It’s Been A Minute

Or 2 years.

So it’s Mother’s Day weekend, and I keep seeing the same comments/videos/questions. “Why can’t she just tell me what she wants?” or, “Just tell me what to do”

These are such unfair remarks from those who are supposed to love us. No, we don’t deserve a parade or to have hundreds of dollars spent on us. But we deserve thought, considerate action, and real effort.  This day is meant to celebrate the woman who either brought you or  your child(ren) into this world. It happens every year,  not on the same day, but always in May. This means that there is plenty of time to plan.

I want to give some examples of relatively cheap ideas on how to celebrate the woman you love or respect.

Breakfast in bed, eggs, bagels, sausage, coffee. These might be things that you already have in the house. The most important part of this is that YOU clean up any mess that is made. Also, you can completely clean the kitchen ( if that is a chore you don’t normally do).

Go to the dollar store and buy some Epsom salt, candles, a sentimental card, and some of her favorite snacks. Draw her a hot bath with candles lit, have a drink, and her snacks up there. Music playing on her phone. Take the kids to a park so they can’t disturb her. Quiet time with no questions or crying children is very refreshing.

If you have more money to spend, get her a gift card to her favorite place. Her actual favorite place, not like Wal-Mart, she’ll just buy stuff for the house. Let her go by herself with no time limit. The only rule is that she can only buy things for herself.

If you actually listen to her when she talks, she will tell you things she likes or wants. Keep notes in your phone. I have a Google Drive document called Gifts for Husband. Jot things down as they are said, so you can remember.

If you are no longer with the mother of your child(ren), you should absolutely gift them something. How you treat her is how your son will treat the person he loves, or it will set a standard for your daughter on what to expect from her significant other.

Now to the ladies. Please make sure you are setting up realistic expectations for your day. If you guys are struggling financially, don’t expect a $400 purse or anything extravagant. If you want real effort put into you, make sure that you are putting real effort into your partner. Relationships are a two-way street, and they involve so much communication to thrive.

I was really surprised by how much effort my husband put into this weekend. He planned a date night, decided on the restaurant, day of the week, AND found a sitter with no assistance. He bought me so many of my favorite snacks and make me breakfast and dinner. He also put real effort into spending time with me and got some of my to-do list done. I felt so loved, appreciated, and seen. It was the first time in a REALLY long time.

These are some pictures of the weekend.

I hope my fellow moms know how amazing they are. Happy Mother’s Day!

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Prioritize

I haven’t posted in almost 2 weeks. I have felt a bit overwhelmed and the first things I stop are my creative outlets (which I don’t recommend). When the house is gross and the kids are acting up and the husband walks around with blinders “not seeing” the problems, the last thing I “feel” is being creative.

I haven’t had the energy to do much beyond the necessary, just smile and wave boys… smile and wave.

There is evidence all over the house of things I have attempted to do or clean. The floor streamer in the living room, broom in the dining room, contents of our homeschooling cabinet littered all over because I was going to organize.

That being said I have been spending more time with the kids. We went to the state museum, we’ve been to the park a couple of times and generally we are spending more time outside.

Fell asleep on the way to the park

Throwing paint at canvas

Met a friend at the museum

So life isn’t terrible and I am prioritizing the kids, it gets me through even the worst bout. Sometimes everything gets to be too much and you have to step back and remember what really matters.

I hope you are all well!

How You Doin….

So I am going to do a life update, I feel like a lot has happened since the beginning of March. Matt and I joined a gym transformation challenge. Its 6 weeks, you need to attend at least 4 workouts a week and the workouts are 50mins. They have childcare, which is completely neccessary for me. The workouts are INTENSE but amazing! I have really been enjoying putting in the work.

My husband actually joined the challenge as well! Super proud of him for jumping in with me. Of course, I’m also jealous because he has been having better results than me… despite the fact that I work out more often, constantly on my feet during the day and I eat better. It’s fine, I’m fine…

Just a normal day….

Adding to the working out, I have also been walking. I have done 3 official 5ks so far this year and I have earned medals for walking a certain distance in a certain amount of time

My medals so far this year!

I am super excited to say that we are going to the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit that is working it’s way around the US.

