Two On The Cheap Gift Ideas

I don't know if you are a Valentine's celebrating person or not, but we are in this house. Not in the big gestures of jewelry kind of way, but in the a book for each kid and something small for the two of us kind of way. What can I say, gift giving is my love language and I love my family.

Anyway, I have a two ideas of non-expensive little things that I really love. These would be great for someone leaving for college, a new mom, a seasoned mom, a grandmother, someone who likes to travel, someone who stays home. Pretty much anyone. Just in case you need an idea of a gift or just want to treat yourself. Because trust me, these items are so great you will want to! NO affiliate links--just trying to make it easy on you.

The Gaiam Dual Foot Roller

My brother got me this for Christmas and I kid you not, it is probably my favorite thing I got. I have been trying to get my steps in on my fitbit and after chasing my kids around some days my feet are just sore. Once upon a time Husband gave me a foot rub every single day, but the honeymoon was bound to end and it did. This little roller is amazing! You can do both feet at the same time and you can control the pressure and which spots you want to focus on. 

It's amazing and really inexpensive. Amazon has it for under $10 and the most expensive I can see it's still under $20! 

The Alaska Bear Sleep Mask

I have been sleeping with a sleep mask for about 10 years and I think they make all the difference for the quality of sleep I get. And this is the best sleep mask I have EVER had. It is large so it blocks the light from all the angles including the by the nose without the little flap of extra fabric. The fabric feels nice against the face and doesn't make my hair frizzy. Also the elastic is adjustable but not cheap-y so I don't think it will stretch out quickly. 

I cannot sing the praises for this sleep mask more. It would be great for anyone! 

So, there you have it. My two inexpensive ideas to make someone's (or your!) day! 

What I Did This Weekend

My Friday night was the MOST exciting. Okay, no it wasn't. We baked a cake for National Chocolate Cake day and it was super delicious! I really wasn't feeling great so I just went to bed with the kids because Daniel Tiger has taught us that "When you're sick, rest is best." So I did that. 

And I slept for about 12 hours straight. It was delightful. And I did feel a little better when I woke up which was good because I had to get myself to Dubuque, which is about an hour away for the Scentsy World Premiere! Scentsy rented out movie theaters across the country and had a simultaneous broadcast of a movie that was part inspirational, part training and part new product reveals! 

This was from the Booking Blitz where everyone got 15 minutes to book some parties!
Can you spot me? My BFF is going to have a basket party for me with the new catalog.

We got a preview of the new catalog and got some testers of the new scents. Woah, I am SO excited. March 1 the new catalog and products are available and this girl will be ordering herself a pineapple warmer for sure!! The new spring and summer scents are great. I am always more partial to spring summer scents and this past month I have just been dying to get my hands on some! It was a great event and while I was a little unsure of what to expect I am pleased to tell you I did leave motivated but that I still promise to not spam you or beg you to host! 

Saturday night was Chinese New Year so we all donned red and black clothes and ate some Orange Chicken, Chicken Lo Mein and Egg Rolls. After the kids went to bed we did our taxes and got those filed. Hopefully the IRS doesn't hold the refunds too long but I am happy to have held up my end of the bargain. 

Yesterday was the start to Catholic Schools Week! We had a special Mass, school open house with book fair and pancake breakfast. We went and I took no pictures so that was kind of lame of me. But here is a picture of our yard sign reppin' the county's Catholic schools: 

Last night I had my second book club of the week. (The first was Thursday night at our house!) I met my friends at a restaurant and we had a really nice dinner while discussing "The Girl on The Train." We decided it was creepy and sad. 

Today was "Athletic Wear" day at school. Which is somehow different than "Favorite Sports Team" day and is definitely not pajama day. (Which is next week for some reason and don't ask me why.) I ordered C some pants from Amazon and they were SO big and didn't have a drawstring. He is so skinny! So I bopped into Target after book club last night and bought some sweat pants that did have a drawstring. 

