Friday, March 17, 2023

Happy Friday! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Happy Birthday to my amazing sister, Kate! Get yourself a shamrock shake today! I have not had my yearly shake yet.

Today is everyones’ favorite link up with Andrea and Erika where we share our Friday Favorites.

Here are mine…

Last Saturday was so much fun! I didn’t share this photo yet of Erica, Heather, and I “pre-parading”. It was so much fun to drop the Saturday routine/errands/chores and go have fun!

Our son Jack wanted to go hear his guitar teacher play at a church Sunday afternoon and said we could come. Tom and I jump when our kids want to spend time with us and with them going to college so close we have that luxury.

We found out this church was the oldest house of worship in Louisville – how cool is that? His guitar teacher is simply amazing and he has played in Spain!

After the concert, we went to The Eagle. Tom and I split a sandwich and it was just too spicy and we can handle some spice. We were really glad we split.

And, the sweet potato casserole was just too sweet.

We also got hush puppies that were too spicy.

Jack got a chicken sandwich and mac and cheese that wasn’t too spicy. So, we just ordered poorly, but it was just nice to have more time with Jack. He had been out of town for a choir event.

I was so happy to have my homemade Amy McMuffins. Mason came up with that! I take them to school and heat in my microwave and then eat it before I see any students.

I had my Irish food in the crockpot all day Sunday and then Monday I made the bread and we had that for dinner. I bought a regular brisket and not a corned beef brisket so it wasn’t that Irish this year – oops!

These are snowflakes on my jacket! Yes, we got a dusting of snow this week, but we still did our before dinner Ernie walks!

I also made shepherd’s pie and probably left it in the oven a bit too long. That is cheese on top that got browned.

This week, I talked about my weekend and weekend routine here, my reflections on the 3 year anniversary of “the day the world shut down” here, and shared my Fashion Files here. I wasn’t sure about the response my reflection on the last 3 years would have, but it seems like you all wanted to reflect as well. I think this is what helps me process things and it helps to know that we aren’t alone in all of emotions surrounding it. I also think it fosters gratitude. That is one thing that I think teenagers are lacking sometimes. I see my students whine and complain (about basically everything big and small – “I don’t want to be here today”, “I’m so tired”, “I have so much English homework”, “I have practice today”, …) and I try to put things in perspective and remind them of the good that is in the “normal”. I may be wasting my breath, but I hope I am getting through to a few. We also do silly little seasonal activities like this one we just did..

I gave them a blank 4 leaf clover and they had to start with “Tengo suerte porque…” which means “I’m lucky because…” and we shared out loud around the room and then I had them decorate our hallway with them.

Do you think that complaining is a normal part of being a teenager? Heck, do you think complaining is a normal part of the human experience? I like to tell them that complaining leads to more complaining because I really think it does.

Update on Tik Tok:

I am @sraspanish and have now posted 38 videos – mostly teaching grammatical concepts, verb tenses, little tricks, etc.. I have 175, 000 followers and one of my videos has 36 million views. How crazy is this?

The funny thing is that my account is meant for American students learning Spanish, but according to analytics, 70% of my followers/viewers are from Spanish speaking countries. Some of the comments have been mean, but overwhelmingly, they are super sweet like, “adopt me!”, “teach me!”, and “I love how you teach!”. I am not following or watching any other Tik Tok videos and I don’t even read most of the comments or respond. There are 36, 000 comments on the highest viewed video, so that would be impossible. I am trying to post a video every other day now. I am learning so much! I have recently been using the green screen where I put a computer slide behind me while I am talking – if that makes sense.

So, I didn’t mean to go off on so many tangents as this was supposed to be a lighthearted Friday Favorites!

What were your faves this week?

Amy

30 thoughts on “Friday Faves”

  1. It’s absolutely overwhelming that you are a tiktok star! Is it ok if I say that I am proud of your!? ❤
    St. Patrick's Day goes by totally unnoticed here… Well, maybe not on the Irish pubs!? 😀
    Cute idea with the shamrocks, I think I will copy that!
    Oh, white jeans, I love it! I wore my white flared ones the other day and totally ruined them because of the dirty streets…. I've drenched them in everything possible that can remove stains and I think that I almost saved them… Well, well.
    A fave this week was sunny walks in the park after work!

    Like

    Reply

    1. I know! Of course you can! It’s the craziest thing!
      You should – a fun Friday activity!
      I never wear white jeans when it’s raining or has rained. They will turn black. I have been having lots of luck with Dawn dish soap to remove stains. Did you try that? It cuts grease so it’s good for food stains.
      Nice!

      Like

      Reply

      1. I’ll try the dish soap! I think it’s oil from the bicycle chain, so maybe it will work!
        Weekend, here we come! Enjoy!

