5 on Friday

Hi friends! It has been a LONG time since I’ve sat down to put any words on a screen here, but I have found lately that I have a desire to get back to some writing. I have missed having a bit of a creative outlet for myself (I tried making the kitchen a place for a bit more creativity…but my family didn’t necessarily appreciate my attempts, so back to tacos/spaghetti/grilled cheese we go…). I am sure as the fall gets busier it will be harder to create space to sit and write, but I’m going to try and just see what shows up when I actually sit at a computer and focus. So I hope some of my random musings and ideas are encouraging and helpful to you, and I appreciate you reading along!

For those who are newer to this space, 5 on Friday is a series of posts I did several years ago, with a new one coming out…you guessed it, every Friday! I would share 5 things each week, usually that had nothing to do with one another, but 5 things that were on my mind. Sometimes it was a book review, a recipe, an organizing tip, a theological musing, a podcast episode I couldn’t stop thinking about, you name it, it was fair game for a 5 on Friday post. So, without further ado, here are this week’s 5 things.

**One**

It’s the first week of school here, which means we are all exhausted from trying to retrain our bodies to a new schedule. We are doing our best to keep to a strict bedtime routine, and we are grateful that our after school activities really aren’t in high gear this week. This will be the first year Aidan will be in youth group, which at our church is a large group worship experience on Sundays from 6-8 and a Wednesday night small group with the other 6th grade boys from 7-8:15. I hate that our days of getting him to bed by 8 are probably diminishing, but both Chuck and I know the immense value of these spaces of faith formation among other kids his own age, so we will make attending these evenings a huge priority, above sports or any other activity (plus Chuck is the 7th grade boys leader, so he’ll have to be in attendance as well, which makes it easy to get Aidan there). However, on the nights he is home (which should be every other night of the week) one of the things that helps us all immensely at that wind-down time of night is to have a family show we all watch together. The boys know that in order to watch an episode, they have to start it by 7 or it’s too late, and they have to be in pjs and on the couch with their dessert by then in order to hit play. That lets us move pretty straight to the bedroom for our read aloud time as soon as it’s over. The show we are currently loving is Home Improvement on Disney+. It has all 8 seasons of this class 90s sitcom and man it’s bringing back memories—this was my family’s favorite show growing up and we never missed an episode, so I’ve seen them all. We love finishing out our day with a 20 minute show while enjoying dessert and then heading off to bed for books.

**Two**

If you follow me on social media you know I’ve been reading my way around America this year, choosing one book set in each of our 50 states. I’m not sure if I have ever done something more fun for my reading life before, it has been a blast! When we get to the end of the year I always share my favorite titles of the year, but if you’re interested in what I’ve read so far specifically related to this challenge, I have them all linked here. I’ve never done a formal reading challenge before, and wasn’t sure I’d enjoy being “told” what to read, I often just pick up whatever looks good at the time. However this has been so fun and because there are always SO many novels set in each state I still feel like I have plenty of choices to grab what looks appealing. I’ve found that this has kept me motivated to keep picking up books when I finish one, and I have absolutely been introduced to titles I would NEVER have come across if I hadn’t been doing an internet deep dive on books set in Kansas for example. I’ve read books published decades ago (where I tend to grab the new and shiny titles) so that has been a fabulous experience, and it’s given me a chance to finally read some books that have been on my to be read list for years (I’m looking at you, Gone With the Wind). I still have several states to go, it’s a large country, but I’m on track to finish before the end of the year. I am also trying to hit 100 books before the end of the year which isn’t something I’ve ever done before (and don’t know that I’ll try to do again honestly) but I’d like to say I have hit that century mark at least once. We will see if I make it, its still a lot of books to go! Have you ever tried any type of reading challenge that you’ve enjoyed? I’d love to hear which ones!

**Three**

Even though it is still approximately one thousand degrees here in Florida, Instagram reminded me that eventually the holidays will be upon us. One of The Lazy Genius’ principles is to “ask the magic question” and that magic question is “what can I do now to help my future self?” Now, I’m not saying to start Christmas shopping in mid-August (at least I’m not going to), but I did want to share a gift idea that someone might be interested in for a family member. Two Christmases ago, my sister and I “gifted” my parents a subscription to something called Storyworth. I put gifted in quotes because I’m not sure they felt like it was the world’s greatest gift—it really was a ton of work for them, but now that we’ve completed the process, it truly is a fabulous gift to our family. What the company does is once a week for 52 weeks they will email your loved one (whoever you’ve signed up) a question that you’ve selected from their gigantic library of questions (or you can write your own question). Your loved one then hits reply to that email and types their response to the question. Sometimes that response is a few sentences and other times it’s several paragraphs, depending on what they want to share. Once the year is up, your relative has time to get caught up on any questions they’ve gotten behind on and when all 52 have been answered they can go into the computer and add in any photos to go along with their answers. When everything looks the way they want it to, Storyworth prints and binds a hardcover book and mails it out. One book is included in the subscription, but you can order extras (so my folks had one book sent to me for each of them and one sent to my sister). I’m not sure they loved the process of answering all these questions, but watching Aidan start to read my dad’s book the other day was priceless “wow! I didn’t know Papa mowed lawns for a business when he was my age!” We asked questions like “what was your mom like when you were growing up?” “What about your dad?” “Who were some of your best friends and what did you like to do in high school together?” “How did you pick your college and career?” “What are you most proud of in life?” and “What have you changed your mind about over the years?” If you have a loved one who can keep up with the technology a bit and would be willing to invest some time trying to capture some of their stories, this is absolutely one of the best Christmas gifts we’ve well, kind of given ourselves!

**Four**

A new school year always brings about new routines and rhythms that take a bit to adjust to. We are all exhausted today after our alarm clocks going off at 5:30 all week after a summer of no set wake up time. Today we are taking a page from Jen Hatmaker’s annual back to school Public Service Announcement that she posts on Facebook every year and ordering a pizza to be delivered this evening and that’s exactly it. Do yourself a favor and read through the comments section. It is pure gold. I read this whole thing to my boys last night after one of them who shall remain nameless had a meltdown because he was exhausted and starving and they were laughing hysterically and resonating will all the pictures in the comments. If you’re starting school soon, remember, even if the Obamas invite you over for a BBQ you are not going. You are staying home.

**Five**

I just finished the most delightful book that had nothing to do with my 50 states challenge but was such a fun read I wanted to share it because I think just about anyone would find this one enjoyable. The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley is the story of an 80-something woman whose family thinks she needs some live in help. Enter 21 year old Tanner, a former high school soccer star now dealing with a career ending knee injury who doesn’t know what else she wants to do with her life. One nigh Tanner swears she sees Louise’s face on the news as being wanted for a huge jewel heist decades ago, but she convinces herself it must be a coincidence. Until Louise shows up in her room in the middle of the night and tells her to pack a bag, that they have to get out of there. A cross country road trip where Tanner still doesn’t have all the information of who Louise is or why she’s running ensues and of course hi-jinks are plenty. This book ended up being so much more than I thought, the reason they’re running isn’t the reason you think, and there were some wonderful plot twists in this one that surprised me.

That’s all for this week, friends, but hopefully I’ll be back next week with another 5 thoughts. Have a wonderful weekend, and remember, if you have kids in school, just order that pizza and call it good for tonight!