Friday, July 28, 2017

What's Up... Friday Fav's

Hi Friends, Happy Friday!

I have been itching to get back over here and write! My vacation posts are in the drafts folder and I'm working every chance I get to finish them up and post. I don't know how you all do this regularly with kids and jobs, hats off to you momma bloggers! Today my Friday Favorites is my What's Up Wednesday post that didn't make it to be published on Wednesday. #RealLifeYall



1. What We're Eating this Week
My goal with all things food right now is to not heat up the house! Tonight John will grill ribs and corn on the cob. Last night was spaghetti, Wednesday we ate out because I had a meeting that evening and Tuesday we had Baked Potatoes. We have sweet friends that just had their third baby and another fried who just had surgery so we did baked potatoes and fixings for everyone. I've had a busy work week last week and I knew that my cooking could be (and was) interrupted by births so the potatoes ended up being the only thing we actually cooked, the rest was pre-packaged food.


Baking potatoes in bulk in my grandmothers Westing House Oven is my favorite way to do them!

2. What I'm reminiscing about
Vacation! I am longing for a place where summer isn't so hot it can melt crayons, or burn little baby feet on side walks or make me want to leave my home state!




3. What I'm loving
I can't believe I don't have a picture of it, I swear every time I get one I think I need to take a picture of this for a "favorite" post! #badblogger Peace Tea. It's hot (notice a theme? Come on Fall!) and one of my favorite things to grab to cool off is Peace Tea!

(affiliate link) 

My favorite flavor is Caddy Shack which is tea and lemonade, I also really like the Georgia Peach flavor. John's favorite is Razzleberry (which I think is pretty yummy too!). I haven't tried the sweet lemon or sno-berry but I'll report back when I do!  

4. What we've been up to
Last weekend we celebrated Ada turning two!
(post in draft folder as well)


This week I've been spending my spare time around the house cleaning and purging everything in an attempt to make room for the new toys she got for her birthday.There really weren't that many, because we specifically asked the grandparents to just buy fall clothes, but not many toys in a tiny house is still too many toys! The back of my van has two big boxes of clothes donations to take to my favorite charity on my next trip to Denton and another couple of boxes that I'll take to the freecycle table when my Moms Bible Study starts back up.

5. What I'm dreading
A friend posted on facebook that there are forecasts showing that fall will be unseasonably warm. I almost cried. I *need* fall weather!

6. What I'm working on
Cleaning the house, next week I'll be preparing a semester of homeschool lessons. I'm also about to go on call for the rest of the year until just before Christmas, so doing all I can to get us back into good routines and habits. Next weekend my brothers and John are going to tackle the beginning of the biggest plumbing project we've had in this dumb little house. I need the work done, but this could also fill the dreading category because construction isn't fun.

7. What I'm excited about
 We are getting a new driveway! We have some chores to complete before the gravel can be delivered so it isn't coming until next week, but I'm so excited! We have needed more gravel for a looong time but it's expensive and just not a priority for us. We actually saved more for our vacation that what we actually needed and we decided this is where we'll spend the "extra".



We literally got the cheapest material we could find that would do the job, it's recycled asphalt so it'll be black stones. I've actually heard great things about this material, most people don't like it because it's not pretty - I don't care, I just don't want to deal with mud anymore!
8. What I'm watching/reading
I haven't read anything for leisure since we got back from vacation. John and I just finished the new Netflix Original Series - Friends from College and really enjoyed it. We also finished the current season of The Ranch (Netflix again) and are working our way through the previous season of Game of Thrones. Just a disclaimer on all of these, none of them are family friendly! Friends from College has adult content (but is hilarious!), the Ranch is mostly a language issue and lots of alcohol usage. Game of Thrones, well that might be graphic along the lines of The Walking Dead...

9. What I'm listening to
The I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N station from Pandora. We put this on our amazon echo dot and the girls love it! I listen to other Christian stations on Pandora but this one is particularly great for the kids, lots of the old school Christian Camp songs etc.

I am also loving my podcasts! I just finished season one of Serial and really enjoyed it. I had listened to S-Town first and I don't think this is as beautiful as that story but it's still good! I'm in Season 2 of Serial and I know it's gotten very mixed reviews but I'm trying to leave the politics out of it and just listen for what it is, a story. By the way, any time I'm listening to podcasts, I am listening with headphones, not out loud where the kids can hear.

10. What I'm wearing
As little as possible haha Mostly shorts and t-shirts on repeat. Occasionally throw in a pair of scrubs and that's my life lately!

11. What I'm doing this weekend
We are going to ride the train to the Fort Worth zoo! My girls love riding trains and that's something they occasionally go do with my in-laws. I usually can't go along because I'm always on call and Fort Worth is just too far from the Birth Center. Fortunately I was able to get a couple of ladies to cover enough of my shift on Saturday and I'm still in range for my doula clients so I get to go!

12. What I'm looking forward to next month
Oh I sure hope that next month brings cooler weather, but August in Texas - I'm not holding my breath! We will start officially homeschooling Cora for Preschool in the middle of next month! I've been working on preparing things and that's part of the motivation in cleaning house right now, trying to get everything organized and ready. I'm excited about the new beginning and returning to more of a schedule. I'm also hoping that I'll be able to reduce my work load at the birth center to spend more consistent time at home with the girls, it's such a hard balance.

13. What else is new
Just before Fathers Day (just a couple of days before we left on vacation!) I went to a playdate where we did Fathers Day crafts and let the kids play in the sprinklers. One of the other moms had this amazing bag. It was like Thirty-One (which we all remember when I sold 31, love it but it just isn't in my budget anymore) but bigger than any bags they have and so cute! I asked about it and they told me about a local co-op buy group and that afternoon my sweet friend Christy got me added to the group. Y'all, I love it! #takeallmymoney 

I have ordered my own of the big, glorious bags and I ordered a new purse (because the purse I'm carrying doesn't zip, not sure why this mom thought that was a good idea...) It's going to take a bit to get to me, but when it does I'll share pictures (I'm not sure that I'm allowed to share pictures from the group of the samples). This week I'm ordering boutique outfits for the girls for fall and a matching skirt for me and halloween buckets for both girls! If you're local to DFW, let me know if you're interested in joining the group!

Bonus Question: Favorite Thing About Summer
I love that summer mostly, has a slower pace of life. I love fall and spring but they always seem to be so so busy. I also love all the water fun! Granted, we mostly play in the water as often as possible to avoid melting in this ridiculous heat, but it's still one of my favorite things.


I take the kids to the splash pad about once a week, we usually just do the little one in our hometown but we have some big fun ones not far off that I just need to plan ahead a little bit and manage to do. We usually manage to actually swim once a week with friends and various play dates. The girls don't do enough actual swimming for me to fork over the money to pay a membership at a pool yet but I still love our pool days! 

 

1 comment:

  1. Yay! I miss you in this space and hope you do come back to blog regularly. Can’t wait to read the vacation posts. I am reminiscing about the same thing. The weather in New Mexico was glorious. The heat and humidity are suffocating here. We tried the Georgia Peach sweet tea while on vacation and it was amazing!! I hope Ava had a great time celebrating her 2nd birthday. I have been meaning to start Friends from College, but haven’t had time. I am going to have to try out that Pandora station. Sounds like a good one!

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