I always enjoy hearing what works for other people and I like sharing things I like, it's part of the reason I have a blog. I've been doing these monthly posts for 10 years and they also provide a nice little snapshot in my life at a moment in time! See more here! Some affiliate links may be included!
This is only the second time an item has made this list twice (the other was The Office). Here's the story. This bag was on my May 2015 list. At the time I hadn't yet received the bag but I liked how it looked and was convinced I would love it. Then it arrived and it was MUCH bigger than I was expecting (I should really read measurements once in awhile). So I returned it. A few months later I was putting together a birthday list for Matt and since I didn't have many ideas I put this bag back on my list. He bought it for me and then it mostly hung in our closet for 8 years. I'd use it for all my books and travel journal on road trips but that's mostly it.
THEN this past spring, Sam & I started doing zoo trips which included packing a lunch (Luke was at school). We stopped taking the stroller so I was trying to figure out how to hold all our food and then remembered this bag. It was perfect, could be cross body or on my shoulder. Easily held our PB&J sandwiches and some other snacks. Could even throw in our water bottles when we did a ride. It went on a TON of zoo trips through the spring and summer. Then come fall it became my cross country bag for meets since I could fit in my wallet, keys, snacks, water bottles, and even a sweatshirt or jacket that Sam would inevitably shed. I started just keeping a ziploc bag of snacks in it since we were at so many meets.
It may have taken me EIGHT YEARS but this bag has proven invaluable this year.
This one should have appeared a couple months ago but somehow didn't and I didn't want it to get lost because I love this sweatshirt. It's the perfect shade of blue (I have "blue crayon"), it fits great, is super soft, very warm, and has thumb holes. When it's chilly outside, I wear it 3-4 days a week. I got a small but that's still a big enough that I can fit it over my original beloved sweatshirt (which I am very precious about so I don't wear that one quite as much) for extra layering on camping trips. There are a TON of colors available and now I am wondering if I need the "night life teal" as well because that's a perfect color too (and looks very similar to one of my most frequent phone wallpapers). Plus, it's at Kohls so nearly always on sale. I have really been appreciating Kohls lately. They are very good at stocking things in my specific shades of blue.
We've had a Costco membership for nearly a year (Matt needed new tires) and I am slowly warming up to the store (we had the membership 4 months before I ever went. Matt goes 1-2 times a month). I went with my sister a few weeks ago and very much impulse added these to my cart. And they are delicious. I will be buying another jar when I go next (whenever that may be). I wouldn't say these alone are worth a membership...but they do make renewing it much more enticing.
4) Kings Island documentary
My first trip to Kings Island was in 1988 with my parents and older sister. We had left the two little sisters with my grandparents (and my 2 current youngest sisters were not born yet). I was 5 and still have some memories of that trip (particularly the Scrappy Slide and the Eiffel Tower). We went again around 1997 for a company trip with my Dad's work and in 2001 before a cousin's wedding with some other cousins. Then in 2003 Matt & I started our once a year trip for GE day, because he had a brother working at GE who could get us tickets for like $18 when it started. Since I was going to college in Dayton, it was an easy trip down 75 to go to Kings Island for the day, always the Saturday after Labor Day. We did GE day for 8 years in a row, continuing years after I graduated, until he no longer had a brother working at GE. (We were very sad when those days came to an end.)
We took Luke in 2017 when he was 4 and it was a great age to take him to his first amusement park. We have such fond memories of the place from our GE day trips and childhood (Matt had been as a kid too). Then in 2022 we took both boys, Sam was 4, Luke was 9 and tall enough to ride any coaster (although we scared him out of it after one big one). Then went back this year, with the intent to make it an annual thing. Cedar Point is also very popular around here but I think Kings Island has a much better kid area and, again, I'm rather fond of the place.
All that to say...I am in a Kings Island memory Facebook group where someone posted a 20 minute documentary about the Tomb Raider ride which Matt & I VERY MUCH remembered. (It was a great ride that they made terrible after they were no longer a part of Paramount and then eventually dismantled completely.) THAT led us to random Kings Island videos on YouTube (we are SO MUCH FUN once the boys are in bed), and, eventually, this Kings Island documentary. I LOVED IT. I didn't know much about the origins but still found it all fascinating and I felt very validated when they mentioned where the Scrappy Slide was last, exactly where I remembered it being, after it originally being somewhere else in the park. The 2000s and 2010s decades were the most fun, since that's when we were going the most frequently, just to go over all the changes in the park and everything. (Matt & I still call nearly all the rides by their names from the Paramount era.) Matt isn't as much fun as me and fell asleep partway through but he said he'd go back and watch the last 20 years part with me and I'll gladly watch it again.
There is just something fascinating about the history of amusement parks to me. Maybe because you can place old pictures, due to various roller coasters and such that are nearly impossible to move (even though they have, across parks, although I don't think any of the super giant ones they make now). Just hearing the costs of all of those coasters and some of the problems they went through. It was just so interesting.
5) Sonoma Goods for Life Raglan Sweater
If I'm not buying something in blue, I'm likely buying it in green (or a neutral). This was a recent Kohls addition and it's very soft and cozy. It's a lighter sweater but I'd still wear it in the dark of winter, maybe with a tank top underneath. The green color is perfect but there are other color options as well. Runs large so I'd size down (or buy two sizes to try). But a fantastic addition to my sweater rotation for this fall/winter. (I did buy the blue of this too but returned it because the color just wasn't quite right for me.)
What have YOU been liking lately?
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