Friday Favorites, 6.18.21

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Erika and Andrea for this weekly blog post. 

I knew when Monday morning hit that this week would fly right by and I was right! It went by really quickly, but it's been a good week. Here are some of my top favorites from the week.

First up is that all of my family is safely back home! I have to confess here that last week went down as one of my favorite weeks ever—nobody was home except for Todd and me! It was LOVELY cleaning my house and then having it stay clean. It was wonderful not having to cook dinner as much and getting to go out for dinner several nights in a row. But, I am glad everyone is home safe and sound and I love that they had a blast on their respective vacations. Even more than that, I love that they're so close to each other, relationship wise. Being a mom to all of the (now) grown men has been my favorite job that I have ever had and I have had some fun jobs.

(My top two favorites were working as a lunch lady in the boys' elementary school for four years where I handed out packets of ketchup and hugs, and selling makeup and doing prom makeovers on young girls at a local makeup place we have in Memphis.)

Another favorite from the week was looking back on memories of when they were younger. 

Memories like this one above are my favorites. My dad and Sandy would go out of town for two or three weeks and come home with goodies for the boys. When I say "goodies", I mean books and souvenirs that they still have today. They would also send them postcards from every location and then if that happened during the school year, we would incorporate those things into our school days. Those were the golden years! Also, how sweet was it that they always sent them postcards? They'd always include a little bit of history in the letter portion of them. 

Most of you know that my favorite hobby is reading. I wrote a blog post on Wednesday about the books I've been reading lately, so if you'd like to see that, click here. Maybe one or two my book recommendations will become your favorite summer reading! 

Our renovated home and flower beds are my favorite thing. Todd came home Monday night and cute the yard, edged, and watered the flowers. I was walking back home from my neighbor's house (whose pets I am taking care of all week) and loved how neat and manicured it looked. (That white you see on our flowers is something a friend told me to use to kill the bugs that are eating our hostas and hydrangeas.)

Tuesday was my favorite day because I floated around in this pool while catching up with my mom-in-love. This is her neighborhood pool and these days are both of our favorites.

This was my favorite meme from the week. I promptly sent it to two of my girlfriends who I have an ongoing text with. 

Speaking of tacos—last night's dinner was my favorite. Tacos and Mexican food in general is my favorite food.

This is my newest favorite outfit! You'll never guess where it came from. Wal-Mart! I bought five of them, for $13.86 a piece. This one is slate gray (ish blue), I got one that's olive green, a teal one, a black one and a coral one. It's so hot here that this feels good to wear over anything else, unless it's a bathing suit while I'm in a pool. I will be wearing this on repeat all summer, so don't mind me when you see them a thousand times. 

Candles are my favorite! The Antique Candle Company makes the most amazing scented candles and for $20 (plus $7 for shipping), I became a candle tester and they sent me these five sample candles. They're Christmas scented! I already know that my favorites are the Hot Cocoa and Snickerdoodle.

After watching over pets that either bite me or growl and hiss at me all week, our animals are my very favorites. They'd just come in from outside and were so hot. They never just lay here like this! This picture makes me smile. 

I'll wrap this post up with this last image above and just ignore Chip's tail that you see. You know my dad comes over every Friday and my tv screensavers are always his favorite. I found this (free) patriotic screensaver last week and made it my default one for at least the next month. I know he will love this when he comes over today. I love doing little things like that for him and I love that I get to make him lunch today. I'm excited about our lunch today. too—we're going to have leftover soft tacos. 

It's such a privilege to spend time with every Friday and I do not take it for granted, I assure you. Well, it's Thursday night as I write this and I need to go take care of my neighbor's animals for the last time today. Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all. 

P.s.—I'd love to hear from you! What are your weekend plans? I will be on a blog break all next week, because I will be on vacation. I'll see you back here the following week with all the details. 💓