Hindsight is Always 2020

 I know my last post was a little bit of a downer and illustrated the bad parts of what we are going through.  Not everything has been negative and bad.  What is it that I have done during this time to make life feel normal and more meaningful?  What is it about the current situation that has been a blessing?  What parts of humanity have been intact during this time?  I have seen families make more of an effort to stay connected.  It seems to me that even families that did not see each other much before the pandemic have made extra effort to talk more on the phone or video chats.  I think this time has given companies the opportunity to experiment with the work at home model.  So many companies like mine have avoided sending more people home to work because they have feared that it would be less productive and that supervisors and bosses would not be able to monitor as closely.  Fortunately, and to our surprise, many have found that it has been just the opposite, people have been more productive and more focused.  I think people have made more effort to serve others.  I have seen many silent servers out there just trying to lift spirits and bring joy whenever they can.   

I had a pretty productive year and much of it was positive!  I'm incredibly grateful for the many blessings our family received during 2020.  I FINALLY started working on my yard, which was a huge undertaking, but very successful....so far.  I'm no where near finished, but I had a good start! I discovered just how much I enjoy working outside in my yard and how much I love planting and taking care of things!

I did quite a bit of baking!  I discovered avocados are an excellent substitute for butter in some recipes!  Banana bread made with avocado is my new favorite thing!   I tried some new macaron recipes that were successful.  I learned how to make Swiss meringue buttercream and now I'll never be able to enjoy regular frosting again!  I made a few amazing cake designs!   

Financially, I was able to finally get ahead, just a little.  I was able to save more despite all the spending that was happening for my yard, and other things.  I finally reached a place where I felt comfortable buying another car and having a car payment again.  I haven't had a car payment for about 7 years, so that feels new to me, for now.  I found the exact car make/model, miles, color, condition, year, for the price I wanted.  That seemed like a miracle since I had been browsing for about 2 years for the right car.  

I was able to focus more time on my homeschooling efforts with my kids.  I was able to spend more time with my family all year and that was great!  I think we had our moments when we were tired of each other, or needed a break from one another. It was easy for tensions to rise, at times, with all of the stress.  I found myself constantly looking for ways to destress, we spent a lot of time at the pool during the summer!

One thing that kept me occupied and maybe a little distracted from the tensions and stress was subscription boxes!  Yes, something I never thought I would get into, but I tried quite a few of them.  I must say it was fun and worth the money!  Here is a little peak at what I experienced and my thoughts, in review style, on these different subscriptions.  

Fab Fit Fun

I'm a regular subscriber to Fabfitfun and that has never disappointed!  This is a quarterly box that runs about $50 per quarter.  It's filled with all sorts of products that would be appealing to almost any woman, high maintenance, low maintenance, in the middle, simple, or complex.  This service gives you the opportunity to customize some of your products, and some remain a surprise!  So, if you like surprises, or you don't, well there is a little of both!  Many of the products they offer are cosmetics, makeup, home decor, clothing, gadgets, kitchen ware, jewelry, hair products and tools, and many other useful products like furniture, rugs, and dishes.  These products range in brand from high end brands to cheaper brands, to made in USA, not made in USA, to green and natural, to environmentally friendly.  They also offer sales in between the box send outs where you can purchase anything you want or need at massive discounted prices.  I have always had a great experience with them.  Their customer service is great, never had issues with shipping, and its easy to cancel. Great way to treat yourself if you need a little extra self care!

 Others like it: Ipsy, Causebox, Birch Box, Boxycharm, Singles swag

 Causebox

Causebox is similar to fabfitfun, but their focus is more on ethically sourced, organic, green, good for the environment products.  The box is $50 per quarter and contains many different types of items.  They also offer an option to customize some of the products.  The products I recieved were high quality and useful.  I did not find it to be quite as wide ranging in product brands or diverse in the types of products they offer as fabfitfun.  In my opinion, because they don't give as many products in their boxes as fabfitfun, you don't get as much bang for your buck.  They have great products that are ethically sourced and high quality.  

Globe In

Globe In is a monthly box that brings the world to you.  Their products are ethically sourced and made by people from all over the world.  Many of their products are Fair trade and come from Mexico, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Morocco.  These boxes are organized by theme and usually include unique decor, kitchen utensils, or serving dishes, glass pieces like vases, or pitchers, book ends, stools, baskets, handmade hats, or bags, hand painted mugs, bowls, and platters, spices, coffee, hot cocoa, cocoa beans, and tea varieties.  Some boxes may include towels, blankets and bath soaps depending on the theme.  Many of these products are handmade or hand painted from their country of origin.  This subscription gives you the opportunity to spice up your food, give new flare to you decor and maybe even shake up your personal style!  This box is $50 per month and gives you access to their store to buy as many of their boxes as you want as well as many other items that are not featured in boxes.  This is well worth the money even though it is a little pricey.  They also give you the option to skip a month or put the subscription on hold.  I love every box I have purchased!  It was easy to cancel, no hassle.  

Others like it: Journee box, Box of Blessings, Wee Box, Bombay and Cedar

Walt Life

This is a fun monthly Disney themed box.  Unfortunately I was not super impressed with this subscription.  This gives the option for 3 different boxes.  They are different prices and have different items.  The one I purchased was the $40 per month option and it had 4 Disney theme park items.  Their website shows some really unique and cute items that you would not normally be able to find anywhere else. The theme park items are very expensive which is probably why the monthly price is so high.  Of the items I received, only one was of real use to me and 1 was of use to my kids the other 2 were disappointing.  Honestly, they were all disappointing and not unique.  The hat I received, I probably could have purchased at an online Disney store, as well as the keychain.  The applique, maybe that's unique, but not useful to me, and very cheap.  The notebook.....pretty sure I could have bought that at Walmart for $3.  This subscription was too expensive and in my opinion not worth it.  The value of the items you receive are highly overpriced.  I felt that the advertising was a little misleading.  When I tried to cancel it was a bit of a hassle, not bad, but not very pleasant. I love many things about Disney, but this is not one of them!

