My favorite recurring episodes on the Craving Connection podcast were our seasonal favorites. Not only did they give us a chance to share what we were really into that season, but they also served as time markers. I’ll never forget during the first spring iteration how KB was loving the color lavender and Ed Sheeran’s ÷ album and I was really into pink+green combos and rositos (rosé mojitos). To this day, I’m still transported the spring of 2017 whenever I hear Galway Girl or come across a rosé cocktail.
For whatever reason, it never felt like the right time to share my winter favorites, so in the spirit of sharing what I’m loving right now and putting a time stamp on the spring of 2024, here are my current spring faves!
Spring Sneakers
I’ve had the same pair of black and white Vejas for several years now and while I love them, I was antsy for a new pair of sneakers with more of a spring color palate. I initially had my eye on these, but decided to go the cheaper route and get these New Balance CT300 V3 Court Sneakers instead (like and subscribe for more money saving tips).
I guess not much has changed since 2017 because I’m still very into pink+green color combos— it gives such a spring vibe while still going with a lot of clothes in my closet. I’ve already worn these with jeans, shorts, and dresses and plan to continue until it gets too hot for anything but sandals!
Non-platform Platform Sandals
Speaking of sandals, I saw a friend of mine wearing these last week and immediately had to know where she got them. When she told me they were from Target and under $30, I had them ordered and ready for pick up within hours.
As a tall girl, I love the look of casual platform sandals, but don’t feel like I can pull them off. I always feel like I’m wearing high heels and too dressed up when I’m just trying to pull off a breezy cute look. So when I saw how these were a platform style without too much height, I was sold. I ordered the white, but have my eyes on the beige as well.
Listen For The Lie by Amy Tintera
Some of my favorite reading memories are of the summers I got swept up in books like The Hunger Games, The Help, One Day, and Water For Elephants. I would spend hours upon hours with a book in my hand, sometimes even finishing a book in one day (pun intended). But I haven’t felt that insatiable, can’t-put-it-down feeling in years and have been chasing that high ever since.
Enter Listen For The Lie. I made this my BOTM pick in March, but my TBR pile was so high, I didn’t pick it up until last week. A friend had been telling me how good it was so when my pile finally dwindled, this was the first book I reached for. The good Lord was shining His blessing and favor down on me that day because my daughter decided to take nearly a 3 hour nap— enough time for the story to sufficiently suck me in. When she woke up she may or may not have gotten some extra episodes of Daniel Tiger so I could keep reading and that night after I got home from an event, I stayed up until 1:00 in the morning finishing the whole thing.
LFTL tells the story of Lucy, who is found wandering the streets of her small Texas town, covered in her best friend’s blood with no recollection of how she got there, making her the prime murder suspect. With no evidence to prove she did it but everyone still believing she did, Lucy heads to LA to start over and try to leave the past behind her. For the past five years she has done just that, but when true crime podcaster Ben Owens chooses Savvy and Lucy’s story as his next crime to cover, she is forced to return home and confront what really happened that night.
This book falls right in my sweet spot when it comes to dark stories— it was tense, face-paced, and mysterious, but not scary. It’s comprised of short chapters and switches between Lucy’s point of view and podcast episodes and I’ve heard the audiobook experience is excellent because it really gives you the podcast experience.
I give LFTL 5 stars, especially if you need a book to kick start your reading life, but there is a trigger warning for descriptions of domestic violence.
NYT Connections
I’m sure by now you’ve heard of the New York Times gaming phenomenon Connections. In case you haven’t, though, Connections is a daily online game where you’re presented with 16 words and tasked to make four groups of four like words with the categories becoming progressively more difficult.
As a life time lover of Scategories (as I child if I couldn’t find anyone to play with me, I’d play by myself) and an SLP who loves working on categorization skils, this game is so up my alley. I play first thing in the morning as a way to wake myself up and it harkens me back to the days of starting my mornings sitting in a glider, nursing my baby, and sipping coffee.
If you’re looking for a free, quick brain break in your day, this is it.
Kirkland Signature Tuna
I have already outed myself as being an odd child who would play Scategories alone, so it should come as no surprise that I have also always had an affinity for tuna. In college when I lived in my sorority house with no way to refrigerate a lunch and commuted for class, I was the girl who would open up tuna in the lecture hall and simply shrug when everyone made faces (I know, I was the worst).
Fast forward to today where I am trying to be more diligent about upping my protein intake and imagine my delight when I discovered that Costco’s Kirkland Signature albacore tuna is packed with 42 grams of protein in each can! This has been my lunch lately (in the comfort of my own home) and it has been so satisfying. I mix it with mayo, relish, sometimes some chopped celery, lemon juice, salt+pepper and it’s perfection.
Rain Boots
So maybe I should rename this my favorite spring shoes since this list is predominately comprised of footwear? But I’d be remiss if I didn’t include these because they have been such a hit in our household this season. My daughter has never had rain boots before because I always talked myself out of buying them, but this year I put them in her Easter basket and it is one of the best parenting decisions I have made all year.
She loves them so much and wants to wear them all the time. And since I went with solid pink, they go with almost all her clothes and it doesn’t bother me if she wears them every day. The other best part? She can put them on herself (praise be). Toddler’s happy, mama’s happy, stranger’s give compliments, and puddles can be splashed in— wins all around!
Dinner
Okay, this isn’t dinner per se, but I did make these muffins at night and if you made breakfast for dinner, these would totally work.
Breakfast is a bit of a struggle in my house for lots of reasons and sometimes it’s a battle I fight, sometimes it’s not. But when I saw the recipe for these muffins, I thought I’d give it a try and see if it would entice a certain 2.5 year old to eat them. I showed her the picture and told her she could choose what we added and she chose chocolate chips and raspberries and wanted to make them immediately. Not wanting to dampen her excitement, I obliged and we got to cooking.
This was such a fun activity to do together. She loved being my sous chef and helping me pour and mix all the ingredients and it was a great way to get her involved in the kitchen.
And since she made these with me, she wanted to taste test all the ingredients (can someone tell me why she won’t eat a perfectly roasted and seasoned vegetable but she asked for second helpings of straight flour?). Aside from the flour, she asked for second helpings of the Greek yogurt, a food she hasn’t eaten in quite awhile, and I was happy to oblige without making a big deal about it.
This recipe was also super easy to follow, had no added sugar (other than the mini chocolate chips we used), and the muffins tasted really really good. She ate two that night and one each morning for breakfast over the next few days. I was able to freeze the other half, knowing she would probably tire of them before they were all gone, so now we have another batch waiting for us down the road.
We will definitely make these again with different add ins and eat them for breakfasts and snacks!
That does it for this round of spring faves! I’d love to know what you’re into this season— maybe they’ll make an appearance on my summer favorites list? Most of what I love, I learned about from a friend, so share below!