Tag: fall

  • Friday Favorites – Mid-October Edition

    October is such a beast! I can’t believe we’re only half way through! It already feels like so much has happened. But, we’ve got 14 more days to go, which will include decorating our “haunted barn” for our Girl Scout Hal”low”een event on October 26 – and getting all the other food and crafts organized for the night, a cabin camping trip for three days and two nights with the same troop the three days before that Halloween event (scheduling is not easy with this crew), and Halloween celebrations on the 31st! But, let’s focus on this past week for now. I’m joining Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything once again!

    #1 – Home Cooked Meals

    I don’t cook at home a whole lot. I would like to cook more, but often just feel overwhelmed. But, last weekend, I was inspired in the morning on Sunday, so I made a potato and egg casserole:

    It was very easy – I used Trader Joes Spicy Spuds and then mixed put pre-cooked bacon in eggs and dumped that in the center of the potatoes and baked it. It was fantastic. Definitely will cook it again.

    Then, I was inspired. to make lunch too! I made Stupid Easy Oven Nachos a la Lazy Genius:

    They were very tasty! I always forget to take photos until we’ve started to eat the food, so they’re always half eaten (or more). I guess that shows they get eaten.

    #2 – Work Fun

    Last weekend was our Wildcat Weekend for parents and students interested in attending in the future. I took my daughter for the second year and we talked to some of the faculty and students in majors she is interested in studying. She does not want to stay in town for four-year college (she will likely go to Community College next year to finish up her GE), but they were nice enough to talk to her about some things to consider, etc. It was fun seeing her interact with faculty and really know what she is interested in studying. But, things may change and that is quite okay! I also gave a presentation to transfer students and parents and we visited some of my favorite places on campus. We also got a new art installation on campus that was made from steel beams from a covered bridge that burned in the 2018 Camp Fire. So many cool things on campus!

    #3 – High School Memories

    My High School class is having our 40th Reunion this weekend. I could not travel for another weekend this month, so I didn’t go. But, people have been posting some photos. It was a little entertaining to see myself back in 1985 (Fall of Senior year).

    #4 – Strange and beautiful things around town

    I had an evening to myself since my husband was traveling for work and my daughter was babysitting, so I ate dinner at Chipotle and went grocery shopping at Trader Joes. Someone made an incredible piece of art out of the aluminum foil lid at Chipotle. Then, someone had a great little Halloween guest in their car!

    #5 – Charcuterie, Sparkle and Trivia

    On Thursday, a couple of friends and I went to a new place in town for Trivia. They had a Bruschetta Charcuterie and Sparkling Wine for two and I ordered it for myself. Lol. I did share a bit of it, but it was so good, I ate most of it. My friend had one glass of the wine and I had the rest and we agreed it was great. And we got second place at trivia and won a $25 gift card for the place! So, we’ll be back on Thursday!

    And that’s it for this week! It was a good one, but I’m feeling like I’m a little behind in things. I’m a little anxious about our trip and our Halloween event. I have quite a bit of work to do at work before the end of the month.

    On another note – I hired a house cleaner! One of my former students cleans houses during the Summer and was looking for jobs up here and I’ve been wanting a house cleaner for a while, but our pets always seemed a little bit of a deterrent to hiring a stranger. But, this student pet sat for us in June, so she knows the pets and our house and was willing to clean it! She came for the first time on Wednesday and oh. my. gosh. My world has shifted. Seriously. It was SO clean. And it smelled so good. And it just made me feel so much better. And I didn’t spend today cleaning! All amazing things.

    In addition, we had our trees trimmed in our backyard and that also looks much better now! I am looking forward to this week because the temps are going down (70s, but 20 degrees cooler than this week) and I will be able to enjoy the backyard!

    How about you? What was your favorite from this past week? What are you looking forward to this next week?

  • Friday Favorites – Getting Rocktobered Edition

    I missed last week and today is Sunday, but thought I would join A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals for Friday Favorites, even if late. The end of September and beginning of October have really felt like drinking from a firehose. I’ve done a lot of things. A lot of things have happened around me. Some have been really fun. Some have been a lot of work. Some have been sad. Some have just been hard. And the rest of October has a lot going on by plan and I’m sure some other things will come up and it will continue to be a lot. But, we’re looking for favorites and grace and good things. I’ll go back the two weeks for my favorites and get caught up!

    #1 – All things Fall

    The weather is even starting to cooperate! It is only 74 at the high today. But, it will be back up to 90 this week, but mostly in the 80s. I can deal with that. The recent 100 degree temps were a little much for Fall.

    #2 – Fun with friends

    That blurry photo is ridiculous but we were playing trivia at a local place with friends. The Seltzer is not quite a Spritzer, but as close as I got these past two weeks. It was tasty – I had never had one. We were at a friend’s house for a small reunion of Speech and Debate team members from the past before our Hall of Fame that we celebrate every three years. I was inducted as a Director (a role I played for about 15 years on campus) and it was lovely. Friends who couldn’t make it sent me flowers and that is number 3!

