A post for September

Oh, how I've dreaded this day. This is the day that I write a meaningless blog post in an attempt to hit my posting goal for the month.

We all knew it was coming, right? I mean, I don't post consistently enough to completely avoid posts like this.

It's not a good feeling, friends. Not a good feeling, indeed.

But hey, I'll feel better once this post is published and this month is over, right? Right.

How about I tell you some of the things I could have written about right now, but chose not to for various reasons, most of which involve me wanting to get in my pjs and pass out.

I could have written about:

-ASU football
-my day trip to Flagstaff with Dallin
-my playroom redo
-budgeting/money saving/not shopping
-Charly's latest tricks
-some movies I've watched recently

Maybe I'll write about some of those things in the near future. Maybe I won't. It's kind of fun to keep you guessing.

But I will update you within the next couple of days on my goal progress. You are going to be proud of me.

Especially since I've hit my blog post goal for the month, effective now.

Good night, and good luck.

For the love of Sprouts

I'm pretty much exclusively a Walmart shopper. I know. I KNOW, OKAY?!

But it's just undeniably cheaper. I can't tear myself away from the undeniable cheapness of Walmart.

Except for a special occasion or two. Usually when I need a whole lotta produce or a strange ingredient that Walmart doesn't sell (e.g. fontina cheese. No fontina cheese at Walmart. Or pancetta. I'll stop now).

And on the special-ist of special occasions, or when I'm just needing a little farmer's market in my life, I head to Sprouts. I love going to Sprouts. Every time I go I swear I'm going to go more regularly. And then I don't. But anyway...

My latest reason for going to Sprouts was to find honeycrisp apples. Have you ever had honeycrisp apples? They are sweet, crisp bits of heaven, let me tell you. And I can only find them (or good ones, at least) during apple season, which just happens to be now.

So during my last grocery trip, honeycrisps were definitely on my list.

Except Walmart didn't have them.
And Fry's didn't have any unbruised ones. Apparently Fry's shoppers know about da honeycrisp goodness.
And Target (who sells honeycrisps by the bag) was all out.

And so I got to go to Sprouts! And let's be honest, I should have gone there from the beginning.

BECAUSE

JACKPOT.

They were all pretty. And I ate one on the way home. Not really, but I seeeeeriously considered it.

But that's not the end of the magic trick yet. (Name that movie.)

Something else caught my eye at Sprouts. Behold:

I know they look like purple yogurt pretzels. In fact, they are purple yogurt pretzels. But what else makes them special, you ask? Um, hi, they are RASPBERRY FLAVORED. 

And they are marvelous. They were gone in a very short amount of time. Like, it was ridiculous.

So basically I need to go back to Sprouts. My shopping list might only be two items long, but I'll probably walk out with several pounds of food.

And I will not be ashamed. 

I love to see the temple

Remember how one of my goals for this year was to put up pictures of the temple in every room in our home? Well, one of the reasons for this was to help my girls become familiar with the temple.

I think it's worked.

Maddy's built a couple "temples" of her own.

{medium: Scentsy samples provided by my favorite Scentsy seller}

{medium: fridge magnets from our leap frog fridge magnet toy thing}

Also, she will not hesitate to tell you that the temple is where you go to "get married."

It's a start.

35 Things: August Update

Happy September, peeps.

This month, I stayed on track with my monthly goals - including my "at least 4 blog posts every month" goal. Can you say 8? I bet you can. Holla! That means I don't have to blog this month at all.

I kid, I kid. I know you'd be lost without me.

So what else did I do this month? Unfortunately, not much. I attempted a lot of things, but I can't quite call them "finished" yet. For example, my playroom redecoration project is almost done. I also tried to make August my "completely punctual" month, and it didn't quite work out. Most of the time, I just forgot that I was supposed to be making the effort to be completely punctual, so I automatically reverted to my 5-10 minutes late ways. I think I'm going to have to try that one again. AND I started learning all the rules of football. During this process, I realized how much (a) I already know, and (b) I really don't need to know (e.g. the appropriate dimensions of the ball itself. Riiiiiight).

I did get some good reading in, though!

30. Read 32 books. This month, I read:

Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. This non-fiction book was very interesting, if not a little overwhelming at times. When will I learn that I reeeeeally don't do well with books where people are stuck on rafts in the ocean and have to eat raw fish and battle sharks? It's not healthy for an ichthyophobic, I tell you. ***Side note: coincidentally, did you know that they are making a Life of Pi movie? That was one of those books that, while I was reading it, I thought to myself, "I'm very glad I'm reading this...and not watching it." Side note over.*** Anyway, I liked Unbroken a lot. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads; 4.5 would probably be more realistic.

The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson #5), by Rick Riordan. Last book of the series! I really enjoyed the series as a whole. Lots of fun. 4 stars.

Strengths Finder 2.0, by Tom Rath. So, I feel a little weird counting this as a book, since it was probably about 30 pages total of reading. But wow, I really liked it. I'm actually planning on writing a separate post about this book, so I'll just leave you in suspense for now. 5 stars.

Strangling Your Husband is Not an Option, by Merrilee Boyack. I did like this book a lot. I feel like it would be especially useful for someone who has been married a long time, has older kids, has a pretty busy life, etc. But it was still really good for me to read so I can try to be aware and proactive about some things that might go on with me and my husband in the future, no matter how good things are right now. 4 stars.

Edenbrooke, by Julianne Donaldson. I'm not a huge fan of LDS romance (I got tired of Anita Stansfield after I read what felt like the same book 5 times), but this one was pretty good. The main character has obsessions with twirling and flirting, and you'll be sick of hearing about both by the end of the book. But hey, it was a nice, clean romance that turns out just how you expect it to. Not terrible.
3.5 stars.

And there you have it.

In September, these things NEED to happen for me to stay on track:

-finish the playroom
-finish reading all the football rules
-be completely punctual
-prepare a week's worth of freezer meals
-finish (or at least make more progress on) our 3 month supply
-month long spending freeze
-organize family folder

Whew. It's going to be quite the month!

How are you doing on your goals? If you've fallen behind, no worries. No one is judging you but yourself. Start again!