Guess who is beginning potty training today!? We’ve been psyching him up about it all week long and he was very excited to choose his own big boy underwear at Target along with M&Ms when he heard that his friend JJ got M&Ms when he learned how to use the potty. I hope I have a positive update to share with you guys about potty training soon but I know it can be a tumultuous journey so my fingers are crossed all goes well over here.
And now let’s move right along into this week’s roundup of favorites! Below you will find a short list of some things I’m loving this week. As always, I’d love for you to tell me about something that is making you smile in the comments section of this post. Have a great weekend, friends!
Things I’m Loving Friday
I feel like I may be showing my age here, but I’m officially at the point in life where a good quality pen that writes well is something that makes me incredibly happy. And, after taking inventory of the pens in our house that I reached for on repeat, I came to the realization that I LOVE .7mm medium-point gel pens the most. My favorite pens are the .7mm Sharpie S-Gel Pens because they’re not super fine, write smoothly and don’t smear. I love the crisp white color of these pens and the soft padding for my fingers is an added bonus. I highly recommend them if you’re a pen weirdo like me!
Have you guys seen the baked feta pasta recipe that’s all over the internet right now? It originated here when Finnish food blogger Jenni of Liemessa, shared the simple recipe. It exploded on TikTok and Instagram. I made Jenni’s recipe last week and we loved it — I mean of course we did it’s basically just a super cheesy fresh tomato pasta sauce! — but then I saw Brittany’s take on it and thought I’d give her version a shot this week. Brittany’s version calls for spaghetti squash instead of traditional pasta and I followed her recipe almost exactly. (My changes: I prepped my spaghetti squash using a microwave method and added some diced zucchini and onion to the tomato and feta mixture before baking because I had some already diced on hand.) It was a big-time winner! I made it when my father-in-law was over and all the adults in our house gave it a thumbs up! (Ryder and Chase opted out of this one.) We will absolutely make it again and I love the way some commenters on her blog recommended adding shrimp. I’ll try that next time for sure!
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The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis
I’m on a Fiona Davis kick lately and lovin’ it! I love the way the author incorporates real places and events into her historical fiction novels and The Masterpiece was another winner. The novel flip flops back and forth between the lives of Clara Darden and Virginia Clay, two women who become connected by Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
Clara Darden is the only woman teacher at the Grand Central School of Art. Driven by a passion for her work and a desire to make it as an artist despite being a woman in 1928, Clara finds herself the highest-paid woman artist for a brief time until the Great Depression hits and she’s left struggling, both professionally and personally.
In 1974, Virginia Clay is recently divorced and employed at the information booth at Grand Central Terminal. Virginia soon discovers the abandoned art school and what she believes is a valuable work of art, possibly painted by famed illustrator Clara Darden. As she sets out to find out who the artist is behind her discovery, she begins receiving threatening letters in the mail and comes to discover the painting means more to her than she thought, as does the dilapidated Grand Central Terminal.
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Shop Page Updates
I’m trucking along with various behind-the-scenes page updates and this week I tackled my Shop page! It’s been a hot mess since the beginning but it’s thankfully a little more organized now. The main Shop page is pretty basic and contains constantly-refreshed links to items/products I’ve mentioned on the blog or Instagram. Then, if you click on the dropdown menu, you’ll see a link to my Amazon Shop for my favorite Amazon finds and a Codes + Discounts page for information about any of my discount codes/affiliate link deals. The Books page has been there all along but I recently added links to my book recommendation posts so I figured I’d remind you guys it’s there just in case you are ever looking for an easy way to find my book recommendations.
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Whole Foods’ 365 Cinnamon Graham Ice Cream
I have to preface this next shout out by saying this ice cream was good but it really has the potential to be great. I LOVE cinnamon ice cream and graham cracker pieces in ice cream are another favorite of mine so for someone like me who is predisposed to think this ice cream is fabulous, it should be a slam dunk. It IS good. It really is and I do recommend trying it if you like cinnamon ice cream, too, but I wish it were a little creamier and that the graham crackers pieces were a little larger and more plentiful. With that silly disclaimer out of the way, I can say this ice cream is really tasty! I ended up serving it with warm oatmeal cookies (trying oh so hard to replicate my beloved Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chunk in some capacity) and really loved the combination! Will I buy this ice cream again? Absolutely. Do I think Whole Foods could improve it easily with a few small tweaks? Also yes.
