I'll tell you my favorites if you tell me yours (please) *now enhanced with memes*

I need recommendations on a few things and thought I'd share some things I'm loving lately in return (ha! You are so welcome! I also included memes to help you make it through to the end. Memes are one of my many love languages.).

But seriously, help.

I'll go first.

If you eat Greek yogurt and haven't tried Greek Gods Vanilla Honey Greek yogurt yet, you are seriously missing out. I am not even a huge honey fan, but whatever these folks put into this yogurt make it taste like a vanilla cupcake and Steve and I have to restrain ourselves from eating an entire tub of it at a time. I like to mix in strawberries and bananas (and maybe yellow cake - stop judging me) and eat it after the kids go to bed. Sadly, I'm out of leftover birthday cake, but the strawberries and bananas still hit the spot. Target regularly has this on sale, it seems.

THIS CHOCOLATE CAKE. I have spent countless hours and calories testing out all of Pinterest's self-proclaimed "best chocolate cakes" and this one is it, folks. I even wrote the recipe down on a recipe card and stuck it in my recipe box, so I think that speaks to how much of a winner it is. It is moist, chocolatey, and honestly, better than any bakery chocolate cake I've ever had. Doesn't take much time to make, but seems kinda intense the first few times until you get a rhythm down. (Also, it calls for buttermilk and I do not keep that on hand, but if you fill up a liquid measuring cup just shy of one cup (what the recipe calls for) and then add in white vinegar until you get to the one cup mark, let it sit for a few minutes (while you mix everything else up), and add it last, it is magically transformed into buttermilk. Voila. You are now a magician on top of The Best Chocolate Cake Maker.)

I pair the above cake with this buttercream frosting. Your love handles will curse me while your taste buds praise me.

Now that you pretty much know all of my baking secrets, let's go 180* in the opposite direction.

Cloth diapering. Yes, we just went from chocolate cake to poop. These two things seem to encompass most of what my life is filled with these days (although I could stand for more cake and less poop). The yin and the yang, the good and the bad, the hot and the cold, the chocolate and the doo doo, baby. If you are cloth diapering and don't have this pail, I urge you to consider buying it. In the past, we always had bathrooms with windows in them so if things got a little too, ahem, ripe, I could always crack open a window and the smell escaped. But in our current (and previous) house, the bathroom NOR the washroom has a window, so the stink was strong. I found this odorless cloth diaper pail that has a magical activated charcoal disk inside and it seriously traps it all. I'm not gonna lie, you open the pail and almost die, but when the pail is closed (which is 99% of the time), it is golden. I thought it was kinda pricey for a poop holding pail, but it has been worth every cent and I'd recommend it to anyone.

I know I've recommended this before, but it is worth repeating- if you have Amazon Prime, Prime photo storage is something you need to take advantage of. It not only stores unlimited amounts of photos, but it also organizes them by date!!! It has an "on this day" feature, which just slays me daily at how fast everyone is growing. The fact that it is free with your Amazon Prime subscription is like icing on the cake. (It doesn't hurt that all the memes I screenshot pop up too and give me endless chuckles.)

These fridge magnets - I was so sick of school papers flying off the fridge every time I ran the vacuum anywhere near it (which happens quite often throughout the day) while using big alphabet kid magnets to hold them up. These magnets are tiny but strong. They are no match for Will of course, but for thick papers and schoolwork, they are great.

Trying to entertain tiny people in small spaces is never a fun time, but sometimes you find something that helps make it easier. Melissa and Doug toys are great, and recently, Sam and Molly have loved the Melissa & Doug Scratch Art Color-Reveal Pad. I will warn you, when they start scratching, it creates little flakes, similar to eraser dust. I don't mind this in the car because the floor of the car is already littered with busted up goldfish and granola bar wrappers and empty water bottles rolling about. Inside the house it tends to make me a little nuts, so if Molly wants to do it, I suggest we do it while out on a walk (if she's riding in the stroller) or she can sit on the back deck and scratch to her heart's content. When Sam and Molly were younger, they would spend a lot of time using the Melissa & Doug On the Go Water Wow! pads. Essentially, it's how parents like me (freaks! hand-wringy over messes!) allow their children to be exposed to some sort of art creation at home. Bonus is that once the pad dries, the colors in the picture disappear and they can start all over. No mess, no fuss, no cleanup, and it's reusable. Win, win, win, win.

Ok now that I've gone and told you my favorite things from lately, I need your help. We got a call from housing at Ft Bragg and have a home reserved. (YAY!) It is approximately 2.5 times the size of our current home (!!!) with a much different layout and lots of carpet..... I am choosing to focus on the square footage and multiple bedrooms and bathrooms instead of the carpet situation. Deep breaths. I really need recommendations for the following things:

• a washer and dryer (specifically big top load washers with no agitator!)
• a mattress that does not cost an entire mortgage payment (we are considering upgrading to a king size bed and putting our current queen size bed in the baby/guest room in NC, but I am still weighing the options here)
• an area rug to go under a dining room table (The kitchen has a little breakfast nook area but our big dining table will not fit there- the "official" dining room is carpeted (!GAH!GROSS!) and I am already dying envisioning the food stains. I am thinking an outdoor rug, but nothing too crazy color-wise because, food stains. It just needs to be big enough to encompass the table AND the chairs, which seems massive. I'm also worried about chairs getting snagged up on the carpet because it's carpet sitting on carpet. Someone who's been in this situation, please chime in and tell me it'll be ok.)
• babysitters who have access to Ft Bragg (My mom will be nearby when I go into labor, but will still be 2 hours away, so I need to find someone who can hang out with the other three in case I need to get the drugs and have the baby and drink the wine before she arrives. A date night more than once a year sounds nice as well, so if this chick is up for four kids 6 and under, please send her my way. I will compensate her in cash and baked goods, and maybe a bottle of wine the first time I get to escape without children on my person.)
• does anyone have a DockATot? I am super curious to know if this is worth the money or if it works on some kids and collects dust for others. I will do almost anything to guarantee some sleep on this fourth kid. I'm still reeling from Will and his sleep strike (since birth).

I think that's it. Spam me with any and all recommendations you have!! I'm all ears!!

This post contains affiliate link(s) and might earn me enough pennies to one day justify a tiny fraction of my Amazon purchases.