Things I’m Loving Friday #386

Happy Friday, friends! And Happy FALL!

I hope you all had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend ahead. We’re hoping to lean into the fall season this weekend and visit a local corn maze as long as the weather on Saturday cooperates. The boys are already amped up about the idea and we are ready for some fall fun! I already hear some noises from the monitor this morning, so I’m going to make this introduction snappy this morning and dive right into my weekly roundup of favorites, Things I’m Loving Friday style!

Thanks for stopping by PBF today and have a fantastic weekend!

Things I’m Loving Friday

• The Other Me by Sarah Zachrich Jeng

This book was trip… literally. We’re talking time travel, mystery and more. I read it based on one of your recommendations and it was definitely a departure from anything I’ve recently read. The Other Me was interesting enough to keep me engaged and while I found it predictable at times (especially the “big twist” at the end), it was still an intriguing read and I looked forward to curling up with the book before bed this week. (I’d give it a solid B.)

Kelly Holter is happy in her life as an artist in Chicago. It’s not a picture perfect but she’s doing what she loves and is surrounded by people she cares about and a best friend who cares deeply for her… that is until her birthday when she opens a door at her friend’s art show and walks into her childhood hometown.

She’s the same age but her life is not her own.. or is it? She has memories from the past 12 years since she left for art school and they all conflict with the life she knows is her reality. In this new world she’s married to Eric, her former science lab partner, and someone she never communicated with again after high school.

Her old life beckons her but in her new life Kelly knows she loves Eric but cannot help the questions that continue to pop up, along with more memories and odd experiences that have her doubting her reality, her husband and both of her lives. As Kelly begins to piece things together and go searching for answers, she cannot help but wonder who she can trust, including her own memories.

• Marker Caddy + Craft Cart

Back at the beginning of August, I briefly mentioned our family’s craft cart that I put together using the old rolling cart I used to keep stocked with Rhett’s diaper supplies and newborn essentials when he was still sleeping in our room. The craft cart has been one of the best organizational kid-related things we’ve done in a while and gets used all the time. I love that I can roll it out of my office closet when the boys want to get a little crafty and roll it back in when we’re done.

Earlier this week, I shared a picture of Chase using some of the markers he pulled off the craft cart on Instagram and got a handful of DMs asking me about his little marker caddy and I knew I needed to highlight it here, too. He actually received it as a birthday present this year and it is, without a doubt, one of his most-used gifts! The caddy holds 50 Crayola Pip Squeaks markers (smaller size for smaller hands!) and can easily transform into a marker tower or stay flat like we choose to keep it for easy storage. Both Chase and Ryder opt for these markers more than any of our other coloring/drawing supplies and I think it has everything to do with the fact that they can easily locate exactly the colors they want for their crafty creations.

• Breaking Out My Essential Oils

(Image Source)

I know there are essential oils diehards out there and then here are those people like myself who love them and use them and then forget all about them until they use them and fall in love with them all over again. Well, consider me back on the train because I’ve been a diffusing machine. I think part of this is spurred on by the fact that fall is HERE and any essential oil blends that smell like cinnamon spice tend to be my favorites and finally feel seasonally appropriate again. Bring them on! I’ve also broken into my favorite Plant Therapy KidSafe Wellness Sampler (Immune Boom, Sniffle Stopper and Germ Destroyer) which I’m all about for a little extra boost of immune support this time of year.

• Pinch of Yum’s Latest Coffee Date Post

Pinch of Yum will forever and always be one of my all-time favorite blogs. Yes, their recipes are wonderful and beautiful and often easy, healthy family favorites but the reason I adore it so much is Lindsay, the voice behind the blog. Her thoughtful writing inspires me, moves me and often captures so much of what I’m feeling at any given time. Lindsay and her husband Bjork have been through so much as young parents, including a very heartbreaking loss, and her most recent blog post shares more of their personal journey which, once again, is anything but easy. I feel for them deeply.

I found myself tearing up for the stress their family is undergoing once again but also found tears flowing for Lindsay’s amazing heart and the way she so beautifully acknowledges other “simple hard” things… like day-to-day parenting. A paragraph in her most recent blog post had me nodding my head and copy/pasting the text to send to my girlfriends because she nailed it. I’m sharing it here as well for anyone else in the thick of raising little ones who might feel like her words are speaking directly to you and your heart in this absolutely insane season of life.

From Pinch of Yum:

Bjork and I always come back to this mantra or idea that this season is definitely hard, but it’s simple hard. There’s no lack of love. There’s cuteness and goodness and pure joy everywhere… it just comes with a price tag of never having a clean house, always feeling behind, and all-around total exhaustion.

Well if that doesn’t just hit the nail right on the head.

• Friday Flashbacks

Refreshing Green Smoothie (So many greens + So light and delicious)

25-Minute Treadmill HIIT Workout (A speedy, sweaty interval workout you can complete on the treadmill.)

Question of the Day

What is one thing making you smile today?