What's Up Wednesday

Good morning and happy hump day! Today I am linking up with Shay and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday. Let's get started! 

What We're Eating: A whole bunch of plant based recipes! 

On Monday I posted our plant-based grocery haul if you want to read more about what I bought this week and how we plan to use it. I love seeing other people's grocery hauls-- especially if they're healthy. If you've written one, share a link to it below in the comments!

What I'm Reminiscing About: Our trip to Italy in 2016. 

I just finished a book set it Italy (see below for book) and loved reading about the food, the culture, the architecture.. everything! We went to a lot of the same places the characters in the book did, so it felt like reliving the trip. Now I can't wait to go back and eat real gelato again!

What I'm Loving: Last week we were at Dollar Tree getting some cheap craft supplies for the kids and saw they had their Halloween decorations out... LG got SO excited and has now decided it's time to start celebrating Halloween. Even though it's August.

While I personally wouldn't be decorating this early for Halloween, it is bringing her so much joy and that joy is contagious. How could I possibly say no?

What We've Been Up To: Other than decorating for Halloween, we have been trying to squeeze in some fun these last two weeks of summer. The kids meet their teachers next week and then their first real day is the week after Labor Day. We've been to a few playgrounds, the pool, hiking on our favorite trails, paddle boarding, kayaking and more. 

What I'm Working On: We are plucking away at planning our trip to Europe in spring 2022 and are praying and praying that we are still able to safely go. I am working on the Venice portion of our trip and Pinning images likes these is making me so excited:

I can't wait for all the pasta, wine, and gelato. Fingers crossed that we will be able to go!

What I'm Excited About: One of my best friends (Kathleen) lives in Chicago and our other best friend (Hannah) and I are taking a trip up there to visit her! We are so excited to get up to Chicago and see her... even if all we do is just lay around her house all day in yoga pants, eat snacks and chit chat. It has been so long since we have been together, and since Hannah and I are leaving our kids in Charlotte with our husbands.. we will actually get to focus on each other and spend good quality time together! We obviously love our kids.. but are looking forward to having a full conversation start-to-finish without being interrupted. 😊 Kathleen's baby will be there so we will be loving on him the whole time!

What I'm Watching/Reading: 

This is the book I mentioned earlier, Our Italian Summer, and I loved it! I didn't think I liked cheesy romance type novels, but apparently I do. I couldn't put this one down! It's about three generations of women (teenage daughter, her mother, and grandmother) who go to Italy for the summer. I thoroughly enjoyed all the food references, the art references, and the fact that they went to many of the same places we did on our 2016 trip. I highly recommend this one!

What I'm Listening To: A hodgepodge of everything! Some days it's country, other days it's John Mayer, other days it's Guns N' Roses... I'm all over the place!

What I'm Wearing: In my mind it's already fall, so I am dressing for the fall weather!

I bought this cute dress on Amazon... it'll be great for a summer dress but also can transition to fall. It is suuuuuper soft and has pockets, which is always a win in my book!

Dress

How cute would that be with some booties and a fun hat? 

I'm not sure I've mastered the little tie in the front yet, but I'm going to keep trying :)

I also grabbed this casual jumpsuit and love it! 

Jumpsuit

I also like that you can pull the one shoulder down and make it an off-the-shoulder jumpsuit:

I also got these joggers, which I LOVE! I don't know what took me so long to get on the jogger bandwagon, but now that I'm on it... I see why everyone loves them so much! They're the comfort of yoga pants, but looser and with pockets. I mean.. what's not to love?

I also really like this Blue Ridge Parkway t shirt! The Blue Ridge Mountains, especially Blowing Rock, are my happy place (well, one of my happy places at least 😊). This company has a lot of really cool graphic tees-- I recommend checking them out!

Joggers/Tee Shirt/Adidas Cloudfoams (in Black/White/Black)

Or a pocket tee. I love a good pocket tee. 

Pocket tee/Joggers

Let's be honest though, it's roughly 95 degrees here every day.. so most days I'm running around in a sports bra, running t-shirt and a pair of Lulu shorts:

Lululemon shorts/Adidas Cloudfoams (in Black/White/Black)

Then if I get sweaty and gross (like I am in the picture😊), I don't really care.

What I'm Doing This Weekend: We are heading to the lake with some friends for the weekend and I can't wait! It's going to be super hot, so some time on the water sounds like a great way to keep cool.

What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month: Our sweet boy's birthday!! We are having a "Construction Vehicle" theme but are keeping the party small. 

I am really looking forward to celebrating our big guy!

Thanks for reading along today! I can't wait to read what you've been up to the past month as well 😊