Nadine

Well, we are about through the first week of February! Are you going to watch the super bowl this weekend? I don’t really care about either team, I am going to be there for the commercials and half time show…and a good reason to eat the delicious things. I grabbed a football shaped pizza and two different kind of cheese stuffed pretzels from Aldi, along with two heart shaped cheeses.

We can call that my favorite Aldi find for the week! The raspberry white chocolate cheese is amazing. I may have accidently opened and ate some of that last night. Oops. I am also going to make homemade salsa and guac, because duh! You have to have dips! Aldi also had football plates for $1.99 for a 20 count, so I grabbed some of those as well. Not doing dishes for one meal sounds like a dream come true.

Favorite Purchases: I had mentioned some issues with Zoe and clothing lately. Some of her favorite dresses from last year were from H&M. It is one of the only things in her closet that she will put on without a fight. I know that their prints can sell out really fast, so I hopped on their site and ordered 7 of these cotton sundresses in various prints/colors. It makes my life a hell of a lot easier. Also, they are under $5, holla!!!!! They have some really cute heart prints for v-day, star prints for Memorial Day/4th of July, and a really really cute bunny print for Easter right now. Along with their usual fruits, unicorns, florals and other cute ones! H&M and Target are my favorite places to get clothes for Zoe. Here is Zoe in her bunny dress…she doesn’t need Easter to wear her peep headband, obviously. My favorite part, is that I can usually get 2 years out of their clothes with the sizing they do. And if that isn’t a major win, I don’t know what is?!

I am enjoying this Sky High mascara I grabbed last week. I always do a full face of makeup on Mondays for my weekly zoom meeting with my team, and other days I try to at least but on a little mascara and some lip gloss. Give myself the illusion that I am put together. I love how thin the brush on this one is, zero clumping issues. Also, the packaging is gorgeous!

Favorite Recipe: I made everything chicken last night. It is really a no fuss meal. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, melt some butter and spread over chicken breasts. Sprinkle with everything but bagel seasoning and cook for 30 minutes. Mix together a half a block of cream cheese, a tbsp of butter, some green onion and 1/4 cup of half and half in a bowl and spread over the chicken when it comes out of the oven. Sprinkle with a little more everything seasoning BOOM! DONE!

Favorite Workout: I really enjoyed this super set workout I did yesterday. I burned a lot of calories and was sweating by the end. I killed every workout this week and am feeling super pumped about it today. Having a loose plan really helps me stay on track.

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up for Friday Favorites. I hope you have a great weekend!

Today I wanted to share some body care products that I have finished and loved! Well, mostly loved. I feel like one of these is over hyped. Have you used any of these products? Loving anything new lately?

Flamingo Shaving Cream – This is my favorite shaving cream. You can grab it from Target or Amazon. It does the shop, smells nice, and I tend to not have any irritation or cuts when I use it.

Harry’s Body Wash in Fig – This is my favorite body wash. I know it is “mens” but I love the smell of both the fig and stone body washes. Chris and I both have sensitive skin, Chris more than me. There aren’t a lot of scented products he can use without irritating his skin. This works for both of us and can be found on Amazon and at Target. LOVE. We have been using this for about two years now. The best.

Cremo Shave Cream in French Lavender – There was so much hype to this stuff, and I have to say…I was a little disappointed. This shaving cream is alright. It worked find, smelled decent…but there is nothing special about it. I would use it again, but I actually prefer the Flamingo one.

Its a 10 Miracle Leave-In Product – This stuff was just ok. I honestly didn’t really notice much difference in my hair while using it, other than helping to detangle a little. I won’t be purchasing it again. There is much better stuff out there for the price! I highly suggest Shu Uemura’s Shiki Worker Multi-Benefit Hair Primer. After switching to this stuff, I noticed a difference the first day! It is for all hair types and is supposed to be a hair primer that detangles, tames frizz, and leaves hair with a smooth, silky texture. And it does all of those things while smelling delightful.

Vivian Gray Lotus & Rose Cream Soap – This stuff smells incredible and is my absolute favorite hand soap to have in my bathroom. I grabbed my bottle at HomeGoods quite awhile ago, but good luck finding it there regularly. you know? I am so glad Amazon has it.

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water – I have gone through several bottles of this stuff. I use it at night to remove makeup before cleansing my face. It works fine and does a good job at taking off my eye makeup as well. I use these reusable cotton rounds with it, and these are wonderful. I have had them for 2 years and washed a million times and they have held up nicely.

Linking up with Tanya for another round of Amazon finds. I seem to always have enough items to share each month. Let me know if you have any of these things, or if you found something extra amazing recently!

