Friday Things, 2/13

This week I posted about some recent Amazon buys and then the content I've been taking in lately (tv, podcasts, books, etc).

1. I had a lot of trouble sleeping last week. Then I had one GLORIOUS night of sleep on Saturday night and now I'm back to not sleeping well again. I'm not nearly tired enough to nap and I also am not drinking a lot of caffeine...nothing after noon, really. And then 11pm comes and I'm not tired so I toss and turn. Help.

2. 'Tis almost spring which is when I'm faced with the crippling decision-making process of what's next. We literally have no idea. Making plans is pointless. But a military wife told me years ago that  "if you don't unpack, you'll never unpack", so trying to find community and purpose in every location is important; if we don't do it, we never will. More than one civilian friend has said I wouldn't even unpack if I was only going to be there a year. But, if you don't unpack, you'll never unpack. You have to settle in somehow. 

(Maybe this has to do with the trouble sleeping?)

3. We had our first day where I wore shorts on a dog walk (Monday). It was 80* in KC. I'm not ready for this. I'm not a fan of self-tanner so I'm not sure where to go from here.

4. I have no thoughts on the Superbowl. I am in an apoplectic state now that football season is over. Please respect my period of mourning-- 200-some odd days until the season begins again. 

If you are a football fan, here's the recap:

5. 
 

This meme is old and tired at this point, but it reminded me that when I took the kids with me to my dentist appointment a few weeks ago. The hygienist took them out to the hall and let them do the pushing of the button for all of my x-rays. For real, we've had great luck with dentists in our army life. 

Matching socks, unloading the dishwasher, putting away groceries.

What are your 3?

I saw a reel that said if you don't have kids and complain that you have no time, you're the problem because ALL YOU HAVE IS TIME. I legit did not understand this until I had a kid. ALL I had was TIME before. I still don't understand how I filled up my time.

I got this and it's my favorite lotion right now. I've found that some brands flat-out don't work for me. Eucerin Skin Calming does. 

(My husband)

We got an Alexa right after they came out. Scott had pre-ordered it on a whim. We used it for a year or so and then I packed it up when he was deployed and then he used it again in Wyoming? Mostly just for music. I don't think we really understood how the bluetooth thing worked back in 2015, aside from in our cars.  

I never trusted it. Who knows where it is now. I hate when people run their households off of these systems. It's so unnecessary and don't tell me it makes life easier; it doesn't. 

Linking up with Friday Favorites!

Amazon in January/February

IXL 3rd Grade math workbook I'm a broken record at this point, but I love these workbooks. Cannot say enough good about them. If you are one who likes to pick up workbooks for your child, homeschooled or not, this is the one you want. They have them for every grade level. 

Redmond Sea Salt This is the only salt we buy. If you go down the rabbit hole on salt, you might get lost, but this what I use for cooking, seasoning, bread making, and baking sweet treats. You can use it with everything. 

Dough scrapers After 2 years of making sourdough, I finally splurged on $5 worth of dough scrapers. 

My First School Book  Handwriting Without Tears is the gold standard for teaching writing and letter formation. I got this one for Sutton now that we've made it through the alphabet with these printouts from Teachers Pay Teachers. My goal this year was just to introduce number and letter writing to her as a 3 year old. This book is perfect if you have a preschooler. 

Amazon Essentials Underwear The best underwear I've found in the last 10 years has been from Amazon. I used to like Gap but they changed their designs. I've also ordered a lot from Amazon that I *haven't* liked too. I've found it has to be microfiber and it has to be the actual Amazon Essentials brand, not some off-brand lookalike. 

Vanicream I bought this giant container of lotion and it's great for my legs and arms but I actually prefer Eucerin for my hands. 

Dryel kit Scott needed to dry-clean his dress uniform. Actually, he was told to dry-clean his uniform for a random assignment he was given at the last minute, and it was to be dry-cleaned over a weekend where the entire world shut down because of snow and cold a few weeks ago and he was like WTH am I supposed to do? He also had to buy an iron (ours is packed away). They say millennials killed the top sheet and the iron but I think everyone still at least needs to have an iron around. 

Vanicream Vitamin C Serum I am a fan of the drugstore skincare these days and I grabbed this when I ran out of my other serum. A dermatologist I follow on Instagram recommended it. No complaints so far! I'm convinced the only way to start the day is with a vitamin C serum after you wash your face and before you moisturize. Remember when I tried a super expensive vitamin C serum from Arbonne, maybe a year ago, and it made me break out? Lesson learned. As long as it's not Cover Girl, I can use pretty much anything from the drugstore. 

Soccer cleats Wells is going to play soccer this spring so I grabbed these when the price alert told me they were $22. They're normally $30 and that isn't bad for cleats and they're really nice. I remember paying $47 for baseball cleats a few years ago (for a 5 year old) in a physical shoe store. As usual, Amazon wins. 

