This time power thing works. I found 2 (two!) hours per day!

Pretty much watching Sullivan's Crossing and Coronation Street. Sorting various papers, cat cuddles.

Was in a happy place, listening to rain for a few hours... until the rain dared to stop... ooohhh, tptb should put me in charge of rain already!

Got up early and spent the morning with my mop, vacuum and vinegar. Catering in tomorrow and have a bracelet making session planned with my family. Everyone has to make a bracelet for themselves and one for their Mom and Grandmother. My Mom, sister and I are in for the win, ha ha. Happy Mother's Day. I wish you all a great Sunday.

Cooking ahead for the next few days.

sunny day, went to a locally popular and historic town to walk around and see the wonderful sights.
some organizing, some grocery shopping
lunch outside in the sunshine with spring flowers blooming all around
was blissful after a string of several hard days



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2026 09:13AM by BarefootBliss.

Substitute teaching. A mixed bag of classes. Several PE classes.

Listening to 'Three Bags Full' between bouts of laundry and 'fridge cleaning.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2026 07:26PM by Shop-et-al.

New day, new-to-me book. 'Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder' is a Baker Street cozy. It incorporates irregulars but does not involve Sherlock Holmes. Suweet, huh.

trip planning

Unboxing the latest haul of free stuff from Ulta. I no longer have enough room to fit stuff in and on my bedroom vanity and nightstand. My bathroom vanity drawers and 3 door medicine cabinet are stuffed to the gills as well. Just recently bought ‘Mustard Made’ matching medicine cabinet and armoire with baskets that I assembled to put multiple bags full of free beauty products in after they are properly sorted.
My BF asked why I needed all of it. I told him not to worry, that 80-90% of it is free, and that they don’t want the GWP items back should you return stuff. He was not impressed. I pondered for a couple of seconds if I will burn in hell with my haul of free products. Then went back to organizing my display cabinet.

So it might be true that for some people, as time passes food becomes less of a 'thing' and more of a matter-of-fact aspect of life. (If interested, you can find the research on fewer calories in older age. True? Not? You decide...) Someone gave a treat! Had a regular fast food meal, which was just too much food. I did not want to make multiple meals of this food. Did not want a kiddie meal. I wanted a smaller portion of everything (and would expect a correspondingly lower price for one grown-up meal with small portions and without toys/ads/promotions). Is this possible in today's world?

I doubt if it's possible, it's a special order many places, so they charge full price or maybe more!

I've willingly paid full price to have my smaller amount just to avoid waste. Like to I'll ask for 10 French Fries

@Minime
I don't know what Ulta is, or Mustard Made, or GWP so I'm scratching my head reading your post.

Prince you’ve never heard of Ulta? It’s like Sephora, a huge nationwide chain of stores that sells beauty products. Skin and hair care, makeup, toiletries etc. GWP is ‘gift with purchase.’ There are dozens of them on their website where if you buy from a certain product line they will add in a free gift from that line. Each day they also have a general GWP on the main page if you spend a certain amount (on anything, usually $50 or more) you get around 5 free deluxe products. When you spend $1200/year you become a ‘diamond member’ that opens up a whole other world of free offers. Those are usually full size free products with a low minimum purchase of $25. I’m learning that these types of offers cycle throughout the month and there are times you can get a huge haul of free stuff with 1 order. You get to try so much stuff that you could use that’s practical, along with more luxury items like perfumes. I have trays on my dresser of dozens of mini perfume bottles that I love b/c they look like the big bottles only smaller. I also like the free cosmetic bags and totes. I read somewhere that Ulta requires the major companies they partner with to give away free stuff so customers can try it out. Without that they wouldn’t sell as much. The department stores do this on a smaller scale and want the gift back if you return the item. Ulta won’t take it back. I still buy enough that I don’t consider it cheating. I did buy 3 bottles of Miu Miu perfume that I wouldn’t have bought cold without sampling them first.

Mustard Made is a company founded by 2 women who designed colorful ‘lockers’ that look like upscale gym lockers (with a keyed lock) in all shapes and sizes using nice colors. They use frosted glass with some of them. They’re great if you need extra storage that matches color schemes you already have. They’re easy to assemble and you get them in a week!

I just got a perm that isn’t half bad and recently got a ton of new free products for air drying, curl defining, volumizing, anti frizz etc. that I normally wouldn’t have tried. They keep the hair in good shape and the perm looking good.

That’s all interesting, thanks. We do have Sephora ( I’ve never been) in Canada and may have Ulta.
My aunt must have done something like this with department stores or something. There was a lot of product to get rid of in her house. I kept very few items. A travel cosmetic bag, some lovely moisturizer, some expensive sunscreen.
It’s not my passion.

@prince wrote:

That’s all interesting, thanks. We do have Sephora ( I’ve never been) in Canada and may have Ulta.
My aunt must have done something like this with department stores or something. There was a lot of product to get rid of in her house. I kept very few items. A travel cosmetic bag, some lovely moisturizer, some expensive sunscreen.
It’s not my passion.

Oh come on Prince, Live a little!

My happy place is the ski hill. Last day on Monday, but I won't be there.
Have to settle for kayaking.

@prince wrote:

I doubt if it's possible, it's a special order many places, so they charge full price or maybe more!

I've willingly paid full price to have my smaller amount just to avoid waste. Like to I'll ask for 10 French Fries

The...

10 Fries Special... Dainty Burgers R Us... 44 Rules! 4 oz. on the Lips, 4 in. Less on the Hips...

Someone should make this a little (yet big) thing.

Ulta fan here.....speaking of similar - I stopped today at a new to me, Japanese store called Ebisu Lifestyle.
oh my all Asian...toys and household goods and snacks and....Asian beauty stuff. I am a big fan of Asian beauty products, so I was able to stock up....: sunscreen (better than US brands, IME)...brown mascara, soap that leaves funny imprints on your skin...and all kinds of masks.

Speaking of perfume, in a former life, not that long ago, I studied and then created....and then sold a few blends, now just a hobbyist. I loved it though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2026 08:08PM by BarefootBliss.

Prince to be clear I was not suggested that you should have saved or used any of that stuff. I would have 86’ed as well. I throw out anything over 18 months max. Makeup like mascara sooner. But what can I say, I like to pamper myself. They sell all sorts of stuff you never think to buy. Gifting is a great way to earn points. My motto is ~ Get it while you can.

I guess it’s bad to spray perfumes on your neck/décolleté b/c a lot of them contain hormone disruptors. The tiny bottles are nice to dab on the wrists and maybe wipe a bit from the wrist to the neck. Miu Miu sprays a fine mist and they all smell natural. Most of the designer ones from male designers are too strong and manly. They all smell the same. I’m also watching what I use for body wash. Switched to Uni, which is natural and smells good.

Korean skincare is great b/c they’re careful about what chemicals they use. It’s cheaper and usually has a nice light scent. Eborian is my favorite for summer. Ulta has a nice GWP for them. I got 2. You also get a nice quilted pink oversized makeup bag for $35 purchase of any K beauty products. Got that too. Love it.

I had a bad kayaking experience in Colorado where we all could have drowned. I’ll share it sometime when I’m vegging. No more of that for me.

Since I’m still up with insomnia, I will share my hellish white water rafting experience. I was mistaken at first - it was not kayaking. There’s no way on earth I would get into one of those things. Bear in mind that this is long, so not all will be able to last. Maybe only SEA cuz she likes to read. (She may at least ‘like’ it anyway without actually reading it, who knows.)

A couple decades ago a friend and I went to Boulder to visit friends we each had there. While there we decided to do something different and checked out a white water rafting business to do an afternoon trip. It was run by a group of young guys and there were a ton of people there waiting to start the excursion. After we signed our lives away they told us all to get on 2 school busses to go up the mountain. An immediate red flag went up for me seeing how we would have to pack into the busses. As a former school bus driver I knew the max capacity was 66 kids - not 66 adults. I remember telling Margerite I was scared. She said not to worry and launched into some tale about how she saved someone’s life in a canoeing accident. Granted she was 6’ tall, ‘big boned’ and could leg press 600 lbs and bench 180. I was like, ok whatever, and got on the bus.

Sure enough half way up the mountain the bus started breaking down. The driver pulled into a clearing on the side of the road and we were told to remain in the bus while they abandoned us. It was a hot summer day and before too long Margerite was like, they can’t tell us what to do and got off. The rest of us followed. When we got to the top the host guide asked us ‘who was new to rafting?’ Hardly anyone raised their hands but us, so nobody wanted us. We were the last to be matched up with a young family of 4 - a father with his oldest 18 y.o. son, 16 y.o. daughter and 14 y.o.son. 14 was the cut off for minimum age, but the kid looked younger.

Our guide was a very handsome young guy and it was his second day on the job. Margerite shared to all that I was scared, so he said I could sit in the back with him, and I was like OK. Margerite was like ‘that was fast!’ and I told her to shut up. I could tell the father was like Oh. @#$%&. even though he was too polite to show it.

I ended up sitting in the back part of the inflateable boat that turns up, with no foot slide on the floor like the rest of them had. When we started out Marge was too busy enjoying the scenery and her paddle kept hitting mine and the tween’s paddle in front of her. Before too long we started to lose control b/c we had a weak link. The guide was constantly barking orders to do this and that while our boat started a slow spiral approaching the rapids.

