Though we will not be hosting Thanksgiving this year, I still wanted to have the dining room looking festive (and I’m a nerd and love decorating tables) – so I pulled out the China and got to work with what I had around the house to create an easy, elegant and festive tablescape.
Continue readingFall Activity for Toddlers – Hike, Leaf Hunting and Sorting
It’s that time of year where we start to transition inside as the cooler temps and snow start to make their way into our every day lives. Weeks before becoming a SAHM about two years ago, I was searching all sorts of blogs to find inspiration of what to do with my kids during cold fall/winter days. Honestly, that was one of my main concerns prior to being at home with the kids. I made thorough lists and pinned all sorts of activities on Pinterest, only to find that I dropped the ball on doing many of those things. What I did find, is that I needed to be creative and start using my own imagination in terms of how to teach and play with my kids!
Continue readingWhat I – Do When My Kids Are Sick – Wednesday: My Essentials
Tis’ the season for sickness – it is just inevitable. After dealing with two kiddos under the weather for the past week, I thought now would be the perfect time to share some things I do when the kids are sick to make them feel better, make it easier for myself and get them back at it as soon as possible!
Emotionally, I am never prepared for this, I hate when the kids are sick! Vomiting, yea, no thank you – not good with that at all, but nevertheless as Moms we find ourselves stepping up to the plate to handle the sickies! Over the past couple years – experiencing all sorts of interesting illness – I have made it an effort to ALWAYS have these items stocked and ready to go in case the kiddos are under the weather.
Continue readingHow to Plan and Plant a Cutting Flower Garden: Part II – Flower Selection and Mapping
I’m continuing to share the details of how I planned my cut flower garden – in case you missed Part I – Planning and Preparing your Cut Flower Garden, feel free to check that out!
In today’s post, I am sharing the flowers I selected and why. There are so many flower varieties out there, but my main “must-haves” were easy maintenance, stems that were long enough, continual blooming and LOTS of vibrant colors!
Tip Jar: Go-to “Baby Station” Products
As I mentioned previously in my Postpartum expectations post – setting up all types of “baby stations” around the house has been so helpful for me. This way if I have an emergency or need to get something with the two bigs, I can put baby down right near us!
I’ve had several people ask which ones to put on their registry and I will share the main ones that were either gifted to myself or recommended by other Mom friends!
moreHow to Plan and Plant a Cutting Flower Garden: Part I – Planning and Prep
Fall has arrived and summer has come to a close. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the change in seasons, but I am totally going to miss being outside all the time. I mean, we practically live out there. The other thing I will miss…this right here:
moreHow I Decorate: Fall Home Tour – 2019
I love pulling out my seasonal decor bins! I sometimes forget what exactly I have and enjoy being surprised by items I purchased on clearance last season. I always like to do that each year – gradually adding to my decor collections. I also personally love to find items that I can utilize alongside my staple decor pieces.
Continue readingMy Top Book Recommendations – Mystery/Thriller: October 2019
I was NEVER one who was into reading. Growing up, spark notes were my life to make it out of English class alive…It was when I was going to join my husband on a work trip about a year and a half ago that I had the thought, what should I do with my spare time? I would have a lot of time to myself on my flight and at the hotel, so I decided why not read a book. I had seen a review on The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, which sounded like it was right up my alley and BOOM, I have been reading books of all kinds ever since.
I figured I would share some SUSPENSE/THRILLER books I have read recently that would be perfect for this month with Halloween right around the corner!
moreWhat I Cooked Wednesday – Mediterranean Bowls
THIS. DINNER…ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS – so easy, super fresh and healthy! The longest part was cooking the quinoa. If you were really on the ball, you could do make your quinoa the night before and pull it out when ready!
Continue readingTip Jar: Postpartum Expectations
I cannot believe it has been nearly six weeks since the birth of our baby boy! First off, you forget just how teeny tiny those little babes are and how dependent they are of you. I’m not going to lie, these times are tiring and can be all kinds of different for everyone out there, but I figured I would share some things I have experienced postpartum this time around and some tips and tricks I have found useful over the past month and even after my other pregnancies.
I want to note – by no means am I an expert or saying that these pieces of advice are the end all be all! These are just things that have worked and helped me manage postpartum. After having our daughter, I had no clue what to expect so after dealing with this once again, I feel third time is (somewhat) the charm!
moreThrifty Tricks: Birthday Party Hacks
We celebrated my daughter’s 4th birthday with family a couple weekends ago and I am now starting to plan my son’s 2nd birthday party, so I figured why not share some tips and thrifty tricks I use for every party/celebration. These are things I do pretty much every party we have and they have helped me keep things cute yet very budget friendly because seriously you could drop quite a bit of dough on throwing a kids party!
moreWhat I Cooked Wednesday – Taco Tuesday – Ground Turkey Taco Salads
Today I am sharing our healthier take on taco Tuesday. We ditched the ground beef and tortillas and opted for ground turkey and put that on a bed of lettuce instead! This is one of our favorites.
As I mentioned in my previous posts – when I use ground turkey, I like to make sure it is seasoned right. Taco seasoning allows you to do just that and I can’t even taste the difference between turkey and ground beef.
This recipe takes 15 minutes and from a budgeting perspective cost no more than $8 to make!
Continue readingWeekend Rewind: Storm, To-Do’s, 90th Birthday Party – 9/16/19
Good morning everyone – happy Monday! I hope you all had an amazing weekend! I can’t believe we are in mid-September now! I feel like we are trying to soak up every last bit of summer! With that being said, we had some super steamy weather to start the weekend and a large storm that went through our area!
Continue readingTip Jar: Savings Challenge – The Final Verdict: Success or Fail?
Life Lately: Savings Challenge – The Verdict: Success or Fail?
So… I am so far behind with all of this – now remembering why it is super hard to get anything done with a newborn… I am so used to getting up early and taking care of as much as I can before the kids get up. I now find myself sleeping in until like 7:30am – 8:00am when the baby decides to wake up!
I wanted to share with you all the results of our Savings Challenge in August. For those of you who are new here, my husband and I took out $800 in an envelope to use solely for food and grocery. We were honestly spending well over $1,000 on food over the previous months and we could not believe it, so we decided to challenge ourselves to try and save $100 from that envelope every month. You can read more about it here.
moreLife Lately: Back At IT – 9/6/19
Oh my goodness, what a couple weeks it has been! I have felt so out of the loop and like I am constantly playing catch up! I seriously cannot even complain because it has been so great to finally be up from the couch. Seriously guys, the botched epidural was the craziest thing that happened and of course we would be the “1%” that this happens too! I was telling people this delivery was one of the easiest for me – no issues outside the epidural, we arrived on time, five pushes – I’m telling you, I could have walked out of the hospital that day, that’s how good I was feeling! So needless to say it was extra hard when 99% of the experience was beautiful and truly amazing and just that 1% had ruined it big time for me.
Continue readingWhat I Learned Wednesday: Transition from One to Two Kids – Expectations vs. Realities
Good morning everyone! Today I decided to share some things that I learned when we went from having one to two kids. With baby #3 arrival right on the horizon, it has just brought back all the feels again. Last night I found myself having similar concerns as I did when we were about to add my son to our family of three.
Continue readingWeekend Rewind: Random Weekend – Flea Market Finds – 8/19/19
Good morning everyone, I hope you had an amazing weekend! Today I am sharing our weekend rewind. We had a pretty low key weekend and stuck around the house for most of it. Saturday, we went to a flea market and garage sale, hung some things up around the house and met up with some girlfriends who came in from out of town! Sunday, we went to church and breakfast at a local diner and did some major sorting and organizing of paperwork. Again, my documenting skills are awful, but it wasn’t the coolest weekend to showcase, ha!
We wanted to take the kiddos to a little amusement park and swim, but the weather was pretty weird all weekend so any set time we planned to go swimming in the pool was ruined by random spurts of rain, annoying! But we were able to end the weekend in the pool which was nice!
Continue readingLife Lately: Savings Challenge – Mid-month Update
Hey everyone and happy Friday! I cannot believe how quickly the weeks and months are going by and all the changes that are happening this month (at least my family)! Since it is mid-August, I thought I would post an update on how we are doing with our savings challenge this month. If you have no idea what I am talking about because you are new – here is a link to that post!
Continue readingWhat I Cooked Wednesday – Recipe Share: Grilled Salmon Fillets
Good morning and happy Wednesday! Today’s recipe I cannot even take much credit for—my husband is a boss on the grill and so I basically just documented how he grills up our salmon in the summer. I love to pick up 1lb of salmon (normally I will have them do two ½ pound fillets) when it is on sale for like $7 a pound!
Continue readingWeekend Rewind: Cleaning, Organizing and Nesting – 8/12/19
I wish I was tracking my steps this weekend because oh my gosh I am literally DEAD! Hence the reason for the late post today! Why does it seem necessary to clean and scrub the siding on the house, vacuum and organize the garage & basement and make sure the outside is looking great, all before baby arrives? I literally stopped myself multiple times this weekend asking those questions, (#nestingphaseisreal) but here we are Monday with everything in line, shockingly!
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