Make My Life Easier Thursday: Temperature Control Smart Mug
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I like my coffee and tea hot, like, burning-my-throat-as-it-goes down hot. Even at home, I often drink out of an insulated travel cup so my caffeine of choice stays hotter longer. However, I prefer using a mug. When I drink from a mug, I can smell the beverage’s aroma and use that moment to center my morning. Drinking from a travel mug seems more like an efficient transaction to deliver caffeine.
It seems like Ember created its Temperature Control Smart Mug for people like me. You get the pleasure of drinking from an actual mug, but you can set (from your phone!) the exact drinking temperature. In a time when so much seems out of our control, perhaps there is a little comfort controlling something as small as the temperature of your drink.
The 14 oz. mug is available for $129.99 and comes in black or white. There’s also a 10 oz. version for $99.95. Best Buy only carries the 14 oz., while Ember.com has both sizes. Temperature Control Smart Mug
Sales of note for 12.10
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Beauty deals on skincare (ends 12/14) including La Mer, Kate Somerville, Dior, Sunday Riley, Dyson, and gift sets — the deals include reader favorite lip balms Dior Addict, NARS Afterglow, and Clinique’s Black Honey, as well as Too Faced mascara and Sunday Riley’s Good Genes.
- Ann Taylor – 40% off your purchase, up to 50% off outerwear
- Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything + extra 20% off
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off all sale + extra 25% off 2+ items
- J.Crew – Up to 60% off everything, with 40% off their newest styles
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off everything + extra 25% off when you buy 3+ styles
- Macy’s – 15% off beauty, including Tarte, Clinique, Dior and gift sets
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off, plus free shipping on everything (and 20% off your first order)
- Talbots – 50% off everything + extra 25% off when you buy 3+ styles
And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- The concept of “backup care” is so stupid…
- I need tips on managing employees in BigLaw who have to leave for daycare pickup…
- I’m thinking of leaning out to spend more time with my family – how can I find the perfect job for that?
- I’m now a SAHM and my husband needs to step up…
- How can I change my thinking to better recognize some of my husband’s contributions as important, like organizing the shed?
- What are your tips to having a good weekend with kids, especially with little kids? Do you have a set routine or plan?
My almost 5 year old needs glasses and I am hoping to avoid in-person stores if possible! Favorite online retailers? I saw an ad for Jonas Paul, which looked like Warby Parker for kids. Has anyone tried it (and if so, thoughts on the quality?)
How do you decide whether you are too old for another child? DH and I have a 9 yo and a 2 yo and are discussing having a third child. 9 yo was conceived naturally, but we had to do IVF for the 2 yo because of low sperm count. We have 2 frozen embryos left that have gone through PGS testing. DH is 41, has Type 2 diabetes, and could lose some weight (not judging him at all, love him exactly how he is, but just speaking medically/health-wise). I am 40 and otherwise healthy. DH’s main concerns are our ages and his health. I understand those concerns especially for the future, but day-to-day wise, I actually feel more relaxed and patient parenting our 2 yo than I did with our older kid. I’m sure part of this is it was not our first child, but also I do feel that age has calmed me down some so that I don’t stress about as many little things. My focus is more generally on having 3 kids vs. 2 kids. When I think long-term though, DH would be 60 when the last kid graduated high school! Any thoughts?
When my husband and I got married, I kept my name. We now have a daughter (4 mo old) who has my husband’s last name. I’ve spend almost two weeks writing her name over and over on bottles (just ordered labels!) and I feel left out and am thinking of changing my name to be husband’s last name. I am liking the idea of us all having the same last name. I am a lawyer and think I can still practice under my last name (I will confirm). My thought is I would go by FirstName MyLastName at work, and FirstNameHisLastName elsewhere (or be like RBG and use FirstName MyLastName HisLastName). My question is…is this a weird post-partum thing? I want to give myself at least a month to think about it. I really like the idea but am concerned this is hormones or stress (for example, during finals of law school I started planning to spend a semester in Tokyo – met with professors, etc. As soon as finals ended, I never thought about moving to Tokyo again.) How do I think through this? How do I give myself time?
Did you and/or your partner undertake genetic carrier screening before TTC? Why or why not? Any advice about considering genetic risk?
My fertility clinic is really pushing carrier screening for me. My selected donor has screening results for 300 conditions and is a carrier for three genetic variants that are serious, but treatable, and not life limiting nor associated with profound mental nor physical disability. I was only able to get testing for 288 conditions, including two that donor carries (I am not a carrier of them) – one of the three the donor carries I could not arrange testing for in Canada (donor is from States and had access to different lab). Reproductive risk is 1/240 of me using donor without getting carrier testing for that last condition myself. The only option to test for this gene is in Finland for $850 USD. Not sure that the 1/240 risk is worth the cost, or the delay this would pose to my treatment (after an already long wait for care). And I feel unsure why my fertility doctor is pushing so hard. Many people use donors who don’t have expanded carrier screening and wouldn’t know about this condition, or TTC with a partner without having screening, or move ahead with greater reproductive risk than 1/240. I’m frustrated that I’m at the one yard line and now feeling like I need to doubt this, or that doctor is making me feel as though this is taking a risk when most people don’t even have this carrier information to begin with. Looking for perspective.
Oh – note, sadly changing donor isn’t much of an option because due to my CMV status and RH factor and COVID supply limitations, there really aren’t tons of alternatives.
Interested in our children’s special interests and how we support them. Maybe we can get some ideas from each other!
For example, my daughter is four and a half and super into reading and jigsaw puzzles. I spend a lot of money on books and jigsaw puzzles… that’s about all I do to encourage this.
I try to encourage outdoor time and athletic activities, but she is not especially interested.
My 3.5 year old unintentionally made me laugh this morning. She’s recently learned to sing Ring Around A Rosie…sort of. Instead of singing the macabre lyrics of “ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” it sounds like she is singing “fascists fascists all fall down.” In light of current events, I can’t help but laugh.
At what age did you ditch bathtub toys? My youngest is 2.5 and I’m tired of the fighting, the mold, and the picking up of them. I don’t want to short change her by throwing them all out since her older siblings obviously got to play with them for much longer.
Wanted to mentioned a new podcast I’m enjoying – in loco parent(i)s hosted by a law professor and employment lawyer couple with interviews of other big lawyers talking about parenting. A warning that their political views come up but it’s so refreshing to hear how they’re just figuring it out as they go with their kids. I don’t find it preachy at all (like best of both worlds, which has become insufferable to me), just a dispatch from other parents in the thick of it.
Serious question: is anyone coping with stress in a “healthy” way and if so, what works best for you.
The past two weeks have been especially brutal in our household. Husband was exposed so we have to quarantine. Work is bonkers. The world is a damn mess. I’m just holding onto all this and am a huge ball of stress.
Luckily we both got negative test results back this morning so we are at least pretty sure we don’t have covid but are finishing out our quarantine regardless.
My usual running or hot bath just isn’t even making a dent in my stress level.
Vent:
Our public elementary schools were closed from March- June last spring with no instruction and no attempt to go virtual. Then they opened a couple of weeks late this fall for distance learning with instructions to the teachers to focus on social emotional health and not to introduce new subject matter for the first 6 weeks. Even now classes are very remedial with mostly review material from prior grades.
Our elementary school principal held a Q&A last night for parents. The principal admitted she had no idea UNTIL THIS WEEK that once teachers are vaccinated that schools wouldn’t be able to reopen as normal. She said she thought they’d be able to start catching kids up this spring, after teacher vaccinations, once classes were “normal” again. My head was about to explode.
Then to top it off, we have a significant ESL and low income population who are really struggling. One of the spanish speaking moms asked through a translator whether they were going to hold back kids who are behind and that she was really worried about her kids and their lack of access to instruction. The principal laughed and said all kids are behind this year. Don’t worry, because she’s not worried.
The next questions were all about reopening. She has no plan. None. She’s planning in a few weeks to shadow her relative’s classroom, who teaches in another state, to see if concurrent instruction might be an option. Now that she understands that schools can’t open normally, she needs to think about reopening plans.
I can’t even.
Some things in the “gifted” thread made me remember that I had wanted to ask this question.
I grew up in another country and my first language was one that is written very very phonetically — if you know your letter sounds you can pretty much read with minimal effort. I learned to read around 4, which my mom considered “late” because she was reading before 3 (thanks for pointing that out every few months mom!). In my country it was typical for kids to learn to read by 4 if not earlier, because frankly it is easy (it’s a non-latin alphabet and most Americans tell me it looks impossible which always makes me laugh because it’s so much easier than English). When I came to the US in late elementary school, I learned spoken and written English at the same time, so the struggles were very different.
Fast forward to now. My kid is 5 and in kindergarten. She seems to know her letters and letter sounds, and they are doing some phonics stuff in school (letter blends?) and memorizing sight words. We do everything the teacher assigns — which is basically reviewing sight word flashcards every day. We also read chapter books every night because my kid was never interested in picture books or board books, except 2 about cats that we (still) read on repeat (she’s obsessed with cats but in the bottom .05% of cat-noise-making for her age, despite hourly practice, so she should probably get lessons from yesterday’s poster’s kid before I go insane). All those “first reader” type books I bought her are in a pile somewhere and she declared them boring (she’s totally right to be fair). She shows no signs of being close to actually reading, or being interested in reading herself. All her teachers since pre-school have said she’s very smart, and I’m not concerned about any delays or anything, I’m just having a hard time fathoming that she’s not interested in even trying. I haven’t been pushing her at all, except sometimes point out sight words in what we are reading (she usually yells at me to stop (“mooooooommmmm”) and just read the story and I do). I’m afraid to push harder because she’s stubborn like me I don’t want to create the opposite. But she’s soooo into the plots of her stories that I think once she can actually read, I will have so much more quiet time to read myself…
So… When do kids in the US/in English typically learn to read? Is there anything else I should be doing or should I just get a grip and let this be? Any particular books that your kids were motivated by?
The Best of Both Worlds podcast had a really interesting discussion of host Sarah’s family experience with Covid this week. It was scary how many negative tests they had when clearly they were ill.
This is delightfully extravagant. We have a Sage tea kettle, which brews at just the right temperature, drops a basket of loose leaf in, extracts it at the right time, and maintains the tea temperature, and it is one of the highlights of my life. When it dies, I will go straight to the store and buy a new one.