Content I'm Consuming (vol.2)

I've discovered this might be the easiest way to share what I'm doing in real time, instead of saving for quarterly or monthly round-ups because then I forget things. Here's volume 1!  
**I do wait until I FINISH something before I recommend it, so this all passed the test...the test in which I DNF 90% of what I start, it seems.**

Watching: 

1. Fallout (Amazon Prime)

 Last year we tried Fallout and I immediately disliked it because I hate thinking about nuclear war (a fun fact about me), so we stopped watching. However, when season 2 came out recently, we attempted season 1 again and I was immediately sucked in by episode 3. My initial criticism of the show was omg this is so dumb but it's supposed to be dumb.  It's a cross between The Walking Dead and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Make of that what you will. 

But, if you have not tried the show, it's worth a watch. It's not serious and scary; it's actually really dumb and silly and totally non-believable. Like, less realistic than Stranger Things, so make what you will of that analysis. 

I've liked Walton Goggins since Justified so he was, to be honest, the selling point because he's just a really good actor. 

2. If you're in the mood for some non-fiction, we watched Hiroshima Minute-by-Minute on Youtube the other day. It's 46 minutes and Wells actually hung around for most of it. 

Listening: 

1. The Nerve

If you like pop culture, history, and a little politics, you might like The Nerve. I've listened to many of Maureen Callahan's episodes over the last year and she was my favorite guest on Megyn Kelly's show before that (currently I'm 50/50 on MK...iykyk). 

But this episode about Michelle Obama was a serious delight. I love Maureen's subject matter knowledge and realistic takes. 

2. The Karen Read podcast series 

The Prosecutors covered the Karen Read trial in real time a couple of years ago and I don't like following trials in real time. I like to read or listen or watch once everything is done and wrapped up. So I could not get into it...I tried a couple of times. Recently, I decided I'd try again with Crime Weekly, since they did their series once the trial was over. I listened to all 6 episodes and THEN I went back to The Prosecutors' coverage. It made a lot more sense to me even though they were jumping around because I had a really solid background on the case. FUN FACT: Crime Weekly and The Prosecutors came to opposite conclusions and believe totally different things about what happened. 

And, finally...

Reading: My January books are here but I've read a couple more in the last week: Everyone is Lying to You and Read Between the Lies (which are crazy similar in a lot of ways). Both were good!

And, I ordered 3(!) Book of the Months for delivery because I thought I had put my subscription on hold and turns out I didn't so now I have 6 credits to use (it's paused now, don't worry). But I was able to grab new releases I have had on my TBR and were luckily offered through BOTM. 

Friday Things, 2/6

This week, I shared very easy tomato soup, my January books, and a Currently post. 

Scott was away most of the week so we were in survival mode. 

They were super into puzzles yesterday? 

I collected all of these classics earlier in the fall and put them out on Sutton's shelves this week. With a haphazard valentine garland I had made for my classroom in ...2012?

I meal-planned and went to Aldi. 

Wells put a very small sign on his door, in the off chance Sutton has suddenly learned how to read with a magnifying glass. 

We bought this spice grinder probably 10 years ago for $15. We had a fancier coffee grinder at one point and it kept malfunctioning so I threw it away. I've used this cheaper grinder for a few years now and I want to say it works really well...like better than the burr grinder we had. Just my two cents if, you're in the market. I know we got it at Walmart but they are cheaper on Amazon for $25, right now. 

We do a lot (a lot) more screen time if dad isn't around because holy cow. 

Wells finished his cursive book this week so now we're learning how to type. I'm just using Typing Club's free version online. We got this laptop for a project of Scott's and now Wells can have it and we're adding "tEcHnOlOgY" to our homeschool curriculum. I was initially going to move him straight to the 3rd grade cursive book, but I think learning how to type will be more valuable right now. 

I found Wells' old preschool books when I was cleaning out some boxes so Sutton has been doing those. His teacher in Missouri had given them to me at the end of his prek-3 year. 

Oddly, there are not a lot of memes on my phone this week.

I cannot stop laughing at this one:

The local government is back at the overreach and this time they're randomly posting dog tag regulations on Facebook. The only place we ever registered a dog was in Pittsburgh because we truly were in city limits. The fact that they try to regulate this in rural Kansas blows my mind:

The local citizens aren't having it. 

Most comments were like "huh?" or "hey what about the stray cats?"

My Facebook feed is exclusively KC news (haaaate) and the citizens here are also not having it when it comes to the new Chiefs stadium. 

I could explain all of this in detail at this point but the readers of this blog probably don't care. I just think it's funny, overall. I hate that I know so much about it. 

