How are you cultivating joy this weekend?

I think it’s important to focus on positive so thanks for your post. I’m going to walk with a friend on a community trail and work in the yard, which I love.

Thanks for the inspiration jeremysgirl ! I reached out to my old college roommate who I don't talk to nearly enough to trade first kid off to college stories. Then I decided I really needed to get out of the house this weekend so texted a few friends I haven't seen in a while. I now have plans for a walk later this afternoon, drinks on our patio tomorrow and paddle boarding on Monday! I did't exactly expect everyone to jump at the chance to see me - I guess I wasn't the only one eager to do something.

I'll be there in a jiffy!

Oh how I wish.

It is a Texas sheet cake my grandmother made

Here is a link from Pioneer Woman that is really similar (I leave off the pecans)


Scotch Cake

Great minds must think alike as I read it and thought I would add beef base. Tomato paste would be good to. I’m looking forward to cooler weather and making some soup.

Peach pie sounds SO good! Hope you had a great time!

Yikes..as I was reading and enjoying the thread, I had a post planned out that was just going to mention the hard time I've been having lately and end with what I did this weekend to work on making it better but would hate to make anyone feel "slapped." I didn't see it as bringing the thread down, just conversational, but I'll keep it to myself.

Thank you, @jeremysgjrl. I love how you reply to people in your threads and try to make them conversational. I often think of threads I’d like to post to be like that, but I can’t always come back to them or have time to reply to all the thoughts I’d like to.

My MIL’s memorial was exactly like you wrote. My husband’s aunt couldn’t be there for her own sister’s passing or service because she lives in Florida and would have had to quarantine for two weeks in Ohio and that wasn’t possible. There were tears, but afterward I was sitting in the sun on the warm sand with my ritual of sifting through pebbles looking for beach glass and listening to my daughter and her cousin laughing in the waves (Lake Erie is still pretty warm right now!) and thought about this thread. I find joy in little rituals as well, and as odd as it sounds in the midst of really hard stuff, the simplest things can be the most healing.

(My daughter and I sat on a bench by the lake for part of the service. Her grandmother is the first person she has ever known to have died and Quinn couldn’t make it through the whole thing. She struggled with putting others’ feelings above her own after we walked out and all the expectations of the people in the room and society in general when it comes to death and funerals. She felt guilt for not putting aside her own feeling to “be there” for her dad (which he completely understood and assured her as well). Anyway, that was a heartbreaking conversation because everyone sees that differently too. However, while we were sitting there, dozens and dozens of Monarchs kept flying over our heads, coming over the lake from Canada on their way to Mexico. She stopped crying for a bit and said, “grandma loved butterflies” and it was the most peaceful thing. I’m holding that in my heart and felt like sharing it here.)

I took my youngest son on a hike yesterday. I wanted to take the whole family and normally would not have gone with just him but I’m so glad I did. I need to get out into nature more and I need to do things with my kids 1:1 more so I’m definitely putting that hike in the joy category!