Hi, friend! How are you doing today? I hope you’ve been having a good week.

Today, I have a new set of faves coming at you. But first, let’s catch up …

This week was a busy one. I taught my usual five classes; I went to a hot yoga class; I worked on preparing an initial class template for a new format I’m going to audition to teach at Life Time; I went for a lovely evening walk with a neighborhood friend; we had our light fixtures hung in our kitchen (pictures coming soon); I got my nails done, and finally, I had my post-surgery follow-up at my OB’s office. Physically, it’s time to truly put it behind me, and I think I’m officially done with recovery/symptoms after three weeks. Emotionally, that’s a work in progress, but we won’t belabor that point again today.

Alright, let’s get to the faves …

Current faves

Family fun

Discovery Place Science in Uptown Charlotte

We had a visit to Discovery Place Science on our list for a while, and we finally went last Sunday.

Brady absolutely loved it. But to be honest, Dave and I thought it was just okay. We enjoyed watching Brady run around and have a blast touching, feeling and consuming all the things though. And really, that’s what it’s all about.

Discovery Place Science is a big interactive science museum in downtown Charlotte (fun fact: downtown Charlotte is actually called Uptown, which I still think is a little funny). And it’s part of a network of educational museums in the area.

We tried one of the others — Discovery Place Nature — a few months ago, and that one is a teeny, tiny old museum with only a few exhibits over by Freedom Park. Brady thought it was cool, but it was really small and unimpressive to Dave and to me. So I had high hopes that Discovery Place Science would be better.

Yes, it was way bigger, better and nicer. But a lot of the little interactive elements were out of order, or they were missing pieces, or they had minimal instructions on how to do the projects when we visited, so that was a miss for me. Also, there was hardly anyone working on the exhibit floors, so it’s not like you could ask for help. It’s like it could’ve been so much cooler with more stuff or more museum staff showing things off better. Is that asking too much from a local nonprofit museum on a Sunday? Perhaps so. 🙂 

For reference: We paid $86 for the three of us to go to the museum and park (we did prepaid parking and ended up being in the wrong garage and had to move our car and pay more, by the way, whoops). We were at the museum for a solid two hours, and we definitely saw/did it all, so I do sort’ve feel like it’s expensive for what you get.

(As usual, in these photos, I’m wearing my trusty mom jeans, which are currently on sale and run a bit big. I’m also wearing this t-shirt and these sunglasses.)

There was a bright spot though. Right now, there’s a featured sea-life exhibit with some fish and installations about the deep ocean, and that was the best part for us. I actually have a minor fascination with the deep dark sea, so this part was cool to me. There were quotes and facts about the super-deep waters and lighting elements that we all enjoyed.

That exhibit, called Unseen Oceans, runs through September 18th, if you’re in the area and interested.

I might be being too hard on Discovery Place Science. Honestly, maybe I’m just jaded because of recent super-cool places we’ve been like the Georgia Aquarium, which wowed us all, but I’m often underwhelmed by this type of attraction. The good news is that it was more for Brady anyhow.

Brady was in a walk/run of excitement the entire two hours and moved from one spot to the next. He kept saying “which aisle should we go to next?” The joy on his face was enough for me. But this place was not as cool as I had really hoped.

There’s one more Discovery Place in Charlotte that we need to try, a bit further away in north Charlotte called Discovery Place Kids, so we may take him there one day soon. Overall, we were happy we finally went on this adventure together, and it made for a nice little Sunday outing.

I made a video about our Discovery Place Science adventure here.

Girlfriend fun

Weeknight girl time

Last week, on Thursday night, I went to a little wine tasting happy hour with a couple of girlfriends, and we had so much fun. I had not been having a great day, and of course, I’m still dealing with off and on strong emotions … I almost cancelled going out to this, but I’m so glad I didn’t.

That night, we stayed out quite late for a Thursday, and I was tired the next day because of it (which happens to the best of us, ya know). We drank wine, we had some spicy stir-fry for dinner, and we even met some new people that night and just laughed and laughed and laughed. It felt right!

I love the fact that our/my social life includes so many good opportunities for hanging out like this all the time, nearly in our own backyard. Once again, three cheers for living in Charlotte and having these people and this life. We’ve had a lot of hard stuff over the last year-and-a-half here, but so much good stuff too and that can’t get lost. People matter!

(Here’s my dress, which I bought last year for our Jamaica trip, and I’m in a small.)

