Guilty Pleasures

For Valentine's Day this year, Tim and I got ourselves a  Sodastream Fountain Jet Soda Maker Starter Kit.  We used it constantly for the first couple months,  but started to use it less frequently thus summer.

One of my favorite coffee shop treats (when I get somewhere besides Caribou and Starbucks) is an Italian soda.  I discovered I could make them inexpensively at home with  Torani Flavored Syrup.  I'm hooked on using my Sodastream daily again.  Torani makes sugar-free syrups too.  It also tastes great in coffee and hot chocolate.  (My treat last night after the kids went to bed was hot chocolate with sugar-free coconut syrup in it.  It was delicious! )

So if you've been thinking about getting a Sodastream, I highly recommend them.  (Another random tangent, their customer service is amazing!  I thought we were having issues with one of our bottles sealing when we first got our machine.  One of their reps patiently troubleshooted the issue over the phone with me, and overnight shipped a  package of two bottles to replace the one.  Good customer service is such a rare thing these day.)  

Work books

In general, I'm not a huge fan of work books.  I think in most cases there are better ways for children to learn and practice their skills. 

Carter is a smart barely four year old that has pretty much given up napping in the afternoon.  So afternoon time has become quiet time and I've tried to find activities that he can do that need very little parental involvement, but challenge him mentally.  I'd love to set up fun, creative activities for him every day, but frankly, I don't have the time for the energy to do that.  The SCHOLASTIC SUCCESS W/ KINDERGARTEN book has been a lifesaver for me.   It has a variety of different activities, including numbers, letters, opposites, and more.  Some of it is a little too advanced for Carter at this point since his reading skills are still limited, but I bet he'll be ready for them soon.  And Carter must be enjoying them because he keeps asking to do more. 

Sold?

Looks like 17 may be our lucky number!  Friday afternoon, our realtor had called to talked to us about potentially doing a price cut in the next week or so.  Because we are going to need to pay the rather sizable difference between what we owe and what we can sell it at, we were not excited to discuss this.  She also mentioned that she thought it would be a quiet weekend for us since there are typically not that many showings on Labor Day weekend.  It turned out not to be so true for us.  We had showings both Saturday and Sunday.
After the showing Sunday morning we decided to leave for the rest of the weekend. We really needed a break from it all and some time to clear our heads.  So we headed down to the farm (with a quick detour to drive by some houses).  The boys had a great time playing with their cousins.  Tim and I were happy to not have to be constantly cleaning.  After we put the kids to bed, Tim decided to check his email.  Our agent had    emailed an offer from that morning's showing, a good offer, not a low ball like some of the agents had been mentioning the possibility of.
We've negotiated back and forth on some of the little things and as long as we pass the appraisal and inspection we should be moving sometime in the end of October.