One of the books I’m reading right now (Please, Sorry, Thanks) talks about the pronouns we use. He doesn’t mean in an identifying sort of way; he means, in conversation, do you use the pronoun “I” a lot? Do you talk a lot about yourself? Or do you talk about others more, or the plural 1st person “we” and “our”?

He quotes Benjamin Disraeli, saying “Talk to people about themselves, and they will listen for hours.”

It got me thinking, specifically about this recent project I’ve taken on. I want to update the preschool room at our co-op - I’ve been doing my best to ask everyone who will listen for their opinion. What do YOU think I should do? What colors do YOU think it should be?

One lady gave me a lot of direction and ideas for a reading area, so I’ll run with that. Otherwise, I’m so overwhelmed with the thought of doing this project using only my ideas, you know what I mean? I’m only in there for this semester (7 more co-op days!! that’s it!!).

Anyway, back to pronouns, that’s another thing I learned a few years back, when I was going to Toastmaster’s. And I’ve heard it in other capacities as well: People LOVE to talk about themselves. It’s human nature! It’s the easy thing to do when you meet someone new, just talk about yourself, your accomplishments, your family, your interests. [Okay let’s be honest, talking to new people is NOT easy for a lot of us, no matter what the topic!] But next time, try asking the other person something instead!

Do you have any go-to questions to ask a random stranger, small-talk questions?

I like “What’s an app you like to use every day?” or “What’s a favorite place you’ve traveled?” But I’m terrible at small talk. I lead with a compliment and see what happens.

I recognize that sometimes, people will steal ideas and take credit for your work. That’s not what this is about, I don’t think!

This struck a chord for me. Again, this preschool room update project…

I’m going to put a lot into it. But the reason I’m doing this is because I love projects, and I want these kids to have a beautiful functional space. That’s it. I’d love accolades and praise but even if that doesn’t come, I want to do my best. That is what I got from this quote!❤️

Have you watched the Golden Bachelor?? We don’t have TV channels, just streaming, so I have to watch the next day on Hulu. I really liked the first episode!! You can tell that the older ladies just don’t feel the need to try as hard as the younger ones do. I felt like everyone was more relaxed and genuine.

And Gerry?! Are you kidding me, he’s just the best. He seems so sweet, and he really wants to do right by these ladies (and his family, including his late wife!). Even if you aren’t usually into the Bachelor shows, you might like this one. It’s just one episode in so far (two, now, but I’ve not seen the second!), but I like it a lot.

Banana Pudding!

I made some banana pudding this evening, and even though it wasn’t QUITE ready, I ate some anyway. And it was delicious.

1. Make some vanilla pudding (or banana pudding - you’d need to have banana extract, which I’ve never bought OR get some packaged banana pudding!). I did half of that recipe.

2. Make some whipped cream. I just beat together whipping cream and powdered sugar.

3. In a small dish, I put a layer of nilla wafers, then poured over half of the pudding, then sliced banana, more wafers, more pudding, and finally the whipped cream.

I had a few bites of it after 2 hours, and it was delicious. Tomorrow it will be even better!

Types of videos I never pass up

I’ve shared fav creators, but this is about the TYPE of videos I always stop to watch!

Now… there are a few VERY general styles that I do usually watch: cake decorating, anything that looks like it’s going to be funny, anything from my favorite creators, severe weather… that list goes on for a while. But these are some types I enjoy that are a little more specific:

• High school reunions - I love the videos where they show a picture of someone from high school and then show them now, at a high school reunion. Bonus points if it’s a 20+ year reunion (the 10-year ones are fine, but they don’t look THAT much different to me!).

• Series of tweets or Reddit comments - I don’t use Twitter or Reddit, but I love that people have saved funny tweets and comments and put them together in a slideshow for me.

• “Goodnight to everyone except…” - I always watch to see if I’m one of the exceptions. It’s happened ONCE that I can remember. He said “goodnight to everyone except anyone that posted an Instagram picture on October 10, 2021” 😆 I had to go back and check and, sure enough, I did.

• Slime scooping - We don’t buy slime much (I don’t hate it, it just never lasts that long without getting TOO sticky or TOO dry), but I loooove watching people scoop it. The sounds! The colors! It just looks so satisfying!

