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Happy Fall!!! These next few months are my favorite. Cooler weather, football, smores, jewel toned colors, sweatshirts and leggings, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Zoe’s Birthday, Christmas. Just give it all to me!

A running theme of the pandemic for us is celebrating anything and everything we can. Sunglasses party! Rapunzel Party! Cookie Party! Well, a few weeks ago I decided to have a Fall Party! I ordered a few halloween/fall themed books from Target and set them aside for today. When Zoe wakes up, she will see the decorated table in the kitchen, and we will have some pumpkin rolls for breakfast!

This past weekend, we had some gorgeous fall weather!!!! It was in the 50’s in the morning, and never got above the low 70’s during the day with little humidity. That is the perfect weather for me. We spent a lot of time outside soaking it all up!

Zoe and I met up with my mom on Saturday for a little social distanced visit in a parking lot. This is the first time we have seen her since July, so it was really nice to see her in person. She brought candy corn for Zoe, and had picked up a really pretty blue sweatshirt for me that I couldn’t order online. I pretty much cried the entire way home, because honestly, I just wanted to hug her. I hate that we live in a world where we cant give our own mother a hug right now. But I am grateful for the time we got to see her and Zoe has mentioned her several times since, so I know that makes her feel good.

On our way home, we picked up BBQ from one of our favorite local places and spent the rest of the day building towers out of blocks and playing outside.

We had tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner. Such a classic, and always my favorite. Zoe was a huge fan.

Sunday morning we got the floors cleaned and hung around the house. We ordered curbside pickup for lunch at a new to us restaurant called The Farmhouse. We got fried pickles, loaded fries, burgers and smoked gouda mac n cheese. It was delicious! I think my favorite was their fried pickles. I definitely want to eat there in person when we feel comfortable dining in. Their steaks look incredible!

Sunday afternoon we pretty much lived outside.We played soccer, took a walk, Zoe drove around in her Minnie car, bounced on her unicorn, played in her playhouse, it was just so pretty!

What is your favorite season?

Happy Friday, Friends! It has been such a week you guys. Work got a little crazy, seeing all the pictures coming in from Gulf Shores after hurricane Sally came through is heartbreaking, and you know…normal pandemic things. We actually didn’t get as much rain as they were predicting for our area. Sally stayed south of us, and it only rained here Wednesday. Zoe was disappointed that her water puddle went away before she could play in it.

Favorite Surprise: My sister dropped by yesterday morning with brownies from Chick Fila and a unicorn bouncer for Zoe. Zoe literally carried this thing around everywhere yesterday, inside and out. She got it from Aldi. It is actually really cute, you are supposed to sit and bounce on it. It holds up to 220 pounds, so even I sat on it for a minute yesterday. Zoe is pretty serious about it, she even had to kiss it goodnight at bedtime last night, and was upset I told her that it couldn’t sleep in the bed with her.

Favorite Happy Mail: My FabFitFun box arrived this week! It was a nice little happy on a particularly busy work day. Zoe sat down with me when I opened it and was just as excited as I was. She kept saying, “Mommy do you like the present I got you??” Hahaha. Nice try, kid. Sign up here and get $10 off! (Full disclosure, I get a credit to my account to. I pay for the seasonal boxes myself, this is not sponsored in any way.) My box was worth $448.50 this time. I am most excited to try out the Foxybae Curling Wand and wear my SOIA & KYO Scarfigan. And OMG!!! The Daniel Stone Santal Noir room spray smells incredible!!!! It is a little steep full price, but man. So good! (I found a candle with the same scent here.) Zoe keeps asking me to spray it in my office while I am working.

How fun is this scarfigan though?? It feels like a blanket, and is the perfect thing to grab on a chilly night. I plan to keep it in my office for those days I get a chill. I really love the colors, and it is such a versatile piece. My other items I received were the Jenny Bird Austin Cuff, Anastasia Brow Gel, 8 Other Reasons Runway Clips, The Beauty Crop Glow Milk in Blind Date (super pretty liquid highlight!!!) and Voesh Pedicure In a Box in Pumpkin Spice, (there are 2 full sets of a soak, scrub, mask and butter.) If you got the box, what did you get?

