How to Have Happier Mornings

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It’s a Monday morning as I sit at my table and write this, still in pajamas, with a warm cup of coffee to keep me caffeinated. Getting out of bed recently has been a complete opposite of the last few winter months. My body is naturally waking me up when the sun rises and while I try to sleep in, my body wants to get up and start the day. I’m sure the rising temperatures and that warm sunshine are helping me get out of bed in the morning. I’ve found that I am bursting with energy and want to do everything and anything. With this burst of energy in the early hours of the morning, I’m also going to bed before midnight. Something that annoyed me at first but now I love getting into bed at night and reading a few chapters of my book before bed. After a few weeks of this routine, I decided to stick with it and make it permanent thing.

I setup new ringtones for all of my alarms so I don’t snooze through them and if my body doesn’t wake me up, a new tune can help me get out of bed at the same time every day. This took a few weeks to get used to but turning into a morning person has always been my goal and this year it’s going to happen!

A perk of being the only one awake in the morning, besides the cat, is that I get to have a little me time. Usually I just hop right into getting housework done in the morning before I start doing work in the afternoon. With this warmer weather (somedays) I’ll make a cup of coffee and grab a magazine before heading to the backyard to enjoy my coffee. Ed comes trotting with and loves to lay in the grass and roam around. Just giving myself a few minutes outside to drink coffee or water the plants or have a few minutes to myself puts me in such a good headspace.

On Sundays, I love to create one master to-do list with everything that needs to get done for the week no matter how small. Then I schedule time to get it all done in my Google Calendar so I can get it all scheduled ahead of time and it’s not so daunting.

How you start your day sets your mood for your entire day. For so long I felt so rushed from the moment I got out of bed and with a few little changes I can give myself time in the morning to start my day on the right foot. No matter how busy my week is, I love to wake up early to make time for myself and glance at my calendar knowing I have time to get it all done. Only you can control what mindset you will have for the day and with some pre-planning, you can make it a more positive one. Once you are relaxed and have some caffeine in your system, get dressed, and make it a good day!

Thicker Looking Hair with L’Oreal Everstrong Shampoo & Conditioner

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Over the years I have purchased and have been gifted a lot of shampoos to try and I keep coming back to the L’Oreal EVER line. This shampoo line is free of parabens and sulfates that can dry out your hair over time. Sometimes those promises to give you big, voluminous hair means that the shampoo is loaded with harsh chemicals that can make your hair feel heavy and greasy the next day. When I use the L’Oreal EVER line shampoo and conditioner, I know it’s going to be a good hair day!

Recently, I have been using the new L’Oreal EVERSTRONG shampoo and conditioner to get thicker looking hair. Even though I have thick hair now, I want to use a product that helps make it stronger and healthier, which is how you get that thick hair look and feel. This rosemary leaf smelling shampoo fortifies hair to prevent breakage after just one wash. I can curl my hair easier and my hair feels lighter with a bit of bounce because it’s that healthy!

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EVERSTRONG shampoo // EVERSTRONG conditioner

Things That Made Me Happy This Month

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I blame the good weather we have been having but I have been having such a great month! Those cold, dark months always put me in a weird funk and I know to expect it and prepare, but nothing makes me ready to handle January through March. It’s usually cold, dark and rainy making my energy levels low and puts me into a weird fog. I swear as soon as April started, the sun came out, I was excited to jump out of bed and I had so much motivation to have a great week.

After my shower at night, I like to spend a few minutes in the bathroom brushing my teeth, flossing and then going into a multi step skincare routine. I noticed results right away when I started using the Olay Retinol moisturizer.

Speaking of moisturizers, I was sent Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Body Cream and holy cow, my whole body smelled like watermelon all day! Yes, it kept my skin shiny and healthy – but it’s worth buying for the scent alone!

After wearing sweatpants for months, I need to get my body in shape to fit into my summer clothes so I’ve been drinking a smoothie for lunch everyday. It keeps me full until dinner and it’s fun to play with ingredients. My smoothie recipe: frozen mixed berries, frozen peaches or mango, a banana, two big scoops of vanilla yogurt, a scoop of Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides, and a handful of fresh spinach.

We have been having fun having movie nights during the week and ordering dinner for a date night. I mentioned in my Friday Favorites post recently about what we are watching on HBO Max. On my own time, I’ve been watching a lot of 90s and early 2000s shows that I never got to watch and it’s been a fun hobby.

Recently, I swapped out the vases and faux florals around the house and it makes the house feel so much brighter! Over the summer I stocked up on some realistic looking flowers from Michaels and Walmart. Much cheaper than buying them every week and don’t have to worry about them dying!

Starbucks iced coffee at home has been a nice sweet treat! It’s cheaper to buy a bottle of it at the grocery store instead of getting one everyday at Starbucks. The best part is that I don’t have to change out of my pjs to get one 😉

I packed away my sweaters and started to pack away my fall and winter clothes over the weekend so let’s hope the warm weather is here to stay!

Friday Favorites 4.30

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It’s been a busy week getting ready for my parents to visit us for a few days before we head to New Jersey together for a short visit to see friends and family we haven’t seen in a few years. Jake and I also did a ton of adulting this week like making arrangements to buy a car, making dentist appointments and had to do all of the steps to get a passport. The one perk of Covid is that you have to make an appointment at the post office to file the paperwork and because they can’t have more than one group at one time in the office, we were in and out under 10 minutes. Jake was shocked because he had to wait on line for 3 hours to get his even with an appointment when he got his passport a few years ago. Sometimes procrastinating works out!! We are exhausted but happy to see our lives getting back to “normal”. I’ve been spending as much time as I can outside because the weather is finally getting warmer so I’ll start my day taking Ed on a walk around the backyard while I drink my coffee and then bring a big towel to lay out on to read a book in the afternoon. A few weekends ago, we did a big heavy duty clean up of the backyard and it is looking really charming right now as the tree starts to grow green leaves and the flowers blossom. I’m excited to get a car this week so we can go to Lowes and get some mulch and more flowers for the backyard. We are so lucky to live in a city and have a backyard to enjoy. Next project is getting a kiddie pool 😉

I’m watching very little tv these days but I am making time to watch the new HBO Max show, Mare of Easttown because it was filmed in the Philadelphia suburbs. Great mystery and the story draws you in on the first episode. A show I didn’t expect to love so much is The Nevers also on HBO Max. It’s unlike anything on tv right now and is a great show to watch when you have seen it all after a year of watching too much tv. In honor of Helen McCrory, I’ve been rewatching the Peaky Blinders while I cook or clean and want background noise.

I was gifted a bottle of Lancome Clarifique and I have been using it everyday for more than two weeks and I noticed results in my skin right away. It’s a bit pricey but it is a cleanser, hydrates and keeps your skin hydrated for hours. Click here for a more detailed review on the new Lancome Clarifique Dual Essence.

Not that exciting but I did spend $50 at Trader Joe’s this week to make a cheese board for when my parents come to town. A bit extreme but after not being able to entertain in our house because we were both so busy at work and then a pandemic, I am so excited to host! Trader Joe’s is where we get our cheese even if it is a long hike because it’s so inexpensive we are more likely to try a new kind each time we visit.

Reading the last few pages of The Jane Austen Book Club right now. It’s been my go-to book this read while I lay out in the backyard and read. Ed and I are both enjoying any excuse we can to spend more time outdoors!

Trying to eat healthy so most days I have been making a smoothie for breakfast/lunch to keep me full and prevent me from snacking! Frozen mixed fruit, a banana, handful of spinach, one scoop of Vital Protein Collagen Powder and a few spoonfuls of vanilla yogurt.

This week I made breaded chicken breasts for a healthy-ish dinner. The next day I used the leftovers to make wraps using Garden Spinach & Herb Wrap Tortillas, Trader Joe’s Greek Style Feta Dressing, tomatoes and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Quick, easy and delicious!

I finally used my spiralizer and made zucchini noodles for dinner this week. It was a lot easier to make and fun to experiment with flavors. Added a little oil to a pan on low-medium heat and dumped the spiralized zucchini in the pan. Used tongs to flip as they cooked and added half a lemon juice, lemon and pepper seasoning, with a dash of garlic salt. Once in the bowl I added some parmesan cheese for flavor. Interesting texture and a lot quicker than waiting for water to boil for pasta. Jake ate every last noodle so it’s proof that it was tasty!

A friend send me Courtney Cox’s Reel on how to make 4 ingredient lemon pasta and it looked easy and tasty so I decided to try it! We were big fans and it might be our new go-to summer pasta recipe!

  • Warm days and hot days. I have been loving this 90 degree weather!
  • Getting my 10,000 a day step goal in
  • Staying committed to my goal of working out every day using these work outs
  • Early bedtime and waking up early. Trying to become a morning person!
  • Discovered a podcast called Dreamy that has bedtime stories on Spotify so I’ve been listening to one a night while I fall asleep.
  • Swapping over my closets to make room for my summer clothes
  • Treated Jake to frozen yogurt the other night after dinner and it made me excited for summer

Recent Amazon Purchases vol. 1

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I don’t think we order a lot from Amazon until we take out the trash on Sunday night and realize that we have a LOT of boxes from Amazon!

NACHOsaurus – This nacho chip holder was a big hit for Jake’s birthday last month!

Chewbacca Bath Robe – Someone kept talking about how much he wanted a cozy bath robe after seeing me live in a bathrobe all winter long so I got Jake a Star Wars themed one for his birthday.

Birthday Decoration Kit – Speaking of birthdays, this was a last minute purchase to decorate the house for Jake’s birthday since we couldn’t leave the house and he had to work.

Storage Bag – Saw a few other people post about htis Amazon find and finally added it to my cart. One bag can hold so much stuff and is a great way to hold all of my extra blankets, duvets, and comforters.

Bucket – An odd purchase but I really needed a good bucket for cleaning and I was happy to find this one for such a good price!

Tomato Seeds – I was jealous of my parents garden last summer so I ordered some tomato seeds to start my own! Fingers crossed we get some tomatoes this summer!

Bird Feeder – Ed loves to chat with the birds in the backyard so I thought it would be nice to get a bird feeder for them. Jokes on us because we have to refill it every two days because we have a lot of happy and full birds now!

Bird Seed – Going to have to put this bird seed on auto ship because we are going through it so fast!

Water Hose Nozzle – One of those things I realized we needed a few weeks ago and the jet stream is similar to a pressure washer!

Scrabble – Saw someone playing Scrabble on tv and immediately ordered one so we could play it the next day ha!

Spiralizer – I found a bunch of delicious recipes to try with zucchini noodles and since it can be pricey to buy them pre-packaged, I got my own spiralizer!

Spring Cleaning in the Kitchen

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FIRST THING FIRST, click HERE to get a free gift set and receive $10 after your first Grove Collaborative purchase.

Over the weekend, we ran out of dish soap and when I went to the cabinet where we keep back stock items, I noticed we only have fall scented cleaning supplies. I don’t know about you, but this is not acceptable in my house! Meanwhile, Jake has been loving our peppermint scented dish soap when he does the dishes at night. That day, I put in a big order at Grove Collaborative and added one of each Spring and Summer scented dish soap, cleaning spray, and hand soap. My family thought I was crazy for stocking up with one big order every season, but when everyone ran out of hand soap, I was the one with a cabinet full of it! I tried ordering hand soap when we were on our last one last month and noticed that very few online retailers are even shipping it because there is still a shortage because of the pandemic. This is why I LOVE LOVE LOVE my subscription to Grove Collaborative. The website is easy to shop and add items to your cart so you can get everything you need to keep your home clean, and be green while you do it, delivered to your front door. They also throw in a free item when you spend a certain amount and leave you a fun, friendly message on the box.

I put in an order and two days later I got a box of cleaning supplies on our doorstep! I rolled up my sleeves and got to work cleaning the kitchen and organizing our back stock.

  1. Keep A List of Essentials
    I keep a note on my phone of items that we always have so I can quickly glance and make note of if we are out of it so I can add it to my cart on grove.co.
  2. Stock Up
    Grove Collaborative makes it so easy to buy multiples and not have to push a heavy cart around and then carry them from the car to the house.
  3. Clean Appliances
    This stainless steel cleaner is life changing! Once a week I like to wipe down the refrigerator, stove and dishwasher because fingerprints drive me crazy but nothing ever worked until I used this cleaner! A little bit goes a long way and it protects appliances from fingerprints for like a week.
  4. Create a Routine
    At night I like to put all of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, press start and wipe down the counters with the multi-surface cleaner. Waking up to a clean kitchen is so nice and it only takes two minutes at night to make my mornings better.
  5. Shop Green
    My favorite thing about Grove Collaborative (besides the convenience and friendly team!) is their commitment to the environment. I’m happy to pay a little more for products that are made with the environment in mind. Grove offers product refills so it’s less plastic and you just have to order one to last you a while. I get a hand soap refill each order so I can keep my cute bathroom soap dispenser filled with soap without ever running out.

For more cleaning tips, check out my spring cleaning post that I wrote during quarantine last year, more reasons why I love Grove Collaborative, and how I keep all of my things organized. Let me know your favorite cleaning scents!