If you're like me and love spicy food, maybe you add hot sauce to every thing you eat, then you will love celebrating International Hot and Spicy Food Day January 16th. And also if you're like me, the problem arises that not everyone in your family can handle hot and spicy food. For instance my 3 year old doesn't handle it well, nor do my parents. This means I have to get my spicy food some other way.

That's where chili garlic oil comes into play. It's the perfect condiment. You can make a bland meal spicy while allowing others to eat their food unadulterated with heat.

Are you the lone spicy food lover in your home? Will you be trying chili garlic oil? Let us know!

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​Date nights are an important part of every relationship, no matter how long you’ve been together. But they don’t need to be expensive or intricate. Sometimes, it’s best to keep it simple and just have fun together! Here are 5 easy date night ideas that will keep the love and excitement alive in your relationship.

How well do you really know your partner? Put it to the test with this fun date night challenge! Head to your nearest Target, Walmart, or even Dollar Tree and pick out one item for your partner from each of the categories below.

• Favorite Color
• Favorite Drink
• Favorite Snack
• Something to Wear
• Something to Do Together
• Something that Reminds You of a Good Memory Together

Check out separately and keep the items hidden until you get back home. Then, one category at a time, reveal what you bought each other. It’s so fun to do and it’s nice to see how well they really know you!

This is one of my favorite date night ideas. Grab some cheap supplies, turn on a tutorial, grab your favorite drinks, and you’re set! Here’s what you need for this one:

• Acrylic Paints
• Paintbrushes
• Canvas
• Palette
• Water cup
• Dry rags
• Newspaper or plastic tablecloth 
• Your favorite drinks
• A Painting Tutorial from YouTube

Lay the newspaper or tablecloth down over the surface you will be painting on. This will protect it from getting dirty. If you want to take this to the next level, you can also set out some of your favorite snacks or even create your own little charcuterie board! Set up your painting stations and choose a painting tutorial from YouTube that you would like to do together. By the end of this date, you will have some beautiful artwork to remind you of an amazing date night!

Picnics are very underrated as dates in my opinion. They are so easy to put together and there usually aren’t very many distractions around, which means all of your attention will be on each other. Pack an easy meal, a comfy blanket, and you’re set! Here are some easy ways to make the experience even better:

• Take pillows and extra blankets. If you’re out during daytime, you can find shapes in the clouds. If you’re out at night, do some stargazing!
• Take a portable speaker so you can have some background music playing to add to the mood.
• Take something you can do together, like a simple puzzle, card game, or mini paintings.
• Don’t forget dessert!! We have tons of dessert recipes you can choose from.

If you’re not comfortable going to a movie theater right now, you can still have an awesome movie date! Movie marathons are fun because they take a classic movie night just a step further. And there are so many awesome movies to choose from! Harry Potter, Avengers, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings are probably some of the most popular, but you can choose any movies you like, even if they aren’t from the same franchise!

Here are some tips to give you the best experience:

• Choose an evening where you’ll have plenty of time to be able to watch multiple movies. 
• Make sure you have plenty of food and drinks available! You can make one main meal and start off with that and then move on to snacks or dessert as the night goes on.
• Take advantage of the time between movies. Get up and stretch, take a bathroom break, and throw away any trash you have around you. This way you can just focus on the movies while they’re on and there will be minimal cleanup when it’s all done and you’re tired!
• Have lots of pillows and blankets handy and turn off all the lights. The best thing about watching at home is that you can get wayyyy more comfortable than you can at a movie theater!

This is a fun twist on a regular dinner date. Find a recipe you’d like to try and make it together! (We have lots of recipes to choose from if you’re unsure of what to try.) Make it even better by making a multiple course meal, complete with an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. You can have fun and bond while making the meal and then enjoy the fruits of your labor together. Yum!

No matter what you do on your date night, remember the important thing is spending time together and having fun. 

Which date idea are you going to try?

• Fabulous Date Ideas for Newlyweds and Oldlyweds
• 5 Inexpensive Last Minute Date Night Ideas
• Renny's Recipes: A Romantic Dinner for Two
• Seven Recipes to Make Your Valentines Day Delicious​

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     The holidays are over, but in most parts of the country, the cold weather is not! There are still plenty of reasons to enjoy Hot Cocoa Bombs. When I found these White Funfetti Chips in our local grocery store, I knew that White Chocolate Funfetti Birthday Bombs for the Winter Birthdays would be an awesome idea! 

