Talking About it Tuesday ~ Galentine's Day/February 17, 2026

Happy Tuesday friends!

 I know yesterday was Monday, but I didn't want to talk about Valentine's Day as the theme of the weekend since I wasn't with a guy or my kids.  This is one my boundaries where I can't spend too much time reading about these things. I was not on social media much at all over the weekend.  I am happy and I hope one day I will have this, so in the meantime, my Tuesday talk is all about Galentine's Day, celebrating friends!

I hosted a Galentine's party at my house Friday night and had bought this heart pasta at Aldi.

It was fun to decorate for Galentine's! Behind my table, is a string of old Valentine cards from my childhood.  They are from my parents, grandparents and even one from my brother.

I assembled a mixture of strawberry chex mix, a candy mix of popcorn, cookies and pretzels, and then I added a bag of red/white M&M's.  It was such a good mixture.  I ate so much of this over the weekend.

I also made red velvet M&M brownies and used my heart cutter with them.

Here are other pictures of some house decor...

I made sourdough foccacia bread, which turned out so good.  This is my favorite variety of sourdough.

I ordered a fun set of Galentine games (all paper games so we didn't have to leave the table :)) & we all started a little bit on creating ideas for a vision/bingo board for 2026.  In the background of these things was a great Galentine's playlist I created with the help of their imput on Spotify.

Kendra gave us each a gift, which was so cute and thoughtful. It was a fun night!

Talking About it Tuesdays ~ 2016 Trends

 Good morning friends!  Have you seen the social media viral trend of posting photos from 2016?  I am sharing some photos from my 2016 year!

In 2016, I was still living in Bogota, Colombia South America.  I was in the states for Christmas and New Years though.

This is Brook and one of her best friends, Catherine, on NYE.  This summer, Brook will be maid of honor in her wedding!  And, we went to their house this past year on NYE too! Her mom is a dear friend of mine.

These 2 friends are still dear to me and we watched the season premiere of The Bachelor together.

Upon our return to Bogota, we prepared for Isabella's fiesta de quince....her 15th birthday celebration. It was one of our best nights!

Remember me going to see my Colombian friends, who now live in Australia, in Dallas in December? Here they are with Isabella 10 years ago!

My girls :)

This girl loved being the only American in her Colombian school!

We took a family vacation to Cartagena.  This was such a milestone for us to travel within the country for a vacation instead of a work event.  In our 3rd year of living there, we finally felt comfortable with our Spanish to do this and we loved it.

This was Mother's Day 2016...Edwin, Isabella, me and Brook.

This is Clara, our beloved Spanish teacher.  I love this woman and miss her so much.

Summer of 2016, I flew back to the states and went to my last Huey Lewis concert.

I love this picture of my girls! This was at one of our favorite places.

We took a team retreat to Villa de Leyva, a beautiful town a few hours from Bogota.

I miss the bread, juices, soups and hot chocolate from Colombia.

In the fall of 2016, Brook and I traveled to NYC and met my parents there for a few days.  Isabella was in school and Brook had returned to homeschool, so she was able to travel with me.

Later that fall, we began saying our goodbyes to dear friends in Bogota.  I met these 3 girls in Colombia during my first visit in 2009 & we reunited when we moved there in 2014.  I still keep in touch with them via social media & love them.

This is group picture of some dear friends on a farewell dinner with us. Edwin and Clara were with us this night.

This is my dear friend, Sarah, who I was able to see last summer when she was visiting Kentucky.

And of course, my dear Edwin.  

Brook and I on our way moving back to the U.S.A.!

One of the first things I did was meet my new and first great-nephew!  He is 9 now!

There were so many things to buy moving back to the states, but one of our first purchases was a car! We still own this car.

I am not sure why this is such a trend, but it was interesting to look back at 2016 at a glance!

Hope you have a great day!

Talking About it Tuesday ~ Dollar Tree & Other Beauty Shopping

 Good morning!  Today I am highlighting some products I bought at Dollar Tree over the weekend & also some of my other recent beauty products I have purchased and used.  

Here are some highlights from my basket:

I like the shape of this door mat.  As you know, nothing at Dollar Tree is a $ anymore!  This mat was $7.

I bought a new lighter to use for my outside fireplace.  I usually use my re-chargeable lighters for my candles inside.  I bought some candy for my greats, tissue, makeup wipes and some beauty items.

I have mixed these bronzer drops with my sunscreen foundation and it gave my face a glow.  This lip oil was hydrating and a good top coat to lipstick.  I haven't used the chrome nail polish yet, but I am intrigued.  It is a powder you put over your gel nail polish.

This lip pencil has a liner on one end and a fill color on the other.  It comes with a sharpener too and I like this product!

This is a lip kit I got for my birthday from Sephora as one their birthday rewards.

This is a serum I will use in the mornings.

This is a eye liner pencil.

This next product is one I ordered online from a company called Luxe.  It is a color changing foundation that adapts to your skin.  It goes on white and then changes color as you rub it in your skin.

I bought some derma plane blades and loved using this product!

I use this neck cream several times a week.

This is an under eye concealer I use most days and is one of my favorite products.

This has become one of my favorite mascaras!

I bought this a while back and need to use it more frequently on my nails. I do like the texture of this.

This is my favorite brow pencil. 

I sometimes alternate which cleaning balm I use, but this is the one I am currently using.

I also alternate often with different serums, most of them being a variety of Vitamin C for brightening.

The last product I am highlighting today is this face mask.  This face mask is unusual in that you sleep with it and peel it off the next morning.  I did this last night and it feels so good!  This was originally recommended from the Big Boo Podcast.

Thanks for reading along today!