Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

School Days | Middle School

It’s been quite a while since I did a “School Days” post, and maybe part of the reason for the lag is that I wasn’t excited about recapping middle school. It was a very, very hard time in my life. My parents had just gotten divorced with the help of a divorce lawyer like this family law attorney in Lake Forest, my mom was struggling with depression and just trying to keep her head above water financially while supporting two preteens. There were a lot of low moments, but also some sweet memories that I had sort of forgotten. Seeking legal assistance from Family Lawyers in Glasgow in processing all legal documents and child custody would be a great help to a family struggling with this problem.

SIXTH GRADE (1999 – 2000)

  • Insomniac – What I remember most about this year was my insomnia. I’m guessing it was a product of the divorce, my mom’s depression, and probably my own depression. I remember listening to a Christian CD (WOW 2000, iykyk) on repeat and now I can’t listen to any of the songs that were on that album without remembering this time and getting deeply sad. My grandma had told my mom at one point to not let me get up when I had insomnia. I had to stay in my room and try to sleep. In hindsight, my mom and I agree that this was not the right call but this was a different time when we didn’t have as many tools and access to mental health resources as we do now. My mom was just trying to do what she thought was right, what her mom told her to do. It was a really hard year for me. Eventually, I found that starting my night on the floor seemed to help. I don’t know why, but it did. I would just lay on the floor surrounded by pillows and blankets and read until I fell asleep. If I woke up in the middle of the night, I’d climb up on my bed to finish off the night there.
  • Being the new girl – I started sixth grade as the new girl at school. It seemed like everyone else in my grade had transferred over from the nearby elementary school and everyone knew each other well. I felt very alone at first, until I met the girl who would become my best friend throughout middle school. Chelsea was a short, bubbly, and fun friend and through her, I had access to so many other people and quickly developed a close-knit friend group.
  • Gym class – In sixth grade, one of my electives was gym. I hated gym. I hated doing the daily run in the field. I hated having to change in the changing room. I hated feeling gross and smelly after gym class, even though I would douse myself in body spray to get the stink off. For years, I couldn’t smell the body spray I used every day after gym class without feeling anxious. I especially hated that my next class was on the other side of the school, so the minute the bell rang, I would have to walk as fast as possible to make it over there in under 5 minutes. Never, ever was I late to class but every day, I worried I would be. (<– It’s things like this that remind me how early my anxiety disorder started and how much better my life would have been if I talked to my mom or another professional about it. Alas.)
  • A bike rider – Sixth grade was the first school year where my parents were divorced (see above: insomnia). My mom, my brother, and I were living in a very cute two-bedroom condo that was only a mile-and-a-half from our middle school. (My mom didn’t have a bedroom; she wanted my brother and me to have our own rooms so she slept on the couch in the living room.) Anyway, this meant my brother and I rode our bikes to school every day. You guys, I hated this. I just abhorred the fact that I had to ride my bike every day and had to have helmet hair at the beginning of every school day. It is not a fun memory for me.
  • Reading class – My favorite class this year was reading. (Is anyone surprised?) We had a really great teacher who was so passionate about the subject. She also had an amazing classroom library and we could check out books from her library whenever she wanted. She had an inventory system for her library, too, with this big binder full of the book titles and authors (organized alphabetically by the author’s last name). We could do “inventory” during down periods, which I loved so much that I went home and created my own inventory system for my books.

SEVENTH GRADE (2000 – 2001)