      In ourFall Flavors Hot Cocoa Bomb Book, available in our Etsy Shop, I explain that different types of chocolate act differently when you melt them and try to put them into the molds.  I was a little unsure about how Funfetti Morsels would work, because white chocolate is usually very hard to get to cling to the mold if it is melted to too high of a temperature.  But, I was so pleasantly surprised at how well these funfetti chips worked in the molds.  There wasn't a lot of pooling in the bottom of the mold and the white chocolate, mixed with the funfetti sprinkles,  kept its shape very well.  

     I want to let you in on how the process works when we come up with new flavors and designs of Hot Cocoa Bombs.  
     First of all, I needed to decide what flavor to put inside of these Birthday Bombs.  When I tasted the chips themselves, I didn't really get a birthday cake flavor, simply white chocolate.  I thought to myself that banana flavor might go great with them.  When I asked the girls what they thought, they thought vanilla or cheesecake.  So, I made a few of each flavor.  Guess what, they all tasted good!  I used Jello Instant Pudding in various flavors to add the flavor to these Bombs. I wanted the color to be light so that other surprises could happen when the Bomb is melted into the milk. You can flavor them however you would like! Here are the 3 things that I did:

• Marshmallows with Banana Instant Pudding
• Marshmallows with Sugar Free Vanilla Instant Pudding
• Marshmallows with cake mix and White Chocolate Cheesecake Instant Pudding

     Second, I had a giant swirling colored marshmallow that  Maddy had brought over and we thought it would be great for Hot Cocoa Bombs that were decorated for birthdays or a unicorn effect.  Since it was a giant marshmallow, I had to cut it into small squares with a hot knife.  I heated the knife on my stove and cut up the marshmallow.  I tossed the sticky cut edges in yellow cake mix.  My thought was that the cake mix taste might come out a bit, but in the end the pudding taste won out, which was still delicious.  You could also use those fruit flavored multi-colored marshmallows instead.

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     Third, I had to decide how I wanted to decorate them!  I thought I would pipe on stars and make them look like a birthday cake! A star on top with a gold sprinkle would be like a candle.  WELL, that was less than successful! My family was split in the decision that I should do something different when they saw the pictures! Here is one of the original pics.  I leave you to your own thoughts. 

     So, I changed the look by adding more sprinkles.  I rolled some of the bottoms along the bottom sides, others, I just sprinkled more on the top.  Remember, these are my first prototypes of these Birthday Bombs. 

     Of course, the fun part is testing the bombs to see how they melt into the hot milk and how they taste!  All of these blue sprinkles turned the milk blue right away! I know kids will love that! Then there were some bubbles and the best part is always when the marshmallows pop up to the top! 

     We usually make our Hot Cocoa Bombs in the traditional bomb shape.  But, we have been known to make them in other shapes as well.  We have done Christmas Trees and this year Maddy made some Star Wars Ship shaped ones. (Those would be great for a Star Wars or Outer Space themed party!)  I have seen people making a lot of pretty round ones as well.  I have a one inch round mold that I used to make chocolate bells for the 12 Days of Christmas.  I decided to make smaller Hot Cocoa Bombs for the smaller kids, since our normal Bombs make a large mug of Hot Cocoa.  They came out pretty cute.  

I think that at a snowy day birthday party, these fancy snowballs would be a welcome treat.  For young children, I like to have them drop their Hot Cocoa Bomb into a hot cup of milk that has a lid.  They can stir it, or you can help them stir it and they can watch the marshmallows pop up.  Then, add some cold milk to cool the drink down and pop on the lid and add a straw!  Saves on a lot of mess and the kids love Hot Cocoa! 

     The beauty of this process is that you can create Hot Cocoa Bombs in any shape or flavor that you would like! Use milk or semi-sweet chocolate and flavor them with peppermint or peanut butter.  You can find all kinds of ideas in our books in our Etsy Shop, as well as tips to make it easier.  We also put out a new YouTube video this year that gives more tips.  
     If you have anyone with a winter-time birthday, make them some special birthday Hot Cocoa Bombs!  What a great treat! And, let us know how your Cocoa Bomb making is going.
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      An interesting outcome of people staying at home so much last year was that many people found or rediscovered hobbies and activities to educate and entertain themselves and their children.  Baking, needlework,  game playing and drive-in movies have all surged in popularity.  With the vaccine out and becoming more available, there is hope that we will be able to venture out of our bubbles a little bit, and perhaps try even more new hobbies and activities that will help us grow our minds and talents and add variety to our lives! 

     The girls and I have discussed what we are interested in trying this coming year.  I thought I would share some of the things on our lists with you and give you some ideas of new  activities that you might like to try.  In turn, we hope you will mention some fun hobbies that you are thinking of trying down in the comments! 

Resin:  This past fall, we hosted a virtual craft show on Facebook!  We had some awesome vendors, one, her Etsy shop is ResidualResin,  makes jewelry and art pieces from resin (obviously).  I had worked with resin once many years ago.  Seeing the things done with it today have put a bug in me to try it again.  I have begun searching for supplies and I have found this great beginners kit on Amazon that comes with everything you need to give this craft a try! It has molds that would be great for jewelry pieces.  Then, I found this set of molds for making boxes!  If I get good enough, these would make great gifts.  I've even seen methods for making my own molds!  I'm excited about this! I can't wait to share it with you when I get started. 

Writing:  Lindsey is very interested in writing.  She is very good at it already and she is considering taking a MasterClass to help her hone her skills. MasterClass costs $15 per month and there are tons of topics covered and taught by professionals in the field.  For example, you can take a writing class taught by Judy Blume or James Patterson, just to name a couple of the choices. 
     Another alternative is Skill Share, a site that offers tons of online classes in many subjects! They have a special offer going on right now that makes one year of classes only $5.77 per month!  That is a smokin' deal for access to so many classes!  Also, if you are an expert at something that you can teach others, you can create a class offering and make some money on Skill Share.  For example, my SIL, who is a sound engineer for a major animation company, teaches an awesome class on how to make your YouTube videos, vlogs, etc. have better sound in simple and free ways!  It is definitely worth checking it out! 
     One way to improve your writing is to journal.  All of us want to get back to journaling for many reasons.  Alicia has provided us with some great reasons to journal and some awesome prompts in a free printable to keep us writing! Click here to get your free printable. 

Ballet:  This is actually for my granddaughter, not Lindsey.  But, since Lindsey is back to working from home, she found her 3 year old an online ballet class for 3 & 4 year olds on Outschool.com.  This is a great source for kids to get live, online courses for things they may be interested in.  Besides ballet, there are classes for painting, photography, guitar, coding, voice...the list goes on and on.  This is another site where you can apply to teach if you have an area of expertise.  You set your own price.  I know Emily is going to have so much fun!  

     Alicia has clear ideas about what she wants to do this year and she is very ambitious! 

Water Coloring:  Alicia has this book that she wants to use to help her improve her water coloring skills.  When she is finished, I may have to borrow it from her! The books says you will become a water color artist in 30 days if you follow the lessons daily.  Alicia already has had some experience with water color.  You can check out this idea on this past post that she shared about a water color party! 

Crocheting:  Alicia already knows how to crochet somewhat, but she wants to improve her skills.  We did produce a video together once where I teach you how to crochet a baby's knit hat.   But, if you are an absolute beginner, here is a book to get you started. 

PIckleball:  I hadn't heard of pickleball, but after Alicia told me about it, I looked it up and it looks like a lot of fun! It is a sport played with a paddle using a ball like a wiffle ball.  The game is a mash up of ping pong, tennis and badminton.  You can go tothis website to find out more about the game from the creators of it!  Also, search the web for pickleball courts near you. 

Clay:  Funny story-as we talked about what we would like to do, Maddy mentioned working with clay.  I replied that I had always wanted to try throwing a pot but never had done it.  Alicia remembered that in high school she had taken a design class that usually offered pot throwing but the semester she took it, they didn't do it.  She was disappointed. Then, Lindsey said, "Well I have that potter's wheel if anyone wants to try it."  What!  You have a potter's wheel?  Why didn't I know this?  She proceeds to remind Madalynn that she bought it for her from a thrift store once upon a time!  Wow!  I think that we are all going to be using that thing! I have already searched the web for classes in our area as well as places to get your things fired once they are formed. 

Yoga:  Healthy habits.  'nuf said.

     Okay!  So those are our first thoughts at the beginning of this year!  I'm sure we will have many more as the year progresses.  Be sure to tell us about the hobbies and activities you plan to try or revisit this year! 
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       If you enjoyed these ideas, you may enjoy some others that we have covered before this:

• ​Disney Glass Etching
• Science, Art and Sewing, an Integrated Lesson
• Wood Burning Garden Markers
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