30 March 2014

What I Wore and What We'll Eat

Double link-up Sunday, because, well, because I want to.
Outfits over thisaway.

Top and skirt: thrifted
Leggings: so old I don't remember, but I ran a 5K in them once
(ugh, can't wait until I don't need leggings for the simple task of walking outside
[read: it snowed AGAIN yesterday])
Boots: from Shoe Carnival, last year--and I think they may make it to next winter!
And the scarf? Oh, I just happened to WIN this lovely thing from a giveaway at Jenna's blog. It's from the Etsy shop DesignedByChloe, and it is awesome. It's in the 2 colors that can never go wrong for me--University of Georgia colors! She also sent me the nicest little hand-written note, so that's a double dose of awesome. Check out her shop for cute stuff and what looks to be free shipping (seriously, girl‽).

I really wanted to wear my hair down to church, but it got super-static on my coat right before we left. Lilla Rose to the rescue.
It doesn't match, and I don't care.

Now on to this week's noms.
Jessica Lynn Writes
Meal ideas over thataway.
Sunday: Chicken Parmesan. I better figure out the recipe, but I bet Betty Crocker has one, right?

Monday: Leftovers OR Breakfast for Dinner. I have no idea how much stretch that chicken parm will have to it, so I made a contingency plan.

Tuesday: B cooks. Knowing him, it will involve chicken, but if breakfast for dinner doesn't happen on Monday, I might push him that way.

Wednesday: Tacos. Who can argue with taco night?

Thursday: Pizza. Such an ambitious week over here.

Friday: Fish fry! At our church. All you can eat. Thank you, Lent.

Saturday: Ranch Pork Chops. Saturdays are tough around here because we go to church on Saturday night and I have to scrounge up dinner quickly when we get back. Unless I use the slow cooker, which is precisely my strategy!

I have also switched out my monthly meal planner to a calendar-style. All meals subject to change, as always.

29 March 2014

I Still CAN Believe It

"Where did my baby go?"

"Oh, they grow up so fast! Sniff sniff."

"He's xx months today, and I'm NOT okay with it!"

I have lots of friends who are also mothers, and phrases like these are about half their social media statuses.

But not mine. I wrote a post back when Cora was 7 months old about how time wasn't going fast or slow and how I was totally okay with that.

I just read it again, and it's still true. I don't wonder where my baby went. Yes, we want ANOTHER baby, but I don't want it to be Cora. Cora is 2 (26 months, if you're the technical type) and gets more hilarious and interesting every single day. I don't find motherhood some huge enduring challenge that warrants wishing we could just go back to sitting on a couch nursing all day. Or lamenting that it goes by "so fast." I don't think it happens slowly, but I don't think like, "I blinked, and then she was grown up." I've always been the practical one. (Seriously, our priest even said how practical we both were during our wedding.)

Maybe I just lucked out with Cora. We rarely have discipline problems, to the point where she's still not completely clear on the concept of time-out. She whines for stuff until I remind her to use her manners, then her whole demeanor changes. (The word "please" pretty much forces you to smile, no?) She listens to authority. She poops in the potty. She has an amazingly consistent routine that she thrives on. She says "bless you" after someone sneezes and does a pretty good sign of the cross. Perhaps this is just the calm before the storm (a.k.a. "the terrible 3's" that I've heard ALL about).
You know what you can't do with a 3-month-old?
Put her to work, that's what!
Or maybe I'm like this because we're letting God plan our family. (We have never used any contraception, ever.) I know we're not confining ourselves to "2 and done" or whatever, and we'll be listening to God on how big our family will be. I have about 10 years of fertility left (possibly more, possibly less--who knows but God himself?), and I have no idea what God has in store for us. But I sure am excited! Maybe any type of "sniff sniff, I miss him as a baby" feelings are in actuality a prodding from God to TTC? Just a thought. Perhaps when I'm 45ish and God lets us know for sure that we're done, I will feel the twinge of missing my kids as babies. However, for now I'm happy with my child getting older, even if she turns out to be our only one.

Yes, I've heard the saying, "The days are long, but the years are short." My response to that? Days are 24 hours long, and years are 365.25 days. And that's exactly what they feel like to me.
You know what else you can't do with a 3-month-old?
Listen to her squeals of delight as you sled really fast down a big hill, that's what.