  • Volleyball tryouts – Because my best friend Chelsea played volleyball, I decided to try out for the team in seventh grade. Was I athletic? No. Did I ever play volleyball in my life? Also no. So what was I thinking, trying out for the team? Peer pressure, I guess. I did not make the team and while I was a little disappointed, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.
  • New electives – In seventh grade, I did not have to take gym! So no more worrying about smelling bad all day or rushing across the school to get to my next class. Hooray! Instead, I took chorus and Spanish I. I really enjoyed both classes, and Spanish was especially fun because we had such a fun teacher who really made learning a new language interesting. She also called me Estefania, which I loved.
  • My first boyfriend – I had a boyfriend in seventh grade! What did having a boyfriend at 13 entail? Never talking to each other, passing notes in between classes, mooning over him in secret, and eventually breaking up after a few weeks and feeling shattered even though I had never said more than a few words to him. Young love, man.
  • A new apartment – A few months into seventh grade, my mom received a letter from the woman who owned our condo that she was selling it and we would need to move. My mom found us another two-bedroom apartment on the opposite side of town. For most kids, this would necessitate starting over at a different school but my mom, knowing my brother and I had been through enough upheaval as it was, kept us at the same school and just drove us to school every day. (We basically just didn’t let the school know our address had changed, lol.)
  • Our first computer – A big box was delivered to our apartment in December 2000, which my mom promptly wrapped up and put in my closet. She told us that it was a present for one of my cousins that needed to be kept at our place until Christmas. But instead, it was our first computer! It was this incredibly large Gateway computer and I have no idea how my mom afforded it, but she made it work somehow. It was amazing to have a computer and be able to connect to the internet via AOL Online.

EIGHTH GRADE (2001 – 2002)

  • Another new apartment – Sometime over the summer, we moved to a new apartment that was in the same zoning area as my middle school. This meant I wouldn’t have to start over at a different school! There was also a bus that would take me to school, which I know was easier for my mom to handle.
  • 9/11 – I was in eighth grade when 9/11 happened. At the time, I was really confused. I didn’t know what the Twin Towers were or what this even meant for our society. Here’s what I remember about that day: (1) Hearing about the attack happening right after arriving to my third period math class where I learned about the Etci theorem and more, I really liked math back then; (2) Our vice principal coming into my fifth period social studies class and discussing what had happened with us; (3) Watching news coverage all day, in every class; (4) Thinking about how sad it was that Marc, a classmate, whose birthday was 9/11 would always have his birthday linked with this tragedy.
  • 8th grade dance – One of the most vivid memories I have of middle school was our 8th grade dance. I went with a group of girlfriends. We all got ready together at a friend’s house, showed up to the dance in a limo (!), danced the night away with each other, and afterward, went out to Red Lobster (with all of our moms in the booth near us). It was such a good night. The next day, my mom commented how alive I come when I’m with my girlfriends, which made me feel really good.
  • My most embarrassing moment – Speaking of the 8th grade dance, I’m pretty sure the most embarrassing moment of my life happened there. At the end of the dance, the 8th grade king and queen were named. These were voted on by the students and there was a rumor going around the middle school that the guy who was the frontrunner for king was cheating by adding extra votes. How true were these rumors? No idea. But I scoffed when his name was announced as king and said to my friend next to me, “Well now we know for sure he cheated.” Right as he walked by me. He turned around, gave me a saucy grin, and sauntered up to the stage. How embarrassing!
  • The last day of middle school – People were so sad on the last day of middle school. There were so many tears, but me? I was so, so happy. Middle school ended up being the worst three years of my life and I just wanted to be out of there. I would be going to a high school that few of my middle school friends were attending, and I was just fine with that. (One of my closest friends was also going there, though, so I felt good about that.) I was ready for summer break and a new start.
Categories: Life

Monthly Recap | April 2023

Good Stuff

My girlfriend and I had a day date early in the month where we went to a candle shop to make our own candles! What a fun experience. We got to choose the exact scents we wanted and mix them up ourselves to achieve that perfect balance. When it comes to candle making you don’t have to look far for supplies, as most artisan candle makers and large candle brands purchase their candle wax from a UK company called Kerax. I just burned the candle for the first time last week (we were instructed to wait two weeks before using them) and it made my apartment smell amazing!

I’ve been talking about it for a while, and in April, I finally took the plunge and went back to brunette! I am really enjoying the new color and am planning to go even darker brown during my next coloring appointment at the end of June. I didn’t want the change to feel too drastic to start, so we opted for a light auburn-y brown that is very close to my natural color. It’s fun and makes me feel good!

Mom and I had a lovely time last month picking flowers at a u-pick farm. I went to this farm last year with a friend and then told my mom this would be her Mother’s Day present (in 2022). Unfortunately, we never made it to the farm last year because it just got too hot. So she cashed in her present nearly a year later and we had a great time! We picked flowers, my mom got lots of great produce from their stand, and then we went out to lunch.

I’ve talked about how magical the Taylor Swift concert was, and the shine has not worn off. It was one of the most amazing nights of my life and I am so in awe of Taylor as a performer. She’s one of the greats.

This month, I spent a week with my fur-siblings! My mom and stepdad went on a cruise for five days, so I was on doggo duty. Chip and Lucy are my favorite little babies and we had a great time together. And I noticed how much more well-behaved Chip is now that he’s going through training! It’s night and day!

My girlfriend and I had a lovely bookish date for Independent Bookstore Day. We love our local indie, Tombolo Books, so we made sure to get there early to beat the crowd. I got a handful of books, some stickers, and a Indie Bookstore Day t-shirt so I left a very happy camper.

Hard Stuff

  • A mole problem – I mentioned on a previous post that I went for my annual skin check in April and had to get two moles biopsied. My dermatologist wasn’t sure if they would come back with anything but they looked a little funky and she wanted to be cautious. Good thing! Both of those moles came back with precancerous markers. So in two weeks, I’ll be back to the dermatologist to get the moles fully removed. It’s not fun, but I am so grateful for a super-cautious dermatologist.
  • More anxiety than normal – After feeling like my anxiety disorder was at a super stable place, things seemed to devolve a bit in April. Generally, my anxiety is in a much better spot than it was last year. But a few times a week, usually at night, I get these random bouts of panic and anxiety. I can never predict when they are going to happen, which is frustrating. It doesn’t happen every day, though, so I’m always worried if I bring this up to my psychiatrist, she’s going to tell me I just need to deal with it. We’ve gotten my anxiety to a “good enough” spot, and I should be grateful for that, right? It’s a crazy fear to have, I know, but it’s always there. (Thankfully, my psychiatrist is not a psychopath and told me I don’t have to live like this and is subscribing me an “as needed” medication to try.)
  • Social burnout – This was a busy month for me and after a stretch of having big plans almost every single day for over a week, I was feeling irritable and so very tired. So I canceled almost every plan I had one weekend and rested. It was so very needed and I felt so refreshed.

Stuff I Recommend

  • Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (movie) – This movie was so good! I thought the role of Margaret was perfectly cast and I just loved all of the different odes to puberty. It’s a very weird time in a girl’s life! I was the girl who developed early (I got my period at 10!) so I didn’t deal with these common worries about getting my first period, but it was fun to reminisce about that time in my life.
  • Cat necklace ($15) – I saw this delicate cat necklace on Etsy one day when I was looking at jewelry options and I had to buy it. It is a perfect new necklace for my collection! (I got it in rose gold.)
  • Floodlines – I’ve had this podcast saved in my to-be-listened-to list for quite a while, and finally got around to listening to it last month. It goes through what happened in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, especially the way residents of New Orleans were treated after the tragedy and the way government officials responded. It tells a harrowing, difficult story and it’s a must-listen, in my opinion.
  • Love Is Blind – Do I really recommend this show? Probably not. But it’s such a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s a ridiculous concept, but I can’t stop watching it! Come for the trashy reality TV, stay for the Brett and Tiffany love story that is so sweet and the true epitome of Black excellence. <3

Bookish Stuff

  • # of books/pages read: 9 books (3,013 pages)
  • Favorite book of the month: I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
  • Least favorite book of the month: To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne
  • Underrated gem of the month: The Saturday Evening Girls Club by Jane Healy
  • Books I abandoned
    • The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
    • Miss Me With That: Hot Takes, Helpful Tidbits, and a Few Hard Truths by Rachel Lindsay
  • Format breakdown: print books (4), e-books (3), and audiobooks (2)
  • Genre breakdown: Romance (3), historical fiction (2), fiction (1), thriller (1), nonfiction (1), and YA (1)

Goal Stuff

  • Go for a walk every day (15/30) – I’m actually kind of shocked that I went for 15 walks last month. I definitely thought the number was going to be lower. It was just one of those months when I was so busy with other things and going for a daily walk fell by the wayside.
  • Drink a bottle of water every day (9/30) – Pitiful.
  • Complete 100 Peloton workouts (26/100) – Yikes, I only did 3 Peloton workouts in April! This puts me behind my goal by 7 workouts. Hopefully, my goal of working out every day in May will get me back on track!
  • Watch 6 movies and 6 standup specials – I watched TWO movies in April so now I’m ahead of my goal, woop! I saw Stepbrothers during a private movie event with some friends and then AYTGIMM with my mom, as mentioned above.
Categories: Life

Monthly Recap | March 2023

Good Stuff

  • Learning knife skills with Amber – I had such a fun time at Sur La Table’s knife skills class. I’m glad Amber came with me, as it was fun to experience this class with her! I really loved the chef who ran this class; she was so personable and helpful.
  • Launching season 4 of the podcast – Season 4 of the podcast is in progress! I really love these episodes and it was fun to talk through different work stuff with Bri (who I first met at work, so that was extra special).
  • Taking the dogs on shopping sprees for their birthdays – Chip and Lucy are March babies. Chip turned 5 and Lucy turned 2 this year! I decided I wanted to do something fun for them and take them to PetSmart for their own shopping spree. It didn’t quite work out as I had envisioned in my head as Chip just wanted to bark at people and Lucy was so timid that I had to hold her throughout the shopping trip, but ah well. I had fun at least?! Ha!
  • Brunch, boards, and book club – Our book club meeting this month was so much fun! We came up with the idea to all do different types of charcuterie-style boards with brunch items. We had a bread board, a dessert board, a cheese board, a fruit board, a parfait board, and maybe one or two other boards that I’m forgetting. We were all so impressed by everyone’s creativity!
  • Finishing my entryway redo – This was a very simple project, but it’s brought me an immense amount of satisfaction. I love looking at this little area of my home!
  • Fun dates – I love when dating feels fun and romantic and exciting. And that’s what it feels like right now. I’ve been going on lots of great dates with a wonderful woman, and I am hopeful for the future. That’s all I’ll say about it for now. 🙂

Hard Stuff

  • Ellie getting sick – I was really worried I was going to have to schedule an emergency vet appointment last month for Ellie as she had a few days where she vomited twice a day. She’s a frequent vomiter (usually it’s due to eating too fast), so I never get too worried about it, but the amount she was doing it last month was a bit concerning. If she had thrown up once more, I would have scheduled an appointment, but she didn’t and has seemed okay since then. She has her annual wellness check-up soon, so I’ll bring it up then.
  • Sleeping poorly – I slept terribly in March. I’m not sure what was going on here – even taking melatonin wasn’t helping much. But things have seemed to get a little better lately, so hopefully it was just a weird fluke.
  • Feeling blah – When I flipped through my One Line a Day journal to see what sorts of things I wrote about this month, I noticed a lot of entries about just feeling blah. It’s not anxiety or depression… it’s just this feeling of blah. Feeling unmotivated and uninspired. I was able to create some strategies for helping with this blahness: not being on my phone as much, prioritizing walks in the sunshine, etc. It has helped a little.
  • A family member’s diagnosis – One of my family members was diagnosed with cancer this month, and it was devastating news. They have an aggressive treatment plan and we’ll find out soon if it’s working. Please send any prayers, good vibes, and crossed fingers for good news!

Stuff I Recommend

  • Sold a Story – Lisa recommended this podcast to me, and I loved it! It’s about reading instruction in schools and how a lot of reading programs are not helping students learn how to read. The podcast delves into a few different reading programs, discusses the science behind how kids learn how to read, and speaks with parents and educators who have noticed that their kids/students are not learning how to read correctly. It’s super compelling, and you don’t need to be a parent to enjoy the podcast. For me, it made me so grateful that I learned to read “the right way” and that I developed strong reading skills as a result. Reading is such an important part of my identity and part of the reason I love to read is that it’s something that is second nature for me. When kids don’t learn to read correctly, they won’t want to read because it’s too hard and confusing. Anyway, it’s an excellent podcast and I encourage everyone to give it a listen!
  • Old Navy summer clothes – I bought some great summer clothes from Old Navy! I returned most of what I bought but got a few pieces that fit so well, I want to get them in more colors! Here’s what I bought: leopard-print, high-waisted shorts ($27), mid-rise, 5-inch inseam jean shorts ($30), slub-knit tank top ($13 – this hits right at my waist and feels as close to a crop top as I’m willing to get), luxe slub-knit t-shirt ($14), and everywhere slub-knit tanktop ($13).
  • AirPods – Does anyone remember the terrible story about my first set of AirPods? If not, I bought AirPods at the beginning of the pandemic, didn’t get insurance on them, and then right after the one-year warranty expired, one of the buds started getting staticky. To get that bud replaced would be almost the cost of a new set of AirPods. Instead, I bought myself a cheap pair of wireless earbuds and they’ve worked well for me for a few years. Well, now they will barely hold a charge and since my beloved AirPod Pros were on sale for $200, I bought a new pair. I am so happy to have them back in my life! (With insurance this time.)
  • The Fetch app – My mom and I learned about this app while on our Niagara Falls vacation last year, when someone mentioned the app to the server at the restaurant we were at. It’s a simple app: you just take a photo of any receipt you receive and it gives you 25 points. Sometimes, depending on what you bought, you’ll get more points. (For example, my grocery store receipts are often more than 25 points, as certain food items tend to have a “special offer” and get you an extra 75-100 points sometimes.) You can also link your email and Amazon account and you’ll get points for online purchases, too. You can cash in your points for gift cards. In March, I finally had enough points to get a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble, which you can rest assured I will be putting to good use.

