Category: Home Hacks

4 things that have made life more streamlined, more meaningful, more fun, and more delightful lately

I have renewed my commitment to waking up early, so today, I got up with Nate at 5 am, and after my prayer and Bible reading time, I’m writing! Life in the Heckman household has been hard the last week with both boys getting sick back to back, and as it is, there are so many bad things happening in the world. So, I wanted to do a little post to help share some things currently making more streamlined, meaningful, fun, and delightful as of late.

More delightful- This movie

I love a movie I can enjoy with Nate and then immediately text my mother-in-law, “You gotta watch this movie!” This is one of those kinds of movies. Thanks to my friend Tory for the suggestion! Side note- I love having a friend who has the exact same taste in movies and series as me. Anytime we like a movie or show, we text each other. It’s one of the small, quiet glimmers of having a girl friend who shares something in common with you. Speaking of friendship…

More meaningful- This podcast

This podcast episode delves deep into the benefits of friendship, the different kinds of friendships, and most importantly, ways to be a better friend and deepen your friendships. I don’t typically like podcasts where just one person is talking to the audience, but Arthur Brooks is the exception. As a Harvard professor, he does his podcasts like a lecture, being very science-based, well-researched, and organized. You can tell his podcasts are outlined, and he’s not just talking in stream of consciousness. He gets straight to the point and speaks quickly and persuasively. I love all his work.

More fun- This activity

How cute is this idea! My kids are constantly giving me tiny little flowers that I never know what to do with, and this is the perfect whimsical solution!

More streamlined- This chore/schoolwork system

Ok first, God is so good because unbeknownst to me, I married someone who is constantly improving my life on his own initiative.

Remember my sad chore chart?

I had to erase things and rewrite things every night because not every chore or schoolwork item happened everyday. Well, Nate is a genius. He wrote every possible option in wet erase marker (harder to remove) and then in dry erase marker (easier to remove) I just have to outline in red or blue (on the left side) so the boys know it’s something that needs to be done that day. Then they just fill in the square when they’ve completed it. If the item isn’t framed in red or blue, it’s not something that needs to be done that day.

I guess the point is to marry someone who makes your life infinitely easier, not harder! 😂🥰Love this meme-

So true!!

So what’s making your week better? I’d love to know!

5 favorite things we’ve printed on a 3D printer

3D printing is all the rage these days! My son, Noah, is taking a 3D printing class that he is loving, so we got him this 3D printer for Christmas. Honesty, Nate has been making more stuff on it than Noah at this point. These are my top 5 prints!

1. Earrings I drew and Noah designed

Gosh, this is a proud mamma moment. Noah is now able to independently design and print his own designs using Tinkercad! So, for my bday, he designed and printed these earrings for me. Thinking we might do an Etsy shop down the road!

2. Taco holders in white

I asked Nate to print these out in white so that they kind of blend into the plate and the tacos are the star of the show. You know how tacos always fall over when you serve them? This is the fix! Btw, this is the pegboard we use for our plates and bowls that you see in the background. Of course Nate put these in. Very handy to have these separators.

3. Battery holders

I don’t know how anyone else stores batteries, but we used to just have them rolling around the bottom of this drawer. This was Nate’s genius idea. Now I can see how many we actually have instead of rummaging my hand in said drawer and guessing.

4. Shoe organizers for above the closet

This allows for three cool things, double the space for shoes, being able to still see what shoe lies behind, and being able to still include boots! Nate’s point.

5. Water bottle and coffee bottle holders

We also had no good solution for water bottles, so Nate printed out two different sizes to organize these. His point again!

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New family friendly outdoor winter activity, my number 1 shelving trick that anyone can follow, and the easy peasy breakfast we are enjoying this week

Hi friends! Hubby is off for two weeks! What are you doing while kids are off school?

Outdoor cold weather family friendly outing

Today it was cold but sunny, so we took our family to their first ever revolving sushi restaurant. It was actually super exciting for them to open up the doors and grab their choices or rush to grab something on the conveyer belt before it was too late. Oh the thrill of firsts! We let them be next to the belt.

We asked Chatgpt to find us a sushi place that was next to a bike trail, and then Nate used the footpath app to mark our route. For boys ages 7 and 10, 4 miles one way is just about perfect for us- exercise with no whining yet 🤣 It also helps that we searched for two geocaches en route. Even on a day that was 39 degrees, it was surprisingly warm since it was full sun and we bundled up and started moving. Highly recommend a biking-4-miles-to-a-food-destination-and-finding-geocaches-along-the-way outing.

Any other cold weather outdoor family friendly activities you’d recommend?

My number 1 shelving trick that anyone can follow

Ok, let’s talk shelving! A lot of people on interior design facebook groups get really frustrated and can’t seem to figure out shelving. I’m sure there are lots of other tricks, but the easiest trick I’ve found is to separate all your groupings. Every separate grouping has either 1,2,3, or 4 items clustered together and all those items must be different sizes.

Check it out above with the clients I helped! It’s such a simple little trick.

An easy peasy breakfast idea we are loving currently

So Nate is off from Dec 25- Jan 4 which means I’m making breakfast every morning. How many ways can a wife cook an egg? That is the question and challenge for the week. 🤣 We love smoked cheese scrambled eggs with bacon and cubed hashbrowns with onions, over medium fried eggs with crispy eggsnest hashbrowns, over medium eggs on tomato and mayo open faced sandwiches, soft boiled eggs made fancy eaten in the shell and cracked on top served with little buttery toasts the size of fingers and dipped into the soft boiled eggs, and now this here taco has made the cut. Wish we had the cilantro and the avocados – would have made it over the top amazing adding that bit of freshness!

Do you have any favorite egg recipes?!! I’d love to know!

P.s. my absolute favorite egg recipe is this crustless quiche given to me by a bed and breakfast owner!