Five On Friday: Patriotic Projects and SUMMERTIME

If you’re reading this post, it means my four weeks of summer school are officially done and it is summertime! PRAAAAAAAISE! Even though I’d say fall is my favorite season, as a teacher, there are few things better than those sweet weeks of break from the ups and downs of working with middle schoolers.  I can’t wait for six weeks of sleeping in, jumping more fully into blogging, snuggling my puppy and hubby, pool time, watermelon, iced coffee, and a million other things.  Seriously…summer is the best.

I’m linking up with A. Liz Adventures, Fitting It All In, Life in Leggings, Grace and Love Blog, Momfessionals Friday Favorites, Friday Letters, and Running 4 Cupcakes to share some of my Friday favorites and random updates from this week! Enjoy!

1. More car troubles

If you saw last week’s Friday post, you know that my car decided to stop working.  And folks, I don’t have good news to report.  We have to replace the whole engine, even though the car is only seven years old, which is a MAJOR bummer and VERY expensive.  Let’s just say every dollar we made working summer school (and then some) will go toward a new engine.  My Lucy girl, aka my 2009 Toyota Highlander, has been good to me until now (like the picture below where she carried me and my then boyfriend all the way from North Carolina to Kansas City so I could figure out if he was the boy I wanted to marry. He was. ).  I guess it’s time for us to be good to her and give her a much needed new engine.  See you later, summer school money.  It was fun while it lasted.

I still have the clothes I’m wearing in this pic (and it is almost 5 years old). Time to clean out my closet? Probably….

2. 4th of July PRojects

I have such good memories from 4th of July  as a kid, and it was fun to work on some of my own crafting projects this week! I shared the recipe for one of my childhood favorites, a berry almond tart, and tried my hand at a new project in making a patriotic burlap wreath.  I haven’t always been so confident in my crafting skills, and doing projects like this wreath reminds me to trust my instincts and just make something I like.  Because ultimately, does it really matter if the world loves my random burlap wreath? It brings me joy every time I walk in my front door and that’s good enough!

3.Taking Olive to Home Depot

Did you know you can take your dogs to Home Depot? They usually have treats behind the service desk and everyone was so sweet.  We’re trying to teach Olive (our sweet puppy who has made me a better human) how to behave in public, especially since her favorite way to greet new dog and human friends is by jumping on them and/or pawing them in the face.  We took her there last Friday night so mom could pick up some paint samples, ate some yummy Chick Fil-A for dinner, ran around at the dog park, then headed home for an episode of Orange Is The New Black.  Pretty solid date night, I’d say!

4. Featured on a few blogs

Okay y’all, I promise this is not just meant to be too braggy, but I was featured on a few blogs this week (commence squealing and excitement here)!  I’m still pretty new to this whole blogging thing, and it was a fun, affirming thing to pop over to those blogs for this week’s Linky Parties and see the pictures and posts from my site! I know that’s not what blogging is about, and I never want to focus too much on those things….but isn’t it so fun?! Can’t a girl squeal a little?

My berry almond tart was featured on Mabey She Made It, Embracing Change,  New Nostalgia, and Joy In Our Home.  My Ikea Rast Hack Nightstands were featured on Sand & Sisal, The Painted Drawer, and A Fresh Start On A Budget.  And last, my post on learning to love my husband’s hobbies was featured on Women With Intention and the Faith and Fellowship Blog Hop! Okay, giddy squealing and jumping and bragging over! Thanks for sharing in the joy with me, folks.  You all are my people and I’m excited to share our victories and our struggles together!

5. Wedding Adventures And Mishaps

Last weekend Jordan and I headed to the wedding of an old friend of his (congrats Matt & Emily!).  We were so excited to see these two tie the knot and carpooled with Jordan’s parents since they’d known him since he was a little boy too.  We drove around for 45 minutes looking for the ceremony location (plugging in several different addresses we found) and somehow never found it! Major bummer.  We ended up heading to Hobby Lobby and picking up these awesome metal KC letters, hanging out at Jordan’s parents for a while, and then going to the super cute barn reception out in Dearborn, MO.  We loved your wedding, Matt and Emily! Congrats!

P.S.  I posted my first ever (I think?) Instagram selfie this morning in honor of  the very last day of summer school today.  Because sometimes you’ve just got to channel your inner middle schooler and take a bathroom selfie, ya know? #middleschoolSpanishteacher4life

Have a fabulous weekend, friends!

Head over to  A. Liz Adventures, Fitting It All In, Life in Leggings, Grace and Love Blog, Momfessionals Friday Favorites, and Running 4 Cupcakes for more Friday favorites!