Friday Faves

Hey friends! Let’s cap off the week with some Friday faves/things I’m loving lately. Feel free to play along in the comments! 

One thing I’m especially loving today is that it has finally stopped raining… we’ve had a soggy week over here and while I know it will lead to some lovely flowers, it’s nice to walk Riese to school without rain gear. 🙂 

Please note links in this post are affiliate links. 

Things I’m Loving Lately/Friday Faves

1) Wes walking!

How cute is this little man?! Now that he has figured out how to walk, it’s all he wants to do – practice makes perfect, right?

I’m still working on my baby and mama 10 month update, so stay tuned for that next week! Lots of updates to share. 

2) The Case of the Missing Hit (podcast episode)

If you love true crime and mystery podcasts, this episode on the Reply All podcast about a man who remembers a song from the late 90’s but can’t find it anywhere on the web is SO fun. 

It has major “Serial” podcast vibes in terms of the flow of the episode, but minus the dark theme and plus some really great late 90’s music nostalgia. 

It’s only an hour long (not a whole series) and had me smiling the whole time as the mystery unfolded. Highly recommend if you need an entertaining escape! 

 3) Evernote (sponsored)

Have any of you used Evernote before?

I’ve been using Evernote, which started as a phone app but now also has a web and desktop version, for a decade – my oldest notes in the app date way back to 2012! Wow.

Clearly I’m a big fan, so I was excited when I found out my friend Gretchen started working for them recently, and thrilled to chat with her about spreading the Evernote love to all of you, because despite the fact I’ve used it for so long I’ve surprisingly never mentioned it before on the blog!

If you haven’t tried Evernote yet, I highly suggest checking it out – it’s my favorite organization and productivity system, and the features have come a long way from their original days as solely a note-taking app. 

Gretchen helped me discover a ton of cool new-to-me features that Evernote has that I now use daily.

For example, previously anytime I used to think of a random to do item, I’d email myself a reminder (something like “don’t forget to call xx about xx” or “sign up for xx by xx date”) with the reminder in the subject line of the email. 

In addition to being completely inefficient, this also really clogged up my email inbox. But if I didn’t do something with that thought right then, I’d forget a minute later, you know? 

Enter: Evernote tasks! 

Nowadays, I use Evernote to manage all my to-do list task items, and I LOVE that it automatically syncs between devices, so if I add a task item to the app on my phone, it will also show up on the Evernote web browser that I always have open in a tab on my computer.

I also love that they have a Google Calendar integration. The coolest part about the calendar integration is that if you’re doing a call or meeting, you can take notes on Evernote and tie them to that specific meeting on your calendar so they are easy to find later. Same with tasks!

And they have a search function that makes words or phrases within your notes (even handwritten ones you take pictures of – so cool) really easy to find again later, too. 

I have my Google daily calendar showing on my Evernote home screen, which is a series of widgets you can move around and customize.

My home screen also shows me my tasks and my notes; you can see the web browser version on my computer screen in the picture above, and below is a screenshot of the phone app home screen.

As you can see, I still use Evernote all the time for notes, too. I have a few long running notes in the app, like one with books I want to read (the list is SO LONG), wines I like, local trip ideas, etc., and I often use it to draft or jot down ideas for blog posts as well if I get an idea when I’m on the go.

I actually wrote my whole 9 Weeks of You blog post about Wes in an Evernote note on my phone while Wes was sleeping on me one day. 🙂

Anyway! If you’re interested in checking it out, Evernote has a base plan that is totally free, and they also have a personal plan and a professional plan for a small monthly fee. The paid plans offer additional features (like the Google Calendar integration, the ability to collaborate and assign tasks to others, offline access, etc.).

Check out all the details on their website here! 

4) Frittatas!

We had a ton of eggs to use up after Matt and Riese did some Easter egg dying last weekend (they blew the inside of the eggs out so just the shells remained for dying; that way we didn’t waste the eggs which I thought was smart), so I whipped up a frittata and we’ve been enjoying eating on it this week for fast breakfasts.

I made my Goat Cheese Frittata with Spinach (<- recipe) which I’ve had on my mind since including it in my recent crumbled goat cheese recipes round up… except instead of goat cheese, I used feta since it’s what I had on hand. Oh well!

I also used frozen pre-chopped mixed mushrooms instead of fresh baby bella mushrooms, and that was an awesome time saver and worked just as well! You saute the mushrooms until all the liquid boils off, so it doesn’t matter if they are fresh or frozen as it won’t make the frittata soggy. 

I’ve been stuffing the frittata slices into wraps and eating them that way. Yum!

5) Historical fiction

I’ve been on a historical fiction kick lately, and have been reading a bunch of books by the author Fiona Davis.

I read her book The Lions of Fifth Avenue awhile ago and loved it, so when I saw she had a number of other books I thought it might be fun to check them out, too.  

In the past few weeks I’ve read The Magnolia Palace and The Dollhouse. Both are fun reads that keep you guessing, and both switch back and forth in time between two narrators as her books tend to do. 

Any other good historical fiction recs for me?

6) My go-to hoodie

I had a few people message me about a link for the hoodie that I was wearing in the cherry blossom photos I posted recently, so I wanted to share it in a post, too, because it’s a big favorite! 

It’s this Athleta hoodie and I love it so much that I own it in multiple colors. It’s part of my go-to athleisure “uniform” these days. 😉 

7) Wordle

Yep, I have officially joined the Wordle craze! It really is quite fun, and I love that it’s just once a day – makes it more special.

My mom got me into it – the two of us and my brother have a fun text thread where we share our stats every morning.

It’s a nice way to stay in touch and to do something that feels light and silly but mentally stimulating, too. 

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What are you loving lately? Anything fun to share? 

Some links I’m loving from around the web this week:

• Best Fitness Apps for Moms – my fave is the Peloton app (you can use it without their bike or treadmill to do other workouts – I love using it for yoga in particular)… what are your faves?
• Sustainable Kitchen Swaps – lots of great ideas here! Our compost bin is still going strong… I have a blog post about it if you’re interested: How to Start Composting at Home. It’s easier than you think!
• Favorite Clean Finds for the Home – can you tell I’m in a spring cleaning sort of mood right now? Def want to try some of these picks!
• How to Plan a Filling Meal – this is the template I use and this post from a fellow dietitian is a great overview!