Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  I hope you have had a nice week.  We're gearing up for back to school (next week!!), having fun doing crafts together, trying new recipes, doing regular things around the house and doing our best to focus on the positives during these uncertain times.

I took a rapid COVID test on Wednesday because... I am having surgery on Monday out of town.  The COVID test was super quick, curbside and no big deal really.  I'm so glad to get a negative result so I can continue on with our plan for surgery.  I'd REALLY appreciate your prayers for everything to go smoothly for me and my family.  I'm trying to focus on all the positives (I am really thankful for my doctor and that he got me onto his schedule quickly) and not let the worries or unknowns get to me.  I'm working ahead to try and make things easy for my parents who are coming to stay with the kids and for myself as I'm recovering at home.  Both Kevin and Olive head back to school next week so, if you think of me or my family, please send prayers, well wishes and lots of happy thoughts our way!

Favorite parts of our week were:

Leo turned 4 months old!  He's so sweet and so loved!  Isn't he so cute in overalls??

He recently discovered his toes (one of my very favorite baby milestones) and has a lot to say every day.

I finally took the plunge and ordered a stack of personalized bracelets from my favorite shop - ADV Designs.  The earring lady that I recommend ALL the has branched out to make darling bracelets.  You can find her bracelets listed in her etsy shop - ADV Designs.  They're HALF OFF right now and only $6 each.  I just love this stack with all my kid's names on it.  The wooden beads are each unique and the bracelets are great quality.  There are lots of options - black beads, wooden beads, personalized and not.  Wouldn't this be a fun gift for a lady, mom, grandma or friend in your life??

 

 The cats say hello.  Topher is finally feeling better.  They've been extra snuggly this week.  I am jealous of all their napping.

Our sunsets have been so pretty!  We call them cotton candy clouds and we have caught some lovely views from our backyard this Summer.  The kids love running out in their pjs to check it out and watch the lightning bugs come out.  We've been going on bike rides and enjoying the view.

Leo is in the midst of a bit of a sleep regression.  He's not thrilled about bedtime, taking cat naps vs real naps during the day and he doesn't seem to mind one bit.  He must like the alone time with mom and dad in the evenings from 9-11pmish.  He's getting so big.  We'll just let it slide, snuggle him a little more and I'm sure he'll be back to sleeping like normal soon.

The clouds have been really puffy and fun lately.  The corn has also been delish in the Midwest this Summer.

Our hummingbirds and butterflies have been very busy.  We have had lots of fun watching them fight over the feeders on our kitchen window.

Leo had his 4 month well check.  He's the sweetest butterball.  He's growing, gaining weight and hitting all the milestones.  We're super thankful for a sweet healthy baby.

We went through the drive thru at our favorite donut shot - Square Donuts.  Lemon for me.  Square for Olive and cake donut for Fletcher.

Glimpse into real life.  Me trying to get some work done while holding the baby.  Big kids having a picnic lunch.  Art, fort building supplies and lots of baby gear nearby.

Dot's PSA.  Avoid the Southwest Style Dot's pretzels.  They are not good.  Kevin bought them on accident and yuck.  They taste like they're coated heavily in taco seasoning and are spicy.  It's like you opened a pouch of taco seasoning and took a big lick.  Stick to the Dot's Homestyle Pretzels for sure!!

 

Hope you have a good weekend!  I'll be enjoying the time with my family, prepping for surgery and look forward to coming back next week to give you a great update on how everything went.  Hugs to you!

 Linking up with Momfessionals

FREE Organizing Jars

I often see these posts offering the best organizing containers and they're usually pretty pricey.  The social media personality usually claims they're great organizers and offers affiliate links to shop.  Today, I'm going to share with you a really fun way to organize things around your kitchen, pantry and house without having to spend any extra money.  Yay!

I love organizers of all kinds, but I don't love paying lots of money for systems or brand name items.  My friend Alison got me thinking about this earlier this year and Kate from @naptimekitchen often repurposes free things around her house to help her organize.

I'm really excited to share a FREE organizing system with you today.  Many of you mentioned to me that you'd love to see more organizing posts from me in the coming year.  Yes, please!  That is one of my favorite topics.

Organizing Jars.  This system is so simple and won't cost you anything extra at the store.  Just buy the items you'll use and keep an eye out for great GLASS jars.  

I'll show you my favorites - they've got good lines, plain lids and the labels come off perfectly.  I have repurposed them all over my house.  They're great containers and I love that I've found a free system to keep things organized.

Let me give you a little jar tour around my house.  

 I use glass jars to hold everything from extra spices, chia seeds or flax seed (or anything I buy in bulk), chopped Butterfingers, pickled onions, yeast and tons of craft supplies.  I even keep leftovers stored in some of the larger glass jars instead of buying more expensive Pyrex containers for leftovers.  These are fun to use when you're taking meals to a friend.  The smaller jars are great for sauces, dressings and the larger jars are great for soups or sides.  These jars work for everything!

These are my favorite jars - they're green olive jars from Walmart or Meijer.  Their lids are gold with no printing or labels.  The Great Value brand label peels right off.

Atlas jars are great square jars and you can find them with pizza sauce or pasta sauce in them.  I currently use one as my grease jar in the fridge. 

Jam jars are always cute and fun to save.

Another square pasta sauce jar works great for housing water beads.

We go through a lot of pickles and green olives.  This pickle jar has been great for leftovers or for snacks when you've got half a package left and need to keep the cookies fresh.

 

Can you think of any ways you could save and use jars around your house for some FREE organization??

Weekend Rewind

Thank you SO MUCH for all of your sweet messages, emails and texts about my surgery and hard week last week.  It means the world to me.  It was a really exhausting week, but as with most things, given some time, we are starting to see the blessings in our circumstances.

We went on a short road trip to our hometown to see a specialist on Friday.  My sister kept the kids and Kevin went to the appointment with me.  My new doctor was wonderful.  He was very confident in my diagnosis, care and surgery plan moving forward.  We heard he's the best in the area and he lived up to the hype.  I'll be having surgery with him sometime later this month.  And while I'm not thrilled for a 3rd surgery this year, I am very thankful to have his expertise on my side.

We spent a coupe days with family and then zoomed back home.

We headed down to the river for a walk.  Leo was extra clingy after a road trip and a couple hours away from mom.  Look at all that fuzzy new hair coming in!

We looked through some baby pictures at my parent's house.  Baby Whitney below looks a lot like Baby Leo :)  And it looks like I found proof that I've always loved polka-dots and floral prints!

 A few more fun pictures from walking by The Ohio River.  We walked, Olive found four leaf clovers, watched boats go by and picked up pizza for dinner.

Nerf guns are life for Fletcher right now.  He traveled with one and it barely left his sight.

My MIL's flowers were gorgeous!!

Slow mornings and snuggles.

Handsome boys!

The ice cream truck came through our neighborhood on Sunday.

Hope you had a nice weekend :)

Friday Favorites (Despite a Hard Week)

Happy Friday!  This week has been a l-o-n-g one over here.

I had surgery on Monday.  It was supposed to be a fairly simple procedure.  I woke up thinking all went well only to find out things were more complex than expected, the surgery didn't happen as planned and I was being referred to a specialist.  I was SO sad to find this out.  I was really anxious to have it done and behind me after over a year of keeping an eye on things.  I am hoping the specialist I see comes up with a fabulous game plan for me, but right now, I'm a little nervous about all of it. 

I am very thankful that I didn't have a bad reaction to anesthesia this time (remember how sick I was for hours after I had my C-section!?!) and I felt sore, but no nausea post surgery.  That was a huge blessing!  Now we're on to working with a specialist and scheduling another surgery.  I get to meet with him this afternoon.  I'm optimistic that he's the best and will know how to help me. 

I'd really appreciate your prayers for me and my family during this process.  I know many of you are moms or busy ladies who understand that it's really hard to be out of commission when so many people are depending on you.  I also have one black and blue arm from an IV gone wrong and two blood shot eyes.  I look like I've been through the wringer.  I'm a literal picture of the chaos of 2020 - ha!

I would have never dreamed 2020 would involve me having 3 surgeries.  I'm a healthy lady and had never had surgery before this year.  I hope one major take away from this year is how important it is to take care of myself.  I'm learning to advocate for myself, schedule regular well checks and make sure my health is top priority to ensure I'm able to take care of my family.

Like many of you, 2020 has been one full of challenges for our family. 

I would have never believed it if you would have told me that life would involve the words quarantine, social distancing, school shut downs, wearing masks and so much isolation due to Covid.  I'm still getting over Fletcher being attacked by a dog and dealing with scars (his) and emotional scars (the rest of the family).  I never would have guessed I would have to have a csection or have health issues to deal with that required surgery.  And who knew back to school decisions would be so stressful?  I think we have a solid game plan for Olive and Fletcher to return to school, but nothing feels easy right now.

Leo is BY FAR the biggest blessing of 2020, but honestly, I could have done without the rest of the trials.  I realize that life has been hard for everyone so I just want to send you a virtual hug today and to ensure you that you aren't the only one struggling this year.  Anyone else feeling this way about the year?  I'm hoping to push fast forward to the remaining months, find highlights along the way and focus on the positives.

I'm praying for God's protection and guidance as we navigate the days ahead.  I am also listening to Rend Collective's Song Counting Every Blessing on repeat.

I am counting every blessing, counting every blessing.

Letting go and trusting when I cannot see.

I am counting every blessing, counting every blessing.

Surely every season you are good to me.

Speaking of blessings and positives, let's see what the highs were from this week despite some major lows.

Ready for surgery on Monday.  Kevin has been working from home for months, but I appreciate him rearranging his schedule time and time again for me to make it to various dr appointments.  Can't wait to put all of this behind us. 

A care basket from a friend was such a thoughtful surprise.  Something for the kids, for me and for the whole family. 

These 3 cuties.  They're so sweet together and I'm really thankful for them.  They've learned how to give gentle hugs, learned to do some more things for themselves and have been perfectly happy with all of our low key days at home.

My parents came up to stay with the kids while I had surgery.  The kids loved having them here and my mom texted me this picture after they left.  It's pretty accurate - Leo constantly surrounded by the big kids.

Olive requests pumpkin chocolate chip cookies year round.  I made her wish come true this week and we enjoyed some pumpkin cookies.  Here's the link to The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thanks for listening to me ramble today.  And thanks for be here.  Wish I could give all of you a big squeeze today and say better days are ahead for all of us!! 

I've got an appointment with a specialist this afternoon and I'm praying he'll be confident in my treatment plan, case and surgery going forward.  I have no clue what that means for scheduling, blogging and real life.  So I'll be back to blogging whenever I can and would appreciate prayers in the meantime for a speedy recover.  Lots of love to you!

Linking up with Momfessionals

Making Hello Fresh Work for a Family

We've been enjoying Hello Fresh meal deliveries for a couple of years now. 

They're delicious, challenge me to try new cooking techniques in the kitchen and are fun for this foodie.  They are definitely more work and make bigger messes than my go to recipes, but I love the variety they add to our meals.  They are a really fun splurge meal for us.  They're cheaper than getting take out or going out to dinner and getting a babysitter.  It's a fun service that my husband and I both love.

Our kids are growing and eating bigger meals every month.  We have always ordered the 2 person meals from Hello Fresh and can't quite justify the price of the 4 person dinner options.

I'm here to give you some tips and trick for stretching the 2 person meals to work for a larger family.  All of the meals I am showing you worked well for 2 adults and 2 kids under the age of 8.

Meal #1 Mexican Pork Street Tacos

These were delicious.  I rarely cook with ground pork and we loved these.  The lime crema was so good, too.  Be careful on the fresh jalapenos - they burned my hands taking out the seeds.  I love any recipe that calls for pickling onions or peppers.  It's a technique that we both love and one that I hope to incorporate in my day to day recipes.

There are 3 tacos per person.  It's easy to share or to add chips and salsa.  Our kids opted not to share this one so I made them some frozen Taquitos instead.  We all shared chips and salsa and had similar things for dinner.

Meal #2 // Balsamic Fig Chicken

This was delicious.  We loved all the flavors and ingredients.

Tip: Add lots of veggies as sides to beef up you meal.  Also, the kids love to help wash, chop and season veggies for roasting.

Tip: Add a fun bread as a side.  These Brazi Bites from Sams are a favorite as well as a loaf of homemade sourdough bread.

Trick: We usually divide the meat into thirds - one third for each adult and then the kids split the other third.

Meal #3 // Brown Sugar Bourbon Steak

We really enjoyed this meal.  The pan sauce and cut of steak was really delicious.

Tip: To simplify and multiply this recipe, I opted to roast the potatoes with the brussles sprouts and add broccoli.  That way I was cooking all the veggies the same way giving me less dishes to mess with. 

Have you tried a meal delivery service for your family??  Would these tricks work for you?

Best Gift Wrap for $1

Do you shop at Dollar Tree?? 

I would say I go to my local store every 1-2 months.  My trips increase when we enter birthday season (my kids have March, April & May birthdays) or when the holidays come around.  I'm always surprised at the things I can find there.

My favorite finds are thank you notes, greeting cards, party supplies, holiday fun, fairy garden supplies, candy and wrapping paper.

Today I'm going to focus on wrapping paper.

You might be surprised at the adorable $1 options!!

I picked up these darling wrapping paper rolls for Olive's birthday.  Aren't they so cute?!?  I've used Dollar Tree wrapping paper for table runners and in place of a table cloth at events as well as using the paper to wrap gifts.  It's great and so affordable.  The paper is on the thin side so if you need really thick, durable paper, I would not recommend this. 

For my own kids, I love to buy these curly ribbon bow clusters and reuse them.  They're either $1 each or two for $1.  The kids do not notice that I reuse bows just enjoy the fun topper on their gifts.

Recently Dollar Tree added these guide lines to the back of their paper to make cutting the paper super simple.  It's a fun feature that used to only be reserved for higher end paper.

I asked my sister to join in the fun for this post.  She found some really sweet panda wrapping paper recently.  The pandas have glittery features and it looks like really fancy paper. 

Isn't it so cute!?!  Along with her cute girls ready to go to a birthday party.

Have you purchased Dollar Tree wrapping paper before?