It’s Friday, so I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites!
Here are some favorites from the week as I look through my camera roll!
Is all Hawaiian coffee wonderful? I found this in a Costco variety box and ordered it on its own from Amazon. So good! I’m open to other coffee recommendations. Yes, I am still using k cups but I do recycle.
These are so good! Artichoke Timbales from Trader Joe’s – I had to look up “timbal” but it’s like a little pie or quiche basically. I think they are 3 WW points each. I will definitely buy these again. They are in the frozen section.
And, I can’t wait to make another Big Mac bowl. I have never ordered an actual Big Mac! This is just really good and satisfying. I don’t have a recipe but I did google Big Mac sauce and I used Greek non fat plain yogurt with a little bit of mayo to keep the calories down.
I usually talk Tom into a Sunday Funday. In the warm weather we usually boat for a few hours. In the winter, it’s a little bit harder, but we usually find something to just cap off our weekend. Last weekend my friend and I shopped and had some nachos and margaritas. It was just what I needed to be ready for Monday.
My pink lasted longer than my…
burgundy. The burgundy started peeling on one hand after about 3 days. I’m sure there is something I can be doing better. Still learning, but still happy to be learning how to do gel at home. The biggest thing is that my nails are not getting destroyed at the salon by the removal process.
My natural nails are pretty long and strong right now:
This is cute so far and it’s just what I need right now:
This was my old Cerave cleanser, but…
this is even better!
This is the dry shampoo I am using now. Love it!
This is the comb I use to tease/get more volume out of my hair. I only use the black side and don’t use the metal side.
It’s Thursday and that means it’s time for Fashion Files with Kellyann and Jill!
What have you been wearing lately? I am trying to circulate through all of my winter clothes to make sure everything gets worn. I have done numerous edits so most things are staying.
But first, some updates…
Jeans January – I started the month doing Jeans January and wearing jeans each day. I have now worn each pair at least once and some twice. I do think it served the purpose of getting me to eat more healthy foods to feel better in my jeans. Once I started making TikTok videos I didn’t want to always be in jeans, so I have pretty much let that go.
23 in 2023 – I have already bought more than two new things this month that I will show you soon. But, I also had Christmas money to spend. I have not gone off the rails yet, but I could with an order I am waiting on. Oh well!
Old Navy – I had not bought much from here in maybe the last two years, but I am having a moment. Their stuff seems of higher quality now. Anyone else think that?
Vaugu London– Still waiting on my order of two dresses and a top. I saw an IG ad for the cutest dress and they advertise as “being made for women’s bodies”. I absolutely hate to mail returns back so that’s a big dread if the things don’t work. I placed my order about 10 days ago, so we will see.
Monday I started the week off with black hearts:
Tuesday was more black and an old Norstrom bat wing sweater:
It’s time for the last Wednesday of the month’s What’s Up Wednesday with Sheaffer and Shay!
So what’s up with you? Here’s what’s up with me!
What We’re Eating
I made a Big Mac bowl for Erica and I to have for lunch on one of my days this week. Yum!
I made Shay’s bacon and tomato pasta and you have got to make this! This was dinner for Tom and I and a lunch for Erica and I at school. It was also very easy. I can’t wait to make this again. I made it with whole wheat pasta and I made Tom’s with angel hair.
We also ate chili and tacos that I had made over the weekend.
What I’m Reminiscing About
I am kinda nostalgic for the 6 of us – my two sisters and the three guys. We all loved Kate’s first ex-husband (sorry again, Kate!) Kate is the blonde and is the middle child, and Molly is the one on the right and the baby.
I also found this picture. Tom wishes he still had that hair and I wish I still had that body. We can’t all have what we want, though, can we now?
Alexa announced that Tom’s hair products had arrived yesterday and I said, “Alexa, does Tom have hair?” She responded with…
“Hmmmm, I’m not sure.”
Exactly, Alexa!
What I’m Loving
I discovered this Hawaiian coffee in a variety box from Costco and I love it! I ordered more from Amazon.
