May I just say...this community is a delight? Oh my word. I so look forward to the email prompt landing in my inbox every Friday! I've been lurking but here we go...
💥I don't usually take time to watch movies but I've streamed a few lighthearted movies in the last few weeks. I've decided that I am here for any B movie that J-Lo does. I never followed her music but after watching a few movies, I want her to be my best friend.
👨👩👧👧 Along the vein of parenting post Erin shared, over the last few months, my daughters, 23 and almost 17 have been dropping beautiful truth bombs lately. My oldest is in law school and is out on her own now but she spends every Saturday with us (her significant other is wrapping up his degree at Oxford...we are on borrowed time.) Friends, adult children/nearly adult children are a delight. So often they'll share a memory and I'll tell them how I thought I was such a loser parent in that time because x, y or z and they're all "Wait, what? We loved it when you let us put our feet in the fountain at Logan Square at 9:30 at night that time..." It doesn't always work out that way. I still get a metric ton of attitude for not reading the mind of the kid that's still at home, but I'll take the little gems they share.
🧀 Need to figure out how to make an amazing queso to take to small group (those who don't watch the Super Bowl). I live in Amishland so queso isn't really a thing here. Suggestions?
🎁 Christmas was kind of a grief-bomb for me. I was in a fog and didn't manage the season well. This weekend, I'm making Valentine's Day gifts for my church staff co-workers. Not really a V-day theme but a good excuse to make a gift and share a treat since they were so kind in December.
💪My biggest treasure this week is being able to come home from the hospital with my daughter. Thank you to the fellow lol swipes who have been praying for her. She's got a lot ahead, but she also has an army of people ready to fight with her
🌱Another treasure is being able to play in the dirt and FINALLY start some veggie seeds for our farm's spring plant sale. Soil therapy is so relaxing for me, and eventually ends up in me getting paid instead of the other way around. 🤣
📸The treasure I'm excited for is a new photography business. I'm going to use my past experience as a pro photographer and a vegetable market farmer to start a biz that helps small farms better promote themselves on social media through photos that tell their story and are optimized for websites and social media. Just gotta get the new camera! (Tech has changed SO much since my digital SLR days! 😵💫)
👋Sadly, this is my last lil treasure for awhile. Since I'm not working the farm full time we're cutting back on expenses and internet subscriptions didn't make the cut. Once the photography gets going, this will be the first one I add back!
Thank you Erin for this incredible community. Even the weeks I haven't responded, reading through the comments is so uplifting... And the newsletter itself has been a great way to get some levity in a heavy season. 💗
Feb 10, 2023·edited Feb 10, 2023Liked by Erin H Moon
Full of treasures today!
- I got a haircut this morning and it is one of my favorite glam moments I get to have about 3-4 times a year. The ministry of a quarterly blowout, amen?
- Last night I started reading "The Body: A Guide for Occupants" by Bill Bryson. I think I heard about it from Beth Silvers on Pantsuit Politics. Cannot stop thinking about these two sentences in the skin/hair chapter, about how our surface-layer skin cells are already dead: "It is an arresting thought that all that makes you lovely is deceased. Where body meets air, we are all cadavers." BILL!!!
- going to my parents this weekend for a baby shower! Excited to see some dear people and celebrate the babies!!! almost 27 weeks and they're doing great. Yesterday at the OB, I said something like "yeah, feels like we're in the home stretch!" (because we will deliver at 37 weeks if not before, hashtag twins) and my doctor said "well, not really" 💀 i appreciate the realism but MA'AM, LET ME HAVE THIS.
My daughter LOVES Cody Fry! Today is her birthday and I bought her sheet music to her favorite song of his, and she cried with happiness. She is 17 now. I am becoming quite the Cody Fry fan through her! ❤
Good Morning! My treasure this week has been you! Got the sweetest gift from Misty and it made my whole stinkin' week! My kid got married on NYE - not sure I've been on her since then, but I got to dance at his wedding! I never thought I would live to see that happen, but because of an organ donor, here I am! It was - magical. All treasures this week - even the struggles are beautiful. I am speaking about my heart transplant and our nonprofit on Valentine's Day to a huge pharma company and I am NERVOUS!!! Any hints or tips to not fall on my face are appreciated! Have a great weekend dear friends and I look forward to seeing all the comments and hearing about all of the good, the bad and the beautiful!
