Monday Must-Haves + Life Update

"Monday, Monday, so good to me" at least she better be.  This weekend.  These past 6 days.  They have been rough.  I've been MIA from quite a bit since then.  Last Tuesday, Mary-Grace had a stomach virus.  The day started with her vomiting everywhere and it lasted all day.  It was awful.  I felt so bad for her.  I prayed the rest of us wouldn't catch it and thank God we didn't.  Have any of you tried the grape juice "trick"?  I'm now convinced it really works.  The past 3 or so times Mary-Grace has had a stomach virus, we've drank multiple glasses of grape juice and we haven't gotten sick.  I think it's now more than coincidence.  It's suppose to do something with the acids in your stomach.  By Friday Mary-Grace was feeling a lot better.  However, right after helping her recover from that, Benton started to not act himself on Friday.  He was lethargic and more fussy than usual.  By late Friday evening, he had a fever of 103.2.  I was freaking out because I don't remember having a fever that high and Mary-Grace luckily has never battled fevers.  That same evening it so happened that his pediatricians (who we love btw) phone line was having technical difficulties and it took us a while to get in touch with the triage nurse to ask for advice.  I was seriously ready to take him to the ER.  He was sweating, beet red, and still lethargic.  We followed their advice though and stayed home treating him with Motrin and I nursed him as much as possible to keep him hydrated during the night.  We took him in Saturday morning and they told us he might have hands, foot and mouth.  We already had a bad experience with that with Mary-Grace and Josh a couple of years ago (another story for another day).  Thank God it doesn't seem that he has that though.  We think it was just another virus.  Josh and I didn't feel well all weekend either.  Sore throats and exhaustion for us.  We slept for a total of maybe 5-6 hours all weekend.  So yeah, Monday, please be good to us.  We want and we need a better week.  Please and thank you!

On to other things now.  I keep a running list of things I like or find useful on Pinterest, Instagram, or as a mental note. There are so many things right now that are on those lists but I'll start with sharing the most practical for the home.  What's on your lists of must-haves for the home?

First, these bins.  I grabbed one a couple of months ago to store our laundry detergent and the cleaning supplies that we keep upstairs.  I want to grab another to store toilet tissue and paper towels.

Also, one or two of these metal baskets to store breads. 

Next up, a couple of these picture frames for the kids' room to display some new family pictures (shared here). Their dresser and the crib is the same simply white.  

We've been acquiring more dishes that require washing by hand so this drying mat would be really helpful! For now, we've been letting them air dry on paper towels or dish towels. 

Our little peanut, Benton, still gets sink baths.  It's so much easier for me to give sink baths than using  the bathtub.  He's finally starting to outgrow the sink and he's starting to get "bored" while in the bath and there's not much room for toys in there.  I think it's about time we made the switch to bathing him in the bathtub.  We already have this bathtub that Mary-Grace used but this kneeling cushion may help save my knees when bending over to bathe him.  Also,  this cute matching rinser would be perfect for Mary-Grace.  We just use a plastic cup right now but she always freaks out when we try to rinse her hair saying it's going in her eyes or ears.  Maybe it would help?

We have a Shark steam mop that we got soon after getting married that we love. It's so easy to use and does a great job with getting any dust, grime, or spills up.  I can't find the exact one that we have so I'm not sure if they just changed the design.  It came with two or three mop pads but after years of use, even bleaching doesn't get them looking great anymore.  They're starting to look grungy so a new one would be practical.  I found this two-pack of replacement pads that should fit that were surprisingly just over $10.  

Also on the list (and the largest item), is this shelving system from Ikea. We are overloaded with toys, books, and movies.  I've seen this multiple times in photos of playrooms and I think it's just what we need (with cute bins).  The multiple baskets we have are no longer cutting it.  I can't decide if we need the 4x4 or 5x5.  I was also hoping for a Black Friday sale on this.  There's an in-store coupon but I believe the closest Ikea to us is in Charlotte, and I'm not about to drive there.  Do any of you have this and love it?

These bins to go with it to store the smaller toys?  By the way, I think Target has such a great selection of cute storage baskets and bins.  I already have some similar to these in gray and white for the kids' bedroom that stores diapers and wipes.