    #3 Thoughtful Acts from Friends that include Flowers!

    #4 – Teaching and Service

    This past couple of weeks I’ve done a lot of teaching and some service. Our Girl Scout center had a clean-up day where all the troops come in and do some maintenance work – my daughter recruited for her day camp and I helped with some errands and rock moving.

    For teaching, we did a fun “battery” activity in my internship class and we’re all signed up and ready to go for Informative Speeches in my Public Speaking class. We also finished up our Wikipedia unit in Argumentation and took the first exam. I need to grade those on Monday and see how they did and we’ll move on to AI and Debate on Tuesday!

    #5 Puzzles!

    I finally finished my Summer puzzle and now I’m ready to start The Dogs of Halloween!

    Well, that is about it for the these weeks. So much has been happening at work that I can’t seem to keep my head above water. I’m really struggling to get it all done and that is really just October. I know that. But, it doesn’t make it any less painful. This week I’ve got a Girl Scout meeting on Monday to finish planning our Halloween Party we host for younger girls and our weekend trip that happens in two weeks (which reminds me that I still need to do paperwork and a training for Girl Scouts), a fun night called Science at the Pub on Wednesday where grad students and professors come to a local bar and talk about their research, my daughter has their big intercity rivalry game on Friday – called the Almond Bowl (and say the Almond like Salmon if you want to be a local), then there are some fun events over the weekend here in town. The next week is all about Halloween Party and a trip prep with Girl Scouts. In addition, I have a TON of work to do – emails to deal with, grading to do, planning the rest of the semester, making more progress on our 2-unit graduation class we’re trying to get to proposal stage, writing my year-end assessment report for last year in FYE, and so. much. more.

    I will do what I can do! Wish me luck!

    How is your October looking? Are you getting Rocktobered? Are you LockedIntober? Are you in PJs and Sockstober? Let me know!

  • Friday Favorites – Last of September

    How does this happen? I swear it was just yesterday I was typing “first of the –ber months”! Sigh…But, I’m back and joining in with Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything once again for Friday Favorites. I love doing this on the hard weeks because it reminds me of all the little things that are worth remembering, but easily forgotten when things are tough.

    This past week has been another tough one and I don’t have many photos (and definitely not many good ones – I need to work on using my new camera). I can also always tell a rough week by what my house ends up looking like at the end of the week, and it is a doozy this weekend. But, I’m happy to have a quiet weekend – just a Girl Scout Experience Day for a couple of hours today and that is it. If things go well today with putting the house back together and getting some grading done, we may drive up to Lassen National Park tomorrow and spend some time in nature as well. We’ll see. We already cancelled a friend BBQ tonight because it just felt like a little too much. BUT, this is supposed to be about last week’s favorites – so let’s go!

    #1 – Halloween Time!

    I love Halloween! I sometimes will wait until October 1 to decorate, but this year, I decided to start early! So, I brought out SOME of the decorations and Halloween goodies:

    My Hocus Pocus cup and my solar powered eyeballs and the cute Boo sign all made it out in the first haul!

    #2 – It is officially Fall!

    I wish the weather was a little cooler. It’s still been in the 80s and 90s here, which doesn’t feel very fall like. But, I got a new cup to remind me what season we’re in:

    And I am currently watching a YouTube video about slowing down and matching the natural rhythm of the seasons and I want to thank Jenni’s Seasons for the reminder that maybe my recalibration for the last 90 days may be a little more than I want to bite off. So, don’t look for Part Two of that little delusion! 🙂 And she mentioned Kendra Adachi and it just so happens that I had pulled “The Lazy Genius Way” book off my shelf a couple of weeks ago to reread, but had not started yet. So, yes! I do listen to Lazy Genius, but I often don’t REALLY listen! Thanks for the reminder.

    #3 Homecoming!

    I am not a football parent, so I don’t go to games. But, this past Friday was homecoming and my Senior was willing to share her favorite photos with me. Here are a few – the theme was White Out.

    #4 Puzzle, Soup and a cute outfit

    Still working on that same puzzle from last week. The cats make it difficult sometimes as they really seem to enjoy the puzzle board as a cat bed.

    But, I’ve almost finished it, so it is sure to be on next week’s Friday Favorites as my first completed puzzle of the season!

    We also had one day in the low 70s and I busted out a semi-Fall outfit with some leggings and a new-to-me shirt AND some Chicken Tortilla Soup!

    Ignore my daughter’s messy bedroom – the lighting is better in there. 🙂

    #5 Apple Pie A La Mode Ice Cream and Affogato

    My daughter and I found this ice cream at Trader Joes and it was super tasty! But, even better, I turned it into some Affogato and that was REALLY good!