        Like

  2. I completely forgot about Shamrock Shakes. Yum. Ok you totally need to be getting paid on TikTok. (Sorry bout the meanies…I know about that! Ugh!) You actually should put them up on YouTube shorts too where you can get paid per view! Whoohoo! You go friend! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Yes! I know – I keep forgetting about getting one when I’m out. I just so rarely get drive thru food anymore.

      All of this Youtube world is just so out of my skill set, but I will look into that. Many commenters have asked me what my Youtube channel is.

      Like

      Reply

  3. Wow, that’s a lot of followers and views on TikTok! Nice! I did a lucky activity with several of my classes yesterday. I think complaining leads to more complaining. I think anything we can do to help kids with gratitude, empathy, and tolerance is important. I see some wonderful kids in school, but I also see some really mean kids too. I am on Spring Break! I’m using comp time for today’s teacher work day! I’m going to Orlando to visit my sons, and they’re taking me to a cat cafe! My husband and older son are allergic, so I haven’t had a cat in years. I can’t wait for cat cuddles! Have a great weekend!

    Like

    Reply

  4. My son had the day off from school on Wednesday and went with his grandmother to Mc Donalds and mentioned that he got a shamrock shake; I have zero desire to drink them. We got one several years back that was just an awful mix and much too minty to the point where we all threw ours away and didn’t drink them. That pretty much stopped my craving for them and I’ve never had one since. (which I’m just fine with!!)

    I do think complaining is pretty common and not just for teens. Whenever we go to family parties (usually on my husband’s side) there are lots of people my age with kids around and younger than my boys and I feel like parents spend the whole party complaining about everything– how busy they are, how much work it is to cook and clean, how their kids act, their kids’ friends, that they had to travel to Colorado or Florida or whatever for their kids games/ college tours/ etc… It drives me nuts and I find I rarely talk to anyone anymore because I refuse to join in and I won’t agree. Trying to point out where they’re “wrong” or how lucky they are that they can afford to travel just gets me eye rolls or sighs so I just stopped trying. My husband has noticed that all his workers complain to him about their hours, their pay, the job expectations and whenever he brings up some of the more valid points with his boss the workers all start back peddling and say that no they don’t really mind so I think yeah, in general people seem to like to complain and commiserate and I think that becomes a learned behavior at a pretty young age. I’ve always been quick to point out to my kids how lucky they are and to look for the good in each day. You live a happier life if you focus on the good and don’t wallow in the minor day to day things.

    Like

    Reply

    1. They are quite minty!
      That’s not fun. I get it – you really don’t know how to connect when you can’t win in a situation like that.
      We set the positive tone and example for our kids!

      Like

      Reply

  5. You are a social media mega star!!! That is incredible Amy!
    I think the Amy McMuffin name is fantastic and so sweet.
    As for complaining, I think a lot of times people don’t really know what else to say or do so they complain. But I totally agree that complaining only leads to more complaining. What we focus on we get more of!
    Have a super weekend!
    xo,
    Kellyann

    Like

    Reply

  6. So funny about your Tik Tok account but get it girl! You are so fun! Love seeing pics from last Saturday- looks and sounds like it was a blast- have a great weekend!

    Like

    Reply

  7. Oh…shepherds pie sounds good! I love the shamrock activity. So fun! I still check TT because of you. It’s so amazing that you’ve reached so many people. I hope you have a great weekend.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Haha
      Mason is very good at puns and reminds me so much of my dad.
      I talked about you yesterday with Jennifer of the blog world! I said we would be friends I think!
      She is in town with her hub and we met up!

      Like

      Reply

  9. I love checking your blog everyday – as you are so relatable and hilarious. Reading your blog makes me want to reach out and hang out with my friends more – as you do such a good job of keeping in touch with all of your friends.

    You sound like a fabulous high school teacher! I have 3 kids that are all taking spanish….I am going to make sure they check out your tiktoks!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Well, Sara, you made my day! Sometimes I feel so ridiculous like I think people want to read about my life, you know?
      Please tell them my Tik Toks are silly but I hope helpful.
      It sounds like you are a busy mom and don’t be too hard on yourself! Invite just one friend to start and you will really enjoy that time!

      Like

      Reply

  10. You are NEVER wasting your time pouring good into kids. You may only be planting a seed for someone else to water it but the seed has to be planted first.

    Like

    Reply

  11. Re: tik tok….I can say I knew you when….LOL Good for you. I am not on tik Tok and haven’t seen one of your videos but I bet they are fun! I turned 59 on Monday and that was a favorite. My last year in my 50’s and I am AOK with it because I feel great and life is so good. I have some big trips coming up for my 60th bday and I am SO EXCITED to start planning them. We are at the beach house and enjoying beautiful weather before another rain event hits California. NOT COMPLAINING at all but man it’s been ALOT of rain and so many people have lost their homes. A happy medium would have sufficed…..you know what I mean? We are off to have green beer and fish and chips with my bestie who also has a hoe over here. Happy weekend!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s