Weekend of Favorite Things

I always said I would never write a post that detailed every little thing that I did because let's be honest, those posts aren't interesting to anyone but relatives. But I had a really great weekend packed full of my favorite things and I wanted to share a few of them here. I hope no one is bored to tears....

The great weekend started on Friday when I perused the produce department of my third favorite place on earth, Whole Foods. We were there looking for ingredients for my newest venture: bread baking. I ended up eating a salad that weighed a whopping pound and a half. Seriously. There is a massive salad bar wing at Whole Foods that offers every imaginable salad ingredient and containers full of not so common ingredients. I had spinach with fired roasted tomatoes, citrus garlic beets, roasted free-range chicken, bleu cheese mountains, grilled asparagus and zucchini, quinoa, and cranberries with Greek vinaigrette. Once you make your salad to perfection, you take it to the register where the cashier weighs it. Mine came in at a pound and a half (bowl not included) and I woofed down every bit of it. I could go to Whole Foods every day and just browse the handmade delicacies and sample the organic produce. Beatrice got to try some organic peaches and raspberry puree and baby rice cakes. She was a big fan. My little crunchy baby, I'm so proud.

Next, we went to my second favorite place, Anthropologie. My first favorite place is NYC, oh what a wonderful place. I once saw a documentary about a man whose life goal was to visit every McDonald's in the world. I'm like that with Anthropologie. Each store is so unique and spectacularly girlie, I could spend hours in there. And did on Friday. I was shopping for a dress to wear to my sweet friend Kristen's wedding this weekend. I am reading a passage at the wedding so I need a new dress for the occasion. I rarely buy new clothes. As a stay at home mom, my wardrobe consists of tanks and shorts and the casual cotton dress on Sunday for church. When I do shop, I am always mindful of quick access for nursing Beatrice. It isn't practical to wear something that involves disrobing six times a days to feed the baby. So I bought this dress:

It is neither practical nor does it provide easy access for nursing. But it is beautiful and girlie and I feel really pretty in it. I don't really know what I'll do about nursing at the wedding, I suppose JD will have to help me in the bathroom or something. It doesn't really matter. The dress is awesome and I can't wait to wear it. I'm starting to get that barfy feeling thinking about speaking at the wedding though.......


The weekend of my favorite things kept getting better. On Saturday we hit up the local farmer's market. As soon as we got there, the sky opened up and there was a torrential downpour. It's times like these that I'm really glad I decided to bring the baby. We huddled up under a tent with one of the merchants. They were more than willing to let us pile in since the poor, little baby was getting wet.....and her mama really didn't want to wash her hair again. We tasted some great local fare and got some ideas for a booth of our own.......maybe. I got word that the library was having a book sale so after the market, we went to check it out. They were selling as many books as you could stuff into a paper grocery bag for $5. We got some great books for Beatrice. I was tickled.

Then we came home and I baked bread from scratch. No starter, no pre-measured mix, no bread machine. Just my two bare hands, a few natural ingredients and lots of patience (because there are like a 101 steps to baking bread). I made whole wheat honey bread and it turned out perfectly!!

Every thing I read and everyone I talked to said not to expect much from my first loaf. Bread is finicky and a lot of the success comes from experience and "feeling" your dough. Y'all, I felt the heck outta that dough and made some PERFECT bread!! We ate it warm from the oven with butter, we had toast with strawberry jelly, we had ham sandwiches, all made with my bread. I'm psyched. We no longer have to buy bread. Even though a good loaf only cost about $3, but that's not the point. The point is that I can make bread!!!! Beatrice even got to try some teeny pieces.....but we discovered that giving a baby bread that is not toasted is not a great idea. The teeny pieces turned into a large dough ball in the back of her throat and after a pretty good scare, JD and I decided that she is not ready for bread. That is known as a parenting fail in our house....


Sunday rounded out my weekend of favorites. JD's family joined us at church for Father's Day and we had a fun afternoon with my family. A little cuddling with my honey and then we crashed around 9pm. Weekends of favorite things equals two exhausted parents.

Today I did many non-favorite things (changed the sheets, got an oil change, cleaned the litter box, got my brakes worked on, cleaned) but that is usually the way it goes after a weekend of lovely things. It's back to the ol' grind. I am totally inspired by my awesome weekend and inspired to have many more like it this summer. If anyone made it to the bottom of this post, I applaud you. I hope instead of boring you I encouraged you to eat a giant salad or buy something beautifully impractical or stand in the rain with a baby. Actually, don't do that. It is overrated. Whatever you do, enjoy your families and hug your honeys and make the most out of every weekend. We sure did.