Chai- Tea for Two

***The product you see in the photo was given to me in exchange for my honest evaluation. All opinions expressed are my own.***

I have lots of recipes for Hot drinks, some I've even shared with you, I've drank premixes, and even had a Keurig for a bit, and just this week got free Caribou Coffee for a year!

It's Minnesota though, and winters are long and sometimes pretty rough. which means I have plenty of opportunities every year to drink all of my favorites and try new ones! This time I get to try Tazo, Chai Filterbag Tea or Latte Concentrate.

Several years ago I got to stay at a Resort where the served Tazo, Wild Sweet Orange Herbal Tea in the workout room. I've been a fan of Tazo since. So my expectations where high.

Thankfully I was sent samples of the prepackaged tea for steeping in hot water as I could only find the Classic Latte in my local store.

All of the flavors where yummy. the Classic Latte was my favorite, but a much higher calorie choice. Overall it was a delicious sample!

You too can sign up to receive free Samples for you to try and share from Smiley360!

Partial Solar Eclipse

OK, so this is a pretty old photo. Is is from October 2014! I started this post and then never got back around to finishing it. I've been on a personal mission since Thanksgiving though, (Thanksgiving resolutions are a thing right?) My mom and sister decided to come for the weekend to visit. Those of you who've been following me for a while may remember how terrible my family views my house keeping skills. I have gotten significantly better, but I still panic a little anytime they come to visit. Long story short, I made a decision to complete things when I see them instead of setting it aside for later. So here we are January 10th 2016 and I am sharing this photo.

Disclosure - This has been a long, often frustrating assignment. For example I walk down the stairs to get a can of beans to cook with, see a toy to put away, then grab the dirty clothes and put them by the washing machine, wait better start a load, need to fold and put that other one away, these drawers need to be reorganized, this needs to go to the garbage, I need to empty all of the garbage cans, "mom, I'm hungry", doh, that can of beans are still in the basement! After several months I still have moments like that, and my to do list never seems to go away, but so many things have been crossed off, and I've even started to notice things that are done more than not done!

You can see the top portion of the sun is blocked by the moon. This was a neat thing to share with my kids. When I was a kid I didn't always enjoy science class, as an adult science things cause me to geek out a bit. We saw several of the blood moons in 2014/2015, the meteor shower in August, and chose Astronomy for our curriculum this year. I love seeing my kids searching for planets and constellations in the night sky. They've asked some great questions, notice moon fazes, and even know that Thermal Nuclear Fusion describes the explosions on the sun's surface.

The day of this Solar Eclipse, our local girls soccer team played their first ever game at the State Championship Tournament. We went directly from cheering them as they left town forever changing the history of our little town, to witnessing another rare sight.

All that meandering to say. Be different, find your passion, read, learn, try new things, practice! 

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein

Here's My Two Cents

**Sponsored post, but all opinions are my own.

I don't know about your, but every year I get older. As I get older some of my parts don't work as well as they used too. One of the most noticeable is my skin. No matter how hard I try to get enough water, it seems as though it is always dry.

So when I got an email asking me to try Nature's Bounty Optimal Solutions Hair, Skin, and Nails I was excited to try it. (As a member of Smiley360 I am often given the chance to try new products. I usually get a free full sized sample and then various sized samples and coupons to share with my friends.)

I've been taking the strawberry flavored gummies for a couple of weeks now. My nails do seem stronger, I haven't noticed any change in my hair, and my skin actually feels dryer! I do not attribute all of it to the supplement. I do live in MN and the weather has just changed to cold and that always dries me out. I started using an apple cider vinegar rinse for my hair this summer when we were swimming lots and my hair has been all around better, since then. My fingernails though, do seem stronger and are breaking less, even with the cold.

My final opinion is that it's ok. If I really cared about the strength of my nails, I would probably purchase and use it in the future. However, I am more concerned about my skin. Since starting I have noticed dry spots, that I had never had before. Again I don't know if it's just a combination of age and weather, I do not believe the supplement caused it, only that it definitely did not prevent/treat it. Even my go to, amazing, hand cream is struggling to get a spot on my pinkie finger that is rubbing my wedding ring.

**After some research I took off my ring for a couple of weeks to let my pinkie heal. I also gave my ring a good cleaning to remove any irritants. It all seems to be good again.

I do however strongly recommend the use of Apple Cider Vinegar. It's cheap ($2 a gallon) and works on a plethora of things.