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The first weekend of October is in the books, and it was a gorgeous one! I don’t think I ever remember a time living in the south where we have had such gorgeous weather for so many days in a row! Every day I cherish any moment I can be outside to soak it up. Seriously a blessing in such a weird year.

I tried to work a little less on Friday to make up for how much I had worked earlier in the week. Zoe and I spent a lot of time outside Friday before lunch.

While I was working, she did a lot of coloring and drawing, and pulled out some toys she hadn’t played with in awhile. She has been obsessed with these peep bunny ears lately. So funny, because we bought them 2 Easters ago I think?

We started the weekend out right with Family Savvy’s Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes. (She is a Birmingham local, and has the BEST recipes!) You guys, these things are INCREDIBLE!!!! I don’t care if you area paleo, a pancake fan, a pumpkin fan, any or none of the above…I cant imagine anyone not liking these. Her recipe has a maple pecan butter in it, and that is not to be skipped. I could have just ate that butter right out of the food processer when it was finished. And I mean…I did. Since the recipe calls for 1/2 a can of pumpkin, we made this both Saturday and Sunday. Each time I made 7 perfect pancakes, and had just enough maple pecan butter both days without leftover. All three of us licked out plates clean both days. Seriously, a new favorite and a weekend morning game changer.

After breakfast, I got some football snacks in the crockpots (cheese dip and bourbon keilbasa) and we played outside for awhile. We then headed out for our Saturday car ride around town. When we got back, I threw together Family Savvy’s Whipped Feta dip and made some pigs in a blanket too. Zoe cackled at the name and loved helping me roll the lil smokies in the crescent rolls.

We watched the Alabama game and had an ice cream sandwich party too! We basically slaughtered Texas A&M….still making them pay for that loss 8 years ago.

After that, we watched the Bulldogs walk all over Auburn. A real pleasure to see. So a good day for football in this house! Zoe and I played a game of Fancy Nancy that didn’t seem to ever end. It is such a fun game though!

We had gotten some items delivered from Publix, and I couldn’t help but order some sushi. Our favorite local place doesn’t do curbside or partner with any of the delivery services, which is such a shame. Thank goodness for Publix!

Sunday morning, we were up and outside all morning after breakfast. We then took a car ride and headed to downtown Birmingham! It was a nice change of scenery, since we haven’t been since March. It was so weird seeing all the tall buildings in the distance as we headed down I-59. We drove by Chris’s office building and a few other spots. I saw some buildings that we worked on have broken ground. There was a flurry of activity going on in Lakeview, and no one walking around near the Pizitz. So weird.

Sunday afternoon, I finished reading a book (His Only Wife), caught up on some magazines, made homemade guac and we had roast beef sandwiches with Au Jus for dinner.

Back to reality this morning. I made an effort to not open my work laptop all weekend. It felt so good to just wake up and not worry about trying to sneak some work in before Zoe woke up. Much needed for my sanity. I am ready to tackle the week head on now. Or at least until my first meeting. Ha! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

It is officially October, can you believe it???? Linking up with Kristen!

Reading: His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie

Watching: I mentioned last week, but I highly recommend watching This is Paris. You can watch the whole thing free on YouTube. I learned so much about her that I didn’t know. I cant imagine how hard some of the stuff she has been through was.

Buying: I love cardigans that are basic neutral colors that you can wear with anything, but offer a texture or style that makes them interesting. I grabbed this super cute cardigan. This has texture, big grandpa style buttons and the big sleeves. I love that you can wear it dressy as an alternative to a blazer, or more casual with jeans.

Working Out: This is a fabulous upper body strength workout! Definitely grab a few different sets of weights before you start. I used 5 lb, 8 lb and 10 lb. I really need to get a 15 and 25 lb dumbbell set. Strength training is my favorite. I always try to take a quick walk around the neighborhood after to get in a cardio burst too. Nothing is better for my mind (and body) than a quick morning walk!

Creating: Anyone else obsessed with the new widgets in the iOS update? I watched a quick YouTube video to quickly figure out how to do some things with them. I am still working on it, it really takes a lot of time moving apps around and creating new images, etc. But I am loving how clean my home screen is so far! I know what I want to do with my app images, just haven’t had time to sit down and create them yet.

Planning: Since I am going to be working from home full time indefinitely, I really want to finish up my office and make is super functional. I have a huge window that lets in amazing natural light during the day. Now that it is darker in the mornings when I start work, I wanted a little something cozy. I ordered a little lamp from Target last week, I think it looks really cute.