I changed out my pale pink home gel mani to…
burgundy.
What We’ve Been Up To
Tom and I went to eat Cuban Saturday night and each had a salad with grilled chicken.
It’s hard to say no to plantain chips and guacamole.
Then, on Sunday afternoon I asked my friend to have a bit of a Sunday Funday and we shopped in a few boutiques and then had $5 margaritas (as good or better than mine) and…
homemade potato chip nachos!
Apparently this place offers $5 Bloody Marys and $5 margaritas all day Saturday and Sunday. It is a locally owned pizza place with more than just pizza called Boombozz. They have really unique pizzas, too, and have won lots of awards.
What I’m Dreading
A few stressful things happening this spring at school. Some testing I am involved with is one of them and another one is a relatively new club that I am in charge of.
What I’m Working On
All of my classes are having food days. I bought a plantain to fry up just for fun. Fried food doesn’ t reheat well so I try to steer them away from that.
What I’m Excited About
When am I not excited about this? My happy place! I love being able to sit on my patio. I had a lovely afternoon this weekend with a jam jar of wine, a candle, and a book.
A few little Valentine’s touches…
What I’m Watching/Reading
I started this on Netflix and I’m really liking it!
You all were so sweet and complimentary about my last story time that I thought I would do it again. Did I ever tell you that I got the Teacher Superlative last year for “Most Likely to Have a Talk Show”? Ha!
So, this story is a little different than last week’s that highlighted my sister’s thoughtful and touching gesture to me.
And, I can’t believe I found photos from this very day!
My Dad, the pilotTom was co-pilot for part of the time, at leastI guess Tom got fired from co-pilot and didn’t want his picture taken
My Dad was a pilot in the Air Force and then flew for a private chemical company in my hometown. The owner of the company was also a pilot and liked to fly his salespeople and engineers to different places where they did business. My Dad had so much fun with this job after retiring from the military and everyone felt so confident with him at the helm as a former fighter pilot.
One of the perks of the job was that my Dad got to use the plane for personal use sometimes. On this occasion my mom was teaching in China for a semester with a special program, but the rest of my family at the time was heading to a family gathering about 45 minutes away by plane.
Tom was co-pilot for most of the flight because he had dreams of flying, too. My sister Molly and her boyfriend (now husband) Jason were in the plane, Kate and her first ex-husband (sorry, Kate!) were in the plane, and I think I brought up the rear. I think the plane was a 6 or 8 seater, so it wasn’t very big.
We had packed food for the family gathering that consisted of cookies, dips, and several bags of chips. The food was all behind the seats of the plane.
It was a very turbulent flight and I was white knuckling it. I think it was winter and it was very windy. I’m a nervous flyer. There was no flight attendant to bring me alcohol and I hadn’t provided my own.
I guess I was chatting with my sisters and suddenly we heard a loud pop. I thought for sure a wing had been hit by something or the engine had blown. It was that loud. I looked up toward the cockpit and my Dad and Tom looked normal and were not panicking. My sisters and I looked at each other wide-eyed but nothing seemed amiss.
I happened to turn around and could see that all the bags of chips were open at the top. That was what the loud pop was! The air pressure opened them all at the same time! Whew! It was a bit embarrassing arriving with opened bags of chips swearing that we didn’t eat out of them on the plane. But, luckily there was no aircraft emergency.
The crazy crew from the plane rideWe look so young!
And I will leave you with a dip recipe. I know I had a dip to take to this gathering because I’m a dip girl!
Easy Taco Dip:
2 packages of cream cheese (can use light)
16 oz sour cream (can use light)
I pkg./envelope taco seasoning
Blend together and top with chopped tomatoes, shredded Mexican cheese, and bell pepper, olives, and jalapeños if desired. You can really top with anything you like.
Serve with tortilla chips.
I think you will be surprised by how yummy this combo is!
If you are still here, thanks for listening to my story time!
