Five Things for Friday - September 27, 2024

Well! I'm not usually home on a Friday to post, but I had an appointment this morning, and wanted to get my weekend chores done so I can enjoy a pub crawl tomorrow, and I'd rather not go to my job. So, here we are!

1. I was visiting some other blogs this morning and realized that Book Beginnings on Fridays is usually at Rose City Reader,  First Line Friday is at Reading is My Superpower, and Friday56 is at My Head is Full of Books. I'm usually reading a couple different books - one of them right now is Blindspot in America by Elom K. Akoto. It is posted that it will publish next week, on October 1, 2024. I'm almost halfway and can't guess what happens next! It's definitely proving to be an engaging read so far. 
• 
  Book Beginnings/First Line Friday (from the Prologue): "Kamao had been waiting for his trial in Virginia's maximum-security prison Red Onion State for months now. The thick wall, the tiny window secured by four iron bars that let sunlight into his cell were all real."
• Friday56: "They were lost in their conversation and forgot about time and their surroundings. Lindsey said a few things about herself and her childhood, making sure to leave out some sensitive topics that could lead to Kamao wanting to know more about her family and could possibly have let to her revealing who her father was.
2. Our community schools has academic recognition for middle school and high school students who maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher for the previous academic year. The awards night was last week, and even though one of my kids is at one (of our three) middle schools, and one is at the high school, their ceremonies were back to back! So we spent a long evening at the auditorium hearing our awesome our kids (and two of my nieces) are. The middle school event was at 6pm, and high school then started at 7:30pm. A long-ish evening, but better in my book than a couple of separate evening events. Proud to know and be raising some awesome, intelligent kids :)
3. Hubs and I got to go to a super-fun Yelp event this week too! While I had somehow gone more than 50 years without doing a haunted house, on Wednesday I got to tour both of the haunted attractions at Eloise Asylum! It was a lot of fun. If you're local to SE Michigan, their official season opens to the public tomorrow, September 28, 2024.
   
4. We've scheduled our family holidays for this year! Since my parents are snowbirds, we typically run Thanksgiving/Christmas early so they can get out before stuff starts freezing around here. So while it's usually October, we weren't all free til November this year. Any great gift ideas for kids who have everything they could ask for? LOL I have three nieces between 12 - 16, and a nephew who is 11 (I think). I have always made my kids give me exact wish lists of things they'd like to receive since I hate guessing. I want to get them things they'll really enjoy, of course.
5. I mentioned it a bit in an earlier post, but I got my new glasses and a haircut to match! I absolutely love my new look :)