Finding Savings in 2020!

This post is sponsored by Optum Perks but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.

Life is bonkers right now, but at the same time I feel like I'm kind of finding my way in this 'new normal'. I'm adjusting, I suppose; I've found a new hobby in gardening, I've spent whole afternoons huddled up in blanket forts playing with my toddler, I've run through sprinklers like a kid again. I've also done more adult things like reorganizing my office, sorting through and donating clothes, and I even started redoing our budget.

While redoing our budget and trying to save us some cash, I found some really interesting new ways to save - Optum Perks is one of the ways that I feel like would be valuable to almost everyone. We ALL have taken prescription meds at some point, right? I mean, we all know the costs usually associated with these medications and now... we all can use Optum Perks to save, of course - prices are subject to change over time!

What exactly is Optum Perks? From antibiotics to your daily meds, Optum Perks will help you save some cash and provide you with a prescription coupon to save on almost all FDA-approved medications, outside of your insurance plan! Not only is it amazing that you can save, it's super easy to work the website to find a coupon. All you have to do is take 3 SUPER easy steps: search for your medications, find a deal that suits you, and save when you pick up your prescription from the pharmacy! I saved so much on a prescription - a full $18!

Want to save up to 80% on your prescriptions? With no memberships, no fees, and access to almost all pharmacies (including over 64,000+ nationwide)! Speaking of pharmacies, I know we all are weary to go 'inside' a store right now - luckily you can still use the savings from Optum Perks in the drive-through pharmacy too! Just present this card & get your prescription savings!

Beyond medication savings, I've also been utilizing these different ways of finding savings:

• I'm using our banking app to add "coupons" via our card and we've scored a few rebates that way! I've also set up a savings account and it automatically saves for us by rounding up to the nearest dollar each time we spend and inserting that in our savings account - such an easy way to make sure we are storing away some cash in this crazy time in our life.
• Instead of paying for multiple music services we usually used in the car, we decided to cancel those and started using a piano teaching app instead. So we cut back on entertainment spending and we all are learning a new skill out of the deal too!
• Lastly, we have officially learned to be adults and started meal planning a little better. Instead of just buying blindly and making what we have, we've started planning ahead for meals and saving on groceries by hunting for deals while shopping online!

So tell me, what have you been up to during this time of change? How have you been saving some change? I'm eager to hear how this new way of life is going for you!

Finding Joy & Giving Grace During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As we all know, life has been crazy lately.

I personally am in a constant mixture of high stress and finding comfort in a "new normal", as you likely are as well.

Between hearing the news ramble on and on about statistics, to discussing it all with skeptical and also hysterical friends, to seeing startling numbers roll along on the ticker tape bottom of the screen, then following that up with personal accounts of terror (and also joy) via social media... it's all been overwhelming. I'm basically just a walking exclamation of "What... The... Eff" a majority of the time!

While I'm struggling regularly and fairly confused on what's to come, we as a family have spent the past week doing things we should have been doing all along.



We've went for walks almost daily, we've spent time running through our sprinkler in the backyard, we've played so many board games I've lost count, we've busted out the sidewalk chalk, gone on Virtual Reality field trips. We have spent true quality time together and it's been beautiful.

While taking care of our family in this way has been amazing, I've also pampered myself too! I've spoiled myself while self-quarantining with lengthy baths, I've spent more time praying than I think I have in my entire lifetime, and I've found a pace for my work that seems sustainable. I'm also going to begin journaling again and I've decided to attempt to bust out my old paint stuff to express myself there as well.

I'm not saying this Pandemic has been joyful, because that would be insensitive and frankly, I'm missing "normal", but I will say I've found some joy among the terror.

I've found moments where I sit back and admire my blessings. I've found joy in the way my daughter giggles in a wild way whenever we play a game and she is winning. I just love the way my dogs light up when they see us put on our shoes to go for a walk and I've found a real adoration for the way my husband smiles as he hands me my vitamins and espresso in the morning. I'm trying to see the glimmers of normal, I'm trying to embrace the rays of happiness while this grey cloud is looming overhead.

And with all of that said, finding comfort in a Pandemic doesn't make much sense.

Here's the thing, nothing makes sense right now. We're all learning to cope... we're all learning to just be within this new life of ours. This is our first time being in this state of mind, most of us have never faced something of this magnitude and a majority of us are just scared.

