I think this January Things I Like is the easiest I write all year since we do a large portion of our non-food shopping in the 4th quarter, especially for Christmas presents! A lot of new things in our house in the past month (which necessitated even Matt saying "We need to get rid of a lot of things!").
My monthly round-up of 5 things I'm liking, with a few affiliate links sprinkled in. Thanks for helping support the blog! =) See more here!
I was interested in changing up my winter coat situation, the one I wore most days wasn't super warm and it had been many years since I had replaced any. Then Matt texted me one morning while I was working out and he was already at work, he had found a down jacket at Eddie Bauer that he wanted me to get him for Christmas. I told him he needed to find me a down jacket on sale and then I spent 2 minutes on the site and found this one. I bought it for myself (Matt didn't get his for a few more weeks for Christmas!) and was immediately happy with my purchase. The only downside is that it is long (which is fantastic!) but keeps me from putting my phone in my back jeans pocket when doing school runs and such that don't require me to take a purse. BUT...it covers my bum which means it is warmer. And I did add my previous coat to the donate pile and moved my ski coat to the basement since I don't want to get rid of it, for when we are able to ski again or for the occasional outside winter outing, which just leaves me TWO winter coats in our coat closet. This one and my dressier coat I wear about 3 times a winter. I'm warmer and I simplified a bit. WIN.
Over Thanksgiving weekend my sister texted me a link to this fabric on sale at Joann. She knows about Luke's lemur love. I immediately started wondering if I could sew the boys blankets before Christmas. I made them each one already but Luke is already too tall for his to cover him (I did made it for him when he was 2) and has been requested a longer blanket. So I ordered 8 yards of lemur fabric as well as backing. Now, 8 yards of fabric is A LOT of fabric. I kept sending my sister pictures of me trying to manage 24 feet of two different fabrics while I ironed and cut and prepped. They came together very quickly, which was key since I was doing all the work once the boys were in bed and hiding my tracks. They are heavy which I love in a good winter blanket and the boys both sleep with them every night!
These were part of the boys' St. Nick presents and were bought with the intention of entertaining them in the car and sometimes at Mass. The boys can doodle and then erase their drawings with a click and start over. The run off very small batteries which Matt said should last for a long time. They were huge wins with the boys and DO keep them quiet when needed (we are VERY particular when the boys can use them at Mass, especially Luke. Pretty much just during the homily.) When we do long road trips again these should be very useful too!
4) Qwixx
I think I saw this on Young House Love and loved the idea of sneaking some extra math work into games with Luke. This was a stocking stuffer for him and it took us a few rounds to figure out the rules but then it went really well. Dice game, everyone can "score" on each roll and it takes a bit of math. We help Luke with the strategizing still but he can play largely on his own. It will be a little easier for him as he's older but it's nice to have a few more options of games with him.
5) Challenger: The Final Flight (Netflix)
I think I heard about this on The Popcast and immediately asked Matt if he would watch it with me. Let me tell you, a documentary about a space shuttle you know is going to end poorly...not the cheeriest weekend viewing (we chased it with episodes of Community, now on Netflix) BUT it was SO interesting. We were alive when the Challenger exploded but we were two...so no memories of it. (Although I did get a mission sticker in 1st grade ~4 years later...I don't know why). Apparently NASA and co were pretty sure something bad was going to happen and launched the Challenger anyways (a lot of people come off looking bad but very remorseful). It's only 4 episodes, each 40-50 minutes so it was educational without taking a ton of time. And it led to us both deep diving things about it once we finished the last episode (I had NO idea they ever recovered the crew quarters, and how long the salvage and search went on!). Very interesting and well worth the time but have something light-hearted to follow it with!
Those are 5 things I've been loving lately, how about you?
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