Tag Archives: caffeine

fabulous friday #38

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Happy Friday! You know what this means, right? One week till Halloween!! Do you have any ghoul-tastic plans yet? {Haha, someone is obviously a liiittle too hyped up on caffeine right now… sorry!} Earl Grey before yoga + post-yoga endorphins + pumpkin chai latte from Starbucks after yoga = this version of me you are hearing from right now 🙂

Moving right along… this weekend, Allyn and I are going pumpkin-patching {don’t know if that’s actually a verb, but it is now} and I’m planning to hit up a craft store for a couple last-minute touches for my Halloween costume. If you’re looking for an easy, fun Halloween costume but don’t have any ideas, feel free to check out this post with some costumes that have worked well for me in the past!

Here are 5 things I’m loving right now:

1. This beautiful autumn bouquet from ProFlowers that arrived on my doorstep a couple days ago from my incredibly sweet and thoughtful dad! He sent them just because he was thinking of me and wanted to send some sunshine my way. How amazing is that? I am the luckiest daughter on the planet. I miss you, Daddy!

autumn flowers from dad

2. My favorite dessert of late: peanut butter toast topped with mini chocolate chips!

pb toast

3. Every time this song comes on the radio I do a little happy dance: “Riptide” by Vance Joy.

4. This heart-wrenchingly beautiful and wise short essay my brother wrote for HuffPost called The Girl Effect and My Grandmother. Read it, and believe me — you’ll be glad you did! Here’s a teaser:

“The agony of these missing parts applies not only to our deceased loved ones — it applies to when we allow fear to dampen courage; ignorance to imprison knowledge; and hatred to overwhelm love.”

5. My grandma’s soup. Her chicken tortilla soup just might be my favorite, but she also makes a mean split pea and curried lentil + barley. I’ll try to get the recipes for those latter two up on here soon!

grandma tortilla soup.jpg

Oh yeah, and one more thing that might explain why I’m feeling so dang happy and excited … I FINISHED MY NOVEL!!!

finished novel doc

Happy weekend, friends! Sending lots of love & joy your way! Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogosphere. It means a lot to me 🙂

Questions of the day:

  • What are you loving right now?
  • What are your plans for the weekend?

year of kindness challenge: week 42

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year of kindness button

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope your week is off to a good start. 🙂 The BART strike continues up here in the Bay Area, and I feel so bad for all of the commuters into the city who rely on BART and now have to find other means of transportation. Please send good thoughts that the issues get resolved soon and the trains will start running again!

My cousin Arianna went to the Homecoming Dance this weekend and she looked absolutely gorgeous! I love this photo of her and my grandma … we were calling them our two ladies in red:

arianna homecoming

Yesterday was another family-filled day, and I loved it! In the morning I headed over to cheer on my cousin Makena in her soccer game — not only did her team win, but she scored three goals! I was so proud. She is quite the soccer star!

Then I headed over to the U.U. church a couple towns over {the closest one to where I live now} … it was my first time going to this particular church, and everyone was so welcoming and kind. The church itself is stunningly beautiful, on top of a mountain, and the chapel has a ton of windows looking out over the green hills and the valley below. I was definitely happy I made the drive, and I plan to go back next Sunday! It can be intimidating to walk into a new church, and it takes me a few weeks to feel completely comfortable and to start recognizing familiar faces.

In the evening, we got together for dinner with my other aunt’s family. Grandma and I made an apple cake with cinnamon crumb topping and brown sugar glaze … YUM! It was actually a very easy recipe, and was a big hit with everyone. Grandpap even went back for thirds! I’ll have to share the recipe on here soon.

apple cake

Now … on to the kindness! Last week’s kindness challenge was to advocate for someone, particularly someone younger or newer or just starting out on their career path. I sent a dozen or so emails to young writers with contest information I came across, and I also spoke on the phone to a few high school students about their writing and college applications. I always come away from these conversations inspired myself — I hope they felt the same way!

The Week 42 Kindness Challenge is to buy someone else’s morning java fix or afternoon caffeine boost. This might mean paying for the person behind you in line at Starbucks or bringing lattes to your coworkers as a mid-week treat. Whatever strikes your fancy!

As always, blog about your experiences and include your links in the comments section below, or feel free to send me an email at dallaswoodburn AT gmail DOT com.

Now I’m off to work on fellowship apps and then go for a run at the gym. Have a wonderful day!

❤ Dallas

P.S.: The archives were getting pretty loooooong below each new post, so head on over to this Year of Kindness Challenge page to see all the archived posts from the previous 41 weeks!

Questions of the morning:

  • What kindnesses happened in your life this past week?
  • Have you ever moved to a new town and had to start out at a new church? Do you have any advice about making the transition?