Mar 4, 2024

Weekly Roundup: Appreciating Pioneer Women Plus New Books and Shows

Happy March! My oldest turns 19 this month, which is crazy, because it means CFO is almost 19. How can that be?! Enjoy this week's roundup (I've marked affiliate/referral links with a *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!):

  • As a sports fan, I appreciate the best sports-writers. As a woman, I have a deep appreciation for those women who paved the way in all fields, but especially in male-dominated fields, the way Helene Elliott did. She just retired from the LA Times, in large part to save the job of another, younger (male) writer. She doesn't know me, but I wish her the best, and she'll always have my thanks and admiration for the way she did her job. (Especially considering a Scottish soccer coach responded "Good girl" to a female reporter just this past week.)

  • Along the same lines of appreciating women who paved the way, I enjoyed reading Victoria Thompson's Counterfeit Lady series.* It's set around the time of the first World War and the protagonist becomes a suffragist. It blows me away to think that in the same century in which I was born, women didn't have the right to vote! Even knowing the outcome, I had to finish the series in the car at Whole Foods because I just couldn't stop reading.

  • I've been looking for new freezer meals, so this week I'll be making RecipeTin Eats' Shredded Beef Ragu and Japanese Salmon with Mirin and Soy Sauce.

  • If you're looking for new shows to watch, I just started watching the CBS series Fire Country, and I can understand why it's my son's favorite show because it's sooo good! I can also recommend the new CBS series Elsbeth. which has the best Columbo vibes.

Please let me know if there's something you'd love to see in the roundup. And don't forget to sign up for my monthly email newsletter!

Feb 26, 2024

Weekly Roundup: Cheap Puffs with Lotion, Copycat Red Lobster biscuits, Eclipse Tips

If you happen to be a Leap Day baby, let me wish you an early happy birthday! A friend's wife was born on Leap Day and I've always been a little envious that she can claim to be so young 😂 Also, I sent out the February edition of the email newsletter on Friday, so if you haven't seen it, please check your spam. On to this week's roundup (I've marked affiliate/referral links with a *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!):

  • If you need tissue and prefer the lotion variety like we do (my son in particular has been going through a lot of tissue lately - I think it's a combo of allergies and a cold): Target has a very good deal when you buy 4 8-packs of Puffs Plus Lotion* at $13.49 each. You'll get back a $15 Target gift card, making your cost just $0.97 per box, which meets my rarely-met target price of $1 or less per box. Amazon has an even better deal if you don't qualify for the 15% off Subscribe & Save discount: Buy 4 8-packs at $12.72 $11.38 each* when you Subscribe & Save at 5% 15% off and get a $15 promotional credit, making the price just $0.90 $0.76 per box!

  • I made these Copycat Red Lobster biscuits for dinner last night and they were delicious. I especially liked the dough, because I have a tendency to overmix biscuit dough and this dough came together super quickly and didn't need much mixing.

  • A tip for those who have Coverdell Education Savings Accounts: Keep track of contributions. I filed our taxes using TurboTax, and it's the first time I've had 1099-Q forms since our oldest is now in college. I took distributions from his Coverdell ESA, and the program asked how much basis was in the account. Um ... I don't remember! Luckily, I had the records to reconstruct all of our contributions, but it was stressful for a while.

  • This story from a WWE hall-of-famer is the best Taylor Swift story I've ever heard.

  • Maybe because LA isn't in the path of the upcoming full eclipse, I didn't know anything about it until recently. And then I came upon i am a food blog's comprehensive eclipse guide. If you have any interest in eclipse viewing, it's a great place to start.

  • Has anyone been to a Cream Pan bakery? It was named best bakery in California, so I can see myself making a special trek to one sometime (there isn't one particularly nearby, unfortunately).

Please let me know if there's something you'd love to see in the roundup. And don't forget to sign up for my monthly email newsletter!

Feb 19, 2024

Weekly Roundup: Best Cooking Shortcut, JANM Educator Workshop and (Sorta) Free Money

If you're local, I hope you're staying dry because that rain is coming down - stay in and enjoy this week's roundup with a hot drink! (I've marked affiliate/referral links with a *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!):

  • I thought I would share what might be my best kitchen shortcut: I've mentioned before that my husband and I dislike onions, but I discovered through the years that caramelized onions are acceptable. So what I do is chop a whole bunch of onions (you can do it by hand or with a food processor), and then cook them over low heat for a few hours with some olive oil and salt. When they're super soft and lightly browned, I let them cool and them put them in quart-size ziptop bags like the one in the photo below and freeze them flat. When I want to use them, I just snap off pieces, like you see in the pan next to the bag. You'll want to be sure to keep the bags fairly thin and not put too much onion into one bag - if the onion layer is too thick, it will be difficult to snap off pieces to use. (Ask me how I know 😂)


  • Here's a tip for when you have major work done on your house: Revisit your homeowner's insurance policy. Since we remodeled our kitchen last fall, we just increased the coverage of our homeowner's and earthquake policies. Obviously, we hope we'll never need to tap the insurance, but there was a fairly substantial earthquake a couple of weeks ago. (And with all this rain we're getting in Southern California, don't forget about flood insurance if you might experience resulting problems. Damage from mudslides may or may not be covered.)

  • It's Girl Scout Cookies time of year, and I've supported the daughters of a couple of friends. But if you don't have a local troop or scout you want to support, you can always order cookies from New York City's Troop 6000, which serves homeless girls. There doesn't seem to be a comparable troop in Los Angeles.

  • Do you know an educator? The Japanese American National Museum is currently accepting applications for a Landmarks of American History and Culture educator workshop titled Little Tokyo: How History Shapes a Community Across Generations, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. There's a $1,300 stipend and a trip to Manzanar National Historic Site.

  • Finally, I just wanted to note that it's worth claiming your portion of a class action settlement. Sometimes the payout is a measly $1.07 (I'm not kidding, we actually got a check for that amount once). But sometimes it's over $100. We've already received over $300 in class action pay outs this year (and it's only February). It's not exactly free money, but it's close! I do recommend checking to make sure the notification is legitimate when you first receive it, if you're not the one initiating the claim.

Please let me know if there's something you'd love to see in the roundup. And don't forget to sign up for my monthly email newsletter!

Feb 13, 2024

Weekly Roundup: The Best Chocolate Dipping Sauce, Recommendations for a Book and Cards, College Admissions Info

Oops! I forgot to post this week's roundup yesterday, and now it's a day late - but not too late! (I've marked affiliate/referral links with a *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!):

  • Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I have to recommend my Chocolate Dipping Sauce recipe, which is super easy (all in the microwave), and totally delicious. If you're the creative type when it comes to your kids' Valentines, there are lots of ideas on my Valentine's Day Pinterest board (plus many dessert recipes).

  • I just finished reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo* and it was surprisingly compelling. I did not see the twist coming at all - all of my guesses were completely wrong! This would be a really fun book club read.

  • One product I've come to love in the last couple of years is Lovepop cards* - they're high-quality greeting cards with fun pop-ups, which makes them special. They're not exactly cheap, but you can get 5 for $50 - and they're way cheaper than sending flowers or a gift, which makes them perfect for friends' and aunts' birthdays (for example). There's also a limited selection of pop-up notecard packs, which are great for "I'm thinking of you" notes. There are more expensive pop-up products too, including fancy bouquets, which make a nice, long-lasting gift.

  • Important information for high school seniors: Because of the delays in processing FAFSAs, colleges (including UCs and CSUs) have begun to extend the traditional May 1 deadline for students to decide where they will attend. However, not all colleges have done so, which makes it incredibly important for students to know exactly what their deadlines are.

  • Speaking of college admissions, I think I've mentioned this before, but I want to give another shout out to my favorite podcast on the subject, Getting In: A College Coach Conversation. Their advice is spot on, and they cover just about every topic.

Please let me know if there's something you'd love to see in the roundup. And don't forget to sign up for my monthly email newsletter!

Feb 9, 2024

The Hardest, Most Frustrating Thing I've Learned From College Counseling

I've been on the college counseling journey for a while now, and the most frustrating thing about the profession is this: You'll never know why a student was not admitted.

(I've marked affiliate/referral links with an *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!)

This can be a hard and confusing time of year for high school seniors and their parents: Peers who you know have a lower GPA and weren't as involved at school get into a school that waitlisted you. A friend's child who seemed as competitive a candidate as your child but not more so gets in at schools that don't admit your child. A friend who gets into an Ivy League school gets waitlisted at a state school. Friends with better GPAs than yours don't get into the school you get into (who are you going to room with?!). Your younger child doesn't even get admitted to the school that offered your older child a full scholarship - even though they went to the same high school, got the same grades and ACT scores, and had similar activities.

All of these scenarios are drawn from my real life experiences. And there's no explaining these decisions, because you can't track down the specific admissions officers who made them and demand answers. (As appealing as that thought may be.)

There are so many possible reasons for the decisions, particularly at schools that use a holistic review process that includes not just a student's academic record but also essays and/or letters of recommendation. It could come down to a student's essay being compelling, or students selecting a major that's super competitive or not competitive at all. Maybe a college is protecting its yield (the percentage of students admitted who commit to attend), prioritizing geographic diversity, or needs a whole lot of violinists.

I'm not the only person who wishes the process were more transparent. In fact, Jeffrey Selingo, who writes about education for the New York Times, suggests in his book Who Gets In and Why* that college admissions should move to a matching system so students are paired with the school that fits them best. He doesn't offer a lot of practical ideas on how such a system could be implemented, and I don't think it's realistic, but it has made me wonder why the admissions process isn't more transparent.

A friend reached out to me over winter break, after her daughter had gotten decisions from multiple colleges that she'd applied to via early action. My advice was:

You'll never know why the admissions committee decided the way they did, and it's not worth trying to get in their heads. The best thing you can do is focus on where your daughter has gotten in and not where she hasn't, and on making sure she feels good about the options she already has.

And so here is the most important advice I can offer: Make sure you and even more important your child feels excited about all of the schools that they're applying to. That way, every school they get into - whether it's one or twenty - will be a good fit.


Feb 5, 2024

Weekly Roundup: FAFSA update, Super Bowl appetizers, No-show socks and more

Wow, it's February already! And it's time for another roundup (I've marked affiliate/referral links with an *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!):

  • If you've filed a FAFSA for the 2024-2025 school year, the Department of Education says your information won't be sent to colleges until the "first half of March." Unfortunately, that means colleges can't start preparing their financial aid packages until then ...

  • The Super Bowl is coming up on Sunday, which means I'll be making a bunch of appetizers to munch on during the game. Here's my Pinterest board for Appetizers, which has lots of fun recipes, although I haven't settled on what I'm going to make. I'm getting inspired by the board below, but I'm thinking more of a true charcuterie board so it can be a meal:

     

  • The massive amount of rain we're getting in LA right now has led to mandatory evacuations in some areas. It's reminded me that I need to double check our emergency kit and to remind you that if you don't have an emergency kit, you should. If you're already prepared, here are some suggestions for upgrading your emergency kit.

  • A new-to-me cozy mystery series I enjoyed is Maddie Day's Country Store series.* (I particularly love the punny titles, like No Grater Crime* and Four Leaf Cleaver.*)

  • I like to wear no-show socks with my tennis shoes, but I have the hardest time with them slipping down. I finally found these socks from Uniqlo,* which actually stay up. They're 43% acrylic and only 28% cotton, but even when my feet are sweaty from working out, they feel comfortable (which is not always the case).

Please let me know if there's something you'd love to see in the roundup. And don't forget to sign up for my monthly email newsletter!


Jan 29, 2024

Weekly Roundup: Free books from London Lovett, Two gift ideas, and a Tip for resolving a twitchy eye

Monday means it's time for another Weekly Roundup (I've marked affiliate/referral links with an *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!):

  • London Lovett writes some of my favorite cozy mysteries, so I subscribed to her newsletter. The best thing about her newsletter is that she regularly links to free books - usually her own, but she often teams up with other writers, as she did last week. Her Port Danby series* is one of my favorites.

  • I really enjoy Character Lab's tip of the week email, and last weekend's was particularly insightful - or maybe just a timely reminder that "[a]nything seems obvious, after the fact," and therefore you shouldn't blame yourself for seems like a stupid mistake.

  • A gift idea for someone who might not be too easy to buy for: A reusable photo bag* with a pet's photo. I've done this a couple of times with my childhood dog's photo, making bags for my mom and aunts (who owned the dog before he became mine/ours). I need to get my hands on my husband's childhood dog so I can make a bag for my mother-in-law, but I'm not quite sure how to do that ...

  • Another easy gift idea is ordering flowers from Costco* - I've done it many times now, because they're reasonably priced (there are quite a few options under $50) and come well-packed. In fact, they also seem to last much longer than the bouquets my husband buys from the warehouse. Recipients have told me the flowers are still blooming after two weeks. Pro tip: You can pick your delivery date, but perhaps more importantly, you can add a gift message - but it's easy to forget to do it because it's at the end of the checkout page, so don't forget!

  • Last year, my eye kept twitching, and I was starting to worry that something was wrong. It turns out I have diplopia, or double vision, which my optometrist described as my eyes not being able to communicate well with each other. She added a prism to my glasses, which has made all the difference - I can only describe it as being able to see easier, like those eye muscles aren't having to work so hard to see together. In fact, I just went in for my annual exam and decided I want/need a little more prism in my new glasses. So if you happen to have a twitching problem, instead of freaking out (I didn't quite get to that level), just go see your eye doctor.

Please let me know if there's something you'd love to see in the roundup. I sent out my revamped monthly newsletter via email over the weekend, so if you're signed up and didn't get it, please check your spam folder. Have a great week!