFJ Mom: No! Not that! Anything but that! INTP 16 (in a suddenly cheerful voice): Really? Anything? INFJ Mom: Haha…. no INTP 16: *shrugs* Can’t blame a guy for trying. INFJ Mom: So what do you need? INTP 16: That place sent me, like, this online job interview thing. I know how I want to answer the questions, but it won’t let me continue unless I have a word count of at lea...

  At my therapist’s office today I had a hard time deciding where to sit in the waiting room. There’s a place I usually sit because it’s a perfect angle where I could see the door so I would know when she is ready for me without having to look around too much. But like... I always sit there. And I started wondering if she might think I’m weird because I always sit in the same chair in the waiting room. (And I just CANT have my therapist think I’m weird now can I ? 🤔) I thought about sitting in a different spot. I sat in the corner closest to the door for a minute or two. But I realized that she might look into the room and not realize I was here because the room looked empty. So I scanned the room, thinking about a better location, and ended up moving back to my usual spot just in time for her to walk in. Oh, snap. Did she catch me being weird? Because I specifically wanted to avoid her catching me being completely weird. Worse yet, was there a camera in the lobby? 😬 I didn’t eve...

As you may have noticed by my last several posts, I've been on a personality types kick lately. There is a specific reason I have been more interested than usual lately, but as a true INFJ, I don't want to tell you the real reason, ha! Who knows? Maybe some of you intuitive types will figure it out anyway.  But, not only have I been researching to try to solve an internal issue for myself, I've also been having fun with learning about my family and diving down into how we interact with each other. And because I think it's kind of funny and interesting, I thought other people might as well, and perhaps if you have similar personality types in your family, you might see yourselves reflected here.  Today I am going to introduce you to my little family of 5 and I am going to use our typologies in place of our names in order to protect my kids' privacy. I don't have any issue with you knowing my name. If you're new to my blog, welcome! I'm Brandi. But in thes...

Now that I have introduced myself as an INFJ, I'd like to spend some time telling you a little more about my own experiences so that maybe you can compare yourself to me. First off, being open is not easy for any introvert. We like to keep to ourselves. So writing this at all makes me feel a little vulnerable. And second, many people joke that INFJs have multiple personalities. And while you might smile and think that’s funny, it’s actually not true. The truth is that the INFJ has more of a multifaceted personality, like looking through a diamond or kaleidoscope. We have angles and layers that very few people will ever fully understand. And that’s kind of the thing with us, we long to be understood on those deeper levels, and yet we hide ourselves away from everyone at the same time. We don’t know why we are like this. But if you are patient and kind, you might earn enough trust from your INFJ friend for them to show you a bit more of themselves. Deep down, even though we seem a bi...

  Dropped my kid off at the driving school yesterday and had two hours to kill. I didn’t really feel like driving half an hour all the way home, so instead I drove to the Starbucks down the street and used a little gift card money and some star points for a quick treat. It was like 100° and humid here in Oklahoma. Normally I’d order a hot coffee, but it’s just too dang hot for a hot drink. So I picked something from the cold menu. I have no idea what this was. It said something about cold cream. (I thought cold cream was something grandma put on her face.) But anyway, this cold brew coffee came with two pumps of vanilla syrup and chocolate cold cream on the top and maaaan I tell you it was GOOOOD!! So I sat there and enjoyed that coffee beverage and the little cake pop I got with my star points and hung out at the Starbucks until my son was done driving. And if y’all like ice coffee, go try that chocolate cold cream one and tell me if you liked it. *Edited to add: It's called the C...

    I am an INFJ weirdo. As such, I have spent some time gleaning some information about what that means. But if you were to ask me about the Fe Fi Fo Fum of it all, I don’t know and don’t care. Something about cognitive functions and blah blah blah. And this, funny enough, is a bit of what my personality type is all about. We tend to see the big picture, but find small details to be too tedious.  So, I was first typed as a teenager by someone who came to my high school and handed out these stacks of paper with lots of questions on them and we had to answer each question on a scale of whether we strongly agreed, or strongly disagreed, or somewhere in between. At the end of the quiz, the lady went through how to score it up to see our results. Mine resulted in the letters INFJ. I had no idea what that meant at the time. And when she asked everyone to raise their hand as she called out each type if that was what they got, I was the only one in my class who received the INFJ...

