A personal heater, vegan gummy bears and other things that have arrived in the mail lately

As a blogger, and an avid online shopper, there are many lovely things that arrive in my mail every week and it’s always exciting to see what might turn up next.  I’m so amazed when mail gets delivered, even in the snow!  Last week we were away in Amsterdam (I have some sneak-peeks on Instagram) and I’ll have details about our trip on the blog soon, but for now here are some interesting things in my mailbox that I thought I’d share.

Like this heater.  I never thought I’d need a personal/portable heater and I doubt it’s  supposed to be a “personal heater”, but I’ve been working at home for the past week and it’s been so chilly, and the hubby has the house on a WIFI system where he can tell if I’ve turned up the heat.  So this Honeywell 360 surround heater has been perfect.  It can heat up my toes or even a whole room and at under 35 dollars it seems like a pretty reasonable investment. If I had a job in a real office, I’d totally sneak this under my desk and wear bare feet all day and feel like I’m in Hawaii….(I love the handle on top so I can carry it around with me from room to room.)

Another fun thing in my mailbox lately was a bag of these vegan gummy bears from YumEarth. Someone in my facebook network recently circulated an awful video about how gelatin in regular gummy candies is made and it grossed me out, so I was totally happy that these ones are vegan so I don’t have to worry about gelatin.

They come in little packages that make it easier for me not to eat a whole giant bag too because once I open a bag of candy it is so hard to stop until all the candy disappears.  These gummies even came with us on our recent trip and we ate them on a canal boat on our first day in Amsterdam while we tried not to fall asleep because of jet lag.

And where was FaceTime when we were teenagers?  I can’t stop FaceTiming my niece and nephew-they are always doing something hilarious.  They love animals and colors and books, and thanks to technology sometimes we read books together even though I’m in Seattle and they’re in Canada.  Have you ever read a book over FaceTime? I was really thankful that I was sent this “If I were a whale” book in the mail just in time for when they visited me in REAL life a few weeks ago.

We were getting dressed to go outside in the snow when my nephew decided we had to stop and read about whales.  I hope he is always this excited about reading as he gets older-I love how much these kids love books.  This whale book was fun to read together because there are lots of beautiful whale pictures and I even learned about a few whales I didn’t know about too.

I also got a mailing about something awesome happening at Uvillage this weekend.  If you buy a shopping card for $25 (to help support the Ronald McDonald House) you can get 25% off at a ton of stores in Uvillage between March 10-12 including places like Free People and Trophy Cupcakes so I’m totally excited to buy my pass this week and shop for a good cause.

It’s also the time of year when we’re starting to get Summer Camp idead for the kids in the mailbox.  It is so chilly out that I haven’t even started to think about summer.  The cherry blossoms aren’t even out yet!  I would like a little spring first, but I know if I wait I won’t have the kids registered before everything fill up.  If you’re in Seattle do you have any fun camp recommendations? (Last year my guys did the Moss Bay boat camp and loved learning how to stand-up paddle board, kayak and sail so we’re trying to see what fun things we can find for this summer too!)  How do you decide where your kids go for summer camp? It’s Monday today and I totally wish it was still the weekend…..

(PS. As mentioned before, the heater, gummy bears and book were provided for review, but the opinions in this blog are my own.

PPS. I also received a bathing suit I ordered from Target, milk delivery and a bunch of books from Amazon, but I’ll tell you about those things another day….Have you had anything fun in the mail recently?)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)