Some of us are ordered to "shelter-in-place", some of our states are free to roam, and all of us are going through something we haven't ever been through before.

No matter how you're feeling. Whether it's thankful, angry, grateful, or anxious -
give yourself some grace today, this week, and frankly, for the rest of your lifetime.

Also, STAY HOME.
Said with love.

Creative and Cheap Valentine Inspiration: Being Your Valentine is a Piece of Cake Valentine Freebie Printable

This post contains affiliate links, that just means I make a small commission if you decide to buy after clicking through on my link. It doesn't charge you anything, but allows me to help my family!

Getting ready for Valentine's Day last minute this year? Here's a super cute Valentine idea for anyone in your life and it's a "piece of cake" to prepare - grab this printable and a squishy from Dollar Tree (or even a cupcake from the grocery store) and leave this on your Valentine's table.

I love this cute valentine piece of cake squishy for so many reasons - I mean, it's adorable, so there's that - but it's also a great "stress reliever" and it's a clever way to remind someone you are thinking of them. It's truly a multi-functional valentine in many ways.

The best part of this little Valentine though, was The Dollar Store had so many different options! I loved that they had a million different cake squishies, that way you could give each teacher in your kiddos life one of these or even leave them on the secretaries desks at your work with THIS free printable.

If being with your Valentine is a piece of cake - then you absolutely need to give these out this year!

FREE PRINTABLE CAN BE FOUND HERE!

Creative Valentine Idea: Seeds with a FREE Printable - You Make My Heart Bloom & I Love Watching Our Friendship Grow!

This post may include affliliate links - that means if you click through on a link that I may make a tiny portion of the sale, if you happen to make a purchase! You aren't charged anything additional, you're just helping me support my family!

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, which means things are getting pretty creative over in the Harmon household.

Instead of just buying a box of Valentine's, you know I had to have some fun and make things for D's little buddies. The good news is, I didn't have to spend much at all to create a SUPER UNIQUE and fun valentine for her to hand out! I got all kinds of inspiration at The Dollar Store and then made printables and attached them with pink and white twine to make them just the right amount of cute!

I also got carried away and made a ton of Valentine's, not just this cute set of Seedling inspired valentines! Don't worry, I'll be sharing them all before the holiday!

Today I wanted to share a simple and FUN Valentine you can make in minutes that will really make someone's heart grow! That's right, this fun little Valentine will be so perfect for the plant lovers in your life - and the cuteness and creativeness is bound to impress your kiddos friends at school! You can claim the rights to being a Pinterest Mom without much effort at all!

Download the Free Valentine Printable HERE!

All you have to do is print this off - I've attached this FREE printable! There is 3 cards for the "You make my heart bloom" and 3 cards for the "I love watching our friendship grow" - that means you can print off like 4 sheets of these or so and have enough for the whole class. I printed using these settings in Adobe! You'll obviously switch the printer to YOUR printer, then set the page sizing to custom 2 x 3 booklet and you are good to go! Use a paper cuter like this one to get a clean cut and then attach the card with a tiny bit of twine and hot glue!

Then, just grab the seeds from the Dollar Store! These were 3 packs for $1 at our location so this Valentine craft can be done for next to nothing!

Pin for later (or maybe even next year):

18 Fun Date Night In Ideas - Date Your Spouse Without Leaving Your House!

One thing that I've heard from many couples, that we try to follow, and I also give the advice to others is that you always need to continue to date your spouse. Don't ever lose that special spark between the two of you by always kindling that fire with fun times and special moments shared.

Dating your spouse sounds great, right? But we all know finding the time and hiring a babysitter isn't always a possibility. Here's the thing, dating doesn't have to be complicated. You don't have to do anything special. It doesn't have to mean getting gussied up and going out on the town - you can date your spouse at home.

Here's 18 ways you can plan the perfect date night in:

1. Turn your living room into a cozy indoor campground and snuggle up while telling stories.

2. Create a craft night - get creative with your boo and let it flow.

3. Get boozy and have a little cocktail sampler night, trying new beverages or your old favorites.

4. Set up a picnic in the backyard during the day and spoil each other with some foods that remind ou of your first dates.

5. Have a game night and let the competition heat things up.

6. Try something new with a little taste testing of something completely new for you guys, whether that be sushi or a new take on Korean bibimbap.