Others like it: Mickey Monthly

Snack Crate

Snack Crate brings you snacks from all over the world for $14.99 per month.  This price is for the smallest box they have and contains 5-6 snacks.  The larger box contains 10 snacks and a drink.  I think this one was $30-$40 per month.  Each box comes with an insert with fun facts about the country, an authentic recipe from that country and details about the snacks in your box.  Definitely worth $14.99 each month!  This has been a fun way to implement geography into my homeschool curriculum.  We love snack crate at our house!

 Others like it: Universal Yums, Munch addict

Kiwico

Kiwico is an essential part of my homeschool curriculum.  This is a monthly subscription box for $24.95.  It is set up in product lines where each line is meant for a different age group.  Age groups range from 0-99, haha!  They offer arts and crafts, engineering, science, coding, geography, advanced art, and advanced engineering.  The options and possibilities are endless!  They never send you the same box twice and you have the option to switch lines as often as you would like.  I switch between koala crate and kiwi crate every 3 months so my kids each get a turn to get a box.  No matter what line we are on both of my kids enjoy it.  One week we could be learning about dinosaurs, and the next we could be building a robot.  Each box has 3-4 activities and suggestions for more that teach the basic concept of the theme for that crate.  It also includes a little story/comic that talks about what you will learn, detailed instructions for each activity or project and everything you need for that project.  They also have a store where you can purchase more boxes as often as you like, they have sales pretty regularly and coupons are sometimes available.  Changing lines and cancelling is easy and the customer service is great!

Others like it: LovEvery, My Zoo Box, We Craft Box, Creation Crate, Groovy Lab in a Box, Green Kid Crafts, Spangler Science Club, Bits Box

Bookroo

Bookroo is a children's book subscription, its monthly and is about $26 per month for 2 books.  Not a bad deal considering children's books are generally $13-$15 each, or more at places like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.  Bookroo gives you the opportunity not only to get 2 new books per month, but introduces you to new authors or lesser known authors, some even local.  Many of these books would not be found in some mainstream bookstores.  I know what your probably thinking........these are all the rejects, right?  No I don't think so, the books have great ideas, plots, and illustrations.  They have been great for my 6 year old daughter who is a fairly new reader.  I think getting these books monthly have helped improve her reading skills.  Sometimes they even send you a bonus book!  Well worth the money especially if you have new readers in the house or you just love reading to your kids!  So, go buy a new bookshelf and start a new collection!

 Others like it: Literati, Reading Bug Box, Kid Curated Books, KidArtLit, Our Little Book Club

Fresh Baked Cookie Crate

This is a monthly subscription you can customize based on the quantity of cookies you want to bake, 1 or 2 dozen and the number of gifts you want in the box, 2 or 4.  I subscribed at the larger quantities and items for $39.99 per month.  The lesser box is $29.99 per month.  This box contains a cookie recipe, ingredients, minus eggs and oil, fool proof instructions and tips, and gift items. This takes the guess work out of trying a new recipe, everything is made easy.  Gift items might be t-shirts, aprons, candles, special treats, bath bombs, kitchen tools, etc.  I loved all the gifts in these boxes, it was a fun surprise.  One thing I did not like was that the recipe did not give you exact amounts of all ingredients so you could keep the recipe and make it in the future.  However I think the full recipes are available on their website.  Some of the cookie recipes were great and some not so great, but fun to try anyway!  I think this box was worth the money especially if you love baking and trying new recipes.

Others like it: Whisk Takers, Bake Eat Love, Breadista, Foodstirs

Mystery in Time

Mystery in Time is a monthly subscription for kids.  It comes from England and is about $14 per month.  It comes with a chapter book, activity book, book mark, stickers, and other activities. Its focus is on history and each month focuses on a different time period in history.  Some examples are Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, Wild West, War Time Britain, and Victorian Era.  The book helps children learn history through Max and Katie's adventures as they travel back in time to the specific era where they must solve a mystery in order to go home.  The activity book is full of facts and coloring pages as well as puzzles and games.  When you order for the first time you get a world map poster with a time line and you add the stickers from each era to the correct place on the time line and you can add other stickers to the map where the adventure takes place.  It's a fun way to learn history.  We have only completed one of our adventures, but I continue the subscription to use for homeschool in the future.  I think my kids might be just a little to young for it at 6yrs and 4 yrs.  I think it's a great resource that is affordable if your kids like history or need some extra educational reading material, or you homeschool.

Others like it: Little Passports, Finders Seekers

It was somewhat of an adventure trying all of these subscriptions and exploring what they offer.  I'm grateful for the distraction and opportunity to focus on something other than the current events.  All in all 2020 was a great year for many reasons, but it was hard in many different ways.  Its difficulty was foreign to most of us.  I think many of us had miracles and blessings throughout the year, maybe they went unrecognized for awhile because of the stress.  I know there were times when all I could think about was my stress and how hard life was at times.  Hopefully all of us can reflect back on 2020 and see some good!  What were some positives from 2020?  How were you blessed?