Rhett is turning TWO on Monday and we’ll be celebrating the youngest member of our dude crew this weekend. We are thinking of trying out some backyard camping (this heavily relies on the currently unknown state of Ryan’s old camping gear) and the boys think we should play shoe and car-related games in honor of two of Rhett’s favorite things. (Yes, shoes top his list of favorite things.) It should be a good one!
Before unplugging for the weekend, I wanted to take some time to type up my weekly roundup of favorites so if you’d like to read about a few things making me smile this week, keep on scrolling!
Things I’m Loving Friday
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Hoopla for Audiobooks
I’ve highlighted the Hoopla app before for kid-related e-books and audiobooks but lately I’ve been really into using it to listen to audiobooks myself while I doing random mindless tasks around the house. I’ve listened to podcasts for years but I’ve recently been swapping podcasts for audiobooks instead and loving it!
Hoopla is an app that allows you to use your library card to digitally check out e-books, audiobooks, music, movies, TV shows and more. Using Hoopla to listen to various audiobooks when I tackle mindless tasks makes cleaning up around the kitchen or folding laundry a loooot more enjoyable. Time goes by a lot faster when someone reads you a suspenseful thriller as you fold clothes! I’m currently listening to On a Quiet Street by Seraphina Nova Glass and am truly looking forward to unpacking some things we still have in boxes at our rental house later today because I’m planning to listen to this audiobook while I tackle the task. It feels like adult story time!
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Finalizing Bathroom Lighting + Mirror Selections
I know I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again — I have SO much respect for interior designers after going through the process of building our home. I joked with my best friend Merri’s twin sister who is an incredibly talented designer in Connecticut about the amount of math I’ve found myself doing (so many measurements and making sure spacing is correct in various areas) and she said, “Oh yeah! I do math all day long.” Who knew!?!
I headed to our house with my measuring tape, notebook and pencil in hand earlier this week to make sure the sconces and bathroom lighting we selected will work with the mirrors we selected before ordering everything. I used our cabinet/bathroom vanity renderings to get a feel for the correct sizing but I’m so glad I measured everything in person, too, because I had to make quite a few adjustments to smaller mirrors that won’t overwhelm the space. (Thank you to my friend Alise for encouraging me to do this!) I cannot wait to see it all come together! We’re on track to hang lighting and mirrors in mid-September so now we’re crossing our fingers and hoping everything arrives on time.
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Deconstructed by Liz Talley
My rating: B
As I began reading Deconstructed, I wasn’t initially enamored but about a third of the way in, I found myself super into the story and anxiously awaiting the end of the day so I could see how everything unfolded. It had a slow start for me, felt a little redundant at times and was a bit predictable (factors that contributed to my “B” rating) but I was invested enough in the book to fly through the second half of the story. I also loved the friendship between the two main characters and found myself rooting for both of them throughout the novel.
The book begins when antique-store owner Cricket Crosby overhears two women whispering in her shop about her husband’s affair. Her world quickly collapses from underneath her as she’s forced to come to terms with the fact that maybe her husband isn’t the man she thought he was when she married him years ago. Determined to find out the truth and come out on top, Cricket confides in her mysterious but somehow trustworthy new assistant, Ruby, and the two set out to get to the bottom of everything, a process that reveals layers of lies and potential danger.
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An Annemarie Reunion!
Ohhh how we missed Annemarie during our time in Florida! When Rhett was just over a year old, I finally threw in the towel and realized I could not keep this blog going while juggling three young kids without help. (Hiring help was always something Ryan and I were both okay with but I just genuinely wanted to do it all which, in retrospect, was crazy.)
Annemarie became my saving grace around the holidays last year and watched Rhett two mornings a week while the big kids were at school. I swear she was the only way I was able to keep my blog and various partnerships afloat. After a short hiatus this summer, Annemarie is baaack and I am rejoicing! She’ll continue to help with Rhett on Monday mornings and he will attend preschool Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The fact that I will have three mornings to crank out work at my favorite local coffee shop every week makes me so happy. I haven’t had three 3.5-hour blocks of time to myself in seven yearssss! I love this blog. I love you guys. And I love having focused time to dedicated to work and something incredibly important to me. Woo!
I guess I just wanted to highlight Annemarie here again because so often we think other people are out there doing everything when really there is help involved. Annemarie helps me so, so much and it took me more than 6 years of trying to do it all on my own to recognize that’s insane. Knowing I have dedicated work time to myself (outside of 5 a.m. wake ups and nap time madness) breathed new life into my work and was one of the very best things I’ve done for myself as a mother.
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Around the Internet
Food: 15 Healthy Chickpea Recipes / Easy Rice Pilaf / Taco Pasta Salad
Fitness: How to Break Up Your Workout Days / Zero 30: Free 2 Week Bodyweight-Only Workout Program
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Friday Flashbacks
Cheesecake Cookies ‘n’ Cream Ice Cream (Putting this on your radar in case a cold, creamy sweet treat is appealing to you and it still feels like the surface of the sun where you live!)
High Protein Oat Bran (After a brief hiatus, I brought this back for breakfast a few times this week! So satisfying!)
Question of the Day
What is one thing making you smile this week?
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