On this outing, I finally wore my new “B” bracelet I bought during the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. You can find that bracelet here. It’s cute, and Brady loves that I have it.

Entertainment

“Inventing Anna” on Netflix

I really didn’t know much about this series on Netflix other than the fact that it was very popular, so I convinced Dave to watch it with me. We started it last week and watched a few episodes a week to finish the 9-part series two nights ago.

(Image source: Netflix.)

First of all, this series is based on a true story. Second of all, there are a lot of recognizable faces playing the roles. And thirdly, it’s just so darn intriguing. I couldn’t wait to watch each episode. Some of the episodes are even longer than an hour, which is hard to fit in on a weeknight for us, but we did it.

The series is about a real-life con artist, named Anna Delvey, who claimed to be a German heiress and fooled a ton of high-powered people in New York City, while trying to create a business and live the life of the Manhattan elite.

Truthfully, I found the lead actor a bit annoying in the role, but after some research, it sounds like she was playing the part perfectly. (The lead part of Anna is played by Julia Garner from “Ozark,” and she’s a great actor, but the part called for some annoying tendencies.)

I love a story based on something true, and this was super entertaining. There’s a lot of drama, the story is told by different people who were part of Delvey’s lies, and it’s so hard to believe that it all really happened. I loved the clothing and luxurious settings, both of which make for good TV.

What’s even more interesting is that I read an article saying Netflix actually paid money to the real-life Anna in order to produce the series. Wow. If you’re into this kind of thing, definitely give it a watch.

Workouts

My workouts from last week

Here’s where I share a recap of my previous week of workouts. I share this to show you how I try to get diversity in my week, and how I always take a rest day (almost always). But remember, I do a little bit more than the average person, because I’m a group fitness instructor. 

Workouts from the week of 8/8

• Monday: Taught 1-hour barbell class, 9:45 a.m., took 1-hour yoga class, 5:30 p.m.
• Tuesday: Taught 1-hour barre class with light weights, 9:30 a.m.
• Wednesday: Took 45-minute treadmill/balance class, 9:30 a.m., taught 45-minute barre class with light weights, 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 45-minute combo class with weights, 9:45 a.m.
• Friday: Taught 45-minute barbell class, 11:30 a.m.
• Saturday: Took 90-minute tennis lesson, 11 a.m.
• Sunday: Rest day (took 30-minute neighborhood walk with Rudy, 6 p.m.)

This past week was a good one for workouts for a couple reasons. I was finally back to teaching my entire class-load without needing a sub teacher. And, I returned to hot yoga, which felt challenging, but amazing at the same time. I also took a treadmill/balance class at Life Time, and it was a total departure from my normal thing. Finally, I had a real rest day too. Overall, a strong week and one that I’d be happy to repeat again. I took time for me, taught my classes and rested.

Recommendation of the week …

Here’s something I wanted to share with you if you want to fill your feed with good stuff:

This isn’t a traditional “read of the week,” but if you’re not yet following Precision Nutrition on Instagram or Facebook, I would give them a follow for some good stuff. I love the positivity, real-life nutrition and wellness advice and short-digestible tips they bring to my feed. Find Precision Nutrition on Instagram here. Find Precision Nutrition on Facebook here.

Quote of the week …

Here’s a thought I shared on Instagram that I wanted to share here too.

As we head into the weekend … something to think about: Do you know if your social media use is intentional or habitual? I find that the more mindless scrolling I do, the worse I feel. Yes, you can take in some amazing content and inspiration from social media (like the accounts referenced above), but you have to be in the right headspace to see it and accept it. On the other hand, you can also fall into an unnecessary comparison trap when you spend too much time on your phone looking at other people. If you find yourself feeling not-so-great during your scrolling sessions, maybe do something else instead for a little bit and see if you can break the habit. Here are a few ideas, below. Make sure you’re out there living that life off your phone too.

Blog archives of the week …

Let’s look back at two blog posts worth revisiting, including a recent one:

All about barre. This post includes links to playlists I’ve created and links to try a LifeBarre class for free too … “Review of the LifeBarre workout class at Life Time.”

Information overload. This post from a few years ago is more important than ever with all the marketing messages coming our way on social media. Have you read it? … “How to know what health and fitness information to follow.”

That’s all for today, my friend. Stay hydrated, stay moving and stay well! 🙂 

Questions of the day for YOU …

How was your week?

Have you visited a new place lately worth sharing?

What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this weekend?