1. The Sleep Cycle app.  I am kind of addicted to it.  It’s a free app that monitors how well you sleep at night…but that’s not all–no that’s not all.  Somehow it uses your phone’s microphone to figure out how deeply you are (or aren’t) sleeping, how many hours you’re asleep, and your overall “sleep quality”.  Then when you see that your quality was only 57%…you can blame your snoring spouse for your mood!  Also it wakes you up with a peaceful noise when you’re at a light point in your sleep cycle.
  2. La Croix sparkling canned water.  It’s a guilty pleasure, I admit.  But it’s zero calories and no artificial flavors and stuff!  And it’s blackberry cucumber flavor…and it fills me up….and it’s different from water…and I like it!
  3. Chobani Flips.  Cutest little yogurt thingys with really fabulous flavors.  Blueberry cookie crumble, chocolate hazelnut, peanut butter dream….perfectly sweet and makes me feel vaguely healthy since it’s YOGURT.
  4. Burt’s Bees ultraconditioning lip balm.  My lips get SO dry during the winter.  And this?  This?  My mom introduced it to me and it has saved me.  I put it on before bed and I put it on before I run.  Life saver and lip saver.
  5. The Akinator app.  I am not a big game player. In fact, I don’t even let my kids play them in the car or when we have to wait for ten minutes for a table.  But…when my son showed me this one I couldn’t resist.  The whole family likes it!  And its bizzarely cool!! It has some crazy-huge data bank of famous people and will guess literally ANYONE that you can dream up.  Seriously.  My husband used Melchizedek and it totally got it right. It has actually given us fun times together laughing as a family.  It’s 1.99 in the app store. (Note: you might want to tap the “child protection” switch under settings to avoid some interesting questions!)
  6. Malted Hot Chocolate.  Need I say more?  Yum. It’s a mix. From Target.  Yum.
  7. Oil of Olay eye stuff.  Ok…this one is over $7. By a bit.  But I love it so much I had to include it.  When we did the pictures for this blog I noticed these lovely gray-black doughy circles threatening to overtake my eyes.  Seriously.  Don’t I have any friends??  Why has no one told me about this?  Have all my “friends'” eyesight gotten so bad that they couldn’t see how ghastly I looked??  Geesh. But seriously….I am truly impressed with how much improvement I have seen since starting to use this.  I love it now!
  8. Mother’s Leather Care.  This one is a bit over $7 also ($9.00)….but SOOOOO worth it.  My favorite smell EVER (except maybe truffle salt) is “new car”.  This stuff that my brother-in-law introduced me to makes my car smell AH-MAZE-ING.  I actually kind of love cleaning my seats!!
  9. Avocado smoothie. Heaven in a cup.  Make it at home with a few ingredients and oooooooooh.  I know it sounds weird….I KNOW!  But even my kids (including the one who hates avocados) love it.
  10. Ready for my cliché?  It’s a list, really: my husband laughing out loud at an old tv show, my teenager’s smile; my tween’s giggle as he leans into me, my daughter’s “love-you” notes left next to my bed, my dogs’ heavy sighs as they push their heads into me for an ear scratch, and a grande soy latte on a cold winter day.

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