Fridays are kind of our reset days around here. Our whole family has FULL schedules Monday-Thursdays and then we have a three day weekend. It’s a crazy good schedule, but it’s also wild how full and exhausting those four work days are! Often on Fridays we are just pure exhaustion and working through lots of grumpiness. So, even though I am in a bit of a mood, I’m going crank it out by writing about some of my favorites lately!
Today is cold and dreary and we actually turned on our heat for the first time this morning!
Also, this blog post decided that it didn’t want to make a numbered list for me and every single item is listed as #1. I basically do not want to spend time figuring out how to fix it, so enjoy this list of 10 items that all come in as #1!
- Teacher verse cards. Tera’s teacher (and my co-worker) recently had a birthday. We adore this sweet lady and wanted to make sure she had a special birthday, so we ordered some of these verse cards from Etsy. I ordered the teacher version, but there are several other versions and they would make such great gifts for so many people! High quality, beautiful and I highly recommend!
- Ramen from “home”. Theo recently discovered a small African Food Store very close to our house. As soon as I walked in, I felt like I was home. I kept exclaiming at all the foods on the shelf, and my taste buds were practically exploding with the memory of so many things that I used to eat growing up on the streets of a West African village. I didn’t end up buying much, but you’d better believe that I walked out with a bag FULL of my favorite brand of Ramen. I cannot eat American Ramen because it tastes so different from this stuff. But this stuff? I could eat a pack a day. And I sure used to when I was a teenager! I even used to eat it dry, crushed up with the seasoning sprinkled on top.
- Joggers
I have a pair of joggers that I found at a thrift store that I LOVE. They are so warm, so comfy, and they have the most WILD print pattern….so I don’t feel comfortable wearing them out of the house. It suddenly occurred to me that I should look for a pair of joggers that are black and therefore I can actually wear them out and about. I got this pair and they are great! Super soft and comfy and I truly can wear them around in public. They are little more fitted than my wild pair, but not as fitted as a pair of leggings.
After I finished Kiah’s lion, I worked on a smaller project and will give that a family member for Christmas. I wish cross-stitch was more popular right now, because it’s really hard to find patterns that aren’t from the 90s. Ha. I have had some luck on Etsy, but many of the patterns are digital patterns and you have to go to the store to buy the materials (threads, cloth, needles, etc). I did end up biting the bullet on this one from Etsy. I downloaded the patterns, printed them off, then we went to the store to buy all of the thread and cloth. My Mom cut the cloth for me and I started on my new project last night! It is a set of 10 butterflies, so I suspect it will take me around a year to complete the whole set.
- Reading a book that makes me happy
I was in a spectacularly bad book mood after I read a terrible book that I had higher expectations for, and so I was DELIGHTED when I started to read this book and found it to be exactly the light and fluffy (but so clean!) read that I needed. Sure, it was predictable and the character development wasn’t great, but it was a fun story and I loved the peek into the Korean culture. It broke my book slump, and for that I gave it five stars.
- Fall Festival and sister-friends
Last weekend we got tickets to a fall festival. Along with the entirety of the rest of SW Ohio. There were SO MANY people and we were a bit overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. Thankfully, we were there with a fun group of people and that made it all worth it. My parents have been living here for three weeks now and that is a FAVORITE that deserves an entire blog post, but it’s so fun to just do random Sunday afternoon activities with them. We also have a dear sister-friend that is living in our neighborhood that we get to spend lots of time with. Our relationship is funny because we have a million connections (My Mom taught her aunt and uncle in elementary. I was the flower girl in her aunt’s wedding. Her family served as missionaries in the same place that I grew up, but only after I had left. We both went to the same university with the same major. And now we live in the same neighborhood) that make us more like sisters and the age gap is there but we also get to be friends and its just a new stage of life where I get to be friends with people who aren’t anywhere near my age or life stage and I am here for it.
- New plants and how much my old plant is thriving
I had to stop at Kroger (I LOATHE Kroger) for some food for a new pet and I saw these plants outside for only 7.99. I actually have the same kind of plant at home, but it has been one poor little stalk with some leaves barely hanging on for about 2 years now so I’m going to try again! Also, my pothos apparently loves this little ledge in the dining room.
- Finishing the first quarter of school
We did it! We finished the first quarter of school. 11 weeks down. Just like so many things in life, it feels like it went both extremely fast and also extremely slow. We have hit our stride, but we are also feeling a bit weary and now is when the details start to drop off and things can be missed. It is challenging as both classroom teacher + homeschool Mom to keep the hype and not forsake the details, but pretty soon it will be Christmas break before we know it! My kiddos have also been sick more times than I can count this quarter and I’m hoping and praying for some improvement in that area.
- Running apps
Theo got me a new phone and I finally have enough storage space to actually download apps! So for the first time I can now track my runs WHILE I am running. I honestly sometimes just like to listen to my body and not track the run, but it is also fun to be able to see what distance, pace and time I am actually running. I wrote a blog post about being an average runner last week that you can read here.
- Fall weather
Admittedly, I don’t love fall because it means summer has ended and my brain wants to mourn that deeply. BUT, there is something absolutely beautiful about watching the entire earth give way to a new season. It amazes me how you can feel the air change and watch the trees slowly morph into fall and then winter. Fall running is for sure one of my favorite things right now!
