My New Favorite Sunglasses

I posted an Instagram story the other day of us at the farm and I was talking about how the kids are obsessed with holding and walking around with the chickens, but all the messages we kept receiving were not about the chickens. Nope! Instead, they were asking about my sunglasses.

They just came in the mail last week and I have been wearing them ever since. They’re called Zero Sunglasses and they’re from Taylor Morris, a U.K.-based eyewear company that makes the coolest sunglasses. PJ ordered a pair, too, that I’ll share next week.

I got the mirrored/black pair and they're so different than anything I’ve ever worn before, which is part of the reason I love them so much. They’re fun and a bit quirky, and the circular shape of the lens adds a touch of whimsy to them.

BONUS: Right now, if you use code “JUBILEE” you will get 25% off your entire order!!

An Afternoon at the Farm

Today was spent outside. More specifically, at Ocoee Farm.

Since being back in Tennessee from our beach trip, PJ has been at the farm all day every day playing catch up and getting all the things accomplished that needed do be done while we were at the beach. There’s a new addition on the side of the Tiny House that we can’t wait to show you, and PJ got a lot of landscaping done. It all looks so good!!

The kids and I met PJ out at the farm today for an afternoon spent among the animals. The pigs, ALL the dogs, the chickens, the ducks, the geese and of course, the sheep. PJ spends more time out there than I do, but I love it. Every time I come out there, it starts to feel like home more and more, especially with the changes PJ has been making to it. I can really see a future there for our family.

The kids were running around with the animals and finding every little crawler imaginable. They’re so fearless when it comes to bugs. Meanwhile, when I was their age, you couldn’t catch me near a caterpillar. Okay and I am still kind of like that which is why I’m so glad they love little bigs so much!! They take so much pride in finding, catching, and showing them to us. I will forever be impressed by their determination.

It was also nice to see the twin Great Pyrenees’ Olive and Addie. They’re so friggin cute and mischievous and goofy. I could watch them all day. They’re also amazing escape artists and manage to get out of every fence we put them in. It’s in their DNA!

It was a gorgeous day spent at our favorite place (besides the beach, of course). Can’t wait to actually have a place to sleep out there!

Home Away From Home

We woke up at the beach!!

With three trips down in three months, Florida, or more specifically this area of Florida, has started to feel like our home away from home, compounded of course by the fact that we closed on our second property down here a few weeks back, and today we got the keys to it!! Our realtor (who we adore) met us at the house and handed everything over, including a sweet little gift basket complete with beach toys and cookies for the kids. How sweet is that?

In a perfect world, we would spend all summer down here. But of course, nothing is perfect, so we will settle for a week for now. We’re here with our best friends Matt and Beau, who arrive in just a few hours, and we all rented a condo for the week.

We try to take an annual beach trip for PJ’s birthday (remember last year’s?), which is the biggest reason for this trip, but it’s also a celebration of the ending of the school year and purchasing the house all rolled up into one big vacation. SO excited!!

We’re heading down to breakfast now where I will hopefully inhale an enormous amount of coffee. The hotel bed wasn’t too comfy last night.

What's For Dinner?

Happy Friday!

As we were eating popcorn on the couch and watching the new movie “The Lost City” last night, we heard a little pitter patter coming from the dining room. We yelled out, “Hey you!” and a moment later, Anna had come running in and jumped in PJ’s lap. She was wide awake.

At this point, the kids had been in bed for over an hour, and we had been watching on our nanny cam that Anna was up in her room putzing around, playing with toys, messing up her covers, etc. All we could do was laugh and smile because damnit she is so cute. Like out of this world. Even when she is naughty and we’re so angry at her, all she has to do is smile and it all melts away. What are we going to do with her?

Meanwhile, I’m feeling so good about the progress we’re making with all the clothes. I am loading all of Anna’s clothes that we’re donating into the car as we speak and just that alone will free up so much weight off my shoulders with how messy our living room is like, all the time. It feels like things are finally coming together and every day another part of a room gets cleaned. If you have young kids, please tell me you know what I’m talking about?

Tonight’s dinner is another Hello Fresh one. It’s almost a month in and I am still swearing by this meal service. PJ asked me the other day if it was as fun to cook these meals that are all laid out for me as it is to cook something that I came up with, and I said yes and no. It’s nice because I don’t have to think about it, I just follow the directions they give and I have all the ingredients there, but there’s almost no room for extra creativity (except I do always add more garlic than the recipe says, because you can never have too much garlic).

So, it doesn’t stretch my culinary skills very much, but in this season of life we’re in, I am okay with that. The most important thing right now is we all eat a nice meal together at the end of the day.

I’m off for the day. Have a great weekend!! xoxo

Aaaaaand We’re Back!

After a night of little sleep (which I’m blaming on our dog for waking me up three times because she wouldn’t stop barking) I’m in a just-go-for-it-who-cares kind of mood today.

That being said, you might notice the blog looks a little different when you come to it today. Or maybe it looks just like you remember it?

After almost seven months of trying to make the new layout work, I am going back to our old layout for the time being. While I loved it, I could never get the sizing right on the other one, and kept getting email notifications from Google letting me know there were errors found on the site that I just couldn’t fix. It was starting to annoy me that I couldn’t figure out how to correct them, no matter how much I researched.

SO, here we are. Back to the layout I first started the blog with almost five years ago, only with a few fresh, modern, minor updates (a sans serif font!). And you know what? It weirdly feels good. It feels comfortable and it feels like home.

And it always feels good to be home.

The Farm is Green Again!

After what seemed like the longest winter ever, we went to the farm yesterday to find so much of it is green again. The trees are fully covered in their summer leaves, the grass in the middle field is high and perfect for the sheep to eat, and the lot towards the front of the property (in the pic above) is finally starting to get some grass!

That front field has probably been in the roughest shape out of all of them since PJ has been doing a ton of dirt work there over the last year. It’s been one big brown mud mess for what seems like forever, so it’s so refreshing to see a little bit of grass scattered around the hill (and how gorgeous does the mountain look in the background?!)

This might seem like a trivial thing to point out, because um of course it’s green again because that’s what happens in the spring, but it’s these little things that I am choosing to focus on lately.

They bring me joy, and we could all use more joy, couldn’t we?

A Little Peace and Quiet

Last night, PJ suggested he take the kids to the Greenway for a bike ride while I made dinner. It’ll give them a chance to get out some of their energy and give me a chance to cook in a little peace and quiet. How sweet is that?

And so that’s what happened. I turned on a movie, poured some wine and started making last night’s Hello Fresh dinner, which was a sausage flat bread with grilled onions and green peppers. We have yet to make something from HF that wasn’t good, and even though last night wasn’t PJ’s favorite, the kids ate it up and even had thirds. Success!

Meanwhile, as I was preparing dinner, I noticed the light in the house is starting to change as we get closer and closer to summer, which takes me by surprise every year with how beautiful it is. I know that sounds corny, but I have a thing with light and the way it moves and bounces throughout our home. One of the first things I look at when we’re beginning to renovate a house is how the light looks in it at different times of the day. I guess you could say I have somewhat of a lighting obsession that carries over into lamps and interior lighting, too.

And then, my family came home and there were hands to be washed and showers to be had and dinner to be eaten, and I felt home was back to the way it should be, the way I like it most.

There’s nothing like a little peace and quiet every once and a while to make you really appreciate the loudness of life happening with three kids in the home.

The Creek at Getaway House

We’re making more and more progress at Getaway House!

While the inside is thisclose to being finished (maybe just a few more weeks, can’t wait to show you), we’ve also turned our attention to the outside, specifically the creek at the bottom of the property. PJ cleared a bunch of trees the last few weeks to give us a better view of the water, which is more so for safety purposes than necessarily aesthetics.

We’ve started a few burn piles to get rid of all the trees and branches. This place will be cleaned up before you know it and will look better than ever.

This is what it looked like last week after PJ cleared everything out. Even though it doesn’t look like it in photos, there’s already been major progress since then just by dragging the cut down branches from the creek to the burn piles.

