Just Jordan

Our Children's Map of the World. This map has been hanging on our wall for close to a year. Hugh had wanted a map for Calder and he spotted this one at Costco a while back. I personally liked the plain map of the world with countries that was also at Costco, but having seen how much our kids use this version of the map, I definitely think Hugh hit this one out of the park. Similar one HERE . As you can see there are all sorts of animals, buildings, and people on the map. They are all named and have started MANY conversations at our house around sharks, ships, churches, and even vampires! I would say Boone looks at this map on a daily basis. This feels like a pretty good estimation because I have to tell him to stop standing on that wicker basket on at least half of those occasions. Lawson is playing with her snot here. Please ignore.    Calder has used the map to find Syria when we were talking about refugees, locate China and Ireland when classmates took trips t...

Ali Express. You might be wondering what Ali Express is all about from my last post. It is an online shop out of China. They have knock off items and relatively cheap merchandise. It typically takes about a month for things to arrive, but I have never had to pay shipping and there is no minimum purchase. Last week I needed a tool to take a link out of a watch. I ordered it on its own and it was $2. None of that jewelry I posted cost more than $10. I have bought so MANY things from them. Toques, pjs for the boys, wind-up flash lights, and I have seen lots of the items that were in the kids' stocking there as well! Two of my favorite items from there are the hockey jerseys I bought. Hugh is donating the McDavid jersey to a fundraiser and we got the Stamkos one for Calder for his birthday. They both look authentic. It might be hard to tell, but they are NOT screen printed. They also have Reebok tags on them. Like I said, they look authentic!  Oh, and the price?  $30. I want a...

My L'Oreal Double Extend Mascara. This stuff is amazing. It doesn't run or smear, but with a bit of water comes off in clumps. It is tube mascara, so rather than being painted on it somehow forms tubes around your eyelashes. I have been using this stuff for over 5 years. I remember my mom and sister asking me if I wanted waterproof mascara for Tripp's funeral, but I had already fallen in love with my tubes.  This stuff never wears off. Ever. But it washes off VERY easily. I have used waterproof mascara before and it pales in comparision to this stuff. There are many different brands of tube mascara. I have tried one from Sephora. I hated it. The tube was faulty and the price was way more. I get mine when I order from Walmart.ca. Here is the link, but you can likely pick it up in store as well. I just LOVE me some online shopping! While we were skiing in Kimberly Calder and I had a shower together after a hot tub. I rubbed my eyes and all my tubes of mascara rubbed o...

My two tiered fruit stand. Firstly, I apologize for the picture. It is kind of dark, but I am too lazy to retake it or edit it! When I reorganized my pantry this spring, one of the things I hated the most was our lack of space for fruit. I got the fruit dish on the right as a shower gift when Hugh and I got married, but we go through a lot of fruit and one bowl just wasn't cutting it. Looks like a lot of bananas?  Boone eats a banana every day before breakfast. That boy wakes up famished. He is also part monkey.  I love to be able to see what is in our pantry. Although, it can get out of control messy at times, I truly do like it neat and tidy. That being said, in the spring I headed to Home Sense with a list of items to increase my organization. While I was perusing, I stumbled upon the two tiered fruit bowl. I instantly fell in love. In fact, I can see myself ordering THIS  similar one from Amazon at some point in the future when I need even more room to st...

My rice cooker. A couple weeks ago I dropped off a meal at a friend's house. It included rice cooked in our steamer. According to my friend, her children were absolutely raving about how good the rice was. I swear, if you don't have some sort of rice cooker, consider buying one. In fact, I actually bought a replica of the steamer we have at home for at the lake last spring. It is $35 at Walmart. I had cooked my friend Jasmine rice (from Costco). I followed the directions that come with my machine and tossed in a tablespoon of butter because, clearly we love butter at my house.  I flipped the dial to 55 minutes and walked away. Now that I am back to work, I will actually start the steamer before I leave the house in the morning. When I get home I just turn the dial to add 15 minutes and it steams it warm.  We use our steamer to cook rice almost once a week. We all love it and I love the convenience. Want more grain? I also find it super easy to include multigrain ...

My automatic timer. What is it? It is a programable timer. It plugs into the wall and its side has an outlet that you can plug any device into. It can be programmed to turn things on and off at a given time. Its manual describes its use to include having a lamp go on and off at different times which could be used to make it look like someone is home. I use it for my slow cooker. Why do I love it? One of my biggest pet peeves with using the slow cooker is that typically things get over done. Meat can get dry and thicker sauces can burn. When working I am gone from the house for 9 hours. This is way too long to set something in a slow cooker to cook, even on low. I had family members search for a programable slow cooker for my birthday this year. I wanted one with a delay start. After much searching, my sister, Jes, and Hugh proclaimed that a slow cooker with that feature does not exist. You can find slow cookers that flip from a cooking setting to a "keep warm" setting...