10 things to do besides social media!

Social media can just take over your life. It has a way of sucking you in to scrolling and scrolling...wait...there went an hour or more. Instagram stories can be a time suck for me. 

I have actually unfollowed people because some bloggers are always telling us what we need to buy. I would think oh I neeeeeed that shirt or shoes. I felt I HAD to have it. I have a closet full of stuff that and I honestly don't need anything...well I honestly could use a new navy and white striped tee because mine is worn out. lol

Here is my list of things you can do besides spending it on social media.

1. Write in a gratitude journal

I really try to write in a journal each morning. I write down 10 things I am grateful for and 10 things I will make happen. My grateful things can be as simple as no one woke up last night, coffee, our home, snuggling with my boys, tacos. I just write down simple things that I am grateful for in that moment. 

I have a ongoing list of things I write that I will make happen. I try not to put a time limit on these things. As the past year has gone on some of those things have happened and they have been removed from the list. I write down each day I am a good mom. I feel it's important to start off the day thinking I am a good mom. It helps keep my intention good to take time to be a good mom. Work on my keeping my cool when I am frustrated. 

I love looking back over the past year of things I have wrote down. 

2. Read a book or listen to an audio book

I got on a roll after I finished watching all 16 seasons of Grey's Anatomy of listening to audio books. I listened to like 15 books in a few months. Our local library has an app called OverDrive where you can borrow audio books for FREE! A lot of popular books you have to go on a waiting list for, but if you have to wait a few weeks who cares again they are FREE! 

3. Go on a walk 

I have started walking again. When I worked in San Francisco I walked almost every single day on my lunch break. I would walk to AT&T Park and back to the office. It was close to a 2 mile round trip walk. I looked forward to that walk every day. I even went when it was raining. 

I like to listen to an audio book or a podcast while I walk. I always find if I am enjoying to what I am listening to it helps the walk go by so much faster. Walking is so much easier on my body than doing cardio. My fatigue gets much worse when I do a very strenuous exercise. 

4. Do a brain dump!

Have you ever tried doing a brain dump in a journal or notebook? When Covid first started I was so anxious. My brain was going 100 MPH. One day I just started writing in a notebook everything that was on my mind. Getting it put on paper helped me relax and be able to sort out my thoughts. It's a great way to make lists of things you want to do, goals, get things off your chest. 

5. Do Yoga or stretching

Chris Freytag has some 10 minute yoga and stretching exercises on her website www.gethealthyutv.com that are FREE! I love Chris! I just find her to be a very motivation trainer. I also like that she does the workouts with you. It drives me up the wall when trainers are always working on showing you how to do moves and don't do the workout. How about you show us how to do the workouts by DOING THEM!!!! 

Yoga or stretching will not only help your body, but it will help your brain too! If you want to try some of the 10 minute workouts you can find them HERE. 

6. Go play with your kids or dog 

My kids absolutely LOVE it when I play with them. If I take 10 minutes to wrestle with them they are ecstatic. I spent some time with Cash wrestling around and he was giggling the whole time. He likes to punch people in the face while you wrestle. This was a good time to teach him to punch me in the arm not my face. lol

G loves to play games. Taking the time to play a game with him completely changes his mood. My boys are the ones who will remember when I have taken time to play with them not the influencers on social media posting crap. Those people won't care that I watched their stories 5 years from now, but my boys will sure remember! 

7. Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee

Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee! Even if your kids are running around, your at work, or whatever is going on take a few minutes to just enjoy the moment with a cup of tea. I have been enjoying a cup of tea at night after the boys are in bed. I will sit in bed drinking the tea and relax. 

8. Go declutter that cabinet or drawer

Take the 15-20 minutes to go organize that cabinet or drawer that has been driving you crazy! Organizing a space will help you feel so much better each time you see it!

9. Plan our your outfits for the next week

Wear stuff you that has been hanging in your closet unworn for ages. If you put the item on and don't like it then add it to your donate pile. This is a great way to wear stuff you forgot about, get rid of stuff because you don't like the fit of it and shop your own closet! 

Do you really need that new shirt you found at Target? What accessories could you add to the outfit to make it pop?

10. Put on a charcoal mask and listen to some of your favorite music

Does music ever take you back to a place when you use to listen to that song? The other day a song came on the radio and I remembered instantly where I was driving and how I was feeling when I heard it for the first time. 

I have been listening to the old The Chick's music. Man that first Chick's cd brings back so many memories. I loved it and I still do. I have so many great memories listening to their music. I went to their concert so many times with friends too. 

What are some things you enjoy doing to avoid getting sucked into social media?

California Tourists!

My cousins from ND visited for a week around the first part of March. We were tourists around Nor Cal for a week. We had a lot of fun taking them to places we have been and to new places we haven't even been. 

G was really good! We were in the car A LOT! He happily rode along with watching the tablet very little. He really was a trooper. I packed lots of snacks, some car toys and uploaded some of his favorite shows to the tablet. 

