Four Friday Beauty Favorites

Cleantopia mascara. This could be just greenwashed and a “clean” scam but I bought this because I thought it was cheaper than the kind I normally would get…and the tube is pretty. Turns out the prices were labeled incorrectly. There is normally no rhyme or reason to how I buy mascara so I gave it a try. However, the wand is great, the formula works for me, and I’ve used it every day for a few months. I will definitely re-buy. 

^^^Half off for Black Friday!

Oil cleansers. I have been washing my face wrong my entire life. (Granted, I never used apricot scrub but I did use stridex, noxema, and clearasil.) I’ve tried two of the oil-based cleansers from Adel Natural Cosmetics and they’ve improved my skin so much. The tone, the feel, etc. Acne spots clear up more quickly because I’m not drying out all the healthy skin around them, and I don’t have dry and irritated skin overall. I don’t think I can go back to a regular face wash. They have too many ingredients and I’m not sure what they’re doing to my face.

***Adel is having 30% off for Black Friday!***

La Roche Posay moisturizer. I do have a drug store moisturizer I mix serums with at night. I love most LRP products and it’s a great neutral product I can use as a vehicle to rub on serums.

Oil-based serum. Speaking of…I struggle with putting an oil directly on my face because I feel like it doesn't do "enough". I need a cream as well. I love this moisturizing type of serum and I mix it with the La Roche Posay moisturizer every night. 

What product are you stocking up on for Black Friday?

Wednesday recommendations. 11/27

If you want something not current, nonpolitical, etc to listen to, may I recommend a Gossip Girl rewatch and then this rewatch podcast? GG is back on Netflix and they have multiple Thanksgiving episodes. 

(I kind of wanted an audiobook for this week off and I started listening to this instead)

This coffee brand.  Scott brought it home and I didn't trust him (because he's also brought home The Donut Shop and Green Mountain before) but he was right. It's so much better than BR or DD or Caribou or any others we've rotated through lately. 

This tree has brought hours of playtime. Unfortunately, we seem to be two magnets short this year :/ 

But I got it in 2020 and last night Sutton played with it for over an hour. 

Scott deep-fried a turkey on Tuesday. I guess it's a lot of work but I definitely recommend this method. I also did some reading lately about how bad it is for your health to cook a turkey in a plastic bag so maybe this is better after all?

3 dogs is a lot of work but I know that the days of having 3 won't last forever and thinking last week was going to be the end of it for Jett made me very grateful we had Mav because I couldn't imagine leaving Scout by himself. He and Mav love each other (I mean, they play-fight so that's basically the same thing).

I am trying to sell this Ergo 360. For real, I recommend it. It was indispensable when Wells was a baby (I barely used it with Sutton). I put it in the local FB group and no hits. 

If you want it, I'll ship! $20 + shipping. 

We love these things. 

If you're going to see Santa, I recommend Bass Pro. The only thing I request is a trip there each November. Now we have four Santa pictures from our time in MO and I'm ready to pack up (LOL). 

Sutton got us kicked off the carousel though because she wouldn't sit on an animal. Wells rode alone. 

I made buffalo chicken dip over the weekend and she couldn't get enough.

 

Low/high, high/low, low/low

Low: We thought Jett was having a medical emergency on Wednesday.

High:  Turns out, it’s a big pocket of fluid that requires compresses and rest and the vet didn’t seem worried at all. I don’t love it but it was better than the alternative.

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High: I made the meatloaf that came in our Dinnerly box last week. Scott loved it.

Low: It leaked in the oven and the whole house needed to be aired out. 

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High: I discovered the secret to getting out the door on time!

Low: It means getting up at 4:45 instead of 5:15am.

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Low: I had an appointment rescheduled for the 3rd time in a month.

High: It meant I didn’t have to leave the house last night.

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Low: I am so incredibly burnt out on politics right now.

High: I have the opportunity to find new great listening recommendations!

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High: I have next week off.

Low: I feel certain someone will end up sick because why not? We spent last Thanksgiving break sick. Multiple people I know have a stomach bug or Covid.

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Low: A student kindly pointed out that the ends of my hair don’t match the roots.

High: I have a week off to highlight my hair.

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Low: I scheduled a babysitter for today for a vet appointment before the emergency vet appointment happened on Wednesday.

High: I can take this afternoon to go get my hair cut instead.

____________

Low: The Steelers lost last night. 

And …low: I had stayed up until 10:30 to finish the game. 

(4:45am comes quickly.)

A meme worth sharing after that Buffalo win last weekend:

What do you know about the first Thanksgiving?