7. Stargaze and make wishes on 'shooting stars' even if you don't see any.

8. Take a trip down memory lane and look at old photos or pictures.

9. 'Go to The Game' in your own home, just DVR or watch a game live and chow down on hotdogs and nachos, maybe even surprise hubs with a beer in a cup that features his favorite team if you're feeling fancy.

10. Give each other some touch therapy! Google proper massage techniques and start rubbing!

11. Let your milkshake bring your boy to the yard, make special milkshakes or smoothies and sip with your sweetie.

12. Get into some Karaoke - Sing your heart out with no judgement, just check out youtube for your favorite songs and get to groovin' to your fav tunes!

13. Have an exclusive book club meeting, grab two of the same copies of a book from the library and read it together during the week and spend your 'date night' discussing.

14. Learn more about each other, take some personality tests online and share your results.

15. Plan your next vacation together, dream up the wildest places you could visit together or actually start booking the tickets - the choice is yours, just dream big together.

16. Redo something together, whether it's painting an old piece of furniture or reorganizing the pots and pans in your cabinets - spice things up by redoing something and making it feel new.

17. Stretch it out and renew yourselves together with some Yoga fun. Whether you are seasoned yogis or you've never even attempted to stretch, be sure to give this flexibility encouraging activity a try.

18. Make it a spa night with a bath bomb, face masks, and maybe even a steam facial - pamper both of yourselves with self-care.

45 Healthy Coping Mechanisms - Teach Yourself & Your Child Healthy Ways to Cope

Life isn't always fair. I think we all grow up with this knowledge and yet, it's a hard lesson to learn for nearly everyone. No matter how perfect your life is, we've all dealt with set backs, disappointments, failures, and some of us have even suffered loss and trauma. Everyone has been through the "struggle" at some point, in differing measures, but we've all been effected. The thing is, some of us wear that stress and those failures for life and some of us have bounced back and live healthy productive lives. The choice is yours and it's all about how you COPE with the unfairness of life that makes the difference.

As you likely already know, "coping refers to the human behavioral process for dealing with demands, both internal and external, in situations that are perceived as threats" - according to the AlleyDog Psychology Glossary. Whether these threats are self-inflicted by our egos, or some troubling situation that has been imposed upon us by another - a threat is what we perceive as any form of stress, essentially.

Teaching ourselves and our children how to cope effectively will help us all to be a little less stressed and happier in our daily lives. While it's easier to talk the talk than walk the walk, I've compiled a list of 45 different ways you and your kiddos can learn to stress less and deal with the situation at hand in a positive and productive way, whatever that situation may be.

45 Healthy Coping Mechanisms

1. Ask for help

2. Go for a ride (or a walk)

3. Practice yoga

4. Create art

5. Practice gratitude

6. Blow bubbles

7. Listen to your favorite music

8. Use positive self talk

9. Journal

10. Hug a tree

11. Practice your sport of choice

12. Breathe deeply and mindfully

13. Eat a healthy snack

14. Drink water

15. Cuddle or play with your pooch

16. Be like Elsa & let it go

17. Smile and laugh out loud

18. Use essential oils

19. Bake something special

20. Use positive affirmations

21. Sing and dance

22. Take a nap

23. Take a shower or bath

24. Stretch

25. Learn something new

26. Read a book

27. Do something kind for the Earth

28. Look at old photos or take new ones

29. Garden

30. Visualize your happy place

31. Do a puzzle

32. Ask for a hug

33. Create origami

34. Clean something up

35. Jump around

36. Hang out in a hammock

37. Do something kind for a friend

38. Play a board game

39. Cry

40. Pray

41. Dance

42. Watch a movie

43. Lay in the sun

44. Plan something for the future

45. Scream

The 20 Best Children's Books About Feelings

Please note, this post includes affiliate links -
regardless all opinions expressed below are completely my own.

Helping children work through emotions is a difficult task at times, especially during the toddler years when most kiddos are still learning their language skills.

Feelings can be very overwhelming, but luckily you are there to help guide your little one through all of the emotions they are feeling and hopefully you can teach them to express themselves in healthy ways.

One way we've been working with D to express her emotions is by reading to her. It may sound too simple, but reading her books about her feelings has helped her expand her emotional vocabulary which has made expressing herself so much easier! From anger to sadness to joy, it is so cool witnessing her speak her truth.

Are you going through the throws of toddlerhood with your little one and experiencing fits and outrageous behavior? Here's some books to help you and your toddler cope through this intense phase in their life:

The Way I Feel by Janan Cain

In My Heart by Jo Witek

The Feelings Book by Todd Parr

Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis

Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Anna Dewdney

Happy Hippo, Angry Duck by Sandra Boynton

Bootsie Barker Bites by Barbara Bottner

Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley

The Bad Mood and The stick by Lemony Snicket

The Bad Seed by Jory John

Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang

Kindness Starts with You by Jacquelyn Stagg

Don't Feed the Worry Bug by Andi Green

What to Do When Your Feeling Blue by Andi Cann

Tiger Days: A Book of Feelings by M. H. Clark

The Color Monster by Anna Llenas

The Boy with Big, Big Feelings by Britney Winn Lee

Little Big Feelings by Deb Mills

What Color is Your Day? by Camryn Wells

A Little Scribble SPOT by Diane Alber

These 20 books are some of the best, but I'm curious - do you know of any books that I should add to this list? Tell me in the comments below and I'll add them to our library list and possibly this list as well!

Fight & Cure Viruses This Winter with Remedies That Actually Work - Fight the 2020 Flu Bug!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links, regardless all opinions expressed below are my own.

There's a pretty gnarly flu bug floating around the nation, we managed to catch it while flying back home to see family and we've fighting it since.

It basically took our house hostage, for over a week, but I am finally adjusting back to life without waking up hacking every night again, D is still fighting her cough but mostly her normal self, and hubby is still recovering - but overall we BEAT the bug and I wanted to share how since we know what a doozy this really is.

This flu is different than others, we actually never got the elevated fever but had all the other symptoms to a tee. So know that if you don't have all the "influenza" symptoms, that you may still have the flu - or a similar virus.

If you're currently fighting it, know that "this too shall pass" and persevere... and this is a given, but if your symptoms become abnormally bad be sure to visit your doctor too!



With that said, let me start by saying, I'm not a medical professional - BUT this is what worked for us:

1. Electrolyte Water to help keep your body hydrated, even when nothing else sounds good.

2. Elderberry Syrup to help boost your immune system (for the family).

3. Zinc Tablets to help shorten the symptoms (only for the parents).

4. Emergen-c or Airborne drink mix to offer immune support and boost your vitamin C, allowing your body to fight off the virus quickly.

5. Essential Oils are a must, we set up our diffuser and use some of our favorites from Eden's Garden to help make breathing easier (be careful with oils and research before use).

6. Cool Mist Humidifier is a necessity, if you are dealing with a cough. I would not have been able to sleep without ours and it has helped ease D's symptoms as well.

7. Fresh Cool Air is a given, but something that helped our family greatly. Any time D is experiencing a rough night, one of the first things I do is step out on our back porch and let her take some deep breaths. It always helps calm her coughing fits and my own as well.

8. Steam Showers on the other hand, have also helped us immensely. Without steam showers I don't think any of us would've been able to sleep this week.

9. Theraflu pods were a life saver for myself. D obviously can't drink these, but being able to have one of these warm drinks (with some meds also in it) seriously healed me so quick. I went from being miserable to feeling human within an hour, every single time I drank one.

10. Rest is another given for fighting the bug, but one that truly helped our family so it's something I feel I need to mention.

11. Nose Frieda is a nose suction device that your kid will HATE, but will make them feel better within seconds. We suction D's nose and she can instantly breath easier, even if she is fuming mad.

12. Similasan Kids Cough & Cold Relief was another life saver for us with D. We have both the day & night formulas now and swear by this brand, it's a natural cough syrup that has helped her in the past but especially helped fight this bug and it's safe for any kiddo ages 2+.

So tell me, have you caught this terrible bug that's been spreading like crazy across the nation? I hope not, but if you have - I'd love to hear how you "survived" it and what helped you the most!

And to those of you that encourage others to get the flu shot, that's your choice - but it's one we opt out of year after year, after contracting a terrible case of the flu after receiving the shot years back. I'm not saying anything against others who choose to get it, we just don't in our house and even after experiencing the flu again - I still hold true to my decision.