We went on some hikes. I put him on my back. He was ok being in the Ergo for a little bit. He would rather run or have us carry him for a little bit. He is getting heavy. I had to tell him if he wanted to be carried he had to go in the Ergo. That usually resulted in him saying he would walk. 

I love this picture of us at the Golden Gate Bridge! It was the first time we have walked on the bridge. It was the first time we have taken G to the bridge too. 

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post California Tourists appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant.  

Secret Service Guest List

Monday night I attended Stand Up! The 2015 Union Labor Party Banquet. My employer had a table at the event. The guest speaker was Nancy Pelosi. Let's just get this out here in the beginning of this post. I do not agree with her on any political points. Probably not one thing. 

It was fun to get dressed up and go to a fancy dinner. I rarely do that anymore. My goal of the night was to get a selfish with Nancy. I didn't think it was polite to turn around in my seat to take a picture with her on the platform giving a speech although I was VERY tempted. 

As Nancy walked in the door, sat at the front table a guy walks up & take a selfie with her. I gasp then busted up laughing. Who does that?  Bahahahahaha. Nancy smiled for the camera like it was no big deal. I wonder how many likes the guy got on IG? 

The mayor of San Francisco Ed Lee gave a small speech and Willie Brown. Willie was hilarious!  I've never seen someone leave a room faster than Willie Brown. I would like a lesson on skipping out of a place like Speedy Gonzalez. 

My name is now on the secret service list. Security was awfully tight in the building. 

Outfit details

Skirt - Target

Tank & Cardigan - Old Navy

Shoes -Nordstrom's

 

GIANTS!!!!

Last Wednesday was not only Halloween it was also the celebration parade for the San Francisco Giant's! It was such an exciting day! The Giant's swept the Tigers!!!!

In 2010 I didn't even try to attempt to go to the parade.  When I stepped off Bart on Wednesday I saw they were lining up on the street where I work. OMG!!! I decided I am going to head out around 10:30 to see if I could see any players. Well wasn't I pleasantly surprised. I saw about 10 players. I REALLY wanted to see Zito and Wilson. All the others are great, but those 2 are my favorite. Well I got to see them!!! Eeeekkkk!!!!

Here are some of the pictures from the parade line up. There was a 10 foot tall fence around the players with tons of security. I was able to get up close enough to take pictures through the fence, but some of the other pictures have the fence in the way.

WILSON!!!!

ZITO!!!!!

The Panda - you can barely see him sitting on the back of a car.

Danielle's Visit!

Well Danielle has been gone a month and I am just getting ready to making a post about her visit! We had such a great time while she was here! It was very relaxing and we didn't travel all over the state of California this round. 

We named her first trip "Oh I am Tired" and this trip is named "Oh My Belly". The first trip we went from Nor Cal to So Cal to Nor Cal and all over the tourist places in Nor Cal. It was ridiculous what we saw in 5 days. This trip we stayed in Nor Cal, but ate like we were on death row. 

Danielle said she didn't care what we did as long as we went to Sprinkles and the food trucks. She wanted to relax while she was in CA. Well here is how the vacation went!

All dressed up & ready to head to church

Sammy sure liked Nellie! She brought him his very favorite beef jerky! 

Off to Sprinkles we went to get some cupcakes! I think we each bought 2 or 3! These things are so delicious!

Then it was the attack of the food trucks! I haven't been back to a food truck, since she left a month ago. Ugh the thought of them still doesn't sound that great! We ate at food trucks 5 out of 7 days she was here. I am NOT kidding! I was stalking food trucks on twitter and chasing them down with my mustang! 

Mogo Korean BBQ Taco

Garlic Noodles & Filipino Chicken 

The above food pictures are only from one food truck visit. We would get things to share, so we could taste lots of stuff.  "Oh my belly!"

Memorial Day we went to the Winchester Mystery House. This was both of our first times touring the house. That woman was NUTS! She really needed to see a shrink. A physic told her once that the people who were killed by Mr. Winchester gun haunted her. She then tried to trick the ghosts by placing doors in weird spots throughout the house. Instead of tearing down a wall or door before a new room was built they would just build over the top of things. There are cupboards that are 1 inch deep, doors that go to no where, rooms you can go in one way, but can't reenter without going ALL the way around the house. It is just strange! If you ever are in the area check the place out. I do think it is a tour to go on once.  I do not plan to visit this house as many times as I have been to Alcatraz. 

Front of the Winchester Mystery House

Back on the Winchester Mystery House

Touring the house with our hard hats! If you go on the tour outside the house and in the basement you have to wear a hard hat. Luckily this part of the tour was only $5 because it was not very interesting. 

Us in front of the house.

