Love in Numbers

Love is...

Splurging to spend $9 on the perfect card for your valentine.

Intending to mail out valentines but running out of time.

Shopping for 5 teacher gifts and cards.

Assembling 24 class valentines.

Locating heart or valentine's day clothing for all 3 kids.

Juggling schedules and meetings so that one parent can be at the class Valentine's Day party.

Buying favorite candies and a small surprise for your 3 kids.

Baking 10 dozen Valentine's Day cookies.

Dipping hundreds of chocolate covered pretzels.

Baking heart shaped food.

Packing 3 heart shaped lunches for your kids.

Going to the dentist to get your cavities filled today to take good care of yourself and hoping it just takes the 1 hour that they scheduled you for.

Making a spaghetti dinner for your family of 5.

Trying homemade crepes for the first time and knowing that the Nutella and berries will be a hit no matter what.

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope your day is filled with all the things you love plus all the regular stuff you have on your to do list.  I love having friends like you!

Say Yes to More

Say YES to more.

My kids are always coming up with the wildest things.  And usually they're pretty easy to please.  Unless they're asking for a cell phone, new kitten or a trip to Hawaii.  

It's easy to just say NO to all of the requests that come your way.  It's easier and not as messy.

But most of the time my kids are creative and crafty and come up with the funniest requests.  I've tried harder as they're getting older to say yes as much as I can.  Especially if it's something that is free, fun or doesn't involve screens.

These are some things that my kids have asked me for and saying YES has totally made their day.

Will you come read on the patio while we play in the backyard?

Can we watch The Voice together after dinner?

Will you make me a chocolate milkshake for dessert tonight?

Can I FaceTime my friend?

Will you help me find a new pair of jeans?  I pulled up some options on Old Navy to show you.

Can you iron together our Perler beads if we make some bead creations?

Will you back your van out of the garage so we can play out there?

Can we make s'mores with our friends at the fire pit?

Could I paint my nails today?

Can I go to Sams with you the next time you go?

Can we bundle up and go ice skate on the frozen puddles?

They did this for over an hour and laughed/smiled the whole time.

Can we have a slumber party in the family room if we promise to go to bed quickly?

Yes.  We have a giant couch in our upstairs family room and they can all easily sleep on it.  They each made their own spot and have been sleeping out there pretty regularly.  From time to time they move back to their own beds, but they love all being in the same room at bedtime.  They don't know this, but this was our hope when we picked out this couch.

Can we freeze PRIME drink and water in our pop its to see how long it takes for them to freeze?  And then eat the ice?

This kept them occupied and engaged for the whole day.  They frozen all kinds of things - water, lemonade, PRIME drink and loved eating their frozen drinks.

This is my encouragement to you - say YES to your kids when you can especially if it's free, fun and/or doesn't involve screens.  Your kids will love it!

3 Simple Homemade Salad Dressings

How was your Super Bowl weekend?  Did your team win?  We had to cancel plans because Leo wasn't feeling great so that was a bummer.  But we made the most of it.  Kevin printed out games for us to play, I made some delicious food and we had a good time.  The kids got really into it.  The older two stayed up to watch overtime and asked tons of questions.  Even though we were cheering for the under dogs, we still had fun.

Now let's talk about salads!  I told you earlier in the year that I was going to work hard to learn how to make my own salad dressings.  And I'm doing it!  I don't love the salad ingredients with tons of sugar or tons of ingredients so homemade dressings feel like the best option for this salad loving girl.

I'm trying to eat at least one salad a day - either a big salad for lunch or a side salad with dinner.

I pinned a bunch of salad dressing recipes and figured out a few of my own.  These are three dressings that I made and have really enjoyed.  I didn't buy any fancy containers for them.  Just used jars and containers I already owned with masking tape labels.  I save my Duke's mayo salad dressing lids for my mason jars and they work like a charm.

Lemon Vinaigrette:

juice of one lemon

3T olive oil

a splash of apple cider vinegar

1 t sugar

1 t you favorite seasoning (Kinder The Blend - salt, pepper & garlic - is my favorite)

Shake until well combined.  Double or triple the recipe and taste it as you go.  It's delicious on salads with fruits or veggies.