Ring Light – After almost a year of working from home, I finally ordered a ring light for my office. I noticed during book club last week how awful I look because of the lighting in my office when the sun isn’t full blast outside. I wanted to look better for my work Zoom meetings too. I love this because it is perfect for my laptop, but came with something to hold my phone as well! It has a remote, and various shades and dimming/bright features to really get the best light for you. This was such a great deal! You could also turn it into a selfie stick, if you are into that sort of thing.

Meat Chopper – Everyone claims these are life changing. I had one of my spatulas that I usually use for this type of cooking break on me recently so I figured, why not? I am not going to say it is life changing, but I find myself grabbing it for any type of ground meat cooking. It definitely makes life easier. And there are pretty colors. I am a sucker for pretty thing.

COFACE Slides – I saw Things I Bought and Liked and Lindsay both post about these slipper slides. I am obsessed with my Vionic slippers I got over the summer. I still wear them daily, but they are fuzzy on the bottom and dry out my feet a little. Also, they are pretty heavy/clunky to walk around in. These are foam bottom and much lighter. No fur on bottom, so they don’t get gross. They are comfortable and I like to switch them out with my Vionic ones from time to time…but they are no where near as supportive. Nothing is as good as the Vionic ones, and they are well worth the price. I think these are a great option for those who don’t suffer from PF or high arches, and are just looking for some house shoes. I like to wear them, but I need to where my Vionics when I am having a painful day. Which is almost every day these days.

SB Compression Sox – Along the same lines as the slippers, the pain is getting unbearable in my right foot. No matter how much I roll my feet, stretch, wear my slippers, etc. the pain is about a 7 or 8 most days by the end of the day. Someone suggested socks like these to me. I bought a pair to try out, and after 2 days, ordered more so I can make it between laundry runs with them. I only wear one on my problem foot and it really does help. I wear it from the time I wake up until I go to bed. If you are having some foot pain, this is definitely worth checking out.

Pinkalicious Pink of Hearts – I grabbed this book for Zoe for Valentine’s day. I think Pinkalicious is so cute.

Hello Floss – It sounds silly, but this is my favorite floss. Sometimes it is hard to find at Target…so I grabbed a three pack from Amazon.

Premier Protein – Some days I really struggle with protein. I like protein smoothies….but sometimes I just want to grab something that is easy. I love to mix one of these caramel Premier Protein Shakes in a cup with ice and some cold brew coffee. It is delicious, reminds me of a Frappacino or latte without all the sugar..and I am still getting caffeine from my coffee.

Happy February! I always feel like January lasts three months long for some reason. I think after all the excitement of Thanksgiving and Christmas back to back and then the sadness when it is over and you have to put away all the joyous decor and realize you have a whole new year ahead of you, and if you are like me…lots of healthy eating in your future as you try to get your shit together again….it is just a lot. January is still usually our busy time at work as well, as we close out deals that couldn’t happen in December.

Anyways, this weekend we had a little rain…but we also had some gorgeous weather yesterday afternoon! We took full advantage and spent the morning out on our deck, the afternoon driving around downtown and the evening walking and playing outside. A lot of you were posting pictures of snow days, and we were enjoying a sunny 68 degrees! Don’t worry, the high here is 37 today…so that was short lived. I hate dramatic changes in temperature like that!

We even got a little golf in. Zoe loves dragging this set out to play. We have had it since she was 2 and it has definitely gotten its use!

I made some baked oatmeal bar Saturday morning to snack on. This has been one of my favorite things to make lately! The link for the recipe is here, I found it from a Whitney Simmons video. I don’t even have tik tok on my phone lol. I literally mix it up in the dish I am cooking it in, so it comes together real fast, has minimal clean up, and is seriously delicious!

We had hot dogs for lunch Saturday, and I grilled filets for dinner. It had been awhile since we had steaks, and man were they good! We have a little hot dog toaster that is similar to this one. They turn out perfect every single time! I love that you can toast the buns too, game changer really.

Yesterday we had tacos for lunch, and I had cooked ribs all day in the crock pot, then finished them off in the oven. They were amazing as well!!! I even made homemade fries in the air fryer to go with them. The meat was falling off the bones, just the way I like it.

Other than that, I spent the mornings trying to catch up with work before Zoe woke up. I did a good cleaning of the kitchen and bathrooms Saturday, and we got to see Chris’s parents some this weekend. I have a few house projects in mind that I want to work on, so I had been scouring the internet in search of items to make it happen. I really want to set up a coffee bar off our kitchen to free up the mug cabinet and get the coffee stuff off the counter. I think it would be cool to do some functional shelving above for decor, but also storage for some baking products.

