Five for Friday // Favorite Things of the Week

Hi, everyone.  Hi.  I hope you've had a great week!  Mine's been spent spring breaking in Texas, doing everything from acquiring a really awesome tan line by the pool to learning how to clean shrimp and spending several hours in the car driving semi-aimlessly around the hill country in search of a really big field of blue bonnets.  (I'm still not sure this place actually exists, although I'd like to believe it's out there somewhere.)  Adventure has been had.  Also, I'm re-watching The Office, which I think is almost as good of a life decision as watching it in the first place.  

In the spirit of enjoying this week of no school and extra sunshine, some of my favorite things:

// Decaf Vanilla Mocha Lattes.  That exists, and I've been drinking them every day.  Jealous? We're living at my grandparents' house this week, and they have lots of fancy coffee things that we don't have, so I've been taking this opportunity to channel the inner barista that I never knew I had.  It's been really fun and the highlight of my mornings.  So, yes, I've been feeling very grown up while drinking my decaf coffee with hot chocolate mix and steamed milk and 4+ pumps of vanilla syrup.  

// Sitting in a hammock.  More grandparent house perks.  I think that when I'm a real adult who drinks actual caffeinated coffee in the morning, I'm going to have a hammock instead of a bed.  Because that is the kind of decision an adult gets to make.  

// Time with Jesus.  Sometimes, I forget that taking a few minutes to spend time with God every day is really, really important.  Well, guess what?  It's really, really important.  As in, key-to-living-a-fulfilling-life important, and essential-to-being-remotely-okay-towards-other-people important.  

// Being a flower photographer.  When you go south of Michigan, there are actually things growing everywhere and it's so beautiful and foreign to me after 5 months of winter that I have to take pictures of all of them.  

// Eating all the ice cream. Our family has an unspoken tradition of eating as much ice cream as possible while on vacation.  (Apparently, almost anything can be justified by the words, "It's tradition.")  When we're traveling, there is absolutely no wrong situation, time of day, or price point for ice cream.  If it's there, we're eating it.  It's one of the things I love about my family.  

I'd love to hear some of your favorite things this week!  What have you been up to?

Cheers!

Allie

Let's Get This Started // Link-Up Announcement

Remember a really long time ago, like, two Tuesdays ago, when I claimed that my post had something to do with a link-up, then went on to not mention a link-up for the duration of the post until I got to the end and threw in a very cryptic "Keep an eye out for this" along with this picture?

No? Well, that happened.  

Anyway, today's the day that I stop keeping you in suspense and explain what that was all about.  Starting next Tuesday and ending no time in the forseeable future, I'm going be hosting the weekly, "It's a Fine, Fine Life" link up.  The name's from a song that I like by a band I like, for King & Country's "Fine, Fine Life," weirdly enough.  The point is to talk about what we've been liking about life lately, because sometimes you just really need that.  Here's the details. 

1. The link-up will open around 5 AM eastern time every Tuesday morning, except for the rare occasion that I don't get my post scheduled ahead of time.  

2. Life sucks sometimes, and it's definitely very okay and, (I believe) necessary to blog about that stuff.  However, this link-up's a place to talk about why we like life, so please only add a link to your post if that's what it's related to!

3. The link-up will be open all week, so you can add your post anytime!

4. When you add your post, please take the time to read a couple of the other posts that you'll find there.  Some link ups have specific rules for whose post you have to read or how many or how to comment.  I'm not going to do that, because I want you to read what you like and comment on what you actually connect to.  So, however you do it, just show your fellow bloggers some love!  The whole point of this is to meet other bloggers, and that works a lot better if we interact with each other and stuff. 

5. Add the button to your post or just link back to me in another way - I'll give out the HTML sometime in the next week. 

More stuff about what to write:

The guidelines are pretty loose.  Your post can be about a specific cool thing you did / thought / saw / ate recently, a list of favorites, a quote, pictures - as long as it fits the criteria of celebrating the fact that life is usually a pretty good thing, it'll work!

I look forward to starting this link-up so much! I'll see you here next Tuesday!

Allie

Ice Cream for Breakfast // How to Have a Very Productive Day

Sometimes, you learn how to do a thing by doing the exact opposite of the thing.  You get it so, so completely wrong that there's no way you can not get it right the next time.  Obviously that method of figuring stuff out doesn't apply to everything - if it did, I would be some kind of really well-dressed math genius by now, and I'm not.  Wearing every color of the rainbow at once and my persisting inability to find x (or even to know whether that's what I'm supposed to be finding) has gotten me nowhere so far.  Don't get too sorry for me, though - I think that I may have finally messed up in a way that's going to be useful in the future.  As in, I had a million things to do last Monday and I successfully completed exactly zero of them.  (In my defense, I was technically home sick from school, although I felt totally normal.)  It was probably my least productive day to date and as a result, I now know all the "Dont's" to having a day in which you accomplish things.  

DON'T // Eat ice cream for breakfast.  I rationalized that decision by telling myself that it would help cure my sore throat (what?).  The only result I saw was a major crash about two hours later.  

DON'T // Start a new show on Netflix.  Especially if you get emotionally involved with them as quickly and intensely as I do.  I made the mistake of watching an episode of New Girl, and then I couldn't stop until the two main characters that I could totally tell were going to start dating actually did.  

DON'T // Shove your responsibilities in a corner, literally or figuratively, and try to forget about them.  If there's stuff that needs to be done for the next day, suck it up and do it.  Don't be like me and accidentally / on purpose forget your backpack in the car all weekend.  We live in a cruel, unjust world in which people expect you to handle responsibilities even when you're dying of unforseen illness. 

DON'T // Just change into a different pair of pajamas.  I mean, a new pair of pajamas beats wearing the old pair again, but it's just so hard to do things when you're wearing clothes that ate meant for sleeping.  

DON'T // Let them leave you all alone.  Because when you're alone in the house, no one knows that literally all you've done all day is watch New Girl.  Make your dad stay home and sarcastically comment to you about the "quality entertainment" you've chosen, or your little brother so someone else monopolizes the TV.  Just don't be alone.  

DON'T // Create an Etsy account.  Definitely make sure any form of online payment is not within reach.  

There ya have it.  Go forth and have a very, very, very productive Monday!  I've got to go finish packing for the trip we're leaving on in two hours, at 7:30 in the morning.  So, that happened.  Next how (not) to: procrastinating.  

Allie