Blog

It’s the weekend before Valentine’s Day! Do you do anything to celebrate? We’re not big celebrators of it in our house, but I remember my eyes being opened when I heard about the 5 love languages and the different ways we give and receive love. (like a huge so that’s why that previous relationship with the high school turned college, turned post-college boyfriend never worked out type of revelation!) Here’s a quick read on the types and the free quiz if you’re curious about you or your partners’ type! I plan to be more intentional about quality time and some acts of service to show I care.

With the Winter Olympics well under way, our family is official in watch any sport at any time mode. Biathlon is my husband’s favorite event and I just mostly wanted to watch snowboarding after Shaun White creeped into my for you page on TikTok and I have to say, I think I’m kinda really into 30 something Shaun White…is that weird?! It might be weird. 🙂 I don’t know why, but I love his videos where he’s commenting on posts people tag him on while he’s eating. I was in tears going online this morning and watching all his interviews after the finals last night!

And speaking of sports, we watched an old favorite last night – Death Diving! If you haven’t heard of it, it’s diving from 10 or more meters up but not your traditional dive. There’s different styles but the commonality is that you wait until you’re as close to the water as possible to tuck in and hit the water bent over with arms and legs pointed down and hitting first. It’s wild!

This stowaway cinch tote has served many a purpose (library bag, travel, bag to throw my lunch and other random supplies for the work day), but using it for my kids sports has recently been added to the list. It’s easy to throw in a pouch with all my necessities then the lack of structure allows me to stuff in the jackets, the hats, the extra layers, and all our water bottles to keep all of our crap contained!

My sister-in-law texted last weekend about making one of our favorite recipes, Bev’s creamy beef and gnocchi soup, with crumbled up Trader Joe’s parmesan crisps sprinkled on top. There’s a reason they’re on our list of TJ’s favorites! I plan to give her idea a try this weekend.

Coziness! Just add in watching a movie, fuzzy blankets, and kid snuggles please. 🙂

Have a wonderful weekend!

This list of most loved things from the month of January screams it’s winter and I just want to be cozy at the expense of everything else – and I’m happy to report, no regrets!

SPERRY SALTWATER BOOTS

I feel like I’m slow to the duck boots trend, but after realizing these are perfect for keeping my feet and ankles warm and dry while also not being a really ugly snow boot I snagged a pair. And truly, where we live we get a couple of good snow falls each winter and the rest of the time is spent with just gloomy cold weather so these should be all I truly need for any inclement weather. After wearing them sledding for a bit on our first snowy day, I’ll just be finding a couple pairs of quality wool socks to pair with them on those types of days.

BOMBAS SOCKS

While placing a Christmas order at Bombas I added these cute tie dye calf length pair to the order for myself (a mens pair, because I liked the color better than the women’s options). I knew they were good but damn, they are really good! Super comfortable and I’m constantly throwing them on with my Sperry’s when I walk my son to the bus stop int he mornings. Their quarter socks in black are my go to pair to wear with cute boots too – the women’s single pair option I haven’t seen in stock for a little bit now, but I just ordered the men’s single pair instead after calculating my size (take your size in women’s shoes and go down 1.5 to get your approximate mens size). The only difference I noticed in doing that is that the men’s are very slightly taller, which I don’t mind based on what I’m wearing them with.

FLEECE LEGGINGS

After all these years of owning leggings, how have I never had a fleece lined pair until now?! They’re so cozy and the lack of compression is something I actually love about them. These have been heavily in rotation for work from home days, which have increased with a flip back to fully remote work until the beginning of February. The exact pair I have from Old Navy is back and forth on their stock so I’m feeling pretty happy that I obsessively ordered three pairs. These look like a good (although more expensive) alternate pair I’d try if I needed another pair and couldn’t get the Old Navy ones in stock.

OVERSIZED COFFEE MUG

I’m a little bit extra about my morning coffee routine and it’s my favorite way to start my day. An oversized coffee mug is perfect to leave plenty of room for all the frothed goodness I add in and this 16 ounce one was one I added to my mug collection recently and have been reaching for most mornings ever since. Don’t tell my husband though or he might try to clear out all the others I still love too! 🙂

NEUTROGENA NORWEGIAN FORMULA HAND CREAM

This was a recommendation I picked up from following Sharon McMahon and I would argue it has been the best $3.99 I’ve ever spent! Well, technically the best $15.96 I’ve ever spent because I have multiples stashed around the house – at my desk, on the table beside my end of the couch, and in various purses/bags I switch between. My hands get brutally dry in the winter and this stuff keeps me looking human. I’ve even put a little bit on dry skin patches on my face and within hours they’re gone.

After months of working a hybrid schedule, our campus closed for about a month because of the covid surge. On the incredibly short list of things I miss about having to leave the house to go to work in an office is getting dressed in a real outfit. I love thinking through the details of all the options and it’s hard to muster up the motivation and interest in doing that just to never leave the house all day.

Last week I had a change of heart and made it a point to get it together everyday. Not in outfits that would be appropriate for heading into the office, but ones that weren’t oversized sweatpants and sweatshirts that I could show my upper half in a meeting in and not feel self conscious. My biggest tips? Have a jeans option that’s a size up from your usual size and gives more breathing room than usual, pants with an elastic waist are necessary, and grab yourself a cozy pair of shoes to wear indoors only that feel like a (small) step up from slippers.

After some years of not having the time, patience, energy to keep up with thrifting, I decided to make a stop again recently and had really good luck. This sweater was the best find! I have far more gray sweaters than I have any business owning, but I love them. Paired with my “leisure jeans” as Kelly calls them, this was an un-restricting outfit I felt good working from home in.

My husband calls these my curtain pants but come on, they’re just as comfortable as a big old pair of sweats but you know, don’t like like a big old pair of sweats. I get tripped up a bit on what to top to pair with them since sweater on top of sweater can look a little funny if the knits aren’t right, but this light weight pretty classically fitting v-neck balanced it. I just recently bought that one and can tell it’s going to get a ton of use and be a well loved basic. Size tip though – I’m mostly a medium in tops, sometimes a large. This is one that I sized up and went for the large which is good because it definitely runs small.

I noticed a theme! On days I know I’ll have to leave the house later it was a leggings day because those are easy to throw my newly beloved Sperry boots on with and know I’ll have warm, dry feet. We had some cold days and at this point in life I’m almost always picking comfort over looking cute! I remember it was so cold this day, even inside (I work in the room above the garage, the coldest room in the house) so I layered up with this cozy shacket.

I’m feeling a little meh about this wrap sweater but threw it on in an attempt to look a little nicer. Our team was meeting a new staff member in our department that day and we had an interview with someone for an open position on my team so I wanted to try to look and feel a little more professional than I normally would care to look when we’re all working remotely. These joggers are my favorite though. I love them so much that I own them in black and this olive color. Elastic waist bands for life! And I think they’ll be perfectly appropriate to style for days when we’re back to working some days in the office as well.

Leggings again so I definitely left the house this day, even if it was only to go pick up pizza for dinner. 🙂 Back in early fall I was on the hunt for a hooded sweater as a layering option for our Disney trip and this one was a random Nordstrom Rack find. I can’t find it in stock anymore but I just recently bought this hooded sweater in a different color and love it even more!

We’re in that part of winter where I hit full on hibernation mode, happy to spend evenings snuggled up in my corner of the couch and to barely make it awake beyond 9pm both nights. Not an ounce of restlessness or desire to get up and do something in sight! But this weekend my parents are on their way and we have lots of fun things planned for a belated birthday celebration for my dad. It’ll be such a wonderful change of pace! Before I head out for that, a round up of thoughts and things that are on my mind lately…

I noticed that Mary Laura Philpott’s upcoming book Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives was finally listed on our library’s website so I was able to reserve a copy to read as soon as it releases this April. I’ve never been so excited for a book release! Her book I Miss You When I Blink tops the list of my favorite books – motherhood is a large theme in her work which I’m sure is why I feel so pulled to it, but she’s mastered the art of story telling that leaves you bouncing back and forth between laughing and crying that I love to do so much.