Many years ago, we took a trip to Boston and Maine. It was block leave before a deployment in Alaska so I took two weeks off of work and we went. When we returned, I showed my class my vacation pictures. We had also spent two days in Plymouth. We took a tour of The Mayflower II, saw Plymouth Rock, all that good stuff I love but Scott just barely tolerated. I ended up teaching them all about the Mayflower and the first Thanksgiving because they were so interested. It was fun!

The next year, I put my pictures into a powerpoint with a bunch of links to different sources, maps, little videos, etc and taught the whole lesson over a few days to my class. I made it kind of an inquiry-based unit. Literally, just for fun and because it was a great way to bridge decorating and disguising turkeys in the primary grades into actually learning history in the intermediate grades. We'd also read The Mayflower Treasure Hunt together since it takes place on The Mayflower II and did a virtual tour of the boat and also Plimoth Plantation. 

I've done it every year since. No complaints.

This year, I pulled out the nonfiction article I did last year with my 3rd graders, drew up a KWL chart, and pulled up the Brainpop video on Thanksgiving. 

Kids just didn't seem interested. They also had NO background knowledge. None. "Turkey" was their background knowledge. 

That was day one. I kept plowing through, 30 minutes a day for 4 days. 

But anyway, I went and asked another teacher if they had learned anything about Thanksgiving last year. No. They hadn't. Apparently a parent had complained once so this particular teacher stopped doing Thanksgiving. (I totally do understand that.)

Then, someone else piped up with: Thanksgiving is dumb. It's just a day we eat food.

Followed by: I don't understand why they called it Thanksgiving in England but they don't even celebrate it over there and we celebrate it here. 

(I told this story to Scott while he was eating dinner and he almost choked.)

I truly thought I was being gaslit. Like the gas was turned all the way up. 

I said: It's an American holiday. The people who left England named it a day of thanksgiving. In America. It was to celebrate the harvest and survival of the first year in the new world. 

This was met with actual protest about how it's stupid and why would we need to teach it to kids in the first place.

I didn't even know where to go from there.

There was also an air of "maybe the kids don't like it because it's dumb and whyareyouteachingit?"

Maybe I should present my slideshow to the staff. 

This anecdote from real life this week + this tweet are Example #958 and Example #959 of why it's time to tear down the Department of Ed. I hope Elon and Vivek have it first on the list. 

Weekend recommendations.

1. My splurge is that I'm still drinking this stuff every day. Sometimes I make it at lunch at school. Sometimes I drink it in the car when running errands. Sometimes I drink it at night while I'm watching TV. 

2. It's insane that the best outside weather in the fall is in November in these parts. 

3. Flared leggings. I never thought I'd see the day. I stopped wearing these back in 2009, I thought, for good. Back in the olden times, we called them “yoga pants”. 

4. This episode was so eye-opening. I have Dr. Marty Makary’s new book in my library holds. 

5. I’ve been on a minimalist kick, as has been reflected in my listening (Minimalist Moms podcast, specifically) and reading the last two weeks. I spent last weekend cleaning out closets and this weekend I tackled a few boxes in the barn and garage. 

I mean, maybe instead of having a box labeled “party supplies”, I should just let them kids use these cups and plates up since I literally buy paper plates these days anyway. 

And maybe I should actually reuse the gift bags Wells got for his 2nd birthday(!) instead of keeping them in a plastic tub in the barn loft. Do you know how many gift bags I buy for kids’ birthdays? It’s not zero. 

Long weekend cleaning

Scott went hunting this weekend so I got that trash bag energy. The Lazy Genius calls it big black trash bag energy. I used white bags. All in all, I threw away two bags of stuff (maybe three?) and then I filled a huge box with baby items to give to a friend. Then I filled three more bags to take to the donation site. 

I randomly started listening to the Minimalist Mom on the Alex Clark podcast, completely by chance, when I was in the middle of this and so I think I became fueled by "I can't live like this anymore" at the same time. There's a book too.

I had spent so much time organizing and sorting toys over the summer. It made no difference. NONE. So I cleared out three big totes, dumped in every small toy I could find that was worth keeping (lots of broken stuff went into those above-mentioned trash bags), and put them into the kids' closets (which now had a lot of space in them!). 

I came to the realization that we won't live in this house forever and maybe I just won't be super organized as long as we live here because I do feel like there's a major lack of storage space in the house (I'm such an American...the house is 2,000 sq. ft). But then, listening to that podcast, I realized the only way to feel better right now is to have less stuff. The less stuff, the less stress/organizing/cleaning that needs to be done. I have realized that since, maybe 2017, I don't bring random things into the house anymore, I don't buy candles, trinkets, TJ Maxx runs are usually for clothing items or rugs or something. I only buy what has a purpose (to me). I do not browse-shop for pretty things, even online.

I haven't even bought new clothes since the end of August, now that I think about it. 

Anyway.