Favorite Activity: Zoe and I collected some leaves this week to make a craft with. We talked about how they change colors and fall off the trees in the fall. I am hoping we can take a drive through the mountain during peek leaf season and maybe she can see it for herself past our backyard. We took her crayola paints and painted the leaves and used them as stencils on paper. It was quick and easy, and she had a lot of fun.

Favorite Purchase: A few weeks ago I was really fed up with my hair. Honestly, I still am. It is beyond need of cutting!!!!! I have super thin hair, and when it gets this long, it gets really stringy and dry on the ends. I have been a fan of WetBrush for years, but honestly….the little round ends of the bristles pull my hair and it hurts! And ends up breaking more than helping. When Tangle Teaser first came out, I got one! But it didn’t have a handle, and it sort of made my hand cramp using it. Well, now they make them with handles!!! You guys, you have to get this! It is so much easier to clean than the Wet Brush and it doesn’t pull or break my hair at all. Highly recommend for kids too!

Favorite Stretch : I don’t know about melting away anxiety, but this first yoga pose really helps my back and hips.

Favorite Funnies:

Hurricane Sally is making her way to the gulf coast, which almost always has some kind of impact here. I decided to check my weather app this morning just to see how much rain we are supposed to get. Low and behold, after the rain the next three days, the temperatures are going to be in the 70’s for the next week, with lows in the high 50s!!!! HELLO FALL!!!!!!!!!!! I am sure we will have another heat wave, because this is Alabama and fall doesn’t happen until November, but I will take it!

Besides our usually weekend car rides, we didn’t really have any excitement this weekend. My sister did drop by on Saturday for a few minutes, and it is always nice to see her! That morning before she came over, I cut the hedger out and went to town on the trees and bushes in the front flower bed of the house, and hit some of the side of the house ones. Even though it was overcast and the temperature wasn’t too bad, it was so humid, I eventually had to stop. It looks a lot better, and I should only have to do it one more time to get everything ready for “winter.” Well, with the exception of weeding, which I have to do like every two weeks. Damn weeds.

Zoe and I hung outside in the shade for awhile, and made our way onto the deck so she could play in her sand box and we set up her water stations.

That night I made a meatloaf for dinner. Haven’t made the classic kind in forever! I usually make the healthy/fancy keto friendly kind. I usually love to have mashed potatoes with this dish, but we don’t really keep potatoes on hand, so green beans it was! Zoe LOVES green beans by the way. The meatloaf, she was not a fan. I can’t blame her. I didn’t eat meatloaf until I was an adult.

Sunday, we went for another car ride and hung around the house the rest of the day. Zoe and I had a little picnic with snacks in the shade of the backyard.

I finished reading Rosie’s Traveling Tea Shop Sunday evening, and am starting His Only Wife. Trying to get through some Netgalley books. I keep requesting new ones, and have some that are super old sitting on the shelf. Rosie’s Tea Shop was from 2019, I think I have a few on there from even before that. Oops.

I have started setting out some fall decor. I never really decorated for fall before. I am not huge into Halloween things, and going for more of the pumpkins and fall to leave out through Thanksgiving. Though, we do have a few Snoopy Halloween things that I want to incorporate somewhere. I redid our fireplace mantel. I am not done yet, but this is where I am.

I need some more pumpkins, but am at the mercy of what I can find online. I don’t know why Hobby Lobby has to be out of all their cute stuff online. Get it together! Where is your favorite place to shop for fall decor? There are a few things I have my eye on at Kirkland’s. Do you decorate for fall or Halloween/Thanksgiving?

I happened to look down at the date in the corner of my screen this morning and saw that it was September 11th. Let’s be honest, I am good if I even know what day of the week it is, yet alone the actual date. Every year, I think about where I was, what was going through my mind, all of the lives lost, and how we are forever changed. Sometimes I think about how life is going to look after Covid. How long will it take before things feel “normal.” What will normal even look like. How much therapy we probably all need.