26 March 2014

5 Favorites: Intangibles

Many of these are digital, all are awesome.

1.
Dropbox

I love this for easily getting my pictures and videos from phone to computer. I like filing them off into their correct folder (all of my pictures are arranged by monthly folders on my computer), so I go through my phone about once a week and just do a big dump to Dropbox.

2.
This is the most awesome and easy budgeting software around. We used mint.com (and still do), but that was a more reactive look at what we had spent. With YNAB, it's more proactive in telling our money where to go. It also has an app in which I can just enter my purchases on my phone and it syncs up to the YNAB on my computer. Super cool.

YNAB usually sells for $60, but they run specials sometimes. Twice a year they'll usually offer it on Steam for $15, and that's how I got ours. You can also just try it out for a month for free.

Oh, and good news for the college kids out there: yesterday YNAB announced that college students can get it for free!!

3.
Single-stream Curbside Recycling
I uploaded this crappy picture with Dropbox, see?
This is obviously not digital, and it is kind of tangible but not really. After years of living in apartment complexes that refused to have recycling bins, this is a godsend. I used to collect our recyclables and take them somewhere in town (and in this town, you had to sort them at the site in the cold). But now we live in  house and have a HUGE bin that's the size of our actual trash can, and pick-up is every other week. It's beautiful. We usually have at least 2x the amount of recyclables as we do trash.

4.
ACPL Mobile

Yep, another app, this time for our public library system here! I pretty much never have late fees any more because it notifies me on my phone a day or 2 before something is due, and then I can just hit a few buttons and renew it if need be. It's super user-friendly, which is exactly what I need.

5.

This is a yearly thing where you shut off all your lights for one hour. This year's event is this Saturday, Mar. 29 at 8:30-9:30pm your local time. I've participated in years past, then forgot about it for a few years, but I am ready to do this again! Here's a handy FAQ if you want to know more.


Check out Hallie's blog for more faves.

22 March 2014

Fun Times In Louisville

Last week, we took a quick little jaunt to the Bluegrass State. (I don't quite recall seeing any actual blue grass, however.)

My husband had taken a week off work but mostly wanted to lay around the house, so we compromised on a 2-night adventure. I just needed to get away from Fort Wayne, and I wanted to go somewhere south (thank you, Brutal Winter).

It took just over 3 hours and half a tank of gas to get there, and it was the most gorgeous day. Which worked out perfectly for what I wanted to do that night: walk the Big Four Bridge.

We ate at local burger chain WW. Cousins before heading to the bridge. Aside from the idiot behind the register trying to charge us for the previous customer's pork chop, it was good. Cora got a free kids' meal that she ate absolutely none of. She wouldn't even eat the fries. Who is this girl?

When we got to the bridge, it was apparent that every resident of Louisville had the exact same idea (again thanks to Brutal Winter), and it was crazy packed! But it was a fun night. We essentially walked right back to Indiana, but there was a fence blocking it, so we turned around and came back to Kentucky--which is what we were planning on anyway.

B and Cora under the bridge, ready to go


Yep, the end of the line. Gotta turn back.
Beautiful sunset over the Ohio River

On Wednesday morning, the weather turned back to winter (really cold and windy), and we went to the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs. I loved this place! Your ticket even includes a little guided tour of the grounds, and we went on the special 10:30 tour that included getting to pet the resident thoroughbred. We had hoped Cora would pet him, but she was so scared that she cried and screamed.


That face.


 Even though Cora didn't like the actual horse, we all had a blast inside the museum!
We got to try and be jockeys. Super hard, but so fun!
My loves dressed as jockeys!
Just chillin' with last year's winner
Once we finished the museum, we had a pizza lunch at Bearno's, then we drove around while Cora napped in her car seat. I wish the weather had been nicer, because we definitely would have walked a lot more. But anyway.

First up was Old Louisville. Lots of neat old Victorian houses.

Next up was Cave Hill Cemetery. Beautiful place with lots of neat graves, including that of Colonel Sanders.

While that picture is fine, it really doesn't do justice for what the whole cemetery actually looked like. Totally worth driving through if you're ever in Louisville!

After we drove around some other stuff, we found our way to the Krispy Kreme. We don't have these in Fort Wayne, and this Southern gal misses it a lot!

That night, I just used Yelp to find us a place for dinner. We ended up at Silver Dollar, and it was good. B tried some bourbon since that's what you're supposed to do in Kentucky (or so I've heard; I hate that stuff).

The next morning, we hit up the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

While this is a cute family picture (sorta--where is Cora's head??), it really doesn't give you a good perspective on that ginormous bat.

Here ya go.
I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I love love LOVE factory tours. So of course I loved seeing how the bats are made! And I literally watched them make a few bats specifically for Derek Jeter, to his exact specifications. It was fascinating. We weren't allowed to take pics in the factory part, but check out this video for some short peeks at the process. (It was better in person! And we got to take a nub home in addition to our mini-bats.)

The museum part was interesting and informative. I even got to hold a bat that David Ortiz used in a game!

There also were some batting cages, which I tried out. I haven't swung a bat in probably 15 years or more. That was rough.

But there was a little kids' batting cage, perfect for Cora. Here is a video of her and B that is at least slightly adorable.


After the museum, we ate at some mom & pop restaurant nearby then waved goodbye to Louisville. We drove home while Cora napped in the back seat again.

It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. There is so much more to see and do in Louisville that I would LOVE to go back again!

Oh, speaking of how much I liked Louisville better than Fort Wayne: upon our arrival back home, we were greeted by a driveway with so much snow/ice/mush that we had to shovel our way back in. Awesome.
Can we go to Disney World next year? For the ENTIRE WINTER?

18 March 2014

Race Recap: 5-Kilt Run

I braved the cold for my first race of the year!

The 5-Kilt Run was part of the Fort Wayne Get Green festivities, sponsored by our professional firefighters. Obviously, by the name, you were supposed to wear a kilt or at least be festive for St. Patrick's Day.

I'm basically too much of a cheap-ass to buy something I'll only wear for 30 minutes and sweat in, so this was the best get-up I could muster:



The socks are more of a yellow, but they were necessary as none of my running socks were tall enough to reach where my leggings stopped. I'm actually wearing these over my fancy Balega running socks. And I'm holding my gloves in my left hand (in the pic above) because they got too hot about a mile in and my hands were getting clammy (at least I expected this).
Cora helped me stretch before the race
As for the race itself, this is the first time I've had a mental battle going on during one. The first mile was mostly in the shade, and it was COLD. I had a mild stitch-in-the-side and was really not very happy about the race at that point. There was also ice on the course. They warned us about it beforehand, they tried to salt it, but I still had to slow down and even had a slight foot slip on one part (kinda scary!).

We had run into B's cousin before the race, and one of my goals was to beat her. Mind you, I knew nothing about her running--no clue how fast she was, and I didn't even see her the entire time I was on the course, but it helped to just have some type of goal in mind.

I put my pacing song ("We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift) in the mix as song #4, so hopefully it would hit around just before the halfway mark. The course wasn't marked very well, so I have no idea where the mile splits were or how I paced. But darn if that song didn't help me out! The first time I checked my watch was around the 17 minute mark, and knew I was at least halfway there.
My cheering squad. Apparently they were handing out the hats.
I came down the home-stretch, yelled at Cora so she would see me, and did my best to sprint my finish. It was probably more of a stumble, to tell the truth. I was so glad to be done.

But my time? 27:16  PR!! By a minute!

[315th/901 overall, 25th/133 in my age group]

I just looked up my pacing song and it turns out it paces to a 7:24 mile. I had been running 9-10 minute miles on my practice runs, with an occasional 8:40ish. This whole thing has inspired me. B thinks I should just put my pacing song on loop, but I think I'm going to go full-force with actual speed work on the track. I'll be running a race in May and the new goal is under 27 minutes, with a long-term goal of under 25. Although I might just try B's suggestion eventually if I get to a certain point--that would get me down to under 23 minutes, which just seems unfathomable right now.

It turns out that B's cousin finished well after me (by almost 5 minutes), and he even went back with Cora and cheered her on while I did some recovery stretching. (I should probably pick a different target next time, eh?)

After the race, the firefighters turned our mucky brown river into a mucky brown river with some bright green in it.


And Cora met Johnny Appleseed and screamed.
I used to be scared of animatronics at Chuck E Cheese, so she is definitely my kid.

