Friday, February 20, 2026

It’s Friday and time to link up with Andrea and Erika for the happiest post of the week!

Here are some of my favorites from the week – I would love to hear yours, as well!

I visited my old school – really just the office staff and my small language department:

Is it weird that I kind of think it was a milestone for me or at the very least good for me to go back for a visit? I wasn’t sad to not be in the trenches anymore. I may have felt differently if there were students present, I realize. I tell myself it was 25 years of my life so of course I have had to process feelings. I felt at peace!

After that, I had been asked to go to happy hour by my friend Victoria. We had a nice hour and a half of catching up with some chips and guacamole and a margarita for me and a mosquito for her (a spicy margarita basically).

I was looking for something and came across this from Mason when he was in late elementary school. I think I was on the phone, and he wrote me this note and then corrected his own grammar. Bahaha!

There are only 3 episodes out as far as I know, but wow, is this good. I feel like I’m reliving the 90s through the fashion, too.

This week I tried toasted coconut and it’s really good. I don’t like coconut shavings but I like the flavor if that makes sense.

Remember my relative success with cooking German food for V Day? Well, Mardi Gras was a different story. I spent about 2 hours making the worst gumbo ever. I guess I burned my roux.

Eddie Otis ate my gumbo spoon:

I had to Door Dash some gumbo since I had promised it. Wah!

I also had hair day this week!

Before:

During:

After:

Why do all of these look like mug shots?

Eddie Otis and I have been spoiled because we have had the playground behind our house all to ourselves. The kiddies are out again and EO is not sure what the screaming is all about.

There is a charity that helps those in the restaurant industry and each month a different restaurant does “chef in a box” which is a meal for two. This month Captain’s Quarters was doing it. This is the restaurant we can go to by boat.

I had a 60-degree day and enjoyed going to pick it up. Look at the boats in their shrink wrap!

I had planned well since I knew I was “trying” to make gumbo the night before.

We had spinach salad:

Chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans:

Bread pudding for dessert:

I have been re-watching Younger and then saw this!

We don’t have much longer to wait for a MomTok Bachelorette. Look at the book she’s holding.

I started this:

EO and I were able to read outside a little bit this week. I have to get him to be calm and lie down, and this is a photo of me spying on him behind me.

My hydrangeas have made me happy this week!

Sophie of Big Boo Cast recommended this hummus and I had to go to Costco anyway. It’s like restaurant quality good. I am a big fan of Graza oil, too.

I keep re-purchasing LMNT because it’s just so good. I realized it worked really well with the coconut water from Kroger. It’s a great mocktail!

I was craving a spreadable cheese for crackers, and this is pretty good.

Jen has talked about Drizzilicious and I found a box at Costo of s’mores, birthday cake, and cinnamon. So good! 90 calories!

And, that’s a wrap for my week! Tell me a fave of yours!

Amy

30 thoughts on “Friday Favorites”

  1. Soooo jealous of your weather! Lucky that you got to read outside! You always share the best books. I bought the Abby Jiminez books you recommended so they are waiting for me on my Kindle- can’t wait 🙂

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  3. Hair day/scare day cracked me up! Ha!!!!

    I think it’s great that you went back to school and felt peace about not being there anymore. What a great feeling!

    LMNT is my afternoon treat!

    Have a great weekend!

    xo,

    Kellyann

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    1. Low hanging fruit but Tom knows I will laugh at almost anything he says.
      Me too – I was so happy.
      I am obsessed with LMNT. I am trying one of their canned ones today when I pick up from Target. It’s pineapple. I have seriously reduced my alcohol consumption and this has made a perfect mocktail. Thanks again for the Fresca/raspberry tip!

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  4. I hope that’s true about Younger, and not some AI generated thing. Have you looked into it yet? I would love to see a newer show of that! My current favorite creamer right now is coconut flavored, but it’s just the regular one from Coffee Mate. I love that you did a take out dinner from Captain Quarters! It looked delicious. Your hydrangeas make me happy too! Happy Friday!

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  5. I think it’s great that you “went back to school” and felt good about your visit. I can see how it would have or could have been harder with students there. I’m sorry about your gumbo fail. I have had plenty of those recently (not with gumbo with dishes I’ve tried). We had some beautiful weather days, too. It’s been lovely though the storms not so much and now we have cold weather coming again :(. Have a great weekend!

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    1. Thank you! There has been some drama with the Spanish classes for next year and two of the department members have been keeping me up to date. I was able to visit with both “sides” of the drama and I hope stay pretty neutral. They genuinely seemed glad to see me.
      Gosh – I can’t believe I didn’t realize the roux was burnt. I think I had to throw away $40 worth of ingredients. Tom and I are trying it again together this weekend! Woohoo! He is committed. We watched a video together. I am not looking forward to cold again. I forgot how to dress and I am sick of my winter clothes!

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  7. I made gumbo a couple of weeks ago and it was terrible. Sigh…I think I needed to add some spice to it. It just wasn’t hot enough for how I think gumbo should taste. Love EO photos, he is so cute! Your hair looks great. I had mine done this week, looks ok. Have a great week-end!

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    1. I am so glad I’m not the only one! I’m a pretty good cook! But, at least you didn’t burn it. We watched an All Recipes video and we are going to do what the Louisiana lady on that video says. She used Slap Ya Mama cajun but we have Tony Cachere’s. She has some good tips for layering in the flavor.
      Thank you! Those photos of EO are great but the ones of me are weird! I just can’t take a selfie to save my life.

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  9. I thought Younger was a new Netflix series, but after reading your post, I googled it and just discovered it’s from 2015. Now I understand why, when I started watching it a couple of months ago, I kept thinking the lead looked like a younger Sutton Foster. I’m glad I’m not confused anymore. I can only blame the fact that we don’t get all the US hits on our TV channels, and if it weren’t for streaming services, we’d all be so behind!

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  10. Your hair looks so good – even before! So full and bouncy. I have never been able to make good gumbo either – I gave up and eat it only on our annual NOLA trip

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  11. How good for you to go back to your school. It sounds like a huge milestone. What a cute note from Mason. hehehe That’s a shame the gumbo didn’t work out and Eddie Otis got to your spoon. Eek! Your new hair looks fabulous!

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  12. i had a hair did day yesterday. Love a fresh cut and color! Finalized my new appliances for our kitchen remodel. Also had cabinet guy here and am excited to see the 3d rendering’s etc! We leave Sunday for the beach house and then Disneyland with our oldest daughter and SIL. Retired life is the best life!!! Happy weekend!

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  13. i had a hair did day yesterday. Love a fresh cut and color! Finalized my new appliances for our kitchen remodel. Also had cabinet guy here and am excited to see the 3d rendering’s etc! We leave Sunday for the beach house and then Disneyland with our oldest daughter and SIL. Retired life is the best life!!! Happy weekend!

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  14. Your spring weather has me jealous as we just got six new inches of snow a few days ago! I’m afraid winter has a long way to go for us! Your hair day/scare day “mug shots” had me giggling. That is definitely me on those days, too! I bought the LMNT pouches based off your recommendation and I love them and now I’ll be looking for that hummus, too! Have a great weekend!

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    1. It’s gonna be especially fun for you having just been in NYC! The hummus is sooo good! I think a normal size in grocery of another brand is that much. I bought the giant bag of Stacy’s too. That is also super expensive in the grocery for a tiny bag.

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  16. Chips, guac and a margarita is one of my favorite trios in life! Are the hydrangeas from your yard? I love those. It looks like EO is really loving having you home so much with him. I heard about that hummus too and need to try it. I tried some from a Mediterranean grocery store last week, but it was a little too bland for me. Hope it is a good weekend for you!!

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  17. We LOVE those birthday cake bites. My mom bought a bunch for my niece and nephew and they didn’t like them so she gave them all to us.

    I never finished Younger because I feel like it jumped the shark toward the end but MAN I loved that show. That was the summer, I came up with Sutton’s name (I was pregnant with Wells) because I saw Sutton Foster and then the character Sutton on The Bold Type. I love the idea of a new era (though Hilary Duff annoys me on many levels) because I liked the other characters. I’ll go rewatch, if true!

    I burn more dinners than I care to admit. I destroyed some steak the other night.

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  18. Mason’s note is precious! I started Love Story yesterday and hope to watch more today. EO looks like he has his tongue sticking out 🤣he ate your spoon…omg! Tom’s text is too funny. I hope you all have had a great weekend!

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