But that was all quite a bit deep for a favorites post, wasn’t it? I can’t let my mind go in that direction! I know it was a short week, but man, was it quick! We have been so busy at work that the days have just slipped right past me.

Favorite Activity: Zoe and I have had some really fun lessons this week. I ordered this Kinetic Sand set the other day because it came with a ton of different tools, a play mat and two bags of sand (red and blue.) Kinetic Sand has been a favorite of Zoe’s for quite awhile now. Usually we bury small zoo animals in it for her to dig around, but I wanted some more things to change it up. This kit is fantastic! Cutting and using the scoop and dome mold is so satisfying! I think I had just as much fun as she did.

I shared our science experiment on stories the other day, and I got a lot of questions about where I got the droppers from. Amazon, of course! They are a great size for little toddler hands, and honestly, quite comfortable for adults too. I loved that they came with a little stand to keep them in, it keeps the liquids from dripping all over the table! I took a muffin tin and put a few drops of food color on the bottom of each section, covered it with a spoonful of baking soda, then put vinegar in a bowl. Zoe used the droppers to drop the vinegar into the cups and thought it was the COOLEST thing ever seeing it foam up and become a color. She played with this for a good 30-40 minutes, and has asked every day to do something with the droppers since. I have been just letting her mix colored waters to see what happens.

Favorite Aldi Finds: I have so many photos on my phone for Aldi posts that I wanted to do and never got around to. But I got these signs this week, so they should still be in stores. Each one is double sided so you can use them for fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving. I absolutely love that about them. I am still trying to gather fall decor, but this was a great start. The large sign (I shared both sides of it) was $9.99 and the three smaller ones were $3.99.

Favorite Recipe: One of my favorite things to make for parties, company, or lunch for myself is to take salami and roll it around a little bit of cream cheese. So easy and always a crowd pleaser. I like that this is a fancier version of that, and low carb friendly.

Favorite Funnies:

Nothing like recapping a weekend on a Wednesday, right? Book day was yesterday though, and you gotta be there for that! If you missed it, I only read two books and they were both consumed in the last week. I enjoyed both of them, totally worth reading. Anyways, onto the weekend! The long weekend!

Friday evening, we ordered Mexican for dinner. We decided on somewhere other than our usual, and it was fabulous.

I had a little work to finish up Saturday morning. After that, we headed out for our car ride. When we got home, Zoe wanted to go play outside. I set up the sprinkler and her water table, and she had a lot of fun running around between the two. After, she came up on the deck and played in her sandbox for awhile.

Sunday morning, we ordered Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Never disappoints.

Zoe and I spent a lot of time outside again. The weather was a lot drier this weekend, so it was tolerable to sit out in the shade. We don’t get very many “dry, non-humid” weekends down here…so you have to take full advantage! We took lots of evening walks around the neighborhood too. We pass by this one house that has an owl statue near their mailbox. I am pretty sure it is to keep the birds away from crapping on it. I might end up doing the same, as ours is always getting covered by them. Zoe was terrified the first time she saw and it practically jumped in my arms screaming. I had to explain that it was a pretend owl, and then she became fascinated with them. We have to watch YouTube informative videos on owls now, and she has to go by and say hi when we take walks.

On Monday, we took yet another car ride. This time we stopped at BBQ Stop on the way home to pick up burgers, sides and cheese fries. Everything was really good and hit the spot! This was our second time doing a drive thru. Slowly getting ourselves back out there!

It is crazy how fast a Monday goes when you don’t have to work, right??? Even working from home, you definitely feel work days. This past weekend, I really tried to unwind some. I am over all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, work, homeschooling, not seeing people, etc. I tried to let some of that go for a few days. Of course, now I have 3498 loads of laundry to do, floors to clean, work to catch up on, and lessons to teach…but it was nice to unwind some!

Yesterday it was back to Zoom meetings, homeschooling, ordering groceries for the week, working, catching up with clients and tracking down data, and getting a start on the mountain of laundry that accumulated in just a few days. And dishes. Dear God, the dishes. Someone explain to me how there are always so many??? I hope you all had a great weekend! We are already half way through this week now!