Five on Friday: Cherries and Grilling and Birthdays

7.01.2016

Happy Friday before a long weekend! The best kind of Friday because it means a whole extra day to spend with R and Jordan, my two favorite people.

1. Today is July 1, which means it's BIRTHDAY MONTH. Both Jordan and I have birthdays in July, one week apart exactly. If you know me, you know how much I love birthdays, and this year I'm turning 30! I spent my birthday last year planning Jordan's surprise party for his 30th, which turned out fabulous. I was only 8 months pregnant. No big deal.

I asked him not to throw me a big party this year because we are heading to Chicago the very next weekend and don't have a ton of extra money to spend. But I think I'll have some friends over for game night and pie and probably definitely eat cupcakes at some point. And hello getting to see a Cubs game a Wrigley is going to be awesome. Maybe we will even take R back to the place where Jordan proposed!
^^^Little Amanda with her birthday cake.

2. I took R to the doctor for a checkup yesterday, and she has officially jumped back up to the 50th percentile! Our little nugget is over 18 pounds and eating so. much. food. She gained over 2 pounds just in the month of June!
^^^So many creepster pictures of her sleeping. You have no idea.

3. I bought some cherries at the grocery store this week, and I cannot stop eating them. Fruit, get in my belly. I am so thankful my husband is a freak of nature who hates fruit because that just means more for me. And R, I guess. Because she eats real food now and demands I share with her. It's terrible. (See: #2 above) JOEY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD. I'm not explaining that reference.

3a. After last month's epic fail I really did good on our grocery budget this month. Maybe I need to write a grocery budget update post soon!

4. I have completely and utterly slacked on reading this month. I didn't even finish one book! I am still slowly moving through the book on prayer that I mentioned in this post, and it's fascinating but not exactly a quick read. I just got a notification that The Nightingale is available at the library, so I am picking that up today and maybe finish it over the weekend.

5. I grilled for the first time ever! I mean, I've eaten grilled food before, but I have never personally grilled anything all by myself until Wednesday night. Jordan assisted in seasoning the steak and chicken and helping with the coals, but I did the rest of it! And our food actually wasn't that bad, so yay for me.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and holiday (if you live in the States). If not, you're probably better off because (insert comment about our available choices of political candidates. Don't get me started.)

July the 4th be with you.
... Is that not how you do it?

p.s. It's a known fact that blog reading and page views take a dive in the summer, so if you are reading this, just know that I appreciate it so much. I write to keep my creative skills alive and because I enjoy sharing pictures and stories, but I will be honest. It really, really, really helps to know that my words are read and, maybe, inspiring in some way. So thanks.

*linking up with Christina and the other ladies for Five on Friday.
shelleystirs said...

You know me, always reading your blog. 😉 I love grilling. We grill our food at least twice a week (or more) during the summer. Happy 4th!

The Girl who Loved to Write said...

Now that we have a house (yay!) I really want to learn how to grill! And I have so. many. creepy sleeping pictures too.

Dana said...

YES to the reference...and brace yourself, because the food sharing thing only gets worse as they turn into demanding, opinionated, adorable toddlers!

Andrea H. said...

Hip hip hooray for birthday month! Mine is on July 24th! :) Also, I just started the Nightingale today. Will be interested to compare thoughts on it! Based on Chapter 1, I have a good feeling about it. Enjoy your long weekend!! :)

StephTheBookworm said...

Yay, happy birthday month! Jerry and I have birthdays that are exactly one week apart too... and Caleb's is smack dab in the middle of them. Talk about poor planning - haha!

Enjoy The Nightingale! I'm a librarian and everyone is absolutely raving about it. It's on my list to read!

Happy long weekend and 4th. :)

Miriam said...

Little R is so adorable. I can totally understand the urge to take as many pictures of her as possible! I have hundreds of photos of my Corgi in my files, because to me she is just about the cutest dog alive. I can't help it!
Happy long weekend!

Erika Powell said...

This post made me realize something! I have never actually grilled either! We eat off the grill multiple nights a week in the summer but the husband handles that. Not that I am complaining about NOT making dinner for a change but that is a little crazy.

Have a great weekend!

Kaity B. said...

I regularly reference "Joey doesn't share food!" Because well, I'm a fatty ;) Happy early birthday!!!

Unknown said...

I read this post and enjoyed it. It's my birthday month and anniversary month. Let the celebrations begin! Estherdavison@gmail.com

Courtney said...

Mabel and R are peas in a pod when it comes to stealing all our food and eating so much of it. Jim and I seriously have to have a sit down and rework our grocery budget because having a 4th member eating so much has totally jacked our monthly grocery budget lol.

I love that first picture!

Oh- and my birthday is at the end of September and I for sure take the whole month to celebrate as well.

Unknown said...

