Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

5 on Friday

First Friday Five {May}

The last month has had some wild ups and downs for us. Usually, I’m thinking about my list of favorite things off and on throughout the month, but this month is a little different. Many of my favorites this month are within the last week or so.

Still, I hope you enjoy!

  1. Birthdays! Mine was yesterday and even though this was a birthday ending in “9” for me, I’m excited for the year and decade ahead. I also love celebrating with treats and birthday freebies from restaurants and hearing from a variety of friends and family on Facebook. The celebration was nothing fancy, but it was just right.
  2. Boston. My husband and I just took an early anniversary trip to Boston, Mass. and although Chicago will always and forever be my favorite city, Boston is a close second. We experienced history, culture, food and drink, and baseball, among other things. We can’t wait to take the kids back and do the historical stuff with them as well as experience other things we just couldn’t fit in to this trip. (I’ll have a separate post wrapping up our Boston adventures in more detail.)
  3. Baseball. It’s back in full swing (ha-ha) and we are still riding the high of the Cubs winning the World Series. Our kids are more interested in listening to games with us, and while my husband and I were in Boston, we got to go to a game: Cubs vs. Boston. And it was so much fun, even though it was cold and the Cubs lost and we were, in our section, surrounded mostly by Boston fans.
  4. Spring flowers. Our lilacs bloomed already and the lilies of the valley are popping up on the side of our house. We’re getting ready to start planting some of our favorites to bring color to the earth, and everywhere I go I see these bursts of spring color. I love how everything turns green finally after a gray/brown/white winter, but the color that precedes the green is such a treat. (Pictured above is a lilac bush at the Adams house in Quincy, Mass. These are Abigail Adams’ lilacs!)
  5. Marriage. Later this month, my husband and I will celebrate 10 years of it, and believe me when I tell you that marriage has not always been my favorite thing. We have survived some tough stuff in those 10 years, and I finally feel like we’ve found solid footing, a good groove. I’ve heard that the 10-year mark often signals a shift. I’m looking forward to the next decade of marriage, also.

What have you been enjoying this month?

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First Friday Five {April}

It’s raining as I write this and the temperature has been swinging from warm to cool. That must mean it is finally and officially spring. It is my favorite season, usually. Although this year for some reason the arrival of spring has me amped for summer. Winter was not all that hard this year from a weather standpoint so maybe I don’t feel quite so desperate for it this year.

But it’s here! And I survived my kids’ April Fool’s Day “jokes.” (If I made a list of things I do not love, this would be on it.)

Lucky for you, this is a list of what I do love right now.

  1. Mystery novels from my favorite TV shows. If you didn’t know, we gave up TV for Lent. It’s going … okay. But I’ve been able to fulfill my need for screen stories by turning to the pages of the books some of my favorite shows were based on. I’ve read a Phryne Fisher novel (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Netflix) and a Kurt Wallander novel (Wallander, PBS). I haven’t read a lot of mysteries in my time, but I loved both of these books. Maybe because I had seen the episodes but maybe just because mysteries are kind of fun.
  2. Harissa. Especially in my eggs. I do not know how we discovered this middle eastern paste/sauce but we have bought two jars of it now and it’s good on a lot of stuff. (It’s a little spicy but more smokey, I think.) But we have a scrambled eggs recipe that uses it (and mayo–sounds gross but don’t knock it till you try it) and I will not eat regular scrambled eggs ever again in my house. We found a jar at a discount grocery, but we also bought a small can of it from a Middle Eastern stand at our local farm market.
  3. Division of labor. Maybe for some of you this is not a big thing, but with my husband’s work schedule leaving him with three weekdays open, we have been dividing the household labor more than we ever have. Earlier this week, I went to do volunteer work at the kids’ school and he went to the grocery store. (He loves this errand more than I do.) We work together on the dishes. It’s only taken us 10 married years to figure out that if we work together on these things then one of us (I won’t name names but her name rhymes with Pisa) won’t go completely out of her mind when there are too many things to do and not enough time to do them.
  4. The village. You know, the “it takes a village” village. It is super difficult for me to ask for help from people, but (see previous favorite thing) if I don’t, I get overwhelmed. And I’m learning that it’s okay to ask for help. And to offer it, authentically, to others. We were at a roller skating party recently and our son needed help. I did not want to put on skates for fear that if I fell I would hurt my back again. My husband didn’t want to put on skates because he needs his back and legs for work. (Yes, we are old fogey types with failing bodies.) Another parent offered to help our son once around the rink. It was great! This same family is going to help us out with transportation to a birthday party. In a couple of weeks, I’ll need to call on someone else for help picking up from an after-school activity. I believed for a long time that I had to suffer alone and in silence because motherhood was my job and my responsibility and asking for help made me look weak or incapable. (LIES.) I’m still not awesome at offering to help others, but I’m getting there. And if I offer to help someone, I really mean it because it happens so seldom.
  5. Me. That sounds terribly prideful, but next month I turn 39, which means 40 is knocking at the door, and for the first time in my life, I really like who I am. At the skating party, I was fine with being me. I didn’t feel inferior or like I shouldn’t be there. I could talk to people without much awkwardness. I’ve been doing more out of the house things, and I think that’s because I know better my place and my value in the world. And none of it is based on other people or circumstances. (I had this really strange urge a few weeks ago to tell everyone I met that they were full of divine light. I didn’t say anything out loud to anyone, but I felt so full of light myself that I almost couldn’t contain it.)

This might be the weirdest of the favorite lists I’ve posted, but it is what it is. What’s got you excited lately? Do tell!