The Calm AFTER the Storm

We’ve had such a nice day today, getting caught up on all the things post-hurricane.

We washed a ton of laundry before the storm, but didn’t fold any of it, since we were busy doing other things. So today, we had about a thousand pieces of tiny girls clothes to fold. (This picture doesn’t actually even include everything that we took care of today, and plus there are still two more loads to fold!)

After we got to a “stopping point” in the loads of laundry, we decided to get out into town today, after being cooped up at home for two days straight. Addie wanted a bun like mine, but I had already pulled it through into a ponytail, so I clipped it with the tiny flowers to make it a bun, and this actually turned out so super cute.

We had a delicious lunch on the outside porch at VeneBites, and I read a book while we waited on the food to come. (Why have we never thought of doing this before?!) Love this super yummy pabellon de arepa (Jeff copied me and got the same one), and the girls loved the jamon y queso arepa they shared together.

And then we walked across Third Avenue to check out the Frother’s Daughter new brick & mortar shop! They opened a tiny cute little spot in the back corner of a shared building in midtown very recently, just last weekend I believe, and I hope they do so well here! It will be nice to be able to visit them in a permanent spot without tracking down the truck, or dealing with the lines on the college campus. And it just so happens to conveniently be right on my commute to work 😉

After lunch & coffee we took a little trip to the downtown library to return a stack of books, hang out for a while coloring and reading, and check out a whole new stack of books.

We went home after the library and got Addie down for a late afternoon nap. My little buddy and I loaded back up to go grocery shopping together. We pulled into the Aldi parking lot on Pensacola, and noticed there was a brand new Five Below store that just opened yesterday. We had to go in of course, and found a few little trinkets and gifts for friends and family.

We always do a weekly Walmart pickup order, but because of the hurricane they’re not doing that right now. We went in without a plan or a list, and just picked whatever I felt like, which was fun and also kind of exhausting.

One of the most fun parts was their charcuterie section, with tons of fun things like jams, pickled things, cracker things, jellies, and some meats. I got a few things to try, but really I wanted to just get one of everything.

We also found a new laundry basket, which was actually desperately needed, but one of those things we never think about except when trying to sue one of the broken ones we have at home. So now we can throw one of those away at least, now that we got a new one…

After getting the groceries put away, we spent some more time working around the house. Emmie and I flipped our glass patio table back over (we always flip it upside down and shove it under some bushes during storms), got it all washed and cleaned off. It was actually pretty dirty because it had been like that for a while from another storm too, but we got it clean, and left it drying in the sun. The weather is almost cooled off enough to eat dinner outside again like we love, so hopefully we’ll get to do that soon.

Then we got back to work on the laundry and trying to get everything put away. We did get all of Emerson’s stuff in her drawers, but we’ll have to work on Addison’s more another day, because we need to rotate out some more of the things she’s outgrown, to make room for what she’s currently wearing now. While Emmie and I were working in her room, Jeff cooked the calzones I got from Aldi, and made the little mac & cheese cups for the girls.

I was texting with a work friend about Harry Potter stuff yesterday and today, after the death of Maggie Smith, who played beloved Hogwarts’ Professor McGonagall. So I sent these pictures of my bookshelf to show off all our little Harry Potter collectibles, and that I even have a wand of my own. (I actually used to have two, but Emmie broke one a while back.)

The girls had fun playing in the bath tub together, and we picked out matching nightgowns from all the fresh clean clothes we folded today. Of course they both needed a snack afterwards, and Emmie worked on making a birthday card while we watched Bluey.

We did a LOT of work around the house today, but as usual, there’s always more that can be done. We still need to get the stuff put back in it’s place on both the front & back porches, there’s more laundry to do, and dishes to wash… But that can all wait for another day, cuz I’m worn out!