Happy Friday, friends!
I get to bring you five of my favorite things this week! If you know me, you know it really doesn’t take much to make me excited. I love talking, and I love loving things. And then I love talking ABOUT the things I love. I could give you an entire post about 5 Things I Love About My MOP…but I know that’s a lotta dull…
So here we go! 5 Favorites that are NOT a Mop:
1. Que Bella Moisturizing Hydrogel Eye Masks
I really shouldn’t even tell you about this one. I feel like they’re a little secret that if I share too much, I won’t find them. If you head to Target, and you might have to hunt. For whatever reason, all facemasks, eyemasks, spa things aren’t in the same place? But promise me this: if they are out of stock, ASK AN ASSOCIATE WHEN THEY WILL GET MORE. That way, Target knows to stock up on these for the 806.
They are just simple eye masks. We all love pampering, but often I don’t have the energy for a full face mask, the prep, and clean-up that entails. These masks pop right on your cheeks for 20 min, refresh you like you wouldn’t believe, and then straight in the trash, no goop to wipe off. I’ve sent these to friends for fun, dropped them on doorsteps for someone who needs a pick-me-up, and I’m pretty sure I passed them out at a Bible study once when we were focusing on “rest.”
My hubs loves using them, and they’re so gentle I even put them on my kids if they’ve had a rough day or need some extra care. Enjoy them together!
2. My Cast Iron Collection
My ultimate kitchen goal is only to have all cast iron. Truly. I love the way it cooks, the way it cleans, the way each piece is an unbelievable workhorse. I have several pieces, but today I’ll introduce you to Bob and Linda. Bob gets used at MINIMUM once a day. He usually cooks eggs for us at breakfast, helps meal prep during the day, and usually does something for us at dinner (entrée, the most perfect cornbread, Dutch baby as a dessert treat, etc.). He practically lives on the stove because I know I’ll use him a couple of hours after cleaning. If you’ve never cooked in enameled cast iron, meet Linda. You won’t believe the versatility in a pot. Easy soup. Easy sauté. Easy bread. I’m still learning all her tricks.
Cast iron often scares people off. It requires particular care, but I promise it is not as difficult as some make it out to be. It is also very forgiving and can usually be fixed. Start with one piece, learn what it can offer you and your cooking, and you’ll be hooked on discovering more.
3. Decanting all the Things
I told you, I can get hype for ANYTHING. Over the last year, adding decanting to our home organization has been LIFE CHANGING. Decanting is when you bring something home, take it out of its original packaging, and put it into something else. So pantry: putting cereal into a plastic container, putting granola bars and fruit cups into a box, pouring baking items into canisters, etc. Bathroom: putting cotton swabs, flossers, and hair bands into tubs. It sounds like extra work, right? It may be extra work when you get home from the store, but let me tell you the time it saves and the joy it creates later.
First, everything can match and be seen easily. It looks prettier, but functionally, you can see what you are running low on, what is being used/being ignored, and the landscape of your storage is consistent—no more Jenga or Tetris as you move new boxes/bags in and out.
Second, decanting makes things so much easier on kids, and therefore they are much more capable of helping keep things tidy. I mean, picture your 5 year old trying to open a fresh box of fruit snacks right now. Not going well, is it? The box is torn wrong, cardboard carnage is now sifting into all your items, and then they shove it in the pantry and where it hides jack-in-the-box style ready to pop out onto the next person’s face (or it falls, pushing the pantry door open and you have an awesome little snack-alanche waiting for you).
I’ve started decanting everywhere. Look at the kids’ beautiful bathroom drawers. Everything is visible and easy for a kid to grab. They can keep their things so much nicer, and that is SO exciting to Mom.
4. Big Little Feelings (follow them on Instagram!)
LOVE. THESE. LADIES. They share practical, neurologically-based tips and tricks for raising our babies—teaching kids how to be people. I love the energy, positivity, and parenting approach that acknowledges our positive discipline and training role. The best is when they provide “Screen Shot Scripts” for you to save for the next time you face any issue with your kids you KNOW is coming.
As I watch their stories and posts, I realize the things I need to work on in my adult self. How do I respond under stress? How do I handle conflict with others? How do I feel and process my autonomy? What is my relationship with food? Y’all, I’m growing right along with my kiddos.
They also provide so many resources for more focused needs we all need to consider in our families: “feeding littles” for teaching kids to eat and have healthy relationships with food, “mrchazz” for breaking generational cycles, “disabilityreframed” for changing the perspective on disabilities with education and conversations. Fill your feed with these positive educators!
5. My New Photo Wall
When I say “my” photo wall, I mean it is in my house. But the hubs did it. All of it. I spent months pinteresting styles, layouts, clever and creative ways to display our moments and memories. I needed more frames (more that matched and prepared to get rid of several), more pictures, the same number of pics of each kid, family member, could I fit every Christmas? Halloween? Etc. Guess how much progress I made?
Finally, he said, “you know, I’m just going to go for it.” I was so ready to have something up there. We chose a piece to hang in the center as a start, and then I slid the pile of frames to him and walked away. And it is perfect. He even has more to go! I can’t wait to see the rest (soon and for years to come).
Just go for it, friends. Hang them all. We have nice frames, super cheap frames, new frames, old frames. AND HERE IS A HACK! The flat plastic frames are 97cents at Walmart. They are meant to be magnets, but we just 3M’d them up on the wall. So many pictures, so much dimension. Favorite place in the house now.
