Feel Good Friday 111
I’m late, I’m late to a very important standing Friday coffee date . . . with you! This week got away from me and I never was able to find the time to write this post until this morning. My car battery died while I was at Sawyer’s soccer practice 20 minutes away at 8:45 p.m. on Wednesday night, so that sort of set the tone for Thursday, when I usually write these. Plus I had a lot to do yesterday, so finally taking a deep breath – and a deep swallow of coffee – to bring you some of the sources of happiness this week. Not the car battery, of course. BTW, Mercury retrograde is over so I am expecting a complete turnaround of luck. You got that, Universe?
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Tech-nically speaking
As each new month checks in on the calendar, I’ve turned to The Everygirl for new phone wallpaper. They always have so many options to choose from! I started using them last fall and now look forward to changing my phone and computer backgrounds and lock screens. It’s the little things. 😉 You can find its tech backgrounds here.
Sweet Fifteen
After weekends of snow, we finally were able to have a couple of Emmy’s friends over last weekend to celebrate her birthday. The girls just hung out and feasted on Chick-Fil-A and a tray of cookies I ordered from local baker extraordinaire Desert Du Jour.
A Spiritual Movie
Over Christmas break, I planned to take my teens to see Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but it had already been pulled from our local theater. It’s currently available for streaming purchase of $20 on Amazon and I decided to go for it since that’s less than I would have spent at the movies and we really wanted to see it. Friday night, we tucked Wilder in bed and then the rest of us hunkered down in the basement family room for movie night. This movie was equally parts funny, nostalgic and sweet. Plus, Paul Rudd. Need I say more? There’s also a very touching tribute to Harold Ramis which had me tearing up. If you’re an emotional mess like me, you may want to keep your tissues nearby. Check out the trailer here:
Page-Turner
I’ve been on a thriller novel binge and have a new one to share (with another coming next week). I’ve loved every book I’ve read by Lisa Jewell. She has a way of writing a page-turning thriller while also offering character depth. One of the most disappointing things about many thrillers is that the authors focus on the story too much without developing the people involved. Jewell is master of giving you the right amount of information to create each character’s narrative plus an interesting who-dunnit. Watching You is dark, mysterious, and kept me on my toes.
Bowling me over
This past week, I was invited to try out our local franchise of Vitality Bowls for work. I got the “Vitality Bowl” as shown above and the veggie power panini. Both were delicious and filled with good things for me. I will definitely be back and wanted to share because there are locations all over the country and it’s a great place to grab a quick and healthy meal.
Find your location here.
How to teach children with “torture”
We’ve been having some struggles with Wilder not listening to his teachers at school or listening at home. I’ve been reading up on some things we can do, but also decided to try this reward chart. I told Wilder about his new “chore chart” and the things he’d get stars for doing. He took “chore chart” and made it into “torture” accidentally, but it made me giggle. Anyhow, I loved this particular chart because it’s magnetic and I could put it right there on our refrigerator and it offers lots of activity options. Most importantly, it had some blank options for me to fill in my own, such as “I listened at school.” Of course, I also added things that would be easy for him (brushing his teeth) so that he would definitely earn stars each day and feel good about himself. We just hung it yesterday, so fingers crossed that this form of torture works.
New rug, who dis?
Last Friday night, I awoke to the sounds of a dog about to retch. I leaped out of bed, grabbed Catcher by his collar, pulled him to the wood floor so he wouldn’t hit the rug, and shouted to Chris to wake up to grab floor cleaner and a trash bag to clean up the imminent mess. He jumped up, stepped immediately into dog diarrhea and then bounced his second foot into another pile. Oooooph. We spent the next hour scrubbing the rug as best we could and taking Catcher out in case there was more. Once we had it as clean as we could manage at 3 a.m., I lit a candle and had to use the bathroom before going back to bed. I noticed the bathtub was a mess from Chris cleaning his feet, so I then washed the tub, then scrubbed my hands and rubbed them down with a pleasant smelling lotion because our room’s odor was ungodly. After an hour and a half, I was finally back in bed, but wired because my heart was racing. I laid there with my arm over my face to try to inhale the lotion, took meditative breaths and eventually fell back to sleep.
In the fresh daylight of the morning, our room still smelled terrible and we could see just how bad it was, even after all that scrubbing. Dog diarrhea and wool shag rugs do not mix. As you can see, we’re currently rocking a rug pad only. I spent the morning online perusing for a non-shag rug (at Chris’ request) and decided to change the vibe with something different. I ordered this Amber Lewis x Loloi rug in a soft blush and can’t wait to see it in place. It’s here, but we have to find the time to unroll it and put in place under our heavy bed. This rug is on major sale, but the best part is that I paid only $50 for a 5-year protection plan that protects against pet bodily fluids. Sign me up! Now, when there’s an accident, we file a claim and they will come clean it, or if it’s too far gone, replace it. Here’s the rug we ordered:
Speaking of rugs, I was tasked to put our new O.Henry magazine office together and after much back and forth, our new rug arrived. I am waiting for the other pieces and then will be able to share the full reveal, but here’s a little sneak peak of the gorgeous blue moroccan rug. And that’s my coworker Larice who is a beast and helped me get this huge heavy bad boy in place!
Speaking of O.Henry
That’s the cover of our latest issue and it’s it a gorgeous one! I wanted to share because I thought you might appreciate the design and story. Greensboro is home to one of the North Carolina’s remaining Green Book sites, the Historic Magnolia Inn. It was recently revitalized and is once again an inn where people can stay. Local designers, Vivid Interiors, brought the vision to life with rich colors and bold choices. You can see the rest here.
Life’s little mateys
Wilder’s class focuses on a new letter each week and this week it was the letter “P.” They had dress-like-a-pirate day and we didn’t have much but made do. When I picked him up, he had this adorable hat plus a necklace. I just love that his school makes learning so much fun for these kids, especially since they’ve mostly been in school during a pandemic, where masks are the norm. I’m grateful to this school for making the efforts they do. Now, if I can just get my pirate to listen.
Chris and I are off to see the RENT’s farewell tour tonight! I hope that you have some fun plans ahead for you this weekend as well!
