Hey friends! Let’s close out the week with some things I’m loving lately.
Feel free to play along in the comments – what are you loving lately?
Things I’m Loving Lately
1) Grilling!
And when I say I’m loving grilling lately, I mean I’m loving eating food that Matt is grilling for us lately. 😉
We’ve been enjoying various burger creations in particular – the ones pictured above are basically my Greek Lamb Burgers with Feta (<- recipe) but with ground turkey instead of lamb since it’s what we had on hand.
They were just as good as I remember, and a huge bonus was that both Riese AND Wes loved them, too. Total win!
We had them on regular bread as we didn’t have any buns, and had a big side Greek salad as well.
We topped the burgers with sliced cucumber and arugula, and some Greek vinaigrette – tzatziki would have been better but we didn’t have any yogurt on hand to make it. Next time!
We also had some yummy more traditional burgers recently, on a pretzel bun. Yum, yum!
We are all loving summer corn – Riese loves corn on the cob and we discovered Wes does, too, and it will actually keep him busy and happy for awhile at the dinner table gnawing on the cob which is nice because usually he eats quickly and then is ready to get down (and makes this known by making a lot of noise, which is not relaxing for anyone involved).
Peaches are my other current favorite summer produce – SO GOOD right now!
If you want some recipe ideas for seasonal produce, by the way, check out this blog post: Tasty Recipes with Summer Fruits & Vegetables.
2) Active friend dates.
I wrote recently about the fun friend date I had hiking the billy goat trail, but I’ve had a couple other fun active friend dates recently, too!
My friend Chelsea and I met up for a walking date on the C&O Canal a few weekends ago – it was SO good to see her and catch up.
We were laughing about our outfits – twinning! I even had the same fanny pack thingy, just in a different color (mine was around my waist because I wear it like a legit fanny pack #old).
I really miss our weekly fitness dates we did for years and years until covid put a stop to them. Chelsea and I now live quite far away from each other, so we have to stick with more sporadic weekend outings. Boo!
On the running front, my friend Kathleen and I have gotten in a couple runs together over the past month or so – always love hitting the trails with her:
We need to start getting back into more consistent run dates because we are running the Marine Corps 10k together in late October (along with friends Sarah and Sokphal) – SUPER excited about that, I haven’t done a race in what feels like a million years!
I haven’t been doing a ton of running this summer because of how hot it has been (I’m usually running once a week at the moment), but I’m excited to get back into it more this fall.
It will help once I’m walking Riese to school again (starting next week – hooray!) vs. driving her to camp, too, because a couple of the other moms and I sometimes run right after school drop off!
Looking forward to doing that again, I’ve missed it.
3) Evernote’s new recurring tasks feature (sponsored)
I have written previously about my love for Evernote, my go-to organization and productivity system; I use it dozens of times per day, either via their phone app or web browser version (they sync automatically), and I’m thrilled to share they have released a new feature: recurring tasks!
I’ve been using Evernote’s task feature for awhile now, and it has been hugely helpful for me to reduce unnecessary email clutter (previously, I would email myself my to-do items, so my email was always super cluttered).
A few weeks ago they released an update to their task item’s ability, which is the option to set tasks as recurring!
I love this new feature – I had already de-cluttered my email inbox of tasks, but my Google calendar was still cluttered with a brunch of recurring tasks that I needed to remember to do every week – things like pay my contractors, select meals for our meal kits, etc.
Now I can just use my calendar for actual meetings/appointments/logistical stuff vs. recurring tasks. Hooray!
To set up a recurring task in Evernote, simply click on the button to add a task like you normally would, then click on “set due date and recurrence.” Easy!
You can set reminders, too, if you’d like.
If you haven’t tried Evernote yet and want to, click here to download the app and get started today (it’s free)!
4) A one nap schedule for Wes.
Friends. Switching from two naps to one has been soooo nice.
I talked about this a little in my recent Solo Weekend with Wes recap (<- basically like a “weekend in the life” style post), but having time to actually do things with him in the mornings and late afternoons is so nice!
We’ve been able to get to more playgrounds that are a farther walk since we don’t have to race home for nap so quickly, and I’m really excited for this new schedule once Riese is back in school, because we’ll be able to do playground play dates after school vs. having to come right home for his late afternoon nap.
It has also been SO nice to have a consistent and predictable daily schedule for him as well. Huge game changer for me stress-wise to be able to plan!
While his morning wake times still vary a lot (oof), his nap stays consistent. So helpful.
5) Neighbor ladies nights
Every Thursday night at 8p.m., a group of neighbors and I get together for wine, snacks, and chilling. We alternate who hosts, and whoever is available to joins, but there is no pressure.
I hosted last night, and one really cool new thing is that our group now has a traveling puzzle! How neat is this – the thing the puzzle is on is a puzzle carrier, so we can pack the puzzle up and bring it back out again next Thursday night.
Genius, right?! I didn’t know puzzle carriers existed!
I want to get one for me and Matt, too, so we can do puzzles at night once the kids are in bed and then pack them up so the kids don’t trash them come morning. We haven’t done a puzzle in ages for that reason!
I’m eyeing this puzzle carrier on Amazon (affiliate link) – unless y’all have any recommendations to share?
6) Riese actually letting me braid her hair (!!)
Normally she doesn’t want me to touch it and looks like Cousin Itt all day, but she saw a picture of the French braids I had someone do for me on a trip recently and wanted me to do it to her!
My technique needs a little work but it came out quite cute, and I was thrilled her hair was out of her face for once!
And that’s all I have for you today! Have a great weekend, my friends.
I will leave you with some posts I enjoyed from around the web:
- Not Escaping – Finding Ways to Stay in the Life We Have – this was beautifully written and very timely with so many of us coming back into real life from vacations right now
- Sheet Pan Baked BBQ Salmon – also on my “to try ASAP” list – yum!
- Road Trip Favorites for Kids – some great ideas here for my fellow parents
- How to not kill your houseplant – Super helpful tips. Now I want a water meter…
- Taco Pasta Salad with Beans – this sounds super good, especially the sauce. Officially on my “to try ASAP” list!
