This and That

What’s this and that? This and that is a fun post comprised of a little of this and a little of that. Moments worth mentioning and things I think you might enjoy.

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What We’re Doing: Laguna Beach
One perk about living in Twentynine Palms is that you really are in the middle of everywhere. Two weekends ago Matt and I each took a kid and spent a weekend one on one with them. Peighton and I headed to Laguna Beach, just about 2 hours from here, and met with my mom for a fun girls weekend. I cannot recommend this enough.

Peighton is a pretty busy seven-year-old and while we spend a lot of time together as a family, we don’t get much one-on-one time together. This short trip with P was so memorable for me and I think it was pretty special for her and my mom as well.

We ate amazing food, walked along the beach, and hit up all the cute little shops. We also headed to the Spectrum in Irvine for some shopping. Somehow, my mom and P talked me into riding on the Giant Wheel which is a gigantic ferris wheel at the shopping center. I’m not a heights person and I was absolutely terrified but I’ve been working on doing things with fear instead of allowing fear to overtake me. I’m so happy I took that ride. I hated every moment of it and I don’t want to do it again but I felt very proud of myself for doing it and it was great for Peighton to see me do something scared. Hopefully, she’ll file that away for next time she’s feeling fearful.

Around October of last year, I started baking homemade sourdough bread regularly. I’m finally to a point where I’m getting consistently good bakes and am no longer buying store-bought bread, which was a goal of mine. I bought this book and it’s helped me tremendously in getting started on my bread baking journey.

What We’re Watching
Matt and I finished the third season of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and started Friday Night Lights. I cannot believe we never watched it when it was on because it’s so great.
Two other things we’ve watched recently and loved have been American Factory on Netflix and Troop Zero on Amazon Prime. American Factory is a film about a closed GM plant in Ohio that is transformed into a Chinese owned glass factory. It was an eye-opening documentary that really puts a face on the loss of blue-collar jobs around the country. We started Troop Zero without any expectations and were wowed. Both Matt and I were like “that was really good” at the end of the film. We watched it with our girls and we all really enjoyed it. It’s a feel-good movie about being yourself and to be honest, that’s the exact message we need right now. It does have a bit of language and is rated PG.

What We’re Listening To
I listen to a lot of podcasts on Stitcher and most of them are about politics, history, and business but occasionally I find some great ones that aren’t in this realm and they are worth mentioning.

Boomtown – a 10-part series about the oil boom and bust in what’s known as the Permian Basin of West Texas. It’s stories about the people who are affected by this industry from the billionaires who own the land, to the roughnecks working on it, and the waitresses feeding them. It opened my eyes immensely as my only contact with this world has been the occasional oil derricks we’d see driving through Texas. Definitely worth a listen.

The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow – Ronan Farrow is the reporter that eventually broke the Harry Weinstein story. This podcast is about Farrow’s investigation, all the ways the story almost didn’t happen, and how the system worked to protect powerful men. It will shock you. I especially like that the podcast is told by Ronan Farrow himself.

Join us in France Travel Podcast – I don’t remember how I stumbled across this one but if you are planning a trip to France, it’s a must listen. We’re going to London and Paris this summer and I’ve really enjoyed listening to the podcast. The host, Annie, is a French woman who after having lived in the US for many years has moved back to France and she discusses all things France with guests each week. I especially like her trip reports where she will interview folks who have recently traveled and they both give tips and real reviews and suggestions. I’ve noticed that a lot of the information you find on the web about traveling in Europe is quite fluffy, this is nitty-gritty info that you want to have.

What I’m Buying
I finally found a coffee table that works for us. This gray washed woven storage table is absolutely perfect for our living room. Its storage is deep and plentiful for all the cozy blankets we have. A round table was necessary for the layout of our living room and this one has no sharp edges which make it kid-safe and thus perfect for us. Here’s a really great square version as well.

I’ve been working away on the girls’ room and I was really excited to find these darling personalized pennants. I got one for each of the girls. You can customize the colors to your liking. I think these would make a great baby gift too.

I love these jute scatter rugs. I got this one for our bathroom and this one for by our front door.