A few weeks ago while at Aldi, I picked up something interesting. I thought Tom, Jack, and Mason would enjoy them. I didn’t read the directions while in the store.
When I went to make them it said I was supposed to fry them. I haven’t been doing much frying in the name of healthier living, but decided to go with it. Then I got the idea that those of you with air fryers could do this! Or, maybe you already have!
I opened the tube and it looked like cinnamon rolls! In fact, I re-read the name on the label.
So, you can totally do this with your normal, everyday cinnamon rolls.
Cut the pinwheels into thirds like so.
Carefully fry them in vegetable oil on the stove until golden brown. Using tongs, remove and put on a paper towel lined plate.
Squirt or spread frosting on the warm donut sticks.
Do you all have a weekend breakfast tradition? This would be a fun addition to that! I did try a bite and it was yummy! But, what fried food isn’t? Lol!
Let me know if you try this but especially let me know if you try it in your air fryer!
Take it to the next level by making your own icing. They never give you enough and it tastes a bit artificial, you know?
Hello and happy hump day! I am happy to link up today with The Style Six here and who is ready for my school attire? Lol! I don’t know how exciting this will be!
If you are a loyal reader – thank you! – you know that I created a “staging area” in my closet for the things I wanted to wear right away. This consists of my summer dresses and skirts and things that will look or feel too summery soon.
I am a high school Spanish teacher and rarely sit down. We have to wear masks this year and my mask chain was the best thing I bought for back to school! I love it.
Day one – Target Knox Rose dress that I bought last spring.
Day Two: Old LulaRoe skirt (I have several of these) and new TJ Maxx blouse.
Day Three: My floral dress.
Saturday outfit: TJ Maxx blouse and cut offs.
Monday: another LuLaRoe skirt and hot pink top from consignment.
And, yesterday: Matilda Jane pants and blouse from local boutique.
And, that is it! What is your favorite? What should I pass on?
Well…I got my first taste of fall air last weekend! It was so nice Saturday evening and Sunday morning. But, it will be in the 90s and stay pretty hot for awhile yet. Or, we have fickle weather and it will go back and forth until fall comes to stay.
Like many of you all, I love fall clothes. I also love fall colors! In Kentucky and definitely further south, I think it is worth the effort to have a “warm weather clothing but in fall colors” section of your closet. Also, if you are one that runs hot, it can be helpful to have a few pieces in this category. What do you think?
Here are some of my things that may work for me in the coming months.
This was $6 at Old Navy a few years ago and it works under a couple of my kimonos, too.
This was all the rage in blog-land a few years ago and is from Walmart. I love a fall plaid!
This is really old from Anthropologie but I really like it. I have a cream light cardigan that can go over it.
This is new from TJ Maxx and it is really light weight.
This is a few years old from Steinmart and I like the leopard but in a short sleeve.
I love this kimono I ordered from an online boutique. It is super light weight.
And, this is my Umgee kimono from Amazon that has serious Pioneer Woman plate vibes. I still love it. It is super light weight, too.
This kimono is very old and it is LuLaRoe consignment. Love the material and the colors.
I love browns, tans, mustards, and olives but I don’t like to wear them in other seasons!
These lightweight things can often work until the end of November!
Do you have this section of clothing, too? Maybe scan your current closet and see what could work for you in this realm?
I am anxious to start looking at new fall offerings in stores and online. Are you?
How was your weekend? Mine was good but went by quickly! I am linking up today with Heather, Tanya, and more here.
We had a full week for teachers last week but students only came for three days. It was the perfect amount for the kids, I think. I have absolutely no photos from Friday! But, I did schedule a grocery pick up for right after school and it was so nice to have food for the weekend and that chore out of the way. For dinner, I made fried rice for the fam, cauliflower rice for me, and heated up a few random leftovers. I was in bed by 9:30!
Saturday morning I did my breakfast vegetable prep so I could have that for breakfast. I had eaten faux Egg McMuffins all week at school.
I enjoyed a leisurely morning of chores and just taking my time.
Jack and Mason had shopped for their college supplies Thursday and I was tickled at how they shopped. They were very smart about buying some things to split even though they are in different dorms. You ever have those moments where you can’t believe your kids are that old and can do what they can do?
I ate my breakfast and did a bit of list making and organizing.
We had plans for some family time on our last weekend with the kids at home. We headed downtown to the Frazier History Museum because Mason had an exhibit there from high school.
Cover your eyes, kids! That is in front of our 21C hotel.
