Weekend Clips

Thursday was fun!! I participated in a Freezer Meal Workshop and I am SO happy that I did.  It was a little fast paced, as we did 10 meals in under 2 hours, but holy moly, does it feel good to have some frozen meals on hand from now until baby boy!  Some days you just don't feel like cooking, going out, or ordering a pizza. Just take one of these meals out, defrost, and cook!

I just love cooking, so I do feel bad when there are nights I don't feel like cooking.  This idea is perfection!

My friend Cathy was super organized and had the workshop flowing successfully.

Some of the meals included burgers--I used up our ground venison! 8 patties, which is kind of a lot for us, but hey we can entertain now!



Cathy was so organized, she had labels for our bags, so it literally takes the thinking out when we go to cook up our meals.



I had TWO huge coolers filled.

And I should have laid them on their side, oops, but my meals all stacked in!

Friday we spent just the three of us. {speaking of burgers, I finally got mine!}

Saturday I was organizing, cleaning and I made eggplant parm casserole and homemade gnocchi.  It was a tad soft, so I need to work on that recipe.

Someone doesn't like waiting for her food.

Sunday morning was an impromptu play date--Brooke loved the little house and the sandbox.

So much that she fell asleep on the way home.

Only to awaken on the way to Joey's grandma's house!  She got to run around and stuff her face with fresh tomatoes.

Looking at the sheep.

Twirling.

Eating those tomatoes again.

And great grandma's homemade chocolate chip cookies.

We came home, I cleaned up the kitchen while both Joe and Brooke fell asleep.  The house was quiet, but I could hear the crickets chirping, with a slight breeze…I busted out a leadership/business book that caught my eye and started reading.  I thought Joe would like it, but he doesn't really have the time to read a whole book, so I thought I could read it and we could talk about it.  It's really good!

I saw it posted on Facebook as a few of the leaders in AdvoCare were reading it and it just fits right up my husband (and my) alley.  It's all about how some ideas take off, what makes people tick and why certain things are more popular.  Good stuff! I grabbed it on Amazon, as they have the best price.

I really only try to buy books that I will reference again or that I want to write in.  If it's a cheesy silly beach read, I will make an effort to just get a loan copy, but something like this I liked being able to take notes in. #oldschool #englishmajor #foreverstudent

Weekend

How was your weekend? We had a nice one!

Friday Joe and I both had a hair appointment at the same time {we go to the same place; he started seeing one of the girls who works at my hairdresser's salon a few years ago}. Little Miss Brooke came with us and she was great. Hubby's hair only takes 20 minutes, while mine takes 2 hours.  They came back and picked me up after I was Fall ready....and by that, I mean blonde!

Don'tcha love the disco ball?

Yay for more blonde and happy layers.

Saturday was a low key day.  I cleaned the house, prepared a delicious beef stew & our brother came over for a bit.  Sadie did have some seizures, but we try to focus on the positive [that she only has them twice a year now].  She'll be out of it for a little while and that makes me sad...but I know she's lucky to have us as her parents.

Sunday morning brought a few truckloads of wood to our house! Hubs did an excellent job stacking all of it.   I made us yummy breakfasts--an egg over easy with tomatoes & avocado.  I also did a few country sausages up too--so good!

It was a gorgeous day and we wanted to take full advantage of it.  I was hoping to get to a Pumpkin Patch, but that will have to be for another day [maybe Tuesday].  Opening day of hunting season is almost here and he needed to practice--

So we went out to visit his Grandma.  We got there and his mom had already picked a bunch of apples and pears (and yes a tomato!) I now have a huge box and need to bake.

 Pies?

 Cake? 

Crumble? 

Muffins? 

Yes please!

His grandma has chickens and we swear their eggs taste so much better. The yolks are almost orange and quite delicious.  She let them run around for a bit outside of their pen...

Brooke just thought they were the best thing ever!

She absolutely loves Peek-A-Boo

Grandma & Great Grandma took her on a walk, but she refused to sleep!  She was in bed by 7 Sunday night.

She enjoyed the chicken cutlets, pasta, meatballs, homemade bread, and of course her bottle.

The family helped chop, move, and stack wood here too!

I hope my family helps me one day when I'm old like his grandma.  It was a peaceful day and for that, I am grateful.  We quietly celebrated Grandpa's birthday, as he is no longer with us.  Such an amazing man and someone my husband will always look up to.

Sometimes you just need to head to the country, take in the fresh air, and get your hands a little dirty and sore.  I think we'll all sleep a little better tonight...and I know I dream of us having our own land someday where Brooke can grow up running around in the fields, playing outside and being a kid.

Makes me think of this song...

Happy Monday!!

Wednesday Randoms

I really need to get better at organizing! I want to be better about blogging consistently {and having topics that are fun to blog about!} I'm inspired by this awesome mama Leah who shared this organizer yesterday. I think I may run to the store and get some filing systems (for our office) and a binder to get my life better organized! I also need to stay on top of all the AdvoCare stuff. Phew! Oh, and fit in workouts since I have been slacking on those, and meal planning...I definitely need to continue to work on time management. 

I have also been working hard on not being stressed.  No matter how hard I try, it always seems to creep right into things.  I don't share everything on my blog; it's impossible to!  I also try to keep it upbeat and positive, as I know I don't like reading other negative nancies, so why would I want to instill that here in my personal place?  However, I struggle with things, just like everyone else.  I'm not perfect, but I'm very happy with my life.  I always try to do the right things, but quite frankly I am D-O-N-E trying to make everyone else happy.  It never works. Someone is always upset.  I can only do so much. {refer to last ranting post here}

Without going into too much detail, it's family drama [again].  To the point where hubs and I had a work thing, they paid for us to stay at a fancy hotel, dinner, and a spa treatment and I was so terribly stressed that I had to leave Brooke and about the situation, it was honestly hard to enjoy myself.  That sucks.

I tried to make the best of it, because how often do I get served room service w/ breakfast in bed?

I will say that the Transformational Facial certainly helped de-stress a little bit. And I wore my cute new shirt.

But it was not as "wonderful" as I had hoped, because of certain issues that never seem to go away.  So for now? I'll be focusing on my little family.  Brooke brings me so much joy, that I just have to let go of things that are out of my control.

I mean seriously, look at her:

My grandma, whom I called "Grandma Owl" (she loves owls and always had them all over her home!) Made these adorable little owls/duck light for Brooke.  I am hoping she gets to meet her at some point, but it's tricky because she's down in SC!  Thank you so much for these grandma, Brooke loves them!!

Last night hubby, Brooke and I had a date night. We went to Carraba's and then Buy Buy Baby. Crazy, I know!  We picked up her toddler rails for her bed, which I have a feeling she'll be needing sooner than later.

I put a mini skirt on her (18months) and girlfriend has long long stems.  It was too short!

So I put some leggings on since it was chilly anyway. 

I hope you have a great day!!

Grandma's in Town!

Hello!!

I cannot believe it's already Thursday.  My mom has been up here visiting this week and I just haven't found the time to sit down and blog much!!  My sweet husband is working his crazy "Tent Sale" {9am-10pm} and so I've been spending lots of quality time with my mother and Brooke.

Last Friday we met my mother-in-law out for lunch.

They were overly excited to talk about little miss.

It was kind of cool to have both of them, women who gave birth to my husband and I there, with our daughter.  Life is a funny thing and oh, so very circular.

Maria insisted on letting me eat, while she gave miss Brooke her bottle.

That night we had my niece Adrianna over for some family fun.  We took her to get her very first bike on Saturday.  She was so darn cute.

Then we visited, "Uncle Joey" at the Tent Sale...she also got to see the clowns.

And of course Daddy & Brooke.

Sweet Cousins.

And while the weather hasn't exactly been beautiful, we have made the most out of our time.  Lots of snuggles with baby girl and catching up over cups of tea.

That's all for now; I'll share more later!