Another Friday

1.  The best surprise ever would be,   a gift trip to return to Uganda for a week or two...We'd love to go back and visit our friends we made over our 6 month stay a couple years ago!

2.      Little E's birth...it was not necessarily comfortable or enjoyable at the time, but it   is my most favorite memory .

3.  The hardest, but most worthwhile thing I've ever done was     going to Uganda for 6 months...or having a baby naturally. I can't decide.

4.  The best part of my day is   mornings. I love to get up, drink coffee, and enjoy mornings with my family before Hubs goes off to work.

5. Something I like that most people don't is       peanut butter and cheerios sandwiches .

6. Something I am willing to fight for is     my marriage/family  .

7.  Something you might not know about me is   that I really hate making phone calls to people I don't know...but I'm getting better at it :)  .

So,you've probably noticed that we are back from our vacay! Talk about enjoyable! We had a great time, and then came home to sorrow as my grandmother passed away while we were on our way home. It has been a busy two weeks with joys and sorrows, laughter and tears, but it has been great! We are so thankful for the time we had as a family and time spent with family and friends when we returned. Today I am working on getting back to reality (aka laundry). 

Happy Weekend to you and yours!

a holiday

Well followers, friends, bloggers--we made it through another semester!

Yesterday I finished my last semester of classes! I still have student teaching to do in the fall, but no more classes! Woohoo!

Now, I know that I promised I'd be back to regular blogging once the semester was over, but I failed to mention that the Hubs, Little E, and I will be heading out on a beach vacay tomorrow--or as they say in Europe--we're going on a holiday. Does that not sound so much more fun than "vacation"? Why did we have to stray from our European roots? :)

Anywho, I won't be blogging for at least another week--Sorry!

But to tide you over, here is another Friday post!

I'm linking up with Lauren

1. On a scale from 1-10 the frequency with which I get sick is, a one. I typically don't get sick that often. This winter was kind of the exception (I had a stomach bug and several episodes of fever), but I think that was because of nursing. Little E didn't get sick, so I'd say she was taking all of my antibodies!

2. The last time I felt sick was   a few weeks ago if allergies count. If not, it was a few months back...probably January when I got an awful stomach bug...YUCK!

3. The worst part about being sick is     not being able to do stuff because     when you have a baby, there is still so much to do! Someone has to care for your child...thankfully my mom and mom-in-law help out a ton if we are sick.

4. When I am sick I like to be taken care of by being left alone to sleep and being brought snacks :) I love sleep anyway, but when I'm sick I could sleep all day long! Hubs knows this and lets me just sleep until I feel like I can get out of bed (which may be all day).

5. Something I do to keep myself healthy is    I try to eat a variety of fruits and veggies to get the vitamins I need. I also try to stay active and I don't worry too much if someone is around me that is sick. My body needs the germs (a few of them) to help develop immunity, so I'm okay with that. 

6. A secret remedy that I use when I'm sick is to SLEEP! I said it before, I'm a napper (from way back...as Poppa Call would say)Sleep always helps me feel better.

7. One thing that always makes me feel better when I'm sick is   SLEEP!Wait, did I mention that already? :) Sleep and Soup (preferably Black Bean from Panera Bread) .

Hope you enjoyed those blanks...I did! :)

Just some photos from my week...

 Yep that's right...Little E and I have matching Sperrys!

So does The Hubs--basically we are a Sperry family!

Honestly though, E's a wayy cuter than mine because they are so tiny!

 Tiny shoes are always cuter.

At 14 months old she finally let me rock her to sleep. She usually wants to be left alone to fall alseep on her own (kind of sounds like her Momma when she's sick), but this week she let me rock her and I loved every second of it!

Blessings on your weekend!

We made it!

To another weekend! 

To be specific...the last weekend of this semester! Woohoo! 

This is cause for a celebration :)

We'll start with Fill in the Blank Friday! 

1.  My bedtime routine includes,   showering, snack/TV show with Hubs, brushing teeth, nursing Little E and praying she doesn't wake up until 6:30am    .

2.   I am    basically finished with school for the semester...2 finals next week and I'm home free until student teaching begins in August! 

3.  I can't stand    raw meat     because     it just grosses me out. I wear gloves when I'm prepping chicken because I can't stand to touch it...yuck!  .

4. My idea of relaxation would be   silence, a good book, maybe a latte or a cookie, and sunshine...cool enough that I'm not sweating though :)

5. If I had an extra $50, I would    ...considering I'm pretty frugal cheap, I use it for something our family needs (in real life)...for the sake of this question I would go for a pedicure or hair cut 

6. The best thing about a bloggy friend is     they like what I have to say and listen to even when I feel like other people (people not in bloggy world..those in real life) could care less. Bloggy friends are encouraging! 

7.  A recipe I've been dying to try is   garbonzo bean blondies...I made the black bean brownies earlier in the week and I'm ready to try this one too!

Not sure what other celebratory things are in store for today, but I told Hubs that we are celebrating tonight. We'll see what he comes up with! 

PS--Did you know it is Starwars day? "May the 4th be with you" is popping up all over my facebook and twitter. Confession: I've NEVER seen ANY of the StarWars movies. How bad is that? Am I missing a piece of American culture/history? Oh well! Life will go on

Friday Nap Time

Nap time...it is glorious! 

My little girl is so busy these days, that when nap time rolls around I am so excited because it means that I get to do things I couldn't do while she was awake...simply because when she's awake my life involves making sure she doesn't get hurt or kill herself! 

So nap time today consists of a little sewing and...

1.  When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is,   shut off the alarm. I cannot stand to have the alarm continue to go off for any longer than it must.

2.   I can hardly wait for   this semester to be finished. Why do all of my finals have to be on the LAST day of finals week? I'd honestly be ecstatic if they were all on Monday at 8 am! I just want them over with, but I will have to wait until May 10. 

3.  The quickest way to my heart is    dependent upon who you are. For Hubs its flowers or an hour of alone time     because     those things say, "I love you", "I want to serve you". 

4. A little known fact about me is that    there is a little old lady inside of me who comes out every once in a while in the form of a 20-something young mama who just wants to sit and crochet. Yes, its true. But it only happens every once in a while...like yesterday :)

5. The best part about my job is    I get to spend time with the one(s) I love every day. Watching Little E grow and change has been a blast! Also, I can to go to Target basically whenever I feel like it...and today I feel like it.

6. Something I just couldn't live without is    cookies. Its strange but I have lots of cravings for cookies these days. Almost every Wednesday after church I say to Hubs, "I could really go for a cookie right about now". That's why we usually keep a supply of oreos around. Too many nights have been spent waiting anxiously for cookies to hurry up and bake already!

7.  Something useful that I wish I knew how to do is   garden. I've grown some plants in pots on our porch this spring, but one day I'd like to have a big garden and grow lots of my own veggies. The peppers, squash, spinach, and tomato will do this year though.

Happy Earth Month {gift for you}

Yesterday was Earth Day. Now, before we go any further, I am not some hippy-dippy, tree-hugging girl, BUT I do try to make the most of what has been given to me. Our planet is a gift and our family does what we can to help take care of it and not be care-less.

Here are some examples of the little things we do:

cloth diapers


homemade cleaners/toiletries 


recycling (just got my new shiny recycling bin from the city last week!)


reusable anything (tupperware, bags, etc)


paper-less kitchen 


You can see, we do some things, but not a whole lot. It is difficult balancing everything in life right now, so we try to do what we can without making ourselves crazy crazier.

Here's the deal, we all need to do something to preserve our resources and save money, right? RIGHT!
Since it is Earth Month I'm going to give you a little something special.

Head over to my etsy shop and check out the Reusable Snack Bags. I use them all. the. time.
They are great to taking along snacks for you or your kiddos. We even use a large one for the Little People that E loves so much to tag along with us on our little adventures. They have MANY uses and save money and plastic because you aren't using up plastic zip top bags all the time! I haven't bought a box of those in several months now!

I only have a few bags listed on the site as of right now, but you can place a custom order with specifications about color, size, etc simply by messaging me through the shop.

This is the best part--
use the coupon code "earthmonth" to get 10% off your entire order.

That is my gift to you!
Happy Earth Month!

Dear Blogger/Follower/Reader~

As you can see (by this lonely post) I am still alive! That fact is probably a relief as well as a shock to many of you due to the fact that I seemed to have fallen off the face of the blogging planet recently. But, I am still here!

Most of you know my story, my life, this season I am in. Being a full time wife, momma and student has completely taken over every waking (and sometimes supposed-to-be-sleeping) moment! I don't apologize for putting you all on hold, because my first responsibility is to my family.

Basically, what I'm saying is that my blog has been and will be put on hold for the next few weeks. Classes will be over in just 2 (seemingly long) weeks, then we will be back to our regularly scheduled blogging!

Bare with me, it is my last semester of classes...did you get that? LAST semester of classes! Student teaching begins in August, but I won't ever have to attend another undergrad class again! Woohoo!

Looking forward to what this blog holds for the summer months! So, stick with us, and check back for more posts in mid-May!

Blessings, lovelies!

simple weekends...

I'm certain that you gathered that I love simple things...minimalism.

Though I have tried very hard to make my home extremely simple, I feel like in the past few weeks it has gotten out of hand. Mainly because of school and being pretty busy. I have kind of "let things go"...and that's okay for a time.

Today, however, I found some more encouragement in this area and it has inspired me to once again concentrate on getting my home back to simplicity. I was able to get up early this morning and head to our local Panera bread for a cinnamon swirl & raisin bagel and some coffee...all alone. This is super rare, but I am so thankful for a husband that sees the need for me to have some solitude every once in a while.

During my alone time, I came across some blog posts that gave me the inspiration I mentioned.

5 Tips for decluttering...NOW!
I had never seen this blog before, but you can guarantee I will be browsing through her posts because this one was great!

cleaning calm--enjoying homekeeping with children
was also a great post! Notice she used the word homekeeping as opposed to housekeeping. I like homekeeping better...it isn't just the house I am trying to keep but I am really trying to keep my home peaceful--home includes the people and house implies the building. An all around good post...good blog for that matter!

with that...I am logging off to enjoy the rest of my alone time this morning.

may your weekend be filled with simple blessings!