Our weekends are Thursday and Fridays because those are Donny’s days off. Thursday we had to go to the feed store to pick up chicken food and on the way home we stopped by two estate sales. There wasn’t a lot left since they both started on Wednesday, but I was able to find this really cool knife and a super cute denim shirt. The shirt was $1 and the knife was $6. I thought they were both a bargain.

We were hungry and Donny remembered about this little Mexican food place that had opened up a few months ago. We decided to try it.

The menu had a lot of choices, all freshly made. I decided on 2 pastor street tacos and Donny got the steak quesadilla. The horchata was so good. Donny got the tamarind drink. He said it was good also.

Each taco was $2.50, which I thought was a reasonable price. They came with grilled onions, limes, radishes and a grilled jalapeno. Donny’s was much milder than mine so we traded because mine was so hot. I found out that radishes are served to cleanse the palate after eating something spicy. The tacos were very good. The pastor was cooked well. It was the perfect amount of food for lunch. Donny liked his quesadilla, but for $12 it wasn’t really worth the price. We will definitely be back though.

Oh, and I almost forgot, later on we ran by Walmart and I found the sifter I’ve been wanting. I had been using my sieve to sift my dry baking ingredients. This will make it so much easier. They are only $4.97 if you are looking for one. It makes a world of difference if you like to bake.

I’ve had a bag of books that have been sitting on our egg swing for months. Yesterday Donny and I went to go give them to some little libraries.

I was hoping the train station would be open and it finally was. That poor library only had about 8 books in it, so I was able to empty my bag.

I also took 3 books because I’ve heard great things about this author, but as soon as I read then they’ll be going back to the train station.

Thrift stores are in inundated with books. In fact the one closest to me had 5¢ November where every book was only 5 cents. There were boxes and boxes. And boxes. You get the idea. So if there’s a bus station, train station or little library near you, please donate there instead of the thrift store. It’s always fun to find a good book to read when you are heading out on a trip.

I recently found out that we have a Gap distribution center here. We don’t actually have a Gap store in our town, but there IS an outlet within the distribution center that has Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta and Old Navy clothes and accessories. The only store we have in our town out of the 4 is old navy, so this is pretty cool.

Since it’s only open on Thursdays and every second Saturday of the month, this was our only chance to go before we leave on vacation. We were looking for specific leggings that Hannah needs. We didn’t find the leggings, but Donny found a pair of cargo pants. Jack found 2 shirts and I found a dress and some jeans. Each brand has it’s own set price which is considerably cheaper than at the actual store.

My dress and jeans were $7.99 each. I love the pattern and how lightweight the dress is. It’s going to be perfect when the weather warms up. I’m not sure how much the other things were because I was looking at swim suits when Donny checked out, but I know they were good deals. I’m definitely going back when I have a little more time to spend there.

Now I’m off to get things ready for our trip because we leave Sunday and it’s going to be cold in Chicago and I need to make sure we pack out winter stuff ❄️

As I sit here and write this I have a weird concoction of crushed Vitamin C tablets and clarifying shampoo on my head, but that’s a whole other story. I will say there is some fine music in the Bruce house today. I have completely fallen in love with Alexa. So far my favorites are the Jimmy Buffet station, Billy Joe Shaver station and just random 90’s music.

It was such a beautiful day yesterday. A little windy, but the sun was shining at it wasn’t freezing out. The kids and I planned to make a run to Gamestop and Walmart, but once we were in the car we knew we needed to be outside. To the trails it was.

Longview, TX has a series of trails that run throughout our town. It’s a good thing because there are no sidewalks, so if you walk in your neighborhood, you are taking your life into your own hands. Seriously.

There are several parks you can start from. I prefer Rice Park when I’m jogging because there are restrooms and if you’ve had kids you know how important this is.

There are mile markers all the way down. If you don’t have an app to let you know how far you’ve gone, these are pretty handy.

There is a man that walks all over Longview. I always see him walking the 281 Loop that runs around our town. Hot, cold or rainy, it doesn’t stop him. I named him Ric Flair because he looks so much like the wrestler when he was in his prime. I have always wanted to find out his story because he fascinates me. Imagine my surprise when we were at one of the workout stations and he was there. I was about a foot away from him!!! He was exercising and I wanted, so badly, to ask him some questions. I knew this would have mortified my kids, so I just said hi. Lame. I did get a pic of him walking in front of us. One day. One day I WILL get his story.

Something else we have never noticed before today were the locks on the bridge. It’s like we have our own Pont des Arts bridge right here in our little town.

These pictures were taken on two separate bridges. There were more locks, but I only snapped a picture of these. I think it’s such a cool idea. I did find out they all the locks were cut off of the “Love Lock bridge” in Paris because the weight of all the locks made the bridge so heavy it became unsafe. I think the few that are on these will be okay. I think it’s a cool idea anyway.

There are two big awesome dog parks down the way. We always meet some really cool dogs on our walks. The labradoodle was my favorite yesterday. I would have snapped a pic, but I didn’t want to seem creepy asking if I could take a picture of their dog.

We were only going to stay for about 30 minutes, but ended up walking for over an hour.

It was just perfect outside.

Our favorite place to stop and take a break on the way back is the hanging swing.

These kids. Today’s topic was centering around music and some of their favorite bands. Hannah likes The Neighborhood and Jack’s very, very favorite (for now) is Panic at the Disco. I’m always finding little nuggets of information when we take the time to lay down the electronics and get to have these good, non rushed conversations.

That was the favorite part of my day. Hope yours was good.

Stacy