I haven’t hung anything on the walls in there yet. Honestly, I am waiting for a trip to HomeGoods to be able to pick out a few things. I ordered this mommy and me print from Nordstrom Rack last month, and have my eyes on a few other pieces. (For now it just sits on the credenza behind my desk.)

I am thinking about putting a round table in the corner with some cute chairs. I would love a place to work on crafts, scrapbooking, put together a puzzle, spread out ideas, whatever. It would also be nice to have it in here for when Zoe is hanging out with me. Currently, she sits at a book shelf with her little vanity chair. It is totally cute, but the shelf isn’t functional for that, you know?

Excited: While it is hard to get excited about things these days when there is no plans to be made, no where to go, etc. I am excited that we are experiencing some fall weather over here! I am also excited about the egg hunt that I have planned for Zoe for Halloween! I grabbed up some super cute stuff (and candy of course) and hope to make the day special for her. I also grabbed a few extra Halloween buckets for us to drop off to her 3 best school friends. She always loved sitting down and making up treat bags for her school and dance friends. Since we cant do that this year, I thought we could at least surprise her three besties with a “boo bucket” on their porch!

Laughing:

No, this isn’t post about the song from Frozen. But I mean, it sort of relates. Same theme, really. Letting go of your fears. Sometimes I feel like Elsa is singing a song I wrote. I digress. This post is about letting go of something I have been carrying around for almost 20 years.

I have my BBA in Real Estate. I don’t know if I have ever shared that on here or not. I have worked in real estate to some capacity since 2005 when I graduated college. Real Estate Marketing is one of the classes I was required to take. This class wasn’t so much about marketing, as it was more about psychology. And my professor had me pegged early on. He was determined to break me. I mean that in a good way. I think he saw my potential, but knew that I was someone who held back. He constantly called me out in front of the whole class, and let me tell you…there were only two real estate professors at UWG at the time. So I had him A LOT throughout my years for different classes. It gave me anxiety when I saw I had to take another class with him, knowing I couldn’t just sit in the back and never talk.

Anyways, the final for Real Estate Marketing is quite terrifying. You have to write out your fears on this wooden board, and break it with your hands in front of the entire class. That is it. If you break the board, you pass. If you don’t…you fail.

I spent some time deciding which of my fears I was willing to share with the class. But I also wanted to be true to myself. My biggest fear was not succeeding. I never felt like I was good enough. Not growing up, not in grade school, not in college, not as I was about to enter the work force. I let fear control so much of me.

I had a breakdown last Thursday. Zoe told me she didn’t like me when I had asked her to help clean up her room, and that was the last thing to push me over the edge. The truth is, it was a long time coming. I am sick of the pandemic, I am sick of the political atmosphere and all the vile hate going around, I am sick of sitting at home and not being able to go places, 6 months of our lives just gone with not much to show for. Knowing that Zoe is our only child, and we only get 18 years with her, and half of one is gone and all of the little things that we missed getting to experience. I just want to hug my mom, invite my sister in my house, see my friends in person, take Zoe to dance and let her have play dates. Those are all the things I thought I was upset about. I cried for awhile for all of those things and then after Zoe went to bed, I poured a drink and went downstairs to hang out with Chris and listen to music to unwind.

Then all the rest came out. I don’t even remember what came up. But then I started talking about all this stuff from the past. And how I get in my own way constantly. And Chris mentioned the board from my Real Estate Marketing final. I went upstairs and got it. I knew exactly where I kept it. I was holding on to it as a reminder, I told myself. But really, I was holding on to it out of fear.

I handed Chris the board and said, “This is everything you need to know about me.” And he looked at it and said, “No it’s not. This isn’t you. I don’t even know this girl.” And I just stared at him. And he told me all the reasons I am none of these things. And that I hold myself back. And he walked towards the trash can with this board and I freaked out and grabbed it back from him and said “What are you doing?!?!?! You cant throw this away!” And he said, “Let it go. This isn’t you anymore. You have been carrying your fears around for 20 years and it is time to let it go.”

I stood there staring at the board for a minute…..and then I trashed it. I am none of those things on that board. And I am going to stop letting my fear, my past, the things I make up in my head, hold me back. There have been a few things I have always wanted to do, and I am going to fucking do them. Because I can. Because if I actually just start doing them, I will succeed. If I stop being afraid and telling myself I cant, and just do it.

So I am putting this out there because you have to stop carrying around your fears. For me, it was quite literally carrying them around physically. I somehow feel lighter knowing that this board isn’t sitting in a drawer in my office.

You are good enough. You can succeed.

Chris made sure to take this bag down to the curb right after I threw it away, knowing like a psycho I could potentially go back and grab it out of the trash can. I watched the next morning as the trash truck came and emptied our can. Having no clue what they were hauling off.

