Snug Slug Activities

Naomi Hendrickson

  • Donuts

    Naomi Hendrickson

    For my birthday a friend gave me some gift cards. They were left over from an event at her husband’s workplace and were set to expire on 12/31/2024. Since my birthday was 12/22, this gave me a very limited amount of time to spend the gift cards, which is how I found myself in a gas station on 12/30 ordering one of every donut from Dunkin Donuts and paying with six $5 gift cards, with many apologies to an amused and understanding cashier.

    I ended up with 16 donuts and two medium hot cocoas, which were fully covered by the gift cards with about $1 to spare.

    In the end it turned out that there were only 15 different kinds; we accidentally ended up with two chocolate-filled donuts and no plain powdered donut, but as I’ve had plain powdered donuts plenty of times before, I wasn’t really bothered.

    The donuts we ended up with: plain glazed, chocolate frosted, whoopie pie, Boston cream pie, strawberry frosted, sour cream, jelly-filled, maple frosted cream-filled, cruller, chocolate cake, peanut, vanilla frosted, lemon-filled, cream-filled, and chocolate-filled.

    Members of the sibling group did a thorough tasting and came up with some opinions. After a very fast and sugar-fueled discussion (yes, those things are related), we came to the following conclusions.

    The lemon-filled was not a favourite; it had a slightly unpleasant aftertaste to the filling. Another one that ranked low was the cruller, which was somewhat chewier and more bland than expected.

    Among the ones that people liked was the chocolate cake, a go-to flavour for many of us. The whoopie pie donut was their special seasonal one, made with the cake donut, cut in half with a fortified whipped filling. It was good, but it felt like there was something missing; we eventually concluded that what would really take it to the next level would be some strawberries.

    The maple frosted cream-filled was very sweet and delicious but would have been better with some bacon to cut through the sweetness.

    The chocolate-filled was another favourite, and most people agreed that it was good as-is.

    And, of course, the Boston cream pie, another family favourite.

    Hamlet got into the mix too by stealing half of the jelly-filled donut, which he was immediately relieved of and did not actually get to eat, much to his disappointment.

  • Goal Two

    Naomi Hendrickson

    Another fun one!

    We are going to watch some movies. Each month we are going to watch a film from a different decade, starting with 1900-1910 in January and moving through the year chronologically.

    We haven’t chosen all of the movies yet, and there is a good chance that we will just choose each month as we go through the year.

    I am particularly excited about this one. I love stories and am interested in seeing how storytelling in movies has changed over the years.

    I don’t have any other solid goals set yet, but I often take the whole month of January to think about what I want to accomplish in the coming year, so we’ll give it a couple of weeks.

  • Goal One: Around the World

    Naomi Hendrickson

    The first goal I’ve set for 2025 is food-related, as many of my favourite goals have been. This one is being undertaken by both me and my youngest brother, who is currently 16 years old.

    He has chosen 12 countries and assigned one to each month of the year. During each month we will try a new dish from that country.

    The current schedule looks like this:

    January – Korea

    February – Nigeria

    March – Peru

    April – Greece

    May – Croatia

    June – Japan

    July – Haiti

    August – Austria

    September – Honduras

    October – Russia

    November – France

    December – Hungary

    We are keeping it flexible and recognise that the unexpected can happen and changes may need to be made. This is an important aspect of all our goals.

  • New Year, New Me?

    Naomi Hendrickson

    Yes, but no. I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I do like to set New Year’s goals. The difference may be minimal, but it is important. A resolution is a firm decision to do or not do something, while a goal is something you are working toward; it is a destination at the end of a journey. Resolutions are not a bad thing, and I make them quite often myself, but for the start of a new year, I prefer goals.

    Resolutions and decisions to change can happen at any time and, many times, are not as easily measurable. Goals are measurable and sometimes time-sensitive. That is why I prefer to set New Year’s goals, so that when I look back on that year, I have a measurable and tangible result to look at.

    I also like to set myself fun goals! In 2023, I, along with my youngest brother, set a goal of trying 52 new foods and beverages, one for each week of the year. We had loads of fun choosing new things to try, some of which were delightful, some of which we will never voluntarily eat again (looking at you, marzipan). There are some things that we still regularly enjoy, or just get for special occasions, that we never would have if not for that goal.

    While that goal started out as something fun and silly, with the benefit of another year’s distance from that experiment, I can say that it has changed me as a person, and not just in my snacking habits.

    When I am walking through a grocery store, I am much more likely to grab something new off the shelves instead of gravitating toward the exact same thing every time. I don’t hesitate to order a new dish off a menu, while previously I stayed very much in my comfort zone, always ordering the same thing I got the first time I went to that restaurant.

    It may seem like a small change, but it is a change nonetheless, and not one that I had anticipated. Setting a fun goal for yourself does not mean that you are in any way stifling your chances to grow as a person; it is just giving you the chance to experience triumph and happiness in your life while you do it!

  • Meet the team!

    Naomi Hendrickson

    “Team” may be a bit generous, but it’s what we’re going with anyway.

    My name is Naomi Hendrickson, I was born and raised in Michigan, US, where I currently reside. I am a recreation and leisure professional, and obtained my Bachelor’s in Science from Northern Michigan University.

    I have always loved learning and exploring, and want to help others feel the joy of discovery while embracing play.

    The other member of our little team is Hamlet. He also considers himself a leisure professional, despite the fact that he has not yet obtained any sort of certification. Named after a prince, he feels he deserves to live like one, and so far no one has disagreed.

    Hamlet loves playing with sqeaky toys and going on adventures, provided he gets to have a nice long nap afterward.

    So there you have it, the Snug Slug team. I am sure you will get to know us even better in the coming year, but if you have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

  • Big Changes

    Naomi Hendrickson

    You may have heard the term “comfort zone” thrown around before, but let’s talk about what that really means. Most people generally interpret it as a state of feeling comfortable and happy, and in most situations that is a fine definition. In recreation, there are three recognised zones: Comfort, stretch, and panic.

    Ideally, you are living in your comfort zone. Here you know what you are doing and how to do it, you have little to no anxiety and can function in a “comfortable” manner.

    The stretch zone is also called the challenge zone. This is where you are trying new things, pushing the boundaries of what you feel comfortable with, and setting new goals.

    Past this is the panic zone. If you are in the panic zone things feel impossible or overly difficult, you are overwhelmed by stress, and even things that you are normally fine with feel unmanageable.

    To “live your best life” you need to spend time in both your comfort and challenge zones, while staying out of the panic zone as much as possible. Obviously, life doesn’t always work the way we want it, and sometime you are going to find yourself in the panic zone, but it is when you feel like you are spending a significant amount of time every day in the panic zone that you need to make a change.

    That’s where I’m at right now. Spending far too much of my time in my panic zone, stressed and overwhelmed, no energy to do anything but survive. I also felt like I was spending very little time in my challenge zone, spending every evening retreating to my comfort zone in an effort to recover and prepare for the next day. So I am making a change. I had settled for living a life that was “okay” in the hopes it would one day lead to my “dream job”.

    I have always been a dreamer and a lover of stories, so I decided that I was done waiting for my dreams to come true, and instead I was going to get up and make them.

    So here I am, the intrepid heroine setting off across the mountains to take back my future.

    That makes it sound grander than it is.

    Off we go…

  • Hello World!

    Naomi Hendrickson

    Sometimes life leaves you feeling sluggish. It is far too easy to start feeling burnt out and like you don’t have the physical or mental energy to do anything. You may feel like a shell of a person, inside is nothing but goop and a yawning emptiness.

    It’s time for you to break out of that shell and be your own independent pile of goo. You may feel like a dead snail now, but with some love and care, you may find that you are a bright and beautiful slug!