Such a fun post :) Cupcakes are a must for birthdays. All the creepster sleeping baby photos - I totally get that. I even take pictures of my kid's monitor while he's sleeping. I can't help it! And yes to fruit (and to the Joey reference - I follow you, girl). Happy birthday soon!!

Michelle said...

I'm anxious to hear what you think of The Nightingale!

I take a picture almost every night of G sleeping because she's always in a crazy position and only half clothed at that point. It's always dark so I use the flash, but it never wakes her up. Last night I looked at the picture I took and noticed HER EYES WERE OPEN. So creepy.

Audrey Louise said...

I like cherries but I don't love cherries but now you post is making me want some cherries- HA!
Ugh. I'm grateful for the three day weekend but I will gladly work Monday if we can be in a country with different political candidates for presidency :)
Enjoy your holiday!

Katie @ Live Half Full said...

The Nightingale is so good- I hope you like it! Waiting to spend your Birthday money in Chicago is a good idea- so many places to get cupcakes! :)

Melissa said...

I love reading your posts and all of the pics of R! My baby just turned 16 and I am wishing I had taken more pictures. Time flies!

Rachel said...

What kind of person doesn't eat fruit???

Maria said...

My husband won't eat fruit either. Says it makes his mouth itchy. Weirdos. Cherries break my bank, but are so worth it.

I have always said I only want boy babies, but R (and her clothes) have me fully convinced I'd be okay if God accidentally gives me a girl.

Rachel Emily said...

I've heard so many good things about The Nightingale (and I was so obviously a child of the Disney era because I get that song from Cinderella stuck in my head every time I read that word). How fantastic for you that you don't have to share your cherries with another adult, and so funny that your husband "doesn't eat fruit!" My very first college roommate told me the first day I met her that "she didn't really eat vegetables" and I remember my mind being BLOWN. Like, I had never considered that was even an option before, lol. Hope you have a good holiday weekend, girl!

Heather said...

I love reading your blog. Especially about R. I have a five month old so I like reading what works or didn't work for you guys with R. Plus I love all your pictures :)

Robyn B said...

happy birthday month! have fun at the Cubs game!! and... yes to "Joey doesn't share food" - i can't tell you how many times i have said that to people hahah

Miss Nutralicious said...

Hi there! Remember how a couple of weeks ago you wrote a post titled "Frustrated by [Lack of] Fitness"? Well, 1a. I totally remember it because I still read your blog regularly, and 1b. if you had replaced the word "Fitness" with "Blogging" I would have sued you for writing a post about my life.

Anyways, after I read this post on Friday, I made a note to myself to actually comment for once and let you know that at least one person is inspired by your blog. (That would be me.) So thank you for writing! Happy Independence Day!

Ali said...

Yay for birthdays! I had to laugh at your Star Wars reference. My mom was trying REALLY hard to convince me that "May the 5th" was a thing. Some kind of veiled SW reference as well. No mom, it's "May the 4th" and then "Cinco de Mayo". Two very, very different things.

Sara Oss said...

Yay Chicago! In case you haven't used it before, Spothero is a great app for finding available and relatively inexpensive parking in the city. My job gets really busy in the summer so blog reading and commenting becomes more of a rainy day activity than part of a routine. I can totally see how those kinds of viewing patterns are frustrating to watch, but thanks for writing! I always enjoy reading what you have to say.

Amy @ A Desert Girl said...

I love the photo of little Amanda with her birthday cake. You look exactly the same at (almost) 30, my dear!

I'm way behind on reading and comments (work. work. work. Ugh! Getting in the way of my blog life.), but I always enjoy what I read from you.

Beka @ Sunshine to the Square Inch said...

Yay for grilling! My Dad gave us his old grill and we just cleaned it out. So I need to see if it still works but grilling is so good. I'm glad it turned out well for you. Have you ever made pizza on the grill? Okay, I haven't either but it sounds really good and I want to try it.

I like fruit but only select ones, like mangoes and blueberries. Cherries are pretty good too. Also, if you ever go to Seattle go in the summer because cherries are abundant and cheap there. So yummy!

Jenny Evans said...

We have a ton of pictures of our babies sleeping, possibly more than pictures of when they're awake. Either they're sleeping with such a cute and precious expression on their faces, or they're doing something weird like sleeping on their stomach with their bum way up in the air and a blanket piled up on top of their head. Either way, it needs to be documented.

Julie @ Just the Joy's said...

Another picture where she kept the bow on! Yay! Michael and I celebrate birthdays one week apart as well! How sweet of you to plan a surprise party while pregnant... wife of year?! More like he better never forget that one. Haha! ;) I'm with you, give me all the fruit and no don't ask to share. Ugh! Oh, I'm also with you on the sleeping baby pics. It is just too damn cute!! Especially because Remi sleeps with her butt in the air. I die.

Rach said...

Hooray for July birthday month!! It's mine too! :) I'm with you on loving cherries right now. We just ate a pound of them this week (literally a pound). :)

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