Five On Friday: Last Full Week Of Summer!

Hey hey, friends! If your hometown has been near as hot as ours was this week, I have a feeling you also stayed inside watching way too much Netflix and hiding in the AC.  Or maybe that was just us?

Jordan starts “new teacher” training next week since he is starting in a new district, so this was our last full week of summer together.  I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather, so we once again spent lots of fun time watching Jimmy Fallon, doing house projects, and hanging out with friends.  I also decided to rewatch Parenthood from the very beginning, which has led to lots of happy tears.  It’s just as good (if not better) the second time around!

Here are some pictures and updates from our last full week of summer!

1) Baking Time With My Niece

My sweet niece Elsie is in town for the summer, and it has been so fun to get to spend some time with her.  Jordan and I took her out for Funny Face Pancakes at Ihop and then back to our house for some puppy play time and baking, and it was so fun! I let her decide on our “recipe” (aka what extras we added) and we made chocolate-chip, peanut butter chip, M&M cookies. Olive is pretty happy any time a small child more likely to drop food comes into our house.  She scored two scoops of cookie dough that day! Totally unhealthy but she survived, so I suppose it’s okay, right?

2) Working On A New Gallery Wall

I finally finished the long process of painting our hutch this week (you can read more about that process here), so we started working on filling the big blank wall opposite the hutch.  I’ll save the full reveal of that for later, but I couldn’t resist sharing this silly print we found on our trip to Boulder, CO last June.  It’s called a US Stereotypes map, and we decided to buy it after giggling in the store for about 20 minutes reading it.  I know the lighting from this quick iPhone pic isn’t great, but can you see what it says about your state?! I love that our neck of the woods (aka Missouri) is just question marks, too flat, and scary weather.  Sounds about right.

3) Comfort Food

I’ve been pretty lazy when it comes to cooking this summer, and this week I was just craving some good ol’ comfort food.  One night I made something my mama used to throw together aptly called Noodles, Eggs, and Cheese, which is basically just pasta, scrambled eggs, a little skim milk, and lots of cheese.  Total comfort food, and SO good! I also made some tuna noodle casserole, another old favorite of mine. I try to eat healthy as much as I can, but sometimes you just need some goopy, cheesy goodness, you know?

Source: All Recipes

4) Some Decorations For The Hubby

Two of Jordan’s favorite spaces in our house are the garage and the basement.  He’s been dreaming of doing this project for a while, and I’m so proud of all the work he put into it! I’ll probably share more pics soon, but I love how he chose to display his race medals (he’s quite the athlete if you haven’t heard me mention this before), his map to show all the places he’s done races, and these faux deer heads (not sure what to call them) made from old bicycle seats and handles.  I can’t wait to hang them all in our basement!

5) A Heartbreaking, Beautiful Story About Infant Loss And Infidelity

I am still thinking about this beautiful post by my friend Aly from this week’s Womanly Wednesday.  She wrote so honestly about her journey these last few years, a journey that included losing her infant daughter and seeing her marriage end, all in the course of a year.  If you missed her post, please go back and check it out! Seriously, this girl rocks.  You can also go check out her blog, Sookie Jane!

Happy 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!