I ordered this penguin snow mold just in time for it to arrive at the end of another snowy day for us last weekend. I think I was maybe more entertained by it than my 7 year old but it was $7 well spent in my opinion! We had fun making a few penguins after shoveling the driveway and it felt good to have some fun outside.

I’m always drawn to fun flats and I think I’d truly be happy to spend as many seasons as possible just wearing a rotation of gray sweaters, jeans, and funky flats every day. I don’t dare add another pair to my collection right now and these are higher than the price point I usually target but oh man, if I was looking to treat myself to something special this jeweled raspberry color pair would be it!

Lately I’ve favored flavored coffee syrups with frothed oat milk over flavored coffee creamers Chobani’s Sizzlin’ Brown Sugar creamer lured me back! I’ve spent the last two weeks adding a little bit to my oat milk before frothing and it’s the perfect bit of flavor added.

Currently dreaming of taking a vacation day to spend the day alone with a good book, coffee, and doing this cute paint by numbers kit…

I very knowingly have an unhealthy relationship with conflict, as in I would love to straight up avoid it forever and ever, until the end of my days. Clearly that’s unrealistic and this article about argument styles was interesting to read and got me thinking about the approach my husband and I each have.

We recently had a decent snow fall on the perfect day, one with no school, no work, and absolutely no plans for the day. By the time late morning came around my husband randomly said let’s go sledding and both me and our seven year old answered with an enthusiastic yes!

After layering up and driving to the nearest hill, we take a few turns heading sledding down with plenty of other families from our area. A few rounds in and I’m taking my turn heading down the hill with my son waiting for me at the bottom and I realize I’m actually having so much fun that I’m laughing without even realizing it. My mind cleared of absolutely everything else, every worry, every thought about the ever present to do list or what the heck is for dinner and do we have everything we need to make it? Cleared and just feelings of sheer joy in its place.

And damn did that feel good! So good that it had me wondering when was the last time I felt like this and why don’t we experience these moments more often?!

I’m a self professed worrier which can be really frustrating not only to myself, but to my family too. Getting out of my own head is sometimes a challenge, but a necessary one if I’m going to save myself some emotional energy. Two years ago I used a daily gratitude journal to ground myself, writing down three things each day that I was grateful for. This year I’m trying something new – reflecting on the week and thinking what are at least three things that made me smile this week! Here’s my list I noted from last week:

– Sledding down that hill and enjoying that time together with my husband and son.

– Overhearing one of the little bit older teammates on my son’s swim team telling him good race after practice.

– As my son walked in from school, I asked him how his day was and he answered with a genuine “it was perfect!” without an ounce of sarcasm.

A love of Trader Joe’s is a shared love in my family but I’m the only one lucky enough to live near one. That means that before any trip home I make sure I go and stock up on all of our favorites to bring with me and I have fun grabbing some fun things to try together too as I come across them. Here’s a roundup of our family’s favorites that we would jump to recommending if asked!

THE CHEESES!

Hands down, our favorite thing about Trader Joe’s is their cheeses along with the reasonable price points that come with them. My dad stays keeps their grated and their shaved parmigiano reggiano stocked and the rest of us are sure to always have the shredded pizza seasoned toscano on hand. The unexpected cheddar, both by the block and the shredded, are long time favorites too. Rounding out the list of cheeses I’m constantly picking up is the goat cheese logs. The honey chèvre is a year round favorite and we wouldn’t dare celebrate a holiday without the blueberry vanilla goat cheese log making an appearance on the table!

