……..a weekly recap that includes some retail, recipes, & small business support

Happy first day of August! I can’t believe the summer is coming to a close. Well, the definition of summer meaning the time between the end of school in May and the beginning in August. Weather wise we’ll still feel summer’s wrath for quite some time, but schools are returning as early as August 11. I just cannot believe it!

Here are the things going on for the week:

In Case You Missed It

This week’s post:

RETURNING TO THE OFFICE | THE CLOSET

This is the first in a series of returning to the office. The next post will be on how to mentally prepare, because after a year and a half of working in loungewear and work out clothes, doing all meetings via Teams (and turning the camera off when possible 😉 ) returning to everything being in person and face to face could potentially have some challenges.

Retail Therapy……Kind Of

It’s not the most fun thing to purchase, but it’s necessary. It’s back to school time which also means it’s school uniform time. I am doing a mix and bought some through the website the school sent and some via Amazon and Target.

Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri

I have made this DELICIOUS Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Tenderloin before and cannot wait to make it again. One of the things I am pretty adamant on with the twins is introducing them to many different types of food – not just mac-n-cheese. One of the things I’ve read with this is that it may take several times of trying a new food before deciding they like it. And with that, any time you introduce a new food, whether it be a protein like pork, a new vegetable, pasta, fruit, etc., there needs to be a “safe” option to eat as well. Yes, the goal is to expand their palate at a young age, but they also need food in their bellies. It’s a bit of a balancing act 🙂

I plan on making this pork tenderloin this week and will eat it for myself as is, and will cut into tiny little slices for the twins and serve on a Hawaiian roll as a sandwich. Follow along in stories to see if they like it 🙂

Small Business Feature – Honey Bear Pages

Honey Bear pages has grown tremendously since the first time we collaborated and it’s easy to see why. In the spring of 2020, I was introduced to Honey Bear Pages and have been obsessed ever since. Back then, I am pretty sure she had some stationary and the coolest placemats in her Etsy shop. Now, there are 847 items available via Etsy that range from hospital signs, birthday invitations, back to school signs, school memory books, gift tags, chore charts – I could scroll and scroll and scroll and want it all!

Click here to go to her Etsy shop and here for Instagram.

Miscellaneous

I tried out a new restaurant on Thursday and it was AMAZING. Peal and Vine in Katy is hands down my favorite local place. We started off with baked goat cheese and yeast rolls, I had seabass as my entrée, and finished it with the milkshake and peach cheesecake. So good. And, the people sitting next to me said they have actually found not one, but two pearls in the oysters they had from there.

I definitely want to go again to try out the oysters, campechana, creamy butternut squash, all the pizzas look amazing, the filet…..basically I need to go several more times to try out the entire menu.

Also, for the more adventurous eater, the people sitting on the other side of me said the octopus was “really good and definitely need to try.”

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Insta

You know I always have to close it out with an Insta segment. I’m starting to feel more comfortable creating reels and trying to post more of them. It is a whole different ball game than just taking and editing a picture. I created this reel to show off various ways to style the Caslon t-shirt which is a favorite from the Nordstrom Sale.

That’s all folks. I hope you had a good weekend, and if you are anything like me, the reality of a Monday morning work day is starting to creep in and bringing the Sunday scaries with them. The best thing I’ve found to do to settle my mind before going to sleep is a) check my work email and have my to-do list for the AM, b) make sure the house is in order, including laundry, dishes, etc, c) check my calendar for the week so there are no big surprises, and d) lay out clothes for the Monday morning (both for you and kids) so there is no running around in the morning. Cheers – MP