Quote of the day, from B: "You should have seen the guy who finished in first place. He came through like . . . like he was being chased by a dinosaur." (Sounds like a good theme for my next 5K. Fort Wayne Dinosaur Chase. Who's in?)

16 March 2014

What's On Our Table This Week?

At the beginning of March, I posted my menu plan for the whole month.

Now that we're more than halfway through said month, I thought I'd share what has actually transpired:

I went back and crossed out the stuff that never happened and the changes I've made to this week's plan. Between day-of dinner invitations from B's Grandma, his parents randomly visiting, and just having more leftovers than I thought we would, things change. I still am glad I switched to monthly planning though because I'm finding it a lot more freeing to be over-planned than to be under-planned. When I switched up this week's plan, I knew that I had all of the right stuff for those meals already bought.

For this week, I would like to point out that I always forget about St. Patrick's Day and have never made a special meal for it (the only tie I have to being Irish is being Catholic). I did a St. Patrick's Day-themed 5K this weekend though, so hopefully I'll at least remember to wear some green.

Sunday (tonight): Leftover ham and mashed potatoes (for the 3rd time!)

Monday: Slow Cooker Ranchero Chicken (from 5 Dollar Dinners' Costco in $150 thingy), on tortillas.

Tuesday: Leftover Ranchero Chicken

Wednesday: Homemade Pizza. B cooks. I asked him if he wanted to choose what to make, or if he wanted to be assigned what to make. He chose the assignment, so he's gonna make our homemade pizza! Last time I did this, I made the dough in our Ninja blender following their recipe, and it was easy and good and awesome. So he'll be doing that and topping it however he wants.

Thursday: Chili. I had scribbled something else up there, but I just changed my mind like 5 minutes ago when I realized I had a hankering for chili.

Friday: Quinoa with Corn & Beans. Also from the 5 Dollar Dinners meal plan. We've only had quinoa once before, so we'll see how this goes.

Saturday: Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan. 5DD again and again and again. I actually had been planning on doing 5DD stuff earlier in the month, but it was always the ones that got nixed in the shuffle. I might doing too much this week, since all 3 of these are new recipes to me. (But how hard is the slow cooker, really?)

Let's hope 5DD doesn't let me down!

Jessica Lynn Writes
Check out JLW for some inspiration!

14 March 2014

Happy Anniversary . . .

. . . to my parents!

Yes, I know it's "Pi Day" but this day is infinitely better because of my Mops and Pops.  33 years today!

Can't you see where I get my dashing good looks from??

I haven't talked about my parents on the blog much, so why not do a highlight reel?

Mom:
  • The outgoing one
  • Bank Examiner for the Federal Government for over 30 years (yes, she has a badge!)
  • our Girl Scout leader for many, many years
  • #3 out of 6 kids
  • Always been a working mom, and has almost always been able to "do it all"
  • Hometown: Lakeland, FL (by way of a few military towns first)
  • Moved to Atlanta for her job

Dad:
  • The reserved one
  • Independent Insurance Agent; works in a tiny old building in the center of a cute little town
  • Loves the Atlanta Braves
  • 4th Degree Knight of Columbus
  • Always been a working dad, but did a lot of the picking up/dropping off/making dinner when we were young
  • Has a gabillion siblings (8? 9? I keep losing count) and 20 gabillion cousins
  • Hometown: Utica, NY
  • Moved to Atlanta for college (has other family members in Georgia)
  • 100% Lebanese and taught me all the Arabic I know (which is, like, 3 words)
Together:
  • Met at a Halloween party--Mom was dressed as Raggedy Ann and Dad was a cowboy (or so the story goes)
  • Will drop anything to help friends or family (or family of friends or friends of family)
  • Dad calls Mom at 8pm sharp every night when she's away for work (which is often)
  • Will definitely come to your party as long as they don't have a conflict
  • Expert road-trippers
  • Love their kids and grandkids!

They only raised 2 kids, but they now have 3 grandkids with 2 more on the way soon! (And hopefully more from me later.)
Our little family of 4 has blossomed into a soon-to-be a dynsasty of 11 (once my sister's twins are born)

12 March 2014

5 Favorites: Charities

For today's 5 Favorites, I'm going to do my favorite charities. Perfect for the 'almsgiving' part of Lent, right? Feel free to donate to them!!


1.
Habitat For Humanity

I actually worked for a Habitat for Humanity affiliate when I was in AmeriCorps (like the PeaceCorps, but in the U.S.). What a lot of people think is that Habitat gives away houses. But those people would be wrong. Habitat partner families actually buy their house with a no-interest mortgage. They also must put in 300 hours of sweat equity helping build the houses. No-interest loans are completely biblical, and Habitat supplements all their costs of building and overhead by donations. Working for Habitat for Humanity was fun, challenging, and heartwarming, as we tried to provide decent, safe, affordable houses to those in need.

2.
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society

I also worked volunteered for this organization. The mission of NMCRS is to provide financial assistance and education to members of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, their eligible family members, widows, and survivors. (Um, I just typed that out from memory, and I haven't set foot in the door in over a year.) The main goal is to help each person who comes in to get support for their immediate needs, but the long-term mission is to help Sailors and Marines become financially self-sufficient. They are another no-interest loan provider, and they really do help people get their finances in order when they come in for assistance.

I did admin work there and taught a Budget for Baby class (in reality, it was a basic budgeting class that should be taught in every high school, but with a baby-on-the-way-twist). It is almost 90% volunteer-run, so they treated us great, paid for our mileage and even paid for childcare so I could keep doing it after I had Cora. I loved this organization and wish I still lived in a military town so I could continue volunteering. If you're looking for a military organization to donate to, I can't recommend this one enough! This is also the oldest charity on my list, at 110 years old!!


3.
Heifer International

This one has definitely taken the "teach a man to fish" concept and ran with it. When you donate to Heifer, you help buy livestock for third-world families, which can help them in so many ways. Their mission is to work with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth. Plus, it's totally fun to say you bought a cow for someone, right?

4.
charity: water

"charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing countries. We use 100% of public donations to directly fund sustainable water solutions in areas of greatest need."

100%, y'all. That's pretty dang impressive. I also really liked the video on their website that explains how clean water can open up educational opportunities to many children.

5.
Catholic Relief Services
"Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency alleviates suffering and provides assistance to people in need in 91 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality."

You may know them for their yearly Rice Bowl campaign?? I found they have a Rice Bowl app, too, which is pretty cool!



For more favorites, check out Moxie Wife.

10 March 2014

Pushing Myself In My 30th Year

It's my 30th year of life (I'll hit the big three-oh on June 1, fyi), and I'm trying to get myself out of my comfort zone and push my limits. I did that twice this weekend.

If you had asked me to run outside in cold weather a year or two ago, I would have said, "No way, no how, forget it!" But that was before I fell in love with running.

I decided back in late January that I should sign up for a 5K in March. I missed the 'race atmosphere.' And it would hopefully be warmer then! The more snow I shoveled, the more I looked forward to March. The race is a St. Patrick's Day one on March 15th, and people are encouraged to wear kilts!

Well, it turns out we shovel snow in March just like every month that might border on winter. (I did know this based on last year, but I had hope!) Although I am seeing a trend toward a bit higher averages. As in high 20's vs. 18°.

So back to March 15th. That's in less than a week! And, sure, I've been running. Inside, on an indoor track at the Y. I finally had to make the executive decision that the weather probably ain't gettin' better in a week, and I better get my butt out there! I had to go to the local running store the other day to get a few things to help. (Who said running was a frugal thing?? That ear warmer cost almost as much as my race entry!)


I suited up yesterday afternoon, walked out our front door, and I did it! 3.1 miles in our neighborhood. It was about 31° at the time. Sure, I had some annoyances since I'm used to minimal loose-fitting clothing when I run (mostly that I had to keep pulling my Under Armour shirt down), but overall it was good. I had to stop and walk a few times due to some other issues, but it wasn't because of the cold. I don't really love the feeling of my ear buds underneath my ear warmer, but listening to the "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" podcast was the best thing to keep my mind off the cold and not worry about pacing. My run was slow, almost 5 minutes longer than I usually run a 5K. I was previously scared of the burning in my lungs, but I didn't really feel it. The sun was shining and beautiful, and I think it helped a lot. I even saw a woman out for a walk, bundled up with a scarf covering her mouth, and she gave me a wave. I felt like I just joined some type of crazy Midwestern bad-ass club!

The other thing I did this weekend to push myself? Auditioning. They scare me. I've mentioned I'm a singer on this blog here and there, but I have only posted videos of me singing within a choir or something from 10 years ago. I'm not some belting Broadway star, sorry. Actually I'm NOT sorry because I know that is not where my voice sounds best.

My audition was to sing the national anthem at a minor league baseball game. And as I continue to push myself, I might as well share my version on my blog. I'll find out in a week or so if I got it, but I heard some other auditions while I was there and let's just say there is some fierce competition in this town!

(This version is from Thursday, which was the first day after I had recovered from my illness enough to even hit every note. But I don't feel like doing another take, so there ya go.)

07 March 2014

7QT: Cancelled Plans and Hot Deals


This past weekend, I was supposed to get a weekend ALL TO MYSELF. B had Drill and was taking Cora down with him for Grandma to take care of. I went to a mom's night out at a martini bar (the most overpriced and pretentious thing in this town, but I was happy with the complimentary valet!), and then woke up the next morning sick sick sick. I couldn't even talk. So I was so glad I didn't have to take care of a kid! Or a husband. I laid in bed all day and finished book #2 of the year!
A memoir, a conversion story, and a handful of quick birth stories
Check out Clan Donaldson for more from Cari!
But then. Of course there's a BUT THEN. Around noontime on Saturday, while I was still lying in bed, B texted me to tell me that his Sunday drill got cancelled due to an impending snowstorm that was supposed to drop 6-12" on Indy. He and Cora would be coming home that night. We were both miffed, since if he doesn't have Sunday drill, he doesn't get paid for that day. He was happy to have a day off of either job on Sunday, though.

So he slept until 10am. Which means, on my 'me' weekend, I was up feeding breakfast to my kid at 7am. Then we had to shovel our way out to get to church. (At least I had help with that.) My MIL texted and said we'd try again for his drill in April. If it snows then, I am done with you, Indiana. So done.

After doing the 7 posts in 7 days challenge, it seems I've run out of stuff to blog about. Luckily, we're taking a mini 3-day excursion to Louisville next week, so you'll get a recap of that. My husband took the entire week off because he just 'needed a break'--he's right, he does. He worked 26 out of 28 days in Feb., and one of those days off was to attend a funeral. (He had another half-day off due to illness.)

I wanted to go somewhere close enough but south of here where they just might not have snow on the ground. Fingers crossed, but I have lots of museums and indoor activities planned. Including a trip to Krispy Kreme when the 'HOT' sign is on. Not kidding.
Of course there's an app for that
I booked our Louisville hotel through Hotwire.com, and I made out like a bandit! I did the deal where you don't know what hotel you're getting, so you get a better rate. They had a promo going where if you book through the app, you got $25 off $100. I was getting a $51/night hotel for 2 nights, so this was perfect. With all the taxes and whatnot added at the end, it came out to $100 even, and I had even figured out which hotel it is. Hopefully it treats us well. I was really just looking for somewhere with free breakfast!

This post needs another picture.
Yes, B is wearing my "Queen of Everything" apron

I have been messing around a lot with apps that make money and getting stuff for free. Just yesterday, I cashed out the money from my Ibotta app using Venmo, since there was a $5 bonus incentive. I then used a promo code from deal site Hip2Save to sign up for Citrus Lane (for Cora) for $9 for the first box. B went to Kroger and did some deal where he bought 3 boxes of his favorite cereal and it made the milk free. Then I got 50¢ back on the milk through Ibotta and 50¢ back on a 40¢ yogurt through Checkout 51. And then I decided to try Bulu Box (for me) for free by using my EarndIt points. And some awesome person used my Ting referral link, so we'll be getting another month of a cheap (maybe even free) smartphone bill.

If that wasn't enough, I currently have $30 worth of Amazon gift cards I've earned through Swagbucks and Bing Rewards that I'll be using for something soon.

That entire last take probably proves I'm nuts and/or speaking a foreign language, but it was a pretty good way to spend naptime. I'll throw in the disclaimer here that this post definitely contains affiliate links. Feel free to comment or email me asking about any of those. I don't feel like launching into 20 explanations right now. But here is the link to the post I wrote about our awesome cell phone company Ting!

Were anyone else's ashes really wet this year? I know it makes a better cross instead of just a smudge with dust in your eyes, but it felt wet for a good 10 minutes afterward!
Our #ashtag selfie. Hard to see Cora's, but it's there!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!