FYI this is what an order looks like when it’s been building for three months! Kristin lives in New Zealand and consolidates her orders for shipment to a stateside relative’s house! This goes all the way back to my birthday party month!!
A totally inferior substitute to be sure. I will never cheap out again.
I had grand plans then life happened.
The best part about today? It’s over in 21 minutes.
I just want to thank everyone who shopped with me this month. I am so very thankful for each and every one of you! When you make a purchase with my SMALL business, it means a lot for my family! And I love spoiling all of my customers, too…giving gifts is my love language.
Kim Kruse, Michelle Galvez, Cheryl Malato, Brianna Powvens, Jannie Louise Sandifer, Kristin Huff, Heidi Leafblad-Habel, Lindsey Mares, Britt Nickelsen, Rebecca Whitley, Ashley Bouchard, Pam Kozu, Stacy Bishop Stark, Anna Bennett Chang-Yen, Ann Balat Gasperini, Rachel Young Wehrle, Jackie Moens, Amber Bookhout Dennis, Leah Waters Cossarek, Suzie Girard Teal, Jami Wallis, Clarencene VanVuuren, and Monique Morrison-Meyer!
Tom accidentally knocked it off the tree when he was trying to fix something for me so I can’t even be upset!
This just means we have to go back to Mackinac Island. Hopefully this coming summer?!
It’s been somewhat clean a half day here or there but overall this is what it looks like all the time. But look who sleeps in there? Can you even see her?
THERE ARE NO RULES. Run the dishwasher twice.
RUN THE DISHWASHER TWICE.
“When I was at one of my lowest (mental) points in life, I couldn’t get out of bed some days. I had no energy or motivation and was barely getting by.
I had therapy once per week, and on this particular week I didn’t have much to ‘bring’ to the session. He asked how my week was and I really had nothing to say.
“What are you struggling with?” he asked.
I gestured around me and said “I dunno man. Life.”
Not satisfied with my answer, he said “No, what exactly are you worried about right now? What feels overwhelming? When you go home after this session, what issue will be staring at you?”
I knew the answer, but it was so ridiculous that I didn’t want to say it.
I wanted to have something more substantial. Something more profound. But I didn’t.
So I told him, “Honestly? The dishes. It’s stupid, I know, but the more I look at them the more I CAN’T do them because I’ll have to scrub them before I put them in the dishwasher, because the dishwasher sucks, and I just can’t stand and scrub the dishes.”
I felt like an idiot even saying it.
What kind of grown-ass woman is undone by a stack of dishes? There are people out there with actual problems, and I’m whining to my therapist about dishes?
But, my therapist nodded in understanding and then said:
“RUN THE DISHWASHER TWICE.”
I began to tell him that you’re not supposed to, but he stopped me.
“Why the hell aren’t you supposed to? If you don’t want to scrub the dishes and your dishwasher sucks, run it twice. Run it three times, who cares?! Rules do not exist, so stop giving yourself rules.”
It blew my mind in a way that I don’t think I can properly express.
That day, I went home and tossed my smelly dishes haphazardly into the dishwasher and ran it three times.
I felt like I had conquered a dragon.
The next day, I took a shower lying down.
A few days later, I folded my laundry and put it wherever the fuck they fit.
There were no longer arbitrary rules I had to follow, and it gave me the freedom to make accomplishments again.
Now that I’m in a healthier place, I rinse off my dishes and put them in the dishwasher properly. I shower standing up. I sort my laundry.
But, at a time when living was a struggle instead of a blessing, I learned an incredibly important lesson:
THERE ARE NO RULES.
RUN THE DISHWASHER TWICE!!!”
Author unknown
I love decorating for Christmas but the first year in a new place is always hardest because you don’t already know where everything goes and it takes longer to figure everything out.
Which wall do these kid Christmas paintings go on? Or do they lean on a shelf? Or do we not put them up this year?
What wreath fits on the door? Oh, this hanger won’t work but we can’t find the magnet. And that wreath is too thick for the storm door so where could it go instead?
And oh wait. We don’t really have a mantle like we’ve always had so my favorite mantle clips (that I bought new last year) TOTALLY won’t work.
And we don’t have spindles on our stairwell so no garland like I love. So how and where do we divvy up the four strands? Well we can put these here but we need to add another so now we have one left. If we put it there we need another (which means a trip to Costco and $30). Keep thinking.
And on and on. So after I unpacked some things…I had a glass of wine.
Check. This. Out. Look at my skin over two years.
This is using the skincare every. single. day. I didn’t use everything every single day but I did use the cleanser, daytime moisturizer, and evening moisturizer for sure. (I know the lighting is a little different but even so you can see how much it’s changed.)
I am just gobsmacked.
I know two years is a long time but you have to start with Day 1 at some time, so why not now?
My skin feels totally pampered after steaming, masking, showering, then layering on all the daily goodness (plus Nangai) and rolling (using my Jade roller from the SeneGence stress free gift set).
