Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Halloween Coffee Chat

Happy Halloween!  I hope you have a fun and festive day with your favorite people.  My kids have fun things going on at school and cannot wait to trick or treat our neighborhood tonight.  Their costumes are so cute.  I can't wait to show them to you!

If we were grabbing coffee and a treat today, these are all the things I'd chat with you about:

 


1. Date night gone wrong.  We went to all the lengths to book our go to babysitter for Friday.  I planned the evening for a long awaited date night.  I made dinner for the kids and Kevin and I were so excited.  Our babysitter came, we hurried to get a few things done before dinner and walk around campus to enjoy the pretty leaves and then the babysitter called us home about an hour later.  Darn it!  We were just pulling into our dinner spot.  Leo wasn't feeling well and we needed to come home.  We grabbed Qdoba to bring home and made the most of our one hour date.  I know all parents out there feel the pain of a cancelled date night, but gosh, we were bummed.  We came home, ate our dinner, got the kids to bed and then watched some Chicago Fire together.  We're hoping to reschedule soon!


2. What are you watching right now?  I watched all the football documentaries - Quarterbacks, Kelce and we're loving Chicago Fire.  We're 4 seasons in and totally obsessed.  I'm curious to see if it can keep our interest for 11 seasons.


3. Preteen/Tween Moms - what are your kid's favorite shows or movies?  It's getting trickier to find shows that both Olive and Fletcher are excited about.  They both still like to watch Bunked and movies like Mega Mind.  We have watched Family Matters, Step by Step, Full House and Home Improvement as a family and those were all hits.


4. I'm on the hunt for some new shoes this season.  Cute tennis shoes, loafers, dressy mary janes and such.  Do you have a favorite spot to find shoes?  I struck out at Marshalls this past week which was disappointing because that's my go to for higher end shoes for a deal.


5. Where do you print your Christmas cards?  I used to always do photo cards from Sams because they were so affordable.  Then they messed up my order a year or two in a row.  I tried Walgreens last year and was pretty happy with their card stock cards.  I just had have them reprinted when the first batch had a big line through them.  I don't want to spend a ton per card because I send out a lot of cards.  Send me all your recommendations.


6. Do you have a great apple cider donut or bread recipe?  I'm hoping to find a really delicious one to try to make with some of our Wisconsin apple cider.


7. I can't wait to change all of our sheets to holiday sheets at the end of the week!  I always put winter/Christmas sheets on all of our beds around November 1st.  I do it while the kids are at school so they hop into bed to a festive surprise.


8. Fletcher is really into fossils.  Do you have any fun fossil books/toys to recommend?


9. I recently got to try Magic Spoon cereal.  It had been on my radar as a protein packed meal/snack option that I wanted to try.  It's about $10 a box and it's disgusting.  I have never tasted anything like it.  Picture eating the peanut butter cereal only to find out that it tastes like gritty peanut butter packing peanuts. I was so disappointed after seeing so many people promoting it.


10. Do you make your kids make their beds every day?

 

11. I just restarted my thankful journal.  I write one thing I'm thankful for that happened that day.  I got away from doing this because I kept forgetting about it.  I made one change and it's made all the difference.  I keep it in my van now and I jot down one thankful thing each day while I'm waiting in the pick up line for school.  It's been such a good routine!

 

12. I've been decluttering and purging things like crazy.  I just switched my closet over to Fall/Winter and got rid of a big bag of clothes that I don't wear anymore.  I put all the thick sweaters that I never reach for or the items that I always pass up when I'm getting dressed in a bag to consign.  It feels so good to see my closets have breathing room.  I've got a long way to go to get all of our spaces done, but working on this project every single week has been so good for us.  This is my nudge to you to get rid of end of the season Summer things that you never wore or to focus on the next season and get rid of any Fall clothes you aren't excited about wearing!  



Thanks for listening!  Chat with me in the comments!

7 comments:

  1. I have used Simply To Impress for multiple years for our cards and I love the quality! Yes to our kids making their beds every day! We are watching nothing because the Chicago shows aren’t starting up until January!! We have watched Ted lasso all the way through 2 times and Aaron wants to start it again! Ha!

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  2. I need to check out the Chicago shows since they are really popular. We are watching Irrational, which is pretty good. I don't have much of a tip on preteen shows, but I remember my kids loved Merlin and Atlantis when they were grades 5-8. They are BBC series. Then they enjoyed Once Upon a Time in grades 7-9. I looked on Common Sense Media and they recommended ages 12+ for those shows. I bet it is challenging to find kid-friendly shows today. Culture has changed so much even since my kids were the age of your kids. That is so disappointing about Magic Spoon. It really makes you question the integrity of influencers, because I have seen that all over Instagram. We have used Costco.com for our Christmas cards for many years. I will keep that in mind about Sam's Club photo cards. My kids made their beds, but slacked off when they got in high school. You've inspired me to go through my closet...it's a continuing process of purging! Happy Halloween!

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  3. I always changed to winter flannel sheets for my kids and my big boys still love it!! (I also had heart sheets for Valentines day when they were really little and remembering still makes me so happy!) ** We were only so-so on kids making beds. The kids had to practice instruments every morning so that felt like a responsibility that replaced room chores. ** Yesterday I committed to keeping a gratitude journal in November. I already forgot by today. So glad you reminded me! ** DSW is my favorite shoe store. Do you have one in Indiana? ** Fossils are my favorite too! Did you ever hear about Mr. Fornelius at Cottonwood? He was my 5th grade teacher and spurred my love for fossils. Last summer my sister-in-law and I drove all the way to Delta, Utah to go trilobite hunting and it was magical! So many exciting finds!

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  4. This fall I've enjoyed Only Murders in the Building, the new season of Virgin River, and The Rookie. Have you tried Young Sheldon with your big kids?
    I am not sure where I'll print my Christmas cards this year either. Walgreens has been my go-to spot for a long time, but like you said - they often require a reprint.
    Shoes have been a struggle for me lately, too! I am not a fan of the mules that are so popular, maybe because I wore those in college and just remember schlepping miles and miles across campus trying to keep my toes curled so I didn't walk out of them. Ha!
    Thanks for the coffee chat! <3

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  5. Shows for pre-teens - Liv and Maddie (Disney+). My kids are all obsessed. Project MC^2 on Netflix, sooo cute.

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  6. Thank you for saying what we are all thinking - Magic Spoon is one of the most disgusting things I have ever eaten. I tried like 4 flavors and they are all just bad.
    So sorry about your date night. I hope you get to re-do it.
    I am also looking for decent shoes. I would say walk around the mall and look at The Walking Company or a department store? I know that is hard, but maybe Leo would think it was fun?

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  7. I use Shutterfly for Christmas cards. They do good percentage off sales (they should have 50% off your purchase for Black Friday), and you can get cash back through Rakuten.

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I LOVE hearing from you!! Thanks for taking the time to leave sweet comments; I enjoy reading every one of them.