6 Pin Sunday

2:08 PM

I don’t know about you guys, but I am SO ready for some warm weather! February is rough because you get the sun up early, down later tease of spring, but the FRIGID FREEZING COLD of the dead of winter. HURRY YOUR BUTT UP, SPRING!!!

We are in the crux of another full blown ick-attack here in Groffville. Our much-needed-and-anticipated 4 day weekend has been spent going to doctors, wiping noses, watching Ice Age on repeat, cleaning up puke, and rocking crying toddlers. And then to top it off, I spent the majority of last night laying awake listening to the ridic 40 mph wind and fretting over the giant tree swaying above Emma’s room. If there was ever a time that I thought that Hershey may divorce me, last night was it. I laid awake for about 2 hours, whispering, “WHAT’S DAT!” to every thud, checking the compass on my iPhone to determine which way was NNW, and running into Emma’s room to peer out the window at the monstrous oak tree swaying in the wind. No one told me that being a parent was going to be so stressful! Hmpf.

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and I celebrated by being thrown up on 4 times. Jane had a LOT of compacted mucous, and everything that she put into her mouth hit the blockage and came back up. It was disgusting. And when Hershey came down to say goodbye before leaving to coach his second-to-last-but-who’s-counting Saturday game of the basketball season, he called me his Valentine and I realized for the first time since waking up that it was a holiday! Good thing I was wearing my best flannel p-jammy pants (my 3rd pair of the morning at 8:45 a.m.).

I did manage to squeeze in some delicious and festive breakfast for the girls on Friday before the vomit hit the fan, although Emma has not had much of an appetite in about a week. Today seems to be her first day back to normal (KNOCK ON ALL OF THE WOOD), and it was actually nice to have her follow me around the house as I tried to eat my egg white omelette screaming, “OM? OM? BITE?!?!?! BITE?!?!? BITE PEEEZ!!!!!!”

Since neither Jane NOR Emma have been feelin it in the noms department lately, this morning I totally bribed them into eating by making a waffle and a cup of lemon-honey tea and then sitting on the floor of the kitchen with them and letting them eat their respective halves of the waffle one BITE?! at a time as I dipped it in warmed maple syrup and they drank their tea out of BIG GIRL CUPS. Sometimes, a Mama’s gotta do what a Mama’s gotta do…

Over the last 4 days I have also been BURIED in laundry. I used to wonder why my best friend was doing laundry every time we talked, and now, I FEEL YOUR PAIN, JENNIFER! I’m not kidding when I say that as soon as I think I’ve washed and folded every stitch of clothing in the house, I turn around and the hamper is full or there are clothes lying all over the mudroom floor. It drives me insane in the membrane. One day you will see me in the headlines. “MAMA OF TWIN TORNADOES LOSES MIND AND THROWS ALL LAUNDRY OUT THE WINDOW…BEGINS FIRST EVER NUDIST COLONY IN OAKLAND”. It will happen.

This week’s 6 Pin Sunday is dedicated to all things home, heart, and health. I’m still trying to figure out when I will be able to run out to get our groceries for this week without being blown away or buried under a pile of snow, but once I get there, I’m hoping that these tips will help.

1. 10 Ways to Drastically Reduce Your Grocery Budget. I struggle with this all of the time. Last year, Hershey gave me a budget of $150/week for groceries, and there were weeks that I really was able to stick to that AND come in under budget. Now, I find it difficult to stay under $200/week! A couple of things that I LOVE about this post are that she acknowledges that we will sometimes go over, and that it’s OKAY to do so, highlights planning, which I am a huge proponent of, and quotes from my girl Ruth over at Living Well Spending Less, linking to a post that I have long been eyeballing but haven’t had the chance to hit up. I’ll definitely be going back to this link, y’all.

2. Banana Toast. I am literally always looking for new things to feed Jane and Emma. They are getting pickier as they get older, and they seem to have their father’s affliction of never wanting to eat the same thing 2 days in a row. Which ~~is a total pain in the butt~~ keeps things interesting. So when I stumbled upon this, I thought it would be a good alternative to the eggs in French Toast since they weren’t feeling well. It came out a little bit mushier than I expected it to from the pic, but the Twin Tornadoes didn’t seem to mind one bit.

3. 3 Biggest Tricks to Save Money On Meat. I had a few issues with this post. Well, I had 3 issues. First, I don’t think there are any fresh meat stores around us, and if there are, they are well-hidden. Second, there are literally NO Albertson’s around us. And finally, I signed up for Zaycon, but they don’t come anywhere near where we live, what they DID have for sale was things like pork chops and stuff we don’t eat, and everything else was sold out. Grrr… That’s strike 2 for Sarah Titus!

4. Apps & Tech Tools for Busy Moms. This one is my own fault. I looked at the graphic instead of reading the description, which would have told me that this link is for TEAM moms, which I am not YET. So this link was completely useless to me right now, but maybe will be better in the future (although I’m sure by the time it is useful to me they will have bigger and better apps to address these specific needs)? If you are someone who runs sports teams for your kids or works out drop off/pick up schedules, this is a worthwhile link to check out. Otherwise, pass!

5. Do You Know About These 3 Amazon Secret Features? Y’all. I DID NOT KNOW!!!!!!!!! THE HORRORRRR!!!!!!! I feel like such a boob. I have been using Amazon Prime Instant Video to show my kids Julius Caesar for 3 years, and when we show the death scene, I always go to Rome on YouTube, because it’s SO GOOD. While surfing through Prime today (after reading through this post) I found ALL OF Rome there, which is awesome because that means better quality video for my kids. SCORE. Now, I often use Verizon OnDemand and Netflix to find episodes of Sesame Street and Super Why and Bubble Guppies for Jane and Emma, but I could never find Blue’s Clues, which is, by far, their new favorite. AMAZON PRIME HAS ALL OF THE SEASONS!!!!!! Holy shizzle. The girls watched a MARATHON of Blue this morning. And it was quiet. And peaceful. And heavenly.

Notice that they’re holding hands. Sigh…

I also did not know that I could share my Prime shipping with family/friends. I will have to look into that a bit more, especially since the girls’ bday is coming up in a few months and their Wish List is 100% onAmazon.

6. My Super Simple Laundry System. As you see from my notes above, laundry is the bain of my existence these days. This pin seemed to CALL MY NAME. Hershey and I have been working on finishing up a complete overhaul of my laundry room, but it’s still far from finalized. And I’m still desperately seeking ways to not be buried under laundry every weekend so that I can spend some time with my FAMILY and less time with DIRTY SOCKS. I’ve been doing a load a day for a while now, so it was nice to get some gratification there. I also like how she links to other posts from other bloggers, in case her system doesn’t fit your lifestyle. While Jane and Emma like to THINK they are helping me fold laundry, I still have to take everything that they rolled up and stuffed into the linen closet out and re-fold it when they turn their backs. Guess I’ll have to just be on my own for a while in the laundry department. This did, however, inspire me to create a post later this month with a laundry room tour AND the tips and tricks that I’ve picked up from around the net that make laundry a little less awful.

That’s all for now! Have you found any GO TO pins lately? Anything you’d like to see me review? I’d love to hear from you!

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Stay warm friends!

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