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Around the Internet
Food: Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies / Peanut Sauce Stir Fry with Shrimp / Skillet Lemon Caper Chicken Breasts
Fitness: 30 Minute Dumbbell Barre Strength Workout / 5×5 Dumbbell Workout
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Friday Flashbacks
10 to 100 Driveway Workout (A great option for anyone looking for a great workout with zero equipment!)
Paleo Coconut Crisps (Ugh these are SO good! I made a batch earlier this week and they disappeared a little too quickly.)
Question of the Day
What is one thing you’re loving this week?
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We started potty training 3 weeks ago and the first two weeks I thought I was going to lose my mind! Wishing you all the luck with Ryder! Hopefully there is chocolate on hand for you and Ryan too 🙂
Sooo I’ve actually already had to replace that bag of M&Ms in the photo bc Ryan and I ate them all — haha!
Thanks for the pen recommendation! Always need a good pen!!! Especially being lefthanded need a good pen that dries super fast and doesn’t smear.
A couple pens I have found and also love are the Pilot Acroball and the Uni-Ball Jetstream.
I love Ryder’s little mohawk! His hair grew back quickly!
One thing I am happy about this Friday is that my cousin and his wife now have their twin boys home from the NICU! One was released at about three weeks, and the other must have been missing his brother because he started showing rapid improvements and just got to go home yesterday, at about four weeks! Yay! (They were born six weeks early.)
aw, i am so happy for them!!! and for your whole family! <3 glad those sweet baby boys are home and soaking up all the love!
I tried the graham cracker ice cream from Whole Foods a few weeks ago and completely agree. Flavor was on point but texture could definitely be improved!
I’m there with ya – I actually use those pens exclusively & was so excited when I bought them on a whim at Staples. I’m a lefty so a nicely writing, NO SMEAR pen was a game changer #thisis34
haha! yesss! they’re great!!
I will have to check out that book! I read The Lions of Fifth Avenue on your recommendation and have never read a book so fast (although it was a little heavier than I anticipated).
That feta pasta thing has definitely caught on here–block feta is a weekly purchase for me for my salads (I prefer little squares to crumbles) and I haven’t been able to get any blocks for weeks! It’s constantly sold out!
It’s so fun to have boys the same age (both of our second children were born a day apart, if I remember correctly), and we’re starting potty training too. I kept trying to put it off because I remember all too well how hard it was the first time around with my oldest, but he was obviously ready, so….here we are 🙂 I wish you the best of luck and an extra dose of sanity for your weekend!
Oh man, seeing you mention Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie Chunk takes me back! I actually first found out about that flavor from reading your blog – I’ve been reading since 2012 and I remember you mentioning it in a blog post, finding it at my local Ben & Jerry’s, falling absolutely in love with it, and then… never being able to find it again! A real bummer. I don’t know if you have Yogurtland in North Carolina, but I just got an email from them about a new Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie flavor coming soon, so I’ll definitely be trying that and hoping to create some of that OCC magic (it’s fro-yo, so not quite the same, but maybe close enough!). Hope you have a great weekend, Julie!
cheerios in the toilet for target practice helped our boys potty train quickly
Sounds like the cinnamon Graham ice cream needs to be made with your ice cream maker instead of Whole Foods! You’ve got a great base recipe, I think you can master your own version!
THANK YOU for the pen recommendation! I have been looking for good pens for longer than I care to admit. What is it about a great reliable pen that just makes life a few degrees sweeter? haha
So funny that you are doing weather-forecast-based potty training…we potty trained our 2-year-old two weekends ago because of the weather forecast (-16 temps). Good luck with Ryder—he looks psyched!