Our downtown is so pretty.
The museum looked so different since I had last been.
It is now the first stop in the Urban Bourbon trail – the distilleries that are in the city. There are lots outside of Louisville, too.
After the museum, we headed to our NULU district. I love this area. We really like Royal’s Hot Chicken.
I ordered an amazing potato dish and only ate half.
After eating, we went into Revelry Boutique.
It was a fun day!
That evening, Tom’s sister and brother in law had a small river party at their boat business.
I made a Ranch Water but used a raspberry Bubly. It was good!
They had a really good singer!
I brought sushi – veggie roll – because I didn’t want to eat cookout stuff. Jack and Mason had sushi at home, too.
This hardly has a flavor but I really like it. You have to like sparkling water, though.
Sunday morning felt awesome! I spent some time on the patio with my coffee, my breakfast, and my new book!
This is so cute so far…. and it has a yellow cover!
I did my meal prep – egg casserole and veggies for breakfast, burrito bowls for lunch, and roasted veggies and turkey sausage for lunch. I may not cook anymore this week because we are having a special dinner for the boys and then they move in on Tuesday. Tom and I will have these two meals and Totino’s pizza for him/Skinny pizza dough for me one night.
I did about an hour of school work. I needed to do more, but I also needed to have fun and feel like I had a weekend!
Then, Mason headed out with friends and Jack did some college packing and laundry while Tom and I saw Free Guy. I liked it. I can’t decided if I liked Jungle Cruise better.
We came home and I read a bit more and we heated up some leftovers for dinner. I think Sunday will always be leftover night to use up restaurant food or home cooked food from the weekend. It seems to work well.
Time for another edition of Friday Favorites here with Andrea, etc. – the things from my camera roll that made me happy this week!
My niece Mia has a new phone for high school and is taking Spanish for the first time. Her twin brother Miles is, too. Their Spanish teacher aunt loves this! It’s so fun to be able to text with my teen nieces and I want them to love Spanish like I do.
My co-worker and I are making meals for each other this year. She brings two lunches a week and I bring two lunches a week. We will do our own one day or we will take turns doing a third day.
I purchased a mandolin vegetable slicer to make really thin sweet potato slices for this sweet potato lasagna. The sweet potato slices are the noodles! It is so yummy! I used jarred pasta sauce, can of tomatoes, ground turkey, cottage cheese, egg, and a small amount of mozzarella. The sweet potato and tomato really work well together. My co-worker Erica loved it and I’m glad because I want this to be in our regular rotation.
The other meals I made (I did three this week) were Mexican quinoa and egg roll in a bowl. She did an adult lunchable – chicken, hard boiled egg, greek yogurt dip with veggies, and fruit and buffalo chicken dip and celery. We have eaten well at school this week and that is always a favorite.
Next week I plan to do roasted veggies and chicken sausage and burrito bowls.
The fall stuff is really coming out! Fall is always a favorite. I always am a bit sad for summer to end and I don’t love winter, but I love having four distinct seasons. It makes me happy!
My sister in law knew that I liked the High Noon pineapple so she thoughtfully brought me these flavors to try. It’s on the agenda for this weekend!
And, she brought me this pumpkin spice coffee for when I’m ready. How long can I wait? We will see!
My blog reader and friend Kim thoughtfully sent me a Starbucks e-gift card to get me through my first week at school. How unexpected and kind!
So, I need to pay these two acts of generosity forward to someone else!
For my breakfast this week, I assembled 100 calorie whole wheat English muffin sandwiches.
Gosh, it makes me happy to have my breakfasts and lunches prepped. Sorry I talk about it so much!
On Wednesday, we were back in our classrooms with full classes! My smallest class is 16 and my largest is 26, so that is pretty good. It feels so normal again, if you don’t count the mask. The halls are crowded! I guess we just aren’t used to that. This is so much better than virtual. Kids need to be in school! I pray that we are able to continue this year.
Day one – ready to go!
Year 28 in a mask!
What were your favorites this week? I hope you had many!
I was revising my syllabuses/syllabi for my classes – remember those from college? We also do them in high school. They contain the teacher information, expectations for the class, how the students will be evaluated, etc. I got to thinking that I needed a syllabus for myself.
I love, love, love being a teacher. When I am in the zone teaching something and the students make connections, it is surreal. But, the teacher life can be a very lopsided and unbalanced life. The school year is super intense and then we get summers off.
So, as I embark upon a new school year, I have some expectations for myself. I encourage you to do this, as well, whether you are a teacher, a parent, or just use the school calendar as a re-set.
