Happy Month of February! The groundhog, if you did not hear about it, did not see his shadow, so we can of course anticipate an early spring!

Groundhogs are great meteorologists! ;)

We had one of those weekends that seemed to fly by! I blinked and it was Sunday afternoon, which means laundry and a host of other chores to help me be more organized for the upcoming week. We're actually heading out soon to meet a bunch of family for a birthday party celebrating my father-in-law, and I was asked if I would make a cake, so I made our Tres Leches Cake which is so easy and so yummy!

In case you missed it last week, I shared a Country Apple Dumpling recipe, which is amazing! If you've never tried apple dumplings before, you're missing out! I also shared a blog post on meal planning routines over at Club31women.com which I hope you'll check out and read. If you guys would like me to cover more meal planning tips in a blog post over here, please let me know in the comments, and if there is something specific, well, let me know that, too! I want to help you feel confident in this area. [Read more...]

Happy Monday to all of you friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Our weekend was fun but oh, so quick! Aren't they always?

On Saturday we had to run a bunch of errands, but tried to make it fun for the kids. We ended up at Costco and guess what we FINALLY got! After two years of discussing a Traeger, we finally got one on one of those "too good to pass up" Costco offers. We've been using a classic Weber Kettle for our family (which we love!), but this past summer we began running out of space when we would grill on it, and, of course, it does take a while to heat up and a fair amount of work to manage. So we took the plunge and we're so stoked! If you have one, let us know what your favorite recipes are!

On Sunday, we had a church potluck. This month's theme was soup and sandwiches and it was so fun to see what everyone made. My mom brought a African Peanut Soup and it was amazing! I'm going to see if she'll let me grab the recipe so I can share it with you guys. I made my slow cooker sweet potato & butternut squash soup with ham and cheese sliders. So good and so much fun! 

Next month the theme is Italian food and I'm psyched! [Read more...]

How is it already January 20th? Anyone remember last year when it felt like January was just dragging and was never going to end? They made all of those memes about it...anyone remember this?

I feel like my January hasn't been as productive as I would like. I mean, in some ways it has been, but in other ways I just feel like I'm not getting to the things I really want to get to. How are you guys feeling about it?

Maybe we should just chalk up January as the year's practice month and declare the official start of 2020 in February...who's with me?

So we got a sprinkle - more like a dusting - of snow Friday morning. It was beautiful for the few hours it hung around and then the rain came back. Feeling a little like a sun-deprived drowned rat over here and I'm going to just keep on hibernating in leggings and sweatshirts and making comfort food. 

YUM! [Read more...]

They say we're supposed to get snow this week. But, I've heard them say that before and not deliver, so between me and you, I just don't believe them. And by them I mean the meteorologists. My kids are still young and naive, though, so they totally think it's going to happen. ❄️

Poor things. 

It's currently Sunday afternoon and we're waiting for puff pastry to thaw so we can use little smokies and make pigs in a blanket with puff pastry instead of crescent rolls. Trust me. If you've never tried this version of a pig in a blanket, you're missing out. It is so much better than hot dogs and crescent rolls. We are particularly fond of using the all beef lil smokies from Trader Joes. The flavor is delicious and the quality (I think) is really good, too. [Read more...]

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm currently sitting at my kitchen counter watching my husband work on our first DIY project of the year. He's installing subway tile in our kitchen. It's one of the phases of our kitchen "mini-remodel" - we still have two more to go, and so far, I am loving the transformation! We'll be blogging the experience and sharing what we learn along the way, of course...

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's. We laid low and played games some more! I know that a lot of you are eager to send your kids back to school and for life to return to normal, but I have to say, I am really going to miss these Christmas vacation days. Despite all of us getting sick, I've just had the best time with all of them. 

Spring Break isn't too far away...is it? [Read more...]

I hadn't planned on doing a weekly menu this week, but after polling on IG, the majority said they wanted a menu, so here ya go! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break! Honestly, ours was great...until we all got the flu. Ruby apparently caught it Monday night, but we didn't know that's what it was because there was no fever or other symptoms. But then Christmas afternoon, I caught it and the rest of us just went downhill from there. Except for Christian. Christian never really got sick. Lucky kid. 

However, we're on the mend now and eating real food. But, honestly, being sick really forced us to slow down and relax and I think, in the long run, it was really good for us. We laid around watching movies, started The Mandalorian on Disney+ (which is excellent so far), and started playing with all of the board games we gave and got for Christmas - so many! I think the fan fave so far is the game I got from "Santa" and have been wanting for months, Settlers of Catan! YOU GUYS!! It's a blast!!!! After we figured it out, of course, for which I highly recommend you use the Catan Assistant app. It walks you through the game set up and rules and really helps build a solid understanding. We've now played three times and while there is a learning curve to it, it is a ton of fun! (I realize this is old news for the many, many of you who apparently already play this game!) [Read more...]