Author: SecondHeartMom

  • August Reflections – August was Awesome!

    I don’t often end a month and think, “what a great month that was!” but August was just that! I am so happy with the way the Summer ended and the Fall semester began. It wasn’t perfect, but it was definitely positive! So, what were some of the highlights of August?

    Trip to Monterey, Mission San Juan Bautista and Stanford

    We had a quick, but full weekend trip at the beginning of the month. We drove down to Monterey on Saturday morning and did a campus tour at CSU Monterey Bay. The campus is beautiful. Not much was open because it was a Saturday, but we saw the student union, part of the library, their new classroom building, first-year dorm rooms, and some turkeys meandering across campus! It felt like a place my daughter would thrive and she seems excited about the prospect, so that was a plus.

    We stayed the first night nearby in San Juan Bautista. I had not been to this Mission before and the city and our hotel was so cute! We had dinner at Jardine’s, walked around town and saw a lot of old buildings, old cars and the Mission and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

    The next morning, we headed back to Monterey for my daughter’s favorite place on earth, the Monterey Bay Aquarium! I think her real draw to CSU Monterey Bay may have been the tour guide’s comment that many students will intern at the aquarium and EVERY student gets a free ticket to the aquarium every year!

    We finished up at the Aquarium pretty early, so we headed out to drive the 17-mile Drive and although we got turned around and never made it to the other end, we did have a nice stop at Pebble Beach and enjoyed the little museum and the seats overlooking the course and ocean.

    We then drove all the way up the coast to Half Moon Bay and cut over to drive to our hotel in Stanford for the second night. It was a beautiful drive, but I didn’t get any photos. The next morning we had to be at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital bright and early for a heart cath that had been postponed a few weeks before. It went well and all looks to be stable in her heart!

    Train Trip to Bakersfield

    This was another quick weekend. We took the Amtrak bus to Stockton and then hopped on the train to Bakersfield. Our plan was to go down, spend a couple of days, and then drive my in-laws’ car back up for my father-in-law to have when he got back from Montana with my husband.

    We had a fun visit with historical tours of my mother-in-law’s hometown and a visit to their library for a booksigning and a ton of good food!

    First day of Senior Year!

    Fun with Friends

    We did dinners at friends’ houses and went to a concert! I don’t have photos from all of the visits, but here’s a few highlights.

    Fall Semester First Classes

    All went well with them! I’m actually really looking forward to this semester. It is so nice to NOT have classes four days a week (only three this semester and one of those it is only a 5-6:15 pm class). Last semester, I taught Monday through Thursday at 8 am and that was ROUGH. Never again for that.

    Home prep for Cozy Season

    I moved a few things around and created a little reading corner and I got a new vacuum! I am also in the process of decluttering a lot of areas – my linen closet, my bookshelves, my kitchen cabinets. I even baked some banana bread – with LOTS of chocolate chips. I guess it is a Fall Cleaning instead of Spring Cleaning for me. Getting ready for cozy season!

    A good book

    I have not read as much this month as I would have liked – but it was BUSY! I am finishing up this book today:

    and will be jumping right into reading August’s BOTM club’s book:

    And Coffee and Spritzers…of course!

    I had a Little Pink Grapefruit at my friend’s house, I had two Dirty Gurl strawberry vodka drinks at the concert (no photos – totally forgot), and last night for a dinner party, I made End of Summer Spritzers. So many fun drinks in the month of August! And of course, it is Pumpkin Spice Latte month!

  • Friday Favorites – End of August Edition

    Joining A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals again this week for Friday Favorites! This week was my big back-to-work week. I eased into it the week before with pre-semester training at my University with our student staff and classes at the Community College where I teach starting. But this week it was all the things – classes at the Community College, classes at the University, and my Director’s job at FYE in full force. Work has gone well, but my house was worse for wear, and we didn’t eat much dinner at home this week. Something had to give, though, so cooking was that thing. Overall, I would call this week a win for multiple reasons! This is a long one!

    #1 Concert with friends!

    We don’t go to many concerts, but we have a favorite local duo – The Kelly Twins, made up of two brothers who play piano (well, one of them plays a whole lot of other instruments during the show as well). Their whole show is by request, and everyone sings along loudly, and it is an absolute joy! If you ever get a chance to see them, do it! You will NOT regret it!

