Things I’m Loving Friday #405

Friday is here! Today is an exciting one for a few reasons. First and foremost, my parents arrived in town yesterday and will be spending the long weekend with us. They made the decision to drive up at the last minute and the boys were beyond psyched to hear Mae and Pop were coming in town for a few days. (My dad also hasn’t seen our house since the foundation was poured so we’re excited to spend some time over at the new place, too!)

Secondly, I’ll be heading to the Burn Boot Camp headquarters this morning to help film one of their live workouts! The Burn online workouts have absolutely saved me during the pandemic and served as the ultimate motivation during my at-home workouts so I can’t wait to participate on the other side of the screen today. For any of my fellow BBC lovers out there, it will be streaming at 9 a.m. today so check it out and say a virtual “hello” if you see me!

Now it’s time for me to get this Friday rockin’ so keep on scrolling if you’d like to check out my weekly roundup of favorites. I hope you all have a great weekend and I’ll see ya back here next week!

Things I’m Loving Friday

• Galentine’s Dinner + Favorite Things Night

During a recent girls’ night dinner right before Christmas, my friend Pamela mentioned her desire to do a “Favorite Things” party over the holidays in 2022. As she filled us in about what exactly a “Favorite Things” party entails, we were all way too excited about the idea and said we should get together for a Galentine’s dinner and make it a mini Favorite Things party!

Pamela set the ground rules which were simple: Everyone was responsible for bringing four of the same gifts (valued at $10 or less) — one for each person in our group (excluding yourself). Pamela told us that the gifts we all selected should be something we absolutely LOVE — a fantastic find that we thought everyone else might use and enjoy, too.

On Tuesday night, the five of us got together for dinner and drinks at The Goodyear House, a local restaurant in NoDa that is currently offering igloo rentals for small parties. It was such a cool atmosphere and the perfect spot for our Galentine’s/Favorite Things exchange!

Figuring out what I wanted to bring that was $10 or less was tricky but in the end I was really happy with my idea. I ended up ordering four rechargable electric lighters for my friends (on an Amazon lightning deal so they really were $10!) and fortunately it was something none of them already had. My girlfriends gifted makeup remover wipes, a book, mini dry shampoo, an herb stripper tool (so excited about this!), essential oil hand sanitizer and lotion. It was such a fun night!

Also, I received so many fun responses when I put up a question box on Instagram Stories asking you guys to submit YOUR favorite things valued at $10 or less that I’m planning to round them all up and share them here next week. Please let me know any of your favs in the comments section of this post!

• Dove Midnight Fudge Cookie Promises

Apparently I have a thing for the seasonal flavors of Dove Promises. Since my beloved Peppermint Bark Promises are not available in stores until the next holiday season, I figured I’d try one of the new Valentine’s Day flavors and added the Midnight Fudge Cookie Promises to my cart during a recent Target run. While I have a feeling it will be hard to ever top my love for the Peppermint Bark Promises, the Midnight Cookie Promises are a nice little treat, too. They have the creamy consistency of typical Promises but with little pieces of crunchy chocolate cookies throughout. As someone who always appreciates a little crunch in my sweet treats, I am digging them aaand I may have I bought four bags when I found myself at Target again later this week. I’ve quickly learned that seasonal flavors fly off the shelves so I wasn’t taking any chances!

• Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren

Another week, another Christina Lauren novel! Clearly I couldn’t stay away from this author duo’s books for too long because, after a one-book-break, I found myself looking for another one of their breezy, romantic reads to dive into before bed earlier this week. Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating sounded interesting enough and, like all Christina Lauren novels I’ve read so far, was a fun read I thoroughly enjoyed.

The book follows BFFs Hazel and Josh, a pair with completely opposite personalities. Hazel is quirky, eccentric and full of life while Josh is even-keeled and relationship-averse, having just found himself single again after two-year relationship.

Determined to boost Josh’s spirits, Hazel suggests the pair set each other up on a double blind date. It’s a disaster but they have fun — with each other at least — and try again. And again. And again. As they continue to search for partners for each other and insist they have no interest in dating despite increasing feelings of attraction on both sides, their plan to find a special someone for each other sounds less and less appealing, especially when one of their exes shows up on one of the dates, swearing they’ve changed. Will a second chance for a previous love derail any chance of romance between Josh and Hazel? Or will they explore the feelings they have for each other that seem to be harder and harder to ignore?

• MyGym

Since Rhett was born at the end of the summer in 2020, he was born smack-dab in the middle of the pandemic. Like so many other little ones, Rhett didn’t get the chance to do a lot of the baby classes and experiences I loved so much with our first two boys. Rhett’s desire to climb on everything lately made me nostalgic for MyGym classes, something Chase and Ryder absolutely adored. We’re at a place now where I felt more comfortable doing something like this with Rhett and oh my gosh seeing him at MyGym during his first class lit my heart on fire. It was like stimulation overload in the best way and he was in heaven! He climbed his heart out and seemed to really enjoy the activities and songs in the class, too. I also love that our local MyGym has open play times and I can even bring the big kids along for a $5 drop-in rate (they LOVE this). MyGym has breathed life into our weekdays lately and it’s been so, so fun to have something new to do with Rhetty Roo!

• Friday Flashbacks 

10 Recent Amazon Finds (It’s been 8+ months since my last Amazon Haul post so you can expect to see another one soon!)

Easy Coconut Granola (Equal parts coconut and oats, this granola is a coconut-lover’s dream.)

Questions of the Day

What are some of your favorite things valued at $10 or less?