Before too long I heard a commotion from the front. The tween fell out and his head was bobbing in the water about 20’ in front of us. After a lot of barking orders while we were paddling like mad, the guide managed to get us close enough to him for the father and other son to yank him into the boat. It all happened so fast as the boat continued to flail off course.

Then we hit a rock wall that sent us spinning until the boat bounced onto a rock sticking up from the rapids, and became lodged upon it. The guide was telling us to paddle hard but it wasn’t budging. I looked back and saw the next boat was heading straight for us with a pregnant woman on board. As a last ditch, the guide decided to use his paddle to push us off the rock. It worked but as we started to move he lost his footing. Both of his feet were up in the air with his legs in a V shape as he was about to flip backwards out of the boat. I grabbed his arm and pulled him in so fast that his paddle swung around and slapped the top of my leg so hard that I had a bruise the size of a dinner plate on my thigh for 6 months. I didn’t even feel it.

It wasn’t long before the kid fell out again. This time Margerite finally did something useful and pulled him out. After that rescue we finally reached a clearing of calm waters where other boats were waiting close to shore. The father seemed happy and joked that I saved them. Little did he know that I had saved all of their asses. When all of the boats were there the host guide said ‘Ok, now we are heading for the rough stuff.’ I almost lost it after thinking it was over, but I remained calm as I grabbed the back of Margerite’s collar and quietly told her she damn well better paddle in synch with the rest of us. She finally listened so the last 5 minutes where we actually had some control going over the rapids, were somewhat enjoyable. Still all of us were traumatized. We later found out that the pregnant woman fell out of their boat as well. This river was no joke and much rougher than we could have imagined. On our way up I saw parts of it and was scared sh*tless. During the ride back hardly anyone spoke. None of us signed up for what turned out to be a survivalist boot camp in the middle of nowhere, which we actually paid good money to partake in. Never TF again.

I went to Zumba this morning. Registered my daughter for VBS. A nap. Some work for school and then....
Any ideas of some fun to do with my 6 year old that's free / cheap?

What an ordeal! I've never gone whitewater rafting.
I thought the guides were better trained than that.

My kayak is a long lake kayak with a rudder. For paddling on the lake or floating down a gentle stream.

I have kayaked through rapids, in the mountains, with a river kayak and with experienced paddlers. And they didn't start me on class 6 rapids!!

Scary things can happen anywhere though. I'm lucky my small daughter an I weren't dumped out of our canoe in the middle of a lake when a storm blew up.

We managed to paddle into the waves and cross the lake at a narrow area. No way I could get us back to our side.

No dramas here. Just plain ol' everyday stuff. Glad you all survived and can tell us your stories!

Contemplating whether I should go white water rafting. NO! @Minime, sounds traumatizing to me. Home alone today. Everyone out for the day. Laundry all day long along with progress on the crochet sweater. Transplanted my tomato plants to the garden. Baked quite a few batchesa tea cakes that I will drop off to my Mom and lady friends tomorrow to enjoy during their mahjong party.

There's usually something going on at your local library. Craft time? My DDs loved to make beaded bracelets and still do. Bake simple cookies or cupcakes. Have fun with your cutie!

@Shopper797 wrote:

I went to Zumba this morning. Registered my daughter for VBS. A nap. Some work for school and then....
Any ideas of some fun to do with my 6 year old that's free / cheap?

@Minime, we all love Sephora. Their birthday gifts are so nice. I do the Clinique gift with purchases at the department stores. Also love the little spray vials of fragrance. FUN.

Yes, it was a harrowing experience for sure. I copied Marge the post and she made some corrections like - It was 3 decades ago, she could leg press 800 lbs, she said I ‘threatened to kill her’ if she didn’t paddle in synch, and she said as scared as I was, I still managed some one liners like ‘I feel like Shelly Winters in the Poseidon Adventure! after the father jokingly said that I saved them all. She said the kid was white as a sheet after pulling him out the second time, which I now remember. That water was as cold as ice. If our guide went overboard we would have been doomed.

Anyways…Prince I think Canadians have seafaring in their blood and little fear of open water. A Canadian friend in HI helped her BF sail from CA to HI after he bought a sailboat there that was not that big. Just the 2 of them. They would race it on Friday nights as well. When I went on that boat all I could think of is how did they manage that trip on a fairly small sailboat. As it turns out her ancestors were seafarers in some capacity.
Your kayak sounds much safer than what I envisioned but please stay close to shore!

MTS - Ulta has a free picnic blanket with a $65 Clinique purchase plus an 11 pc. free gift (2 different options) with any $70 purchase. So for $70 you can get both. Not that I’m encouraging you though!

SEA ~ thanks for the sentiment. I’m glad somebody is grateful I’m still alive!