I am and have been obsessed with Vincent Van Gogh for a really long time, particularly Starry Night (basic, I know). But I can’t help it… I have Starry Night leggings, shoes and decor in my house

This is just a taste

Also, one of my besties is coming to the show with us, so that makes it even more special.

She is my cheerleader, always has my back!

In more exciting news, our library has opened back up!! It has been closed for renovations for over a year. And I am happy to say it’s been open for a couple of weeks and we have already been twice.

Some of my current obsessions I am learning about! Matt and I are watching Vikings right now and the show has definitely sparked an interest in learning more.

Well, I think that is all my life right now. I hope everyone is safe and thriving!

Low*ish* Calorie Pizza

I mean… if you are desperate enough any pizza is good pizza! This is a recipe for a low calorie and low carb pizza.

Start with these tortillas, they are 50 calories and 4 net carbs

Dip a basting brush in olive oil and cover the tortilla. Sprinkle the tortilla with garlic and onion powder. Then take 1/4 of a cup of spaghetti sauce and cover the tortilla, 30 calories and 4 net carbs.

Sprinkle 1/6 a cup of mozzarella over the sauce, that is 40 calories and 1 carb. Space out 6 pepperoni, one in the middle and 5 around, 60 calories and no carbs

So in total for one pizza you are looking at 180 calories and 9 net carbs! That is pretty fantastic, we usually eat one pizza and a salad to get our greens.

Somehow we failed to get a cooked picture…. but it tastes amazing!

Zelda Party

My oldest turned 11 recently and a Zelda party was requested. So Mom delivered!

I rotate birthday parties between the years to help save me money, this year was the “off” year for my oldest. That means less money is spent on decor and we don’t have a lot of people over.

So to save additional money on costs I try to use things I already have at home and I DIY A LOT of stuff.

This is the main decor wall for the party, all this is is crepe paper (streamers) and construction paper cut into the Birthday banner. It made a huge statement and covered up my art which my son doesn’t care for.

The cake

I wasn’t planning on this DIY…. I use Publix for my cake, I ALWAYS use Publix because their cakes are DELICIOUS!!! Also, they do such an amazing job with their decorations. They let me down though and I had to improvise. This is a vanilla cake with icing I dyed green. The design is a Hylian shield. I cut out the inside myself with a razor blade. I placed the paper on the iced cake and I used black decorating icing to “color” in the design. The outside of the shield is just paper, it was my simple solution. It looked amazing and my bday kid was very happy!

I always have the kids do crafts or play games at the parties, it helps entertain them and it gives them something to take home. For the Zelda party I choose to have the kids paint stained glass pictures. They turned out really well!!

I used 8×10 dollar store frames and took them apart for their glass. It made a bit of a mess and I regret not keeping the frames to hang the glass up.

I found an image easy enough to trace with puffy paint

Either will work

I made a total of 5

To make the paint that dries semi clear just take acrylic paint and add school glue. The kids really enjoyed painting them and they were a really easy and cheap craft!! Because I had most of the supplies I spent $10 on 5 of them; 5 for the frames and 5 for the puffy paint.

Budget Farmhouse Crafts

Farmhouse decor is an extremely popular design style right now! My friend just bought her first house (by herself *whoop whoop*) and she wants to decorate in the farmhouse style. She is on a budget, like so many of us, so I told her that I would make her some cheap decor.

I went through Amazon for inspiration and then hit my favorite place for Budget DIYs…. the dollar store!!

I included the links to the actual Amazon items in case you wanted to see them, they are affiliate links if you make a purchase I get a small percentage of it.

Some of my supplies

My version

I took 3 small identical books and painted them white. Inserting to say I DID NOT use the dollar store paint…. it is TERRIBLE. I used regular white acrylic paint from Walmart $.50. I hot glued them together after painting them and then I wrapped them in twine (3 for a dollar and I barely used 1). I wrote the words myself with a permanent marker and then to make them look worn I covered the words with chalk marker. My books cost less than $5 total and did not take very long to make. The inspiration is $34.99 which is so much more than mine, but it is also made of wood, not books.

