@k2k2tog we can really only go to certain places because our children are no angels. They are surprisingly well-behaved at the Lodge so that’s the only “fancy” place we ever take them. Sometimes just to eat, but I’ve had pretty good luck finding awesome deals at JPL so usually if we are spending he night in Jasper we stay there. The restaurant looks out over Lac Boisvert and there’s always so much to watch and see, plus we only go to that restaurant for the brunch buffet usually so there’s no waiting for anything. If you have one near you (I know they’ve opened some locations in Ontario over the past few years) try Famoso. It’s a Neapolitan pizzeria that was started by the son (and two of his buddies) of some of my parents friends in St. Albert. It’s a very laid back environment and if you ask they’ll give the kids each a ball of pizza dough to play with while they wait for their food. Kinda like play doh but not very messy or anything. My girls love it. They also get a scoop of fresh gelato with their kids meal so they usually go and pick out their flavour while we are waiting for our meals and they have a huge incentive to just sit quietly and devour their pizza in order to get that reward at the end of it.
I looove going out for breakfast! But our family is too big now haha. I never thought about the timing of brunch, but I CANNOT wait for food. That reasoning is totally acceptable. But if I sleep in (ha! riiight), brunch it is!
Starbucks is ok if you want to spend $6 on a fancy drink. But I'm a tight wad and I don't do that often. Except for today apparently...but the Caramel Brulee Latte thing is pretty alright.
Mine is that binge watching Netflix is overrated. I don't have time for that and always feel like my time could've been better spent elsewhere.
@mariposa_767s I loved Netflix binging before DS and while nursing. I've basically stopped since getting pregnant. I can watch one episode of a show while having dinner since we eat after DS goes to sleep (one baby life, heyooo) but I'm done after that. I've been choosing sleep instead 😂
I think there are too many boxes nowadays. I don't need a box for dressing me, for being pregnant, for making complicated dinners, for date nights, for adventures, for what the heck ever else. They all seem to start at $40-60 plus shipping and I don't need them or want them, get out of my lifeeeeee.
@DuchessOfCambridge I mostly agree, except I LOVE boxycharm for my makeup addiction. It's 5 full sized brand name items (I seriously have gotten some amazing products) for $21 a month. I went through an obsessive makeup phase where I was spending WAY more than that monthly so it fed my addiction while saving us a ton.
@DuchessOfCambridge I mostly agree about the boxes. I don’t need or want a bunch of extra stuff. I find them generally wasteful and I agree that they are expensive too. But I have jumped on the meal box train. I skip most weeks but when I’m short of meal planning ideas or I know we are going to have an especially busy week I usually get one. The ones I have gotten usually come together in 20 minutes or so, have quality, healthy ingredients and are tasty. I am not a fan of take out. We live in a small town with really limited take out options anyways, but even in the city I usually find it difficult to find healthy take out options for my whole family. Of course we get pizza once in a while, but I don’t like to make it a regular thing and putting together one of those meal boxes really takes me no more time than ordering and picking up take out. There’s no brain work involved to make sure I have ingredients on hand or when making it because the instructions are right there plus a lot of it comes prepped (hello pre-sliced onions and pre-peeled/cubed sweet potatoes).
@SpaceBurger I'm totally on board with black unsweetened coffee And ditto on eggnog coffee! It's the one exception to the black coffee. The owner of one of our great coffee shops in town makes them after Thanksgiving and I was getting one at least once week! It was dangerous to both my wallet and my waist.
Sorry, but brunch is amazing! Also, yes, Starbucks is completely stupid and eggnog is the most disgusting thing on the planet. My unpopular opinion is that q-tips most certainly belong in your ears for cleaning.
@duchessofcambridge I definitely agree about the boxes, but I regularly wish I could justify trying one out anyway. We did a CSA (community supported agriculture) box over this past growing season, and I both loved and loathed it. Every week, we got an assortment of in season veggies, grown by a local farm. Every week, there were veggies I had no idea what to do with, which, some weeks was great because it pushed me outside of my cooking comfort zone. Other weeks, I had zero motivation and most of the veggies rotted in my fridge.