I would also like to start decorating our house. Now that we have lived here for a year, I sort of know what I would like to see in some of the areas. I may start small in my office, and work my way around. Zoe’s room and our half bathroom are the only rooms we have finished. I like to look for pieces that I really love and have some type of meaning to me. I don’t like to just throw up anything on the walls, or have a certain theme or style that I stick to. It is why it takes me so long picking things out, to be honest. How do you decorate? Do you pick a theme, style, color combo and stick to it? Or are you more organic and just go with things you like and hope it works? Sometimes I buy one piece that really speaks to me, and then it takes me a year to find something else for the space that will look good with it.

Hey there friends, happy Friday. Not that Friday means a whole lot around here. The other day Zoe asked me, “What is tomorrow?” And before I could answer she said “The same as today, right?” Yup. She gets it. I have seen a few people post about burnout lately, and I am feeling it big time. Juggling all the things for this long is taking a major toll on me. My anxiety and stress levels are through the roof. Yes, I am grateful to be lucky enough to be able to work from home and blah blah blah. But you guys, this shit is hard. I am mentally exhausted and quite frankly, a bit unwell. I just want to do something…anything. Hug my mom, walk around Target, not think about masks, death, politics, any of it. And I really just want to work without a million interruptions in my day.

A highlight of the week for Zoe came yesterday when we got a special package from Carly in the mail! I had won a giveaway when she was having a book party for new releases. Zoe LOVES the Usborne books we have purchased through her. I definitely want to grab a few more to add to her Easter basket. Message Carly if you need some book suggestions for your little one. She does such a great job picking things out for Zoe.

Zoe and I have also been enjoying coming up with fun things to make with a $5 bucket of Valentine’s Day craft supplies that I grabbed from Target a few weeks ago. Target has definitely stepped up their game on the seasonal crafts for kids. I have gotten something from them for Halloween, Christmas and Valentines and they have been favorites.

Favorite Skincare Find: A few months ago I received the Ice Ceramide Moisturizing Cream from Sunday Riley to review. The campaign for it (me writing a review on a retailer site) is long over, but I wanted to talk about it now that I have had it a few months. I have to say, I am quite impressed. Initially I wasn’t too sure about it. It is scented and the first two times I used it, I noticed a little redness around my cheeks. (My skin is super sensitive.) But after that, I never saw any redness again.

My skin was really dry before I had gotten this product. I had went from combination skin (heavy oil around my t-zone, dry on my cheeks) to mostly all dry. Now that I have been using this every morning for the last few months, I don’t have any dryness at all anywhere on my face. It is the only thing I have changed. I really love the packaging, it comes with a sturdy spatula so you don’t have to dip your fingers into the jar. The Auto Correct Eye Cream has also been really nice. I never really had an eye cream that I thought did anything for me. This one is super moisturizing and has kept that area from pealing, as it tends to do in the winter. I don’t notice anything with with ever present dark circles, but it does tend to depuff the area and I have noticed a slight decrease in the depth of my fine lines. Between these two products, it makes me want to try more from this line. I will definitely be repurchasing the Ice moisturizer when this one is gone.

Favorite Aldi Finds: Aldi had some more homeschooling stuff this week. Over the summer, I grabbed some awesome workbooks and playdough kits to work in with our lesson plans. This week, they had some number and letter puzzles and several wipe clean books. We have a few letter/word books already, so I grabbed a number one and a mathematics puzzle.

I also grabbed a football shaped pizza for the super bowl, and a box of fun little cheese cubes that were Valentine’s Day themed.

Favorite Recipe – Skinnytaste’s Stuffed Pepper Soup is a favorite in this house. The soup was steaming in the picture above haha. DELICIOUS! I like to make brown rice to go at the bottom of the bowl. Last weekend we had chicken street tacos using a recipe out of this cookbook. And Cajun Chicken Pasta, that I haven’t made in forever. Zoe surprisingly loved the pasta! I was shocked, as she doesn’t tend to eat anything that has much spice in it. She also enjoyed the Stuffed Pepper Soup, but I had to pick the peppers out of her bowl lol.

Favorite Workout: There are days that I absolutely do not feel like doing mat work. You know the stuff..planks, pushups, walking planks, burpees, shoulder taps, etc. Yesterday was one of those days. Enter the standing workout! This one is only about 20 minutes and I still broke out into a sweat! I added in a walk after, and hit my move and exercise goal for the day. And I didn’t have to pull that yoga mat out of the closet or get down on the floor, yay!

Favorite Funnies: