I normally include books in my updates, but I’m in the middle of Troubled Blood (The 5th Cormoran Strike novel). It’s almost 1000 pages so I’m giving myself a break on that one. Hopefully I can set aside some time this coming month to do some serious reading. I really miss it, but with my kids home all of the time, it’s hard to find time to read. I can’t even go to the bathroom alone most days! Haha!
Products I’ve Been Using
- Me Care Bourbon Infused Bodyline- I was so excited to receive these products to try out! They came in the cutest wooden crate, too. I have to say the Cherry Bomb scent is my FAV! It’s cherry almond and smells amazing! I love how light and fluffy it is! My hubby is a fan of the Amber Glow. It could definitely be a unisex fragrance. It has a lovely amber and musk scent. I have a feeling the sugar scrub will disappear from my cabinet in the near future! The brand carries soaps and bath bombs, too. They are committed to 100% natural products that are paraben and cruelty free and are clean and sustainable. Their products are made in small batches in the USA. I didn’t know this before, but bourbon acts as an astringent while cleansing skin by removing bacteria and impurities tightening skin for a younger appearance. If you are looking for some stocking stuffers, these are fun and unique, high-quality products!
- Scent Beauty– I’m kind of a scent snob and very picky about what I wear. I’m really enjoying the Scent Beauty fragrances I’ve been receiving. My favorites so far are from their Scent Organix line. So Serene has a lovely green tea scent. I Am Bright is sunny and slightly tropical. I Am Radiant reminds me of springtime with the hyacinth and lily of the valley. I can’t wait to get the Rise and Shine fragrance from this line! They are all really quality scents and would make wonderful gifts, too!
Recipes I’ve Tried
- Parmesan Spaghetti Squash– I like this a lot and added some browned turkey and extra sauce!
- Sausage and Bean Soup– easy and good, but needed more seasoning
- Prosciutto Pasta with Peas and Parmesan Cheese– Claire and Matt especially like this recipe. Apparently we have a little prosciutto fan in our family!
- Baked Chicken Gnocchi with Garlic Cream Sauce– I was surprised how tender the chicken was! This was a hit!
- Pumpkin Squares with Cinnamon Frosting– If you haven’t been able to find canned pumpkin in stores, I may be contributing to that problem. I loved this! The cinnamon frosting takes it to another level!
- Brownie Cheesecake– I’m not a big cheesecake fan, but my hubby is so I thought I would try it for him. I cheated and got a pre-made crust. The ganache on top was so good! Even I enjoyed this cheesecake!
Currently
- Baking- I haven’t started my Christmas baking yet, but I’m thinking about it. I normally try to do a batch or two a week to spread it out and then freeze them. Since we won’t be giving to neighbors this year I will probably pare it down a bit.
- Decorating- Gosh I love Christmas decorating! Since we aren’t hosting Thanksgiving this year, we started decorating about 2 weeks earlier than we normally do and I am loving it! Of course tweaking a few things this year with the extra time to make it more cohesive and buying a few other things because, why not?!
- Gifting- If you haven’t checked out my gift guides yet, you can find them for HER, HIM, and THEM (kids). I actually purchased quite a few things from those lists! I’m hoping to make a few gifts, but I have ideas and have purchased about 60% so far.
- Hoping- I could put so many things here, but I think I will stick with hoping for a white Christmas. We aren’t driving anywhere so why not?!
- Sending-I’m sending all the gifts this year it seems like. We rotate our Christmas so one year with my Dad’s side of the family and one year at home. This was our year at home (that worked out better than we could have planned!) so we will be sending most of our gifts this year and having a quiet Christmas at home. I ordered my Christmas cards and am hoping to get them sent out in the next week or two as well!
- Family update-
- Aveline- Our little girl is 3?! How did this happen?! We had her little monster party with my parents and one of our nieces. Avie had fun helping me decorate with the tissue paper pom poms and choosing their eyes, mouths, and horns! Claire made a monster pit in the basement with balloons she had drawn monster faces on. It was a really fun day and the weather was so nice we were able to eat outside!
- Claire- She just wrapped up her first quarter of school and had a week long break for Thanksgiving. Claire rocked it with an amazing report card so we got ice cream to celebrate. She was lucky to be able to have outdoor Girl Scout meetings through the month with the nice weather. I think Claire has really been missing her friends lately. It was wonderful her older cousin was able to visit for Avie’s birthday and this past weekend. They have.a lot of fun together. Fingers crossed for a sleepover for Claire’s birthday over winter break. And she ROCKED her flu shot this year! No cries or whining so we got some Starbucks afterwards and she learned the joy of a Pumpkin Spice Steamer!
- Me– I feel like I’ve been on a fall-cleaning and organizing spree. I’ve done the garage, my car, storage area, Claire’s room… Now if only my family could help me keep it that way! Haha! Our Christmas decorating is done before December even started. I think that is a first! And that is in spite of needing to get a new tree. I’ve been redoing a few of our decorations to make it all more cohesive, too. Thank goodness for pinterest because crafting has been my creative outlet!
- Matt- We were finally able to get up to Wisconsin for a small, socially distanced baptism for our friends! They asked Matt to be their son’s godfather and after months Matt was able to meet his godson! It was such a joy to see them all even if it was for just a day and even when we needed to have precautions on our mind.
December Goals
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Sort and organize dresses and skirts
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List things on Poshmark- I tried to clean out my sweaters and have a few things to list.
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Bake a Christmas cookie batch a week- I try to divide up the baking by doing at least a batch a week and freezing them.
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Schedule/plan Claire’s birthday sleepover and order cake
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That’s it! Wrapping, Christmas cards, and all other things will take up too much time!
November Goals
- Take rings to jeweler– Done! I found a well-reviewed local jeweler and dropped them off this week. Can’t wait to get them back and wear them again!
- Organize Claire’s toys in her room- Done! It took an entire day, but we did it. And not too many tears either. She did a great job of donating quite a few of her toys and her room looks so much less cluttered. We organized her different types of toys in containers she already had and talked about how that type always needed to fit in that container so if she gets more, she will need to donate others! She even brought that up to me the other day!
- Participate in an instagram giveaway- Done! It went live 11/30 so enter if you haven’t already!
- Donate things to Goodwill– Done! And I already have another small pile going! Haha!
- Reorganize storage room- Done! I can’t believe what a difference it made! I got rid of 3-4 boxes worth of things we had held onto way too long. And I have it organized by the type of item, too. It’s not quite up to The Home Edit standards, but I’m really happy with it!