-Know myself and don’t try to change myself. I am not as productive later in the day. I like to arrive at school early and work until I start teaching at 8:31. First period is my planning so I have about 1.5 hours to work.
-Make time for my morning coffee and quiet time at home before leaving. I like to get up leisurely and enjoy this time.
-Meal prep is something that makes me feel ready to start each week. Take the time on Sunday to do this.
-Pack my lunches the night before. Lay out my clothes the night before. Basically anything I can do the night before helps my morning self. I remember once Jack and Mason got the idea to just sleep in their school uniforms to save time in the morning. Ha!
-People before paper. This is something I repeat to myself quite often. I came up with it a few years ago. I love being productive but people are more important. If a student comes in my room, they take precedence over the papers I’m working on.
-Our principal sends a weekly memo every Sunday morning around 9 a.m. I am going to try to wait until Monday morning to read it. Why should I give up my Sunday – even if it is just mentally? I wish he wouldn’t send it on Sundays, to be honest. I can’t control that, but I can control when I check work email.
-Continue to keep work email off of my phone. I don’t get any work email notifications on my phone. I turned off Google Classroom notifications on my phone. I need to remember that I control my technology.
-Being outside is so important to me. The best thing about virtual school was the increased outside time I got last year. Walk after school and spend some time each afternoon or evening reading for pleasure outside.
-Try to do one fun thing each week and one fun thing each weekend.
-It’s o.k. to be routine oriented, but it’s also o.k. to veer from it sometimes.
-Take my showers at night. My mantra is “no wet hair in the mornings” because wet hair takes too long to fix.
-Keep margin in my schedule. Do not overschedule myself. For me, just going to work will be all I can do some days and that’s o.k.
-Use online grocery pickup and plan to pick groceries up right after school once a week.
-Say “NO”. I have learned that it’s ok to simply say, “I appreciate you thinking of me for that job but I am not able to at this time”. You do not need to have diarrhea of the mouth. You also do not have to feel bad for keeping margin in your life.
-Give myself grace. I have not had a normal school year for awhile. I will be exhausted from the schedule and the mask wearing. We only taught in person for 8 weeks with Wednesdays at home last year. This year I will teach from 8:31-2:20 with a 20 minute lunch break. I have 6 classes in that time period.
-Make time for what matters. This is different for everyone. You do not have to justify what that is to anyone and I don’t either.
-Take my personal days. I only took one day off of any kind last year. You can’t pour from an empty cup, yada yada ya.
-Don’t take myself too seriously.
-Sometimes I should go talk to someone rather than sending an email.
-Avoid negativity. Don’t cause it. Don’t get involved in it. There is one teacher I avoid because everything is negative.
Today is the first day of school! I am linking up with The Stylish Six here. Today’s post is short and sweet.
So, I have moved most of my shorts to a higher shelf now because I won’t be wearing them as much. I will probably only wear my denim cut offs and of course, I wear my lounge and exercise shorts year round. My biker shorts with pockets on both sides are my clear favorites so I will mostly be wearing those!
Friday night for the play in the park, I wore my drawstring denim shorts and this Target blouse from a couple of years ago. I also wore my lace up metallic gold sandals. It was pretty hot for the play’s first half but then it cooled off. I wished I had worn a dress or light pants because my legs stuck to the bench. But, I had not been able to wear the shorts or the top comfortably last summer so I am having fun fitting back into a few things.
For boating on Saturday I wore the only suit I’ve worn this summer – the hot, hot pink Aerie tank – and I pulled out an old cover up that I love. I wore my Amazon hat from this season. The cover up was too small last year, too.
To get my hair done Saturday, I threw on one of the Walmart dresses.
I created a staging area for my school outfits. The idea is to again see how many unique outfits I can wear. After wearing something, I will hang it in a different area. I am feeling the dresses and the blouses with a skirt or pants the most right now. My swing dresses and kimonos have been worn so much that I am kind of tired of them. The building is hot right now. Last April it was a refrigerator. I’d like somewhere in between, please!
I also have printed pants in this mix. I chose to wear my fun printed pants for the teacher days Monday and Tuesday with a solid color top. Many teachers go super casual with t-shirts and jeans or denim shorts, but I still dress pretty professionally on these days.
And, I purchased a mask chain off of Amazon here. Last year, I would take it off and lay it on my desk or I would forget where I put it. I think this chain is lovely and I do have a chain this style from Kendra Scott. I think I’m going to like having this.