So just go with this as "Athletic Wear" okay? 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to a great week!

Swooning for This Is Us (No Spoilers.)

In a zero spoiler kind of post I need to talk about This is Us for a minute. I know I have already explained how much I love this show and I am not going to dwell but I just need to get a few things out.

Last week, Sterling K. Brown liked my tweet. He is the actor who plays Randall who is my favorite. 

That was pretty cool. 

And then, last night I came to the realization that I 100% missed last week, the big three and Jack are ALL 831 kids. Which means, they all (those fictional characters) share a birthday with ME! And even though the very first bit of the entire show went something like this: 

I still can't but feel even more connected to the show and these incredibly well written fictional characters. Also, they referenced Notting Hill last night which is my favorite movie ever. So... what this show and I have together may very well be true love. 

I can't believe there's only 5 more episodes! But it has already been renewed for two years so there's plenty to look forward to. 

Happy Wednesday!

My Thoughts On Monday

This weekend was productive. I woke up early on Saturday and went to clean C's school. Which I will be honest, I wasn't looking forward to at all, but it turned out to be incredibly satisfying. Husband and I both got the cleaning bug helped by the fact it was in the mid 50s and sunny. It was practically spring cleaning in January.

We even threw open the windows for a while to air out the house. It made such a difference. We cleaned the kitchen, cleaned and reorganized our closet and refreshed our bathroom. By refresh the bathroom I mean a new shower curtain and hand towels, nothing major. It was great to get a big bag of stuff to donate and a couple extra bags of trash to go out this morning for garbage day.

Our bathroom is small and doesn't photograph well. This is the new shower curtain.

I even deep cleaned my vacuum. Which was also strangely satisfying. I cleaned the filters and the dust bin. I used cleaner on the actual vacuum as well. Then I went on a WD40 kick and got the van door, oven door and vacuum wheels to glide easily with no squeaks.

It feels so good to be surrounded by clean. I say this as I sit in the living/playroom which is currently atrocious, because of course our efforts were spent else where this weekend and I couldn't vacuum because I was waiting for the filters to dry. Mark my words though, it will be clean by tonight!

In other thoughts of mine, my favorite moment of the Inauguration was during the parade. President Trump was talking to some big wig super decorated military person who I do not know, and Barron was watching the parade. Barron got very excited about the bagpipes and drums and excitedly tapped his dad on the shoulder to get his attention to watch it too. And our President, turned from the military man, looked at the parade and engaged with his son. It was a small moment really, but it humanized him and was wonderful. He did not ignore his (really super tall!) 10-year-old.

Also, let's talk about a headline I read this weekend that went something like "Will Melania be able to live up to the First Lady style?" This is the most ridiculous sentence I think I have EVER read. First off, she is the First Lady. So, literally, ANYTHING she wears becomes the First Lady style. Secondly, I am pretty sure even the fiercest opponents can agree that she is gorgeous. She's a model for goodness sakes. I feel confident that she is going to hold up the First Lady fashion show end of the bargain.

My kids are finally mostly healthy and we all breathe a sigh of relief at that! We still stayed home from music class today because she still has a bit of cough, and while I feel pretty sure she isn't contagious any longer, I don't care much for the side eye from other parents who aren't sure.

I hope you all had great weekends and are set for a good week! Happy Monday!

What's Going On With Us: In 7QT

one. We are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of sickness. M is finally starting to eat food again which makes me very happy. Both kids are on eye drops for a few more days but it has become slightly less complicated. All good things. Here's to hoping!!

two. So I am currently obsessed with the "Here Comes the Lion Guard" song. It is SO catchy and has a really good beat to dance around the house to/walk to. Plus it's kid appropriate because... Disney Channel. I really thought it was the theme song to The Lion Guard but it isn't. Anyway, I love it. And have been listening to it a lot.