Honey Mustard Dressing:

2 T olive oil

2 T Dijon mustard

a splash of Worcestershire sauce

a splash of Apple Cider Vinegar

A sprinkle of your favorite seasoning (Kinder The Blend)

salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a jar.  Shake until well combined.

Pesto Dressing:

I shared this recipe with you last Summer BLT Pasta Salad and it's still a family favorite.  Even the kids love it!  I changed up the recipe since I didn't have fresh basil on hand.

1/4 c sour cream

1/4 c Dukes mayo

3 T pesto

1 green onion

2 t Worcestershire

a sprinkle of garlic salt

salt and pepper to taste 

Blend all ingredients until smooth and refrigerate.

We eat this on the BLT pasta salad and I think it would be delicious on any salad with vegetables.

Here's an up close of my favorite seasoning.  I use it on everything from salad dressing to baked chicken to burgers.  It's delicious!  And it is super affordable at Sams.

My very favorite veggie packed salad:

All of the dressings would be delicious on this!  I chop the cucumbers, eggs and onions fresh.  Everything else I can chop in bulk ahead of time.

The BLT pasta salad.  It doesn't look amazing, but I promise you that my kids lick their salad bowls.

Our favorite berry side salad.  I chop everything up after school, pop it in the fridge and add the dressing right before I serve it.  Kevin and I love this salad with dinner.  It's got baby spinach, strawberries, honey crisp apples, purple onion, craisins, pecans, parmesan cheese.  Then I add a drizzle of poppyseed dressing or the lemon vinaigrette recipe above before I serve it.

It's such a pretty, delicious salad.

I hope you found a salad dressing that sounds delicious to you!  I'd love to hear what salad dressings you like to make at home.  Share your favorite in the comments.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope you have a had a nice week.  We had some fun things happening and I wasn't needed for jury duty yesterday!  Hooray!  I am still a little in denial that I registered Leo for Pre-K this Fall.  It came up fast (I thought I had a few more weeks to decide).  I messaged a few friends to get recommendations, read preschool websites to check out program options and made the best decision for Leo.  He's so excited to go to school.  It was a good week!

Did you catch my blog posts this week?

Is It Time to Declutter Your Home?

Dutch Baby Pancakes

Kitchen Helper and Other Jobs Toddlers Would Love

Now onto my favorite moments of the week:

1. I have the perfect dress for you for Spring!  Or maybe an Easter dress??  This Amazon dress is my current favorite.  It's so easy to wear from Fall through Spring.  I add a jean jacket when it's cold and wear it by itself as the weather has been warming up.  It comes in so many pretty colors.  I own it in this pretty purple and would love to have it in pink/green and blue/white.  I get a lot of compliments on it when I wear it and it doesn't wrinkle.  It really is the easiest dress to wear.

Miduo purple dress link

Miduo pink and green dress link

Miduo blue and white dress link

2. Heart-y Food!  I love making holiday themed food.  I love to add some hearts into my baking and meals this time of year.  I made heart shaped banana muffins in a heart pan my mom gave me.  Berry salad where the strawberries looked like hearts and heart waffles.  My crew loved all of it!

3. District Choir - Olive got to participate in a big district choir even this week and she loved it.

4. We love to sit around the fire pit.  Kevin sent me this picture of him and the boys enjoying our backyard.  The backyard is their favorite.

5. Sams Reynolds Cake Tins - I grabbed a pack of 12 of these cake tins with lids at Sams and they have been so handy!  They're just under $12, much sturdier than the Walmart or Dollar Tree versions and I have decided that this is something I'll always keep in my pantry.  They worked perfectly when I delivered a friend dinner this week!  Delivering meals to friends is my favorite.

6. This kitty transporter always makes me smile.  The cats may not appreciate the lift, but it's adorable.

7. Favorite school lunches for the week.  The kids enjoyed peanut butter and apples, Keebler Grasshopper cookies (AKA Keebler Thin Mints), Bold chex mix and Cheddar chex mix and their favorite half sandwiches.  I try to make their school lunches as colorful and yummy as possible for a big HUG FROM HOME in the middle of their school days.

8. Treadmill time.  I got out of a good exercise routine in January.  I blame sickness, freezing cold weather and blah.  February is my month.  I've been on an every day date routine with my treadmill and it feels great.  Do you find yourself working out extra hard on hair washing days!?  I always make sure that happens!

9. It's good to be Leo.  We say that phrase a lot.  I came downstairs from exercising and found him lounging in the recliner watching his favorite show.  He's such a funny guy.

10. The weather was pretty perfect all week long in Indiana.  We played outside a ton!  The boys counted deer in the field.  Penny loves some good patio time.  And Fletcher's favorite thing in the world is going on bike rides.  We snuck out for several rides around the neighborhood this week.

Olive is a kite flying master and was a good teacher to try to help the boys fly kites.  They've all requested new kites for Spring.

11. Bowling & Laser Tag - Olive got to celebrate one of her best friend's birthday doing some really fun stuff.  They had a great time together and she had the best time shopping for the perfect gift for her best friend.

12. Busy baking cookies is my favorite job.  I made birthday cookies, Bible study cookies and friend cookies.  And I have some fun baking orders this weekend for the Super Bowl and for Valentine's Day!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your favorite people!  See you back here on Monday.

Linking up with Momfessionals and Prime Purchases with Tanya

Kitchen Helper and Other Jobs Toddlers Would Love

Does your toddler ask for jobs or chores?

Probably not.  Unless they see older siblings doing jobs.

Leo rarely asks for a job, but he loves when I ask him to help me with something.  And then after a little helping, he can often do the job on his own.

Let me tell you about my newest Kitchen Helper.  

One day I asked Leo if he wanted to help me make his favorite sandwich - a PBJ.  His eyes lit up and he was so excited to help me gather the ingredients.  Wheat bread.  Raspberry jelly and peanut butter.  2 knives and a plate.  I helped him open the containers and talked him through each step.  He was so gentle.  And tried so hard.  He asked for a little help spreading and a little help getting the peanut butter and jelly out of the jars.  Then he seemed to enjoy the most delicious PBJ ever.  He gave himself the title of my Kitchen Helper.  And now he asks to make his own with a tiny bit of help from mom.

This got me wondering what other jobs I could teach him to do around the house.  I tend to like things done a certain way - Kevin might call it The Whitney Way - which may not always be a compliment.  But I'm trying hard to come up with things to delegate and teach the kids around the house to prepare them to run houses of their own one day.  Right now Leo is eager to learn and eager to help mom.  Both of those things are a winning combination for learning to help around the house.

Toddler jobs around the house: 

(For reference, Leo will be 4 in April)

Fill the cat food bowl.

Put wet clothes from the washer to the dryer.

Unload the silverware from the dishwasher.

Help tidy up his toys when he's done with them.

Fold small towels.

Get out the vacuum and plug it in for me to vacuum.

Dust bust up any small messes he makes.

Carry in bags of groceries from the van.

Get the mail and packages on our porch every day.

Go upstairs and get his pjs/underwear on shower nights.

Put his dirty clothes in the dirty basket before his shower.

Bring his dinner plate over to the sink when he's done.

Give him a butter knife and ask him to cut up his own cucumber, banana or strawberries.

Take the compost outside to the compost bin every evening

and now he can make his own PBJ!

Look at that perfect PBJ!!  

What jobs do your kids help with around the house?  Do you have any good toddler job recommendations for me?

Dutch Baby Pancakes

I have always wanted to try making Dutch Baby Pancakes or German Pancakes so I made it happen one icy day in January.  I had all of the ingredients on hand and my kids really enjoyed them.  It reminded me of french toast + pancakes with all the eggs in it.

I loved that you just mix all the ingredients really well and then bake it.  It's much faster than doing french toast or pancakes for breakfast.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

8 eggs

1 cup milk

sprinkle of salt

6T butter

1 t vanilla

1/4 cup sugar

1 T cinnamon - I did not add this, but I wish that I would have.  I will add cinnamon for extra flavor going forward for some extra flavor.

Toppings: Powdered sugar, syrup and berries

Mix all the ingredients together except for the 6 T melted butter.  Put the butter in your 9x13 baking dish and melt it in your oven as it preheats.  Then pour the well combined mixture on top of the melted butter in the pan.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

I baked my Dutch Baby Pancakes in my smaller upper oven.  Next time I'll bake it in the larger over below so that it has room to rise and won't get quite as brown on the edges.

A generous dusting of powdered sugar once it comes out of the oven.  Serve right away.

Yum!  We all agreed that it was delicious right out of the oven, but that it had a funny texture when we tried to eat it for leftovers the next day.  Keep that in mind for your breakfast planning.

Have you ever made Dutch Baby Pancakes?  They were yummy!

Is it Time to Declutter Your House?

Do you have piles everywhere?

Closets that are filled to the max?

Rooms that you can't really use?

Do you feel stressed about organizing all your stuff?

Do your kids hate helping pick up toys because there are so many?

Do you keep buying storage containers for all of your things?

If you said YES to any of those, 

I have an idea that I know will help you.

Start getting rid of things.

Throw things away that are past their expiration, damaged or worn.

Donate items that you know people could use.

Consign or Sell valuable items that could make you a little money like kid's clothes, adult clothes in good condition, shoes, purses, toys, holiday decor and home goods.

Share items that you think a friend or family member might like.

I snapped this picture at the beginning of the year and felt proud.  There weren't baskets everywhere and it felt like our family room was light and airy.

Last year I started feeling like none of the spaces in our home had breathing room.  So many cabinets and closets were filled to the max.  Cleaning became frustrating for me and for the kids.  Organizing felt never ending despite me often organizing our spaces.  I had the urge to buy more containers and then I realized I really just needed to purge items from our home.

I set up an account at a local consignment shop, and this is going to sound nerdy, but last year I made 34 drop consignment drop offs!!  I kept track because the numbers were motivating to me.  I'm setting the same goal for this year - drop off as much as possible to get rid of clutter from our house.

The kids gave gotten good at giving me clothes and toys that they outgrow.  I consign Olive and Leo's clothes and then save Fletcher's clothes for Leo.  Kevin and I are always purging our own belongings.  He'd tell you that he doesn't love doing it, but he appreciates the efforts to tidy up our house and the consignment checks!

I regularly declutter things from all areas of our house - kitchen, office, toys, books, garage, holiday and home decor.  I am trying very hard to only have things we use and things we love in our house.

I loving seeing clear corners, cabinets with free space in them and knowing that our house isn't so full.  I keep a consignment corner in our garage.  That way any time I come across something that needs to go I have a spot for it.  Then I work on filling boxes to drop off during the week. My store has a strict drop off schedule so having a spot in my garage to hold things until it's time to drop them off helps me clear out the house and the clutter.

I also started buying less and being more thoughtful about what I'm adding to our home.  But that's a story for another day.  Little changes to buy less and get rid of things you no longer love will make a big difference!

If any of this sounds familiar or sounds interesting, I think it's time to start decluttering your house!!

You will love having less stuff to manage.

Do you have any decluttering questions for me?  I'd love to help you!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope it's been a good week at your house.  The sun is finally shining in the Midwest and the rain has taken a break for the moment.  Did you catch my blog posts this week?

Mild Buffalo Chicken Dip - This is on my Super Bowl menu!

In & Out for 2024 - will you agree or disagree with me?

Little Surprises - I did several of these this week.

Now onto my favorite moments of the week:

1. Dinner road trip!  I drove an hour North and my Terre Haute friends drove an hour South to meet for dinner.  We always have the best time and the craziest things to talk about.  I'm so glad we braved the fog and the rain to get together for dinner.  I look forward to seeing them and eating Old Chicago pepperoni rolls so much.

2. Christmas Diamonds.  I realized I never posted about my Christmas surprise.  Kevin and I agreed to just do little gifts this year and then he surprised me with diamonds.  What a guy!  He reminded me that Christmas Eve was our 20th engagement anniversary and we celebrate our 20th year of marriage in July so jewelry was in order.  He totally surprised me with a diamond band to add to my wedding band stack.  He wanted me to go in and try on all my options to make sure I got a band that I really loved.  I settled on this 5 diamond gold band with 5 round diamonds for our family of 5.  I love it so much!  It's gold and so sparkly.  Surprise diamonds are always a good idea!  Also, I'd like to give my nails a shout out.  They're growing and it makes me so happy.

3. I love winter clothes so much.  The jackets, boots, layers and textures are all my favorite!

4. I've been busy baking cookies for some of my favorite people.  I had cookie orders and friends in need of some cheer so I put together fun cookie boxes.  You just cannot go wrong with this delicious cookie combination.  Any cookie with a chocolate chip in it is my favorite.

5. School lunches.  This mom task is one of my favorites.  I LOVE packing lunches that I know my kids will love.  It's my hug from home in the middle of their school day.  That alone keeps me motivated to pack the yummiest lunches each day.  The kids have been loving the berries, chocolate covered pretzels and the variety of salty chips.  They have both told me that they love to open their lunch boxes to find their favorite sandwich inside.

6. Take my picture.  Leo is going through a phase where he often asks me to take his picture.  It's adorable and it always makes me smile.  I'm not quite sure that Penny feels the same way, but he is holding her nicely so I won't complain.

7. Topher is my favorite old man.  He turns 15 this year and he's just been looking so handsome lately.  He's my shadow after the kids go to bed and sleeps with me every night.

8. Happy Helper.  Leo has been asking for more jobs and to help with more around the house.  He helped me load all the groceries into my van at Sams, he pulls in the trash cans with me every where after trash day and he insists on opening my car door for me.  3 year olds are my favorite.

9. Story time.  We made it back to story time this week and Leo loved the bubbles and the Duplos.  He also love playing with his buddies.  If you are home during the week, check your local library for story time options.  It's our favorite free activity.

10. I'm sticking to my daily salads and this one was my favorite of the week.  I made a homemade lemon dressing and I think I would be happy to eat this every single day.

11. Bible Study buddy.  Leo and I go to a Bible study where he plays with his buddies in the same room as the moms and it's my favorite.  We pack toys to share and he loves doing Bible study with me.  We're studying John right now.

12. My family has decided that any meal + homemade bread is their favorite.  I tend to make a quick crusty bread the most.  Sometimes I'll make sourdough if I plan ahead.  Finding a smiley face in our slices of crusty bread was a favorite this week.

13. Find mom.  Sit on mom. has returned!  And Leo's tongue filled smile is my favorite.

14. This Time and Tru pullover is my favorite.  I don't wear a ton of red, but every time I do I get so many compliments on it.  I guess I'll have to add more red to my wardrobe.  This top has the perfect amount of sherpa for me - just on the shoulders.  I get too hot in full sherpa.  Check your Walmart for end of the season clearance and you might be able to grab one for yourself.

15. Derby Pie.  Kevin has had a really busy work week so I surprised him with a Derby Pie for dessert.  Win-win for me and for him.

16. We received some sad news this week.  One of our very favorite Arkansas friends, Anna, passed away this week.  You may remember me talking about her when we lived in Arkansas, we met up for a weekend in Chicago and Kevin headed to the West Coast to visit them a few years ago.  We lived in the same apartment building totally by chance and our husbands worked at the VA together that year.  We ate tons of dinners together, worked on projects together, spent holidays together, fixed meals together, talked about all kinds of educational issues with our backgrounds in teaching and she made sure that Olive got her first pair of sparkly mary jane tennis shoes for her first birthday.  She was wonderful and so thoughtful.  Anna will be missed by so many.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!  I'll see you back here on Monday.

Linking up with Momfessionals