Bookish Stuff

  • # of books/pages read: 10 books (3,488 pages)
  • Favorite book of the month: The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton
  • Least favorite book of the month: Our Missing Hearts by Celest Ng
  • Books I abandoned
    • The Forever Girl by Jill Shalvis
    • The Gown by Jennifer Robson
    • Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
  • Format breakdown: print books (5), e-books (2), and audiobooks (3)
  • Genre breakdown: Romance (3), fiction (3), thriller (2), nonfiction (1), historical fiction (1)
  • Most recent book acquired: Love & Saffron by Kim Fay, True Biz by Sara Novic, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, and The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall (I had a bookstore gift card and went a bit crazy!)

Goal Stuff

  • Go for a walk every day (15/31) – Oof. It was a bad month for this goal. I think the blahness meant I just didn’t have the energy to go for my walks, even though I am sure they would have made me feel better. Argh.
  • Drink a bottle of water every day (13/31) – Better than last month, and on par with what I managed in January. Can I get to 15 days in April? Let’s find out!
  • Complete 100 Peloton workouts (23/100) – I had a harder time fitting in my Peloton workouts last month since I was trying to complete an insane fitness challenge, too. I’m only 2 workouts behind my goal, though, so hopefully April is the month I catch up!
  • Take a knife skills class – Completed this goal in March!
  • Redo my entryway – Completed this goal in March, too. Look at me go!

What were some of the highlights of March for you?

Categories: Life

Time Logging | March 20-26, 2023

Last year, I spent a week time-logging, which is the practice of categorizing what you’re doing for every hour of your day. Or, in my case, every 15 minutes of my day. It’s incredibly tedious, as you might expect, but I also find it rather fun. So, after time-logging for the third week of March in 2022, I set a calendar reminder to do it again during the third week of March in 2023! Last week, I logged my time and here’s how it all broke down:

The fun part of this exercise is that now I can compare how I spent my time in 2022 and 2023. There were some very interesting patterns that emerged:

What stayed the same

  • Sleep – Last year, I was astonished to find out that I spent more than a third of my week unconscious. Well, friends, this must be how I like to spend my time because I did the same thing in 2023. And actually, my percentage of time sleeping/taking naps increased by 1%! What can I say? I’m a girl that loves her bed.
  • Talking on the phone with my mom – It’s no secret that my mom and I Facetime with each other more than the average person. Last year, I logged 4 hours of time on the phone with my mom and the same held true this year!
  • Work – I’m always surprised by my work percentage. It was not a huge piece of the pie in either year. I’m trying to embrace this rather than worry that I’m doing something wrong. I get my work done and that’s all that matters, right? Becoming a people manager has definitely shifted the way I work and has freed up a lot of my time.
  • Blogging – Last year, I broke up the blogging category differently and only calculated the time spent working on blog posts. This year, I included all things that are part of blogging: responding to comments, working on my blog categorization project, reading blogs, and commenting on blogs. I separated “computer time” for things like reading e-mail newsletters, reading Reddit forums, online shopping, etc. It ended up working out to the same percentage in all, but I’m interested to see how this blogging category changes or stays the same next year.

Other categories that stayed about the same from 2022 to 2023: morning/nighttime routines, workouts/walks, cleaning, driving/errands, and watching ASMR on YouTube (which is what I do to fall asleep).

Things that changed

  • Phone time – You guys, I spent so much time on my phone this week. I have always had a pretty high screen time average, but this week, as I had to painstakingly enter in “phone time” in these 15-minute increments, I started to really notice how much time I spend on my phone. It ended up being 10.5 hours in total. Eeks!
  • Podcasting – A new category! I spent almost 4 hours working on my podcast this week, between scheduling social media posts with Hootsuite, working on podcast outlines, and recording episodes.
  • TV – I spent more time in front of my TV this week by 2 hours. Most nights, I watch about an hour of TV and then a few more hours on the weekend, but it’s still probably less than other people.
  • Reading – This was a sad realization for me! I spent less time reading this week, but it was a week where I DNF-ed three books in a row, so that was probably bound to happen. I make less time for reading when I’m reading books that aren’t interesting to me!
  • Social – I had a pretty decent week of being social (a date night, book club, time with mom, etc.), but it still wound up being a bit less than this time last year. Although, if I counted the hours I spent with Bri recording podcast episodes (which was categorized under “podcast” and not “social”), it would be about the same.

What I learned

  • I need built-in buffer time between tasks – This is something I mentioned last week and thankfully, yesterday, I had a therapy appointment where I discussed how I tend to spend 10-15 minutes between tasks playing games on my phone. One thing my therapist said that stuck out to me was that I have simply trained my brain to need this buffer time, and I can train it to not need it. I have identified this issue and now I can start thinking about habits I can enforce so that I don’t immediately pick up my phone to play a game when I’m transitioning between tasks. Maybe instead I can pick up 10 things around my apartment to put away or read one chapter of a book. I’ve also moved all of my phone games to the second screen of my phone inside a folder, so hopefully that will help, too.
  • I need routine – One of the biggest things I’ve struggled with since I started working from home is finding a routine that works for me. Is it time blocking? Is it the pomodoro method? Is it putting on real clothes and doing my hair and makeup, even on days when nobody is going to see me? Is it going to a coffee shop? I’m still trying to figure out the right kind of routine, but I do know that it’s something I need because I feel really untethered without one.
  • I need to put my phone away at night – I have this bad habit of settling into bed with my book and my phone, reading one chapter of my book, and then immediately picking up my phone and scrolling through TikTok or Instagram or falling into a research rabbit hole of my latest obsession (one night, I spent 30 minutes reading up on skincare routines). The problem is that I use my phone right before bed to watch ASMR videos. They relax me and help me fall asleep. So I can’t just put my phone in another room. What I would like to do is only use my phone for ASMR once I’m in bed – maybe even put one of those app blockers on my phone that would block the apps I’m most notorious for using at night. That feels extreme, but maybe I need an extreme option until I’m out of the habit of using my phone so much at night.

Doing this time-logging exercise once a year has really helped me better understand where my time is going and what types of activities are sucking the life out of me, like how often I pick up my phone and get sucked into it. I’m excited to repeat this exercise in 2024!

Categories: Life

10 Little Things That Make My Life Better

Last month, San wrote a wonderful post listing out 10 inexpensive things that make her life better, and I was inspired to do the same! Here are some of my favorite little things:

1) Bubble wand curler

Back in 2019, I went to Boston with friends and one friend had a bubble curling wand that she said made curling your hair nearly foolproof while also using hair extensions ri to make it look better. I’ve never had much luck with using traditional curling irons (or even curling wands) so I tried it out on the vacation and I was so impressed with it! It made the cutest curls and even as the day went on and the curls started falling out, my hair still looked cute! Upon returning home, I immediately bought my own and have loved using it ever since. It’s my favorite way to curl my hair – if I want tight curls, I simply loop my hair around the indentations between each “bubble.” For more relaxed curls, I loop my hair loosely around the bubbles. So easy!

2) Squeeze bottle for sour cream

I love sour cream on nachos, tacos, chili, and baked potatoes, but I hate that it usually comes out in globs. I don’t want globs of sour cream! So, I bought this squeeze bottle. I pour the sour cream into the bottle and then I can easily squeeze on the perfect amount of sour cream onto my nachos, tacos, potatoes, etc. A simple pleasure, indeed.