What have you been wearing lately? Is it time for “real clothes”?
Here is just a quick photo dump of recent meals I’ve been eating. This kind of post always helps me when I get in a rut!
This was a lunch:
leftover baby broccoli from the night before, a tiny baked potato cooked in the microwave with spray butter, salt, and pepper, veggie burger wrapped in a low carb wrap with mustard, tomato, pickle, and lettuce.
Tilapia with cajun spice, potato rounds cut from my new mandolin and cooked in oven with Pam olive oil spray, and the first go round of the baby broccoli.
Dessert – heated up Fiber One brownie with fat free Reddi Wip.
Burrito bowl – corn, beans, chicken, tomatoes, sauteed onions topped with an aioli made with lime juice, ranch powder, and non-fat Greek yogurt. I do not miss the rice. This is so good!
I made a snack type lunch of tuna salad, chicken salad, and buffalo chicken dip.
I have been eating lots of strawberries topped with Reddi Wip.
Tilapia, corn on the cob, tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes
A snack of popcorn (I put kernels in a paper bag and use the microwave popcorn setting then top with spray butter), veggie straws, string cheese, and strawberries. I cannot buy veggie straws because I have no portion control. I love them! Do you have foods that you just can’t buy?
A lunch of buffalo chicken dip, celery, and leftover broccoli.
Tom and I bought Magic Spoon cereal – the four variety pack. It is very expensive so we will not buy it again. I tried it twice and I hate it. I think it has the weirdest after taste. Tom ate all of it but was meh about it. He said that we could probably find a low sugar cereal in the store. He is not Keto but tries to watch sugar – kinda. He says he does but… He works out 4-5 mornings a week and rides his bike 30 plus miles on the weekends. He also does some paddle boarding. We bought this to try and I will let you know. Anyone try this? Anyone have another suggestion?
Cereal is another food that I just have avoided for now. I love cereal and would probably eat too much.
I may be at work as you are reading this! Today and tomorrow are teacher days and the students come Wednesday – ready or not! It’s a big deal, y’all. We have not had 2000ish students in our building since March 13, 2020. That’s a long time. Last year we had about 700 kids on A Day and 700 on B Day. Our other kids remained totally virtual.
I didn’t plan much for last week on purpose. I was super lazy and it was good and intentional. I did finish Outer Banks! Priorities!
Friday morning I did my veggie prep. I do zucchini, onions, and mushrooms once or twice a week. I just use olive oil Pam and spices. I have a veggie scramble most mornings, but the veggies are great to have on hand for lunch and dinner, too.
I also started washing all of the college bedding. Our staging area this year is just a corner of the basement. Last year we had our old Master bedroom entirely empty for this purpose.
For lunch Friday I had leftover bbq, a small potato, apple slices, and two of the cutest little breadsticks you have ever seen from the skinny pizza dough – with a bit of spray butter. It may seem like I have eaten out a lot this summer, but I really haven’t! I have had the majority of my meals at home. I just show you the restaurant foods more!
I did not go anywhere Friday during the day! I really just stayed in my pajamas until 2, then showered, and just did cleaning and tasks around the house all day. I was really nice.
Friday was the night we got to see Jack perform in our Central Park downtown. There is a permanent amphitheater there and they have 2-3 food trucks and a bar. It is a free event and they do 3 productions during June, July, and August.
Mason and Tom
Amy and Mason
Jack and Mason’s friends’ parents (and our friends) came for the first half.
Jack was the duke.
We got there early and got to see the warm ups.
I got a veggie bowl and it was delicious. I will try to create this at home!
The play didn’t start til 8 and it ended around 10:30. I stayed up way past my bedtime. Jack is so happy to have had this experience. He talked the whole way home about it. He agreed to ride with us since we were all going, but the other nights he leaves around 6 and gets home after 11. I have waited up for him because I’m a mom. I’m tired!
Any Food Network fans? Damaris Phillips is from Louisville and one of my favorite personalities. She is a professor at a college in culinary arts and has written a cookbook. I follow her on Instagram, too. Anyway, I noticed an elaborate picnic table in the back. There are picnic tables you can use and also some green space where you can lay out blankets and pillows. The elaborate spread was Damaris’! I went back and watched her Instastories and she showed what she made for her friends. I want to do that!
Saturday morning I had my every 8 weeks or so hair appointment. I always take the first appointment of the day and it came early.
Awkward, but better.
Then, I went to Kroger to get boating supplies.
