underrated products that I love/use

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I was getting dressed on Saturday and had the idea for this post as I used one of these products. I'm linking up with Joanne for today's post. I've talked about one of these before, but not the other three. 

For my skin:

In my humble opinion, Vaseline is one of the most wonderful and underrated products on the market that has been around for ages. One blogger and influencer I follow mentioned how there's a Vaseline body stick that is available right now, but it's pretty pricey, and this does the same thing. I have been using this for years now, and I wanted to let you know of all of its benefits! First and foremost is that it keeps my lips from being chapped. I've been wearing this to bed every night for at least five years now, and I put it on after I brush my teeth and moisturize every morning. I always take a little and rub it on my forehead (where my skin is extra dry) and the backs of my hands. I have a beautiful African American friend who told me that she uses Vaseline as her daily moisturizer, and you should see her skin! If it helps mine even a fraction as much as it does wonders for her skin, then I will be one happy camper. 

Speaking of moisturizer, this one is the one that I'm still using everyday and that I've been using for years. I like how it's a light and whipped consistency, and not thick and greasy feeling. I put this on under my makeup everyday after I brush my teeth. I also use this as body lotion in the colder months, when my skin is extra dry and sensitive. It lasts for hours and keeps my skin from being itchy all winter long.

For when I'm sick:

And because this is the season for being under the weather, I have to use the most secret weapon that I have in my home to fight off being stuffy. This is the only nose spray that I have ever used that is almost exactly twelve hour relief. I try not to use this stuff unless I have to, but one of the most miserable parts of being sick is when you can't breathe through your nose. Additionally, this is when I either invest in the tissue with lotion, or I just use a roll of toilet paper, because it's the softest. I keep Hall's cough drops with menthol around, and I use a combination of medicines for when I'm really bad, but Mucinex (the Kirkland brand from Costco) is probably the most helpful, because it makes your cough productive. 

For use around the house:

I use Dawn dish soap for everything! I use it for washing dishes, obviously, but its other main use in my home is as a stain remover. It works every single time! Have you tried this? Also, I hate to break it to you, but Dawn power wash is not worth the extra money that it costs, in my opinion. Its sale point is that it breaks through the toughest of foods on dishes, but so does regular Dawn when you just use a few drops of it and fill the dish or pan with water and let it sit. Because I am my mother's child, of course I store it in a pretty glass container with a pump. 

Tell me some things that you love/use that are highly underrated. I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!

Jenn 🖤

weekend recap

 

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you had a good weekend! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for today's post. Did you do anything fun this weekend? I did! Here are the highlights. 

A highlight for me was finding some tops and a pair of pants at Marshall's on Friday; I am in desperate need of both! The first picture of me was what I put on that day, because we were still in the "wear a sweater in the morning and regret it in the afternoon" weather. That is changing today, and I couldn't be more happy! I found four tops and one pair of pants.

It was a highlight seeing that Marilyn and I made Sophie Hudson's book tour reel on Instagram!

These sourdough crackers were also a highlight, though I probably won't make them again since they lost their crispness overnight.

Another highlight was seeing my greats have fun at the pumpkin patch in Colorado! I got to go there with them two years ago, and the year before that we went to one closer to their house. I love that I get to see them every fall and am counting down the days until I see them soon. 

This sourdough toast with Christmas jam was a highlight on Saturday.

And so was wearing the new pants that I love!

Marilyn and I found ourselves at an Oktoberfest on Saturday! This was the first one we went to; after we saw everything, we left and went to search for another one. 

We made a stop at this unique gift shop first.

And we pulled up at the end of a car show, but when we got past all of that, we finally found what we were looking for. 

After a very sketchy walk under this bridge, we came upon an even smaller one than the first! We were fine with this, since we didn't spend money on either. At the second one, we ended up eating a really great lunch from a food truck. I had a chicken schnitzel sandwich that was to die for! 

I couldn't resist this one for my sons, because we all know how much they love their vehicles! For the rest of the weekend, I relaxed at home and watched marathon Hallmark fall themed movies. I'm not complaining, trust me! What did you do that you loved? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all! 

Jenn 🖤

The Cozy Chronicles: all about Fall/Halloween

 

Happy Saturday, friends! I'm glad you're here today to talk about fall and Halloween traditions. Do you have anything that you still do, even though you may be in a different phase of life now that your kids are grown? Or some of you still have littles at home, so how do you celebrate this time of year? I'm excited to hear from you. 

Now that my sons are grown, I used to stay at home on this night and hand out candy. Because of the dogs and their aversion to people in costumes being on the front porch and ringing the bell, I used to sit in the driveway to do this each year. It was always fun to get to see neighbors outside doing the same, since we're all in similar life phases. I won't be doing that this year, though, and even if I were going to be at home, I would have made plans to be out of my house on that night. This year that's the day that I leave to go to Colorado; this is the trip that got postponed earlier this month. The night we get there is when my niece has her annual Halloween party, so I'm excited to get to go this year! I'm thinking of costume ideas...

This reminds me of when my boys were young. We've always done this kind of thing on Halloween each year, and I think it was my sister Lisa that started the tradition, though it changed over the years from her house to mine as my kids got older and wanted to trick-or-treat here with their friends. We would always get together and have a yummy dinner, then some of us would stay at home to hand out candy, and some of us would go with the kids to trick-or-treat. Those were the days! When I started hosting it, it became the night I made a big stockpot full of soup. A few of us would leave to walk with my boys as they collected copious amounts of candy. 

(Chicken tortilla soup was always a favorite!)

These were a few of my favorite costumes of their from years past. Some were bought, some were borrowed, most of them were made. 

