Friday Favorites: A Change of Quaranscenery
It’s that time of year, ya’ll.
For those of you who’ve been following along for awhile you know how excited I get each May.
Is it because my soul somehow survived yet another Minnesota winter and has surprisingly thawed out?
Obviously.
But more than anything, it’s because for the past 10 years May means it’s time to spend much of our summer days doing a whole lot of this —
(It’s nothing, in case you didn’t get it.)
“Cabin fever” may mean the way you feel when you’re stuck inside for too long (for me that’s basically November through March) but come May it means GET ME TO THE CABIN.
Quarantining ourselves at the lake during the summer isn’t anything new to us (see this post, one of my favorites of the many I’ve written about the lake), but this year it’s like literally mandatory, and believe me, none of us are complaining. Now that Brian doesn’t have that pesky office to have to be in each week and is working remotely, and now the Minnesota summer has arrived and the sun is hot and the lake is cool and the trails are open wide, we’ve moved our little quaran-party here for the next few months.
Because we haven’t had both girls up here with us consistently over the past couple of summers due to out of state jobs and various school obligations, having all four of us here this summer — all summer — is a huge silver lining in this mess of a time we are living in. Sure, the reason we’re all here together is awful, and it’s sad and more than a little bit stressful for our older daughter to be out of work (and not know when she’ll be hired again) and for our younger daughter to not only have her summer performing job cut but not know for certain if she’ll even be able to start her sophomore year on time, but I won’t lie; it’s also wonderful.
Other than our happy relocation, I do actually have a few other favorites to share that all of you can enjoy … unless you are sitting next to me when I’m eating the following cereal.
Friday Favorites!
There should be a warning label on this box with a hotline number.
Cereal addiction; it’s real.
I’ve been snacking on this cereal dry for the past week, and then yesterday woke up from a nap with serious post-nap munchies and had a bowl with milk, and you guys, it took every ounce of will power not to keep dumping more cereal and then more milk and then more cereal and then more milk into my bowl until the whole damn box was empty. (Fun fact: In about 1981 my friend Lisa and I did that with a family sized box of Lucky Charms … and I do not recommend it.)
My only complaint about this cereal is that the ratio is a bit “graham cracker” heavy, which is just idiotic IMO.
Everyone knows the synthetic baby marshmallows are where it’s at.
I’m planning on switching out our typical bowl of movie popcorn with this sometime soon … OR OMG I JUST HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA — MIXING IT RIGHT IN.
Normal People – Hulu
Full disclosure: I did not read this wildy popular book because I never could get into it, but enjoyed the hell out of the Hulu series, “full disclosure” and all.
Holy soft-core porn, you guys, my baby eyes were shocked at what they can show on regular old streaming services nowadays. But Holy hard-core acting, these two were brilliant — without clothes, okay sure, but mostly with.
Some of the episodes are a bit sluggish and I’ll admit I watched the entire thing with captions on because their mumbling, Irish-slang accents were often confusing to understand, but I was completely blown away by the performances of the two lead actors and their raw vulnerability, and was enraptured by the trajectory of their relationship.
I highly recommend watching this roller coaster of a show, but be warned, I think I read that a total of like 42 minutes of the 12 25-minute episodes are sex scenes. Pretty graphic sex scenes at times. It didn’t bother me at all as it lends to the nature of the characters’ development, but you might not want to watch with your kids.
And trust me, they don’t want to watch it with you.
Watch the trailer here.
Another show we just started but are all finding amusing is The Great on Hulu —
It’s silly (sometimes groan-worthy) and you’re not sure what’s real and what isn’t, but really, isn’t that kind of the description of life right now?
All Adults Here – Emma Straub
All Adults Here is the perfect book to lose yourself in while losing yourself in quarantine. I’m loving the somewhat messy story of this family who are all in the process of redefining their lives and their relationships with each other. (And yeah, I’m loving the place I’m losing myself in while reading it, too.)
Straub doesn’t waste a word in her latest, and it’s one of those books I kind of don’t want to read too fast because I don’t want it to end.
I have a few others in progress as well ~ Check out the new tab up top called “Reading List” for what I’m currently reading as well as some old favorites I recommend!
Quarantine Craft Time
I’ve always been a pretty creative person, but it seems that lately I’ve been craving craft time even more.
Huh, I WONDER WHY THAT IS?!?
Last week I pulled out some old watercolors and painted some tiny, jolly birds, and I have to tell you, once I started I didn’t want to stop. Something about these fat, happy little birds just brought me so much joy. And they were so easy! Honestly, they’re just blobs of color with legs.
I brought my paints up to the cabin and since it looks like a lot of clouds this weekend, I have a feeling my flock will grow.
So will my desert —
I’ve crocheted four more of these friends this week (so far) — and taught my daughter how to make them — so if we go missing just look under the pile of tiny crocheted cactus.
I’m also hooking away at this super easy, moss-stitched throw blanket when I’m watching TV at nights —
I have absolutely no idea where it will end up since the colors don’t match anything we own, but the beachy hues just make me happy to look at.
Maybe I’ll just redecorate.
#thatsthequarantinetalking
I’ll leave you now with my favorite share from the week (I share a lot of funny and highly relatable graphics on my IG stories if you aren’t following) —
Honestly, isn’t this all of us?
Enjoy your weekend, friends!
If you need me I’ll be right here, enjoying the quaranscenery.
