High Five for Friday

Linking up with Lauren for HF4F!

1. Instead of taking a nap earlier this week I took my kids to the park and played with my daughter while my son took his nap. We walked a good ways the park which helped me get some work out time in and then played. We also came home and played with "indoor snow." I will explain more on that in a blog post a few weeks from now.

2. As I mentioned above, I'm working on a few new blog posts that I think will be really helpful to all the moms out there. I'm excited because I wrote a post about toddler meals and it's getting some good feedback on Pinterest so I hope the next few posts will help as well.

3. I know by saying this it will change after the weekend but I am 3-0 in our family's fantasy football league! I'm not projected to do very well this week because most of my good players are out but I'm hoping my back ups help! We will see...being 3-1 won't be too bad though. I have to lose at some point...I've enjoyed being in first for a week though...maybe it will stay that way! Oh and yes...my team name is Twilights Out...I had to.

4. I went to a moms day Wednesday with some friends. The kids get to play with each other and the moms get to talk and eat, which is always fun! I made jalapeño popper dip and it was delicious! I found it on Pinterest so I'm sure it would be easy to find. If you find it, make it...you won't regret it!

5. I've been going to a Bible study with my sister-in-law and I'm loving it. We are talking about the end times and even though I've grown up in church my whole life it's nice to read more into the subject. A Bible study is always refreshing as well.

Quick, Effective Workout

I mentioned a few posts ago about a workout called Blogilates and how great they are. I mainly do Turbo Fire but if I'm in need of a quick, effective work out then I turn to Blogilates. The other night I wanted to work out but was unable to because the TV was being used so I broke out my iPad and turned YouTube on and found this great video. I'm putting it on my blog today because even if you don't have a lot of time to work out you can try this 9 minute long video and you will be sore! I promise!

Please give this video a try and let me know what you think! Cassie has a ton of great videos so keep going if you want to work on abs, arms, etc.! She just came out with a great "getting rid of your muffintop" work out that I can't wait to try! So go on...take 9 minutes out of your day! You won't regret it!

 

 

Flavored Water

Plain and simple: I need to drink more water. I've never been really good at drinking it. I will get on a kick and drink about four glasses for a couple of days and then fall off that for awhile. I always reach for pop or tea...I'm just bad about drinking water. I decided to try adding some Mio or Crystal Light but those have artificial sweeteners that aren't exactly good for you so I needed to find something I could add to make my water tasty. Enter fruit! I tried a "recipe" if you will of an orange, a lime and a lemon. It tasted good but since I wanted to get more than a few glasses out of a pitcher I would keep adding water to the pitcher and continue to use the same fruit. After awhile the limes made the water bitter so I got rid of that and made just orange and lemon. So yummy! But I think I found my favorite so far:

one orange, one lemon and five strawberries cut into quarters.

 

It tastes so refreshing and had the right amount of citrus taste! I keep the same fruit in the pitcher for a few days and just fill the pitcher with water as it gets low. Obviously, the longer the fruit is in the pitcher the stronger the flavor will get.

 

This is definitely going to help me drink more water. Give it a try!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Bathtub Cleaner

I was looking on Pinterest one day for an upholstery cleaner that would clean some stains I had on the seats in my car. I came across this DIY recipe and used it. Well, it didn't really work. It worked OK on superficial stains but the set in stains were still there, plus my car had a wonderful vinegar smell for a week. I wasn't impressed. I put the stuff aside and decided to look for something else thinking I had just wasted my money but with some more looking I found the same recipe was used for cleaning the bathtub. I thought, why not give it a try...and let me tell you, it's amazing!! I've tried to get on a cleaning schedule through out the week and clean the bathroom at least once...and I mean give it a really good cleaning. I sprayed the cleaner all over the stains, if you will, and let it sit for a few minutes and took a scrub brush to it. I wish I had taken before and after pictures because it works really well. Here is the recipe...