So excited for you!! And God bless you & the donor🙏🏻. Just remember every person you’re speaking to was once nervous speaking to a group! You’re gonna rock it!
Hi Swipes! What a week, so many treasures and one part treasure/part turd. My boyfriend of five years' condo flooded (burst pipe two floors up) just after Christmas and he's been living with me ever since while repairs inch forward at a glacial pace (read: beyond drying out the unit, *nothing* has been done). We've really loved all the extra time together, and it has been so fun. But as a homebody I know he really misses the creature comforts of his own home. I live in a one bedroom apartment so there isn't really room to properly move him in. We found out this week that the floors in his unit were discontinued, which really seems like something the contractors could have figured out and told him WEEKS ago so that construction could move forward. He has a very demanding job and isn't able to be near his personal phone at all during the work day so being in contact with the contractors/insurance reps has been near impossible. I wish I could do more to help, it's such a crappy situation and there's no resolution to it in sight.
On to treasures.
+ I don't know why it took me so long, but I finally got a drip coffee maker this week. What a delight.
+ I almost never listen to music, but something came over me and I've been on a Harry Styles & Leon Bridges kick all week.
+ Going out for Valentine's Day tonight at the boyfriend and I's favorite fancy restaurant. I will be eating lobster and caviar and pretending I am a fancy lady even though I will be gussied up in a dress from Old Navy. All about balance.
+ I actually am really looking forward to the Super Bowl. I don't care about the teams, really. But I love watching football with my boyfriend because he has so much fun explaining the games to me. He used to play and he's taught me so much over the years about different plays and offensive/defensive formations. Did I ever really want to know about this stuff? No, but I love how proud he gets when I know a team should run the ball on the next play or I'm able to point out the eligible receivers before they hike the ball.
My son in law got a new job so I am picking up our granddaughter from school every day. She’s here for about an hour and a half and it’s such a delight. We’ve taken care of her since she was a baby but when she started first grade she went to the school after care instead. Every day I ask her what was her favorite thing about her school day. It’s so fun.
Happy Friday friends! It's been a busy week here as my boss was on vacation and I've been at both branches filling in for her.
🎧 I lost an airpod going through security at JFK back in Oct and finally ordered a replacement in January! It was broken. I was able to get that replaced, it came this week and I finally have two airpods. I did not get the hype before I bought mine and am just so so happy to finally have both again!!
🥖 Aldi has had an Everything Bagel Sourdough recently that is just delicious! I've been enjoying lots of soup and toast and this has made it even better.
📚 Ok, biggest treasure of the week/month/year is that I GOT THE JOB!!! I'm in the process of doing some paperwork for background checks and once those come back I can submit my notice and discuss a start date. Generally speaking I'll move in 3-5 weeks. I'm just so excited. I've worked really hard to be able to do this and to then actually be paid for the skills and experience I have is so gratifying. I don't think I've stopped smiling for three days ❤❤❤
Have the best weekend friends! I can't wait to read your updates in the comments.
Congratulations!! So excited! I was a recruiter for 23 yrs & offering a candidate with your enthusiasm a job was the best!! I lost an ear bud last Fall… and of it was pure joy to get the replacement!! I get it!!
I will be laying around my house like a renaissance woman. I’m honestly shocked my kids don’t acknowledge when I’m dressed and showered more now that I work from home.
My 7 year old daughter said “oh momma you are looking more like a mad scientist today”
And I had just gotten back from going out in public.
Happy Friday! I think I will also be thinking about EPF's collect prayer for a long time. DANG. 🔥
I would love prayers for my momma and I. She's approaching her one year anniversary of being at a Hospice facility with Stage 4 squamous cell cancer and the last couple weeks have brought some changes that have been very hard. It's just the two of us - my dad died of cancer when I was 9 and I'm an only child, her parents are gone, and the rest of my mom's side of the family is distant/dysfunctional and I don't have relationships with them. It's been a hard week and there's a weight in my chest that is hard to carry. 💔
A bright light from this week was dinner out with a friend who started out as the mom of one of my kiddo's friends, and has now become a good friend to me. The brewery was super slow that night and we got to sit and eat and chat WITHOUT KIDS for a few hours and it was so good for my soul.
We've also been watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix and IT'S SO GOOD!!! The storytelling and actors are just fantastic and it's the first exposure I've really had to Korean culture.
We're not a football family (American football, that is ⚽), but our exciting weekend event is having the 3 girls in our daughter's bestie squad over tomorrow afternoon for a lowkey 8th birthday playdate. Lucy wants to snuggle up with her friends, watch a movie, drink hot cocoa and eat snacks and that sounds pretty flippin' great to me!
Aw. You are so kind! She's continued to have rough nights and some issues during the day, but her spunk is still present. ❤️ This week has been better for me emotionally and I'm thankful for that.
Thanks all for your prayers. Surgery went well on Monday and my fam has been rocking the mom is not available jam this week. Beyond the first 24 hrs, which were brutal, pain has been manageable.
I originally got a whole bunch of audiobooks to listen to, but I find myself napping too often during them to follow the story 🙈. Any good lighthearted shows you recommend?
I also absolutely loved MHN’s poem. It made me felt so seen.
V excited about waking through Lent with you all...Erin’s lent studies are the whole reason I’ve started out here. 😊 absolutely delighted to find out every other aspect of the experience is just as awesome, of course.
If you have a VPN or can somehow access it I recommend Junior Bake Off. GBBO but with, and for, children. Other shows I've enjoyed are Never Have I Ever, Derry Girls, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Starstruck and Trying. Hope you find something you like!
Ugh, I've been on a roll at work and doing so well with my workout schedule, and now I'm sick :( :( :( I feel so puny and I'm so annoyed! I have so much I need to do in the next 2 weeks, and now I'm being held hostage by the sniffles. What's the BEST cold remedy in your opinion?
I'm about mid way through with Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, and it's really good. I'm starting Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) next. I can't believe these were both available at my library at the same time. My library almost always has the newest books that I'm looking for and they're almost always never checked out. Perhaps there aren't many readers in my town.
Okay, that's it. Can't wait to catch up in the comments! <3
As a perpetual sniffler, I find that anything neti pot/nasal rinse is a great "drug free" option and Afrin nasal spray always gives me a boost for congestion!
I'm so sorry you're under the weather, but had to say that you, so far, are the only other person I know that says they're feeling puny! I thought it was just and our family thing! Feel better soon!
Wow! That library is a treasure! When I’m not feeling great I make the Starbucks honey citrus mint tea at home: one peach tea bag, one mint tea bag, some honey (your choice how much), 3/4 cup hot water, 3/4 cup hot lemonade.
Leap years, presidential elections, and summer Olympics (sans the year when the whole world shut down) are all in the same year and the last 2 digits of that year are a number divisible by 4.
That is the long answer to: Next year is leap year.
I'm staying home sick with the most annoying cold today. I've felt it coming all week, but I was trying to ignore it and hoping it would go away - shockingly that didn't work.
BUT last week I saw SIX (the musical) with my work friends, and I freaking loved it. I've had the soundtrack on repeat ever since.
On Sunday (as long as I feel better!) we're hosting a non Super Bowl party (because we love snacks but hate football). "Party" may be a stretch because it's literally only four people coming over, but normally I only have two (my sister and her husband), so it's basically double! I'm trying to figure out what to do/have on in the background instead of the game; I'm thinking a Knives Out/Glass Onion double header, but I'm open to suggestions!
Here's my yearly suggestion to do fondue on Valentine's Day. This is our 12th year, and if you picture Donna and Tom saying "It's the best day of the year!"... that's me. Y'all. Fondue always wins!
What works for us:
~ Cheese fondue (we make a version with spicy salsa added) with all the dippers. Now is not the time to skimp. Multiple breads, tortilla chips, veggies (cauliflower is surprisingly delicious), and green apples (don't skip these, they might be my favorite).
~ Then...the chocolate. You're not going out for a dinner where you have to tip anyone, so tip yourself with extras. Strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, a tiny piece of cheesecake. The world is your fondue pot.
~ Tips: if you don't have a fancy fondue pot like us, great! A double boiler works wonderfully, or even a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. Fondue isn't asking you to be classy. Also, wine with the cheese, a dessert beverage with the chocolate. Dim the lights. Put on some classy music. Treat. Yo. Self. Significant others optional.
I mean, the Super Bowl will be great, but the fondue WILL be better. IMO.
May I suggest that you add some smoked meats to your cheese dippers? Here in Lancaster County, PA, that means Lebanon Bologna, but any meat + cheese would do!
“Fondue isn’t asking you to be classy.” I need someone to make a graphic of this for my wall!
We used to Fondue every New Years Eve when I was a kid with my parents’ legit 70s fondue set. Cheese fondue is my favorite; Nilla Wafers in chocolate fondue = 👩🍳💋
May I just say...this community is a delight? Oh my word. I so look forward to the email prompt landing in my inbox every Friday! I've been lurking but here we go...
💥I don't usually take time to watch movies but I've streamed a few lighthearted movies in the last few weeks. I've decided that I am here for any B movie that J-Lo does. I never followed her music but after watching a few movies, I want her to be my best friend.
👨👩👧👧 Along the vein of parenting post Erin shared, over the last few months, my daughters, 23 and almost 17 have been dropping beautiful truth bombs lately. My oldest is in law school and is out on her own now but she spends every Saturday with us (her significant other is wrapping up his degree at Oxford...we are on borrowed time.) Friends, adult children/nearly adult children are a delight. So often they'll share a memory and I'll tell them how I thought I was such a loser parent in that time because x, y or z and they're all "Wait, what? We loved it when you let us put our feet in the fountain at Logan Square at 9:30 at night that time..." It doesn't always work out that way. I still get a metric ton of attitude for not reading the mind of the kid that's still at home, but I'll take the little gems they share.
🧀 Need to figure out how to make an amazing queso to take to small group (those who don't watch the Super Bowl). I live in Amishland so queso isn't really a thing here. Suggestions?
🎁 Christmas was kind of a grief-bomb for me. I was in a fog and didn't manage the season well. This weekend, I'm making Valentine's Day gifts for my church staff co-workers. Not really a V-day theme but a good excuse to make a gift and share a treat since they were so kind in December.
Really enjoing this community!
I'm sorry that Christmas was a grief bomb for you - it can be such a hard time of year. ❤️
💪My biggest treasure this week is being able to come home from the hospital with my daughter. Thank you to the fellow lol swipes who have been praying for her. She's got a lot ahead, but she also has an army of people ready to fight with her
🌱Another treasure is being able to play in the dirt and FINALLY start some veggie seeds for our farm's spring plant sale. Soil therapy is so relaxing for me, and eventually ends up in me getting paid instead of the other way around. 🤣
📸The treasure I'm excited for is a new photography business. I'm going to use my past experience as a pro photographer and a vegetable market farmer to start a biz that helps small farms better promote themselves on social media through photos that tell their story and are optimized for websites and social media. Just gotta get the new camera! (Tech has changed SO much since my digital SLR days! 😵💫)
👋Sadly, this is my last lil treasure for awhile. Since I'm not working the farm full time we're cutting back on expenses and internet subscriptions didn't make the cut. Once the photography gets going, this will be the first one I add back!
Thank you Erin for this incredible community. Even the weeks I haven't responded, reading through the comments is so uplifting... And the newsletter itself has been a great way to get some levity in a heavy season. 💗
Full of treasures today!
- I got a haircut this morning and it is one of my favorite glam moments I get to have about 3-4 times a year. The ministry of a quarterly blowout, amen?
- Last night I started reading "The Body: A Guide for Occupants" by Bill Bryson. I think I heard about it from Beth Silvers on Pantsuit Politics. Cannot stop thinking about these two sentences in the skin/hair chapter, about how our surface-layer skin cells are already dead: "It is an arresting thought that all that makes you lovely is deceased. Where body meets air, we are all cadavers." BILL!!!
- At our wedding, our first dance song was "Photograph" by Cody Fry. He just released a single where he mixed that song with an orchestral recording of Claire de Lune. If your Friday needs some beauty: https://open.spotify.com/track/3eOBLQ8srLjt5ROLzqm1LG?si=ff2d5d5eaa74483f
- going to my parents this weekend for a baby shower! Excited to see some dear people and celebrate the babies!!! almost 27 weeks and they're doing great. Yesterday at the OB, I said something like "yeah, feels like we're in the home stretch!" (because we will deliver at 37 weeks if not before, hashtag twins) and my doctor said "well, not really" 💀 i appreciate the realism but MA'AM, LET ME HAVE THIS.
