Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Hello Monday (Tuesday) 7.5.22

Hello, Monday! Er...Tuesday... 

Hope you all had a fun/good weekend. We were busy the whole weekend, although I stunk at actually taking pictures, for some reason.

Friday, we had framily come stay with us - we played at the beach and had the best pizza around (Hello, O.G. Bizzarros), and played games...and talked for hours. I sure to do love having them. We had lots of pool time throughout the weekend, too... so much sunshine, mixed with some sun showers, mixed with LOTS of humidity lol


Then, Sunday, was  a mixture of work and play.  


Riding bikes to Publix to get some things for me - but Caroline wanted to go with Autumn, so I wanted to go to keep an eye on Caroline...but she wanted to be a big girl with her big sister, so I trailed behind them, pretending I wasn't there, and I waited outside the store, while they went shopping for me. 


They came home and made edible play-doh. There wasn't much playing, but there did seem to be a lot of eating. lol


Also, my husband got me a new vaccuum. lol. Yep, it's my love language, cleaning tools. ha!!

Anyway, he got this new Ryobi vacuum because he's on a mission to change out all "tools" too the ryobi batteries so we can just interchange them. We have the pole cutter, leaf blower, drill (and I'm sure some other tools I don't even know about lol). The vacuum works GREAT! But my favorite feature? It stands upright all on it's own. Unlike every other cordless vac I've had. 

//VACUUM//

THEN he got this air pump (like for bikes and balls)


And another air pump for like air mattresses (which we actually used BOTH of these this weekend, and they were so handy not to need a plug, but also, the bike pumps are SO annoying and this thing was so quick and easy! lol I laugh at his purchases sometimes, but I'll be darned, if I'm not excited to use them myself and giddy when they work. lol



I spent most of the day pulling everything out of the back porch and cleaning/scrubbing it, with all the dirt and pollen, it needed a good scrub. And at the end of the night, I finally sat down out there with a glass of wine and a book to enjoy it! 




Monday, the 4th of July.

I started my morning off with a "late" workout (I say late, but as you can see the sun was just rising. But that's me. I like to get it in before the sun rises.)


I loved my view from my workout room. These banners were part of my AMAZON HAUL


I tried to stay with the theme - red, white, and blue for all outfits and food! lol

breakfast - vanilla greek yogurt, granola, berries, and chia seeds *yum!

The girls did it up pretty big, too! I love that they still love to get all themed up with me still. 




Amazon Haul for most of our fun garb!

And just look at these babies... gosh I miss those cheeks! 



We had family and friends over for dinner and fireworks, so I started cooking early.

Listen. I have tried SO many different ways of cooking bacon. We LOVE bacon. BUT every time I cook bacon, it either makes a mess IN the oven/toaster oven/microwave OR it smokes out the house. I finally got smart and decided to cook the bacon on the grill burner yesterday! lol. 


The girls and I made 2 different desserts that both ended up being really good!

The cookie 




No Bake Summer Berry Lasagna, which was the star of the show, actually.



It was layers of Red, white, and blue.


and it was so good!


Both of those recipes are in my Summer Lovin' Board

After family left, we waited around for it to get dark, and went out side to do fireworks (sorry neighbors!). Friends came over and the kids all had fun with the sparklers. 





Friday, July 1, 2022

FRIDAY FAVORITES {7.1}



Happy Friday, friends!!  Today's post is a quick look at my favorites for the week....



My favorite recipe from last week's menu ended up being the burrito "casserole" dish. This is the 2nd time I've made it and it's getting better all the time (did you just sing that? I did! lol)


And I'm really excited about the desserts I have pinned for the 4th of July






My favorite outfit? Whew - ok... that's hard. BUT...I've been wearing all kinds of red, white, and blue workout outfits...and my regular outfits too. 


This is just one of my workout outfits for the week. I have mostly been wearing shorts because...you know. Summer. But I just love those leggings. 


Oh, man. This dress is probably one of my new favorites. I might get a few more colors in them since they're on sale right now. So lightweight and comfy AND IT HAS POCKETS!!



I wore the code joggers and classic V for the rest of the day, SO DANG. COMFY. 


This sleeveless swing dress is probably one of my new favorite dresses! I also got it in black. It's on sale right now too! 

Also - I've been able to let me hair go natural more and more, now that it's getting longer, finally! So the beach waves are making a come back! woohoo!

The only product I use in my hair is "sea salt spray" to help the waves take shape. THIS is the product I use, and it has lasted a long time. 

annnd... I've been REALLY trying to remember to stick to my skin care routine, morning AND night. I notice a HUGE difference when I'm consistent with it. PLUS I'm trying to teach my oldest good habits, because she's right there at that age where her hormones are going ALLLL out of whack. Poor kid. 







My favorite purchase? Well... it's not from Amazon. But it's this amazing AHA smoothing Mask from Beautycounter. It's seriously SUCH a good mask! I WISH you could feel my face after I use it. I 


It has little beadlets in it - that when it dries, they turn white on your face, but the actual mask dries clear. I normally try to do it on Wednesday and Sunday nights.. but I don't always get to it. 




The mornings at the beach! Autumn's beach volleyball is coming to an end. And I'm going to miss this beautiful way to start my days.






I'm still working my way through the Lincoln Lawyer show on Netflix... lol. Guys. I maybe get in ONE show a night. I'm slow going over here. PLUS on the nights Ron's on shift, Caroline and Brooklynn sleep in my bed, so I usually go to bed with them around 8:30, which means I don't watch any tv that night.  But it's been fun watching Neve Campbell, again. It brings me back to my childhood. lol







Thursday, June 30, 2022

Meal Planning {7.4.22} with 4th of July Ideas

Good morning, and happy Thursday! 
It's meal planning time - starting to add to my grocery list of things we run out of and taking a look at our menu for next week.

So here's next week's meals. I have them planned for "days," but I don't always do them on those days. Sometimes I don't even make them in that week - I just circle them on my monthly menu so I know I can add them to the next month's menu. So while it looks like I'm organized, scheduled, and regimented, I'm also pretty go-with-the-flow. Maybe that's part of being a teacher? lol

Each week, I like to have 1 each of:
-chicken
-"taco tuesday" variation
-seafood
-pasta
-sandwich/burger/hoagie

This week, I seem to have a lot of recipes from SkinnyTaste - most of the meals that I make from them end up being really good!


1.  Shrimp & Andouille Sheet Pan Roast - I am a BIG fan of one-pot-wonders, or one-sheet-pan wonders. My husband does the dishes, so he, too, is a big fan of them. lol

2.  Bacon and Bleu Cheese Burgers - take your favorite way to make a burger and just add bacon and blue cheese! Add some purple onion and you have a "red, white and bleu" burger! lol

Creamy summer sweet corn pasta salad - this recipe is a hit everywhere we go! it's so good!!

3. Loaded Nachos - you could honestly make whatever kind of nachos you wanted! But these are the ones that I came across that looked good, so that's what I'm making. 

4. Chili Lime Chicken with Pineapple Rice - this just screams summer dinner to me

5. Bakes Ziti - there are a million and one versions of baked ziti out there, but this is the one that has been in my pile of recipes to try, so I'm going to try it. 

And for the 4th of July desserts!?

I have a few we like to make - 

One is these super cute Burger Cupcakes! We got the idea from somewhere a long time ago, but I don't remember where. It's 1 box of brownies and 1 box of cake mix (you will have more cupcakes than you need, so you could buy another box of brownies if you need more than 8 burgers). We used coconut flakes and frosting and food coloring for the burger toppings. 


Being it so hot out and it's the 4th of July, I actually want to make some kind of Jello dessert though... I saved a few ideas on Pinterest on my Summer Lovin' board. But these are the top contenders!












So that's the menu for this week! I'd love to know if you make any of them and if you like them!