Keeping Busy on an Airplane for 8+ Hours

Imagine yourself flying over the Atlantic, now you're stuck here for the next 8 hours...at least! We've done flights where we are stuck in one spot for 12. These flights aren't easy...quite frankly they suck, but are a part of life if you want to travel. Luckily for you...the teenager and I came up with a few ways to keep you entertained aside from zoning out to movies.

1. Play with your food. We always buy a pack of gummies before getting on a long flight, we like to close our eyes and either randomly pick a gummy or let the other person pick for us and we have to guess the flavor...or inappropriate shape 😂

   

   Only Haribo will do..we are neighbours with Germany...

   

   But, Haribo may want to rethink this *shape*...it really is scissors!
2. Meditate. We did a meditation where we turned in our seats to face each other (and we probably angered our sweet neighbour lol) or you can use an app like I do sometimes called meditations. We used both on this last flight and it was very calming. In fact, we both fell asleep for about two hours! 
3. Complete a YouTube Challenge. Normally I hate these but there are some super cute ones out there that can easily be done on an airplane, like the guess the emoji challenge. The biggest issue we had was keeping our laughter to a minimum so our seat mate didn't completely hate us! 
   
4. Have a reading challenge. Challenge your travel buddies to see who can read the most pages in their book. My teenager read an entire novella plus half a book. 
5. Make a list. Use this time to think up all the fun things you want to do at your destination...or less fun but necessary things you need to do once back home.
6. Have a wing shot photo contest. We love to take wing shots as we always seem to get the wing seats in the airplane, so take a few photos and see who gets the best one, if you two can't decide and your seat mate is nice get them in on the action or post to social media once you're on the ground!

   

   Sunrise...

   

   Sunset...anyone having flashbacks to their high school production of Fiddler on the Roof?! haha Seriously though, I love this photo, it feels very nasa-y. 

These are just a few of the ideas we came up with over our last few plane rides. They helped us keep entertained when the movie selection was no good.

What are your favorite things to keep you entertained on an airplane?

8 Things I do When my Husband is Away

My husband is out of town for a conference-in Tokyo. I hate him. Not really, but he better bring me back something better than bottle panties. Yes, I said bottle panties, apparently all the rage in Japan right now.

Anyway, he has been out of town a lot over the last 6 months and it got me thinking, I do a few things that are a bit out of the ordinary for my everyday schedule when he is gone...so here is my list, even if it is  a little lame.

I don't hog the bed. Shockingly. I know most people starfish when their partner is gone, but me, most of the reason I'm all over the bed is to smother cuddle him-so when he isn't here...no reason for me to be over there. Makes making the bed incredibly easy!

Binge watch Netflix/my fave shows from Amazon or iTunes.. Bad. I do this once in a blue moon when he is in town, but when he isn't here it is really bad. I'm in the middle of Season 1 of Suits now and will soon move on to Royal.

Spend at least one full day in my pajamas. I have a pretty strict routine when he's here of get everyone out the door, workout, shower dress, clean, go do something outside, come home cook dinner, etc. When he isn't here though there is always that one glorious day I never get out of my pajamas. Such a treat.

I don't cook or eat any meat. My husband is a carnivore, teenager and I are herbivores. So, when he isn't here we don't eat any meat, makes for cleaning the kitchen much quicker!

We also eat a shitton of leftovers. My husband is one of those weird individuals that hates leftovers. I don't get it. Do you know one of these people?

Aimlessly wander. We don't do this much when the husband is here because he hates just walking, he wants to have a destination. So we often just go downtown and wander around and sit by canals until the sun sets. Then we usually get dessert.

See every movie in the theaters. We don't like to leave the hubby home alone much so when he isn't here, even if it is a bad movie we go and see it. We probably go to the theater once every other day when he isn't here. We have a monthly unlimited pass, so we really make use out of it.

Go to bed early every.single.night. My husband is a night owl, I am not. Plain and simple. We compromise when he's home I go to be early a few nights a week, stay up later a couple nights, and on Saturday I am always up later because that is our night out usually. But when he isn't here by the time he gets home I am so well rested he gets a full week of my company in his night owl ways.

Do you do anything silly or out of the ordinary when your significant other is away? These don't seem like much, but they sure are fun!

Mother's Day Recap!

