The kitchen reno isn’t helping at a time when I’d love to be baking bread, making soup, and leaning into the cozy season, *but* do you know what has helped? The sunshine! We have seen a lot of it this week and on Wednesday alone I spent two hours sitting in it and chatting with friends after co-op while the kids played basketball and dodgeball, then came home and spent another hour playing family Kube before it fully set. Sunshine is lifegiving, and if we aren’t going to have snow, then I’ll take 60 and sunny all day long, please.

And with that, it’s Friday! This weekend’s plans include watching the girls play basketball (which I thoroughly enjoy) and perhaps even getting to watch my niece play basketball, as she is in Charlotte for a tournament. David is working on some electrical at home and we have plans to grab dinner with friends. We still have some school lessons to knock out today since yesterday we let a few slide in favor of being outside in the sun (no regrets). But first, let’s dig into some Friday favs…

Five on Friday

Things I’ve Shared This Week

• My Nightly Self Care Routine
• Meals to Bring to a New Mom
• My Family’s Favorite Dinners (also perhaps my new two week meal plan rotation?)

Purity Coffee

I am sitting here sipping on my coffee and excited to grab a second cup, which I can do without getting the jitters because I’m brewing the 1/3 caffeine blend from Purity. And it’s delicious. Have you heard of Purity Coffee?

After passing rigorous third-party testing for mold, mycotoxins, and contaminants, their regeneratively farmed, organic, specialty-grade coffee beans undergo a customized roasting process that optimizes the levels of antioxidants, bioactive compounds, and micronutrients contained in their coffee. For their decaffeinated coffee and lower caffeinated blend, they use the Swiss Water method to decaffeinate them versus chemical methods often used by other brands. Plus, did I mention, it’s really tasty! Use code AHS for 20% off your first order.

Kitchen Renovation

Despite being inconvenient, the renovation process has been really interesting for me to watch. I don’t have a natural eye for imagining layout/decor changes so to see it transform has been really cool. Our kitchen is going to feel doubled in size and little details like double pull out trash cans and soft close cabinets have me feeling giddy. Taking cabinets to the ceiling and putting a full panel beside the fridge also seem to have made a huge impact. I’ll do a post with a final reveal when it’s done, but until then, here is a peek at the before and in process.

Amazon Top Sellers

• Greens Keeper – I purchased this little gem after tiring of seeing my fresh greens wilt before I was able to get to them. Now I have romaine that lasts up to TWO weeks.
• Maty’s Vapor Rub – Kaitlyn had a cough a couple weeks back and this natural vapor rub on her chest and her feet (with socks) before bed helped soothe it for her to sleep.
• Cool Mist Humidifier – I remembered to pull this out again with Kaitlyn’s cough but since then have kept it running in the main area of our home. Did you know proper humidity level can actually decrease the risk of getting sick? Google it; very neat.
• Eyebrow & Eyelash Growth Serum – I’ve been applying this religiously every night for about 5 weeks now and am finally seeing results! Longer, stronger lashes and even my sad brows that are fading from their microblading seem to be filling in some.
• Hanging Toiletry Bag – I waxed poetic about how functional and fabulous this bag is while packing for our recent ski trip and I was so happy to see it pop up in the top sellers, as it really was the best upgrade from Ziplocks I ever made.

US Government Mini Unit

Being that it’s an election year and the girls have been asking questions about the process, I figured now would be a great time to teach the girls about the formation of our government and how it runs. I chose a Gather Round mini unit. We’ve done Gather Round complete units in the pasta (space, farming and food, chemistry) and have always found them engaging, so I ordered the US Government mini unit and two upper elementary workbooks so both girls would have identical workbooks. After all, my goal for this was largely to go through the teacher manual and have them stay engaged, not to use it as a core curriculum.

Well, we have all been really enjoying it! The lessons are short; they take us roughly 20 minutes to complete, but we’ve also been going down rabbit trails of great conversations based on their questions. The unit begins with the formation of the government, the constitution, the bill of rights, federal versus state power, and builds from there. As a history nerd, it’s so much fun for me to teach and the kids have both really been intrigued by the content. Highly recommend.

And that’s it for now. I hope you have a WONDERFUL weekend and get a chance to get outside for some fresh air and sunshine. <3