Hello and Happy Friday! Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? We will be in wedding mode for Jimmy’s cousin’s big day on Saturday and are very excited 😊

Today’s Friday Favorites post is all about the good stuff–things that have been making me happy and improving life over here in the Zottola household! Please share what your favorites are in the comments 💜

Taking Sadie swimming. Sadie was sick early in the week and I knew I would be baking at the end of the week, so we went swimming together at a local pool mid-week and it was lovely! I had always wanted to take her to this pool and we had such a nice afternoon swimming together.

She saw a woman laying on her stomach tanning in the sun and was majorly concerned. She asked me “Is her dead?” and I had to explain that the woman was just soaking up some sun 😆

Prime Days. Do you have an Amazon Prime membership? If so, did you do any shopping on Prime Days this week? My mother-in-law gave me a gift card to Amazon for my birthday and I was able to get Sadie some pajamas and a new set of sheets and a quilt for our bed.

My sister was recently at our house and needed a towel when she was bathing her daughter and was shocked (maybe a little appalled?) that we only have one set of sheets and only enough towels for each of us. I had to make her proud, so now we have a spare set of sheets 😉 I guess bedding and towels are something I’m a minimalist about!

Ombre nails. I am still on a kick with taking care of my nails. Sadie took an unexpected nap after our swimming adventure the other day and I looked at a basket full of clean clothes waiting to be folded… and promptly painted my nails. Jimmy came home from work and said he liked my nails. I was like “I didn’t fold the laundry… but my nails look cute!” 😂

Titus update. My sister had her weekly ultrasound to check on Baby Titus and the blood flow through the umbilical cord was good. What a relief! He gets to keep growing for at least another week. Praying for her next appointment 🙏

Gingerbread cookies. Sadie has this neat interactive learning toy called Hot Dots and it’s a set of books about fairy tales and comes with a pen that gives responses based on questions asked in the books (I hope that makes sense 😂).

One of her favorite fairy tales in her Hot Dots set is about The Gingerbread Man. We were reading it this week and she said she wanted to eat a gingerbread man and was elated when I was like “Well, let’s make some!” except we didn’t have gingerbread men cookie cutters. We improvised with hearts and all enjoyed gingerbread cookies in the middle of July. Jimmy got super creative and made a best friends heart with Sadie.

Citronella tealight candles. We are always on the quest to deal with bugs in our yard during the summer. We usually buy a big citronella candle at the start of summer and burn it while eating dinner outside. The only problem was that the candle would tunnel (when only a small portion of the wax around the wick melts while the candle is burning) because we wouldn’t burn it long enough for the size of the candle.

I had the idea to get citronella tealight candles that burn for a small amount of time and they have been perfect! We bring a few out and light them as we set the table. They’re usually good for two dinners and then we grab a few more. No more candle tunneling!

Forcing Starbucks on my mom. It’s a playful rivalry within our family that everyone (my parents, siblings, and their spouses) all like Dunkin Donuts coffee and think it’s superior… and Jimmy and I are Starbucks devotees. My mom came over this week to watch Sadie while I had a prenatal appointment and I ordered Starbucks for us. I think the picture I sent to our family group text says it all 😜

What are some of your favorites from the week?

Do you have any plans for the weekend?