I was getting ready to vacuum the other day and the vacuum started to smoke. This is not the Dyson cordless that we use for hard floors but the Bissell we bought in 2020 at the beginning of covid lockdowns. It was definitely $70-80 so it wasn't a huge investment. 

I could honestly talk about vacuum cleaners for days...we've had 7 in 15 years...we've had multiple properties so two of those originally came from other places. One of those is in my classroom right now because it comes in handy. When you remodel and when you move a lot, it's hard on vacuum cleaners. That's my tidbit of knowledge you may not know. You need to transport them. You deep clean more often. Scott has, more than once, picked up *my* vacuum to take care of drywall dust. Our shop vac is also on it's last leg so I won't let Scott bring it in the house.

My point: The vacuum started to smoke, make a funny noise, and there was an awful smell. I had already replaced the belt twice and it didn't seem to be the same issue. I put it in the garage and we went to Walmart. I'll call it an early Christmas splurge. I got a Shark Rotator and it was much cheaper at Walmart when I compared it to Amazon. 

I also did some cooking. My friend had a baby a few weeks ago, so I took them dinner on Sunday. I did tortilla soup (this is the only recipe I ever use for tortilla/taco soup and I've been using it for 12 years), chips, guacamole, and cilantro lime rice I also made a box of brownies and then pumpkin muffins. I made my own taco seasoning.

And, then, I went absolutely insane and made "goldfish" crackers because I'm over the processed food. I did not have a goldfish cookie cutter. 

This was so easy and worth it. The worst part was cleaning the food processor. I used unbleached all-purpose flour.

We went to the playground and for a walk and then finished the evening with the new episode of Lioness. 

I cannot find Yellowstone for free...we have Peacock and Paramount+. Where are you watching Yellowstone? 

9 more days until Thanksgiving break...

Friday things, 11/8

 1. To piggyback off of my post from Monday....I had some deep thoughts worth sharing and I'm interested to know your opinion:

Concerning having two kids...I feel like I subconsciously felt a lot of pressure immediately, having both a boy and a girl because that was always described to be the perfect family make-up and I worried I would screw it up.

 Has anyone else ever heard that? I remember a teacher in school telling us that having a boy first and then a girl was the "perfect family".  I literally cannot look at a family composition without thinking about this. 

The second thing I've noticed recently is that so many friends of mine are having 4, 5, or 6 kids. It used to be "two". Two was the number. I told the fertility doctors "two" when they asked what our goal was. We figured two would fit us. And then I was perfectly happy with Wells until I realized he'd never have a sibling if we didn't have another. Now I see why people have 4+! Especially years and years apart. I get it. I'm not going that route because pregnancy is a lot when you've had one high-risk delivery. But I do find this trend of having 4+ kids over like 10 years kind of fascinating. I don't remember that happening 10 years ago. It used to be that you had them back-to-back or you stopped at two. 

Honestly, I think being in the classroom and noticing trends over the years has contributed to me thinking about this topic. 

2. We took a field trip to the state capitol on Wednesday. I had about 4 hours of sleep going from Tuesday to Wednesday. Then it was an hour bus ride and I get super nauseated on these backroads (it's an hour away via backroads).

3. This week has broken me. Tornado watch + flooding + a Chiefs win on Monday night. Out of the classroom for a course on Tuesday. Election Tuesday. Field trip Wednesday. Veteran's Day celebration yesterday. Teacher work day today. (That Chiefs win really ticked me off.) 

4. The older I get, the less I am Team Christmas in November. What about you?

5. In case you missed it:

I read one book in October.

I found a few things on Amazon worth sharing.

Linking up for Friday Favorites

October Book.

 This sums up my reading habits lately:

In reality, I read one really great book in October. 

This was 5 stars from me. I preordered last winter lol. It came out a few weeks ago and I read it in a day or two. Totally worth your $4 on Kindle if you like her books. On Kindle Unlimited, it's free. It's one of her better ones!

There were a few books I didn't finish or have started...let's see:

God of the Woods by Liz Moore I felt like this was all set-up. I was like 20% in and still wasn't getting anywhere. I thought it'd be like the Oklahoma Girl Scout case but it wasn't. It was just kind of odd so I stopped. 

Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight I don't know that I've ever really enjoyed one of her books. I think I've made it through a couple of them but they remind me of Laura Dave and her attempt at mysteries. Someone needs to tell these authors that it's okay to use a linear timeline. 

The Wedding People by Allison Espach I am 6% into the audio and I don't know if I care. It's from the library. 

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall I am at 4%. It reminds me of a less interesting Riley Sager book. 

Meet the Parents by Emily Shiner I'm at 1%. I made it through the prologue. We'll see. 

Recommend a book! I have 3 to read to hit my year-end goal of 36. 

Linking up with Tanya! 