Linking up with Friday Favorites!

Currently {in February}

Linking up with Amy!

Loving: We have had a terrible time with our internet in the last two months. But... the company has sent someone out same-day within the hour to replace/fix/adjust both times I've requested a technician. So that's how I started my day today. At 7:30am, I was trying to get the internet to work, and just through the chat feature, they scheduled someone to be at the house by 9:00am. While inconveniences so small are plagues of modern life, I cannot complain about the customer service. The guy today even talked to the the technician who came last time, to get an understanding of what had already been done. Today, he had the issue repaired (gave us a new modem) in 30 minutes. Last time, they re-did all of the outside wiring and climbed up the poles to check the boxes, so that job took about an hour. 

Baking/cooking: I've been really into making cookies lately so I made up this browned butter chocolate chip cookie dough last night and stuck it in the fridge. I made homemade tomato soup over the weekend. I've made 4-5 loaves of sourdough in the last two weeks and I would like to document the recipe/process I use so I'm working on it. Right now, it's all in my head. 

Watching/Reading: I posted my January books yesterday and then I finished Everyone is Lying to You last night. 

I have been trying to finish Severance season 2. I had to go back and watch season 1 again in order to be invested in it. Other than that, we did watch the first episode of Bridgerton season 4 and Scott was like "what is going on?" because it's such a mix of the 1700s and modern life (with Usher playing in the background) and no one who hasn't seen all the seasons could even possibly understand it. I'm not super invested, but I like the Cinderella storyline. 

We are also ALL IN on Fallout. Ugh. Such a good show. Go watch it if you haven't on Amazon Prime. 

And I watched Interstellar for the first time last week. Scott loves it. It was...so-so. I wasn't wowed. Anyone who has read a lot of time-travel fiction (I recommend When You Reach Me) might not have their mind blown by it. It was fine, but I also really dislike Anne Hathaway so that might have muddled my judgement. 

Planning: To walk back at our regular spot today. I posted that they closed the local park due to snow and ice and then they did randomly have it open over the weekend which was a huge blessing because these dogs needed to run. We did notice some people walking on the ice at the pond and then, surprise, the park was closed again on Monday. I am assuming that the city saw that temperatures were warming up and people would be on the ice and natural selection would take hold and they didn't feel like a lawsuit. So it was closed the last two days. Now it's open:

And I just have to say: when the local government is talking to its citizens like they are preschoolers going out for recess, we are cooked as a society. Again, Ron Swanson was right. 

Savoring: Having a 3 year old. Sutton is almost 4 and she knows it but she also knows that she's "still 3!" so we absolutely give her the youngest child treatment.

And I really enjoy the age Wells is right now. I could never teach a class full of 7 year olds but he's so smart and has made so much progress this year. 

January Books. 2026

I'm not starting off the strongest, but I'm doing better than I anticipated given how lackluster I was about reading a few months ago.

I already lost track of my DNFs for 2026, but maybe I'll look into my kindle because I feel like that's important info to pass along to others. 

Reminder that my goal for this year is 50 books....I'm also keeping track on an Instagram highlight if you want to keep up in real time and not just once a month --when I hopefully remember to post here about books because sometimes I forget. 

Before Dorothy by Hazel Gaynor

I tried this because many recommended it as a different look at The Wizard of Oz. I'm not an Oz fan at all, but this was to be historical fiction about Emily, who would become Dorothy's aunt. I was, to be honest, hoping for something with a similarity to Z, the book about Zelda Fitzgerald I read many years ago. 

It started off with a lot of promise but then was lacking and then got really repetitive and just retold the story of The Wizard of Oz from a slightly different viewpoint. I would give it 3 stars for the first 1/3 of the book but it got really into lore by the middle and I didn't care. 

College Girl Missing

This is one I already mentioned in January, but the story of Lauren Spierer fascinates me and I think she has a lot more in common with, say, Maura Murray than a Natalee Holloway type of victim. 

Anyway, true crime is how I disassociate for sure, so going back and listening to some coverage on the case and then listening to this book was really informative. 

The Wedding Vow

This was an interesting one but there was a LOT going on. It's a thriller of sorts, taking place in the UK, which I like, but I needed a chart to keep track of who everyone was. I knew there'd be a couple of big twists and my predictions were mostly right and I do think the author was just throwing at a plot point dartboard and if it stuck, she put it in the book. 

It came recommended and was like a 4 month wait at the library. 

Dear Debbie

I don't know why I get so excited when I see she has a new book out. 

The first 1/4 was awful. Just so overwritten. The middle was kind of good? Good enough to keep me reading. I kept seeing glimpses of real suspense. 

The end was awkward. That's all. It was just awkward.

If you have kindle unlimited and get it for free, give it a try I guess. I wouldn't buy it.