THE SWEETS!

Next up is all the sweets – another beloved section to browse! For years I’ve been stocking up on their chocolate covered sea salt butterscotch caramels every time I head home and I would say they’re tied for our collective favorite with the toffee chips, little rectangles of toffee about the size of a fun size candy bar that’s covered in either dark or milk chocolate (great to have on hand for baking as well as snacking!). The scandinavian swimmers are a favorite, but only in my house, along with the hold the cone mini ice cream cones – although I’d argue that’s only because ice cream usually doesn’t travel well so I’ve never taken them with me! The cones come in vanilla, chocolate, and chocolate chip flavors and my seven year old wouldn’t hesitate to tell you to try any of them. 🙂 The chocolate coating is the perfect touch too!

THE SNACKS!

This post really is covering all my favorite category of foods! My most recently discovered favorite that my mom and I share is their seasonal kettle corn. I’m sad I haven’t seen any new flavor in stores lately, but we loved their maple sea salt kettle popcorn from the fall. Even better though was the key lime kettle popcorn they had over the summer with the sugary bits being a perfect balance to the tartness of the lime. I’m hoping these are going to be permanently in the yearly rotation. Their pita bite crackers always find their way into my cart too (because you need something to put all that good cheese on), and the parmesan crisps have made their way into the list of staples too. My three year old niece’s favorite is the cinnamon schoolbook cookies – they might have cookie in the name, but these are essentially little letter shaped cinnamon flavored version of animal crackers so we consider them a snack!

From about ages 14 to maybe 19 I wore a lot of American Eagle. Like a lot of it. Anyone whose high school years hit in the late 90s/early 2000s probably knows what I’m talking about. The brown boots, the graphic tees, and definitely the flare and wide leg jeans! By the time I got settled into college, I had left it behind in favor of Gap denim (on sale) and cute tops from Forever 21. The nostalgia that’s hitting just thinking about it all!

Over the last year or so though I have been lured back with my curiosity kicking in a few years back when bloggers starting talking about American Eagle denim again. While I still haven’t been convinced enough to jump back into their denim, their cozy oversized sweaters have won me over. When we made the sudden shift to completely working from home, I found myself loving their pieces for that feel like you’re in your pajamas without actually wearing your pajamas feeling. A way to look just cute enough to not feel like a slob and hit whatever low threshold of presentable on camera staff meetings required.

Their stock seems to come and go pretty quickly, so none of the items I’ve bought (not even the ones from this fall) are still available. Browsing their site though, here’s the options I’d go for if it was time to add some more options to my closet!

It’s actually taking a lot of restraint to not hit order on this cozy pullover!

This cloud cape – I bought a really similar cape last year and it’s like a work video call approved robe.

I bought this moto quarter zip earlier this fall and it looks to be back in different colors. It’s the item I reach for over and over again!

A similar style to the moto quarter zip, this option feels a little more worn in if that’s more your style.

And this one has the closest look to what I’m wearing in the picture above that’s sadly out of stock!

Friday! You’re here! We’re celebrating with pizza from one of our favorite places. The perfect way to kick off the weekend. A few thoughts and things from this week to share…

We watched Olaf Presents on Disney+ and those short little videos were the source of so much giggling. I’m not sure what I found more entertaining though – the actual videos or my son’s re-enactment of them all weekend!

Last weekend we were out of town and we had the first snow of the season, two things that helped make homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner sound perfect! I picked up a rotisserie chicken, then followed the steps in this Half Baked Harvest recipe and I swear it was the best batch of chicken noodle soup I’ve ever made. I really think the parmesan was a difference maker! Instead of using a parmesan rind, I just threw a couple pinches of grated parmigiano reggiano in it instead and it was delicious.

My 7 year old got this game for his birthday and he is surprisingly obsessed with it! It feels like straight up chaos to follow along with sometimes, but once you figure out all the rules and nuances of the game, it’s really fun!