Sure, it does look a lot better with less overgrown brush, and everything looks a little more like someone lives there as opposed to what it’s looked like for the last few years: scary and abandon, but the biggest reason for the clearing of trees and shrubs is to allow us to see the creek in its entirety. This way, we can see when the kids are playing and know that everyone is okay (not that we will ever let them play in the creek by themselves alone without us being there, but it still allows for a clearer view).

And speaking of the kids playing, yesterday we all rode out there to check on the house and see the progress of the inside. While we were there, the kids swam and played in the creek, splashing and laughing and falling all over the place. I love that we finally have a property with water to cool off in the unbearable summer heat.

Though we do have our river land that we’ve had going on five years now, the water is too tall and the current is too strong for the kids to enjoy right now. The creek is a much safer option for them. We also have the pond on our farm that we had built over the last year, but it’s not holding water right now. Will it ever? We’re waiting to find out.

After a rather stressful night back at home once we got finished playing in the creek (involving two of our kids and their slightly rough play with one of our chickens- they’re still learning what is okay animal behavior and what’s not), I am choosing to focus on the good times spent at Getaway House. It was a beautiful afternoon, and I could listen to our kids laughing forever. They had so much fun.

And we did, too.

Rainy Friday Afternoon

Happy Friday!

On this dreary, windy Friday afternoon, I find myself struggling to stay awake. We woke up extra early this morning and had to run to a few stores to grab bathroom tile for Getaway House, and after forgetting that Riah got out of school at 10:30 this morning and having my mom pick him up instead, we’re all home, full from lunch, and relaxing.

Riah is taking a nap in his room, PJ is taking a nap beside me on the couch and Anna is watching some educational videos on TV (Allan is still at school). It’s one of those cozy, don’t-want-to-leave-the-house kind of days, where all you want to do is curl up on the couch and shut your eyes for a little while.

I may just do that.

But first, I came across these photos of Amsterdam I took a few years ago when we were there last. We’ve been so excited to travel out of the country lately, and seeing these again has be wanderlusting (is that a word?) for somewhere romantic and charming like Amsterdam. One day!!!

It’s starting to rain again, so I’m off for the day. I can barely keep my eyes open.

Happy Friday Night!! What’s for Dinner?

Welcome to the weekend!!!

And happy Friday night! How was your week? We just got back from the farm and Getaway House because major things are happening there and we can’t wait to show you. It’s looking so good!!! PJ and the boys jumped in the creek and swam for a bit, exploring and playing and cooling off. It was so sweet to watch them all get wet and get a taste of what this summer is going to be like.

Meanwhile, we’re making taqueria pork bowls for dinner tonight via our favorite meal service as of late. I have a whole (non-sponsored) blog post about which one it is, and our love for it, coming next week. What are you having tonight?

Anna is staying at her aunt’s tonight, the boys are now in bed, and we’re about to sit down and watch the new Elizabeth Moss thriller on Apple TV+ and eat dinner.

Have a great weekend!! xoxo

Are You Watching Heartstopper on Netflix?

The new Netflix romcom is a beautiful coming-of-age portrait of young, queer love.

Let me just get this out of the way: We binged the entire series in two nights. Netflix’s new gay romantic comedy TV series Heartstopper is so, so good, and I would compare it to if Euphoria and Love, Victor had a baby, and maybe that baby was friends with Elite and Sex Education, but wasn’t influenced by either of their naughty behavior. It’s a pure, happy little series that deals with very real, serious topics like coming out, being trans, figuring out who you are and bullying.

It’s based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alice Osemen (have you read it?) who also created and wrote the series. The show has received critical acclaim, and has earned a rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, with Adam Miller from Metro calling it “A life-changing moment for the LGBTQ+ people of today and all the ones who will follow.” I couldn’t agree more.

Here’s the basic plot:

“Heartstopper tells the story of Charlie Spring, a gay schoolboy who falls in love with someone he sits next to in his new form, Nick Nelson, while also exploring the lives of Charlie and Nick's friends, Tao, Elle and Isaac.

I had actually never heard of it before seeing the trailer for the show last month, and then got a gentle reminder from some of our subscribers this past weekend that it was out and that we must watch it immediately. The episodes are named things like “Meet”, “Crush”, and “Secret”, and they’re listed at the start of each new episode, so they get your attention immediately as you watch to see what will happen next.

The thing that separates this show from some of its modern contemporaries is that it doesn’t really fall into some of the teen romcom cliches and tropes. Just when you think a character will do one thing, because that’s just what happens in shows like this, they surprise you and do the exact thing you want them to do instead (aka, the right thing). It’s rewarding and fresh and fun and, at 27 minutes an episode, completely digestible.

Another thing that makes Heartstopper so relatable and just plain good, is the notion that just maybe, all your dreams really can come true. Right? It’s everyone’s dream that the person they like will like them back, or better yet, love them back. Nick and Charlie represent that very real human feeling of wanting to be loved by the person you love, no matter if you’re a teenager or much older. And when it comes true, when the person you love chooses to love you back, it’s the best feeling in the entire world (speaking from experience here).

I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to have shows like this and “Love, Victor” around when I was in high school. I haven’t been a teenager in a long time, and high school feels like a entirely other lifetime, but I was deeply closeted during those years, always fearful someone would find out I was gay. I couldn’t imagine a world where I would ever come out to anyone. And then, a year and a half after graduating high school, I met PJ and because of him, I had the courage to slowly come out to the ones I love, and after that, I didn’t really care who knew and who didn't. I feel like things would have been a lot easier for me to come out back then had I had a show like Heartstopper. Still, I believe I came out exactly when (and with who) I was supposed to.

I truly hope LGBTQIA+ youth who watch these shows find comfort and acceptance, and that they help them to not feel so alone. The effect that representation has on a young mind, hell, even an older one, cannot be overstated. Seeing someone who you can relate to on the big screen is invaluable, and we can all only hope that more and more stories like this continue to be shared to a wider audience.

So what are you waiting for? Go watch Heartstopper right now and then immediately download the entire soundtrack because every song is AMAZING.

Hoping for a season two ASAP!!

(photos via Joe Locke’s Instagram)

The 9 Most Comfortable Pairs of Underwear

The hunt for comfortable underwear is one that will be never over, but I’m almost certain we’ve found a few of our favorite pairs. We’ve realized Tommy John and Spanx are the most comfortable and provide the most support and breathability. They almost feels like you’re not wearing anything at all, which is what we’re all really going for, isn’t it?

We’re sharing those and 7 other pairs below:

Tommy John’s Cool Cotton Trunk $32

Spanx Sculpt Cotton Boxer Briefs $38

Calvin Klein Microfiber Stretch 3-Pack Low Rise Trunks

Hanes Total Support Pouch Boxer Briefs 

Allbirds’ Trino Boxer Briefs: $24

Uniqlo AIRism Boxer Briefs $14.90

Calvin Klein Men's Cotton Classics 4-Pack Brief

Jockey Men's Underwear Classic Full Rise Brief - 3 Pack

Jockey Men's Underwear Classic 5" Boxer Brief - 3 Pack

Comparing the Titanic to a Modern Cruise Ship

Just for fun, I thought this was so fascinating. We’ve come so far, haven’t we?

via Visual Capitalist

Good News: Hugs Really Do Make Us Feel Better

I opened the April issue of National Geographic and this short little article caught my eye.

Confirming something I already suspected, Hicks Wogan writes:

“Hugs, a casualty of the pandemic, have measurable effects, judging from two research studies. In Japan, researchers monitoring infants four to 12 months old found their hearts beat less rapidly during hugs from parents, but not from other people. And in Lodon an experiment with blindfolded subjects found that longer hugs are considered more pleasant. Ranking hugs by strangers, subjects liked five or 10 second embraces better than one-second squeezes.”

This article makes me think of my mom. She gives the best hugs in the world.

Have a great weekend xoxo