A Few Of My Favorite Things…

“Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes,
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes,
Silver-white winters that melt into springs.
These are a few of my favorite things.”
by Richard Rodgers
The Sound of Music

The snow is gently falling outside the giant plate glass windows in my office. I’m longing for a white Christmas. Julie Andrews sang to the von Trapp children to remind them of GOOD things when they’re feeling sad. Inspired, I want to share my list of “Good Things” this Advent season, too.

Favorite #1: Advent 2018: Until the Son of God Appears by She Reads Truth

She Reads Truth (click HERE) has a 29-day reading plan for Advent this year that spans from Genesis to the coming of the Savior and all the stories in between. This gorgeously-formatted site is a feast for the eyes. It has Scriptures verses along with writings each day to tie the stories together, all topped with supremely shareable, serene visuals for the season.

You can buy the study book for $30 plus tax & shipping on the site but you might rather go online to read on your phone or delivered via email for free. Follow SRT on IG, too, for a dose of godly loveliness in your feed. As of the publishing of this post, they are on Day 6 of the plan, but it is completely worth it to join in now.

Favorite #2: BABE LASH Luxury Eye Serum

My esthetician shares some of her tricks with me and this is one of the best secrets yet.

We were shooting for Vintage Christmas (Click HERE to read it if you missed) when April asked if I was wearing falsies. Nope, I told her, it must be Babe Lash magic working!

After applying lots of falsies last year, the leftover glue often ripped out my lashes. Being more, ahem, “mature” these days, mine didn’t grow back well.

After three weeks using this serum, there was a big difference. Now, after three months, The Elder is asking if I need to STOP! My lashes are so long and thick, sometimes I don’t wear mascara.

**BONUS**: It works for eyebrows, too. A 3-month supply is $65.

I’m sending some to my sister and mom for Christmas, perhaps with some of my other favorites like:
1. Hanacure mask (Click HERE to read Oh. My. Dear.),
2. GREEN CLEAN Korean makeup remover by FARMACY (click HERE),
and
3. Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Definer (click HERE).

Give it a try. You can click HERE for their website.

Favorite #3: SPANX Arm Tights

No eye-rolling! This is SERIOUS. Those “girls in white dresses” could have worn them in December with these.

Woven on pantyhose machines, these cropped, lightweight second skins make arms look A-MAZE-ING and there are so many different colors to choose.

I’m wearing the cream cable under a velour crop top here along with their black herringbone for any low-cut dresses and tops (or The Empire Strikes Back). These keep me modest like a good Church Girl should be!

Favorite #4: Kleenex Lotion Tissues

For bad winter colds or seasonal allergies, strong tissues are absolute; nothing is worse than a breakthrough at a critical moment. Except a raw nose.

In Iceland and Denmark this fall, I got a raging sinus infection and made the BIG mistake of using toilet paper for hundreds of nose-blows. By the time I got home I looked like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for a week, my schnoz was so swollen and painful!

Lamenting my blazing beak, one of my tech guys, Bodie, told me I should have used tissues with lotion. Um, yes.

“Lotion Kleenex” is all we’re using now. I think they’re the strongest and the best. Good Housekeeping agrees with me! Click HERE to read their top picks.

Favorite #5: Chicken Soup with Reames Egg Noodles and Walmart Pickup Service

Chicken noodle soup is medicine for wintertime sicknesses, but I think it’s also healing for sadness and sorrow. Let’s be honest: Christmas isn’t always the happiest time of the year for everyone, especially when you’ve lost a beloved member like our family has this month.

In my mom’s kitchen, slow-boiling an entire chicken (bones and all!) with onion, celery, and sea salt all day makes the best, most nutritious bone broth soup. (Skim off the fat, skins, and bones before serving. Add carrots and parsley at the end, too.)

My girl, Mary Woollard, once taught her grandmother’s simple recipe from the Oregon Trail for homemade egg noodles (one cup flour, pinch of salt, one egg, and a half-eggshell of milk!). They are SO delicious, the recipe so simple, my kids made them.

I didn’t have the energy to make glorious noodles this week. It was the best I could do to stick the chicken in the pot! At the end of the day, about twenty minutes before serving, I dumped in half a bag of Reames Egg Noodles. Buy them frozen at Walmart for less than $4 for a two-pound bag.

They aren’t Mary’s grandmother’s noodles, but they were a wonderful substitute in a pinch!

Order these ONLINE or download the WALMART APP. Click your groceries, choose a pickup time (free for orders over $30), and skip the hour spent in frustration wandering the store buying things that you don’t know how they got into your basket. (Cheetos, anyone??)

(For some humor, click to read The Devil Lives at Walmart and click HERE for $10 off your first Walmart Grocery order.)