October is coming in fast! I don’t know what it is about this past month…but it has seriously flown by. I also don’t know what is going on with the weather down here in the south, but I am here for it!!! We have had two weeks of 70’s during the day without 259385% humidity. A real fall! I saw this week it is going to drop down in the 40s a few nights! I cant wait to smell that crisp fall air!

Thursday was rough. Zoe and I had a bad evening. You guys, they don’t tell you when you are going to be a mom, that your 3 year old will tell you that she doesn’t like you. My bad for asking her for the 5th time to clean up her mess. It ended up blowing into this huge meltdown. The meltdown was me.

So Friday morning started with Chick Fil A!

After work Friday night, we ordered Papa Sal’s for curbside pickup. Chris and I have been ordering from them for years, and we had never ordered a pizza. We always get pasta and salads. We ordered a pizza for Zoe figuring we would try some, it was pretty darn good! Zoe loved it too. We also got jalapeno chicken balls, cheese sticks, cheesy bread, I got ravioli, Chris did chicken parm.

I started reading The Night Swim Saturday morning before Chris and Zoe got up. Usually I wake up early Saturday and Sundays and work until she is up, but I decided to truly take this weekend off. It was magical.

Highly recommend adding a little pumpkin pie spice to your coffee this time of year! I just frothed a little heavy cream and sprinkled it on top my usual coffee. SO GOOD.

I had told Zoe Friday night that we were having a football party the next day. She popped out of bed and selected one of her Alabama dresses and ribbon and said, “Mommy I can take football pictures!” Yes, please!!!

We made breakfast after that, we headed outside to play for a bit. Zoe wanted to go for our Saturday car ride, and Chris was working on some stuff in the basement….so just the two of us went. We dropped off Zoe’s friend’s birthday gift, and Zoe always asks that we drive by Chris’s parents house on our way back. His mom was outside, so we stopped by for a bit and hung outside. Zoe had so much fun.

When we got back, it was time to make snacks for football!!!! It almost felt like a normal Saturday with the dips going and football on all day in the background. A Bama win is always good too! Zoe and I played several rounds of Fancy Nancy’s Posh Bedroom game.

We hung around the house Sunday morning, took another car ride around town, ate lunch out on our deck and watched movies. We ordered The Palace for dinner.

I stayed up way too late finishing my book. It was so good! I joined a virtual book club, and I am excited for our first meeting to discuss it. I like having an access to buy physical copies of a book! Usually I do ebooks, library ebooks or audiobooks. I have decided when I am done with them, I will pass them to my mom who also loves to read.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, and that the weather is enjoyable where you are!

Happy Friday! I can’t believe that we are going into the last weekend of September! It is insane!

Did you know that Drew Barrymore has her own talk show now??? I discovered it on YouTube actually, and have been watching her different interviews. It is a fantastic watch! One of her guests was Paris Hilton. I didn’t realize how hard Paris’s life was. After watching the interview, I went and watched her documentary. I cant imagine “playing a part” your entire life and everything that she must have went through. Solid watch, highly recommend.

Favorite Moment: The weather this week has been amazing. Cool in the mornings, only getting into the low 70’s during the day. It was rainy and fall looking all day yesterday. Zoe and I have definitely been taking advantage! We spent so much time outside playing, taking walks, just sitting on the deck. Zoe got to jump in her puddle yesterday too.

We had our fall party on Tuesday to welcome the new season. I got Zoe four Halloween books that have been on repeat since. They are all really good, fairly inexpensive and I highly recommend picking up a few! We got Room on a Broom, Fancy Nancy Halloween or Bust, Frozen Ghost Hunt and Happy Halloween Stinky Face. I started a kids’s list and adult list on bookshop.org where I will be sharing links to books I talk about. It is in affiliate link for me, but also, supports small bookstores.

I also took some pictures of her outside with our pumpkins. I hate that she wont be getting any school pictures done this fall, so I am going to make it a point to get a few good posed ones of her.

Favorite Purchase: I am obsessed with how soft my Aerie Offline leggings are. I am not one to buy printed bottoms, but I highly recommend these. They are thick thigh friendly and butter soft. I pretty much want one of each one now! I am also a fan of the boyfriend tshirts. They are really soft and very over-sized. Definitely order one size down. I could have gone down two sizes if I wanted to! They are 30% off right now!

Favorite Recipe: How amazing does this buffalo chicken salad look? I really am over meal planning and cooking. I need my motivation back to find some new recipes because stuff has been on repeat too much over here! What is your favorite thing right now?

Favorite Funnies: