Five Favorites

Another link-up to save this blog from becoming moribund?  Yes, please!

Also?  I forgot how much I like under-utilized words like moribund.

Here are five of my recent favorite things.  Go see Hallie (who has been blog-jacked by Jen due to extreme stages of advanced pregnancy) for even more favorites.

ONE

Gripe water.  This stuff is awesome.  It works a thousand times better than any gas drops for babies, and it is all natural.  Septimus gets some every time he eats, and it has really helped his poor tummy.

It's almost like God made plants and herbs that can help us feel well and healthy, huh?

It's not dirt cheap, but the Little Remedies brand is the least expensive and it works very well.  They also make the cough medicine that I like the best, so I thought I'd give this a whirl back during the very height of Septimus' colic.

Several of my friends also recommended gripe water, and who am I to argue with advice from anyone who has walked the long road of colic with their newborn.

(Little Remedies did not ask me to say any of this, but I use so much of their stuff that if they wanted send me any free samples or anything, I wouldn't hate it.)


TWO

This is my favorite (facial) moisturizer of all time.

I'm not going to lie, I don't go cheap with my beauty products.  I have finicky annoying break-out prone sensitive skin, and this is the only moisturizer I've ever tried that has not made my skin itch or break out.

(And I have tried A LOT of products.  Ask Rob what my bathroom drawers look like.  It's where beauty products go to die.)

This is an aloe based gel and it is very hydrating and light.  I apply it right after I wash my face and my skin literally drinks it in.  There is a whole related line that includes eye cream,  a creamier version that I use in the frigid winter months, an awesome roller ball gel moisturizer stick for under your eyes, a foundation, and a tinted moisturizer.

But this is the original and still the best.

THREE

Our dinner tonight, which is in the crockpot right now, is one of my favorites for several reasons:

1. Everyone eats it.

I don't know if you realize how big a deal this is.  There are 2 meals that I make that absolutely everyone eats.  Tonight's dinner and spaghetti and meatballs.  That's it.  Every other night there is at least one person at the table secretly choking and gagging their way through a meal that was obviously designed with nefarious intentions, such as major organ failure upon ingestion.

If I could get away with it, I would alternate this dinner and spaghetti and meatballs all week long until the children moved out.

2. It's ridiculously easy to make.  Dump everything in the crockpot in the morning, turn it on low, walk away until dinner time.  Boom.

3.  It is fairly healthy.  Meaning, it is NOT a chicken nugget.

Here's the recipe (that I mostly made up one day because I was out of other options.  I am sure that if you have spent any time in the kitchen, you've seen a recipe similar to this):

1 boneless pork roast (size?  well the one I used today was 2.21 pounds and that is pretty much the perfect size for us.)
1 20 oz can of crushed pineapple in its own juice.
3 Tbsp of soy sauce
3 Tbsp of brown sugar
garlic (as much as you like, I usually use about a clove or two)
salt and pepper

I serve it with rice and steamed green beans.  Delish.

I call it Pineapple Pork Roast because I am just that creative. Don't be jealous.

FOUR

Because I like to stay current and live on the cusp of all that is new and exciting, I have just discovered the show "Chuck."   I know, 2008 called and wants its show back.

It's the perfect show to watch on the treadmill: good for workout length, plots that are not too complicated to follow while trying to concentrate on my treadmill intervals, and a nice mix of comedy and derring-do.

(Another awesome word that is never used.  I should do a "Five Favorites" about all the words I love that are never used. Next week maybe.)


FIVE

This lady right here is one of my all time favorites.  Happy birthday, Mom!  We love you!