    So, even though it was a bit of a tough week at work and my home is a bit worse for wear, there are still things to appreciate!

    How about you? What do you have to appreciate this past week?

  • Friday Favorites – Tough Week

    Joining Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything again for Friday Favorites this week. I’ll be honest. This was a tough week for a number of reasons. And I didn’t even work a full week. I worked from home yesterday and took today off other than one online speech session. But, man, it felt like it lasted forever! But, I’m going to focus on my favorites and moving on to better things!

    #1 – Bumper Stickers

    I saw a couple of bumpter stickers that I could really appreciate this week! The first one is more for my daughter, who hates parking. The second is one that everyone should have on their car and how we should all live our lives!

    I don’t like how I’m parked either.
    What would Dolly do?

    #2 Girl Scout Kapers!

    We had our bi-weekly Girl Scout meeting on Monday and our GS Center has put up a Kaper chart on the wall. If you aren’t familiar with Kapers, they are basically chores assigned to girls when you’re camping or doing an event or having a meeting! It was amazing how putting that little chart on the wall got all my girls doing their clean up duties without me asking! Here’s my daughter vacuuming:

    #3 Newly framed art work

    On a trip last year to Lassen National Park, which is pretty close to our home, we saw that they were selling limited prints done by our local artist, Jake Early. I have loved Jake Early pieces for years but never had a realistic opportunity to buy one at a price I could afford. So, when we saw they were selling these prints for only $125 – they started out selling for $500 – I knew I had to get it. It has since been sitting, waiting for a frame. Well, my husband surprised me by taking it in and getting it framed and I love it:

    We got it hung on our wall, but I don’t have a photo of it up there yet – this was when I picked it up at the framing store.

    #4 Getting Cozy for the Ber Months

    I did a couple of things this week in honor of the Ber months and I hope to add more! I got a cute puzzle at Barnes and Noble (and even got it on sale). I’m about half way through.

    I also got a new puzzle board to work on so my cats can’t knock all the pieces all over the place! So far, it has been brilliant! The cats have definitely had their time on the puzzle, but it has stayed in one piece just fine.

    I also took Shay’s lead and got myself a candle warming lamp recently and I am loving it!

    I got my daughter one as well and our house smells good all the time now!

    So, those were my favorites this week! Although this wasn’t a great week, I made it through and I’m ready to rally for a better week next week!

    How about you? Was your week all favorites, all foes or a mixture of both?

  • Friday Favorites – “Ber” Months Begin

    Well, I’m a little late for this Friday Favorites since it is actually Sunday morning, but I wanted to make sure to join A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals, even if a little late. This past week was Week Two of the full Fall semester and it was a bit exhausting. I am really happy we have a three day weekend because I have some grading and prep to get caught up and I definitely needed a bit of a break to make my house not look like a dumping ground! Without further ado, last week’s favorites:

    #1 Dinner and Spritzers with friends

    We actually had two dinners with friends last week. My husband got a new gas grill (need to include that in one of these posts – it is quite the machine), so we had dinners with friends twice this week. I made spritzers for the first one: Strawberry Lemonade Spindrift (which is quite gross on its own in my opinion), rosé wine (I had a local wine from last Christmas preview in town), and sliced strawberries. It was quite tasty! And so was the BBQed meat! I didn’t get any other photos, unfortunately, because the second dinner was a Tomahawk Ribeye, which is always good for photos!

    #2 A new month, fall weather, and a new wallpaper

    From Flourish Planner

    We actually brought in September with a little rain, cloudy skies and cool air. But, we are already back up to mid-80s this weekend and will be 90s in the coming week. Sigh… I was so hopeful for a clean break from Summer weather, but I should know better. I do have this lovely phone wallpaper to take me to cooler places!

    #3 Bingo for a cause with friends

    Every month a local “watering hole” hosts an all-ages Bingo night with all proceeds from bingo cards going to a local charity. This month the recipient was 530 Food Rescue and we had a big group playing. We even had some teens joining:

    No winner this time. We did have one last month, but this month was much more crowded, so it was harder to win. It was still a fun time hanging out and experiencing all the anticipation!

    #4 Local Ice Cream

    We are lucky to have a couple of great ice cream places in town, but only one made the top four national ice cream shop with Good Morning America! That was back in 2018, but they are just as good today.

    Yum!

    #5 Dragonflies

    We have had an unusually large population of these beauties around the yard this year and I love them all. An extremely large one had landed on our bedroom screen on Friday and then flew over to our nearby flowers and I had to get a photo!

    September is starting off well. I’m feeling like this school year is going to be a good one. My daughter had her first football game on Friday night (that’s for next week’s Friday Favorites) and had a great time! My house is coming together a bit this weekend and we’ll be off to a good start for the first full week of September!

    How about you? What’s been your favorites this past week?

  • 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!