3) Fake plants/flowers

Before I had cats, I loved getting a near-weekly bouquet of flowers at the grocery store. Dogs (or my dog, at least) do not mess with flowers the way cats do. I’d just put the flowers on a counter and he couldn’t get to them. And then I got cats. Who love gnawing on flowers. And who can also jump high on counters. So I had to say goodbye to fresh flowers (there are a few spots in my apartment I could keep them, but it just doesn’t feel worth the effort), and instead embraced fake flowers and plants. TJ Maxx is usually my go-to place for great options at affordable prices and I’ve also been pretty lucky at Target. I love decorating with fake flowers/plants – I think it just adds that perfect little finishing touch to bookshelves and counters.

4) madesmart divided storage containers

I have four of these containers and I could stand to have a few more. I love them. They are pricey ($25 per container) but I love that they can hold so much and the dividers make it easy to keep things organized. I have two under my kitchen sink where I keep cleaning products stocked and two in my bathroom (one under the counter for overflow, and one on the counter where I keep my most-used bathroom items), but these are important for spring cleaning, as there are many spring cleaning benefits so having these products help a lot. The dividers can be removed if you want more room (I removed them for the containers that hold my cleaning products, but let them in for my bathroom containers).

5) Mr. Coffee coffeemaker

You guys can keep your Keurigs and your Nespressos. I bought this Mr. Coffee 12-cup coffeemaker for $20 nearly 7 years ago and it’s still going strong. It may not have all the bells and whistles of new coffeepots, but it does the job I need it to do.

6) Dip-in nail polish remover

I love doing my nails, but taking off nail polish can be a process. I use regular nail polish, nothing fancy, but it still felt like it took so much time to remove it when I was using a cotton ball and nail polish remover bottle. Enter: the dip-in nail polish remover. It makes removing nail polish so much easier! The jar is filled with acetone remover and encircled with soft bristles. I just dip my finger into the jar and rub my nail against the bristles – it just takes a few swipes and I’m good!

7) Plentiful iPhone chargers

There was a time when I had one sole iPhone charger at home, so if my phone was running out of battery, I had to plug it into the charger in my bedroom. Not a huge problem, more of an annoyance that could be easily solved. Now, I keep iPhone chargers everywhere. There’s the one in my bedroom, the one next to my laptop (that usually sits on my dining room table at all times), the one in my living room, the one next to my desk. I hate when I have a low phone battery, and iPhone chargers are so cheap these days that I just have multiple options everywhere around my apartment. If you’re considering buying a new phone, upgrading from an older model to a iPhone 13 Pro Max refurbished allows you to experience improved performance and features without paying full price.

8) Sharpie ultra-fine point markers

When I worked in an office, I had a whole cup filled with colorful Sharpie markers and every week, I would choose a new color to write out my to-do lists. Choosing the new color was one of my greatest delights! Of course, I left the Sharpies at work when we left in March 2020 since I thought we would all be back to normal within a few weeks. I was so happy to be reunited with my Sharpie collection a few months later when we were allowed to come back to the office and pack up our desks! I still love choosing a new color every week. It’s such a small, satisfying joy.

9) Lined Post-It notes

I have been using these lined Post-It notes for years and years. I love that they are the perfect size to create a daily to-do list for work. I typically keep a running to-do list in a notebook and then I draw from that list to create a few daily to-dos every morning. Once everything on the Post-It is done, so is my day. (And the girls love when I crumple up the Post-It and leave it on my desk, so they can bat it around the apartment!)

10) Microfiber hair towel wrap

I think it was Suzanne who originally gave me the inspiration for this. Towel wraps for your hair! Instead of trying to tie my hair up in a towel that will inevitably fall out and frustrate me, these towel wraps are the perfect solution. They have a loop on one end of the wrap and a button at the other, and all I have to do is gather my hair into the wrap, twist the wrap, and then fit the loop around the button. Voila! Perfectly tied-up hair. It’s so comfortable that sometimes I keep my hair wrapped up for hours after my shower, oops.

What are some of your little pleasures?