Well hello there, happy Saturday!

Light intro today because BACK TO SCHOOL! A whirlwind week as always … here’s my “1st day of my 20th year of teaching” picture, taken in the car immediately after Pilates before sprinting to get to school almost on time, changing in the staff bathroom, and getting ready to GREET 500 MIDDLE SCHOOLERS! I can’t say whether it will be my best year yet, but the first DAY was my best first day yet, so that’s something.

And now for a slightly random assortment of things to share … let’s dive in!

Early Adopter

When my niece and I were stretching out the night before our 13.1 a few weeks ago, I was on my yoga mat with my #1 yoga instructor leading me on my phone when my niece said, “you’ve been following Adriene since way before she got really popular, right?” and I’m like THANK YOU YES.

I started with Yoga with Adriene in the mid 2010s and have been a paying member of her platform / app since it launched. One of her new videos has been PERFECT for me the past few weeks, and lucky for you, she is also including it on her free YouTube channel.

At least ten minutes with Adriene in the mornings and before bed almost every single day is truly saving my body, and has been for YEARS. This would be a great one to try if you are new to her videos!

Watching and Listening

Catching you up on what’s in my ears and my screens!

• I really can’t adequately express my true absolute delight with this new Head and the Heart cover of The Swimming Song ~ it IS summer and really encapsulates MY summer overall. LOVE. On repeat.

• my number one advice to parents to tweens and teens is to LISTEN TO YOUR KID’S MUSIC with curiosity and genuine interest. My daughters have both been in love with Phoebe Bridgers for years now, and while I don’t love ALL of her music, a lot of it is growing on me. We’re going to one of her shows for the freshman’s birthday in September, so I jumped on the Lost Weekend album anticipation and listening bandwagon with enthusiasm. Favorites from the album are Lost Boys, Haunted, Liberty Tree and I Can’t Wait.

• My husband wanted to go to the theater last Friday night to see Super Troopers 3 and I went along for the popcorn and relaxation. The movie is completely ridiculous, but I did end up laughing and being engaged the whole time, so I count it as a win.

• And THEN we saw the poster for Nimrods: A Green Day Movie and were like … we could sneak in to watch that right now? We chose to NOT be devious, and instead returned the next day with our youngest and oh my goodness did we all love this movie! I texted all my fellow mid-40s friends that there’s really nothing that could make me feel MORE 17 than this movie did … LOVED IT. We had a joyous Green Day singalong in the car on the way home.

• On Sunday, the youngest and I made good on our scheduled movie date and settled in to watch Don’t Say Good Luck on Netflix and … we loved it and I sobbed seriously 90% of the movie. If you are sensitive to cancer storylines or death of a parent storylines, I would be cautious with this one. It wrecked me as the mom of a drama kid ~ I was a blubbering mess. Beautiful but devastating.

What I Made

Back to school season means back to baking season! While on a THREE HOUR phone call with my mom last Sunday, I made the boxed cake my husband had been planning to make for himself (he was mowing the lawn, so I decided to help out a bit!) and then also a delicious new-to-me NYT Cooking recipe.

This Granola Bars with Chocolate recipe (gift link) was perfect for a long chatty phone call since it’s a bit finicky and requires multiple pots of things to be stirred for 5+ minutes each. I added chopped walnuts and I love them ~ great fuel for my work week, and this recipe will definitely be in my regular rotation going forward.

Words to Ponder

I loved both of these excerpts below about aging and reconciling who we feel like … with what we look like in middle age. My current agony is trying to decide whether to hold tight with my decision to let my grays come in as they will, or color it again. THE AGONY (and work) of the decision.

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One of My Coziest Reads of the Year

Eeeeek, I DNFed THREE books in the past week, but don’t worry, I still had a major winner of a read last weekend!

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page has, to be very very clear, a grief storyline. However, while the death of Matilda’s husband is the underpinning of the entire story, this is NOT a grief-STRICKEN reading experience. It’s based on a posthumous year-long gift of books from Matilda’s husband that he arranged while he was sick, and Matilda finding herself again after loss ~ it’s just the coziest, most delightful tale of a bookshop and a bookseller and their part in a community.

This story was the perfect read for a weekend of rest and rejuvenation, and while I had a few minor editorial quibbles, this will definitely be one of my most memorable reads of the year based on pure vibes and how badly I wanted to sink back into the world whenever I got pulled away.

I hope you all have the weekend you were hoping for ~ I’m dreaming of some NAPS and reading!