Memorial Day evening we got talking about areas of the house I want to redo. I mentioned I want to paint all my kitchen cupboards. Danielle then mentions she has been painting houses on the side and we could easily paint the cupboards in one day. I think I asked her 100 times if she was sure she wanted to do it on vacation. Danielle took off all the cupboard doors, while I worked in the morning. When I finished working we ran off to Lowe's to buy supplies. 

I will be posting pictures of the kitchen in another post. We painted on Tuesday and put almost all the doors back up that night. The kitchen is sooooo much brighter! I love it because if I get food or dirt on the cupboards I can now just wipe them off. I am not sure when or if I ever could have gotten that project done. THANK YOU NELLIE!!!!

Thursday the weather was claiming to be 70 in SF, so we decided to wait until then to head to freezing city! I had a marvelous idea of taking Bart to the city and then the trolley car to Fisherman Wharf. 

Us riding on Bart! 

Danielle and my mom are the first 2 people I sent all my Bart stories back when I first started riding. Danielle wanted to ride on Bart, so off we went to the city. It was a pretty calm day on Bart. Not too many crazees. 

When we arrived in the city I guess a school was on a field trip. The line for a trolley was at least a block long. I suggested we walk a little ways and then jump on the trolley. bahahaha what a crazy idea! The trolleys never emptied off enough for us to get on. We walked up hill 5-7 blocks. We were huffing and puffing after each hill. The pictures below don't even do the city street justice. One of the streets was so steep we had to stop half way up. Poor Nellie had a cold, so she could barely breathe. 

By the time we got to the top of the hills, the rest of the walk to Fisherman Wharf was all down hill. We figured we could use the exercise from all the food we had been eating. 

Ghirardelli Square - Hot Fudge Sundays

Us on the trolley!

The trolley was PACKED full of people. We were lucky enough to grab to seats. 

Friday rolls around and we were watching TV. Guy Fieri was on the Nate Berkus show. Danielle mentions how she would have liked to have gone to his restaurant. I told her I wish she had told me earlier because a new one opened up near by. I called the place to see if they had an early reservation to get us in. Danielle was leaving Friday around 11pm to take a red eye home. 

Luckily they had a 5pm reservation available. Off we flew to Johnny Garlics!

Our waitress asks us where we are from. Nellie mentions she is visiting from Michigan. The waitress then asked if she was my mom. I busted up laughing! Does she really look old enough to be my mom? lol!!!! Most people think we are the same age. When my cousins met her they couldn't figure out if she was Lacey age or my age. lol Well this chick thought she was closer to my moms age. Poor Nellie! 

Garlic Onion Tortilla Stack

I got the - Buffalo Meatloaf Sandwich

Danielle got the - Guy’s Big Bite Burger


We then went home, Danielle packed up the rest of her stuff, we sat around holding our bellies and off we went to the airport. I was very sad to see her leave. We always have so much fun together. Oh we also did play a lot of Scrabble and Skip Bo. A visit isn't complete without Scrabble!

San Francisco Randomness!

One day I looked out the window at work and I saw this homeless guy pushing this HUGE cart. He had it PACKED full of stuff. He could barely push the cart. He kept taking breaks as he moved it a few inches. 

Dinner Cruise

Back in November I bought 2 dinner cruise tickets from Amazon Local Deals. We were able to buy them for half off and could use them over the next year. I forgot about them for the longest time.  We went this past weekend. It was really nice! The food was a lot to be desired, but it was a nice evening riding around the Bay.

Our Boat.... Zinfandel 

Waiting to take off!

San Francisco

Port of San Francisco

Bay Bridge

I promise we are not high in this picture. We took a couple pictures and we looked drugged. The crazy flash on my iPhone just blinds you. 

The cruise took us from Alameda to San Francisco. We drove past AT&T Park right as a baseball game was ending. Then we went along the city past the Port of San Francisco, under the Bay Bridge, past Treasure Island, past the Port of Oakland and back to Alameda. All together the cruise was about 3 hours long.  It was a nice evening and suggest a dinner cruise in San Francisco. It was beautiful at night seeing all the city lights! I see the city during the day, so it was nice to see it all lit up at night. 

Giants Game

We will be skipping Menu Monday this week. I am traveling AGAIN for work! Ugh! This is my 3rd trip to LA in 5 weeks. This is the last one for awhile. Although this trip I am a little happy I get to see lots of friends.  In the next 2 weeks I will have lots of pictures to share of my LA trip. 

Last Thursday a vendor from work took 3 of us to a Giant's baseball game. We had the BEST seats! We were only 11 rows behind home plate. When we arrived Buster Posey was up to bat. I was in aw of where we were sitting and didn't notice who was up. A little girl sitting near us starts screaming BUSTER. I think she was about 4 yrs old. She told her mom that she was going to marry him when she grew up. She was so funny!

It was the perfect day for a baseball game. The weather was perfect and we all just sat there relaxing enjoying the game. Plus the Giant's won too!!!!

All these pictures were taken with my iPhone. I think they turned out pretty great for phone pictures.