Worthwhile Apps for Kids (Android Only)

I know in society today, its typically frowned upon by older generations to give the younger generation tablets or smart phones, or plop them down in front of the TV. I know, i too used to be like you. But then i assistant taught Kindergarten almost 10 years ago. We were gifted a cart of ipads for a classroom. I took it upon myself to put the parental controls on and the age restrictions, as well as make it to where no kids could download games without permission.

...Those parental controls lasted less than a day.

Android is different though. There's already a pre-installed app on all android devices called "Samsung Kids". It is a parental control homescreen with apps you preselect on it. You can set screen timers, age restrictions, and internet restrictions. These are the Apps Currently Installed:

Scribble Scrubbie Pets- A pet decorating game. Free to play. You get white animals and draw on them with the in-app pens, markers and pattern kits. You earn more points by washing them and treating them for illnesses, playing with them, and playing little mini-games with them. It's our least educational game, but she loves it. You can also buy the scrubbie pets at the store and use a QR code to add them into the game.

Golden Boots By Peppa Pig - A story book game. Dress up Peppa pig, play in a muddy puddle, travel through space on a rocket, an i-spy game on the moon, and feeding ducks. The entire point of the game is to obtain the golden boots, which you get after you're done exploring Peppa Pigs world. This app was originally $3.99, but it had a sale and was free a few months ago.

PBS Kids Games- Handsdown my favorite educational app. Every PBS kids show has an app or several on this app. None of them are downloaded, but you can download them. We particularly love the Daniel Tiger & Sesame Street games. Completely free, all the apps too. There have to be close to 100-200 of them, honestly.

Grr-iffic Feelings- a stand alone Daniel Tiger game. It has a drawing easel with stickers of all the Daniel Tiger characters acting out emotions, a video/sing a long page with feelings songs & videos, a photo booth where your child can look at themselves, and model their face to look like Daniel's faces, and a trolley game teaching your child how to take turns and take photos of the feelings they land on. It's a good game to model emotions for your child.

Lego Builder- Does your child ever say "Lets play Legos!" and dumps out an entire box of duplos at your feet? No? Just me? Well it happens more than i like, and we have an emalgamation of every duplos set ever. (For non parents- Duplos are oversized legos for toddlers. No super small pieces to choke on or shove up noses). Everytime i get asked to play legos, i freeze up. Lego Builder is an app with PDFs you can download of examples of what to build with the legos. So helpful for creativity purposes and also for lack of creativity.

Superwhy - Another PBS show app. Alpha Pig's Letter hunt, Princess Pesto's letter sounds & letter tracing, Wonder Reds rhyming game, Super Why's story saver. You can play through 4 books back to back, just like the TV Show. This game has taught O her entire alphabet in one fell swoop.

Khan Academy Kids- Way more useful than the actual Khan Academy website or app. Geared towards Elementary School kids. The app uses Super Simple songs to teach concepts. It's super engaging and we enjoyed it together. Sometimes they will email you extended learning activities to do with your kids outside the app. LIke worksheets or a scavenger hunt. For instance during fall one of the activities was to gather leaves outside and do a leaf scratching and study the leaves. You can just talk about seasons or you can talk more in-depth on a science level (chlorophyll, patterns, tree growth etc)

Libby- This is my favorite library app. For children you can download ebooks from the library, and the app will read it out loud to them (Many, not all of the books). O has already figured out how to download books for herself, so it's available to use. It's my favorite way to rent library books because there's no late fees, they just take the books back once your rental time is up.

Honorable Mention: Baby Bus Games. They are all completely free, and teach life skills like How to Survive an Earthquake or what to do if you get lost, how to cross the street etc. There is one specifically for what to do when you are home alone. Like blow on your food so you don't burn yourself, don't answer the door for strangers and so on. I really love these games and there are about 20 of them on the app store.

I hope this short list helps you find some free (or semi-free) ad-less apps for your child's learning adventure and gives you some time to cook dinner or do chores without a little one running between your feet. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Read More

Music as a lifeline.

