Five Favoritas

Here we go again...the faves of the moment. 

1) After such a great weekend celebrating my niece's graduation from college I must say one of my all-time, absolute favorite things in life is that my family is so fun and that we all get along.  It was awesome to celebrate a momentous event with my family and have such
a great time.

(Such a shame that's not my bag - it belongs to the gorgeous college grad next to me)

It's always hard to come back to reality after getting to hang out unhindered by real life issues with pesky things like jobs, cooking, dishes, laundry, and making sure there are diapers in the house but it was great to get picked up on Monday afternoon with four of my favorite boys waiting with smiles, hugs and kisses for me. 

2) Ladies night dinners - To ease my transition back to real life I had the pleasure of dinner last night with my ladies.  I cannot describe how lucky I am to be surrounded by thoughtful, fun, witty, and understanding women.  The dinners we have together are filled with laughter, advice, sometimes tears, always fantastic food and wine, and fellowship.  The dinners with these gals are always some of my favorite nights of the year. 

3) Savvy nephews - Thanks to one of my tech savvy nephews (shout out JP!!) who showed me I can use Jerry's old iPhone 4 with a sticky and non-functioning home button (he still blames Stan's jelly covered paws) using the touch screen instead of continuing to have broken slivers of glass fall out on my thumbs and face while using my busted up iPhone.  I must say that I felt old and uninformed as he showed me how to use my own phone, but I should probably get used to it as I'm sure the boys will be schooling me soon enough on all things technology related. 

Dave and Frank actually asked me for our Apple ID password yesterday so they could get further in a game.  Can you tell they've been hanging out with some older boys lately who have opened Pandora's box of technology?  I'm a little bitter that they are now in on the secret that money can be spent to get them further in games or to actually buy new games.  Unfortunately for those ducklings they have the knowledge now, but it won't be put to any sort of use as I gave them a firm no-go on the password request and I will continue to only put free stuff on devices.

4) I'm reading a fantastic book Bloom by Kelle Hampton.  I'm sure I'm late to the party and everyone else has already read this, but I have to mention it as it is so engrossing.  I downloaded it for my trip and thank heavens I didn't read it on the plane.  I bawled for the entire first chapter and sniffled through the next couple chapters too.  Kelle tells her experience with honesty and bravery.  I'm not finished wth it yet, but I continue to try and sneak in a few pages here and there because I can't help wondering what will happen next.  Luckily, she has a blog, Enjoying the Small Things, so even after the book ends, her story continues and I'll be able to follow along.

5) I'm putting two in one here because I'm a rule-breaker (Actually, I am never a rule-breaker.  I fear the breaking of rules and really try to avoid it all costs.  I'm about as rule-following as they come.)  In this teeny-tiny instance I will bend the rules and put two out there but bundle them into "favorite products from the Columbia, South Carolina Soda City Farmers Market". 

The first is the grits from Anson Mills.  They are coarse ground and amazing.  Even though I live in Minnesota I love grits.  I like to think it's because I was born in Alabama, but that could be just wishful thinking that I could reclaim my Southern Belle roots.  I made the grits last night and they're fantastic.  They take forever to cook and are worth every minute of soaking, stirring, and simmering.

The second is Cannonborough Soda.  This stuff is so dang good.  It is fresh soda that was made the day before and I can't even describe for you how refreshing and tasty it was on a steamy South Carolina morning.  

The flavors were Peach Verbena, Grapefruit Elderflower, and Honey Basil.  I had the Honey Basil and could not stop making over the top remarks about how in love I was.  Everything...the soft, not overly carbonated bubbles, the burst of flavors that were still subtle enough to leave you wanting more, and the perfect combos of flavor was fantastic.  My niece and I bought a couple growlers of the Grapefruit Elderflower and Honey Basil and decided that the only improvement we could make was adding some Hendrick's gin to it.  Five o'clock finally rolled around later that day and indeed while I thought the soda was already perfect, we had reached new drink nirvana.  

If you have the opportunity to try this soda run out and do so, you can thank me later.  In the meantime I am working on a campaign to get it in Minnesoda.

Thanks to Hallie for hosting the link-up over at Moxie Wife!