Amazon in October.

Bentgo trays. I grabbed two of these last week. The biggest hack out there if you're packing lunches: pack two at once. The pressure of not having to pack lunches every day is actually a big deal! So right now we have 4 boxes so I can pack two at once for each kid. We also have these ones with a built-in ice pack and we have two more on the way from Santa. What I'm saying: packing lunches takes a lot of time (why I've never done it before this year) so making it easier is a big deal in my my quality of life. 

Fluoride-free kids toothpaste. Sutton desperately wants to use Wells' toothpaste but she doesn't do the whole brush/rinse process yet so here we are. She's not happy about it. 

Nail polish. I accidentally ordered this Ella+Mila nail polish. Meaning, I put it in the cart and Scott ordered it because he thought I wanted it. I do, but it wasn't a must-buy. This was a color I thought would be a good neutral because I have this brand in other colors. I am on a non-toxic kick again and Sutton likes nail polish, so I will only let her try this or Olive and June. 

Slippers. These are more like a shoe! I won't wear them out of the house, but I like the sturdiness. 

Fingerpaints. I had to paint a pumpkin (*Wells had to paint a pumpkin*) and he had used up all of our paints over the summer so I ordered more. We use these for everything because they're washable. I have gone through so many sets in the last several years. 

Pokemon book. Wells needed a book to go with his Pokemon pumpkin. 

I started on Christmas gifts, but I'm going to do a separate post for that. 

Scott grabbed a few things for his birthday that I will report back on next month...a new hunting collar for the dog, some camera equipment for his youtube channel because he's been recording new content as he fixes things around the house...we'll see how he likes them. 

Linking up with Tanya!

6 + years of Wells and 2 1/2 years of Sutton

I haven't done a post like this in forever.  

Mostly because I do feel like kids deserve some sort of privacy and don't need to be blasted out as content. But also because the milestones are farther between as they get older. 

Wells started 1st grade this fall, a month after he turned 6 so I think he's the youngest in his class here. The cut off is August 1st and he was born in July. 

I think he really likes his independence at school this year. Last year, he was kind of fearful but now he (unfortunately) will roam and run the halls with other employees' kids. He has lots of friends and hates to go home, to be honest. 

He's reading, which he picked up on his own due to some stellar kindergarten instruction. It's really fun to hear him read signs when we're in the car or at the store. He loves to read the labels on food containers while he's eating. 

Since he's the oldest, we're still figuring things out...he has chores he loathes: unloading the dishwasher, picking up after the dogs in the yard, unloading groceries...he has homework each night (also loathes) and I find him homework if none comes home. He hates cleaning up anything, basically, and he hates going to bed but also hates getting up. Weird, right? Also, hates taking "no" for an answer. Likes to ask at least 4 times in case you say yes.

But Wells loves going places with Scott, he has FOMO and hates to miss anything social (we'd do a lot more social activities if it weren't for the toddler :), and always wants to do things that aren't "boring". He's easy to bribe and easy to take places as long as he's not being bothered by a toddler. He is very sweet and smart and figures things out on his own.

(Wells is in the kitchen making his own breakfast as I type this and I just think what a blessing him being 6 years old is.)

Sutton is the complete opposite of Wells. While she is just as stubborn, she is defiant about it. She has learned helplessness, which is our own fault, I'm sure. It's the age, but I remember being able to bribe Wells at age 2+. Sutton will not be bribed. She doesn't care. She is in it for immediate gratification. Yes, she is sweet and snuggly and kind and helpful. She also wants our complete undivided attention 100% of the time. Unless she's "busy" and tells us to leave her alone. "Busy" usually involves her and her pacifiers (plural) laying on the couch watching Daniel Tiger or building something with blocks or dealing with her shopping cart that she fills up with babies and stuffed animals and pushes them around.

She still has her pacifiers. I think maybe birthday number three will be the magic disappearance date for those. She doesn't take it to school. It'll keep her quiet in the car though since she's still rear-facing. (We'd flipped Wells to forward-facing around 22 months and Sutton is almost 32 months now. She is so much more of a baby than Wells was at this age.)

Sutton is an angel at school and a "big helper", as she calls herself. She's talking and running and doing all the things a 2.5 year old should do. She's totally potty-trained there. At home, it's a different story. We're still working on the potty...again, will not be bribed. 

Sutton is also a pickier eater than Wells was at 2 years old. She eats what I pack her for lunch but rarely eats dinner. Half the time, Wells makes himself and her a snack after school and that's their dinner and I'm fine with it. You can't make a 2 year old eat, I guess. 

All in all, we're having a successful year in 1st grade and daycare as we ride out this final year in Missouri. 

Trying to explain why she must smile for a picture if she wants to get ice cream on the way home