Tuesday misc. and GARTH DAY!

A quick check-in to say howdy and share a few miscellany:

Today’s the day, Garth Brooks concert day! I’m excited!

I can’t remember if I mentioned here that although I bought my ticket to go alone, it turns out a volleyball friend and her mom also had tickets for tonight. So I’m catching a ride with them! We’re leaving early to head down to to dinner first. It should be so fun!

This worked out perfectly. The original plan was for Ivan and Ethan to drop me off at the gate and then them go for dinner and bum around Milwaukee while I was at concert. (I didn’t want to have to walk alone late at night in Milwaukee back to car.) But it was going to be quite a long time to kill, so this option is much better.

Besides, it turns out Argentina plays tonight which Ivan + boys are super excited to watch, so this way they can stay here and just enjoy that. They made plans for a boys night out to watch the game somewhere.

My friend’s seat is relatively near mine, too- like 1 section over. It was meant to be. 🙂

I am not a big concert person, so when I do actually go to a concert, it is SPECIAL!

Weather looks mediocre- dry at least, it seems, but chilly. I originally had thought maybe I’d wear my country dress (that I bought for Austin trip), but not anymore. Going simple with jeans + a black tee + flannel. 🙂 Not doing boots. (I don’t even own cowboy boots- I have some ankle boots that kinda sorta passed in Nashville, but our parking spot is pretty far and I am sure I’ll be standing the whole night, so opting for sneakers.)

I am going to bring a warm fleece, too, just in case! I don’t trust Lake Michigan’s lakefront amphitheater to not be freezing….

Side note: this flannel shirt is my case in point for why it’s so hard for me to weed out clothes. There have been multiple times I’ve almost gotten rid of this shirt. “I haven’t worn it in ages.” In fact, if you look at my recent South Dakota post from our 2017 trip, I wore this flannel shirt horseback riding then. I also remember packing it for our Colorado trip in 2019 and throwing it on over a tank top one night.

Besides that, I couldn’t tell you if I’ve worn it any other times. I’m not a huge ‘flannel’ person in my day to day, I guess? Though I do think it’s cute….

Anyway, I ignored the decluttering gurus and ended up saving it “just in case” in my guest room closet, and guess what- here I am, pulling it out today for this concert! 😉 I rest my case. The “if you haven’t worn it in 3 months, get rid of it” advice doesn’t always work. LOL.

(Ok, in fairness, there is not a law that I must wear flannel to a country music concert. But I feel like it fits the bill? I’m sure many girls will be dressed in much cuter country attire, but considering I’m sitting alone, who really cares what I’m wearing, anyway. ha.)

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Flowers in my yard:

I snapped a couple pics of some blooming flowers in my yard this morning:

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My parents are doing their walk through right now!

My parents are in town doing the official walk through of their new house. They don’t close until after our trip, but this is when it fit in.

Ethan just drove over to meet them (he hasn’t seen the house yet).

So exciting! IT’S GETTING VERY REAL!!

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I love this pic of Ethan from State tennis:

The official photographer snagged this pic of Ethan on Saturday. I love this shot!

Ethan is NOT a “loud celebrator”. You know how some kids, if they score a soccer goal, do a big elaborate celebration? Or shout out? Or do the dab or point up at the crowd or make a big scene?

That is not Ethan. No matter what he does or how good it was, he’s chill about it.

The extent of his celebration, be it in soccer or tennis, is a subtle fist pump to himself. And maybe a high 5 with a teammate.

So I just love that they captured his little fist pump!! 🙂 💕

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Pizza + Scrabble

Last night we were supposed to just eat up some leftovers/ clean out the fridge, but after my workout I was CRAVING PIZZA so bad. I hadn’t had it in a long time.

I suggested maybe we should take advantage of the Monday night pizza special at our local pizza place and have that instead. 😬

Ivan is never too hard to convince, so off we went.

We sat in the bar. I love that this place has little jars full of scrabble letters! We played a bit while we waited for our food.

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My cardinal friend:

Remember how I said we tend to have cardinals around a lot in our yard?

Look at this one on Sunday morning! It came right up to the screen door when I was sitting at the sunroom desk:

It was crazy! It’s so cute! And also kind of looks like it’s wearing sunglasses. 😅

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Finally, I ran across this article today titled “10 Minimalist Habits That Cost Nothing”. None of these are particularly new or earth shattering, but for some reason this resonated with me.

1. Stop before you buy
2. Make your bed every morning
3. Leave rooms better than you found them
4. Unsubscribe ruthlessly
5. Eat one meal a day without a screen
6. Say “no” to one thing this week
7. Do a nightly reset
8. Delete apps you haven’t opened in a month
9. Choose one surface to keep permanently clear
10. Ask one question before keeping anything: “If I didn’t already own this, would I buy it today?”

Many of these are easy and I do think could make a positive impact.

I especially like #3, about doing 1 small act of tidying before you leave a room. In the article it says, “Put something back. Straighten something. Throw one thing away. This habit alone- practiced consistently- means your home never reaches a state of overwhelming disaster. You’re not cleaning. You’re just never fully making a mess.“

Our house is never in an overwhelming state of disaster, thankfully, but I do have times that I’m not so good about this. Like, I’ll leave my office to go get something, and instead of taking the empty bowl I used at my desk with me to put it in the dishwasher since I’m up, I’ll just…. leave it there “for now”. I can pretty easy accumulate extra stuff not only in my office, but other places as well.

I’ll admit I can occasionally be “clutter blind” – but only in certain areas of my house. (In my kitchen/ main part of the house I feel very annoyed if there’s clutter and I address it basically daily. But sometimes I can walk past something I set on the basement bar, or my dresser, or in the garage, for weeks before I take 2 minutes to put it away….)

I also like #9 about choosing one surface to commit to always keeping permanently clear.

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Alright, that’s all for now. Back later this week with a recap on how the Garth Brooks concert went! 🎶🎵🎶🤠

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for being able to catch a ride with my volleyball friend. This will be a chance to get to know her better, too, and will be more fun to make a whole event out of it vs just going by myself.