Here’s what’s gotten me through my days lately:

A new dishwasher. For months and months and months, the cycles on our Bosch dishwasher that we inherited with the house wouldn’t finish properly. This is a brand we’ve had problems with before, too. Like, the water wouldn’t get hot enough or something just wasn’t working inside or whatever. We had to manually switch it from a cleaning cycle to a rinse/drain cycle every time.  The fairly handy husband tried a number of fixes (no, really, he’s quite good and has saved us so much money over the years) but couldn’t get anything to change. We stuck it out, as a new dishwasher wasn’t really fitting in to my maternity leave budget. Until this weekend, when the whole thing finally crapped out. I came out from my lovely weekend away to stacks and stack and stacks of dishes.  Thirty hours without a working dishwasher taught me that I am not cut out for the pioneer life, that’s for sure. The husband went to the Sears Outlet, scored a KitchenAid dishwasher at approximately $1000 off of its manufacturer’s recommended retail price (which begs the question, who pays that much for a dishwasher? And can you lend me some of that money you have?) and hurrah, the clouds parted and my dishes are being washed at a high water temperature with detergent as I type this.

The calendar on my Blackberry Bold. I use my calendar on my phone for pretty much everything I need to remember, since my phone is my constant companion and my brain got fried by having three children. Well. It did. It reminds me who needs to get where and when, what activity options we have for the week, what I need to remember at the grocery store, and what blog posts are due or should be written. I figured out a few months ago how to sync our family Google calendar onto my phone. Which means I also now know what the heck the husband is up to so I can mentally prepare for the next business trip and another stretch of solo parenting. Since knowing is half the battle. (Note that I was provided with my Bold by the lovely people at Blackberry but I was already on #teamblackberry when they gave it to me.)

Homemade popsicles and freezies. My kids like treats. And they love frozen treats. I feel slightly better about feeding them lots of these when I make them myself. At the beginning of the summer, I bought some new popsicle molds from Ikea and silicone freezie tubes from Golda’s Kitchen.  Earlier this month I got some cool rocket ones from Homesense on clearance. I fill them with juice, applesauce, yogurt, pureed fruit, and/or coconut milk. They’ve worked out really well. Except when the husband threw out a freezie tube lid. And the kids destroyed one of the bottoms. Luckily I decided not to murder any of them.

My Blackberry Playbook. Another piece of tech I tend to use completely differently than my phone or iPod. My Playbook is primarily used for (a) reading recipes in my kitchen as it’s vibrant wide screen is perfect for displaying Pinterest pins, and (b) reading in the dark. My Kobo app is filled with books; my Playbook lets me read them without turning on the light while the husband and the baby are asleep and the screen is a very comfortable reading size. I’ve almost finished the Hunger Games Trilogy (I know. Finally!) and then I’m moving on to The Marriage Plot, my book club pick for September. (RIM also provided me with a Playbook, as you may recall. I continue to use it and appreciate it.)

Cheerios. What other food will lower your cholesterol, allow you to show your support of Canadian Olympic athletes, provide a perfect midnight snack, and also keeps the baby quiet every single morning since you throw them – literally chuck them – at his tray and he eats them happily while you make your coffee? I can’t think of another. Cheerios. I love you. (Note: I’m a Life Made Delicious connector and sometimes I get sent Cheerios but I buy them anyway.)

Heroin. Just kidding.

And everything else that has been good. High Park. Sorauren Park. Riding bikes. Summer camp. Time with family. Coronation/concord grapes. Peaches. Prosecco. Ice cold water.

What’s your secret weapon lately?

Related posts:

1. The Business of Baby Food
2. Another year older