Ok, you all – now we start a stretch of 4 five day weeks but in a way it’s a good thing. The kids need their routine, I need my routine, and I have a lot of fun things planned. We have Cultural Experiences in all my classes – that is my educational term for FOOD DAY! It is for a grade and they have to cook an authentic dish from any Spanish speaking country. We have some fun Valentine’s vocabulary to learn, and some fun Valentine’s speaking activities to do so it’s all good, but it will also be exhausting in the best way. If you are a teacher or have been one – you know what I mean!
I am linking up today with Sarah and Holly for Hello Monday!
But, first, I want to thank you for all the great information you gave me in regard to my Cleaning post here. I can’t believe how much you all wanted to talk about cleaning! Love that!
I also want to thank you for the sweet words about my surprise gift from my sister here. I told her to go back and read the comments. I just think I have the kindest, more supportive readers out there. I didn’t post the story to shine any light on me, but to share how thoughtful she was. It was a reminder to me to pay it forward.
Also, an update on my Tik Tok status…I hope you know I’m not taking this too seriously at all! I have now posted 7 videos with a grand total of 32 million views between all of them. What the heck? I seriously thought I would have 50 views and they would be my students.
I went to talk to my principal about it after the first couple videos went “viral”. I had to look up what that even meant. I opened with, “So, I’ve accidentally gone viral on Tik Tok” and he loves it and is supportive of it. If you know Spanish, I have posted videos about pronunciation of the two LLs, the H, the C and G, and about when to use por or para, the verbs ir and ser in the simple past tense, and the present subjunctive tense.
After all that teaching Spanish last week, I needed a Friday after school margarita! Oh yeah! This is supposed to be skinny, but who knows?
My cordless Shark had arrived! Blue was the cheapest so blue it was! I couldn’t use it Friday because it had to charge. Friday night Tom had a Totino’s pizza and I had random fridge leftovers. I went to bed at 9 so I was up with the birds on Saturday and ready to clean! I love my new Shark! I cleaned the whole main level of the house while listening to podcasts. I used the powdered Tide with hot water and my Swiffer with the wet mopping pads that don’t have anything on them. It felt good to have a clean house at the beginning of the weekend.
I ran errands that included Trader Joe’s wine shop, Trader Joe’s, an Old Navy online return, the library, and Walmart Neighborhood Market (just the grocery of a Walmart).
I bought a new item at Trader Joe’s in the freezer section that is like an artichoke fritter and it is delish! I also made a small Spanish omelette. This was my breakfast and lunch.
I spent time putting all the stuff away and then J and M came home to host some friends in the basement. I made them ham and swiss sliders.
It warmed up enough for me to get my outside time reading on the patio.
I used my candle my niece made me, a bottle of wine that Elizabeth decorated for me, and I enjoyed the wine out of a tiny jam jar. Love drinking out of mason and jam jars. Do you? I had also cleaned out my candle collection and my pantry – two things I had needed to do!
I got a photo of one of my cutie nieces going to winter homecoming:
I fixed myself up a bit to go to eat at Mojito en Havana with Tom. Tom is behind me but it looks like my hair has a big crease in it!
I got to use my clutch!
Plantain chips and guac!
Mojito!
Tom and I both got salads with chicken but we each got a different salad. Their salads are to die for.
We came home and watched a bit of telly.
I went to bed early again but I slept in a bit more than on Saturday. Then, I was so surprised to wake up to snow!
I started this book:
I did burritos and one egg mcmuffin for my breakfast prep:
I also made chili for our dinner and prepped a couple of other things.
Tom went out to work on my car and looked kinda funny:
His assistant Ernie was also ready to go. My car heater hasn’t been working properly so Tom thinks he knows what is wrong.
Oh Friday- I could kiss you! It’s time for the favorite link up of the week right here!
It’s been a long short week, you know? As much as I love a short week, I always feel off my routine and a bit discombobulated. I love that word. Tom asked me when I ever feel combobulated when I told him this. Is this a word? It should be!
Looking through my camera roll, here is what made me smile this week…
I love this book! This will be the first book of 2023 that I am able to finish. It really should be made into a rom com.