    So much fun! I forgot to take a photo of my drink, but it was very good. Not a spritzer, but a cocktail. We were at Argus Bar, on the patio, famous for its unique cocktail menu items. I had a Dirty Gurl. I almost didn’t order it because ordering that at a bar as a 58 year old woman is slightly humiliating – but it sounded worth it. And it was. I had two. Here is their full menu of drinks: https://www.argusvenue.com/menu and another shot of the concert:

    #2 Shopping Local

    On Sunday after the concert, I had my 17-year-old drive me downtown to get my car because we rode home with friends since we had drinks. Better safe than sorry. Since we were downtown, we did some eating and shopping! We had breakfast at one of our favorite places, Upper Crust Bakery. I was back there again on Wednesday to have breakfast with a colleague. Its that good!

    We then went to our local bookstore next door, simply named The Bookstore. It has both new and used books and I ended up with one I had seen on CBS Sunday Morning earlier in the day:

    We then walked down the block to Little Red Hen’s Home store. Little Red Hen is an incredible local org that provides employment and programs for adults and children with developmental disabilities, neurodivergence, and more. They have multiple stores, and they always have unique items. The people working there are kind, considerate, and enthusiastic, and you feel good about every purchase! I bought napkins I could not resist (and seemed made for me):

    and a new bottle of olive oil suggested by the employee!

    And when I was checking out, they asked if it was a gift, and I jokingly said, “a gift for myself.” They put it in the bag and then gave me some paper to make it a gift! ❤️

    #3 Sunsets with my 17-year-old

    I am trying to savor the time with my 17-year-old senior this year, so later that Sunday we drove out to a field by our house to watch the sunset because the colors looked pretty, but we can’t see much of the sunset from our house. We also saw the moon rising.

    #4 Girl Scouts – Senior Year

    We made it! My daughter started Girl Scouts as a Daisy in Kindergarten.

    And she’ll finish out this year as a Senior! We had our first meeting of the year on Monday night and did Court of Awards (handed out badges and patches from last year because I had to cancel that last meeting last year) and a Rededication candle ceremony courtesy of my co-leader:

    I am very proud to have this group of high school girls still showing up every couple of weeks to celebrate their sisterhood! My daughter is the only original troop member left from Kinder, but we have a few from 3rd and 4th grade and others from middle school. It is a really fun group of girls!

    #5 Fresh Flowers

    Especially hydrangeas! Thank you Trader Joe’s!

    #6 PSL Season!!!

    Last week I said that I had found Pumpkin Spice at Human Bean, but this week I was able to grab it at Starbucks! This has long been a signal that Fall weather, Halloween and all my favorite things are close at hand!

    #7 New Students for Fall!

    It is always so fun to see the new students in my classes for the Fall semester. Many of them are fresh out of high school, and their excitement, anxiety, and newness are palpable. I did my usual activity in my Argumentation and Advocacy class on day 2. They read about different ethical frameworks for decision-making, applied them to a political campaign scenario, then made posters around the room, editing each other’s work and hopefully gaining a better understanding of the complexity of decision-making, ethics, and advocacy. It was fun! And the posters were impressive!

    #8 A New Vacuum?!?

    That sounds ridiculous, but I own four pets, and between their shedding, my shedding, and my daughter’s shedding, our vacuum does a lot. I had my last vacuum for close to a decade, and it was time for a new one! The hose on the old one had a crack and I could envision the dust and hair flying out of it as fast as I was sucking it up! I did some research and got a rechargeable canister vac for hardwood floors, and I LOVE it! It is so light and not having a cord is great.

    #9 A New Houseplant

    #10 Redesigned reading corner!

    I got a new lamp for this corner of our living room. The last one stopped working in spring, but the light in Summer is fine without a lamp over there. But with Fall here and the time change coming soon, I wanted to get another lamp over there. I decided to change magazine baskets, move them over there, and will have my currently-reading and TBR books there as well. It will be a cozy reading corner once Fall weather and darker days are here and I am ready for it!