three. I, not so secretly, love all TV Theme songs. It's kind of my thing. Well now all the shows are trying to get 30 more seconds of plot and just do title screens. But the shows on Disney Junior? Not only do they have theme songs but they are super duper awesome. My favorite is Goldie and Bear. Every time I sing it though, M goes "Shh, Ky-it." It's hilarious to hear her say "ky-it" but without fail, the Goldie and Bear song with get her to say it.

four. I don't know if you heard, but we got ourselves a new President today. I am a sucker for ceremony so I did watch most of it, except ironically the actual swearing in because that is when preschool pickup was. C loves the Presidents. (He was Abraham Lincoln for Halloween after all.) So he was super excited! "Carter! Clinton! Bush! Oba-na!" It's not political for him, it's just respect for the office and admiration. He wants to get a new President place mat with Trump on it, so hopefully those are being rolled out.

five. So I set a goal for 2017 to read 24 books which I had previously determined was kind of a lame goal. Well now I know it's a lame goal because I finished my seventh book yesterday. So far I haven't read anything that has been GREAT or life changing. But I did read one really terrible book already. It was so bad I wouldn't have finished it but I did because it was for one of my book clubs. We aren't discussing it until July but don't worry the awfulness with stick with me and I will not be rereading it before then. 

I DO NOT recommend this book! 

six. Our weekend plans aren't super exciting at all, in the morning I am going to Spruce up the School which is when all the parents come and clean the school. Woah boy, probably need to rein in the fun! I may go see a movie too, I really want to see Hidden Figures and Moana so maybe I will do that. 

seven. It is going to be spring like here this weekend. I know that means we are destined to get walloped but I am just going to embrace it and love it while I can. I am just not in the winter spirit this season and I just don't care. 

A to U

Today is a school day. But C wasn't ready to go back to school. So, it's another stay home, rest and get healthy day! I am sure he will be fit as a fiddle for Thursday. 

I did want to have some learning time. So we grabbed the Magna Doodle and we wrote letters. If you have been here before, you know, that C is my reluctant writer. He has MUCH improved so far this school year, but I did promise him several times that we would not go all the way to "Z" with our little project. My original goal was to make it to "N" but then I wanted to see how far I could get. In my defense, "O", "P", "R", "S" and "T" and all letters from his name so it seemed silly to not have him write those. 

You sure as heck shouldn't feel the need to look through all his letter practice but since I use the blog as sort've a scrapbook I wanted to document his work. For most of the letters I wrote the letter first and then he did his own. I was writing upside down so that's why some of my letters are a bit wonky. 

I am happy to report (if you made it this far) that this experiment didn't take too long and over all it was quite successful. Definitely need to keep working on lowercase E and I need to get some lined paper for sure, but I am pleased with today's learning time on the fly writing unit! 

Happy Monday!

My weekend can be summed up with LOTS of Disney Junior, rest and eye drops. Oh and Kleenex. Lots and lots of Kleenex.

Blah.

M of course got pink eye too. Because that's how that works. And she hates eye drops like a champion. I am pretty sure if there were Olympic medals for hating eye drops she would be a contender. But I do have to say no one has ever been more excited over the name of her malady than my girl. She loves to talk about eye color anyway but now that her eyes are pink?! Which is obviously such a good color... yeah. It's kind of funny. It evens out the eye drop hysterics anyway.

C has done very well with his eye drops so thank goodness for that.

I am thankful for the fact that we have no school today so that my guy has an extra day to recoup. His eyes look so much better but his cold is still bothering him. But also I am glad that I don't have to take either kid out of the house today.

The ice storm we were supposed to get seems to have mostly missed us, which is fortunate! In many ways, even though my house is a sea of germs, Lysol, Purell and hand washing we have been so lucky. Somehow the sickness hit us at the exact right time that it didn't even cause us to miss any school. (Yet, I guess.) And the weather passed right on by so that is great too!

So that's the news from our couch. It sure isn't much but there it is. And some unrelated pictures of flowers because I didn't take any pictures this weekend and everyone loves flowers!

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and MLK Day!

Heading Into the Weekend

On Wednesday we went to the the local botanical center. In their big tropical sun garden, which my kids call "the jungle" they put a large sand pile in the winter for kids to come play. It was so nice to go escape the cold and play! We spent an hour and a half digging, scooping and exploring "the jungle." The kids really like to look at the different fruit trees and especially the "chocolate" tree. There is also a large koi pond and like most children, mine enjoy feeding the fish!

We got Happy Meals for lunch on the way home. It was a very fun morning! I so rarely take both kids on an outing by myself these days. I am so glad we did! They really enjoyed having bare feet in the sand. M really liked the shovels, she pretty much played with one the whole time. Maybe this will be the year we finally break down and get a sand box?

Yesterday we were going to go out on another fun adventure but C came down with a pretty good fever and cold. So... okay then. He spent the majority of the day snuggled up to me or laying down. Today his left eye is all swollen and crusty. I called in to our pediatrician's office already and am waiting for a call back. My "I didn't go to medical school but I know how to Google and draw pretty good inferences" opinion is that the cold virus got into his eye and there really isn't anything they can do about it anyway. It isn't even "pink" just has some goop and swollen. But... I am happy to go pay $25 or whatever the copay is for them to tell me that should they want to see him to double check. Because they have the medical degrees and all.

*Update: They didn't need to see him and they called in some eye drops for him. Which is good. Because now both eyes are goopy and the first one is pink. Poor guy!*

I am glad that we were able to get out and about while all the big kids were in school because, as a crowd hating individual, there is no way in heck that I was going to take the kids out on Monday!

This weekend is looking to be a stay in kind of weekend, especially as we battle the virus and hope no one else comes down with it. Sunday morning is going to be AMAZING because finally, after much anticipation, it is the premiere of Mickey and the Roadster Racers.

I know that this is probably all the excitement at your house too so I don't need to expound upon it at all. Ha! It is the new Disney Jr. show and my Mickey loving kids are quite keen to see how it plays out. 

So that's what we are up to heading into this weekend of ours. It's not the most exciting weekend ever but sometimes, even with germy germs flying around, they can be the best kind! 

Books!

Oh I wish I had some interesting things to share with you today... but I don't.

I set a Goodreads Book goal of 24 books this year. Which is actually a really dumb goal for me, since I am in two book clubs and all which is 24 right there. But we will see. It seemed too daunting to commit to three books a month, even though I do that most of the time. I read my first book last Thursday. The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarity. I finally got off the library waiting list and it did NOT disappoint. I literally laughed out loud a few times and it was a really good read.

I am reading another book I got from the library and then I am going to start breaking into some of the book club books. One of my clubs posts the entire year's reading list from the get-go, which is handy. I got an Amazon gift card for Christmas so I bought 5 of the ones that looked the most interesting to me. I try to get library copies but they aren't always available when I want or need them.

I like to buy the cheap used books on Amazon marketplace. I generally never, ever, buy from the marketplace but I do make the exception for books. I have a pretty good system and I will not order from a seller with a rating lower than 96%. I also check to see what shipping company they use. I try to avoid DHL because it is S.L.O.W.E.R. than slow and their tracking is sub-par.

In all years of buying books for myself and my brother, I have never had to dispute a book charge before and we have only ever had one book come past the estimated date of delivery. (It came a full week after classes started, but it was last year so no real harm done.) Sometimes paying a little bit more is worth it to get a book in a better condition or faster, but often the penny books with $3.99 shipping can't be beat.

For instance there are several copies of a title that cost a penny with $3.99 shipping. But down the list is a book that is Amazon prime available for $5. I will buy the prime one, because for a dollar more, I will have it in two days. Typically I will go up one or two dollars past the cheapest cost for a prime book. I don't mess around with marketplace if I don't have to!