I also love the fact that I have walked Ernie each day after school and had time to spend on my patio reading. The fresh air gives me life. I have to admit that a mild January has also helped. I know we do have true winter coming, but I think I will be better prepared mentally after having this milder weather.
I also love that it’s staying light out longer!
Tom found this show and we’ve been enjoying it together:
Walking with Ernie while I talk on the phone or listen to a podcast:
I rarely think to cook shrimp, but I got some at Fresh Market and put it on top of a salad with a simple dressing this week:
I also got some already cooked cocktail shrimp and I can vouch that this is an amazing cocktail sauce:
I can vouch for all of the Primal products I have tried so far.
Jen reminded me of Dave’s Killer thin sliced bread. This is the perfect avocado toast bread. I have had this for my after school snack this week. I have to keep it in the freezer because I use a loaf up so slowly.
Here is what my avocado toast looks like:
One of my lunches for Erica and I was a roasted Greek bowl with carrots and radishes from the weekend:
Erica made lentil soup with…
Indian Butter Chicken:
Erica loves Indian food and has been making more of it at home. I have not had much and I am enjoying her Indian dishes.
I made my funfetti cake but only used half. You seriously cannot tell this is healthier. So good! If you want to just make half, the cake mix is 3 cups worth so you just measure out 1.5 cups, use half a cup of water, half a cup of non-fat plain Greek yogurt and mix it all together. It bakes at 350 for about 25 minutes.
My friend Heather dropped this pretty candle off for me because I made her meals last week. Wasn’t that sweet? She didn’t need to do that.
Also, I enjoyed my pale pink home gel mani this week. I feel like I’m getting better at it.
It’s Thursday and that means Fashion Files link up day with Kellyann and Jill.
Friday, I wore my favorite jeans right now – Target Universal Thread in black – with my Gucci-esque Amazon sweater and my new green Amazon laces in my Madewell sneaks. Seriously, if you need jeans, I say go on Target.com and order a few sizes and styles of Universal Thread jeans. These are the quality of Madewell in my opinion. I am comparing them to Madewell because that is the only higher priced brand I have tried on in the last year besides my Wit and Wisdom flares.
Saturday I wore my bright pink sweater again to go eat Mexican – along with my tequila earrings – when in Rome! I also wore my Wit and Wisdom flare jeans with my Hush Puppies beige pumps that look like J.Crew. Sorry I didn’t get a full length photo.
Trader Joe’s bathroom selfie! Why do I always use their restroom? I wore old leggings with my Shu Shops and my new Old Navy cropped polo sweatshirt. Highly recommend!
I don’t think I wore anything special on Sunday, but on Monday I threw this on to wear my grey jeans. I don’t like the white of the cow loafers with the faux fur vest. I have too many animals going on. I just ran up to Fresh Market, so I wasn’t that concerned.
For school Tuesday, I broke my Jeans January and wore Matilda Janes. Did I hear that Cabi bought them? Matilda Jane was going to be no more, but I think I heard that Cabi is going to resurrect the brand. I wore my current favorite star cardigan.
And, I broke Jeans January again for school on Wednesday and wore leggings with Lucky booties and my TJ Maxx sheer sleeved sweater with scalloped neckline. That’s fun to say!
I will tell you why I broke Jeans January; it’s for my Tik Tok career – lol. I was making some more videos and didn’t want to be in jeans. It was a self-imposed rule so I am ok with it. I will wear jeans again at the end of the week.
Has anyone ordered from Vaugu? I gasped when I saw this print below:
I was further intrigued when I read their tagline about clothes for a woman because that would mean that they account for someone having a chestal region to deal with. We shall see. I ordered two dresses and a top. I know that I am also doing 23 in 2023, but a girl has got to live her life! I haven’t kept anything yet! My sister told me I shouldn’t do 23 in 2023! I did so well for two weeks! He, he!
I think I might need these for spring and summer?
I also probably need to stop following Things I Bought and Liked on IG!
Anyway, now you think less of me for breaking my JJ and potentially my 23 in 2023. What have you been wearing? We have had 40s, 50s, and even one day in the 60s. I know the real winter is coming. I can feel it. We get the worst of our winter in February, usually. These temps have made it both easier and harder to dress.
