–1–
Well designed hair jewelry! We are one hairy family. Katrina Burbank was kind enough to send me a few of the lovely hair do dads – a Flexi Clip and a beaded headband — that she sells through Lilla Rose Hair Jewelry. Honestly, I was skeptical at first, especially about the flexi clip. It’s pretty, but it looked hard to use and too small and heavy to stay in my kids’ thick, fine hair. I also thought the headband looked uncomfortable.
Nope! Wrong on both counts. The headband has a hidden elastic band with an adjustable buckle, so it stays put without being too tight
She has dibsed this one for her first day of kindergarten.
and the flexi clip kinda just snapped itself into place and stayed put. Dummy proof, which is what I need. My four-year-old climbed up and down an entire mountain and it didn’t even slide around. Both pieces are lovely and well-designed, and the girls and I have been taking turns wearing them. Thanks, Katrina!
–2–
A message of genuine tolerance. Hooray, the pro-life COEXIST sticker has its own website!
I have this sticker on my van, and you know it’s working because I haven’t run over anyone in months. Check out Isa-Life Productions. Gosh, I would love to see more of these in traffic.
–3–
An easy, cheapish, and tasty dinner! Budget Bytes’ Easy Sesame Chicken.
It really was easy, and more than half the family liked it, which is more than I ever hope for. I even substituted veg oil for sesame oil, regular vinegar for rice vinegar, and powdered ginger for fresh, and it was still yummy. I was afraid I’d have to coat and dredge and cook each piece of chicken separately before adding the sauce, but you just mix it up with the coating and dump it in the pan, and it cooks up nicely. And you guys, it turned out just like the picture.
–4–
Free pizza! Pizza Hut is still doing that Book It program, where your kids can “earn” free pizzas by reading books. We did this while we were homeschooling (and then ate our pizza in a nice quiet restaurant while everyone was still in school, ha ha). They even have a special form for homeschoolers, so you can enroll your kids without having to make up a name for your school.
–5–
Our fabulous new couch! Here is my daughter testing it out:
Heh. What happened was, last week I threw our old couch out in a fit of righteous indignation. This was satisfying; but, on the other hand, we now had no couch. So I saw one at the Salvation Army for $40 and paid for it, to be picked up the next day, because my van is in the shop, even though not all of the bolts had fallen off the wheel yet.
This morning, I dragged my husband out of bed and we went with his station wagon to pick it up. I told the kids to clear a path so we could get through, and to clean the living room, and get ready for our EXCITING NEW COUCH! Of course when we got there, the store was closed, so we had to hang around in the other thrift shop next door. They had a Fireproof DVD for only $3, but my husband claimed he “didn’t have three dollars,” which is, of course, why we need this movie so badly! But whatever, I guess I can hold this marriage together all on my own.
Finally the Salvation Army opened, we backed up the car, loaded up the cushions, carried out the couch, and guess what? It didn’t fit in the car. So we gotta go back.
At this point, I was feeling a little downhearted, because how frickin hard is it to buy a used couch, and I can’t even do that, and the kids are going to be disappointed, etc. etc. So my husband says, “Should we bring in an invisible couch?”
So that’s what we did when we got home. As the kids looked on, we opened up the back, carefully eased out an apparently very heavy nothing, hefted it up to the porch, flipped it sideways, wedged it through while panting and grunting a lot, almost dropped it on my toe a few times, and shoved it into place. Then we invited them to sit on it. Five of them looked disgusted, and one started crying. Ha ha, what a good joke! Oh well. I thought it was funny, anyway. We’ll get the couch tomorrow, if the van is done. Maybe I should just get an invisible van.