Hope you all enjoy your weekend!
Bill is a fave!
My daughter LOVES Cody Fry! Today is her birthday and I bought her sheet music to her favorite song of his, and she cried with happiness. She is 17 now. I am becoming quite the Cody Fry fan through her! ❤
Ok, I have to read that book! I absolutely loved Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island" and would love to read more from him.
Good Morning! My treasure this week has been you! Got the sweetest gift from Misty and it made my whole stinkin' week! My kid got married on NYE - not sure I've been on her since then, but I got to dance at his wedding! I never thought I would live to see that happen, but because of an organ donor, here I am! It was - magical. All treasures this week - even the struggles are beautiful. I am speaking about my heart transplant and our nonprofit on Valentine's Day to a huge pharma company and I am NERVOUS!!! Any hints or tips to not fall on my face are appreciated! Have a great weekend dear friends and I look forward to seeing all the comments and hearing about all of the good, the bad and the beautiful!
So excited for you!! And God bless you & the donor🙏🏻. Just remember every person you’re speaking to was once nervous speaking to a group! You’re gonna rock it!
My treasures this week has been caramel popcorn and the high from a delightful girls weekend last weekend.
This weekend I get to celebrate a best friend’s long-awaited pregnancy at a baby shower!
Hi Swipes! What a week, so many treasures and one part treasure/part turd. My boyfriend of five years' condo flooded (burst pipe two floors up) just after Christmas and he's been living with me ever since while repairs inch forward at a glacial pace (read: beyond drying out the unit, *nothing* has been done). We've really loved all the extra time together, and it has been so fun. But as a homebody I know he really misses the creature comforts of his own home. I live in a one bedroom apartment so there isn't really room to properly move him in. We found out this week that the floors in his unit were discontinued, which really seems like something the contractors could have figured out and told him WEEKS ago so that construction could move forward. He has a very demanding job and isn't able to be near his personal phone at all during the work day so being in contact with the contractors/insurance reps has been near impossible. I wish I could do more to help, it's such a crappy situation and there's no resolution to it in sight.
On to treasures.
+ I don't know why it took me so long, but I finally got a drip coffee maker this week. What a delight.
+ I almost never listen to music, but something came over me and I've been on a Harry Styles & Leon Bridges kick all week.
+ Going out for Valentine's Day tonight at the boyfriend and I's favorite fancy restaurant. I will be eating lobster and caviar and pretending I am a fancy lady even though I will be gussied up in a dress from Old Navy. All about balance.
+ I actually am really looking forward to the Super Bowl. I don't care about the teams, really. But I love watching football with my boyfriend because he has so much fun explaining the games to me. He used to play and he's taught me so much over the years about different plays and offensive/defensive formations. Did I ever really want to know about this stuff? No, but I love how proud he gets when I know a team should run the ball on the next play or I'm able to point out the eligible receivers before they hike the ball.
You can make Old Navy fancy if you have the right attitude ;-) home repairs are so draining. excited for your treasures!
Ok just me or does that last gif look like Baby Cy?!?
My son in law got a new job so I am picking up our granddaughter from school every day. She’s here for about an hour and a half and it’s such a delight. We’ve taken care of her since she was a baby but when she started first grade she went to the school after care instead. Every day I ask her what was her favorite thing about her school day. It’s so fun.
Happy Friday friends! It's been a busy week here as my boss was on vacation and I've been at both branches filling in for her.
🎧 I lost an airpod going through security at JFK back in Oct and finally ordered a replacement in January! It was broken. I was able to get that replaced, it came this week and I finally have two airpods. I did not get the hype before I bought mine and am just so so happy to finally have both again!!
🥖 Aldi has had an Everything Bagel Sourdough recently that is just delicious! I've been enjoying lots of soup and toast and this has made it even better.
📚 Ok, biggest treasure of the week/month/year is that I GOT THE JOB!!! I'm in the process of doing some paperwork for background checks and once those come back I can submit my notice and discuss a start date. Generally speaking I'll move in 3-5 weeks. I'm just so excited. I've worked really hard to be able to do this and to then actually be paid for the skills and experience I have is so gratifying. I don't think I've stopped smiling for three days ❤❤❤
Have the best weekend friends! I can't wait to read your updates in the comments.