Mother's Day was so incredibly perfect this year. Most years we do the same thing: dinner out, maybe a movie or activity of my choosing and some gift giving. But this year, the activity choosing was out of my hands...let me explain...

The day started off with my friend and I participating in a local race. I won't even try to write the name of it, but we had a blast.

You don't have a race in Holland with out a windmill on the course!

....or some farmland...

My friend ran the 5k so was able to get some photos of me on the course!

This was the first time I'd run 6 miles consecutively in years.

I haven't run since. I need to rectify that. I need some running buddies me thinks.

They had a nice festival after with some delicious food.

A Pina Colada in a coconut!

A real burrito made by a real Mexican and some real BBQ ribs made by a Roy. Life was good this day.

After, we biked home I changed and met up with the kiddo and we went down to meet the hubby/her dad at his work. He was running behind so we grabbed some Starbucks..

White chocolate mocha bliss.

Then this pulls up:

How adorable are they?! That is my hubby and our friend Jim. They rented a boat for the day and surprised me...it was pretty epic!

Iconic bridge.

We had a nice ride around the canals.

Makes ya feel like your in there with me right?!

I must say we took a canal cruise last year right after Jim got here and it was ok, but not having the top on the boat really gave you a good look at the architecture.

Very pinterest worthy wine bottle trees...I bet they drank all that on King's Day.

There were tons of other people on the canal that day. After cruising for a solid 90 minutes I think we pulled over and had dinner at this place called Antonio's..it was really good and the service was amazing as well.

I did have something healthy that day!

Veggie lasagna? Yes, please!

We then got back into the boat and cruised around a bit more as the sunset.

I swear this is a different bridge! haha

This was almost a week after all the VE Day stuff, these were laid out on the 4th. All holocaust memorials were covered in flowers. This is the AIDS Memorial.

Going under on of the many bridges.

I love this city!

It truly was a very memorable day. I was even gifted a great top and a very cute skirt that if Amsterdam ever decides it wants to hold on to the warm weather I could actually wear the outfit sometime.

We hope you had a lovely day celebrating your mother in your life!

How did you celebrate Mother's Day? Does your family have any fun traditions?

Yarn Sticks

Yarn sticks? What the heck are yarn sticks, I know is what you all are asking yourselves. Sounds weird right. The idea came to me one day after going through my craft stuff and having for some odd reason kept the discarded plastic stem from a bunch of fall leaves and going through my yarn and having a bunch of scraps. I don't know why I said gosh these scraps of yarn would be awesome around those weird plastic sticks!

This is super quick and easy diy and will cost very, very little. I originally wish I could have done it with real sticks as my daughter wanted to make more but it had been very rainy out so we had to use what we had on hand.

So these were the goodies I gathered...Yarn & the Sticks. You can use any type of stick like material you have on hand or go for a walk and gather a few up. You want them of varying sizes and if you can find some with bumps and what not on them even better!

Next, start wrapping them. I did not use any glue or anything, I just put the piece on the stick, then wrapped around it! 

See...put it on the stick...

Start to wrap around it....

Keep going until the whole stick is covered...

At the end I did put a small dot of hot glue & used the end of a pencil to stick the yarn on to it (just so you don't burn your finger). Just repeat this process for as many sticks as you want to create!

Get creative with the colors you use. My husband thought I was crazy for doing a red one, but where they sit all together the red adds for some crazy, funky color!

Once you have created how ever many you want, find a cute way to display them, like this...

See, a super quick easy and fun tutorial!!! If you do something like this please show me by posting a picture to my Facebook wall, or tagging me on instagram or twitter! Would love to see your creations!

Weekend Recap

Wow! What a weekend it was, obviously, since I am just now getting to my weekend wrap up! It has been such a hectic few weeks since I switched the name of the blog trying to get all the links and what not updated, it has take quite a bit of my time. But, I think they are all updated and are all repinned to pinterest! If you find one that isn't feel free to send me an email through my contact form on the right & let me know so I can get it fixed!

Anyway, moving on...we went up to Whistler for the weekend. This is a prime skiing location, but since we don't ski (yet) we went up before the season started so rates were cheaper and we didn't need chains to get up the road! ;) In any case here is the weekend in pictures....

When we first arrived our room wasn't quite ready yet so we took a look around the village...

Here is my husband climbing up on a very icy, slippery chair...he finds the most amusing ways to almost kill himself when we are doing something fun!

The gondola up to Blackcomb...there is another just to the right for Whistler.

Whistler mountain and the lifts...isn't it beautiful! In fact, they have gotten so much snow up there they are able to open for the season 4 days early! 

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Breakfast at Elements on Saturday. Absolutely delicious and pretty good service! You can check out my review of the place on yelp. After this we just toured the village some more, took a nap, and enjoyed the hot tub next to all the snow. It was a rainy day, but we made the best of it. We enjoyed a great italian place for dinner.

Sunday, we did a distillery tour up in Pemberton. They produce an organic vodka that actually uses local potato's! It's the only vodka I have ever heard of that is sort of a farm-to-table type deal. So anyone who like to "eat local" and you are in Vancouver you can now get Vodka and Whiskey that are considered "local".  Here are a few shots of the place and the equipment....

The guy was quite knowledgeable and really enjoys his job. His wife helps him run it and his brother, uh, "volunteers". They did a great job explaining everything (if only I had known you could get a Master's degree in distillation when I was in University!) and letting us taste all the goodies they produce. My favourite was by far their schnapps.

The last thing we did on Sunday was after a terrible dinner at Ric's, we popped over to the Bearfoot Bistro and did a vodka tasting at their Belvedere Vodka Room. It is kept at -25 Celsius so when you go in you have to wear giant parkas. I was in a dress & open toed heels and my toes were freezing by the end! So if you go I recommend wearing uggs if possible! ha! The guy who hosts the tastings is very knowledgeable and loves his job so be friendly to him and he will treat you right! ;)

So those are the highlights of our weekend. It was a ton of fun....can't wait to share with everyone the food, but that needs to be a separate post!

Check out What we ate in Whistler here!

Swapoween Reveal!

 

Hello, everyone! I am back to post my swapoween reveal!!! My partner was Mandy from over at Funky Frugal Mommy!!!  I had so much fun putting her package together and was so excited when her's arrived to me on Thursday! I unfortunately didn't get around to opening it until yesterday, but was so excited when I did!

Such fun accessories for dressing up!!!

Close up of my goodies. That skeleton glows in the dark, so awesome! We also now tell everyone to have a spooky day when they leave thanks to the door plaque we have hanging! 

Also I am so excited about the silly string. I always "surprise" my daughter (who's 13) with silly string...I'll randomly wake her up by spraying her with it! She saw it and was like oh my I must hide it! LOL

A close up of some of the goodies!

This is probably my single most favourite piece...a glitter skull with pink rhinestone eyes! Already planning a costume to use this next year! hahaha

Some super cool masks, some fun stickers that I'm using in my planner this upcoming week, a tattoo sleeve, and my daughter's favourite which you can't really see here are some Chupa Chyps and some orange stick on nails! Stayed tuned on instagram  where some of these goodies will be making their debut this weekend! 

Mandy really managed to put together a super fun box for my family! We love it! Make sure to go check her out and the ladies over at Chaotic Goddess Swaps, they are fantastic for putting this together!

Blog Updates....Come and follow me!

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As you can see I am doing a bit of house cleaning here! With the new name I decided I had too much going on so I am consolidating and fixing broken links from when the blog was Adjusting and Readjusting prior. I am so excited with my new look, I hope it brings new success and opportunity! So, that being said, if you want to enter your email off to the side to get my updates whenever I post something new...or click below and follow me:

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I'm gradually updating all of my pages, so make sure you follow me to keep up with what I'm up to! Also, if you leave a link to yours in the comments I will come over and give you a like, follower, or whatever is appropriate!!!

Swapoween is here!

Before I get on with all my homemaking blabbing later this week I want to tell y'all about something I am so excited to be participating in for the first time every....

I've been following Chaotic Goddess Swaps for quite a while now, but due to summer and back to school was never really ready to "jump in"...well, I LOVE Halloween so I figure why the heck not join The Swapoween?!

I love, love, love sending and receiving goodies in the mail so I cannot wait to get my partner and get shopping!!! Also, it's not too late to join in, so if you head on over you can read all the details and get signed up if you want!

Happy Swapoween...I mean Halloween!!!