In the meantime, I wanted to highlight a few things that are making me smile this week in keeping with the usual Things I’m Loving Friday weekly post tradition around here. I hope you’ll join in the fun and tell me about something you’re loving as well!
Have a fantastic weekend, my friends!
Things I’m Loving Friday
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Leg Workout
You know that feeling when you’re about halfway through a workout and you just know you’re going to be sore the next day? That happened to me earlier this week when I took myself through the above leg workout. I’m not sure if it was the workout itself or the fact that I haven’t been exercising as consistently thanks to two sick kiddos, but yeesh, this one had my legs and booty burning! It felt SO GOOD to feel my muscles work and jam out to a new workout playlist. I knew I had to share this workout with you guys because I wanted to save it to do again myself, too!
Also, if you’re unfamiliar with the “Bring Sally Up” squat challenge, you may see more details here. (I LOVE that song in a weird way.) It’s HARD but also oddly fun, too! I did it sumo-squat style and held a dumbbell between my legs.
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Puracy Stain Remover
A couple of weeks ago, I was on a mission to find a more natural way to remove stains in the boys’ clothing. Now that we’re feeding Ryder real food, things are very messy around here and his clothes and bibs are regularly stained with pureed blueberries, sweet potato, carrots, spinach and more. On top of that, Chase almost always comes home from school with some kind of paint, marker or grass stain on his clothes. Since I can’t seem to live without Amazon Prime, I turned there first and very quickly discovered Puracy, a natural plant-derived, enzyme-based stain remover that claimed to remove ANY stain out there. When I saw the 2,400+ positive reviews I was sold and ordered two bottles.
You guys, to say I was blown away by this stuff is a serious understatement. I simply follow the instructions on the bottle when treating tough stains (I use an old toohbrush to “rough up the fabric” and let it sit for several hours before washing) and it gets all of them out. ALL OF THEM. I had to take before/after pics of one of Ryder’s bibs to show you guys how legit this stuff really is…
Isn’t that unreal!? His bib was covered in stains and they ALL came out in one wash cycle. I have now been using Puracy on any and all stains and can’t recommend it enough!
This week was teacher appreciation week at Chase’s preschool and since we could not love Chase’s teachers any more, we wanted to do something to make them feel a little extra special. We put together small gift bags for his teachers and included jars of these sugar and spice nuts. Chase loved helping me make them and I’m glad we had some leftover because I could not stop eating them! They were so good and a great recipe to keep in mind if you ever want to whip up a batch of nuts that are both sweet and a little spicy!
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Cloth Photo Album for Baby
My mom put together a cloth baby photo album for Chase when he was a baby that he absolutely adored and recently sent us one for Ryder, too! We love these albums for a number of reasons but mostly because they help our little ones regularly “see” their family members who don’t live nearby which is especially important to us when they’re learning names and beginning to grasp the concept of family. Each page of Ryder’s album says “I See….” with a blank space to write a name (or use a label maker like my mom did!) and then my mom simply added a photo of a member of our family and their name to the page. We love this sweet gift and I just had to share it here with you guys in case you’re looking for a thoughtful gift idea for a little one in your life. I think it would be such a sweet addition to an Easter basket next month! This is the current version of Chase’s original book by Manhattan Toy Company available on Amazon, here’s one available at Target for only $8 and this is Ryder’s “I See…” book by Lakeshore Learning.
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Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams
Beatriz Williams is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. (Something about the spelling of her name always makes me want to type out “Bellatrix” instead of Beatriz. Apparently my Harry Potter lovin’ side is showing through!) Two years ago I read A Hundered Summers by Beatriz Williams and really enjoyed it so I’m not sure why it took me so long to pick up another one of her novels. I recently finished Along the Infinite Sea, the third in the Schuyler Sisters series by Williams, and thoroughly enjoyed it! I’m admittedly a sucker for books that jump back and forth from the past to the present and build intrigue along the way and this one did just that as it followed the present-day life of Pepper Schuyler and the past of a woman who recently came into Pepper’s life, Annabelle Dommerich.
Pepper and Annabelle’s lives intertwine when Pepper finds and fixes up a very rare Mercedes that Annabelle purchases because the car once belonged to her husband, a Nazi general. As the complicated pasts of the women are revealed, secrets unfold involving Jewish lovers, surprise pregnancies and enough intrigue to make you fly through this book!
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Around the Web
Food: Instant Pot BBQ Lentils / 12 Healthy Meals for Kids / Pan-Seared Salmon with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce / Kale Pistachio Shrimp Pasta Skillet
Fitness: Lean & Strong Legs Workout / HIIT Bodyweight Workout / 30 Day Workout Calendar
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Friday Flashbacks
Corned Beef and Cabbage Creamy Potato Leek Soup (Just in case you’re getting excited for St. Paddy’s Day eats already!)
Healthy Things to Do in Charlotte (A roundup of some of my favorite things to do in the Queen City!)
Question of the Day
What is one thing making you smile right now?
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Your blog always makes me smile! And I think I’ve found my Friday workout, thanks for sharing that. Also can’t wait to try out that stain remover, we’ve been slowly trying to switch to more natural products and it’s great when you find ones that work well. I’ve been reading your blog for 7 years now and have gone from single college living to being a wife and mom, I feel like we’ve down up together, haha. Hope you have a great weekend!
You are so sweet <3 I'm a preschool teacher, and honestly reading about the gift you put together for Chase's teachers brought tears to my eyes. I absolutely love my job and could not imagine doing anything else, but (as with any job) it comes along with it's challenges, which can regularly include working with difficult parents. For me, it's the difficult parent interactions that leave me most discouraged so any positive words (or actions) from my kiddo's parents truly mean the world to me. On behalf of teachers everywhere, thank you for the appreciation! <3
Honestly I cannot tell you how much wonderful teachers mean to parents — and OF COURSE to the children!! Good teachers are an incredible gift and the time, energy and effort that goes into teaching does NOT go unnoticed, even if there are some challenging parents to interact with out there. <3 Thank you for doing what you do!!!! It makes a huge impact!
I took your recommendation and just got my puracy stain remover delivered! Can’t wait to start using it to tackle our toddler stains. You definitely got me excited for a new stain remover #momlife.
i never thought i’d be so excited about a stain remover… but here i am 🙂 haha!
I finished A Hundred Summers recently because of your recommendations, and now I am reading The Secret Life of Violet Grant! I can’t wait to read more Beatrix Williams – she is so great!!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying her books! You’ll love Along the Infinite Sea as well if you like Violet Grant!!
So, I bought the stain remover last week after seeing you post about it, but I have to admit that it’s not working as well for me! 🙁 I used it on my daughter’s muddy sweatshirt and even after treating it twice (and letting it sit overnight) and washing twice the stains are still there. Then I used it on one of my husband’s darker t-shirts and it left weird, dark streaks all over. I’m stumped! Anyway, I’m going to keep using it, but maybe only on white and light colored clothing. I’m still hopeful that it will work well on something in the future!
oh no!! it’s honestly taken out every stain i’ve thrown its way so i’m sorry to hear this!! have you “roughed up the fabric” a bit like the bottle says? i think this makes a big difference on the hard stains (i use an old toothbrush to really rub the stain remover into hard stains like blueberries, blackberries) — i hope it will work for you!!
I did rough it up, but only with an old towel. I think maybe the toothbrush is key so I will definitely try that!
My daughter has the same photo album! She loves it!
yes!!! is she talking yet? once chase was old enough to learn names/talk, it was even more fun!
If you love Beatriz Williams, definitely check out author Lauren Willig! She has a 12-book series (The Pink Carnation series) as well as standalone novels. She’s also co-authored two books with Beatriz Willlams (and another author, Karen White). Her books are some of my absolute favorites! https://laurenwillig.com/books
Awesome! Thanks Sarah! I absolutely will!
I’ve looked into that Puracy brand, and like you, was v v impressed by all of the reviews on Amazon! Also, they make a natural deodorant I’d really like to try!
So I totally just put A Hundred Summers on my infinitely long TBR list. It sounds so good!
I did that Bring Sally Up squat challenge once with a 35lb kettlebell in the goblet position. Whew! My booty and quads were on FIRE!!
I LOVE leg workouts, though, so they always make me smile. When barbell squats are on the WOD, my heart is happy!
Love these round ups, so much great info in one spot and thanks so much for including my 30 Day Workout Calendar! I hope you’re doing well mama! Lindsey
I noticed the Puracy brand also has a baby stain remover. Do you use this one for Ryder ? Or do you just use the normal natural for your clothes and for Ryder’s as well?
I’ve just been using the normal one for our whole family’s clothes!