1 cup Dawn blue dish soap

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup club soda

That's it! Shake it a little so everything mixes together and start using it! Don't forget to get something to scrub with because that's what will help lift the stains and dirt off and unless you clean your bathtub a couple times a day this will last a pretty long time. I've had this bottle since April.

**Here is a before and after picture I just took yesterday (2/11/14) of the corner of the tub. 

This is what I call a Pinterest win! Just not for upholstery...(and I'm still looking for a cleaner for that).

Space Saving Trick

Our bedroom isn't the biggest so I've been trying to find a few things to make use of what we have and save space. I had been putting all my hair products, make up, perfume, all my girly things on a shelf that wasn't working out too well. One wrong move and it would have been on the floor so I decided I needed to find a shelf that could be hung up and out of the way to store everything. I love that you can find any kind of shelf you want and then you can pretty much do what you want to it. I found a shelf at goodwill and had my mom paint it for me. Here is what we came up with.

I like it a lot! It's been great. Goodwill and some paint...perfect solution!

I also started to get more necklaces and didn't have any place to hang them. We found a pretty board and painted that then found some cute knobs and came up with this great place for my necklaces to be.

This is so easy to make! I'm going to work on something to hang my earrings on because as you can see they are on the side of my mirror but I am loving these space saving items and I love the fact that we did them ourselves and they weren't expensive! I can't wait to do more DIY projects!

High Five for Friday

It's Friday!!

1. I mentioned my fantasy football team not doing so well last HF4F but it looks like I ended up winning! I'm 1-0! It's still very early but I was happy to actually win a matchup. It's funny because there are three girls in the league and we are all 1, 2 and 3. Sorry guys. :-) Really all I care about is beating my husband in week 5!

2. My son is rolling over and rolled over in the middle of the night the other night. It really scared me but I checked on him and he was just fine. He's growing up. We finally put the bumper pad up on his crib (I like to use the one that is made out of breathable material...it may not be pretty but it eases my mind) so he can roll around all he wants.

3. It finally feels like Fall around here. I've mentioned, probably too many times, that I love Fall so this is an exciting time. I know a lot of people look forward to Fall around here...again...apple cider slushies! I don't need to say anymore. :-)

4. I started "jogging" a few days ago. It's a little late in the season but better late than never! I walk/jog around the block in our neighborhood and it's not quite a mile but I can jog about half of it. I did it one day and felt great, went again a day later and it seemed harder...not sure why but I want to keep doing it. I like it!

5. I'm excited for the weekend. I don't think we have much planned which means I can relax and watch football! We may do a little shopping on Saturday and my husband is off this weekend so it will be nice to have family time.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Love & Respect

I wanted to do a devotional with my husband and wanted to spend some time talking with him about it and praying so I asked my Facebook friends what they recommended and at the time I said I didn't want to do Love Dares or Love & Respect because those are very popular. I got some great recommendations but I think we are actually going to read Love & Respect. I already own it and with us working on our Dave Ramsey budget I didn't think we should go out and buy something when we already have a good book at home.

I've actually read about half of Love & Respect and as I was reading it I kept thinking this is so true! The main point the writers want to get across is that there is a crazy cycle couples go through. The woman wants love and doesn't feel she is getting it so she reacts by not respecting her husband and the man wants respect and isn't getting it so he reacts by not being loving; it's this whole cycle that just keeps going.

I usually recommend this book to couples who are newly married or engaged. It helps you see how a man thinks and how a woman thinks and how we have different needs and how to meet those needs.

I can't wait to start reading this with my husband. I know I got a lot out of what little I started reading and know he will like it too. It will be good to spend some time together, not only will we work on learning things about ourselves but we will be working on ways to strengthen our marriage.

Getting back to Healthy

I'm thinking of working on taking some of my favorite meals and making them healthier and "cleaner."

I want my family to get into the habit of eating good. It starts with me though. If I'm the one making the food! I want to make yummy food though so be sure to check back and see recipes I've listed. I know I've mentioned skinnytaste as being a website I like to use for meals but I would love to work on making some meals we love healthier myself.

I've made a goal for myself as well. No more pop!! Not even diet or zero anything. I'm done feeling bloated after I drink it. It's altogether not good. I also need to watch my snacking. I think these are two decent goals to achieve. I don't drink a ton of pop now but every now and then I will drink it for a week or so...not anymore!

I've also started jogging. I say jogging because I'm clearly not fast if you saw me and I'm not quite jogging the whole time. I walk some too but it felt good when I jogged. I liked it!

Here's to being healthier and hopefully finding the time to do it!

Toddler Meals

It's taken me some time to figure out what to feed my daughter. She is two and a half and isn't too picky but has days where she would only eat fruit snacks if she could. I remember asking my mom what to do (probably drove her crazy and still do!), I looked on Pinterest for help, googled what to feed my toddler and now I finally feel I have a handle on it.

Mornings have been a little tough lately. She has been hungry but hasn't been into eating a big meal. We fix pancakes or waffles over the weekend and freeze them so she can eat them through out the week. She eats cereal some days too. I'm trying to steer her away from too sugary cereals but she will eat honey nut cheerios or Life cereal. She likes Lucky Charms (what kid doesn't) but she has gotten bad about picking the marshmallows out and eating only those so she doesn't get them as much. I try to give her milk or water to start out with and she takes a vitamin every day too. Side note: she used to only drink chocolate milk and while I'm OK with her drinking it every now and then she wasn't drink enough regular milk. We started calling it vanilla milk and now she drinks it all the time. Whatever works!

Snack time: I'm trying to get her to eat healthy snacks. I love that she chooses fruits most of the time. I usually give her pretzels (she loves when I put snacks like this in a cup to carry around), string cheese, fruit, sometimes she gets goldfish or a yogurt tube. Yogurt tubes are like gogurt but they are Chobanis version of those. My daughter has always loved yogurt. She mainly eats Greek yogurt which is good because she doesn't eat a lot of meat so she is still getting protein. She gets snacks a couple times a day. A few hours after breakfast, when she wakes up from her nap and before bedtime. I'm working on not snacking so much myself so that's helping her limit her snacks too. She either eats yogurt or ice cream before bed. She loves ice cream and I try to limit that as well.

I took some pictures this past week of meals she ate during lunch and dinner.

Lunch 1: Peaches, peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread and mixed vegetables. She loves peanut butter and jelly and I'm sure she would eat that every day but as you can see I've tried to give a little variety. She loves any kind of fruit and I think there are only a few vegetables she doesn't like but she cleaned her plate every time she ate this week!

Lunch 2: Apples, grilled cheese and green beans. I actually buy little cans of vegetables and warm those up for her each day. As you can see she tends to eat the same ones on the same day...I try not to waste them if I don't have to. I forget they are in the fridge sometimes.

Lunch 3: Peaches, a few shortbread cookies and english muffin pizza. Not the most healthiest of meals but I watch the sugars and things she eats during the week. It's all about moderation.

Dinner 1: Bananas, mixed vegetables and pulled pork. We called the pork "chicken" because she loves to eat chicken...she will figure out later in life that we've lied to her...but it gets her to eat! I try to get her to eat what we eat for dinner so I'm not making a lot of different things. We had pulled pork and cole slaw that night so she got fruit and veggies...unlike us...she's more healthy than me sometimes! Gotta work on that...

Dinner 2: Strawberries, green beans, cheese quesadilla with sour cream. She loves dipping her food in things but poor girl is allergic to ranch...she loves ketchup and barbecue sauce.

Dinner 3: Chili with cheese and a few wheat crackers. She cracked me up because she ate half of this bowl and then realized she was eating hamburger meat...she did finish most of it though so she could get a snack.