Additionally each year, we loved going to a local pumpkin patch with friends. We happened upon that one year when we saw signs for it, and we went back a couple of weekends later better prepared. You could "rent" a fire pit and take your own food to cover over the flames. We always took hot dogs with all the fixings, and marshmallows for s'mores. The kids would play the games they had set up, and would run around on their playground, then when it got dark, we would take a hayride back to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins to bring home. After several years of doing this, others caught wind, and it eventually became a zoo, so we stopped going. I looked back on pictures for this, but the quality of them was terrible. This was the only decent one I could find.

The first year we did this, Jonah and Noah were four. We probably did this for eight years in a row; the older the boys got, the less they wanted to do things like this and the more they wanted to do new and fun things with their friends. 

What do you like to do every year at this time? Are you still celebrating the best of year in any way? I've continued in my love for pumpkin patches and have been to a couple in Colorado when I visit my family there. It's been fun celebrating with my great nieces now that my sons are all grown! I'm excited to hear from you today! If I don't have many that link up today, I'll probably stop this from being a link party next month and will just continue on my own. Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all!

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Friday Favorites, 10.11.2024.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for today's blog post. How has your week been? Mine has been really good! It's hard to believe that I've spent almost a third of this year being separated already. It's coming up in a few days, the four month mark, and I don't know if I'll ever not be shocked at how my life has turned out. I've had a few things that came up this week that made my eye twitch, but I'm choosing to focus on anything other than that. Thank you for praying for me this week! I had an appointment, but it went pretty well, I just always get nervous when I have to do that kind of thing. Enough about that. I have so many favorites from this week!

Meeting John Mark was a big favorite this week! I loved talking to him for a few minutes, and finding out that we have a lot in common, in regards to books and personalities that we love. He shared with me that he's having a book signing event coming up at his shop soon, and I'm looking forward to doing that with Marilyn if it's something we can both make work. 

The Beatitudes will always be some of my favorite parts in Scripture. I love to read about Jesus' sermon on the Mount.

It's no secret that sourdough bread is my favorite, and so is making it! I tried two new things with the dough this week: focaccia and rolls. Both were amazing and went well with our big Monday night family dinner. 

And speaking of family dinner, that was definitely my favorite night of the week. The weather was amazing, so we went outside after we ate and just sat and talked and laughed together. I hate that Noah wasn't with us, but I did talk to him twice that day and a couple of more times this week since then. I loved getting to see Graham and Drew; Graham brought the baby dogs with him to visit me! I was so glad to see them, and they were happy to come over, but they were also happy to leave with him again. That makes my heart incredibly happy. 

I wore one of my favorite shirts to work on Tuesday, and enjoyed the long sleeves since it was cool enough for them this week.

I went to dinner with my bestie Andrea, and we ate at a newer Mexican food restaurant and I had my favorite thing: a chicken fajita bowl. I ate every bite of this! 

My morning quiet time is always my favorite! Sometimes I sit while I listen/read, and other times I multi-task. Any time spent with the Lord is the best, though; I often remind myself (and others) that He isn't legalistic about what this time looks like. I'm still reading with The Bible Recap community, and I love what Tara-Leigh Cobble said recently: how that if we're showing up day after day, spending 20 to 30 minutes reading the word of God, we are getting to know Him more and more. We're growing in our faith, and we are changing inwardly and growing to be more like Him. 

I wore another one of my favorite shirts to work Wednesday; as much as I love it, I think it's finally reached its age of retirement. It's too big, but I love it, so my compromise will be to try to find something to replace it with in the next couple of weeks. I've had to buy clothing items lately to replace some other things that I've had to retire. 

I've gotten some really cute things in the bookstore recently that are my favorite. I tried to buy things that would make good gift items for people, and shared them to Instagram yesterday. 

Would it even be a Friday Favorites post if Chloe weren't a part of it? Cuddles with her will always be my favorite! 

Sitting outside to read was a favorite this week, because the weather has been amazing!

Wednesday night was one of my favorite nights; I spent it at home, since there was no church this week due to Fall Break. I listened to a really great podcast last week, talking about when divorce devastates your life, and at the end of it, they asked some questions that they suggested you journal about. I jotted them down quickly in my phone, so I spent time on Wednesday doing that. It was actually quite therapeutic. 

Lastly was my Wednesday night dinner! I hinted at this yesterday, but it's one of those viral TikTok recipes that I found recently. You beat some eggs with salt and pepper in them, and pour them into a pan that has butter melted in it and that is over medium high heat. Scrape the edges of the pan and tilt it so that the egg mixture keeps cooking; when it's almost done, add your toppings. I used spinach and provolone cheese; after the toppings, you lay a tortilla over it all and with your fingers on one hand, press it down and give it a good twist to loosen the eggs from the pan. After a couple of minutes, give it a flip and let it cook a little bit more to brown the tortilla. I flipped it one more time after this, but it was essentially a burrito that wasn't messy. It was delicious and I will be making this on repeat, trust me! I think it turned out really pretty, too. 

Do you want to participate in the monthly link party I host called The Cozy Chronicles? It's coming up up tomorrow! This month we're talking all things Halloween and fall, and the cozy traditions and bucket list things we do each year. I'd love for you to join me! Here's a graphic if you want to use it, if not, no worries.

Here are my other blog posts from the week, in case you missed any:

Monday was a weekend recap. 

Tuesday was all about things that have surprised me lately.

Wednesday was a Hodgepodge post. 

Thursday was Thankful Thursday.

What was a favorite for you this week? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog today, friends. Love to all!