    WOW! What a great week! All the good that happens can easily get lost in the daily grind for me. But this really makes obvious how much goodness happens in a week!

    Hope you had a lot of favorites this week! Looking forward to reading everyone else’s.

  • Friday Favorites #2

    I’m actually here on a Friday, joining A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals again! Woohoo! This week was busy, busy, busy, but I’ve made it through and had some definite favorites. Let’s go.

    #1 An Actual Spritzer!

    My friend just returned from Croatia and discovered a favorite drink there. It is made with Lillet Rosé and Grapefruit juice. It wasn’t bubbly, but it was quite tasty and looked very pretty. And it was excellent for a hot, hot day. Fall is a misnomer for what’s going on around these parts right now.

    #2 Sticking with parts of a meal plan

    I was far from perfect this week. We got a take-and-bake pizza for one of the nights, and my daughter and I got In-N-Out when she had to babysit. But, I did do two meals from the list and a third edit of one of the meals. First, the cottage cheese bowl – it was delicious. I don’t know what I didn’t do one every morning. But, alas, I only had this beautiful masterpiece once this week.

    I went to Panera one day (I have a sip club for iced tea and work near one on Tuesday and Thursday mornings) and got avocado toast there and today we had a morning meeting with breakfast. The other day, I just didn’t have breakfast.

    I also made the Greek Chicken bowls this week. They were excellent and my family was able to build their own so they didn’t complain about the assorted things they don’t like, which are, of course, different from each other. I loaded it up with everything!

    #3 Napping Pets

    We had a lot of napping this week from the pets, as always. I was able to capture these cutie pies:

    #4 Sunsets

    We had some pretty sunsets this week. One of the evenings, my daughter and I jumped in the car and drove out by the orchards near us and I was able to capture the tail end of this lovely one:

    #5 Pumpkin Spice Season!

    I thought I was going to have to wait until Monday (August 25 – when Starbucks releases their Fall drink lineup) to get my first Fall fix, but we went to Human Bean this week and they had their Pumpkin Latte ready to go! They make theirs with pumpkin puree and no syrup and I get it half sweet and it is AH-mazing!

    And I was inspired to “spice” up my own coffee at home today in my travel mug. I use Trader Joe’s Cold Foam creamer and then I tossed some Pumpkin Pie Spice on top. Quite tasty!

    That’s it for me in this week’s favorites!

    I did teach my first couple of classes, and they went well. I’m trying to get my house cleaned and reset before the craziness of the full Fall semester kicks in. It has not been a favorite, but I’ve definitely made progress on laundry and decluttering some things. Much more to do this weekend!

    I am looking forward to seeing everyone else’s favorites!

  • Full Week Ahead!

    Full Week Ahead!

    Well, tomorrow starts Fall 2026 teaching for me! 😮

    Hopefully, I will be “cruising” along soon, but it is always a little rough adjusting to the choppy waters as we start. I feel like I need to manage a few things better this year to avoid feeling overwhelmed by Week Six. So, here is what I’ve done to set myself up for success in my classes.

    #1 Edit classes to decrease grading

    I edited down my graded assignments a ton; I didn’t get rid of all of that work, but made it part of a portfolio assignment. I have built units that I hope will feel more intuitive for students than just following the order of book chapters. Each class is mapped out in a skeletal fashion, with some slack, just in case.

    #2 Meal planning

    I am not a meal planner typically. But, last semester, some of my most frustrating times were coming home from work exhausted and there being zero plan for what to eat. Exhausted me does not handle decisionmaking well and I am often hangry after work. So, having a plan will definitely help. Executing that plan will be the challenge. But, for this week, I have five recipes for this week, went grocery shopping today for the items needed and I’m ready to roll tomorrow! Here is what I’ve planned for the week:

    Monday: Greek Chicken Bowls from Eating Bird Food

    Look at this photo:

    Mine probably won’t look half that good, but YUM! And healthy!

    Tuesday: Easy Sheet Pan Gnocchi from The Nutrition Junky

    Again, a great looking dish:

    Wednesday: Tortellini Pasta Salad from Insanely Good Recipes

    Since my husband travels for work on Wednesday and pasta isn’t his favorite, I try to do pasta-heavy meals while he is gone. This looks like heaven in a bowl to me!