As far as drinks go, I give her milk with every meal and she still drinks half water half juice but mostly drinks just water. Sometimes we will give her a little gatorade, or mix in a little MIO or give her chocolate milk but those are all in moderation.

These are a few items I give her. The other day I made a snack for her I found on Pinterest. Bread rolled around peanut butter and a banana. She loved it! I'm trying to get us all to eat healthier and the thing I love about my daughter is that she tries things and either likes them or not but she actually eats a lot of things I don't like myself!

*I got these plates from Walmart and I love them!

***updated Toddler Meal post will be up first of the year! (12/22/13)***

High Five for Friday

1. I can't believe it's September! That means Fall will be here soon. I've loved that its been nice this week and we've been able to take some end of the season walks. I love this time of year! I'm looking forward to sweatshirts and crisp weather.

2. My son rolled over!! He's four months and is ready to be moving! Well, in time, but he wants to go after his sister. Can't wait to see those two playing and running after each other.

3. I had my first game with my fantasy football team and I did terrible. Well, my guy did terrible but it is what it is haha. It's supposed to be fun but I was getting mad. Oh well..it's still fun and it was only the first game.

4. My mother in law had a garage sale and we brought a few things over to try and sell. My mom and I have a lot of Vera Bradley purses, my mom has Sac purses and a few Dooney and Burke ones too. I'm thinking of trying eBay to see if I can sell the rest. I left with a few hours to go in the garage sale so maybe someone wanted some purses!

5. I'm going to a seminar this weekend about writing dynamic dialogue for stories and I'm pretty excited. I'm thinking of checking out some creative writing classes too to help me with my story I want to write. I'm excited to go and see how this seminar is...it's only a couple of hours but its free so I thought why not!

Have a great weekend!

Financial Peace University

My husband and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class at our church last year and it is one of the best classes ever!

I hate to say we are just now really getting in to doing what Dave wanted us to do...a year later...but we are getting there. We are almost debt free which is a nice thing. We've paid off both cars and all our credit cards. We have my husband's student loan left and we will be done. As of right now we are in saving mode.

My husband started his job and I was finally able to make a real budget. It took me two hours to get it just right and even then I was changing it up until the first of September. If you click here the link will take you to Dave's free budget forms. We use the monthly cash flow plan but there are a few different types of budget forms to choose from.

I'm not very great with money, in fact I love to spend money but for some reason I love organizing and getting all the budget items together so that helps me stay on track. I didn't use two hours and then some of my day to not stick to a budget! One of the big things that is going to help me stick to our budget is carrying cash. We used to give ourselves some money for the month but never in cash so I would ultimately go over if I was using my debit card. Not this time! I take out cash for my "fun" money, the kids clothes for the month, our clothes for the month, toiletries, restaurants, etc. The forms list what you should take cash our for and what you should use your card for. I think this is going to help me so much because once the cash is gone it's gone. I can't overspend. It will be a change but I'm ready to do it!

I'm excited to see how this works out for us. We want to buy our own house at some point but we want to make sure we have the money to get some wish list items and other items we may need when it comes time for a house. I can't say this will be easy and Dave even says to not get discouraged if you don't do well the first few months but stick with it and it will be the best thing you ever did.

Toothpaste Challenge

I decided to wanted to start a toothpaste challenge for myself. I bought this toothpaste the other day because it says it removes up to 90% of surface stains in 5 days.

I actually started this challenge yesterday but I am going to brush my teeth twice a day using this toothpaste only. I drink coffee every day, I drink tea sometimes, I know I eat foods that may stain my teeth and I don't want to spend the money on whitening strips so I thought I would get this. I'm bad about using different toothpastes when I brush so I am only going to use this. I want to see if it really works. It says you can start seeing a difference in 5 days but it's been awhile since I whitened my teeth. I am going to do my challenge for the whole month of September and see if I notice a difference.

Check back October 1st for the results to this blog post!