Egg Cooker Review

 For a few years now, I've been seeing blog posts about a rapid egg cooker.  I previously have brushed off the idea that this might be a useful tool and instead convinced myself that it was much better to just boil eggs on the stovetop.  Even after getting an InstaPot and an airfryer and hearing about how people use those appliances to cook eggs, I did not bother looking up how to do so myself.  My main problem with this line of thinking is that I actually do not know how to boil eggs on the stove.  Yes, my mom has told me 73 times, and I've looked up the recipe on Google about 14 times, but still... it doesn't stick and  becomes a chore to always ask or look it up.  This means that I never boil eggs in my home.  Never.  Which also means that we do not receive the benefits of the easy protein-filled snack that is the hard-boiled egg. 

Just last week, Michael asked for a hard boiled egg and I happened to be reading a blog post by someone raving about their egg cooker.  Although I thought I had looked up the price on this appliance years ago, I was shocked to see how affordable it really was!  I also did not know that it could cook poached eggs and omelets as well.  I chose the white color although it was very tempting to choose the mint shade. It arrived a couple days later and we put it right to work!  It's much smaller than I thought it would be, which is nice because it doesn't take up too much counter space and I'll be able to store it in the cabinets without rearranging too many things around it.  Right now, we've used it at least once a day, so I've kept it on my counter. 

It's quite compact and comes with all the pieces tucked neatly underneath the lid. 

Inside the lid, it has the boiling-plate handle, the poaching plate, the omelet plate, and the boiling-plate stacked in one another. 

When boiling eggs, just attach the boiling-plate handle to the boiling plate.  The handle allows me to pick up the eggs when they're finished cooking, and place them in ice water without burning my hand.

 

If choosing to poach or make an omelet, those specialized plates need to sit on top of the boiler-plate so they don't get burned by the metal piece underneath the boiling plate. 

The lid locks in place to store it, but when cooking, the lid must be set on top of the device without actually locking it into place.  

When storing, you can slide the locking tabs under the handles of the egg cooker. 

It also came with a measuring cup to show proper water amounts for various levels of "doneness" for boiled eggs. I always choose hard boiled for myself or the kids.  Aaron prefers medium boiled for himself.  And whenever I choose to do a "Day in the Life of Downton Abbey,"  I'll choose soft boiled. :)  On the opposite side of this measuring cup are lines showing the water level needed for poached eggs and omelets. 

Underneath the measuring cup is a little push-pin like device.  This is to poke the rounded bottom of the egg before placing it bottoms up on the boiling plate. 

I placed it next to my 24 ounce cup to show the size of the egg cooker.  It's really compact and everything fits neatly under the lid when not in use. 

I'm really impressed by the egg cooker and am glad we got it when we did!  When it's done cooking, it sings a little song as its timer rather than just beeping, etc.  Avery LOVES the song it plays and frequently asks me to "play that song" even when the cooker is not in use!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Coffee Table Thoughts

A little over a month ago, I ordered a coffee table from Amazon. Aaron & I were specifically looking for something with storage options, so we knew we wanted a table with a lower shelf on it rather than a parsons style table or a decorative topped table with no storage underneath. 

We chose a wooden table that included two straw baskets that we can remove if we want to, and the table still looks nice with or without the baskets in place. This piece came in lots of color choices, but I decided on the gray tone (officially called "driftwood") to offset some of the darker wood pieces in our living room & to complement the white & gray rug that we have anchoring the space between our couches. 

It was a super quick assembly. I probably spent 30 minutes putting it together. It fits our space perfectly and I'm really happy with it!  We have played family games on it and it's really nice to have a space to play games where the kids can easily reach pieces rather than reach across the entire dining table. Aaron & I play cards on it some evenings after the kids go to bed. Of course during the day, it usually is a toy & cup display shelf but I tidy it up every evening so I can have a clean space to look at when I relax. Looking past a whole bunch of random toys in order to watch a TV show or movie isn't peaceful, so I make piles of which toys & cups belong to each kid and they put their things away before brushing their teeth. One day, I'll invest in a tray to stash remotes & maybe a candle, but that's not practical at this stage of motherhood that I'm in, so I'm content not to have it "decorated" at the moment. 

When looking at tables online, I really liked the ones that had some type of structure on the side. The three-slats of this table stood out to me. 

Online, it appears that the baskets have handles accessible from both sides of the coffee table, but that's not the case. The basket handles are only on one side, so we have that part of the baskets facing the couch.

This is the view from the couch. 

In the basket on the right, I store Avery's diapers & wipes. The baskets happen to be the perfect size for the Costco sleeve of diapers. It's nice to have her items close by without us having to see them out in the open. 

In the basket on the left, I have a few magazine favorites and some puzzles & Avery's current favorite game. She asks to play "hippo game" quite a bit and I had been trekking down the hallway to the boys' closet (where the kid games are stored) several times a day. It occurred to me one day to just store it in the basket here while she's so fixated on this game. As a bonus, it covers up the puzzles so she can't get them out without me knowing. Prior to moving the "hippo game" into the basket, she'd pull out every puzzle and dump all the pieces on the floor together. Let me tell you how not fun it is to decipher oddly shaped wooden puzzle pieces from one another! This solution of storing the game here has worked out well!

How about you? What storage solutions have you added in to your living room decor? 

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Sayings of My Children

 It's been a while since my last "Things My Kids Say" post, so I thought I'd start our weekend off with this collection. 

Avery says "way!" when she means to say "yay!"  (I'm trying to remember all of these little incorrect ways of saying things because I know all too soon she'll start pronouncing things correctly just as the boys did). 

M: Small fish brains are the size of a grain of salt. They're so dumb. I mean, they're in the ocean and bam, here comes a shark and the fish walk right into it.
Me: They walk into it?
M: Yeah. They're so dumb.

N: It has 3 speeds. High. Low. And meteor.

M: May I have more deeet kook?
Me: (blank stare)
M: Diet coke

M: Night lights are for amateurs

N: We are amateurs

Avery: I need a yogurt smoothie.
Me: You need a yogurt smoothie.
Avery: Yeah! Come on. I'm not wasting time.

Noah: (using a magnifying glass looking for ants when Michael points one out) I hate to break it, but that's not an ant

Avery: (sticking a toy dangerously close to my coffee cup)
Me: Hey, that's not yours, lady
Avery: No. I not you.

Avery: (describing a random movie- I think "Monsters Inc.") And then Mike pooped on the potty and washed his hands with soap.
Me: That sounds like a good idea. Do you want to poop on the potty?
Avery: No. I'm not Mike.

Me: Avery, can you count to ten?
Avery: 2, 10

Avery: (squirts a lot of purple paint on her pallette)

Me: Is purple your favorite color?
Avery: (pauses, places finger on her cheek) Um, yes!

Noah: I love you more than a cozy rat

A: (looking at a foggy window) That window's getting fat

Avery calls brownies "chocolate browns"

(Avery is pretending to serve us coffee and hot tea.)
Me: Avery, I think we should change your diaper. I've never seen a waitress who serves coffee with poop in her pants.
Michael: Well, you just met one.

Avery: (watching Bubble Guppies where they are trying to make pink from red and ask which color is lighter, black or white so they can mix it into the red) Uh.... white.
(Just the way she paused & had to think is so precious.)

(Singing)
Avery: My heartbeat is Akuna. That's my favorite pup-pup!

Michael:  Can I have m&m's at the end of breakfast?
Me: No.
Avery: You can have m&m's if you tee tee on the potty.

Noah: (pretend drumming on the couch) Rock on!
Avery: no

Avery: (playing with Akuna in the yard) ow! Akuna bite my thumb! No no, Akuna! Bad boy to eat my thumb! No no eat my thumb!

(Hanging out with my 7 y.o nephew)
G: The perfect place for me to live is Hawaii. On top of the mountain there is snow & people snowboard. Then there's a beach where people surf. And it's really peace & quiet.
Me: 

(When my nephew came over for a sleepover with my boys)
Me: Do you eat frozen pizza?
G: No. I eat it warmed up.

(Boys are having a pretend battle)
M: Hit him with your sword!
N: This isn't my sword; it's a death spatula.

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek into the daily conversations around here!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Mid-Rise Shorts Comparison

I have found that I'm not a fan of the high-rise shorts trend that is taking over these days.  Although it's a nice idea to cover up the less than firm stomach area, it's not all that practical because the shorts seems to sacrifice length for the tummy coverage.  Back in April, I needed shorts so I grabbed two pairs at Target online.  

One pair was completely ludicrous in its appearance once I put them on.  I felt like I was an extra in a music video wearing hot pants.  So, I did not intend to keep them.  I even began the return process for Target and was told "Oh, you can just keep them and we'll refund your money anyway."  If that's not a raving review by the company, I don't know what is. (insert eye roll here) I kept all the tags on the shorts and have put them in my "donate" pile because I just simply cannot bring myself to find a scenario in which I could comfortably wear the shorts.  

The other pair is okay.  I bought them after reading several other blogs about how they were the "unicorn" of shorts.  I'm not as big of a fan of them as others seem to be.  I like the frayed hem enough, but I'm uncomfortable with how high they come and therefore how short they appear.  I am long-waisted, so it takes a while to get from my pants inseam to my belly button where these shorts need to be in order to zip and button.  My torso is long, but my legs are short, so while the shorts rise very high and cover my midriff, they settle too high up my leg for me to be completely comfortable wearing them.  In all honesty, these shorts probably are great for some.  If someone was short-waisted and long-legged, then the shorts wouldn't have to rise so high to sit at the natural waist and would therefore be longer on the leg.  Since my body type is long-waisted and short-legged, I am not as comfortable with the high-rise trend. 

I was given two pairs of mid-rise shorts several years ago and completely wore one pair to shreds and am quickly approaching that level with the remaining pair.  I knew I needed to find similar mid-rise shorts, so I browsed around Old Navy and found three great options!  They arrived on Tuesday of this week and I am very happy with all three pairs.  Two of the pairs are actually the same short in different washes, and the third pair is a bit nicer and can be worn to events where you want to look a bit more pulled together.  

The two denim pairs can be found here.  I ordered the Medium Wash and the Dark Wash.  The have a 3 inch inseam which is just the right length for my legs.  They don't feel like bermuda shorts and also don't feel like hot pants-- so win, win.  :)

The hem is cuffed, but not sewn all the way around.  

Since it's not sewn all the way around, it can look unkempt in the back.  

 This can be an easy fix though by rolling the hem back into place and sewing a few anchor stitches.  I plan to sew the hem of both pairs of the denim shorts this weekend. 

They have a bit of stretch to them, so they show wrinkles easily, but also this means they wear well during the day and maintain comfortability. 

They are long enough to show from underneath a tunic-length shirt (my high-rise shorts are not long enough to peek out from underneath this same shirt).  These are the dark wash shown below. 

I pulled the shirt hem up to show the wrinkling that can occur from a full day of wearing.  This isn't bothersome to me, but I know it is to some. 

Here are the medium wash shorts.  

I'm really happy with the overall length of the shorts. 

I tried to show the unrolling of the hem that can occur from the lack of full sewing.  I'll update next week once I fix the hem this weekend. I do choose to wash the shorts inside out to help with the unrolling. 

The gray shorts can be found here.  I chose the color Blank Slate.  It's the perfect shade of neutral gray and can be worn with so many color combos.  It's a 3.5 inch inseam and the shorts are smooth and feel very comfortable when wearing.  

I feel like the length is appropriate for functions and doesn't cut into the midriff, but rises high enough to accommodate various shirt lengths. 

I took a couple photos of the dark wash mid-rise shorts next to my high-rise shorts to show how the shorts are slightly varied enough to cause different lengths. 

The high-rise are on the left and the mid-rise are on the right.  The high-rise shorts are from Target and can be found here. 

Side-by-side, they don't look that different in overall length.  It's the up close comparisons that will show the differences. 

Right next to each other, the high-rise shorts have a longer zipper because it needs to reach higher up on the midriff to get to the natural waist. 

The top of the high-rise shorts is about half an inch higher than the mid-rise shorts when the zippers are placed side-by-side. This rise of the zipper means that the length of the high-rise shorts comes up higher on the leg offering less protection around the rear area than the mid-rise shorts which offer complete coverage because they sit lower on the waist and therefore reach lower on the leg. 

It's always a nice feeling to find a style that truly fits the way my body is designed.  Knowing that I can be comfortable in these clothes is a huge plus, and in these days where we never really know what's coming next, every little joy we can find along the way is a blessing!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba