Sweet Summertime Week #1

I'm starting a new weekly post for the summer. 

Sweet Summertime!

Each week I'm going to recap what I did throughout the week before. 

Last year I tried to keep track of what I did each day during summer vacation. 

It was a pretty busy/hectic summer, so I lost track, but this summer- GAME ON!

Each day I'm keeping track of something fun or memorable that I did on that day in the Notes section on my phone. 

I hope to take at least one picture a day and recap my week for you on Thursday's.

Now, I really want to do my recap on Monday's, but we are leaving for our vacation soon, and I want to get in more than one post before that happens. 

So without further adieu, let's get started...

Summer started on Friday, May 26 at 2:40 pm

Our last day of school is a work day for teachers. 

Most of my room was already cleaned up and packed away, so I didn't have a ton to do. 

I did odd jobs and my 8th grade team had lunch together. 

We had a taco bar and pulled pork. 

While we were eating a little mystery guest left me some flowers, a card and a gift card to Barnes and Noble.

My co-workers and I headed to a local restaurant and sat on the patio and had drinks. 

No pictures to share that great memory with you, but we had a great time. 

After drinks with my co-workers Alex and I headed to my favorite local pizzeria.

They use fresh ingredients from local farms in their delicious salads and on their pizza's. 

We sat on the patio and enjoyed a yummy Farmhouse Salad with Basil Dressing and a Pepperoni and Cheese Pizza!

Saturday, May 27

One of my best friend's got married on this evening!

It was held at a local winery, so we left a little earlier and met friends for a drink before heading to the wedding. 

We're all married except for my friend on the right. 

It's crazy how fast time goes by!

One of us has a baby and another has one on the way!

Sunday, May 28

On this evening we got to hang out with friends on the pack porch. 

I love using our back porch in the summertime. 

We played sequence into the early morning hours!

Have you ever played sequence?

It is so fun, and it doesn't take much more than a little strategy. 

Check it out here.

The girls are always better than the boys!

Once again the girls WON!

Monday, May 29 

It started with an early morning run, stopped by the local cemetery to pick some weeds around flowers that I planted at a family friend's grave a few weeks ago. 

I made Mix and Match Mama's Lemon Bundt Cake.

We went to a local parade and Memorial Day service. 

We had a cookout at my in-laws. 

We went to Lowe's twice!!

We are fans of Lowe's. 

We never can get enough of it!

Tuesday, May 30

This was my first REAL day of summer vacation, and I did the task that I HATE the most!

After my morning run and a quick glance at Live with Kelly I went out to our back porch to do a summertime deep cleaning. 

Every spring/summer I remove everything from our back porch and clean it from top to bottom. 

Usually I wash the ceiling too, but I was home by myself and that just wasn't going to happen. 

We have a ton of windows with wood window sills, so I washed all 14 or so window sills, swept the cobwebs away and washed one wall of siding. 

I absolutely hate spiders with a passion, and you might as well put dust on that list too!

I hate this job so much, but I'm always SO happy when it's done. 

This took me all morning. 

I treated myself with my first day at the pool!!

This is our local private pool. 

Since I don't teach in my hometown it was so nice to hit up the pool while everyone else was still in school!

Wednesday, May 31

My morning started bright and early at the eye doctor's. 

I've been a one contact kind of girl for a long time. 

This time my eye doctor decided that another contact in my right eye might help me see better. 

So, we're going to try it out. 

Unfortunately, I didn't listen when I was young. 

I'm near-sided, but I wouldn't wear my patch and do my exercises when I was young or else they say I probably would have outgrown it. 

#stubborn

From there I ran errands and picked strawberries. 

My grandma and her best friend used to take me strawberry picking every summer. 

Our more local patch closed down, but another patch has come about. 

The plants were loaded, but not quite ripe. 

I did pick about 5 pounds and was on my way back to the pool for day #2. 

So that's week #1 in the books. 

What a great week it has been!

I feel like recapping my ordinary summer days makes me feel more grateful for having this time off!

Weekly Schedule

For some reason I find it fun to read about other people's schedules. 

What people do on a regular basis is intriguing to me (and I hope to you!). 

So, today I've decided to share with you some of the things I do on a weekly basis.

I'm going to start on Thursday and work through until the following Wednesday. 

For some reason I feel like that's how my schedule around the house goes.

Thing #1
Grocery Shop

I used to like to go grocery shopping on the weekends because it was most convenient. 

What I've found though is that is when the stores are most busy, which I don't love. 

So now, I like to go on Thursdays. 

The stores don't seem to be as busy, and I don't have to waste time on the weekend going to the store.

I go to three different grocery stores each week.
I love to go to Aldi's for fresh fruits and vegetables and some other items that I don't mind not getting name brand items.
There's one particular local grocery store that I like getting yogurt and some other items at.
Another local grocery store is where we like our lunch meat and cheese from.
These three stores aren't in the same town, but they aren't too far away.

Thing #2
Wash Work Clothes

Monday through Thursday I wear dress pants and dress clothes to work. 

I love to dress up, and I think it looks more professional when teachers actually dress up, so I really do enjoy this part of the week. 

On Thursday night I know I'm done with dressing up for the week unless we go out to dinner where I normally don't wear dress pants anyway, so I try to wash my dress clothes on Thursday nights. 

Sometimes I hang them on our clothes line in the basement, and other times I throw them in the washer. 

Most times I don't have time to wash and dry and fold them, but that's fine because I will fluff them up the next day and fold them and put them away. 

I really love this new part of my routine. 

I feel like it saves from having to do some many loads of laundry over the weekend. 

Also, I'm that type of person who likes to do little bits of things over time and not a lot of anything at once, so this really helps out. 

Thing #3
Wash Other Clothes

On Friday night I try to throw in a load of laundry. 

I will do our regular clothes, workout clothes and Alex's work clothes, if he's not working on the weekend. 

Monday through Friday Alex wears a work shirt and work jeans. 

These clothes can get SUPER dirty, so they have their own laundry bin, and sometimes they get thrown in the washer the minute that he comes home. 

Other times I wait until the weekend and throw them all in by themselves without fabric softener. 

Did you guys know that if you have fire retardant (FR) clothes that you shouldn't use fabric softener with it?

I did not. 

My husband works on gas lines and the FR clothing is supposed to be to help prevent the clothes from catching on fire. 

Well unintelligent me was putting fabric softener in with them and had no idea that I was setting up my husband for disaster if something would happen. 

Luckily, Alex caught it and now I have to consistently remind myself to skip the fabric softener!

Saturday mornings are usually a great time for me to finish the laundry. 

I am typically up early and can get lots of loads done before I go running and after I get back. 

Normally by the time Alex wakes up on Saturday morning the laundry is nearly finished and ready to go back in our drawers.

Thing #4
Iron/Steam Clothes

As I've mentioned before I pick out my clothes over the weekend, iron/steam them and have them ready to go for the week. 

I cannot stand to wait until the last minute and try to make cute outfits. 

It plain out stresses me out, and I don't have one extra minute to spare in the mornings. 

I pick out the tops, cardigans and pants that I want to wear for the week. 

I iron and steam them and then put them at the front of my closet, so that I can easily grab my outfit of the day each morning. 

Actually, most evenings I pull out my outfit for the next day and hang it on my closet door or lay it out on our spare bed.

Some evenings I even pick out my jewelry ahead of time.

All of this planning just makes life in the morning that much easier. 

Recently, I've learned that I need to pick out my casual clothes for Friday's and iron them too. 

Most Friday's I wear jeans and a school shirt, but lots of times that school shirt needs ironed, so now I'm picking out my school shirt a week ahead and ironing it too!

Thing #5
Clean 

I like to clean each week. 

Some weeks I am able to clean more things than others. 

It seems that our house gets dusty very quickly. 

I've had people tell me it's from our hardwood floors. 

We don't have carpet in any of our rooms, so you can easily see the dust. 

I hate dust and even tried to convince Alex I was allergic to it, but he didn't buy it. 

Each week I always clean the bathroom and sweep the floors. 

Most weeks I will dust, but sometimes I don't do the baseboards and every picture/surface in the room.

I love my Shark sweep with all of its attachments, but just this week I was able to use a regular Swiffer under our bed and some other pieces of furniture where the Shark attachment won't fit. 

I could see all of the dust under there, but I couldn't figure out how I could reach it because none of the attachments were that small. 

Then, I remembered a regular Swiffer and borrowed my parents and voila! so much less dust now. 

Each week or every other week I wash our sheets, and I love to make the bed each day. 

Some days it doesn't get made, but I love a nicely made bed, even if it's 5 minutes before I'm going to get into bed, I'll still make it!

Thing #6
Prepare Lunches

After returning home from the grocery store I like to wash my grapes and put them in a new container, wash my carrots and put them in a new container, cut my cucumbers and celery and put them in their own containers.
So, it's on grocery store night that I get everything cut and prepared.

I've learned that if things are cut and readily available that it's more likely that I will eat them. 

So I take care of the cutting and washing after the grocery store, but I prepare Alex and I's lunches the night before each day. 

I tried preparing all of them on the Sunday before, but they didn't seem as fresh and some of the veggies were soggy. 

So, I'm sticking to each night after dinner. 

I grab little baggies and fill them with our items for the next day. 

Usually I have a little bag of cheese, a bag of peanuts and raisins, a bag of celery and a bag of carrots. 

Alex likes a bag of cheese, a bag of trail mix, a bag of dried fruit and sometimes some celery or carrots. 

I dish out what I'm going to eat the next day (usually our leftovers from the night before) and make Alex's sandwich the night before. 

I set out our lunch boxes/bags and put in anything that doesn't need refrigerated, napkins and silverware. 

We are all ready to grab things and toss them into our lunch boxes/bags the next morning.

Thing #7
Make Menu for the Week

I typically am thinking about our meals for the following week before I head to the grocery store the week before. 

If I know I'm going to be making anything special, I add it to my list so that I can get it ahead of time and not have to swing by the grocery store each day. 

I make out our menu for the week and each night if I need something from the freezer I will either get it out the night before so that it can thaw or grab it that morning and put it in the refrigerator. 

I try to make things that will take longer to make the night before and have it ready to bake. 

Thing #8
Look at Grocery Ads/Plan List

We get our grocery ads on Tuesdays, and the new ads start on Wednesdays. 

I look through the ads for three stores each week. 

I write on the top of the ad which items I want from that store, and then when I go grocery shopping I take the ads with me. 

In addition, I have a running list of items needs on a Note in my phone. 

I like to list things in order that I will find them in the store. 

This prevents me from running all of over the store numerous times. 

I take my ads too. 

If there are a lot of things in the ad, I will add them to my Notes on my phone. 

If not, typically I can remember to grab them as I'm going through the things listed on my phone.

And then the week starts over again by heading back to the grocery store, cleaning/cutting things, washing work clothes, then to regular clothes, cleaning, ironing/steaming and preparing the menu and lunches.

I try to make each new week a bit better than the week before.
The best thing I've learned is not to stress out over any of it.
Sometimes the house won't be as clean and sometimes I won't have dinner planned, but we'll still make it through the week.
I love being prepared and will keep working at it.
What weekly schedules do you follow?
Do you have any tips on streamlining my week?

Devotions

via

Today I'm in search of a new devotion for 2017. 

Each morning I read my daily devotional while I eat breakfast. 

I used to do my daily devotionals at night because I had more time, but I just hate waiting until the evening to do it. 

So, I switched to the morning and love it.

I feel refreshed and ready to go when I start my day with a little Jesus time. 

With that being said, I like quicker devotionals. 

Every day I read this. 

I'm not sure how many years I've been reading it, but I enjoy the devotion and short verses.

Each year I start it over from the beginning.

A few months ago I added in this.

So, my mornings look liked this. 

I recently finished Looking Up and would like another short devotion to pair with my Jesus Calling. 

I'd prefer it to be something I could download on my phone like an app or find a link too.

Please comment below if you have any ideas!

2017 Goals

Happy New Year!

I can't believe that another year is here. 

2016 went super fast and listening to what older and wiser people tell me, it seems like they will only get faster and faster. 

Today I have 3 goals for the year. 

I'm keeping it simple and sweet. 

Here we go. 

1. Eat more healthful meals

I'm all about a good workout. 

I love to run and enjoy workout videos, but I don't love veggies. 

I eat a pretty clean diet most of the time. 

I think it has to do with being a runner for so long, but I can't eat a lot of junk. 

My body just can't digest the food, and I end up sick. 

So, most of the time I eat decent meals, but I know I could improve my veggie intake. 

I'm going to be more conscientious on cutting up veggies ahead of time, so that they are an easy grab when looking for something to eat. 

2. Save more

My husband and I have a really big financial goal to meet this year. 

We are focused, and I only hope that keeps up for the whole entire year. 

I took a Dave Ramsey class in college and have applied most of his principles since going through it. We are working on a specific baby step and are bound to complete it before 2018. 

I'm currently reading Love Your Life, Not Theirs by Rachel Cruze. 

I'm not too far, but I guess I'm a nerd because I love reading informational texts, especially money tips!

3. Enjoy the Simple Days

Last year I wanted to slow down and do more traveling.

Graciously enough, we did just that. 

I want to continue to travel, but I want to enjoy the simple days. 

When I'm onto something, I'm on a mission. 

In the halls at school people always look at me and say something like "you must be in a hurry" or "you're on a mission." 

Most days I'm just headed to the copier 

#teacherlife

I'm really not on a mission, but I use every second of every day that I get. 

Sometimes I think that's a hindrance to me. 

I don't look at what's around me or stop to take in something else that might be happening not right in front of me. 

I want to enjoy the simple days and not be so rushed. 

That's it for the year. 

I think it's enough. 

My principal always says he can work on one thing, but when you start adding a second, third and fourth thing to his list, he gets off track. 

I think I can manage these three things. 

I'm going to make my best effort in 2017 and hope to have a successful report come next December!

*I was thinking of finding a new blog design; however, I've decided to stay with my own homemade one for a while longer.

Have a great start to the week!
Tomorrow, it's back to school for me.