My 5 Secrets to Happiness

I was following a prompt today, but apparently they also took a page out of my book and neither one of them are blogging, so now you just get the post. Today I'm talking about my 5 Secrets to Happiness.

| ONE | Find your tribe or several

I once wrote how to make friends as an adult. I'll admit, it's super hard, you have to put yourself out there. Be vulnerable to asking someone to go for coffee or get lunch, but I promise, if you make an effort they will too. But being lonely is way worse that asking someone to go shopping and finding your tribe.

I have my on line tribe, who I just went to Canada with for 6 days, it was amazing.


I have my mom tribe when we first became mom's, who I don't know what I do without. Mom schedules might get in the way, but they know how to come through for me if/when I need it.

 Then I also have my mom sports/school mom tribe, who really keeps me wanting to go to my kids functions, cause really it's the kids playing and the adults talking right?

Then you have those friends that you've been friends with since you were in single digits and no matter how much time passes they still drive 200 miles for your 40th birthday.

| TWO | Spend quality time with your spouse or significant other

Just like your tribe, you still have to work on your marriage/relationship. One of the reason I drastically cut back on blogging, I was spending too much time blogging and not enough time being present in the moment.

| THREE | Working Out

This is my time for me. I do so much chauffeuring that sometimes I don't get that hour I need/crave to workout. Wednesday is my day. I have a class that I love to take and the kids know this is my day. I will do anything and everything for  them, but I need at least one day to workout. Ideally it's more, but I'll take the one day.

| FOUR | Vacations

Because who isn't happy when on vacation. This summer we were lucky enough to take a few trips with friends and it really was the best. More of those kinds of vacation coming soon!

| FIVE | Crafting

For me I love crafting, doing all the DIY's. Currently my thing is making key chains, and Tumblers...so if anyone wants one, hit me up!

So what makes you happy?

Prime Purchases

Last year I saw Andrea post her favorite Prime Purchases, and she was linking up to Tayna who hosts the link up. Super fun, right? You see what I'm buying that I don't need/purchasing and we all get to then want to buy all the things, keeping the economy going right there. Click here to see my past purchases. Okay let's get started! But first while in my account, it says that we've purchases 143 things this year...yikes! Okay I know I am a little behind on this one, but hey two posts in one week, I'm on a roll!

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

Kids Suite: fits true to size, the pants have elastic on the back so it will fit a variety of waist sizes. Baby Fox typically wears a size 7 in shorts, but the 7 jacket and pants fit exactly right now, so he had no room to grow, so we went with an 8 and everything fit great.

The kids love these bars, but only the Chocolate Chip kind, the variety pack at Costco the kids don't like one of the flavors, so we get these, even thought they might be slightly more expensive, we're at least not wasting

According to Amazon I have purchased this 28 times, that is 336 bars eaten...yikes! I eat one of these everyday...minus some Saturdays and Sundays, but every weekday I eat one.

Mini Fox wanted a Dinosaur birthday party, so I bought these figures to put on the cake.

We also bought this for the cake too.

I know you wanted to know what the cake looked like, Mini Fox did a great job placing all of the stuff.

In a couple of weeks we're headed out of town to see our cousin play football, it's his senior year, so we're finally getting out there to see him play. Anyway, the stadium has a clear bag rule, so I got this one, it's big enough for all of the stuff we'll need to bring to the game...not sure what that is, but we have kids...enough said. haha. Wonder if we can bring water bottles in? Funny enough, this is the same brand of packing cubes we bought, see how used them to pack for an 8 day trip using only a carry on.

After 16 years, my clothes drying rack finally broke. I bought this one and I really like how sturdy it is. It snaps together, so no more trying to move it over an inch to have it collapse. So that's good. And it folds up small enough to fit next to the cabinet so I can hide it when guests come.

Mr. bought the kids these musical note flash cards, so far so good.

I've always wanted to get these, and I am not sure why i waited so long to get them...But I did a super cute hair style on Mini Fox the other day. They are sort of tricky to use at first, but I got the hang of it...sort of!

 

So what have you been buying on Amazon lately?

Fall FabFitFun 2019

Hi Foxy Friends! I know the posts are few and far between. Life man, it hectic and busy and...well you know. I know you know. Anyway, I got my last FabFitFun box for a while and I'm sort of sad that I cancelled my subscription. But I have SO MUCH STUFF that I need to get through, so maybe next year sometime I'll start back up. So here is everything I got in the FABFITFUN box.

If you want to get a box for yourself, use this code for 50% off. I will receive $15 in shop credit if you purchase through that link.

Products Mentioned:

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

Amika Straightener  $80
Kate Spade Lunch Box  $30
Earrings $36
Eye Mask $25
Hair Mask $30
Exfoliating Cubes $24
Moisturizer $18
Salt and Pepper Mill  $26
Wallet $60
Cheese Plate $30

Formal Family Picture Outfits

Hi Foxy Friends! It's been a hot minute hasn't it? Life has gotten in the way of blogging, it's not that I am not getting content, I have, just don't have time to edit and write and post. One day I'll get back on it, but for now, you get sporadic posts. Guess what time it is? Yes fall is coming, but family pictures are upon us. It's my FAVORITE time of the year. Figuring out a location, outfits, it's my jam. Mr. often refers to it as my Super Bowl and he couldn't be more right. If there was a job where I find people's family outfits, I would start a business. Any takers? haha. Anyway, this year our photographer suggested that we take super formal pictures at a local college. Heck I'm game. So this is what I have so far. Let's start with me, because we all know you start with mom. If you didn't, click here to get some tips on picking family outfits.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

I bought both of these dresses, I hope one of them fits! Which one can you see with the other family outfits.

Mom
Dress 1
Dress 2
Heels
Earrings
Necklace

Mr. is wearing his tux, but I found a reasonably priced tux for you all.

Dad
Tux Jacket
Dress Shirt
Tux Pants
Shoes

I decided that I wanted Mini Fox to have a little color, break up the black of everyone else. Not sure if this dress is too mature looking for her, we'll see when it shows up. I was looking at Suit prices for boys and man they are expensive! Think $100 range, Kohl's, JCPenny, Macy's...It was crazy.

Girl
Dress
Tights
Shoes


Boy
Boys Suit (Under $40!!!)
Shoes

I'll let you know what I choose after the dresses arrive. Heck neither one of them might fit, so I might have to go a completely different direction, I have 2 weeks to figure it out, eeeekkk! I'm not panicking, I'm not panicking...

Hey It's Okay

Hi Foxy friends! I've seen some friends do this a few times, but I thought I would actually participate this month. Thanks Amber for the link up, and blog topic for this currently blog writers block lady.  Hey It's Okay:

...to not be blogging at the moment, life is busy and I want to spend my time enjoying Summer with the kids, perhaps I'll get my mojo back come next month.

...to be excited about my birthday at the end of the month and celebrating with friends.

...to have laundry stacked up and in the piles that I need to wash, but just never do.

...that I want to read all of my friends blogs, but between work and kid activities it's just too much, hence the blog break.

...that I would rather be doing my newest craft obsession, making keychains and tumblers.

...that I am more excited than sad that my youngest is starting Kinder in a couple of weeks.

Last one...

It's okay that I am not the crying parent that balls her eyes out when kids start school, specifically Kindergarten, more excited for them to learn all the things.

Favorite Binge Shows

Hello Foxy Friends! I thought this was a great prompt as Mr. and I have definitely been binge watching some shows this summer.  Today I'm linking up with Shay and Erica for their Let's Look At series, see all previous posts here.

So here we go:

We just started the second season of The Sinner Monday night and it definitely did not disappoint, happy that they didn't ruin it. So good, and we can't wait to get to the bottom of the mystery.

We just finished season 3 of 3% over the weekend, again another GREAT show, and season 3 had us just as engaged as season 1. This is a subtitled show, make sure to NOT do the English dubbed as it translates best in the original language, Portuguese.

I used to watch this show back in the day, but then the second kid came and all those shows I used to watch went out the window. I never finished Once Upon A Time, so I'm watching those episodes I never watched. Currently on season 5.

On the let's finish up series that I didn't get to because I had kids, I watched the rest of The Originals too. That was a good series. I was contemplating going back and watching Vampire Diaries too, in case you didn't know Originals is a spin off of Vampire Diaries.

The whole reason I finished watching The Originals was so I could watch the Spin off called Legacies. I don't have cable and I'm going to be really sad that I have to wait till next summer to watch it, it ended on a cliff hanger. Hopefully Hulu gets it! Fingers crossed.

Wondering when I watch all these shows? At the gym, I was out of lifting weights for about 3 months, so instead of not going to the gym at all, I went and walked at a slow pace on the treadmill, I figured that was better than nothing? So I got to watch a lot of shows while walking.

Another show Mr. and I binged watched was a Netflix series called Another Life. Really good if you like Sci-Fi. If you didn't catch it, Mr. and I watch a lot of Sci-Fi.

 

I think that's all for now. Shows that we don't binge watch but do watch, is Handmaids Tale (can't wait for the season finale this week!), at least I think it's the last episode. We did watch Game of Thrones, what did you think of that ending? I didn't love it, but didn't hate it as much as some people did. Of course Grey's Anatomy, Blackish, Fresh off the Boat, and Modern Family are all in our weekly rotation.

Any shows we need to binge watch?

How to Tie Dye A Shirt

Hi Foxy Friends! So much has happened over the summer! For a much later post, I keep thinking, I should write about what we've been doing, but then time passes and it seems pointless...eventually I'll recap it...maybe. Anyway moving right along. We went to Hawaii this summer with some friends, actually two sets of friends, the first 6 days with some family friends and the last 4 days was spent with school friends. What do you do when you are traveling with other people, you make shirts of course.

*Some of the links are affiliate links and I will  either receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you click on it or if you make a purchase from one of these links, I may also receive a commission on the sale of the product. Click here for my disclosure page.

I made the first set of shirts using my circut. Here's a video on I did it. I think they turned out pretty great. In case you wanted to know what shirt we are wearing, we are wearing these the kids are wearing these, both shirts are in Tropical Blue.

For the second set of shirts, we decided to do a little Tie Dying, because who doesn't love that? We had to make shirts for 11 adult shirts (5 woman, 6 men) and 8 kids, so 19 shirts in total, and we only needed one bucket of Tie Dye. Granted the last few shirts were all of the left over colors, see Mr.'s shirt, it was black and green. It ended up working out, and the adult men didn't particularly care.

Tie Dying is super easy! Don't be overwhelmed. Sorry I didn't take pictures of all of the steps. Let's get to it.

What You'll Need:

Tie Dye Kit
Shirts (same as the ones from above)
Water
Bucket

Directions:

Step 1: Get shirts wet, we filled up the sink with water and let them soak for a few minutes, then you have to really wring out the shirts so there isn't dripping water.

Step 2: While the shirts are soaking, start filling your bottles with water. The kit comes with powder in each bottle, you need to add water and shake.

Step 3: Use the rubber bands given in the kit (they gave us enough that we didn't have any any issues with running out, even with all of the shirts we dyed) and shape and tie your shirts.

There are so many different patterns you can do. Two of us did hearts on our shirts, and I think it turned out pretty good. Really you can't go wrong, I YouTubed How to Tie Dye and found a bunch, also Googled and got a bunch of hits as well. But the directions in the kit give you the basic ones and that's pretty much what we did.

Step 4: Protect your table (we did it on the grass so it didn't totally matter, mostly we put something down because we didn't want grass on our wet shirts).

 Go to town on the shirts. Don't forget to dye both sides of your shirt. And remember that the colors are going to spread a bit, so if you are using more than one color, don't put them too close together. Or be aware of what colors make what, like blue and yellow will make green, so if you don't want a ton of green space out your colors a bit.

note: make sure to use the gloves given, or your own as the dye does dye your hands and it takes a few days to get it off. 

This is all of the shirts all done.

Shirt decorating is most fun late at night right? If we had more time I probably wouldn't have put some Vinyl on it, but I didn't, we left for our trip the next day.

Step 5: We put our shirts in baggies, each shirt got it's own baggie. Leave in baggie for at least 24 hours.

Step 6: After 24 hours, rinse out the shirts in the sink. Trying to get all of the excess dye out. We didn't want to have to do  19 loads of laundry, so what we did was washed them and used a color catcher. Seemed to work as nothing was leaked onto another shirt. Wash as normal, and enjoy!

They turned out great and the kids love wearing them post trip. It's really easy and super fun to make them, and yes a little messy! Enjoy!