We went to a party on the river at 4:00.
I bought and tried my first High Noon in pineapple. Yum!
The party involved going up a staircase onto an “island” where there was bbq, corn, beans, and a few other things.
It was fun and I was wiped out by the time we headed home around 8:00. I got home around 9:00 and watched Big Brother with Mason while we waited for Jack to get home.
Sunday morning I prepped for the week – faux egg McMuffins, Mexican quinoa, egg roll in a bowl, and sweet potato lasagna. My friend at work is making me two lunches a week and I am making her two lunches a week. One day we will be on our own.
Then, Mason went to a movie with friends – Suicide Squad and Tom and I went to Jungle Cruise. We liked it.
What was the highlight of your weekend? I may not post as much in the coming weeks; I’m just going to see how it goes!
Happy Friday! It’s time once again to link up with Andrea, etc. right here!
I was not ready for this Friday to come. But, I had a really nice week and it was so much better than last week. I purposely kept this week really open on my calendar to just see where the wind took me and spend time at home. I love a weekday where I can just do whatever! Monday I set up my classroom and did some stuff for freshmen orientation and then had the rest of the week open.
Here are some things that made me happy while looking back at my phone camera roll. I hope you had lots of favorites, too!
What is it with me and yellow books this summer? Yes, I do judge a literal book by its cover. This is cute so far. I have had a series of “did not finish” library books lately. I don’t feel guilt; I just move on.
Another favorite was heading out to the patio to read after dinner.
I judged the Fiber One 70 calorie bars too quickly. I heated up the brownie in the microwave for 15 seconds and then topped with fat free Reddi Whip and it was good- but small!
I had my ears double pierced when I was in college, I think. I got a wild hair and thought I would see if the hole had totally closed. The answer is “no”. I cannot believe that I have not worn earrings in 30 years in the second hole and they are still open. Kids, let that be a lesson when you think about piercing your body.
I decided to go to Claire’s and I talked to the piercing lady and she said they no longer recommend peroxide or alcohol because they dry your lobe, but that she recommends putting a bit of Neosporin on the stem of the earring. So, I found this cute set on clearance and have been doubling up.
I purchased this at Target and will get back to you. I have the tanning drops and they work really well.
I cannot believe it but my Tan-Luxe The Butter is almost gone. I will probably end up getting a new bottle when it goes on sale, but I wanted to see the comparison. I will get back to you.
I found this flavor and also did the microwave trick.
You may remember my Wednesday post where I showed this dress? I ordered it from Target pickup in the next two sizes down for reference. I ended up needing the smallest size of the three. I forgot to tell you it has pockets!
I returned the two larger sizes to Target and had the hardest time. Normally Target returns are a joy. This took 15 minutes. The employee at the service desk was a young man and I predicted he wouldn’t understand what I wanted to do. I got the first dress for $19 with my circle rewards and their 20% dresses promotion. The second two dresses were $27.99 I think. I wanted to keep my $19 price but keep one of the $27 sizes. He asked me several times “so, how many dresses do you want to keep?” I asked him if a different person to help me it was so bad. He was offended, I know, and insisted he could do it. I literally had to say, “they are all the same dress but in three different sizes so I only want to keep the one that fits” maybe 5 times. And, guess what? He did need to call someone else to help.
Ernie has enjoyed his walks and we have had pleasant weather this week!
Wednesday afternoon, very spontaneously, I reminded Tom we had been wanting to see the weekly sailboat race on the river. He picked me up after work and we went to Captain’s Quarters by car. This is the place we normally go to by boat. They had an hour wait on a Wednesday at 5:30 but we got lucky and found a table at their outdoor bar.
I had a prosecco. It is so crisp and perfect for a summer day or night! My favorite brand is La Marca and they have the cute little individual bottles.
And, all of their pizzas can be ordered on cauliflower crust but I had never tried it. I ordered it this time with a caprese pizza and it was amazing. It was huge so I only ate some of it but took the rest home. I don’t have an air fryer (decided against it) but have been using the convection feature on my oven for heating up stuff like this.
Tom got a fish sandwich. After we ate, we went down to their giant lawn, sat in their adirondack chairs, and watched the sailboats.
I keep this little bug spray in my purse because mosquitos love me!
Another favorite is that I ordered the body wash that I loved so much from our hotel in Nashville. I have one in my shower and I gifted two to my people with recent birthdays.
I have been watching Outer Banks season 2 this week on my own and it’s been entertaining!
Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa 