Today I’m bringing you a quarantine edition of my favorites, sharing just a few of the things that I’ve been loving this spring.
Yes, it’s the biggest cliche that I’m starting my quarantine edition favorites with sweatpants (technically joggers). I’m 100% #teamjeans and haven’t been living in sweatpants. But they’ve still been saving my life the past few months. I actually ordered a couple of pairs of sweatpants right before the stay at home order started, which couldn’t have been better timing. This is the most ridiculous thing ever, but I hadn’t owned real sweats since high school. I’ve only had leggings and workout pants, which let’s face it, aren’t nearly as comfortable. I actually look forward to changing into sweats at the end of the day.
I got two pairs of sweats: the Aerie Weekend Joggers and the Old Navy Marled French-Terry Joggers. The weekend joggers are oversized and incredibly sort while the French-terry joggers are more fitted and soft but not luxuriously soft. I like both pairs and like that they are fitted differently.
AE Ne(x)t Level Jegging. As I am #teamjeans, I have been wearing my newest pair of jeans quite a bit the past few months. Spring in Wisconsin is pretty cold. We’re outside a lot with Tommy, so I’ve still been wearing a lot of skinny jeans that I can wear with boots. I’ve been wearing dark-wash jeans almost exclusively for the past decade, and I feel like I’ve completely overplayed the look. So I got some light-wash jeans. AE is the only brand I can buy consistently right now for casual pants. I own multiple pairs of their flare and skinny jeans and love them.
Ello Tidal Glass Tumbler with Straw. This glass tumbler has been helping me drink so much more water than normal during all this time at home. It’s hard to explain exactly why it works so much better than a regular glass. But it does. I love adding a ton of ice and a lemon wedge to start the day. As it is glass, the liquid doesn’t stay as cold as it would with stainless steel, which is okay. It’s also not ideal for the car or on the go, but again, it’s perfect for home use. I actually have two of them, so I can keep them in constant rotation.
It’s not a secret that I’m a huge Jessica fan girl and make a number of her recipes regularly. Somehow I hadn’t tried her house sauce until very recently. I haven’t put anything else on hamburgers and hot dogs since. It’s an amazing dip for French fries…and pretty much anything else, too.
The other How Sweet Eats recipe I’ve made and loved recently is her garlic butter naan. (I talked about garlic naan and a few of the other topics I mention in this post in my April update.) Our closest Indian restaurant isn’t close enough to get takeout from right now. Homemade garlic butter naan is the next best thing. I can’t believe that it’s so easy to make. Her recipe doesn’t use yeast, which is perfect right now. We made it with Pinch of Yum’s coconut tandoori chicken (in the slower cooker), which I’ve made before and really like, too.
Thai iced tea mix. I started making Thai iced tea at home in late 2019. So it isn’t a brand new favorite this spring, but it has been much needed during this time at home. If you’re craving a special drink right now, pick up Thai iced tea mix, so you can start making it at home. While it’s amazing with Thai food, of course, I just drink it as an afternoon pick-me-up, too. I’ll make it at least an hour before I plan to start drinking it, so it can get nice and cool for really chilled ice tea. Traditional Thai iced tea uses condensed milk. But it tastes great with whole milk or half and half and a little sugar, too, if you don’t want to open condensed milk just for Thai iced tea (I don’t).
I finally got my seed sprouter tray that I bought well over a year ago up and running with alfalfa sprouts. I’m really not much for gardening, but it couldn’t be easier, and I love having fresh sprouts. It’s gone well enough that I got a microgreens kit as well. I’ve done a couple of rounds now and have been really happy with it. I picked up mung bean sprouts for the seed sprouter tray, too, and have just started to harvest the first round. It’s definitely a testament to how much time I’ve spent at home that I’ve been able to grow anything successfully.
Cascade dishwasher pods. I know, I’m the last person to start using dishwasher pods. Spending a lot of money on dishwasher detergent always seemed silly to me. It turns out that it makes a big difference. The dishwasher soap tray on our dishwasher tray quit closing a while back. After at least a couple of months of that, I finally caved and got pods. I’m never going back now.
Disney Plus. I don’t think Disney Plus could have launched at a better time if they’d tried. If you hadn’t already subscribed to Disney Plus before the stay at home order started, you’ve at least signed up for the free trial, right? Needless to say, it’s been so awesome with Tommy.
On the Disney Plus topic, I also have to mention that as a family, we’ve been slowly working our way through the first 10 seasons of The Simpsons. Jake and I have watched all of these episodes at least a couple of dozen times. But it’s been years now since I’ve seen a lot of them. It’s so much fun re-visiting the show with Tommy and seeing what he picks up in the stories.
As far as entertainment goes, a full year later, we’re still watching every single MxR Plays episode. If you need some lightweight content right now, I definitely recommend it. Their material has been a little darker than usual lately, but whose isn’t, right? My favorite recent shares have been the Chinese restaurant turned Mexican restaurant mural and a wild fox stealing a man’s wallet.
I’ve been in a big reading slump and didn’t do much reading at all in April. I’ve been getting back in a groove again the past few weeks. Without driving, my audiobook count has taken a serious hit. I’ve been slowly working my way through Dreaming the Beatles as an audiobook, which has been perfect for this time. A lot of nonfiction just feels weird and completely irrelevant right now, and it’s been nice to switch things up from young adult books and celebrity memoirs. Thanks to Jessica’s new book club, I’m reading The Happy Ever Playlist, which is the first fiction book I’ve even picked up since March.
Finally, one of the biggest highlights of our time at home has been Tommy’s scooter. He’s been riding it like a pro since about the second day that he got it. Tommy asks to ride it every single day. We take him outside with it every chance we get with halfway decent weather. When we can’t go outside right this very second, he rides it around the house. At least every other day or so, we take him over to our church grounds to ride it. Our church sits on a large property that’s very quiet most of the time and absolutely deserted right now. It’s been the ideal place for him to ride his scooter and just run around like crazy without worrying about cars, dogs, and people.
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