The Friday Five, 1/9/25: 5 things I've been up to this week

The first week of January has flown by, and now we are four days out from my birthday, which is crazy—every year I get surprised by how quickly my birthday comes up, after Christmas and New Year's and festivities, for some reason.

Tasty snack from ALDI
Tasty snack from ALDI

What I've been up to this week:

  1. Eating tasty things. The snack pictured above is one of my most favorite, from ALDI—and this is coming from someone who writes about snacks and candy as my job. It's basically a Golden Grahams-type cereal, with chewy marshmallows, chocolate, and caramel; I think the serving is like two to three clusters which is almost impossible, haha. I saw it again at ALDI last week when I was there buying applesauce and such for my husband, who was sick at the time, and I had to have it ... I asked my parents to look for it too when they went. I think it's an all-year-round product and not a limited-time one, too, which is good. 
  2. Cooking, kinda. I miss cooking HelloFresh and the meal kits but unfortunately I don't have a lot of time nowadays with a baby, so the most cooking I get to do is pierogies, which we had this week. Meijer has kind of a random brand for $1.79 for ten pierogies, which IMO is a pretty good deal, and they have a potato + sour cream and onion kind I like, plus other varieties. 
  3. Watching the Critics Choice Awards. I did not even know this was on this week—and the Golden Globes are this Sunday, btw—but ended up watching a little of the red carpet plus the show on Sunday night. Some deserving wins there plus when I watch award shows I always find new TV shows or movies to check out, too. 
  4. Getting delivery. We got Domino's delivered on New Year's Eve and because of that, they gave us a free medium, two-topping pizza—the catch, which we didn't realize until yesterday, was that it had to be delivery again, so we got delivery yesterday too. We also had El Patio delivered one day (Mexican food, always tasty). 
  5. Getting birthday freebie emails. In past years, I would try to run around town and get as many as I can; this year, I have to focus on the attainable ones, which so far are Buddy's Pizza (free four-square), Nothing Bundt Cakes (free bundtlet), Green Lantern Pizza (free small one-topping), and a few others. I am hoping to head to Starbucks on my actual birthday to get my free drink, too—I like their chai tea lattes and haven't been for a bit. 
The Critics Choice Awards, on E! and USA
The Critics Choice Awards, on E! and USA

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