A big thank you to Fulton County Schools for our annual fall long weekend. Tomorrow, Mary and I are headed off to the beach and to the mountains respectively, to escape a loaded weekly schedule. Finally, a catch-all opportunity to do all those family things we’ve been putting off since the beginning of school. It’s a very quick slide into the holiday season, so here’s our most recent Things We Loved before we have to switch gears for the end of the year.
Mary’s Loves
October is not only the start of spooky season, but also planner season! If you’re like me and Patti, you know that Passion Planner recently rolled out their 2024 line of weekly planners. Once mine arrived in the mail, my room was instantly transformed into a craft den filled with stickers, highlighters, and more washi tape than you could imagine. We also use a lot of their free downloads and by the end, I have a pretty serious life tracker. I also ordered from my favorite planner sticker shops: Chelsea Brown Designs, LyRainzStickrzNStuff, JLynnPaperCo, and Uncommon Plans.
I’ve been looking for a good laugh lately and one of my favorite actors, Jake Johnson (Nick Miller from New Girl), has a podcast called We’re Here to Help. He and his buddy Gareth Reynolds give callers advice on some interesting dilemmas, just like your friendly bartender or tipsy uncle at a family gathering (their words, not mine). I also love that they’ve brought on some New Girl alums to the podcast as special guests.
On my last two bookstore runs, I picked up two historical cookbooks. I have a minor in Classical Studies, so Tasting History: Explore the Past Through 4,000 Years of Recipes by Max Miller has filled that void. That parmesan ice cream seems appetizing. Lol.
The other book is Baking Yesteryear: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s by B. Dylan Hollis. I follow him on TikTok, watching him whip up some old school baking recipes from the 1900s. The book has some interesting recipes and the historical content behind them like Unemployment Pudding or Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.
As for the kids, my son finally wanted to earn some cash since he grew tired of waiting for Christmas and his birthday. We set him up with a daily list of chores to earn a weekly allowance. He’s currently saving up for Akedo Ultimate Arcade Warriors Battle Giants Versus Pack.
Finally, in preparation for our trip to Vegas in a couple weeks, I’m currently reading Chronicles of Old Las Vegas: Exposing Sin City’s High-Stakes History by James Roman.
Patti’s Loves
I’ve been on the road a ton since September. My new job has me driving all over the south and I have one more road trip for the rest of the year. I have never spent this much time alone in the car before (like 6+ hours), so I’ve been clearing out my Audible library. Last week, I polished off Starter Villain by John Scalzi (so frickin’ funny and narrated by Wil Wheaton) and Excessive by Dan Robert (a little ridiculous but great cast). This week, I got into Grimoire Girl: Creating an Inheritance of Magic and Mischief by Hilarie Burton Morgan. I’ve loved her since TRL and One Tree Hill, and I got really into this whole book on creating magic every day and leaving something tangible for your kids.
Starting Duolingo was actually one of my 2024 goals, but I got a head start. I have a lot of friends who will sometimes share their daily lesson streaks in German or Spanish. I think my cousin is actually juggling 4-5 languages at a time on his account?! I decided I wanted to brush up on my French and see if I could become a little more conversational. Pretty proud of myself so far, seeing as though French class was a hot 20 years ago…. They also have a family version of the app.
Speaking of planner season, I got to visit a stationery shop in Durham, NC last week on the road. I follow Elyse Breanne Design on TikTok and her shop Mill & Meadow in Durham just celebrated it’s one-year anniversary. She creates really pretty floral and graphic prints and I grabbed a ton of stickers, gift bags, and accessories. I also visited M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, SC and snagged even more stickers, snarky cards, and other fun little book gifts.
For the girls, I picked up these blank watercolor postcards from Amazon. They’ve been taking a weekly art class since September and since we have WAY too many pieces, I thought they could paint on these postcards and mail them out to family members. Yay for snail mail!
I also requested these two new books from the library: Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes: Mythology From Around the World by Marzia Accatino and Stuff Kids Should Know: The Mind-blowing Histories of (almost) Everything by Chuck Bryant. They’ve been picking up Level 1 and 2 reader books every other week, mostly Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious. I hope these will mix it up.
Can you tell we’re both a bit nerdy underneath it all?
This month, like most of our Octobers, we’re going all out with a new spooky theme. Can’t wait to share it with all of the slashers and final girls next week.
~Mary & Patti
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