I met a man from New York who had never tried biscuits and gravy before. Say what?!?! Hear me out...     In December 2019, we took our family on a road trip to Kentucky to see the ARK. Really great trip. As a christian mom, I would highly recommend taking your kids out to see it if you haven't yet had the opportunity. It was really neat. But that's not what this story is about. This story is about biscuits and gravy. Before we became a family of 5 (we got Sterling mid 2020), our favorite hotel to stay in was always the Holiday Inn Express. Decent room, decent price, free continental breakfast in the morning. And we just so happened to be staying at a Holiday Inn Express on our trip to Kentucky. (I would gladly accept any reward the Holiday Inn wants to send me for this free advertising. You're welcome. Ha!) When we woke up the next morning and went down for breakfast, there weren't many people in the dining room, which was good because the gals tend to scatter all over ...

Speaking of weird coffee mix-ins, I bet I have another one most people don't do. I put chlorophyll in my coffee. Hear me out...  That coffee is green, I mean GREEN! And you might be thinking... why would anyone mix chlorophyll in their coffee? Well I'll tell you. I've got these crazy wild hormones that give me all kinds of trouble and I take many different supplements to try to control all the symptoms. One of my symptoms is that I bleed for 10 or more days each month. (TMI? Sorry.) If you’re a dude or a prepubescent female, 10 days is an absurdly long time to bleed. I already have naturally low blood iron, so the constant bleeding really depletes my energy, gives me headaches, nausea, stuff like that. Us busy mommas don’t need that kind of added drama. Am I right? So my fabulous physician, who is a naturopath MD, suggested I start taking a liquid chlorophyll supplement to help with clotting and slowing the bleeding. I picked up a bottle at the pharmacy on my way home. I no...

Do you like to drink tea, coffee, or both? How about trying them mixed together? Hear me out. Usually, coffee is my main squeeze when it comes to hot beverages (or cold for that matter). I love coffee. But sometimes, I do enjoy an occasional cup of tea when the mood strikes me. Last year for my Birthday, my amazing mother gifted me a loose leaf sampler set of August Teas. I ripped open each little packet to smell them and they all smelled so wonderful. I couldn't wait to try them.  Well, long story short, none of them tasted quite as good as they smelled. They were okay, but not great in my opinion. So for the past year they've been sitting in my cupboard waiting for me to be in the mood to have a hot cup of meh.  Usually when it comes to tea, my go-to favorite is a warming cup of chai. I like the bags of vanilla chai you can get from the grocery story. And I especially loved a chocolate chili chai I once tried when I walked into a tea shop in Canada called David's Teas. Ah...

It all started... So, I am currently recovering from the "Rona" that plagued my home these past couple of weeks. I don't mind telling you that I was not vaccinated, even though that is going to invite a TON of backlash. But here's the thing, my symptoms were not too severe. I had a temperature of 99.5 for 24 hours, then I was sleepy and congested for a week and I lost my sense of taste and smell. (It's still gone.) My husband, on the other hand, is a government employee. He had no intention of getting vaccinated until he received a letter basically saying he can get the jab or lose his job. So out of his love for our family and not wanting to risk our only source of income, he went and got the vaccine. Three weeks later, he was diagnosed with covid 19 pneumonia. He was the one who needed a week of breathing treatments and steroids and antibiotics to get well. I started feeling bad a few days after he did. Then our daughter got sick also.  No one in our house got s...

I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to write about today, so I asked my kids. They wanted me to talk about fuzzy socks.  “Fuzzy socks?” I said. “How interesting! What do you like about fuzzy socks?” And my oldest daughter said “They keep my feet all toasty!” “Mine too!” said my youngest.  But one problem I tend to have with fuzzy socks is that they tend to make your feet very slippery on our tile floors. “No problem,” my oldest says “the better for dancing in!” So I asked her to demonstrate what dancing in fuzzy socks looked like. She was absolutely right. The fact that fuzzy socks make your feet slippery is a positive instead of a negative because they are excellent for dancing. My youngest also displayed her best moves in her slippery socks. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a child. Maybe I will have to put on my fuzzy socks and slip slide around the floor with my kiddos today. What about you? What do you like best about fuzzy socks?