This month my good things Friday is overlapping with Elisabeth’s FIG Collective. I picked a little JOY(s) every day in February.
- A drive to the beautiful Yarra Valley to look at a wedding venue. Catching up with K’s parents.
- After a hot and sticky run, brunch with friends and the girls at The Guilty Mouse. A swim at Elwood Beach with S. Making serious headway on the current puzzle.
- A productive team meeting for mainly music. I had my eye checkup and my glasses prescription is still good so I don’t need to update any glasses. I’m very happy to keep those hundreds of dollars in my own pocket thank-you.
- Back to the running group tonight. Caught up with my friend Sophie for the first time since before Christmas.
- MLT meeting at church. Getting back to ministry and routines.
- A day for myself, hair done, a yummy sandwich and a very cool exhibition
- We finished another puzzle. A 3000-piece we bought for H for Christmas
- We had such strong wind overnight that it blew Riley’s kennel over—the good, we righted it and although there was a little damage it fit back together and you can hardly tell.
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- Had my longest run yet since coming back (1 hr 30 mins) along the Yarra which was stunning, then brunch with friends at Canteen. Evening church is back on after the summer break.
- Five new families at mainly music. The cabinet for our bedroom arrived. We chose what we wanted last October and have been waiting for it to come back in stock. Very happy with it. I went to the dentist in the afternoon and have nothing that needs attention. Phew!
- Met with a friend from church for prayer. We’re finally making it a semi-regular event.
- The couple upstairs dropped in some homegrown cucumbers and zucchini from their garden at Redhill.
- Mangoes. So good. When they are in season, I try to get them every second week or so. We’ve had this salmon (I make some weeks to the salmon because I don’t have coffee) and tropical pico, or similar, about four times this summer.
- Take out Friday, puzzling and watching Cobra Kai with the girls.
- Afternoon naps.
- I had a solid run in the Carmen’s Fun Run. Not super fast, but no walking. Then, we had our friends over for brunch.
- Family dinner, the whole gang was there, so six of us.
- Feeling extra fatigued today so I had an afternoon nap.
- Riley had a wash, so he is super soft and smelling good. I had a massage, which I think I’ll try to do once a month. I need to get my back and neck loosened up.
- A fresh Soir (a very dark sour dough) loaf.
- We went out to dinner at a new-to-us place only a couple of kilometres away. The food was very good and we had a fun time catching up with our friends who we hadn’t seen since we were in Paris.
- The mandarins on my tree are starting to change colour—exciting!
- A beautiful butterfly was fluttering around the citrus trees today. We haven’t had as many this year as last, so it was good to see.
- We had the biggest turnout yet for our mainly music group—11 families. A bit of chaos and lots of fun.
- I had a good sleep, the first in a while.
- G met me after PT and we took Riley to the park.
- We finished watching Landman, which we both enjoyed.
- I pulled out a recipe today that I haven’t made for years, but it was one that I used to make pretty regularly. Today, I made two trays of raspberry chocolate cheesecake brownies and relished licking the bowls and paddles from the brownie and the cheesecake mixture. Good times. Later this afternoon, I’ll try and get a gluten-free lemon cake and a pea, mint and feta frittata made, all for E and K’s engagement party, which is tomorrow.
And a couple of good reads:
- Factory reset: 49 days to restore your human default
- What to do during the economic blackout
- The Price of Mass Amusement
- A non-writer’s guide to writing a lot
Do you lick the bowl/paddle/spoon when you bake? Is there a favourite recipe you haven’t made for a while?
Comments
17 responses to “List #20: Good Things Friday February 2025”
Oh wow, those brownies look so good! Raspberries are my favourite berry and I cannot wait for gardening season! It won’t be long, I need to cut back the raspberries in late March or so.
Your puzzles always leave me in awe! They are so big and complicated!
Lots of great things, Melissa. Rex was at the kennel while we were on vacation, so yesterday I took his grubby self to the groomer and he is SO clean and soft. How long will this last, I don’t know. Probably until we go for our walk today? It’s mud season around here!
I love how soft Riley is when he comes back from the groomer. I just want to pat him all the time.
3000-piece jigsaw puzzle!!! How big is it? How long did it take you? I have so many questions about logistics!!
Who doesn’t lick the bowl/spoon? I’m basically obsessed with raw cookie dough, although I probably shouldn’t admit that. Don’t eat raw eggs or raw flour, friends! Don’t be like me!
This puzzle took about three weeks, but I only work on it when the girls visit. We have a big poard we make the puzzle on which can fit through our bedroom door so we can put it away if we need the table. Both the brownie and the cheesecake mix have raw eggs but I don’t let that stop me!
Those brownies look so delish. I don’t lick the spatula usually, but that’s because they’re usually covered in gluten. 😉 Back before I was diagnosed with celiac – I was a bowl-licking baker. I just reintroduced a crockpot recipe that I’d made so often that the family had tired of it. It’s a chicken, chicken soup, honey Dijon mustard, carrot thing served over egg noodles. I can’t eat it, but it’s so easy that I’m glad they were pleasantly surprised. Lots of great happy things here. Seeing friends for dinner is one of my favorites that we def don’t do very often.
I’m impressed that you still cook so much that contains gluten. That’s dedication!
Those brownies look amazing! I am team lick the bowl and paddles as well!! The puzzle is beautiful too! I just bought 1000 piece puzzle as a treat for myself. I’m going to wait to work on it when I’m out of the splint because I think it would be kind of tricky with my splint right now. But I’ll be out of it in about a week and a half!
I think it would probably be quite tricky with one hand. I look forward to seeing the ifnished project. Do you have a board, or a table out of the way to do it on?
I am all about cookie dough and batter and lick all the beaters and spatulas. My husband thinks this is absolutely disgusting (he is VERY grossed out by the thought of raw eggs). Raspberries are my favourite berry and cheesecake is my favourite cake so I have a feeling I would LOVE that recipe.
I haven’t done a puzzle in years and can’t imagine doing anything bigger than…maybe 300 pieces? 3,000 just boggles my mind.
Engagement parties and venues. How exciting to see the logistics of a wedding come together.
I know we are not supposed to eat raw eggs, but I’ve never let that stop me and have never had any issues. You should try the recipe, it’s really great to take places and not very difficult, there is just multiple bowls.
Those brownies look amazing, count me in as team raspberry! Yeah, I lick the spoon, etc.
I’m glad you had your son’s engagement party! What fun!
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Congratulations to your son on his engagement! How wonderful! I cannot fathom my 5 year old son Rainn getting engaged/married/getting a driver’s license. But one day it’ll happen…
I AM guilty of licking everything. EVERYTHING. lol I have no self-control.
The engagement is exciting, but I’m glad they are not thinking of starting a family straight away, I’m not ready to be grandma!
I loved reading your happy moments of Feburary and I am excited you’re back to longer runs. That must feel so good.
I definitely lick the paddle/spoon/bowl when I bake (just did it this afternoon when I baked a marble cake for my birthday :)).
Oh, I love a marble cake. That’s you go to cake isn’t it?
So many great FIGS. Yeah.
Love the puzzle obviously.
Also #25 I feel it.
The cake looks so delicious.
And how lovely that you had 11 family come to mainly music – I bet it was lively.