I get a sort of sick pleasure out of looking at how much the bookstore would charge for the books and then totaling up the savings. I am pretty good at finding the deals and usually it costs about a third what his bookstore charges. It breaks my heart that he graduates this year and to my knowledge is not planning on grad school or law school currently. What am I going to do for fun in early August and late December if I am not buying book on the cheap?!

Reading is such a fun past time for me. I will probably pass the book club books on to others or put them in one of the Little Free Libraries by me.

What's on your book list this year? How many books are you planning on reading?

Orange-Glazed Muffins

Yesterday I was all "we're back to real life" about it. Let me just go type all the laugh-crying emojs in here real quick because, nope.

We always have Wednesdays off, and on Monday I thought that was nice. One day of school, then a day off to ease us back into it all. I still agree with that. But we got the calendar sent home yesterday and I somehow overlooked the fact that NEXT week we have another mini-break.

I mean, I knew we had off for Martin Luther King Day. But the Thursday and Friday before Martin Luther King Day we don't have school either. And we always have Wednesdays off. So we have a six-day weekend next week again. So not exactly back to normal just yet.

Anyway, for today's Mom Day (which was a lot more fun on Monday's when Mom stood in for Mon but we kept the name anyway...) Muffins I made Orange-Glazed Muffins from Eat Like a Gilmore.

It was a solid "meh" recipe. I followed the instructions to a T and the batter was way too thick. I make muffins once a week so I can honestly say, I know muffins. I'm not like a professional baker but I can hold my own in the muffin world. I knew the batter was too thick but went along with it anyway because who knows? 

And they were not too dry, which I am thankful for!! But they don't have a very pronounced orange flavor. While the batter was too thick I considered adding some orange extract to the batter, both for more flavor and moisture but I didn't. Should have gone with my gut. 

My only substitution was I didn't use fresh squeezed orange juice. Because, really? Would you? So... they look pretty and the house warmed up. (It's getting January cold now.) And they weren't gross. But they weren't swoon worthy so... I will try my hand at something else from the book next. 

And in the future, for Mom Day Muffins we are going back to blueberry or banana. They have never disappointed!

Keep warm and happy Wednesday!

Back At It

And we're back. It was a glorious Christmas vacation from school and work so I am definitely a little bummed to be back at it this morning.

But... learners gotta learn and workers gotta work and all that jazz. No really though. Husband hasn't been to work since the morning of the 22nd so I am sure it will be a crazy day for him and one he was not looking forward to. He seriously almost never takes time off of work so it was so so nice to have him with us for 12 full days! And also usually when he does have time off I use it as an excuse to travel. So for us to have had 5 full days at home together was a real treat!

We are unpacked and settled in from Christmas. We rung in 2017 with make your own pizzas, chocolate covered strawberries and the Puffin Rock Countdown at 7:30. Then husband and I watched Bridget Jones Baby and finished off the Welches Sparkling. Super duper fancy over this way!

New Years Day was still not a work day so we decided to go out! The kids were thrilled their sitter could come play with them and I was thrilled to go out! We had a wonderful dinner and then we went to see "Fences." Pretty darn ritzy, I can't even remember the last time we went out for dinner and a movie. One or the other usually.

Yesterday we "decorated down" the Christmas tree. Which was GENIUS! on Husband's part. The kids helped and didn't get sad about the end of the decorations.

This morning after school drop off, M and I headed to Target which was surprisingly not crowded with all the SAHM crowd rejoicing their young ones were back to school today. We bought a big storage tub for the Legos, which had been living in a Scentsy box. I wanted something with a lid! That wasn't cardboard. And would class up the joint just a bit.

I also got new storage cubes for the toys and two other storage containers. (One for coloring books/crayons/etc. and one for Little People!)

Plus new shower curtain liners and toilet bowl cleaner. Much fun and fancy. Except I kind of think the cleaning, purging and organizing the toys is kind of fun. Is that the weirdest?

So that's that. We are back at the "real life" portion of 2017 and so far so good I think.