• Hydraulic presses - Sometimes the press has little holes on top so whatever is being squished just shoots out of the holes. And sometimes there are no holes, and it squishes out the sides. I like the first type better but, no matter what, I never pass up a hydraulic press video.🙌🏻

Emoji Kitchen

Have you heard of this?

If you go to Google*, then type in “emoji kitchen”, the first thing that pops up says “get cooking”. And you’re given a huge selection of emojis.

Then… it will turn any 2 emojis into 1 new one! Here, I did tulip 🌷 plus mushroom 🍄 and ended up with

Now, it’s not the same size as an emoji. But it’s super cute. Literally, all the combinations are fun. Mushroom + mushroom is a mushroom with a bite taken out of it. 🤭

*My default browser is Duck Duck Go rather than Google!

Kiddo Updates

Annabelle has started taking dance. The classes are 1.5 hours, which seems sooo long, but she loves it! It’s a ballet/tap/jazz beginner class. After that, I think she can take a class that’s JUST ballet or JUST tap or whatever other option she’d like.

Also? She has turned into my little mama’s helper. I always ask if she can help, I don’t assume she will. But most of the time, she does want to. “Will you help Charlie wash his hands?” or “Can you read a book while Charlie so I can start dinner?” One thing they have started doing is going under her bed (remember, we lofted them?) and they lie on her bean bag and look at picture books together and just giggle. It’s so sweet.

Alexander has really come out of his shell lately! He’s turning into a tween right before my eyes. He is a lot more confident. He talks to strangers when they speak to him. He makes eye contact. It’s really cool to see! I don’t know if you remember this, but he took speech therapy several years ago, both for a lisp and for social skills. And he’s grown so much since then!!

His current favorite thing to do is turn a bunch of lumber we have (random widths, random lengths) into massive obstacle courses. On different pieces of wood, he draws a symbol (like a star), and you have to collect 5 stars, for example, before you go all the way to the end of the course. And if you fall off a piece of wood, you have to start back over. It’s very detailed, and each day, he makes a new course!

Charlie is SO CHATTY. Literally all day. And you have to copy everything he says. If he says “Pig! Oink!”, he will keep repeating himself until anyone says “Pig! Oink!” back to him. Another new thing that I think is darling is, instead of just saying thank you, he says, “Thank you mom.”

He LOVES this big book we have called MAPS. It’s filled with drawings of maps from around the world. But more importantly to him, it’s got lots of animals on every page. He loves it. I can tell him, “Go find me a seal,” and he knows exactly where to flip the pages to find a seal. 🥰

5 Random Things

1. It’s become a tradition: Every Sunday night at about 8pm, I check the Crumbl cookie app to see the new flavors of the week. If I don’t think AT LEAST 3 of them sound really good, we don’t get any. So most of the time, we don’t get any. But for some reason, I love to check out the new menu!

2. I’ve been listening to and watching a LOT of true crime lately. I mean, I was doing that already, but it’s even more now. The same ole podcasts are in my rotation, but I’m finding these little mini-series to stream, and I’m really enjoying them. Some stories, I have already heard through podcast form, but watching it is just different, you know?

3. Cherry juice cocktail. A few people over on IG told me this is actually an excellent nighttime drink, to help you fall asleep. I have it during the day (oops)! I mix some tart cherry juice with some lime juice, add some ice, and then add a sparkling water (the black cherry Waterloo is my fav!). It’s delicious!

4. This morning I had another swim lesson with Coach Amy. I haven’t seen her in so long, and it was so nice to learn some new things!! Going swimming is one of my me-time activities, with the bonus of being good for me! She taught me a few drills to help me become more efficient.

5. One of my favorite things is, when you’re listening to a song, and all of the sudden, a full-on choir starts to sing. Instant chills. I love a good choir. (An example that comes to mind is Cian Ducrot’s, I’ll Be Waiting!)

Okay a few last-minute things

Big shout-out to Emma and Meg who bought me coffees last week!! I love the little notes that you guys left along with them! ❤️

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• My Amazon wish list!

• Buy Me a Coffee - it’s basically a virtual tip jar!

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I hope you have the best weekend. Talk soon,
Bethany