@k2k2tog I've purposely never done a CSA because I hate wasting food and I know 100% I would not be able to use it all. A lot of the boxes have free or discounted trials and I have used those before. I don't like StitchFix because I'm better at shopping for myself than someone else is and the price point is way too high for me, but I've done two free boxes and it was fun to try out. I didn't purchase anything from them. I haven't tried FabFitFun because I just don't need extra random junk, even if it's stuff I might like. I've tried a few different box meal companies for free/discounted and it was fine, but so overpriced for groceries and we didn't like some of the meals. H got me BirchBox for a year once and while it was fun to get, I didn't do anything with the majority of the samples because I'm not really a makeup person. Anyway, I'm ranting. I just don't love boxes. They're not worth the money to me. I do see how they could be fun for other people though.
@duchessofcambridge oh, we definitely knew it would be near impossible to finish all the veggies even when we signed up. But, buying local veggies is important to us, so supporting a local farmer trumped the food waste. Next year, I think we're going to focus our produce purchases at the local market instead, mainly because the farm we were getting the veggies from is kind of inconvenient for us.
There is a box I've been kind of curious about and might sign myself up for. There's a collective of indigenous artists that create jewelry and send you one piece a month. I can't for the life of me remember want it's called, but I really appreciated their mission and their work was beautiful.
DD1: June 2014 - VBM4lyfe DD2: October 2016 DC3: coming May 2019
i don’t know if this is unpopular (and I know it’s not Thursday), but I can’t stand when people write “T&Ps” to people on the internet as sympathy. I’m supposed to believe that you are taking time out of your day to pray for an internet stranger when you can’t even take 2 seconds to write out the words “you are in my thoughts and prayers”?!?! It always strikes me as more insensitive than saying nothing. Maybe I’m just sensitive and don’t like shortcuts like that much to begin with.
I hate going out for brunch because I'm cheap, and I also hate waiting in those lines, but I don't mind an inexpensive diner breakfast. Now I want eggnog. I never use q-tips, but I have an ENT appointment every few months to get my ears cleaned out (skin condition), and it is amazing.
@k2k2tog we did a CSA a few years ago and it was great! BUT, ours delivered right to our door. The people in town all had to pick theirs up on pickup day at a central location in town, but because our acreage was on the drive into town from the CSA farm she delivered my produce to the end of my driveway. I just left a big Rubbermaid with a lid at the end of the driveway the night before so she could drop it whenever she came by (usually very early) without waking the house by driving up to the front door.
@DuchessOfCambridge the meal box I’ve been using recently has a really big selection of recipes to choose from each week so it’s easy to find recipes my family will like (for the Canadians, GoodFood has a way bigger recipe selection than Hello Fresh). I do agree that it’s an expensive way to buy groceries but I don’t really think of it that way. The weeks where I order a meal box are usually the weeks where if I didn’t I would end up purchasing more convenience foods or ordering unhealthy takeout, both of which cost more than my usual groceries. The meal box always works out cheaper than take out, really costs us about the same as if we went out to eat at a restaurant for 1 meal, and is always healthier than takeout. So that’s how I justify the purchase for myself. DD2’s preschool requires a lot of parent volunteer days, plus both girls are in gymnastics and figure skating two days a week. When I volunteer during the day and then we have activities back to back in the evening, knowing the box is there for a super quick meal is my saving grace. When I’m not volunteering I usually try to either partially prep supper ahead of time, or make a crockpot meal in the morning, but sometimes life is just busy.
@mariposa_767s they are for your ears, but they're not meant to go INSIDE. It's a hazard, as you risk going too far and puncturing the drum. This is really more of an issue when cleaning somebody else's (a baby or child) ears as you can't feel when you're getting too close. I've heard horror stories. I will clean the insides of mine, but not DS. Just around the edges and whatnot.
@mariposa_767s they are for your ears, but they're not meant to go INSIDE. It's a hazard, as you risk going too far and puncturing the drum. This is really more of an issue when cleaning somebody else's (a baby or child) ears as you can't feel when you're getting too close. I've heard horror stories. I will clean the insides of mine, but not DS. Just around the edges and whatnot.
OMG thank you! I'm like, look, I can q-tip my ear without puncturing my ear drum. Believe me. Mine are always so swollen and sensitive anyway, I can definitely feel if it's in too deep. I always found that 'rule' so odd.
@mariposa_767s you can also use them for makeup type things, I use them if I have residual mascara to remove under my eyes sometimes.
@mariposa_767s @sleepy33 I think an additional, although certainly less critical, concern is that using a qtip just pushes junk down into your ear canal, because it's about the same size as the canal. So you end up just making a plug of wax and dead skin further down that is impossible for your ear cilia (hairs) to work out naturally.
@mariposa_767s @sleepy33 I think an additional, although certainly less critical, concern is that using a qtip just pushes junk down into your ear canal, because it's about the same size as the canal. So you end up just making a plug of wax and dead skin further down that is impossible for your ear cilia (hairs) to work out naturally.
I'm sure that could be true in some cases. I mostly just use it around the top part of the canal after I shower/wash my hair when everything is wet to remove the loosened wax at the top of the canal. Has never caused a problem or plug of wax for me in 37 years, as far as I know, and I've had them looked at fairly regularly.
@sleepy33 True story happened to me.... few years ago was using qtip in my ear. When i took it out, I noticed the cotton part was smaller. Didn't think anything of it. Fast forward one week, I got a sinus infection. Nurse practitioner gave me antibiotics. Another week goes by, i actually get worse. This time i see my real doctor. He looks in my ear and finds the cotton ball. Apparently, that was the source of my sinus infection. I got a good scolding from my doctor. I also had to be held down by nurses so he could safely remove it. Lesson learned, never stick anything in your ears.
ETA: I almost forgot the best part! I go back a week later for a checkup with the PA. As im leaving the exam room, the doctor is in another room with the door slightly ajar, doctor's scolding this elderly man for the same thing!
I don't know if this adds anything to the discussion of qtip usage, but for those concerned about pushing ear wax into your ears - my husband used to have lots of issues with ear wax as a kid. When he joined the navy, the doctor there just told him to use a lot of soap to clean as much of the outside of the ear as possible every shower and he never had a problem again. If you have a concern of too much/alot of waxwax, this makes a big difference in cutting down on ear wax.
I don't know if this thread really needed to go in that direction though
Interesting @expandcontract . Like I said, I don't really stick the q tip down in my ear, if it gets even slightly into the ear canal I feel pain due to my chronically inflamed ear drums. I just swipe it around the outer upper entrance to the canal to remove water and residue. I'm sure I could accomplish the same thing with, say, a kleenex wrapped around my finger, but that seems silly since absorbent q tips are just the right thing for the job. But good word to the wise!
I love eggnog! Even store bought! I could drink it all day long, but only during the holidays. I feel like it’s gross to have it when it isn’t Christmas time haha.
I can’t speak for their coffee, but I’m a pretty big fan of Starbucks’ frappes. The peppermint mocha frappe is seriously life 😍
My UO is I hate Black Friday. My MIL is making me go shopping with her (okay not making me but I’d feel bad saying no), and I’m dreading it! Really I kind of hate shopping in general.
New mommy to be! EDD: 05/27/19 hoping for a girl!!!
@fifthemperorofthesea I don't blame you about going out shopping on black Friday. Just the idea of it gives me welts! Who would want to be dealing with all that traffic, elbowing people, lines, crowds, etc. The only shopping I would contemplate that weekend would be online. Good luck out there!
@knarlytaurus Right! I don’t understand with all the online Black Friday sales now why we need to go out. But it’s like a tradition to my MIL so I’m not gonna fight it.
New mommy to be! EDD: 05/27/19 hoping for a girl!!!
I'm so late to the game here. But on the topic of starbuck...I used to work for one and the job itself wasnt bad. Tips were amazing and i actually had a lot of fun. BUT the insurance sucks and is super expensive, they are doing away with a lot of the cool perks and people are asshats. I started there specifically for the help with IVF because we thought that was our only hope but it wasnt what they make it sound like.
Re: UO Thursday 11/15
Starbucks is ok if you want to spend $6 on a fancy drink. But I'm a tight wad and I don't do that often. Except for today apparently...but the Caramel Brulee Latte thing is pretty alright.
Mine is that binge watching Netflix is overrated. I don't have time for that and always feel like my time could've been better spent elsewhere.
DS1 is 7. DD is 1. DS2 is coming in late April.
@duchessofcambridge I definitely agree about the boxes, but I regularly wish I could justify trying one out anyway. We did a CSA (community supported agriculture) box over this past growing season, and I both loved and loathed it. Every week, we got an assortment of in season veggies, grown by a local farm. Every week, there were veggies I had no idea what to do with, which, some weeks was great because it pushed me outside of my cooking comfort zone. Other weeks, I had zero motivation and most of the veggies rotted in my fridge.
@mrskoz428 @brie_and_almondsI have never used a q-tip in my life.
DD1: June 2014 - VBM4lyfe
DD2: October 2016
DC3: coming May 2019
@duchessofcambridge oh, we definitely knew it would be near impossible to finish all the veggies even when we signed up. But, buying local veggies is important to us, so supporting a local farmer trumped the food waste. Next year, I think we're going to focus our produce purchases at the local market instead, mainly because the farm we were getting the veggies from is kind of inconvenient for us.
There is a box I've been kind of curious about and might sign myself up for. There's a collective of indigenous artists that create jewelry and send you one piece a month. I can't for the life of me remember want it's called, but I really appreciated their mission and their work was beautiful.
DD1: June 2014 - VBM4lyfe
DD2: October 2016
DC3: coming May 2019
Now I want eggnog.
I never use q-tips, but I have an ENT appointment every few months to get my ears cleaned out (skin condition), and it is amazing.
BFP: 8/20/2018 - EDD 5/4/2019
@DuchessOfCambridge the meal box I’ve been using recently has a really big selection of recipes to choose from each week so it’s easy to find recipes my family will like (for the Canadians, GoodFood has a way bigger recipe selection than Hello Fresh). I do agree that it’s an expensive way to buy groceries but I don’t really think of it that way. The weeks where I order a meal box are usually the weeks where if I didn’t I would end up purchasing more convenience foods or ordering unhealthy takeout, both of which cost more than my usual groceries. The meal box always works out cheaper than take out, really costs us about the same as if we went out to eat at a restaurant for 1 meal, and is always healthier than takeout. So that’s how I justify the purchase for myself. DD2’s preschool requires a lot of parent volunteer days, plus both girls are in gymnastics and figure skating two days a week. When I volunteer during the day and then we have activities back to back in the evening, knowing the box is there for a super quick meal is my saving grace. When I’m not volunteering I usually try to either partially prep supper ahead of time, or make a crockpot meal in the morning, but sometimes life is just busy.
DS1 is 7. DD is 1. DS2 is coming in late April.
@mariposa_767s you can also use them for makeup type things, I use them if I have residual mascara to remove under my eyes sometimes.
@sleepy33
I think an additional, although certainly less critical, concern is that using a qtip just pushes junk down into your ear canal, because it's about the same size as the canal. So you end up just making a plug of wax and dead skin further down that is impossible for your ear cilia (hairs) to work out naturally.
BFP: 8/20/2018 - EDD 5/4/2019
ETA: I almost forgot the best part! I go back a week later for a checkup with the PA. As im leaving the exam room, the doctor is in another room with the door slightly ajar, doctor's scolding this elderly man for the same thing!
I don't know if this thread really needed to go in that direction though
I can’t speak for their coffee, but I’m a pretty big fan of Starbucks’ frappes. The peppermint mocha frappe is seriously life 😍
My UO is I hate Black Friday. My MIL is making me go shopping with her (okay not making me but I’d feel bad saying no), and I’m dreading it! Really I kind of hate shopping in general.
EDD: 05/27/19
hoping for a girl!!!
EDD: 05/27/19
hoping for a girl!!!