    Thursday: Pasta with meat sauce (will consider frozen meatballs as well) and garlic bread

    Friday: Leftovers

    After Senior Sunrise at 7:30 am and with my husband coming in late that night, I want to make it as easy as possible!

    Saturday: Sheet Pan Pork Chops from I Heart Naptime

    Yum, yum, yum! Again, I just need to execute on all these plans!

    I also have decided on Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowls for this week to try to increase my protein intake a bit. I don’t eat fish, so I’ll skip the salmon one and I don’t have all the same ingredients, but I have enough of them that I can improvise the rest!

    #3 Chore Chart from Lamberts Lately

    My husband and daughter are both a little “clutter-blind”. This also creates a bit of frustration in exhausted me. So, I’ve printed out the Cleaning Schedule with morning and evening things to do, daily chores, and even Room of the Week Chores. I hope this “checklist” style reminder will help them see that things need to be done even if they don’t naturally notice. We shall see…

    #4 Showering at night

    This is a new one to me. I am a morning shower person typically, but I read that this is a good strategy for improving sleep and my sleep has been ROUGH lately. I made the mistake of getting off my sleeping schedule (staying up way too late) during Summer and now I’m back to perimenopause-style sleep. I feel like it had really improved at the end of last semester, but here we are again. So, trying the showering at night to go along with my Magnesium Threonate and Vitamin D. Fingers crossed this works. I’m also going to fight my rebel urges to stay up late and try to be in bed by 10 pm every night. I have no problems waking up. I haven’t used an alarm clock in years because I start waking up around 4:30 am and even if I get back to sleep, it is never for a lengthy amount of time. So, no worries on the morning side of things!

    What about you? Do you have any tricks, tips or changes you’re making to keep your cruise for Fall 2026 as smooth as possible?

  • Friday Favorites is a Favorite

    I am so excited to join Friday Favorites again hosted over at Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything!

    I am a returner, but under a different blog location (I used to blog under Speaking of Easy). If you’re curious why, you can read about it in my first blog post or just skip it! I’m okay either way. But I have really missed reading everyone’s Friday Favorites and doing my own each week. It truly is a bright spot! So, here goes:

    #1 – Library Visits

    Last weekend we used our final weekend of Summer to take a trip to Bakersfield to visit family. My MIL had been invited to a book talk and signing at their main library, and oh my…what a beautiful library it is! I had been to a smaller library in Bakersfield, but never this one. They were having a book sale (another favorite of mine) on the first floor, and the book talk and signing was on the second floor. Two floors!!! It was SO big!

    The book talk and book signing was in the Local History Room, which was appropriate, as the book was Images of America: Arvin, Lamont and Weedpatch and covered the history of the area from the area’s founding through the 1930s or so.

    My MIL and her friend who went with us both grew up in Arvin. In fact, her friend’s mother contributed a number of the photos used in the book! It was such a fun little local occasion with a lot of people who have obviously grown up and grown old in and around Bakersfield! At one point, my daughter turned to me and said, “It’s like being in an episode of Parks and Rec!” Lol…

    #2 Seeing History In Real Life

    After the book signing, we went to lunch. We had planned on visiting Luigi’s, which has been in business for over 100 years in it’s same location! They have delicious pasta and walls covered in black and white photos of old Bakersfield. BUT, it was PACKED when we got there. Sad.

    BUT, luckily right down the street is Wool Grower’s Basque Restaurant. It is a younger place, only 72 years old. 🙂 They had plenty of tables available. It was delicious as always. There is a large Basque population in Bakersfield and they have multiple Basque restaurants, but this one is definitely my favorite. They do a family style “set up” and that’s “all” I had (you can get a set up with a main course added on), but it included soup, bread, beans, salsa, tomato salad, more bread, and french fries, Yum! They also had some old photos of their own and this beautiful mural in the parking lot.

    After lunch we went on a drive out through Lamont, Weedpatch and Arvin to see what had been talked about in the book talk. We saw where my MIL and her friend went to elementary school and high school. We saw farms where they used to sneak cherries on the way home. We saw places from the book and newer places that have been built up in recent years. It was a great trip and I learned a ton about the area and its history! I’m glad that my neice (12) and my daughter (17) got to learn it all as well.