Congratulations!! So excited! I was a recruiter for 23 yrs & offering a candidate with your enthusiasm a job was the best!! I lost an ear bud last Fall… and of it was pure joy to get the replacement!! I get it!!
Huge congratulations Eliza!
Congrats on the job!! 🥳 May I ask what region of MI you're moving to? I'm in mid-MI.
Mary, I'll be in the Detroit area!
Aaahhhh, congratulations on the job!!
Congratulations! So excited for you!
Hurrah!!! 🎉🥳 Congratulations on getting the job!
Congrats on getting the job, Eliza! That’s so exciting and I know how much you wanted to that job plus being able to move. 😁🏆
You got the job!!! Yay you, congratulations!
I will be laying around my house like a renaissance woman. I’m honestly shocked my kids don’t acknowledge when I’m dressed and showered more now that I work from home.
My 7 year old daughter said “oh momma you are looking more like a mad scientist today”
And I had just gotten back from going out in public.
So cheers to my mad scientist phase!!!
This is everything. Mad scientist....
Happy Friday! I think I will also be thinking about EPF's collect prayer for a long time. DANG. 🔥
I would love prayers for my momma and I. She's approaching her one year anniversary of being at a Hospice facility with Stage 4 squamous cell cancer and the last couple weeks have brought some changes that have been very hard. It's just the two of us - my dad died of cancer when I was 9 and I'm an only child, her parents are gone, and the rest of my mom's side of the family is distant/dysfunctional and I don't have relationships with them. It's been a hard week and there's a weight in my chest that is hard to carry. 💔
A bright light from this week was dinner out with a friend who started out as the mom of one of my kiddo's friends, and has now become a good friend to me. The brewery was super slow that night and we got to sit and eat and chat WITHOUT KIDS for a few hours and it was so good for my soul.
We've also been watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix and IT'S SO GOOD!!! The storytelling and actors are just fantastic and it's the first exposure I've really had to Korean culture.
We're not a football family (American football, that is ⚽), but our exciting weekend event is having the 3 girls in our daughter's bestie squad over tomorrow afternoon for a lowkey 8th birthday playdate. Lucy wants to snuggle up with her friends, watch a movie, drink hot cocoa and eat snacks and that sounds pretty flippin' great to me!
Checking on you to see how things are going for you & how your mom is… be good to yourself.
Aw. You are so kind! She's continued to have rough nights and some issues during the day, but her spunk is still present. ❤️ This week has been better for me emotionally and I'm thankful for that.
I'm so sorry about your mother, that's so heavy. Praying for you. ❤
Your daughter's party sounds excellent!
Thanks all for your prayers. Surgery went well on Monday and my fam has been rocking the mom is not available jam this week. Beyond the first 24 hrs, which were brutal, pain has been manageable.
I originally got a whole bunch of audiobooks to listen to, but I find myself napping too often during them to follow the story 🙈. Any good lighthearted shows you recommend?
I also absolutely loved MHN’s poem. It made me felt so seen.
V excited about waking through Lent with you all...Erin’s lent studies are the whole reason I’ve started out here. 😊 absolutely delighted to find out every other aspect of the experience is just as awesome, of course.
Yay, I'm glad the surgery went well! What kind of shows are you into? I'll try to think of a few recommendations.
I love The Office, Jane the Virgin, the Blacklist, the Good Place & GBBO.
If you have a VPN or can somehow access it I recommend Junior Bake Off. GBBO but with, and for, children. Other shows I've enjoyed are Never Have I Ever, Derry Girls, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Starstruck and Trying. Hope you find something you like!
Ted lasso is a delight! New girl also never fails to get my in my giggles.
Glad to hear surgery went well and the pain is less intense! ❤️
Good morning, Swipes!!!
Ugh, I've been on a roll at work and doing so well with my workout schedule, and now I'm sick :( :( :( I feel so puny and I'm so annoyed! I have so much I need to do in the next 2 weeks, and now I'm being held hostage by the sniffles. What's the BEST cold remedy in your opinion?
I'm about mid way through with Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, and it's really good. I'm starting Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) next. I can't believe these were both available at my library at the same time. My library almost always has the newest books that I'm looking for and they're almost always never checked out. Perhaps there aren't many readers in my town.
Okay, that's it. Can't wait to catch up in the comments! <3
Being held hostage by the sniffles is exactly how it feels!
As a perpetual sniffler, I find that anything neti pot/nasal rinse is a great "drug free" option and Afrin nasal spray always gives me a boost for congestion!
I'm so sorry you're under the weather, but had to say that you, so far, are the only other person I know that says they're feeling puny! I thought it was just and our family thing! Feel better soon!
My go-tos for colds: add extra garlic in everything; good ramen or pho (that broth will cure all the things); a good lemon tea.
Beyond the Wand was so good and surprising and I cannot wait to read Everyone in my Family...!
Wow! That library is a treasure! When I’m not feeling great I make the Starbucks honey citrus mint tea at home: one peach tea bag, one mint tea bag, some honey (your choice how much), 3/4 cup hot water, 3/4 cup hot lemonade.
Ahhhhhh I’m excited to hear your book thoughts and I love being on Goodreads!
Leap years, presidential elections, and summer Olympics (sans the year when the whole world shut down) are all in the same year and the last 2 digits of that year are a number divisible by 4.
That is the long answer to: Next year is leap year.
I feel like we should split up some of those events so the other years don't feel left out.
That’s so valid. Maybe someone should run on that platform so we can all unite under love for years not divisible by 4 😂
Hi friends!
I'm staying home sick with the most annoying cold today. I've felt it coming all week, but I was trying to ignore it and hoping it would go away - shockingly that didn't work.
BUT last week I saw SIX (the musical) with my work friends, and I freaking loved it. I've had the soundtrack on repeat ever since.
On Sunday (as long as I feel better!) we're hosting a non Super Bowl party (because we love snacks but hate football). "Party" may be a stretch because it's literally only four people coming over, but normally I only have two (my sister and her husband), so it's basically double! I'm trying to figure out what to do/have on in the background instead of the game; I'm thinking a Knives Out/Glass Onion double header, but I'm open to suggestions!
Six is so fun!! Your non Super Bowl party sounds amazing!
Dying to see SIX! Shhh!!! My daughter and I have watched so many bootlegs on Youtube. Hoping to see the touring company this spring.
Feel better!
Feel better soon! Knives Out/glass Onion sounds like a lot of fun.
SIX is sooo good! I love it!
Honestly, your party sounds perfect. No notes.
Happy Friday Friends!
Here's my yearly suggestion to do fondue on Valentine's Day. This is our 12th year, and if you picture Donna and Tom saying "It's the best day of the year!"... that's me. Y'all. Fondue always wins!
What works for us:
~ Cheese fondue (we make a version with spicy salsa added) with all the dippers. Now is not the time to skimp. Multiple breads, tortilla chips, veggies (cauliflower is surprisingly delicious), and green apples (don't skip these, they might be my favorite).
~ Then...the chocolate. You're not going out for a dinner where you have to tip anyone, so tip yourself with extras. Strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, a tiny piece of cheesecake. The world is your fondue pot.
~ Tips: if you don't have a fancy fondue pot like us, great! A double boiler works wonderfully, or even a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. Fondue isn't asking you to be classy. Also, wine with the cheese, a dessert beverage with the chocolate. Dim the lights. Put on some classy music. Treat. Yo. Self. Significant others optional.
I mean, the Super Bowl will be great, but the fondue WILL be better. IMO.
P.S. If you have kids, these are what we make for them so they don't feel left out. Dip them in chocolate twice, it's Valentine's Day https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giant-sprinkle-macaroons-8345928
Hugs friends!
May I suggest that you add some smoked meats to your cheese dippers? Here in Lancaster County, PA, that means Lebanon Bologna, but any meat + cheese would do!
Jillian - upping the game in 2023. I LOVE IT!
“Fondue isn’t asking you to be classy.” I need someone to make a graphic of this for my wall!
We used to Fondue every New Years Eve when I was a kid with my parents’ legit 70s fondue set. Cheese fondue is my favorite; Nilla Wafers in chocolate fondue = 👩🍳💋
If I had any skill in graphic design, I'd make it into a print!
"Tip yourself with extras" - this is the best, Amanda! Fondue night is the best idea
It's the best day!