I'm fairly certain I came out of the womb listening to music. My parents were 80s metal heads, but the only tape we had in our Mazda 323 was The Tim Burton "Batman" soundtrack. My dad would also get drunk & play "jukebox". Hecwould ay a song & my mom would guess it before he stopped it. On my way to my grandmothers house in Plano she would often play me The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. With the addition of Disney Films & sing-a-long vhs', it's a no-brainer why i was in dance at 4 years old. 

However that was very shortlived. Throughout the next few years i discovered my own taste in music. My dad had discovered napster, so we were getting full albums of music. I went through a spice girl phase, A*teens & the beatles. Then, my best friend & crush i really had it for BAD- gave me a copy of System of a Down's "Steal this album" (which he had) and thus started the now decades long love of Hard Rock. 

In junior high i became best friends with these 2 girls with the same name. They had come into junior high having been friends for years. One girl used to carry 2 binders to every class. One with CDs, and one for school work. I spent hours (that i couldve spent studying) pouring over these cds. Thus started my love for pop & pop punk music. Sum 41, Chevelle, AFI,  Avril Lavigne & Linkin Park. At this point in my life i had been playing pretty proficiently at cello. I had been to summer camp for orchestra. My social development exploded. I was really good at cello. All i had to do was hear the song be played first, hand me a piece of sheet music & within a few practice play throughs, i got it. My parents ended up buying me a cello. We still own it. Its in my in laws storage. 

Moving forward to high school. I auditioned for the orchestra placement. I ended up in the middle orchestra with sophomores & Juniors. I didnt know this at the time but i played many concerts sitting right next to my future husband. We connected pretty quickly over songs. He got me into industrial music by telling me Trent Reznor was in KMFDM. My first concert was KMFDM, with him. Since then, we've seen, photographed, met & somewhat toured with some of our favorite bands together. He's been there for almost every major artist we've seen in concert. I've opened the avenues to meet some world famous bands & to work for some natiobally recognized bands. 

My spotify account has probably 40 playlists. One for every type of activity/ocassion out there. Its amazing how one song can literally transport me to very specific points or nights of my life in so much detail its like im reliving the entire scene again. 

My husband and i had our first dance to At Last & our last song was The Fragile by Nine inch Nails at our wedding. I know what song i lost my virginity to. I know what my first alcohol songs were. I remember the first song i cut myself to (as an angsty teen). I remember my first break up.song. I have songs that remind me of my daughters being born. I have songs that remind me of my youth. Music is the one thing that helps me clean, work through emotions, relax, read to & write to. 

How does music make you feel? 

Read More

Baby Item Review

 We're entering month two of Youngest Daughter's life. I decided to make a post about all the things we currently own that are baby related, or things we owned from O's life as a newborn/Toddler. 

Things we already owned 

Baby Delight Snuggle Nest- I was vehemently against co-sleeping when we had our first daughter. I heard way too many stories about SIDS and I was terrified. But after falling asleep with O in my arms one night and almost dropping her, I invested in this. Then I put the owlet on her and kept a hand on top of her. This time around, Since I had a C-section I couldn't bend over to pick E up out of the pack and play. So we immediately took this out the minute we knew we were going to have a c-section. It has been so helpful with nighttime feedings. We put her in the middle so if one or the other stays up to feed her can pick her up without one of us having to stand up and walk over. I do still wake her up often to move her face away from the edge.  10/10 

Drying rack - We have been using this consistently for the last 3 years. Something I learned on tik-tok two years ago was that the grass comes up and you need to wash both parts to prevent mold from being created or sticking. It fully fits about 6 full size dr. browns bottles, about 6 colic inserts & 6 nipples. 6/10 - limited space for the amount of bottles we use. 

Stroller Fan- We own two of these. I didn't know that when you put a blanket over the stroller, it makes the inside of the stroller a lot hotter. So I bought one for the stroller and we use the other as a hack for the car. We drive a sedan that doesn't have backseat AC. So I wrapped the legs around the headrest of the passenger seat to be pointed at our Toddler during the summer. It really helps. 10/10

Wonderfold Stroller W1- This is an extreme expensive wagon/stroller. I bought it so both kids could fit in it, but not for a while. It may just end up being a stroller to carry coolers and bags in eventually. It's easy to steer, easy to pack up and carry, very light weight. It has a lot of pockets hanging off the side and two 5pt harnesses. I have seen these everywhere. It was pretty expensive for a wagon that both kids will probably only use for about a year. 7/10- Pretty expensive for a small wagon. 

Graco Blossom 6 in 1 High Chair- I LOVE this high chair. My Mother in law bough two. One for our house and one for hers. It has an infant insert, then you can take that insert out, and it's got a regular easy to wipe down leather seat. Then you can take THAT off, and it's a booster seat. You can also use the booster seat separate and still use the infant seat at the same time. It also has wheels, and the tray is removable for easy clean up. It also has two trays. One with a cup insert, and one just plain tray. It's the most cost effective expensive product we own. It also has a removable harness. I don't like using that because it's harder to clean but all the parts are machine washable. You WILL need the harness once your little ones are mobile. I cannot tell you how many times O tried to launch herself out of her seat. 8/10 - Could be easier to clean and disassemble. 

Animal Splat Mat - This splash mat goes under the high chair to catch all the food. It's easy to clean. It comes with little stickers to stick to the floor and keeps the mat from moving. It is the greatest investment I have ever made. You can wash it in the washing machine, but you need to line dry it, or use "No heat" drying- if your dryer has that option. 

Ubbi Diaper Pail- We have gone through THREE diaper pails. One that I got for $5 off of market place that took specific bags. Then we couldn't find the bags for it during the pandemic. So I bought a munchkin diaper pail, that also took specific bags, but we could purchase them off of Amazon. As O aged out of diapers, she figured out how to open the middle and mess with the bag. To avoid waking up to poop smeared everywhere(and it still stunk) we decided to get this diaper pail for E's arrival. I already love it so much. It's stainless steel, the bags are regular 13 gallon kitchen trash bag size, and it has a slide open close slot. We put red & green stickers to show you where to spin the lock to open it. 10/10 

Dr .Brown's formula Mixer - The last time we needed to mix formula we just scooped the formula powder in the bottle, poured water on top and shook it a few times. We realized the formula wasn't dissolving well enough. So we bought a nutribullet, but that was too loud to use during nap. So we resorted to using blender bottles with the little springs in the bottle. This time around I wanted to use this mixer. I figured once we were done with formula we could use it for like country time lemonade or something. It's extremely easy to use, you pour water in to an ounce you want. Then you divide the ounce in half and that's how many scoops of formula you put in there. So say you do 16 oz, you would put 8 scoops of formula. Then you put the mixer in, turn it side ways and mix it for 1 minute. I like to pour out the pitcher into ready made bottles so that all I have to do is pull the bottle out of the fridge, heat it up and it's ready to go in the middle of the night. 

Here's my list of must haves! I hope you enjoyed reading this, and let me know if you buy any of these, or have purchased them before and what you think! 

Read More

Makena Shots

     In June of last year(2021), I met with my OBGYN & the high risk doctor I had for my last pregnancy. I wanted to see what their thoughts were on me having a 2nd child. Obviously both of them were like "We really don't care." I got charged for both visits that were both a hugenormous(My own word)  waste of time. However my High Risk doctor added a tidbit I wasn't expecting. Since my first pregnancy was pre-term, she recommended I do progesterone shots or suppositories starting at 20 weeks of my pregnancy to ensure the pregnancy went to term. 

    Fast Forward 8 Months Later, I found out I was pregnant. I had to wait until 8 weeks to get a sonogram and meet with the high risk doctor. Everything went fine. Genetic tests came back, perfect. Absolutely normal pregnancy. First meeting with the high risk doctor- again everything beautiful. Placenta perfect (that was a problem last time), baby perfect, all according to plan. I continued to see them every 2 weeks for the first few months. Finally at the 16 week appointment I spoke to my High Risk specialist about starting Makena shots. She said she would put in the order, and they would call me. 2 weeks went by, next appointment- I mentioned it again. She said she forgot last time, would do it this time. (18 weeks at this appointment). Again I waited, but this time for a week. I called the high risk doctor and said "Hey, I'm supposed to start these shots like next week, can someone advise me on what to do?" The high risk doctor said they had called, and I should be waiting on a call from the pharmacy. I finally got a call from the pharmacy, they told me that each shot was going to be $757 since I hadn't met my deductible yet, also $80 a week extra for a nurse to drive to my home and give me the shot. However, I could call the manufacturer (Makena) to get copay assistance, I just needed to tell the how much money we made. A little invasive but OK. 

    I talk to a woman in the option care benefit coordination department. She sends me an email and tells me that 4 shots a month will cost me $1,122.16 a MONTH for 4 auto-injectors. Auto Injectors are basically EpiPens. I called Makena, and spoke to a man and basically walked him through his job. I told him my doctor, he couldn't find her in their system. I detailed each of their locations, he couldn't find them. So I walked him through how to enter their information into their system. I gave him names, addresses, fax numbers, every single thing he could use. I set up a profile in their system. It took almost 2 hours. Finally he asks for our income, I tell him and they lower the shots to $60 a month. I was informed that option care would send a nurse out to give me these shots. I called my high risk doctors office and told them what they said, they told me I didn't need a nurse that either my husband could administer them at home or they could. My husband said sure, but he wanted to be shown how to do it. So, at 20 weeks I was mailed 4 shots in a box with an icepack and a sharps container. We put the sharps container in the garage and I took my first shot to the doctor. I was also sent a huge book detailing way too much information. This book had things like how to survive a hurricane (I literally live the MOST in land possible) and what to do if I was being abused as an elderly person. Obviously whoever put this together just printed out the boilerplate packet and dropped it in the box. It just confused and infuriated me. 

    I brought the packet to the doctor. The packet said I needed to receive the shot in my butt cheek, they told me it would be in my arm. I didn't understand the discrepancy, but on the actual shot, they showed how you inject it in the back of your arm. So this may have been an auto injector, but definitely not a SELF-injector. I was given my first shot by the nurse who took my weight. She pinched the back of my arm fat (there isn't much of it) and then stabbed me with the shot. She held it there for 10 seconds. At first it hurt like a regular shot and then it started to BURN. It felt like I had been branded by a hot iron. It burned all the way from the shot injection site all the way to my elbow. Then it was sore for a few days like a COVID shot. 

    I took these shots every single week for 16 weeks. (Until 36 weeks). Everything i found on the internet gave mixed reviews. Some women got it, and they still had preemie babies. Some women got it and the week after they stopped they went into labor. Some women did them starting at 15 weeks, some started it at 24 weeks. There was nothing i found on the internet about cost, pain, efficacy etc. That's why i'm writing this post. 

So to sum it up:

Makena Shots

• Are expensive- but their is co-pay assistance 
• Burn like hell because of mineral oil
• Cause arm soreness for a few days to a week after receiving it
• Could be given as an auto-injector in the back of your arm or in your butt cheek with an abnormally large needle. 
• The pharmacy that distributes them will wait until the absolute last minute to send them. You need to call ASAP and set things up yourself. Do NOT wait. Also make sure you call them to schedule your refills. They will not call to confirm. 

My experience was that they hurt like a bitch. Eventually my husband was able to give them to me at home. We gave the sharps box to my Mother-In-Law to take to her work and give away to the biohazard people.(However you can take them to your doctor, pharmacy or mail them back to option care) I was able to stay pregnant until week 38. I stopped getting the shots at week 36. There were zero side effects passed on to my baby or me, other than arm soreness. My baby was born perfect, via c-section but that had nothing to do with the shots. 

Read More

The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry (Book Review!)

  Holy Moly. Listen, over my lifetime I've probably read close to 500 books. I'm only 32 and I'm including all the books I read as a child in that count. I devoured books. My mom used books as a punishment for me. My child loves books too, I hope she loves them when she grows up too. I read mainly psychological thrillers, horror, realistic fiction. I'm not entirely sure if realistic fiction can be considered a genre? If not, I'm declaring it now. Realistic Fiction is fiction that feels so real, or is based in reality so deeply you have to keep checking the copyright page to make sure it's listed as fiction. My books on this list include Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski, Life as we Knew it by Susan Beth Pfeffer and The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry- which I just finished.

     The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry is the first book in about 5 years that I completely and fully immersed myself. I LIVED this book. I started it one afternoon at 12:30- I had already read 27% of it. I just finished it not but 20 minutes ago and I am just now coming out of my reverie. It completely fucked my brain up. Completely. I actually found myself getting irritated with my daughter, like she was the little girl in the book. I had to put it down, come back down to earth and refocus on her. I love books where the writer uses their expertise to write a fiction book. I feel like I need to clarify because, Mary Roach has written numerous books. I own every single one (Except Spook & Fuzz but they are on the list). She writes things more as a researcher than someone writing a fictional story based on perhaps lived experiences. This book is about a couple in the medical field, who are married & having fertility issues. They treat the same child in the hospital who is there because she was very abused. They decide to foster-to-adopt her, but in the mean time the wife gets pregnant. The daughter seems to be problematic. However it has a very "The Omen" vibe to it. The child isn't EVIL in front of the Dad but very manipulative and horrific to the mother. It goes on and on until everyone in the book basically meets their breaking point.

I think the book touched so deep inside me is because:

1. The dad character has the same name as my husband.

2. The Characters are going through fertility issues (So were we).

3. The daughter manipulates both parents by using triangulation and sometimes it feels like our daughter does that. For instance, I'll have a horrible day with our daughter. He's home, he hears it. She screams, cries, yells. He hears me try to be calm until I eventually scream, cry and yell back (somedays). My husband will come out from his office and just be ready to tackle the day.

     Lately I've just needed to go lay down from some pain I got while sleeping or whatever the night before. He thankfully-unlike the character in this book- believes that she can be horrible. However, thankfully she exhibits no sociopathic traits or any sign of psychological trauma. She is a PERFECT child. We literally could not ask for a better child. She slept well, ate well, eats well still, is mainly kind, listens pretty well, empathic, and at 3 can already name her emotions. Obviously the little girl in the story had experienced so much trauma in such a short amount of time. It's a wonder she came out of it as well as she did.

This was written in a way that made it very easy to read in terms of technicality. The words were clear, the plot points were there, the shock factor was there, the twists kept me engaged. It kept me guessing all the way to the last page! However, the story its self was grueling. I felt so much shame for this family, hatred for the child protective services system, the foster system, the adoption system. I felt so protective over these characters. I wanted to shield them from the pain of their ordeal. I have literally only felt like this for a few books. I think this one was so real because I HAVE a daughter. I feel fiercely protective of her just like the Dad did. The description of postpartum depression into postpartum psychosis was so realistic, I felt like I currently had it! During my first pregnancy I was warned that because of my history of depression & anxiety it would be likely that i would suffer from PPD. I did for a few weeks, stopped breastfeeding and felt immediately better. I rarely have panic attacks anymore, mainly just wildly manic episodes (with none of the downsides?) My mania is mainly rooted in cleaning & organizing. I rarely ever experience week long depression stints. However, I have had the same thoughts that the mother did about her baby and involving other people. I am having a very hard time realistically separating myself from the characters. I feel like I had an out of body experience. I felt like i was looking in on MY life and still living inside the book. I recently read somewhere that people are surprised at how people think about things. Like, apparently only men can rotate a 3D Cube in their head? I can do that.... Apparently some people can't envision things in their heads? I have built a movie set for this book in my head. If I could work AutoCAD I would literally draw up what this house looks like to me. I kept trying to imagine famous actors as the characters in this book. I literally can't think of anyone but I could see their stature, their bodies, but never their faces. I create entire cities built up in my head. I dream in them. I have a dream city with skyscrapers, dream mall, movie theater, strip mall center... It's all up there.

I give this book legitimately 5 out of 5 stars. I loved every minute of it. Every twist, every turn. I gasped audibly at parts (I haven't done that since reading Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk in high school- which I also wrote a paper about). I actually almost cried in several parts! I definitely have to apologize to my daughter tomorrow and put the book down and play with her. I guiltily ignored her too much today. I am definitely a good mom. I'll write more on that later.

Read More

Done Being Pregnant (Personal Post)

    Last night, as I scooted down on our bed to put my head flat on a pillow, I thought- It wasn't that long ago that this wasn't possible for me. My most recent and last pregnancy was physically difficult. The first one was psychologically, physically and emotionally challenging. I ended up developing severe PPA & PPD after that one. I didn't realize that I suffered so monumentally until we had our youngest daughter. The baby blues were like a rollercoaster in the kid land of Six Flags compared to the absolute never ending hell that was PPA & PPD. 

    O (The 3 year old), came out at 35 weeks, vaginal birth, medicated. E(1 month old) came out via C-section because she was frank breech. Each came with their challenges. However, we are 100% done. During the C-Section, I electively went through a salpingectomy. A complete removal of my fallopian tubes. Not the most popular option, but i wanted to be complete sure that I wouldn't suffer an ectopic anytime in the future. Especially because of where I live (Texas), I wouldn't be able to receive medical treatment until every doctor, nurse or pharmacist had consulted with their lawyer. We had a very long discussion during my pregnancy about whether or not we were done having children or not. I once read a quote from another mom blogger that said "Envision your table at Thanksgiving. Are all the seats filled? If not, you aren't done having children." I imagined what our life would look like at Thanksgiving and all our seats were filled. So we decided to go ahead with sterilization. My husband was going to get a vasectomy in a years time or so, but since they were already going to be inside my abdomen we just decided to get them removed at the same time. 

    I'm sure people are wondering, but what about if your child dies? Wouldn't you want another one? Having another baby would not replace the pain I would experience having lost a child. People are not like fish, you can't just buy a new one to replace what you lost. I am content with the children we have now, plus I only have so much patience.... 

    Last night, while I lay in bed, snug as a bug in a rug, I started thinking about all the things i'll miss and won't miss from being pregnant. So I made a list. 

Things I'll miss 

• Feeling my belly swell with a child
• Feeling a baby kick
• Watching my body change
• Wearing extra stretchy clothes
• Having extra long hair, extra long nails, and wonderful skin. 
• Seeing my baby on a sonogram and seeing them wiggle and move around before I could feel it
• Seeing my baby on a sonogram and trying to figure out if they look like their sibling or not. 
• The exhilaration of finding out the sex of the baby. 
• The hormones making me cry from sadness and happiness at the same time. 
• Buying new dresses or outfits that accentuated my bump. 
• Big Boobs. The biggest. Awesome. 
• Birth and being able to see your spouse become a parent for the first or second time. It's life changing. 
• Cherishing the time with your spouse alone before its the three of you, or cherishing the time with your children before she's not an only child anymore. 
• Enjoying being able to eat whatever you wanted, and sending your spouse out for cravings, no matter how weird. 

Things I won't Miss

• Heartburn. Not just heartburn but feeling like you swallowed a fire breathing dragon.
• Morning Sickness that turns into whatever time sickness. 
• Coughing so hard you pee yourself or throw up. 
• Body Dysmorphia. Watching your body change before your eyes, and gaining a lot of weight in a rapid amount of time. 
• The fear that you'll lose the pregnancy at any point. Up to the 12 week mark, or any time past that. 
• Not being able to lay flat on your back. 
• Not being comfortable at any point at night or during the day
• Excessive Tiredness, I'm not talking just a little sleep, I'm talking pure exhaustion you can feel in your bones. 
• Anxiety from having too much done, not enough, wondering when the baby will come. 
• Constant doctor appointments if you're high risk, or not enough if you aren't. 
• Having to get my hair recolored or cut every 6 weeks. Painting your nails only for it to be grown out by morning. 
• Feeling like an Invalid when you can't put on your clothes by yourself, or pick up things off the floor. 
• Having your entire appetite change. I couldn't eat chicken with O but everything else was OK, however I had to drink protein shakes most days to keep stuff down. With E, I was basically a vegetarian and only wanted to eat candy. I could barely eat any meat, and ended up anemic towards the end. I enjoy being able to eat whatever I want now. 
• Eating Pepcid like it was candy, several times a day. Omeprazole did nothing, Nexium barely helped, it was horrible. 
• Getting sick and not being able to take most medications.
• The recovery of each one. Pad after pad, ice packs, dermoplast, hydrocortisone cream, physical therapy, etc. 

    Being pregnant was a privilege I wasn't sure I would be able to experience. I really enjoyed each one, for all they gave me, and all they taught me. Motherhood and Parenthood isn't for everyone, but I feel like this was what I was meant for. Even on days when I am at my wits end, have no patience and I want to cry, I still find something to be grateful for. As for tonight, i'll be enjoying my heating pad on high, my extremely comfortable pillow cradling my head, and no heartburn from the dinner I ate. I may even eat chocolate before bed! 

Read More

Review of Storage Items & Future Replacements.

 Okay, I admit it. I have OCD. It stems from my anxiety, It has made being a parent incredibly difficult. Babies and children come with SOOO many things. Especially when they are the first grandchild. So, the way I have dealt with that is trying to find the best, most affordable storage items for majority of their things. Unfortunately, this has come with a lot of trial and error. We have purchased several items that either didn't live up to the hype or weren't what we were looking for. This post will give examples of what we bought and worked or did not work. I would love your feedback on any of these. 

We bought this cart for craft storage. There were a lot of positive reviews, so I was excited to get it for my birthday. It has a lot of storage space in the drawers, and I liked the flat top to store other things. However, within a few weeks I noticed one of the bottom drawers wasn't fitting anymore. The side of the bin had completely bent out. It no longer fit in the slats. Then,  noticed when sliding the bins in & out, the plastic was being shaved off by the metal parts. We contacted the company through Amazon to see if they could replace the bin that had bent, and they said no. So 0/10 Do not buy.

We are considering replacing the cart with something like this. This is a Trofast system from Ikea. We already have 2 of them for toy storage. They are wonderful. The bins are sturdy, the system is wood. We have a lot of craft supplies and we could probably use to get rid of some of them. The only issue is the kitchen is where we had that stored, so we may need to take up more living room space again, which is fine. 

What child doesn't have an insane amount of stuffed animals? My child is no exception. We have tons of squishimals, my old TY beanie babies, build-a-bears, and random stuffed animals. We initially had them stored in a cloth laundry basket, but we immediately out-grew that. So i bought this box, thinking it would hold everything. Absolutely not. This box isn't sturdy at all, holding on to the lid is futile. It also comes with a divider that immediately became useless. This box is a waste of money. 

This is what we are considering getting for Christmas. We thought it would serve as double purpose. Easy to put away, and if we got two, they could use them as little chairs to read or sleep on later. I don't know how comfortable they will be, and how long they'll be full of stuffed animals, but that's neither here nor there. 

Wooden and Peg puzzles are the bane of my existence. I bought this puzzle rack thinking it would hold all our puzzles. Positively false. It barely holds half of them, and you barely touch it and it falls over. I am so tired of dealing with it. Not all puzzles are one size fits all either. This would be great if the only puzzles you purchased are from Melissa and Doug, but if they aren't, you need to find alternative storage. 

I went the boring route with puzzles. I busted out my label maker, i printed out tags for each of the puzzles saying what they were, and then I stacked them one on top of another inside a tote box and closed the lid. Eventually we'll upgrade to jigsaw puzzles and we'll need to find some other storage. They are great for cognitive abilities and hand/eye coordination but i truly detest them. 

So far, these are the things I dislike the most, storage wise. We have done our best to work with what we have around us and buy the cheapest possible items because we know our kids are only young once and will destroy everything before they grow up. 

What are your favorite storage solutions? What items did you buy to store toys, craft supplies and stuffies? Let me know! 

Read More

A New Adventure

     On the one month Anniversary of my youngest Daughter's birthday, I deactivated my Facebook. I had been thinking about doing so ever since month 7 of my pregnancy, but I felt like I had more to say. No one was explicitly listening. My husband heard everything I had to say every single night at 11:00pm regardless. Not to mention, every thing I wanted to say, he had already seen, been apart of or experienced. I realized, after I deleted the app that I had been obsessive compulsively checking it every 20 or so minutes, and then spending hours on it. It was time to quit. However,  Being a stay at home mom, you're virtually cut off from the entire world. Being a liberal, democrat voting, blue & purple haired, tattoo covered stay at home mom, in a conservative, heavily religious town- you basically don't exist. So, I decided to start this blog instead. 

    In 2020, before the pandemic shut down the world, I was trying to find a job I could stay at. I went to temp agencies, and never really found my footing anywhere. To, From, and at these jobs, I was binging podcasts. A friend of mine posted that he started a podcast about being gamers and nerdy dads. I listened, and I loved it. I messaged my friend about the games they were talking about and I was brought into their circle. I offered to help them market the podcast, since it was one of my best skills, and they accepted. From then on, damn near every free moment was spent learning WordPress, google analytics, SEOs and new topics to talk about. I wrote an article about "Toxic Fandoms" and shared it, and so many of my friends and other women chimed in about it. It felt good to have my stuff be read. After a while, we all got busy and schedules didn't align, so it petered off. But, I still felt like I had more I wanted to talk about and share. 

In 2021, we decided we were going to brave "Post Covid" world and start taking our 2 year old places. Near us, there is a mall that has a Legoland, Aquarium & a Peppa Pig Play World. We bought 3 day tickets, and decided to go. However, the website was poorly designed, we didn't understand how the time windows worked, and in hindsight we should've just done Peppa Pig Play World and ignored the other two. I wrote about our experience on Facebook and the post got more likes and comments than anything I had posted in the past 5 years. More personal endorsements poured in. "You should start a blog for your reviews!" "I don't have kids, but my friend do and I shared your post!" 

    After my daughter was here, I was taking inventory of the things we bought and have used and not used. My husband and I started looking for replacements for a few things. I said "I should write about this." Again "You absolutely should." Another friend. "If you started a blog, I would read it." "You might be able to make money off of it." 

    So here we are, with my marketing skills, my not so silent mind, trapped in this house full of poopy diapers, being a toddler's snack bitch, and a husband who's too tired and already knows what I'm going to say, I start this blog today. 

    If you don't know me, Hi, my name is Jennifer (But everybody calls me Jenn-yes two Ns. No its not weird). I'm 32, a parent of two girls, married to my high school sweetheart.  A year ago i dyed my hair blue, and over the past year it's become more purple than blue. Its the most "me" thing i've ever done. I have no intention of going back to my normal hair color. I'm a tattoo enthusiast, a bookworm, an amateur gardener, a former professional photographer, a foodie, a therapist for my friends, and a lazy stay at home mom. The goal of this blog is to either influence you to buy products or books I love, or to avoid at all costs books I disliked or products I felt I wasted my money on. Occasionally I may post a personal post here or there. (I have a few controversial opinions). I don't trash talk my spouse, I do trash talk myself though. (Working on it). I hope you'll follow along.

Read More