Friday Favorites: Beach Life, Mom Hacks and a Few Bumps

Hi there! TGIF! I hope you had a great week. It has been a bit nutty here. One of the things I like about writing these Friday Favorites posts is that I can look back at the week and reflect on everything that happened. Some week’s I feel like not a lot happened.  Then other weeks, like this one,  I amazed with all that took place. I am a glass full kind of girl, so while the week had a few challenges (more on that later), in the grand scheme of thing it was ALL GOOD.  Anyway, today as usual,  I am linking up for for Friday Favorites with  Erika, Narci and Andrea.

*some affiliate links used.

Beach Life

First, let’s start with the good stuff! As I mentioned last week, my husband and I were in Florida until Sunday. It was a great trip away with some dear friends. The only thing that got in our way (a little) was a big Red Tide issue taking place in Florida. If you aren’t familiar with Red Tide (which I certainly wasn’t before this trip), it is a naturally occurring algae that surfaces along the Gulf Coast almost every year. This year it has been ESPECIALLY bad and unfortunately the algae has been the blame of the deaths of thousands of fish, sea turtles and even some marine mammals. So sad! Fortunately, we were able to find beaches that were not affected (yet).

At any rate, it was still great to relax and recharge!

As good as our #beachlife was, I was happy to come home to #momlife too. It is amazing how quickly you can step back into that home life role as soon as you walk into the door.

Grocery Shopping Hack

Another one of my favorites of the week is my new mom hack that makes grocery shopping so much easier! For the last month, I have been using Instacart to have my groceries delivered right to my house! I’m not one of those people that enjoys grocery shopping. Okay, maybe I would if I didn’t have three kids in tow! But, after hearing good things about Instacart, I decided to take the plunge and I have not looked back!

All you have to do is download the app and find stores near you that are part of Instacart. You can add grocery items to your list all week and then when you are ready to have your groceries delivered you place the order. In my area, I can have groceries delivered within an hour! They even bring them all the way into your house and onto your counters!

I have used Instacart twice when we were coming home from a trip and I had the groceries arrive within an hour of getting home. While we were on a layover on our trip home from Florida, I placed our Instacart order and set the time for delivery! Normally, we would have picked up take out after a trip home (with no food in the fridge).

Since we have started using Instacart, I am finding also that I am more mindful in what I purchase and we do not end up with a lot of extra food that goes to waste.

You can use my affiliate link  and code INSTACART10 to get $10 off your first order! Have you used Instacart or a similar service for grocery shopping?

School Lunch Preparation

This week on the blog, I chatted about school lunches! The kids start back up to school in a few weeks, which means it’s time to get our school lunch game face on:) I shared some of favorite tips for saving time and energy prepping school lunches.  I just got a drawer in our cabinets all organized for school lunch making prep! This will save us so much time in gathering up all of our lunch supplies.

I am so excited to use our new Yumboxes for the kids’ lunches! I have high hopes that these will make lunches more fun and even healthy! Our favorite Thermos containers are on sale now too (a lot of different options)! We love using these containers for soups, oatmeal and even small grilled cheese sandwiches.

Date Night

This week, on the blog, I also shared our recent Date Night In box! We had SO much fun on this date. Even though summer is a slower pace than the school year, my husband and I still rarely make time for date nights. The Date Night in Box is perfect–we don’t have to hire a sitter AND I can wear my pajamas (win!).

We completed against each other on some fun minute to win it challenges!

A few bumps this week..

So,  we did have a few challenges this week. First, on Tuesday, we woke up to several inches of water all over our basement. We had a HUGE rain storm the night before and this contributed to clogging a pipe that went from the storm drain into our house. My husband was out of town, so my kids came to the rescue! We were hauling toys and valuables out of our basement all morning.

Thank goodness the basement situation is getting resolved very quickly! I know it could be SO MUCH WORSE! Everything is drying out well and we have the plumbing issue taken care of (fingers crossed!).

My other little bump this week (quite literally), was a cancerous mole I had removed from my nose on Thursday. The day after I turned 40, I got the news that I had a basil cell carcinoma mole on my nose. It wasn’t exactly the news I wanted to hear but I am so grateful that it was caught early. I have never had any type of suspcious mole ever removed so I was surprised.

To be honest, my dermatologist didn’t even notice the mole during my check up. When we were about done with the check up, I pointed it out to her. She immediately suspected it was Basil Cell.

I have never been a sun worshiper and I wear sunscreen but I can not say I’ve been perfect all of my life. I went to tanning beds occasionally in college and while I always wear sunscreen I have not always worn 50 SPF. Still, this diagnosis did come as a surprise!

Yesterday, I had the Mohs procedure done and I am glad to report that everything went well. I have to wear this lovely bandage for 24 hours and then I just need to take care of the area for a few weeks.

Hopefully my experience encourages you to get a skin check, if you don’t regularly do so! I go every year but now that I have had skin cancer, I will need to get checked every six months.

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Anyway, I’m happy for the weekend and a little time to regroup with my family. Our house is a bit of a disaster from the basement flood. Plus, I didn’t do a whole lot of housework after my procedure yesterday. It’s amazing how much piles up in a day when mom is off duty:)

I hope you all have a great weekend. I’ll be back here on Monday for the Clear the Clutter Challenge!