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?
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.