This blog post may bore you to tears! You’ve been warned.
I love to cook, but I will admit that cleaning is not my favorite. That being said, I love a clean house. I hate clutter and I love the smell of “clean”.
I have had a cleaning person twice. The first time was $250 for the whole house for the first visit and I wasn’t that impressed. The second time I can’t remember how much it was and it was a different person. I didn’t know the person yet so I stayed there and it just felt weird. Hiring someone is not in the budget and I also think I want to do it myself (with Tom). Or, I want to have a better division of labor. He really can’t do much during the week because he doesn’t get home until 6:00. He does almost all of the Ernie related jobs.
Tom is a great cleaner, but he doesn’t do it often enough for me and he takes an extremely long time. And, like I said, he can really only do it on the weekends. I would like to not fill my weekends with all the cleaning tasks.
I know there are different schools of thought – some like to have the whole house clean at the same time. I am ok with dividing the tasks so that it isn’t so overwhelming on any given day.
It definitely helps that there are only two humans making messes now.
I am really working to improve my skills and my efficiency.
I bought this booklet/pad on Amazon:
This is what it looks like inside (same as the cover):
It doesn’t fit my plan, but I like the idea of checking off boxes.
Here is my tentative plan:
Everyday – Load and unload dishwasher, cook dinner and clean up, pick up after myself, wipe down bathroom counter and shower glass every time I use these areas.
Monday – Dust
Tuesday – vacuum, sweep and mop kitchen and mudroom
Wednesday – grocery pick up, unload groceries and clean out fridge freezer to some degree
Thursday – my laundry (one load), water plants (Thirsty Thursday), collect trash because Friday is trash day
Friday – Really don’t want to do anything on this day!
Saturday – sheets and towels (one to two loads)
Sunday – bigger cleaning tasks with Tom as needed, meal prep
Other things I am trying/debating:
-Trying to have less so I have less to clean
-Buying the best and most efficient cleaning products. I would like a cordless stick vac and I am debating the O-Cedar mop system. I only have the kitchen and mudroom to mop and currently use Swiffer mopping pads. Is it worth it? Also, where do I store the bucket when not in use? I don’t have lots of space. We have a Dyson Animal currently for vacuuming
-I want the cleanest cleaners (less toxic) but I don’t like the smell of vinegar and I want the products to work. I love the smell of bleach. Ha!
Saturday, I went to Trader Joe’s and as I was returning home, I noticed a Fed Ex truck in my driveway. The driver carried a very big box to my front porch.
I could see it said “full length mirror” on the outside of the box so I thought Tom had ordered it for our bathroom, the new hall bathroom, or our bedroom. We had just received our new hall bathroom vanity, so it made sense.
I went inside and told Tom his box was on the porch. He said he didn’t order anything but went out to get the box and bring it inside. It said my name and address on the box so we knew it wasn’t meant for a neighbor. Tom’s theory was that I was browsing online and accidentally clicked “buy”. He also thought maybe I online shop in my sleep. Wow, Tom!
I googled the return address, but it was just the shipping center. Then, I looked up the brand Neutypechic and really liked all their mirror products, but I had never been to their website. We decided not to open it until we could figure out the mystery behind the box. I think I was planning to call the company next.
About an hour later my sister Kate texted a picture of the same box and said, “Did you get this?” Well, that solved the mystery, but why did she send it?
She said “Amazon wouldn’t allow me to put a note in it, but I would have said, ‘thank you for always seeing me and listening to me. Every time someone asks me how I got through all my mess, my answer is always – my sister got me through it.”
She wanted me to have a better mirror for outfit photos at home because she sees me and knows that is important to me.
Not a blog worthy outfit:
It fits perfectly in my bathroom in the space and with the decor. I think Tom likes having it, too!
I am still so touched.
