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