Happy Sunday, all!
We have plenty of room for TWO trees this year…so you can bet your butt I’m doing it!! A friend knew we didn’t have an artificial tree anymore so found one for me and then I snagged one from Amazon Vine!
I had my doubts but love how this tree turned out! My friend Britt helped me design it using a bunch of random fake berries, branches, pinecones, etc. that I had originally intended for topiary-type decorations—along with a specific selection of color-matching ornaments from our collection.
Buuuuuuut it’s just a bit small for the room (YOU THINK?!) so we are hoping to find at least a 9′ tree, if not maybe a 12′ tree on clearance after Christmas. I finally have the space for a huge tree (my bucket list!) so I’m gonna do it.
Tree number two was planned to be the more kid-friendly tree with all of our fun ornaments and crazy lights. It’s definitely not the best fake tree but once you get it zhuzhed with lights and ornaments it’s fine.
The lights are actually insane LED lights with like 12 colors that chase and flash and race and it can be quite anxiety-inducing. The kids love it (and it is cool) but when I get to pick it’s a calm purple.
This was the closest Britt and I got just for a quick pic!
Back at the house we sat outside across the deck and I was too lazy to actually remove the chair cover and it kept falling down so we joked it was our way to keep distanced.
Tom said he wanted to cut some branches or trees down so imagine my surprise when I look out and see the entire back yard covered!
Needless to say we have firewood again! (Both of these bins were empty.)
Burning some of it, even though it wasn’t warm enough to sit out and enjoy it.
Friendship means Thanksgiving dinner plate leftovers delivery at 10:30pm because we had deep dish pizza today. (And we had had a game night with a bunch of us!)
We just finished a 2 1/2 hour Zoomfest with the whole Schwalmlette and Schmittlette family! We visited and played a few trivia games
…and took our family photo.
We were going to have dinner with Anna and David but Covid kinda put a stop to that…and since the kids don’t really like any typical Thanksgiving fare, we opted against all the work and Tom made pizza (and I made mozzarella bread balls)! It was yummy!
Aaaaaand what would Thanksgiving be without…a chocolate martini…?!
When you’re on a cheese party zoom call in the kitchen you have to make do.
Playing some new online collaborative games. Quiplash is my favorite!
This seems like it would be super cool, right? Your face on a mask? I mean, look at how awesome the sample looks?!
And then look at what we got—still good right?
Totally ridiculous funhouse mirror faces. I mean seriously? Tom and I could barely stop laughing long enough to take the photo.
We showed Katie and she even laughed like WHAT THE HELL?!
Needless to say I contacted them and complained and they said sorry, the prints are fine. So I’m done shopping with that company.
Tom worked on it a bunch of hours yesterday and put the finishing touches on this morning. It’s not perfect but it’s way more then I expected!
Katie has started taking Maggie out for quick walks during her lunchtime. She even has to pick up poop!
A friend repotted some aloe babies for me. I totally spaced on the drive home and forgot I set it on the center console. I didn’t stop fast, but it was obviously unstable. My poor recently detailed car…
It took about 20 minutes to clean the car and then I did repot it and it’s doing fine.
Yep, I have to work at the table and babysit this kiddo since she’s not been in class as much as she should be. It’s a good thing I can pretty much work from anywhere.
So this just happened. The chair was already tipped over in preparation for an expected storm last week and we just hadn’t put it back yet (so that was good) but we certainly didn’t expect this.
We know we need to replace the deck eventually but it’s not in the budget right now…so it will be a quick janky fix to last through the winter.
OMG. So here’s a conversation with Katie just now as we are going over homework. After she’s been “working” on it for an hour (with me jumping in now and again to prod her to get back to work). And after we’ve already had drama about math. So I was already about at my limit with her attitude.
Katie: Has it been two weeks?
Me: Two weeks for what?
Katie: Has it been two weeks?
Me: Two weeks for what?
Katie, rolling her eyes and getting pissy: HAS IT BEEN TWO WEEKS?!
Me: Katie, we’ve talked about this. You aren’t being clear and I need more information so just repeating yourself more loudly doesn’t help.
Katie: HAS IT BEEN TWO WEEKS?!
Me, losing my shit: Yes it’s been two weeks since two weeks ago. But it’s been two months since two months ago. What are you referring to?
Katie: When we get our devices back.
Me: Why didn’t you just say that? I’m not in your head. No, you’re nowhere close.
Katie: Yes it’s been two weeks.
Me: No it hasn’t.
Katie: YES IT HAS!
Me: No it’s not. YOU wrote the date on the board. GO LOOK. Owen has two weeks. You actually have three weeks. Two weeks is the 21st. You are the 28th. Today is the 15th. It hasn’t been two weeks.
Katie, rolling her eyes and snotty: UGH. SORRRR-EEE.
I can’t even.