I was given permission by her to share this. Her divorce was just finalized and the judge who decreed it via Zoom was named James Brown. She said she “feels good”! She bought her own house and is killing the single mom (shared custody) life and is the strongest person I know. I could tell you much more because her life has been like a Lifetime movie – seriously – if you have watched The Cheese Gal’s story, Kate’s might rival it. She is also an amazing elementary art teacher and kills it at work, too.
It would have been much easier for her to just keep the status quo, but she did the brave and hard thing and I am so proud of her.
I am so glad she is my sister, but if she wasn’t, I would definitely want her to be my friend.
Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday, but…
I’m off today as we observe MLK, Jr. Day. I will give you a quote that hopefully you won’t see elsewhere:
“Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
I like that and we don’t do enough character education (if any) after middle school.
Thank you for all the kind words and encouragement about my new TikTok career – ha!
I had a thought regarding it. Things that you try in life do not have to be forever. You can try something and decide you did it and move on. I guess this is not that profound, but it’s helping me to have a mindset of “this is what I am doing/trying/what is working now”. Do you have anything like that in your life currently?
Let’s go back to Friday and my 20 minute lunch! Erica was on deck for our lunch and she made a spicy whole wheat pasta with chicken, tomatoes, basil and some other stuff and it was good!
After school, we met up with Elizabeth who is starting a new job/career on Tuesday and we wanted to celebrate her.
Cheers!
If you are local, Spring Street Bar and Grill has reopened and the co-owner is an alum of my school. We talked about having a teacher happy hour there in a few weeks and he was excited and said he would create a signature cocktail! You know how I love to plug locally owned places. I also talk to pretty much everyone so this is how I found out.
We ordered some hot pepper cheese balls with horseradish (highly recommend) and some…
fries with a really good nacho cheese that was more like a queso that I didn’t get in the photo.
This is not a bougie place at all. The drinks were amazing and well priced. They are said to have one of the best old-fashioneds in town and it was hopping at 3:00! Love that!
My kids had a long weekend and texted that they were coming home. They wanted mediterranean from our favorite Shiraz and we never did get it over the Winter Break. I picked it up on the way home and discovered that within the location I go to there is a little Cuban bakery, also. How cool is that?
After dinner, Tom and I went to my school’s talent show. I had two students singing that I wanted to see.
And, it snowed a bit Friday night! Ernie loved it!
Saturday morning I had a nice time with a very un-crowded Trader Joe’s.
Do not buy these if you don’t want to be tempted. So good!
Finally – the J.Crew Factory opened next to Trader Joe’s. I came home with a few little things that were deeply discounted – earrings, a hat, and some socks.
When I got home I roasted some radishes. That’s normal, right? Oh – my oven died on Thursday so I used my air fryer. I’m so glad I have it as a back up.
Then, I roasted some honey balsamic carrots.
I cleaned, did laundry, did the sheets. took down the two pencil trees (sad), put up the Valentine’s decor, vacuumed, and more.
Then, I went out to TJ Maxx(for coffee syrup) and Liquor Barn (for Tom’s beer cheese). I left all other temptations in the stores, but TJ Maxx has tons of V Day decor. I was proud of myself for being content with what I had.
I came home with 4 new syrups (3 were in a pack).
While I was out, I got an offer for Tom and I to go meet our friends at a Mexican place. He didn’t feel up to it and had started some big projects late afternoon, but I still went. I wore my tequila earrings!
I got some grilled chicken with some cheese on top and some rice.
I was only out for a little over an hour.
Sunday morning felt like another Saturday!
I made myself a little breakfast after enjoying my new coffee syrup.
Then, my kids were home for a long holiday weekend and Mason and I went to a different coffee shop. Another shop, another Plato book. Should I be worried?
We spent a nice hour there while I looked at my agenda book and meal planned. I think coffee shops in the winter are absolutely divine.
When we got home, I did some low key ingredient prep, but didn’t feel the pressure to go hard with having another day off.
It felt so good to have my house in order with my V Day decor up, you know?
Then I read outside in the sun for much of the afternoon. I made Greek bowls for dinner and did a home gel mani. I watched New Girl while I did it – so good!
Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa 