🍺 Lil Treasures #91: Cocomelon and Mayonnaise Beer
Also, some feelings on this heat and a heart-shaped flock of sheep.
Greetings, friends! Happy Friday to you and yours. We are still in a moving limbo, which means I’m also in a personal limbo. I hope one day soon you’ll receive a newsletter from me as a fully intact person. This Diet, Caffeine-Free Coke version will soon transform into a cold and delicious full-sugar Coca-Cola from the bottle. Until then, enjoy this week’s treasures!
🍺 Some good news for my fellow tomato connoisseurs: Duke’s mayonnaise has released their own beer, specifically designed to pair with a BLT. This is what dreams are made of.
💅 IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Olive and June has finally released their fall colors! Can’t wait to hold my next PSL with some muted eggplant nails. But also, they actually have a themed PSL set so I could make that work too. Can’t go wrong honestly. If you haven’t tried O&J before, you can get 20% off by going to this link!
🚧 If you’re in the midst of any kind of faith crisis or reconstruction and also trying to raise children, this post on deconstructing faith while parenting from Meredith Anne Miller should be helpful to you!
💔 Father Thomas McKenzie, an Anglican priest who made such a tremendous impact on so many people of faith (including myself) was killed in a car accident this past week. This news has been sitting so heavy with me this week. This article in Christianity Today is a great reflection on his life and his work, and I hope you get a chance to read it. Also, if you’re interested at all in digging into the Anglican faith, I highly recommend one of Father McKenzie’s books, The Anglican Way, as a starting point. It is so beautifully written and has been foundational to me in my faith (you can find a copy of it, as well as a few other recommended spiritual resources, on my Amazon page)
🐑 I loved this story of a farmer in Australia who herded his sheep into the shape of a heart as a tribute to his aunt, who had passed away. It is such a kind homage! (and really b-ewe-tiful, if I’m being honest 😜 )
🤧 Get your tissues ready as you watch this TikTok video featuring The Princess Bride’s Mandy Patinkin (aka Inigo Montoya).
🤝 D.L. Mayfield shared a great resource for supporting Afghan refugees for individuals or anyone connected to a local or state government. It is super helpful, and lists a variety of ways you can take action.
🥵 This video is a couple of years and old and - spoiler warning - contains a few adult words, but it always makes me laugh and also accurately describes my feelings with the current weather situation here in Alabama. IT IS LITERALLY SO HOT. I am constantly sweating. I don’t know when this heat will end. I feel like I’m living in a sauna. Jesus, be a raindrop. Or central air.
May you be blessed by this week’s Tweets:
🎤 Rich with the mic drop:
That’s all for now, lovelies! Hope your weekends are full of fun things and sweet treats! If you need me, I’ll probably be watching the Paralympics while enjoying a cold Coke because honestly, I made myself real thirsty with that intro. See you in the comments!
Happy Friday! Erin, thanks for always sharing such good tweets. I wasn’t joking when I tweeted and said I had essentially muted everyone but you, JBG, and Tyler Huckabee. Too many bad things on twitter but I didn’t want to miss the good things. Everything is just… *waves around wildly* so crazy right now. That Mandy Patinkin story made me SOB. I saw it on Tiktok. I had to put my phone down. The people in Afghanistan are weighing heavy on my heart, especially after the atrocities yesterday. Covid is a beast that can be tamed but just, isnt, because people are okay with it spreading still? Lordy. The world we live in.
You guys, today is my last day at the job I hate. My very last day. And after it ends, I will head over to my new job to be trained on some stuff and celebrate with my bosses who gave me this opportunity and spoke so highly of me when they suggested me for the position!
An update on my dear friend Mckenna, who was in the car accident: She is now home in Vegas with her parents. Physically, her wounds are healing even better than we ever could have hoped. But her heart is still so broken, and the medical debt is beginning to pile. My photographer has offered to do a raffle and fundraise for Mckenna and give away a session, and I think I will do a big bake sale this Christmas and all the profits will go to her.
Y’all, I had the biggest rollercoaster of highs and lows. For some reason, when I am offered a new job and I am excited, bad things happen. Most recently, last Thursday I accepted my new position. That same evening, my friend called me to tell me that one of my horse trainers growing up had finally passed away. She had lung cancer and it was no surprise - she smoked about a pack a day. She was tough and gentle and blunt but kind and loved horses more than any person I have ever met. The world is at a loss without her. I specifically told my husband, “wow. What an example of holding both the good and the bad all in one day.”. And then I found out that her funeral will be Saturday, September 4. The day before my reception! So I will go cry my eyes out at her funeral and then promptly go meet my husbands ten cousins who are traveling in to see us. Good and the bad, y’all. It’s a lot to hold.
For now, I am going to have a big, delicious breakfast and go to work knowing I am ~6 hours away from being done with that place for good.
I can’t wait to read about your weeks and hear how you’re all holding both the good and the bad.
Good morning, sweet friends. I hope you've had good, productive weeks. Whatever you got done was enough. And I hope you get to relax this weekend.
👙Michigan is also stupidly hot. Jesus be a raindrop, indeed. I am trying really hard not to wish away the summer, but I would literally just take one 65 degree day. Or maybe a week of them. Then it can go back to being hot if it wants. But just a reprieve, please.
🤓I've been doing a free Enneagram seminar this week and it has been SO FASCINATING. I have loved the Enneagram since I started learning about it, but the more I learn the more I geek out. I'm considering getting trained as an Enneagram coach, and I feel like this week has moved me closer to saying "Yes" to that idea.
✂We are going down to spend time with Chance this weekend before her mastectomy happens Monday, and I know I should be focused on that (prayers, please!), but I am mostly excited that we will be making a pit stop in Fort Wayne so I can get my hair done by my OG hair guy. My husband and I are having our wedding re-do parties in September and I am just so excited that I will have Hair By Michael for those events, unlike before the wedding.
😔I would request some prayers about a family situation that's making me feel really hurt. Part of me wants to share the whole saga on here because I know y'all would listen and encourage and reassure me and part of me feels anxious that since the internet can be weird sometimes my words would get back to the people I'd be sharing about. So, I'm going to go with some veiled references about people's choices that are very hurtful and having to process what my therapist says are my two choices about these people: (1) go full Brene Brown vulnerability or (2) mourn the loss of the relationship as I hoped it would be. Option 1 doesn't feel great because I'm not sure that they are people I trust with my vulnerability, but Option 2 sucks because accepting what's here means accepting a change and a loss and a disappointment.
Anyways, I appreciate you all, and I hope you have the best weekend you can have. Sending love and hugs (and mental raindrops) to all!