A few good gems

Hello, hello! Happy weekend! Do weekends still have meaning for you or are they the same as every other day? For my crew here, Saturdays still feel a little different—a little more free with no work or school—and Sundays still feel special since we still do home church and even dress up (a little. sometimes.). This weekend, of course, is Mother’s Day. I’ve always loved thinking about the mothers in my life and celebrating them but I know the day can be fraught with undertones and pain, too. Whatever the case, be gentle with yourselves.

As always, we’ve been collecting a few gems from the internet for your weekend pleasure:

Cards Against Humanity has come out with a free, printable family version that looks fun. They’ve cleaned up their original version for a younger audience—but you may want to still screen them and just use the cards that seem right for your family.

These Sweet Potato Oven Fries were a hit at our house. Queen Ina never disappoints.

Have you ever watched Pointless, the British trivia game show? We LOVED watching Pointless when we lived in Australia and recently found that there are many episodes uploaded to YouTube (or, if you have BritBox you can watch it there.) If you like trivia, this is for you and your crew.

The Thayer estate in Lancaster, MA, is for sale and it’s a bargain! It was used in a few scenes of the recent Little Women movie and boasts 47 bedrooms and 28 baths! Let’s all pool our money and make it happen. (Thanks, Tona!)

Design Mom’s reno of her newly-purchased vintage French home is lighting my life right now. I especially love her Instagram stories every day, taking us through the daily details of tinting plaster, fixing up the garden, etc.

My brother told me about Public Domain Review, a terrific website that catalogues loads of images and files that are in the public domain (and therefore open to use). It’s a really fun place to explore. They’ve done a free PDR coloring book and even have formatted and provided some pretty cool Zoom backgrounds for your next class/meeting, like this one:

""The Hall of Stars in the Palace of the Queen of the Night"", Act 1, Scene 6 — by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for Mozart’s Magic flute

One of the websites I like to visit every day lately is Jenny Rosenstrach’s blog Dinner: A Love Story. During the pandemic, she’s posting daily in three categories: project, pantry (recipes), and purpose.
It’s like chatting with a good friend while browsing through her favorite recipes. (And she’s got some great ones! We loved her roast chicken AND her granola, both in this post (photos via her site, below):

Happy Mothers Day and Mothering Day weekend! Here’s to those who nurture and raise, who lose sleep and a little sanity, who try and fail and try again for the younger humans in our lives. It’s not about perfection, it’s about the endeavoring. I loved this NY Times series of short essays on How Motherhood Changes Us All. Especially these and this one and this one.

. . .

Watching: The Missing series, The Last Dance (Michael Jordan series), Pointless (see above)
Playing: the game Azul, the game Codenames (online with whole family)
Listening: Don’t Delete the Kisses (Wolf Alice), Ina Garten’s Trip to Paris playlist

What are you watching / playing / listening to these days? Any other gems you’ve come across that you can share with us all?