These arrows are a dollar a piece and I used the same acrylic paint and permanent marker with a stencil

I tried to use a paint pen instead of permanent marker… failed miserably

I strung them together with the same twine. Again this project was less than $5 all together. This inspiration piece is about $22, if I were to redo this one I would use my Silhouette to cut out the words versus a stencil. You could also use more than one color; I was trying to make the colors basic so they would match any décor.

Vase for a simple statement

This is a vase wrapped in a roll of the twine, I have floral foam and 2 sprigs of grass. I hot glued the twine at the bottom and just wrapped very tightly and then glued the twine at the top. Total cost $5, maybe $5.50.

These vases I failed to get a picture of before I gave them to my friend, so I apologize for the color of my photo. These are all dollar store vases and I painted them with the same acrylic paint. I did several layers of just white and then I streaked some black paint. I sanded the vases down, concentrating on the areas with the black paint to give them a worn look. With using the same paint as the other projects the total cost for this project would be about $3.25. The inspiration piece is almost $35!! That is a huge savings and I think they look really great.

Call Me a Candlestick Maker

I have made candles! This has been something I have had the supplies to make them for over a year!

This blog contains affiliate links, if you purchase an item from the link I get a small percentage of the sale

These are lemon lavender… for relaxing

I am a firm believer in the power of essential oils and I wanted to help my kids with their meditating so I made them these!

I put these dry herbs and oils in the candles

I heated up the wax on a double boiler. I was surprised how much wax I needed for even a small candle, so if you are planning on making candles keep that in mind.

They looked pretty cool even before they cooled down and they smell so good.

First time being lit!

Ingredients are soy wax, essential oils, dried lavender and lemon slices. The jar was actually from the dollar store and it had the wick already included so it made the job very easy.

Workin On It

SO I have been working on myself, well my body since…. forever… but in all seriousness since the middle of January and I am finally really seeing some differences!!

Look at the difference!!

I have lost almost lost 2 inches off my belly and several inches everywhere else, but my ultimate goal is to get rid of my belly.

So what have I been doing to get such an amazing difference??

My gills are getting smaller!!

I have been eating about 1400 calories max and I workout at least 5 times a week, I also try to make sure that I am taking as many steps during the day as possible.

My favorite exercises are

Push-ups, I try to do 50 every night

I still do these modified

Planks, I started only being able to hold for 15 seconds and now I am up to 40 seconds each time!

Time STOPS

Flutter kicks and Leg raises

Bent over rows

Lifting dumbells sorry about the baby interruptions, he always “helps” me work out, lol

Normally my abs are engaged

Russian Twists

So that is what I have been up to and it has been quite effective. My clothes are getting loose and I have more energy. I am more confident and my marriage is definitely improving! I will be adding cardio as I actually lose weight (I’ve only lost about 7lbs) because my knees and my hips are in pretty intense pain these days.

Upper Room Chapel

Close to where my daughter goes to lyra there is a beautiful chapel that I have driven past for years. I have never stopped because I don’t like to go places I have never been before… anxiety. BUT I have been pushing myself lately to get out there, go new places and take pictures of my adventures.

So last week the kids and I finally went to the chapel and walked around, and it was beautiful. I wish I was a better photographer because my pictures do not do it justice.

It apparently was closed for a while and was reopened back in 2010 and is now a functioning church.

The Upper Chapel Room is a replica of the Upper Chapel in Jerusalem and the location of the chapel here has a “Walk of Faith” around their grounds that are plates that quote different verses from the Bible.

There are several plates all around with verses on them. They were very enjoyable to read while walking and snapping pictures.

I don’t know this scene. I am not sure what his happening. I am assuming that is Jesus with the crown of thorns.

I will definitely be returning to the chapel for some peace and quiet and enjoy the Walk of Faith. Like I said, I wish I was a better photographer because there is so much beauty to capture; the shade made it difficult to photograph.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Love is something worth celebrating!

If you have someone in your life make sure to show them how extra special they are today.

Valentine’s day doesn’t need to be expensive or over the top. It needs to be thoughtful and real. You know “your” person more than anyone; show them how important they are to you!

This is Elvish… I’m a nerd