Happy last Friday in July from back home in North Carolina; can you believe it? I sure can given the 95 degree temps outside. Yeesh, it’s hot out there right now. However, it comes at the right time, as we are gearing up to start out homeschool year next week! See all our curriculum picks here.

I am shooting for a Monday or Tuesday start, which means this weekend is about reading through next week’s lessons, collecting any necessary supplies, and thinking of ways to make it fun. Of course, Beautiful Feet will naturally be fun, but I’m trying to get my mind right about subjects like math and reading lessons which are slightly more challenging to jazz up. Maybe I’ll just make some brownies to be offered during those subjects, ha 🙂

We have a much anticipated low key weekend ahead, with my bro and his fam will be staying with us Saturday night on the tail end of their road trip. The girls are already psyched to see their cousins again! But first, as we head into the weekend, here are 5 things I want to share with you!

Heavenly Halibut. I don’t often use Allrecipes, but when I was searching for a halibut recipe the other day, I found this heavenly halibut and it just sounded so good. I had to modify it a bit- no green onions or hot sauce, added garlic powder, then baked it at 425 for 20 minutes, then added the topping, then back in for 5 minutes, finishing with a quick broil. It was so different than any of my go-to fish preps and WOW was it good! The kids ate it fine (though I was expecting some rave reviews, I just got a satisfied clean plate, so I’ll take it), but I thought it was knock your socks off delicious, especially served over rice to soak up the remaining sauce.

Big Kid Walkie Talkies. These are my favorite little kid walkie talkies. We had them for years and they are easy to use, durable, and work well. But now that my kids are going further distances and are more independent, we got a set of these walkie talkies for them to use around the neighborhood or while we are exploring. They are fabulous!

For my fellow national park lovers, they are a must. They came in so handy on our latest trip to Acadia for two reasons. First, there is no phone coverage in the park, so anytime the adults split (someone stopping at the bathroom or getting into two cars), each party took one with them. And secondly, the kids liked to hike a little ahead of us on some of the trails, so we divided the three walkie talkies out- the leader got one, the caboose got one, and an adult in the middle got one, too. Being in constant connection added peace of mind to our hiking!

The Headway App. Headway is an app that takes 300-500 page non-fiction books and summarizes the main points into bite-sized into 15-20 minute chunks that you can read or listen to. They have over 1500 book summaries in a wide variety of categories so you can target your own interests. I’m still in the free trial mode, but will most likely purchase this app because I love the premise.

As a nonfiction junkie, I know that some books I want to read every word of, but others I’m fine to just consume the main takeaways. I’ve been listening to one or two book summaries a day, when I walk Finley mostly, and I’m finding it inspiring. It feels like a better use of my time than most podcasts I’ve been listening to and is allowing me to get familiar with the main concepts of many books I’ve had on my “want to read” list without having to fully invest the time to do so. If a book sounds particularly interesting to me, I’ll get the full thing to read, but with many I’ve been satisfied with just the main takeaways.

Freezer Cubes. I recently did a big clean out of my freezer and it’s bringing me more joy than it probably should. I made David fresh coffee cubes, which is when I fill these silicone trays with leftover coffee for him to add to his morning brew to get it the right temperature to sip on the way to work.

Also, if you don’t yet use Souper Cubes, get you some! They are larger silicone freezer cubes with lids. Add the liquid, freeze, pop them out, and store them in a labeled Ziplock back for convenience, perfect portions, and an organized freezer. They also make it really easy to gift frozen foods to friends in need, as you can give them a big bag full of ready to go, portioned soups so they can pull one out at a time whenever they need it.

I recently used mine to freeze leftover hot and sour soup and future me with a sore throat will be so grateful! I use mine for homemade broths, soups, chilis, spaghetti, big ice cubes for punch bowls, sauces, marinades, and so much more. I find the 2 c souper cubes perfect size for one serving, but they also offer many different shapes and sizes to fit your needs.

Finley in heat. A life tidbit to share! As we were making our way back home from our trip, our friend that keeps Finley for us let us know that Finley had started her first heat. We all knew this was a possibility timing wise and our wonderful friend is an animal pro and not phased by it. Plus I had sent these dog diapers with her, just in case, which have been SO great.

Anyway, it’s been my first experience with having a dog in heat and honestly, it’s not as hard as I expected so far (about 5 days into an experience that should last roughly 3 weeks). Outside she runs around bare-bottomed, and when she comes in, she gets a fresh diaper. I simply wash them in our machine as we cycle through them and she hasn’t been bothered by the diapers, which surprises me, considering she tried to rip off any t-shirt or lifejacket we put on her.

I’ve mentioned a little on here how we are doing things very differently than we did with Koda, our first vizsla who passed away at 8 years old after a year battle with canine lymphoma. Since then I have learned a lot about dog health and while there are no guarantees, I’m hopeful some of the alternative methods we are using this time around will give Finley a longer, healthier life.

And that’s a wrap- happy Friday! I hope this weekend you get a little of whatever it is you currently need, be it rest and relaxation or a little adventuring and living it up!