    #3 First Day of Senior Year!!!

    Well, this is a mixed favorite. I can’t believe my daughter is almost done with K-12, but I’m so happy to see her thriving as she goes into her Senior year. We got her a car in July, so she got to chalk a parking space and do her car windows for the first day. She has her leopard print backpack – not the exact same one, but pretty close to what she carried for her first day of Kindergarten.

    And here is that Kinder photo and her with the Kinder photo:

    She has days one and two under her belt now and seems really excited about the year!

    #4 Slow days before the Rush

    I do not start my Fall semester of teaching until Monday (I teach college at two local campuses). So, I had Thursday and Friday to prep, but mostly just take it slow before the rush of Fall semester starts. I spent a few hours in the hammock in our backyard enjoying an unusally cool day (in the mid-80s and breezy) with my book.

    It was glorious. But, now, I’m feeling behind in being ready to start on Monday. It was a trade off, but I’m glad I had some downtime. I have my first three to four weeks ready to go for my classes at the campus that begins on Monday, so I will be fine. And the slow day of reading and relaxing was much needed after two very busy weekends away and all the prep getting a Senior ready for her first day!

  • Beginning…again!

    Beginning…again!

    This is my first post on this blog.

    I’ve blogged in many places over the years. I’ve also deleted almost all of those blogs. I still have my daughter’s heart transplant blog, which I just updated after a seven-year hiatus (!), and that’s about it.

    I’m telling you this because I realized something about myself today. I start blogs because I genuinely love writing. I love interacting with people and learning about their lives, their places and people, their ideas, and the things they’re excited about.

    And then my insecurities sneak in.

    I’m not posting consistently enough. I’m not doing this “right.” I don’t have enough interesting things to say. My blog doesn’t look the way it’s supposed to look.

    Eventually, I stop writing. And apparently, I then just delete the whole darn thing.

    But today I realized that I miss the writing and relational space. I miss the interactions. I miss having somewhere to put the things I’m thinking about. And I miss the process of writing for an audience. Even if that audience turns out to be only a handful of people who I’ve never actually met in person.

    So, I’m beginning again. And I’m doing it under a name that I had decided didn’t fit me.

    Sparkle & Spritzers.

    I bought this domain after my recent birthday trip to Sonoma where I felt really good about myself, a bit “sparkly” perhaps, and I drank some wine spritzers.

    Then, I almost immediately decided I couldn’t use it because I’m not particularly sparkly and I don’t spend my afternoons sipping spritzers on fabulous patios. I felt like it would be a “lie” or an online persona that didn’t match who I was in person.

    But, then I thought I was looking at it all wrong. Because I WAS that person for a few days. And I could be that person more often.

    Sparkle doesn’t mean “I am a sparkly person all day, everyday.” It means I can find a little more fun, interest, connection, confidence, beauty, ridiculousness – whatever – in my oh-so-ordinary life.

    And Spritzers doesn’t mean “this cocktail blog.” It’s more about leisure and celebration. Sitting down with someone. Trying something new. Enjoying myself.

    In other words, the title is aspirational, not my persona. And I think that’s actually much more realistic at this stage of my life.

    I’m in my late 50s. I work full-time, plus a side gig. Tomorrow, my daughter starts her senior year of high school. I’m heading into a year of lasts and firsts, followed by parenting an adult and, before too long, an empty nest.

    I’m definitely not presenting The Fabulous Life of a Sparkly Woman Who Drinks Aperol Spritzes. That actually makes me laugh a little when I read it. That is so not my life right now.

    I can write about my ordinary, somewhat chaotic life while I’m still figuring things out. AND I can seek out ways to bring more sparkle and have a few more drinks on patios along the way!

    So here I am. Beginning again.

    And if you happen to recognize me from Speaking of Easy (I would link to it, but I deleted it – sigh), hi! I can’t bring it back, but I can start writing again!

    This time, I’m going to try very hard not to not think this has to be done perfectly. I’m just going to write. Imperfectly. Showing up, mostly.

    Hope to see you here again!