Stuff and Things Thursday

+Hot take: I don't like Lululemon. I don't get the appeal. I think it's pretentious and anyone pretending the quality of Old Navy workout clothes is that much different than something 4x the price is absolutely deluded. You don't need a LLL tank because it's "the best". You want it because it has that dumb little symbol on it. There is nothing (nothing) you can get from LLL that you can't get somewhere else that might even be better. I think I've only been in a physical LLL once? I've had a tote once (which I ended up selling) and I had the align leggings, which I also sold because I rarely wore them.

To the women who say they "only" wear LLL:

+They've not deactivated my school email and I sincerely hope they never do. I'm loving it. I at least want it so I can see the test scores from last year come October. That being said, Pinterest culture in the classroom has got to stop. Kids aren't learning anything because we spend all of our time personalizing it with fluffy rugs and pretty bean bag chairs. I used to make it a point not to use pink; I used a lot of neon accents or non-primary colors. It's a place of learning for 20-100 students, not your Xanga page circa 2004.

+I've been on the hunt for a fall bag. I ended up ordering this from Stitchfix (Here's my code if you like SF...I do). Amazon has something similar I will try if I don't like the SF one. However...I was sent on this bag hunt because I saw this $5,000 bag on Instagram and wow, I liked it. This creator does amazing price-breakdowns of rich girl hauls lol. Right now, she focuses on the sororities since it's rush season. 

I adore this Longchamp I bought myself as a birthday present when Sutton turned 3 (I think this is something I will do every year, honestly, as her birth was a feat), but I'm ready for something else after 5 months. 

+One of the things I wanted to do this summer was "sit on the porch and/or read on the porch". I've done NONE of that, but the dogs are enjoying the deck. 

+I've also been walking the dogs almost 3 miles every day. They start bouncing around by 10am wondering when the heck we're leaving, if we haven't gone. 

This last week I didn't feel great and it was really hot so we ended up just taking them to a trail/park and letting them run in the evening. I like this better than the 3 mile walk, not gonna lie. 

#fall will arrive, I just know it

+Homeschool Update: This is it. It's organized. I've got what I need in here to get things started. We'll see where/how it goes. 

The bottom shelf is Sutton's. Any and all books are downstairs in the basement and I have two tubs of other supplies but they don't need to be out every day. We're working with a 4-day week, Fridays I'm planning to be co-op days, and I do need to schedule in those hour-long dog walks somehow. 

A few recommendations (and a few things you cannot make me care about). 5/10

+Agua Mystica. I have owned exactly one body spray in the last 5 years. Something about having a baby that makes you not want to coat yourself in scent because all they do is breathe it in. So I stopped wearing whatever I'd been wearing after Wells was born. But a few years ago, pre-Sutton, I bought something coconut-y from Sephora and I used it in 2021 and, to me, it smelled like "Kansas and Covid" so I threw it out maybe a year ago. I saw this Sol de Janeiro scent on an Instagram reel and was intrigued. Instead of buying it at Sephora, I got it at the PX on the army base for like $6 less lol. It smells citrusy, but like at the beach. 

They had so many scents that Wells went a little crazy spraying the samples and I went home and had to immediately take a shower. 

+1923. I just watched two seasons in two weeks. No regrets. I had seen bits of 1883 here and there (I think Scott watched it) and I really don't like western-style anything because it's gruesome and depressing. However, 1923 is terribly gruesome and fraught were danger and trauma at every turn. Animal attacks, shipwrecks, drilling a hole into someone's head to relieve the pressure on a subdural hematoma...and so on. Maybe people didn't live as long back then because they continually made dumb choices. (I COULD NOT WITH THE CAR DRIVING WEST.) Alex stressed me out so much that I had to just google what happened at the end so I could watch in peace. Honestly, I didn't like her much but I did like Spencer and then I spent a lot of time deep in Dutton family trees online. It's evident when you look at a character like Alex or Elsa, you see where Beth gets her personality. And, honestly, can you believe that a slimy, cowardly reptile like Jamie came from Spencer's family line? Make it make sense. 

I'll probably move back to 1883 and watch that next. Taylor Sheridan writes the best shows (Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingston, Landman).

+Good news: the medicine I've been using on a plantar's wart took it right off my foot. Amazing and basically painless. It's prescription only, a combination of Aldara and salicylic acid. Super gross but it basically kills all the skin and you peel it right off. So I recommend using this if you're dealing with a similar ailment.

+I recommend reading your communications with the teacher before asking questions. For example, we had a field trip and I got multiple messages on a messaging platform asking about when/where. I simply scrolled 2 inches up the feed on my phone, took a screenshot of what I'd already sent them a few weeks ago, and resent it. Taking a screenshot of the feed and sending it back is a whole new level of passive-aggressive, I'm aware, but....I would be simply too embarrassed to ask my kid's teacher such questions when it was my responsibility to retain that information in the first place. Plus, it's a field trip within the school day: there's not a lot to know. Your kid still arrives and leaves at the same time. 

Onto A Few Things You Cannot Make Me Care About:

The Karen Read trial. Stop. I don't care. I didn't care the first time when I saw the first trial go awry. I don't care about the conspiracy theories. I think she was drunk and accidentally hit her boyfriend. I feel awful for him and his niece and nephew but I don't care about her and the sensationalism. I felt the same about the Murdaughs. Terrible for the victims, I don't care about the trial. 

Do not paywall your substack. Don't do it. I don't care if you're successful as a blogger or a writer or whatever. The internet is for free, the way God intended.

Influencer culture. We see through it. Everyone sees through it. 

The Pope stuff. I don't care. It's not biblical. 

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Tell me something you don't care about. Did you watch 1923? 

Why I didn't like Sandwich + the real problem in our country

*Spoilers ahead*

I mentioned a few weeks ago why I didn't like the book Sandwich. It was a vague rant because no one likes unnecessary spoilers. Well, here's the spoilers, so read if you want to. 

The MC (main character...I don't even remember her name) was portrayed as zany, emotional, and scattered. It was all blamed on menopause which, fine. However, as the story unfolded, it became very obvious that her trauma, which was a focal point always alluded to, was self-inflicted. You see, she had grown up in a stable, loving home. She had married. She had had two children. Then she got pregnant a third time and had opted for an abortion because she was so overwhelmed with two little kids and couldn't imagine loving a third the way she loved her first two. I say "opted for an abortion" because that's literally what she did: She chose to kill her baby without telling her husband because she was tired or something. She treated it as an absolute choice, the way you would choose between two different brands of prenatal vitamins. 

After that, she realized oh hey, I do want a third child and they tried for years to get pregnant again and she had a miscarriage, adding to the tRaUmA load she was experiencing. I don't doubt that miscarriage was traumatic for her; starving her 12 week old baby to death with a cocktail of prescribed drugs was probably traumatic for the baby too. And, if you read the book (eh, don't), she still made that all about her. There was a 12 week old baby dying inside of her and it was all about her fEeLiNgS. 

This whole book really was about her and her messed up thought process. I really don't recommend it. It actually depressed me and I was incredibly irritated for the next day or so. 

While I don't really believe in karma, I believe this MC absolutely got what she deserved when it came to never recovering from this trauma because she never understood the implications of her actions. That is why she sucked so much. She seemed to think she was the innocent victim and it was everyone else's fault. She never actually grew up and realized what she'd done. There was no repentance or regret for her mistake.

It gets worse.

There was a 20 year old daughter who clearly had some issues and it was alluded to that she'd spent time in the hospital after a suicide attempt and also she was a lesbian. This daughter was just "the best" though and I did wonder if the mother's manic parenting brought on by her self-inflicted trauma had led to the daughter's problems. You know, "loving her kids too much" and all. Loving them enough to kill the third, that is.

There was a 24 year old, or so, son who had a girlfriend he'd been with for years and the major plot point was that she was pregnant and they didn't know what to do or something. They were on the path to marriage but weren't ready for kids or whatever. This girl had already had one abortion when she was in high school just because and it was talked about with the nonchalantness of going to the doctor and getting an antibiotic for an ear infection or something. They then kept referring to the current situation as "oh I don't know what we're going to do with it". 

The son, a real knight in shining armor, said to his mom that he was okay with whatever the girlfriend decided to do and the mom was all like tHaT's WhY i'M sO pRoUd To Be YoUr mOm or whatever. 

This is what I mean by these people sucked. 

Adding to this, the MC's parents were Jewish and had many relatives killed in the concentration camps. What toxic combination of culture and greed led from Jews protecting life at all cost and striving to survive to killing off their offspring on purpose in one generation? 

The major climax was supposed to be when the MC told her husband that oH yEah, I killed our third child 18 years ago because I couldn't handle it, sOrRy I never told you please don't leave me. And the husband just shrugged. 

The MC also made it known that even though her husband had a great professional career, she was the one who brought in all the money as a work-from-home writer who also cared for her two kids full time, yet we never got an inkling of information about what she wrote (that I recall anyway). 

Sure, Jan. 

In the end, the son and the girlfriend got married and killed their baby. That's literally what I got from the last few pages of the book. If anyone else saw something different in the writing, let me know. 

My real problem with the MC is that she treated her grown children like they were 10 years old and therefore, never let them grow up and make mistakes in a healthy way. A child who is parented well wouldn't assume the best scenario is to murder their own child. 

Even when the MC came out and told everyone oh hey, I killed your sibling... this is probably why I'm so unhappy (jk she didn't say that last part), they were just like oh, okay. you did you and that was important.

So the cycle continued. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the problem with the mindset of many people today. They would rather believe in the fictional right to kill a child than not. I've spent years at this point trying to figure out why and I can come up with a few reasons.

1. They themselves have had abortions and feel such guilt that they can't help but defend their choice instead of telling others not to make the same mistake.

2. They don't actually understand what an abortion is: pure ignorance. Here's simulation videos and descriptions. Go watch.  Let us not forget that even though we have been fed the lie that abortion is "safe", it is never safe for the baby and mothers can die too. 

3. They are totally okay with it. They know what it is and what it does and don't think it matters. 

It's likely #3. This is why  a group of people build an entire political party around the idea that you should be able to kill a baby at any point in the womb. The fact that that is the number one issue for this particular set of voters, like our main character (suburban white women), is damning. When a suburban white woman posts that they cannot imagine their daughter not having the right to kill their child and that is why they are voting for the most pro-abortion politicians...I can't help but think they are completely blinded and have no cognitive dissonance. Discernment is a power ability that, apparently, few of us were actually gifted with. 

It's all gross. It's a death cult. It's the mark of an ignorant person to say "but abortion..." when voting for a politician. If that is your number one issue, you are an uninformed voter. I think that's my hill to die on this election cycle. I cannot take, and will not take, you seriously. 

Abortion is also really really bad for women. This information will blow your mind. 

Illegal immigration, the lack of a border, insane government spending, inflation, the economy, overseas and international conflicts: we seem to forget all of that when someone mentions potential limits on poisoning and dismembering our society's future citizens. 

And that is why Sandwich was a terrible book. 

Products I didn't like at all.

 

On a never-ending quest for "natural" deodorant, once in awhile I will go back to Native. I thought about this spray and it looked interesting; their stick deodorant just isn't for me. This has a really strong smell and it doesn't actually work as a deodorant. Lesson learned: no more Native. In addition, I bought their body wash, because I'm always looking for a new body wash and I got so itchy afterward I had to take a second shower and a benedryl. I don't think their products are nearly as natural as they want you to believe. 

Elf concealer. Hard no. At $4 a tube, I tried a few shades. They were all comically cakey and none matched my skin. I'll stick with the Maybelline Age Rewind but my friend recommended Laura Geller so I'll try that next. 

Beauty Counter SOS acne spot treatment. This was a random buy last winter. It's mostly just a salicylic acid treatment and I thought it would help with shrinking a breakout before it got started. It did nothing. While I don't have constant cystic breakouts anymore, I went back to the dermatologist and got tretinoin again for those spot treatments. It's much more effective. 

And then these eye masks. They burn. It's a hard, hard no. Ironically, I got their vitamin C + collagen serum to use in the morning and I love it. The eye patches are a definite no though.

Update on the library of lost things

I was cleaning out a filing cabinet last week and I found the small stack of papers I lost at school. Obviously 3+ months after I needed them. It legitimately didn't matter at that point and it honestly is the thing on this list that affected me the least but it really just made me feel like i was going slightly insane. Purely inconvenient, you know? I am also that teacher who swears that every year, every semester, every quarter, every week that they're going to be more organized and it never actually happens. High hopes for August I guess. 

I have never found the black skirt.  I did actually buy it in topiary green when I came across a sale, but the worst part(!) is that I can't remember what size the original was so I was just kind of guessing and so I hoped for the best. Talk about double frustration. It does fit but I haven't worn it yet. I think it'll be better over tights in the late fall/winter ...you know, which is why I was so desperately looking for the black skirt in the first place so I could wear it. 

I've definitely never found the Daniel Tiger toy. I'll probably come across it when Sutton is a teenager. Or at least as soon as she exits the Daniel Tiger phase (can we pray that's soon btw?). 

And I was looking for a piece of paperwork last week, regarding teaching, and that is probably buried in a box or tucked away somewhere or, more likely, thrown away but I don't know why I would throw it away but I also don't know why I wouldn't have it with the other paperwork. 

Your guess is as good as mine. 

I misplaced something else that will now drive me insane: I bought these name labels for Sutton last fall and I kept the sheet of extras in a drawer all year and then, at some point this spring, I cleaned out the drawer and, no doubt, put the labels somewhere "safe". 

I can't find them. 

Sutton doesn't exactly go to a big enough daycare operation where I even need to label everything but it's super frustrating to know I have these and I can't find them.

Anyway, as I move into the summer season of cleaning/purging/organizing, I thought an update was warranted on what's currently making me crazy. 

Unpopular opinions #958

I wish I'd actually kept track of how many of these I've written. Maybe it's like 9 or 10 by now. Who knows?

Let's start off with a good one: Long hair is not a personality trait. I don't know how women, especially moms, spend all their time flipping their long hair about. Like, doesn't it bother you? Shoulder length is fine, ladies. There's nothing you can't do with mid-back hair that you can't also do with shoulder length.

I bought a (cheaper) waterpik because my dentist insisted for the third visit in a row. I hate it. It is awful. There is no reason why anyone should have to use a waterpik, ever. I will never actually use it regularly and I keep thinking that if I slip and miss, I will lose an eye. 

Kids should not be allowed to chew gum. It ruins their teeth. This is 100% my most unpopular opinion these days. Wells keeps saving all of his gum until he's "six". Benchmark is about to move to "seven". 

Hey Dudes are the actual worst. You will never convince me that these are worth $60+. Crocs, Hey Dudes, Danskos.....my list of ugliest shoes in the world continues to expand. I know when you look at the Hey Dudes site, they don't look *that* bad and, hey, they'd be great for a weekend at the lake (per the pictures). But there is SOMETHING about grown adults wearing them in professional settings that makes me think our civilization is coming to an end. Like, this is it. We're done. There's nowhere left to go. 

Spirit weeks at school are not really spirit weeks when they come once a month. Back in the day, we'd have one spirit week for Red Ribbon Week in October and everyone would get really into it and it would culminate in Halloween. Then, we'd have maybe one more for the week before state testing, just to do something fun. Now, it's every week before a holiday break, the whole month of December, the whole month of May, and a few days in between. I cannot keep up so I stopped trying. It literally doesn't matter, it doesn't make me a better person to participate, and you'll never convince me otherwise. 

Make me feel better about being so picky about things. Give me an unpopular opinion. 

Other Stuff I Can't Find

If you wanted an update, I've found nothing that I wrote about last time. Not the skirt, not the paper for school, and not the Daniel Tiger trolley toy and characters.

So. 

If you think you're going insane, I still think about that skirt every day. 

But onto other things I can't find...

I had my blue and white striped lunchbox when we moved into this house. I used it two years ago, when I was teaching. When I went back to work this year: gone. I feel like I packed it with snacks and sent it on a day trip with Scott and Wells once but it's not in a vehicle, a garage, a barn, etc. I did check the camper too. It used to hang on a hook in the garage. It's not there. 

So, I think about that a lot.

Then, at the beginning of this school year, I ended up taking Wells' lunchbox each day. Just a plain blue sack thing I got at Target in 2021 for $11. Wasn't quite big enough but it did the job. Then, after Christmas, I couldn't find. 

I literally haven't seen it since. 

So I've been lunchbox-less since Christmas, which means I throw random food into my multiple bags and hope for the best each day. 

I am digging my heels in on this so much that I refuse to buy more lunchboxes. I have one more storage space to check. Reorganizing the laundry room closet this weekend (a task that must be done sooner rather than later) might just lead to the discovery of both. 

Luckily my parents sent Sutton a little lunchbox for her birthday and I'm seriously considering just using it. 

Stuff and things that bother me.

I have been sick all week. Like head cold, barely-functioning, not sleeping because of numerous reasons and just on autopilot trying to make it through the week. Also, when I'm sick, I do not like to be touched (by human or dog). So it's working out great for my family as you can imagine.  No fever so I kept going to work. Not really medicating because I've learned I get super anxious when I take cold/cough medicine at this phase of life. 

I do my grocery shopping almost exclusively by pick-up order because it's the least energy-extensive option. But this is the email chain I get for every order. This is insane. 90% of my unread emails are from Walmart, I'm sure. I also have thousands of emails in my inboxes because I never delete anything. I'm that person.

I'm baffled by how much I'm bothered by the Chiefs winning the Superbowl. I don't know why I care. We lived right outside of KC in 2021 and I wasn't bothered by the Chiefs love. And last year, when they won (which I don't even remember happening), I didn't care. Something about *this* year annoys me. My only solace is in the Lord and knowing that the arrogance of Holmes and Kelce will be dealt with is that no one ever remembers who even won the Superbowl by March. I immediately forget almost every year. Here's to August 10th. 

Going anywhere after school, ever, bothers me. I had to bribe them with Pringles to run errands last Tuesday. 

Which involved running to a florist to buy flowers for the guidance counselor and somehow getting this to school safely while dealing with ^^

We stopped at the post office this week and then to get gas and Wells told me he was actually going to starve "for real" if we didn't get home immediately. 

Sutton is still not sleeping so I set up pack and play next to our bed thinking it'd be an option to plop her down in the middle of the night (didn't work), but I did use it for all of the clean laundry last weekend. I immediately envisioned a habit forming, folded and put away everything, and put away the pack and play.

This is the least effort I've ever put into Valentines: 

No picture of Sutton with her box because by this point on 2/14, she'd already thrown up her dinner and refused to get in the bathtub. 

Wells did make the sweetest little card, Then his teacher told me he needed to "do his reading" each night and I'm like "well that's my fault" because refer back to the beginning of this post. 

And my number one complaint:

Stitchfix loves to show ads with the best outfits ever. And there's no way to get to the outfit. It just takes you to the SF site to sign up for a box. It doesn't matter how much I'd pay for this. I can't find it. 

Things I don't understand.

This made its rounds on Twitter the other day. I added to it this morning at 5am, as one does:

In addition to all that stuff I don't like, here are some things I don't understand...

I got my hair cut on May 5th. It is now September 11th. That is 4 months. It, I swear, has not grown a single centimeter. If we compare pictures, yes, it's grown, but I was expecting it to be a whole lot longer by now. Also, my hair is too thick to be cut short. Every 2-3 years, I learn this hard, hard lesson. 

We spent an enormous amount of energy taking care of a garden. Aside from a great tomato and pepper harvest, I'm not sure where all of that energy went? We got some zucchinis and a couple of pumpkins I'm hoping making it to the end of the month. I made marinara sauce last weekend and I need to do it again this week. I ran out of time to make more yesterday. 

Unpopular opinion: Gilmore Girls is the actual worst and the worst part of #fall is that women start talking about how they like to rewatch it. The correct GG is Gossip Girl, always. 

I never understand how women keep wearing sandals into the fall season. I cannot wait to pull out my fall shoes. But I'm also aware that winter lasts forever in these parts; just miserable wet or chilly days until May sometimes. So I'm trying to pace myself.

Breakfast. I don't understand how people eat breakfast. Maybe post-9am, I can consider food.

Also, toddlers. I don't understand how moms can present themselves as functioning human beings when they have a toddler. It's like a newborn phase but worse because people expect you to have it together by now. 

Finally: belt bags. I won't do it. I will cave and buy a Stanley before you find me with a belt bag. And I refuse to buy a Stanley. 

What do you just NOT understand?

**Here's a 9/11 post I wrote a few years ago. Today we're going to be reading The Man in the Red Bandana and doing an entire morning learning about 9/11. I do not take it lightly what an incredible privilege it is to be able to teach kids about a modern-day historical event. 

The non-trad wife.

I read a twitter thread the other day about a stay-at-home-wife and how she fills her time. She accomplishes more by 7am than I do in a week, essentially. Oh, to be that domestically-driven.

I'll tell you what I did when I was a stay-at-home-wife (with a deployed husband). I slept til 10am. I'd go to the gym with a friend. I'd maybe have lunch out or go to a Bible study in the evening or go shopping at the mall downtown. I'd eat cookies and watch The Bachelor in the evening. 

I kind of wish I were kidding but that's how I filled my time post-getting married and moving to Alaska and pre-blog when Scott was deployed in 2009-2010. 

After I got a job, I was busier and happier and life was much better because I had much to fill my time while he was always working. Because then he deployed again and I needed all of that to keep me going. 

In the summers, I'd fall back into my pattern of gym-shop-clean-cook-blog-TV-books and I was always bored. Always. 

Once having kids, life was different. 

But, basically, my life as a SAHM is not quite so industrious as hers...

8am- wake up. husband has already made himself breakfast and is walking out the door for work as I'm getting the baby out of bed. I had handed the 5 year old the iPad at 7am so he could watch something while I slept in. :D 

i "make" cheerios for the 5 year old and make an egg for the 1 year old and also hand her a banana.

start prepping for a park playdate.

drive to the park with two kids and my two bags of whatever we may need while arriving only 9 minutes late :D 

12:00noon arrive back home after a few hours at the park and splash pad. make lunch. pb&j, fruit, and zucchini bread. after cleaning everything up, the kids watch tv and play while I eat chips and hummus and drink topo chico while coming across a twitter thread on how an industrious SAHW spends her day. get the idea for this post.

1:30pm after doing a few things around the house (who knows what), i put the one year old down for a nap, tell the 5 year old to be good, and go outside to weed-eat and cut grass while i have some time. also set up a kiddie pool in the backyard. 

2:30pm take a quick shower and do whatever around the house. waste time on social media.

3:00pm start dinner, wake the baby up, snacks (strawberries). take everyone outside to the "pool".

4:30pm finish dinner after coming inside. kids play independently. consider using this pocket of time to dig out my lesson planning materials or do some pilates. i don't. 

5pm feed everyone. then baths.

7pm husband gets home. almost immediately has to leave again to run an errand.

8pm both kids are asleep. consider digging out my lesson planning materials or doing some pilates. i don't. clean up the kitchen and fold laundry instead. vacuum the living room. 

9pm husband is home. my whole body hurts from my minimal hard labor of the last few days (outside work, hiking with the stroller). pull out lesson planning materials and do a few things while watching Suits until 11pm. 

never did get to pilates, yoga, putting *all* the clothes away, writing blog posts, or reading a book. 

*not included: the multiple podcasts i listened to throughout the day, the many diaper/clothes changes, the multiple picking-up and putting away of things, the many dishes i washed, the dog duties, the phone calls and text msgs and emails that comprise a day. also the multiple negotiations over everything with a 5 year old, which takes up at least half my day and all of my mental bandwidth. 

**this was just a random tuesday. monday had been more organizated as i'd had a book group in the morning and a dentist appointment in the afternoon. much less free time. 

Summertime airing of grievances.

This is Jett with the dachshund we're dogsitting this summer. 

It was 101 degrees on this day and I was thinking what is wrong with them? but whatever

+We had a stray dog hanging around outside. He was very nice. Some sort of fluffy lab-ish mix. Clearly had been on his own forever. Which means he was dumped. Which means the people who dumped him should probably just be run over with their own car. People who dump animals are the worst kind of people. 

Neighbors mentioned him in the neighborhood facebook page and someone said the stray was having problems with *his* dog so the stray needed to go away. No, neighbor. Your dog is just hard to get along with generally because he has problems with every dog. No need to blame an unhoused dog for your dog's poor temperament. 

Obviously, we fed this stray multiple times and left out water. I called the shelter and they said they couldn't take him because they already had 12 dogs and that's their limit.  I offered a large donation. Apparently they don't accept bribes because they still wouldn't take him. I haven't seen him again so I'm hoping he found a place to go. 

+Walking into the locker room at the pool in bare feet. It is the literal equivalent of a port-a-potty. But moister. The number of women who walk into the bathrooms at the public pool barefoot, and allow their children to do the same, baffle me. 

+I may have mentioned this before: when people use "that" instead of "who" when referring to people in writing. An example: I saw the Formula Mom post [Thankful for] family members that are doctors that don't mind me peppering them with medical questions via text.

Who. Doctors and family members are both people. Not things.

This drives me insane because it's the grammatical issue that is easiest to spot AND easiest to fix, in my opinion.

+ Finding a table of contents when you click on a recipe and are taken to a food blog. This baked spaghetti looked good. This is what I was met with when I went to the site:

+Sometimes I think that people who post on Facebook stories don't understand Instagram. It would never occur to me to post on a Facebook story. Ever. 

+ This. It's from the info about soccer this past spring. Have I shared this? It's real. How can this be real? 

(I may have shared that one already.)

Happy mid-July, almost August, almost #fall!

What not to wear Wednesday.

This is something I was really passionate about back in the early days of this blog and, do my eyes deceive me or, are Crocs coming back? I feel like every other person I pass by is wearing Crocs? Kids, adults, babies. 

Or did Crocs never go away? 

Famous Footwear sent me an ad via email last week, proving that they know nothing about me:

So. 

To everyone who wears Crocs: Why? 

I don't get it. There are options out there for slide-on shoes. These are not it. 

First of all, if you are wearing rainbow crocs, I can only assume you are on your way to clown try-outs, so good luck. 

Secondly, I was going to say okay, maybe if you're gardening, crocs are okay. No. Dirt will get in the holes. In addition, these are all over hospitals and medical offices. If you are working in healthcare, you could drop a sharp tool on your foot easily. These are not designed to keep feet safe in fast-paced work environments (though we could maybe argue they're less porous than a cloth mask?).

Thirdly, I was looking at a bunch of croc-wearers last week and trying to think really hard about when they might be acceptable to wear. This is what I came up with... if you are a patient in a hospital. Like, you've just given birth or are recovering from surgery. 

That's all. 

Do you wear crocs? I'm assuming you know someone who does. All I ever see are small children and grown adults wearing the exact same shoe and it's unsettling. 

Things I don't love.

Yellowjackets. We tried one episode of this much-talked-about show and it was fine in parts but very gruesome and weird in others. Definitely not worth the Showtime subscription. I've noticed anything Melanie Lynskey is in is usually bound to be weird. 

Jury Duty. Okay, I don't exactly don't like it but it's not that great. We got 3 seconds into it and Scott asked if it was the same people who made The Office (he doesn't like The Office). If you look at the producers' credits, yes, it's the same people. Anyway, it's just not *that* great. We did watch 4 episodes without even trying. I, personally, love James Marsden, so I think you will get farther if you have an appreciation for him. (27 Dresses is one of the best movies ever)

Wells' field trip was rescheduled due to "weather". It was 65 degrees. Now I have to plot that on the calendar again. 

I am heading to the library to renew my card with the county this week. Do I mention how awful their ebook system is? I've already complained via email. No response. I know that's shocking, that a government bureaucracy wouldn't respond to a concerned citizen. 

I've tried a few new recipes lately and they've been blah. I never thought a cookie recipe would just be not-good. But I made the Tollhouse Double Peanut Butter cookies that's on the back of the pb/chocolate chip bag; they don't have a lot of flavor. I realized the recipe doesn't even include salt! I added sea salt to the top and they were better but still not worth it. Make these if you want cookies. 

Another recipe was fine. It was for a southwest couscous of sorts. The amount of chopping and steps to take in no way was made up for by the final product. In the middle of making it, I realized water had spilled all through the produce drawers so I had to clean out the entire fridge too. 

I haven't read a book in weeks. Probably over a month. I don't love that. But I've been occupied with other things (like a systematic rewatch of Better Call Saul). 

What are you *not* loving on this week? 

Things that bother me

1. The situation with our former babysitter.  I hatehatehate when people air dirty laundry online. I don't want to be that person. I just feel so let down and disappointed. This is a true Tyra Banks we-were-rooting-for-you situation. Like, why? Why? 

The last I heard, she had a medical emergency and that was over a month ago. I haven't heard from her since. Her husband gave me one update and never got back to me again. One would assume that if you are alive and well, you have your phone. I've heard nothing from her. Nothing. (and yes, I've checked the obits, which seems ridiculously gruesome to have to do)

Insofar as this affects us, we found alternate childcare and it's probably better and cheaper, truth be told. But still. It was a scramble. It was incredibly stressful. I definitely tossed around the idea of quitting my job but I was in the middle of a long-term sub position and that seemed incredibly unfair to many levels of people and the ripples of who would be affected were multiple. 

Luckily, I had a generous friend of a friend who was able to watch him for a few days with the other toddlers she cares for, and then I had spring break, and then I had my mom who was willing to fly out for a week if needed (like, if things got dire). We also had a friend visiting who stayed a whole extra week to take care of Wells for us. Then Wells was able to start at a small school-like daycare where he is learning so much. 

But this this just my point: SO MUCH has happened in the last month+ and still...no news from the old sitter. 

If this all seems vague to you, that's because it is. It's vague to me too. My feelings on it are even vague. The more time passes, the more annoyed I become. That's the only explanation for what I feel. I'm not sad. I'm not mad. I'm annoyed. How do you get over "annoyed"? I wasn't annoyed at first. It grows as time passes and I don't like that. 

(I have always had a very touch and go relationship with the idea of childcare altogether, so that's really a whole other story.)

Moving on...

2. New seasons of Bosch and Better Call Saul have yet to appear on streaming services in 2021 and I am angry about it. All I want is more of these shows. That's it. That's probably the number one thing that's bothering me. 

3. But also...When you have a spray bottle and the nozzle keeps jamming. There are few things more frustrating in day to day life at home, to be honest. 

4. And...Goodreads and their glitches. I don't think it's too much to ask to have a computer system track my books for me correctly. It's 2021. 

5. Plus...I had a 5-pack of masks from Athleta. That's it. I refuse to buy more. I lost one. I have no idea where the maroon mask went. Having only 4 really puts a crimp in a 5-day work week. 

What's something that's been bothering you lately?

Non-recommendations on this November Friday

1. Asymmetric pullover

I bought myself one of these Abercrombie pullovers last Christmas and ended up hating it. It wasn't comfortable. The high neck and stiff material in the collar bugged me a lot. I put it in the donate pile :( I mean, I'm glad I got it for 50% so I think I paid $30? But maybe it was too small? It's boxy though and the shoulders are tight. So a size up might've been even less flattering and would probably make me feel like a linebacker. Just all-around no. 

2. Shampoo/conditioner.

I thought I'd try something new. It didn't do anything for me. Left my hair tangled and stringy. Usually, I use Tresemme, which is not high end, but not overly pungent or commercial (like Pantene or something). It cleans the hair and doesn't coat it (Pantene coats your hair, fyi, don't use it).

 Sometimes I mix shampoo/conditioner together with it in order to use up ones I don't love on their own. This fits that category. 

(I got it at Walmart and it was half the price of Amazon. If you can find a beauty product at Walmart, it's always cheaper.)

3. This laptop bag. 

So disappointing. Truthfully, I just didn't feel like it had enough padding. So I've gone back to my backpack. And part of it may be that I have a MacBook Pro to carry; it's heavier. They are switching it out for a MacBook Air soon, so maybe a lighter computer will make a difference. But to carry a charging cord, water bottle, wallet, phone, maybe a book...it wasn't big enough. The straps are pretty supportive though. I may just table it for later. It's a sturdy bag, but not for me right at this moment. Blah. 

4. This isn't something I bought but something I was thinking of buying. Last year, I went on and on about buying Wells his Christmas pajamas. I got him that ^ darling print from Hanna Andersson. This year, I don't like any of their prints. So legitimately disappointing. 

5. Essie. This pains me. I love their colors and their bottles. Their formula and their brushes are a hard no, though. I pulled out a fall color and was so disappointed in the result. Blah. One thick coat plus a top coat lasted for about 4 days. 

What are you NOT recommending this week?

Do not recommend.

Greatest gif of all time? Yes.

Enola Holmes. This looked interesting. I'm generally not a Holmes fanatic and British period pieces aren't something I'm drawn to...but Netflix makes good movies. 

It was very pretty to look at. The costumes, the scenery, all of that. The story itself was kind of garbage. Sorry. 

Espresso Chips. I bought these thinking they'd be a fun addition to some trail mix. Three days in a row, I ate maybe a small handful and within hours I ended up with a headache, dizziness, and completely crashed. They made me feel awful. It's just not something I recommend. Not a fan. And I made a batch of pumpkin muffins over the weekend, accidentally put these in instead of regular chocolate chips, and they were inedible. I had to throw them out. What a waste of time. They, like, burned in the oven. I don't know how you'd put them in cookies. 

Tone It Up app. I was legitimately enjoying the Tone It Up app's 14 Day Slay. I was four days in and...then I hit a paywall. A PAYWALL. I couldn't access anymore workouts. So disappointing. I'm not paying $15 a month when I can find workouts online for free otherwise. SO DISAPPOINTING. 

What are you not recommending this week? 

The problem with high-waisted shorts

 Guys. This has been bothering me for weeks.

I mentioned that I was going to stop shopping at Target because they've just really let me down this summer. To start with backtracking to summer 2019, I feel like they've really dropped the ball with the boxy, baggy tees. Sure, shorter/cropped tees may be in but there's something about it that doesn't feel right if you're not a teenager. Thoughts?

So I've depended on my own collection of shorts, carefully curated from high-end retailers like Old Navy over the years, to make the t-shirts and tanks look flattering, usually by half-tucking them. I half-tuck just about everything, even on my kid.

Just for context: this is what I look like in a pair of normal, well-fitting shorts. They are linen from Old Navy last year. 

This year, I tried to go with the trend of soft, elastic, high-waisted shorts. I got a pair of Universal Thread from Target without trying them on and they were too big. I had guessed and gotten a small. I went back and got an extra-small and they were still pretty loose, but whatever. I tried to make them work a few times and they were comfortable but I never felt like they looked good on me. 

These are the black shorts:

Oof, right? They're just not awesome. Like whatever the opposite of Spanx would be..that's these shorts. 

Scott said I was being ridiculous but if I pulled them up too high, he said they looked silly. If I pulled them down to my lower waist, the crotch sagged a lot. 

Regardless, I wore them. If I was getting dressed, I was only going to Walmart most days here in Kansas, and this is not the summer for buttons and snaps or hard clothing (I think that's a Pandemic RuleTM). 

I stopped at Target last month and grabbed the same Universal Thread shorts in denim/chambray. Variety and all, right?

I don't have a good picture because I literally cannot take a good picture in these shorts. I've tried. They don't work. 

I got them home, put them on and...they were too small. The black ones were still too big, the blue ones were too small. They are the same size. I was so confused. And frustrated. And by this point, I felt like I had wasted $30+ on shorts. I love shorts. I love shorts that fit well. Me trying out a trend didn't pan out this year. 

This is the difference in the shorts, when they are the same brand, almost the same exact style/material, the same size, and from the same rack. 

So anyway...

Maybe it's Target? Thoughts on high-waisted shorts? What am I doing wrong? I see other people in these (online, not IRL of course) and they look fabulous and comfortable.