After a lot of back and forth over whether or not I should get it, I ordered the Calpak Luka belt bag to have for our Disney trip that’s coming up soon. The belt bag to keep all the items I want to be able to quickly access close and then a shared family backpack for everything else will be the way we go.

A sneak peak at the family pictures my sister-in-law coordinated last weekend – outside of wedding photos, we haven’t gotten a family picture since my brother and I were little kids. I’m so in love with these and so glad we took the time to have them taken!

If you’re a Cup of Jo follower then you already know the comments section on posts is gold (check this post out if you’ve never experienced it), but one that sticks with me was a reader commenting with a story about her dad, who was a therapist, always telling her to look for small acts of kindness when you’re out in the world and having a hard time. We were at my parents house last weekend and after my dad spent the whole evening and night not feeling well, I heard their printer going the next morning. When I asked my dad what he was doing he said he was printing the crossword puzzle from the paper for mom. Later I was getting ready in the other room and overheard him giving it to her and her surprised little “Oh!” that left me able to tell she loved what must’ve been an expected thoughtful act that morning. I know it’s one of those random little things that will bring me to tears just thinking about it even decades from now!

If we’re running down the long list of ways I like to treat myself then grabbing a coffee from a coffee shop is going to be one of the things at the top. At work our office is within walking distance of a lot of options and walking to go grab coffee is something I’ve enjoyed doing alone when I need to escape for a bit and as a team if we’re all feeling the need for some fresh air and caffeine together. When the pandemic moved us all to fully remote for a year and a half, that tradition was one of the few things I actually missed from our old life of getting up and physically leaving our houses everyday for work.

Lattes or drinks with cold foam have always been my favorite coffee outside of my kitchen treat so when my mother-in-law asked for Christmas ideas for me last year I threw a frother out there as something I thought I’d enjoy, but probably wouldn’t buy myself. She gifted it to me and let me tell you – it has been the best thing to ever happen to my coffee!

Now that we’re back into the office a few days each week, I maybe might even have bought a second one so that I have my home frother and my work frother…the love affair is real!

This is the exact frother I had originally, then got this Nespresso one as part of a deal on a bundle with a Nespresso machine.

While syrups are great (Torani brown sugar cinnamon is my favorite), here’s some other good additions I’ve thrown into my milk before frothing:

– agave

– maple syrup

– vanilla extract

– maple extract

– honey simple syrup

It’s the weekend! Cheers to it. I had the realization this week as I looked at the calendar that every weekend from now until after Christmas has something either planned or plans in the works and I instantly felt overwhelmed. ‘Tis the season! But I am excited for lots to time spent with friends and family. And now, a collection of thoughts to share and things found around the internet…

The shacket trend – what do we think? I can’t decide and feel like by the time I get done thinking it over we’ll already have moved onto the next trend (or to winter jackets)! I like the non-plaid versions and have my eye on this really soft looking option but this corduroy option is really pretty too.

I’ve spent the past few months really struggling with motivation on the work front and if you can relate, this Career Contessa article I Don’t Want to Work — 7 Reasons You’re Not Feeling It at Work was a good read. While I’m still not entirely sure what’s going on and what to do about it, I have to say that my week off that resulted from time I had to use to avoid losing even though I have nowhere to go was a really nice reset that was maybe a step in the right direction.

I’m fascinated by the Swing House – what a fascinating concept!

I’m a sucker for a pretty notebook and have enough to last me quite awhile, but these beauties are making it really hard not to keep adding to the collection! (My personal fav)

Ever since we were required to head back to the office a couple of days a week I’ve been insistent on the idea that if I have to be there, I’m going to be cozy. I found this wearable throw blanket and keep teetering between do I need this and is it a little bit too extra?!

I put these fleece leggings on to wear for the first time and they were so good, I immediately went to look at buying more. I’m now the proud owner of three pairs and plan to live in them this winter!