I think it’s such a great idea to sketch and draw little pictures of my spawnling as she grows up, trying to capture her as I would describe her at that age. I then try and save those little pictures so that one day I can make a collage of it all and I can see my daughter before me as I saw her at those times for all those years. This is the one I did of her when she was 2 years old.
I know that I can do the same thing with pictures, but for me personally, this is so much more meaningful because some of the best pictures are the ones taken by accident. With there being so many moments I want to capture, to immortalize, I find myself living behind the camera and not interacting. When I look at this drawing, I remember all the memories I thought about while I drew it. I have pictures, don’t get me wrong, by with this, I have memories.
Sometimes it’s just all about making snack time look delicious. Freshly peeled orange with a handful of blueberries in the middle. Makes for a happy after nap time snack.
Every once in a while we like to spoil ourselves, don’t we? Especially if we’ve been having a rough go of it or if we feel like we need a reward, right? Typically, I don’t reward myself through spoiling in the typical sense. I reward myself by giving myself the day off of chores around the apartment, or I’ll take the kiddo down to Playland at Fred Meyer and spend some time window shopping without having to worry about the spawnling. My rewards to myself are basically giving myself a break.
But every once in a while, I have to give in and spoil myself. This time I spoiled myself with these.
When I saw these on the shelf during Christmas time, I was instantly taken back to Christmas back when I was 13 when I was gifted a box of these in little sea creature and shell shapes. I remembered the white chocolate swirled with milk chocolate and I remembered the hazelnut filling. The shapes were definitely different and didn’t look quite as I remembered, but I instantly wanted to buy it. But I didn’t. I passed it down for the time being. When the Christmas clearance sales hit, I went back to see if this box of chocolates was there, but they were all gone. It was a disappointing day for me.
So my fiancé and I went shopping at Grocery Outlet and my fiancé found these chocolates sitting innocently on the shelf. I didn’t find out about them until we got home and he whipped them out. Typically I share all of my candy with him, but this time I politely informed him that these were mine. He said that was okay and allowed me to scootch on into a luxuriating bath with these chocolates, a glass of water and Netflix playing on the laptop safely poised on top of the toilet.
After finding the receipt, I know we only spent $3 on this box, but I’ve since seen it at the grocery store for $6. So score for us on finding a great deal, but also not bad price at all for these beauties.
If you want a nice little treat for yourself that’s relatively inexpensive, I definitely recommend these. Or if there’s someone you want to spoil, these would make a great gift as well. No matter the situation, Belgian chocolate is always a good thing.
When I moved to this wonderful area around Portland, I was introduced to a regional chain of stores called Fred Meyer. If you’ve never been to one, the store is kind of like a Walmart or Target, with the various departments, including grocery. There is one aspect that this store chain has that I haven’t encountered with the other two chains.
Fred Meyer has something called Playland. I will never be able to sing enough praises about Playland.
Playland is a little room that they have in the store that’s filled with toys for your child to play with while they’re there. The best part is that you can just drop them off to play for an hour. A WHOLE HOUR! How many of you parents out there wish that you could just get an hour of peace for the day
Image courtesy of Naypong at FreeDigitalPhotoes.net
There are rules of course.
You can only drop your child off for an hour per day. No longer than that, but there is no limit on how many days you can take your child per week.
You have to wear one of those annoying paper wrist bands while your child wears a matching one in Playland. I feel that it has the dual purpose for not only identifying you as the one who dropped off your child but also so you don’t forget that you brought your child with you to the store.
No, I have never forgotten my child, but I’ve heard stories.
Your child has to be between the ages of 2 to 5 and be potty trained. They won’t be changing any diapers for you.
Your child cannot take any of their toys in with them and they cannot take any toys out. So if your child is like my spawnling and has a toy that they cannot live without, you need to prepare them for the separation period.
You have to remain inside the building. You need to be able to hear the page should you be needed at Playland immediately. Here are some reasons:
Your child needs to use the restroom. Only an authorized guardian is able to remove your child from Playland, even if its just to take them to the restroom.
Your child is misbehaving and they need to leave Playland for the rest of the day. I’d assume they’d tell you if your child was no longer welcome.
Your child has been in there for over an hour and its time for you to come retrieve them.
The last rule is a little bit flexible. There are plenty of times I’ll go drop off the spawnling and I’ll let the attendant there know that I’ll be outside doing my recycling. They consider this to be perfectly acceptable because they can page me out where the recycling is at the store I frequent. If you have any questions, ask the attendant. They’re always happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I feel that I would be remiss if I did not also mention that there are days when you drop off your child and when you come back, you discover that they have done arts and crafts, or colored. My daughter has come home with some of these things that she made while in Playland, and she is always super excited and happy to show me.
There are also days when they’re giving away balloons and your child will get their very own balloon to bring home. Admittedly annoying for some parents, but it’s amazing for your child when typically all they get is a sticker when they leave.
If you’re a parent with a child between the ages of 2 and 5, then I strongly recommend using this lovely service. It’s absolutely amazing, and there are times when you just need that hour away from your child before you snap. And if your child is anything like my spawnling, they’ll start to demand for you to take them to Playland.
Rizzel was created through digital means as an expression of fantasy. I wanted to border on into the steampunk genre but it fell short, I felt. Nonetheless, I find him quite enchanting as he is.
It’s so gratifying when you’re out shopping and you find the perfect shirt, the coolest jacket, or that one appliance in the kitchen you’ve been wanting forever. You get the euphoric rush of discovery and you know you absolutely have to bring it home. If you’re living on a tight budget, often times you either keep walking or you take a peek at the price tag before cringing and walking away. I absolutely love how at thrift stores you generally don’t feel that, instead you feel even better because it’s a really awesome find and at a great price. Even better, the stores always seem to have rotating variety that you typically can’t find elsewhere and items that you always wanted but couldn’t afford when they were common in stores. The discoveries are always coming when you go to a thrift store.
About 2 ½ years ago when I moved to the Portland area, I was introduced to a store called Value Village, which is part of a chain of 300 stores worldwide and there are 3 locations in this area.
12060 SW Main
Tigard, OR 97223
7110 NE Fourth Plain Rd.
Vancouver, WA 97661
2460 Mission SE
Salem, OR 97302
Personally, I frequent the Tigard location due to close proximity to myself and I have increasingly grown fond of this location.
Value Village in Tigard, OR
This is where my family and I go when we’re shopping for clothes. Primarily because there’s lots of variety for the whole family, for every season for almost every occasion it seems.
Lots of selection
The sea of clothing
Trust me, for my family’s clothing shopping it’s typically an ordeal. My fiancé is a big guy, built much like a linebacker and we struggle a lot finding him clothes that fit and look good. My daughter is tall and thin and we struggle finding clothes that fit her comfortably and that she’s happy with. Here, we can typically find something for the big guy and if we can’t find much in the children’s section that my daughter likes and fits her, she gets to pick out a shirt or two from the adult section for us to take home and turn into dresses for her.There’s also some booths for you to try clothing on at that are relatively spacious for what they are.
Of course there’s much more than just clothing, but their clothing selection does take up most of their floor space. Just from a cursory glance at the store, it seems to be relatively split up into these different sections:
Books/DVDs/VHS tapes/Records/Comics
Appliances
Household Decorations/Nick Nacks
Shoes
Furniture
Toys
Crafting/Sewing
Bedding
Jewelry
Hello Kitty!
Great wall decoration
Despite this store being part of a corporate chain, I do enjoy this store greatly. The prices are better than Goodwill and despite the overall disarray of the store; I honestly believe that it had a better vibe in it. Everyone who works there seems relatively happy to be there, and I love that they’re allowed to have piercings and artificially colored hair. For me at least, it makes the environment seem more comfortable and inclusive. Now if you join their store club, they’ll let you know about sales before they happen and will even offer you special sales days before everyone else. This last trip when we went in there, we literally saved over $20 and spent only $13 for the following:
Japanese coloring book
Tinkerbell fairy wings
Ironman Hulk Buster toy
3 envelopes of sewing patterns
2 shirts
1 women’s bolo jacket
1 tie
XXXL leather jacket
With great selection and variety with good prices and sales, you can see why my family and I enjoy Value Village so much. Just look how happy this spawling is.
Spawnling clutching her new toy and catching raindrops on her tongue
We’re always on the lookout for places with great discoveries and prices for those of frugal living, so go ahead and comment with your favorite thrift stores in the area and as we visit thrift stores throughout the Portland area, I’ll go ahead and review them here.
**EDIT: I noticed after the fact that I had somehow mistaken to entitle this post. I have now included a title. My sincerest apologies for this oversight. 1/20/16
etflix playing on the laptop safely poised on top of the toilet.
Wenchlette Wanders 