Happy end of July, y’all! Time for What’s Up Wednesday with Shay and Sheaffer!
What We’re Eating…
This is my plan for the week. It’s a little revised from my original plan because we ended up going out for wings on Monday because it was National Chicken Wing Day… who knew? But we won’t turn down an opportunity to eat wings! Then we combined Monday’s and Tuesday’s plans into one meal for Tuesday night. This is the new system I’m testing for meal planning- I wrote all the meals I planned/ wanted to make for the week on sticky notes and then rearranged them on the bigger sheet of paper on what day I wanted. That way I didn’t have to commit a meal to a day as soon as I thought of it, if that makes sense.
What I’m Reminiscing About…
All the amazing food we had this past weekend in San Antonio…
Here is full recap of our weekend, but the food was definitely the highlight!
What I’m Loving…
I’m a total junkie for all Method products, and most recently, my obsession has been the dryer sheets. These are natural/ plant based products available at Target and a few other places (I can get a few of them at HEB, our local grocery store, but our local Target has a much wider selection). It’s great that they are natural with no crummy chemicals and such, but if I’m honest? I love them because they work really well and they smell AMAZING. I love anything with a citrus type scent because that just smells so clean to me, so I absolutely love the lime and sea salt dish soap, the lime and sea salt all purpose spray, and the lemon mint hand soap. I also love the dishwasher pods, and the degreaser spray (this is a miracle worker on our glass stove top!), granite cleaner for our counter tops, and wood cleaner for shelves, table tops, etc. Okay… just talking about all this makes me want to go clean our house (which is not my favorite thing, so that’s saying something!) because I can just almost smell how great all these products are! We don’t exclusively use Method, but if I’m needing some type of household product, I check first to see if Method makes it and it’s available near me. They honestly have amazing prices, and offer refills for most products, so it’s even more cost effective after that first purchase.
What I’ve Been Up To…
We have just been settling into our new GI fellowship life! So far, it’s been really good- as I’ve mentioned quite a few times, Steven’s schedule has been much more consistent, so it feels like we’ve had a lot more time together. I can’t really call it “free” time because he’s studying for his board exam in August, and keeping up with GI studying as well, but he has had every weekend off from the hospital since the last weekend in June, and honestly? It’s a little weird! A good weird, obviously! But to go from him working about 28 weekends a year in the last year of residency (which was way down from intern year and 2nd year) to just 9 a year when he’s on call at the hospital is a new and uncharted frontier, haha! We almost don’t know what to do with all these weekends! But don’t worry- we’re figuring it out and loving all this time together feeling like “regular” people with more of a “regular” life doing “regular” people stuff, like going to weddings together, and on date nights, and enjoying fun stuff that comes to town, like the rodeo 🙂 .
What I’ve Been Working On…
Now that Steven’s schedule is a little more predictable, we’ve started working on Livy being in a more predictable routine. She’s done really well so far, and honestly, she’s not completely without a schedule- she’s pretty predictable as far as when she naps, eats, and plays, and when she typically gets tired for the night. We just haven’t been really strict about set times, like bedtime, nap time, etc. That was mostly just because our schedule wasn’t that predictable. And to us, it was more important for her to have time with her dad/ both of us than to be in bed at a certain time on the dot. But, his fellowship schedule is more predictable now, so we are instituting a bedtime (8 PM). She has actually went to bed earlier than her bedtime a few times, so I think she’s adjusting well!
What I’m Excited About…
I am excited that Olivia is developing herself quite the little personality! She “talks” with us now- some of it is very plain and we understand it, but a lot of it is gibberish with emphasis. Her dad is super excited that she has a new love/ interest in kicking the soccer ball with him… He played soccer through high school and college and is very ready for her to be old enough to start playing youth soccer!
What I am not as pumped about is her new found love for danger, particularly with climbing… This girl is fearless and it makes me both simultaneously proud and petrified!
No babies were harmed in the making of these photos, haha! I’ve been told her father was quite the climber so I’m afraid this is just the beginning!
What I’m Watching/ Reading…
Together, Steven and I have been watching Fresh Off The Boat from the beginning. I’m caught up, but I started over with Steven because I love it, and I knew he would, too. By myself, I’ve been trying to re-watch all the old Veronica Mars as fast as I can so I can watch the new season! I’m sure that enough time has passed that it wasn’t crucial to re-watch everything, but I did anyway. I’m about half way done with the third season, so I’m getting close!
This month, I read It’s A Love Story (highly recommend!) and Where the Crawdads Sing (recommend… it’s not that I didn’t really like it, it’s that there are a lot of parts that are truly a bummer. I love compelling, but I don’t think I love being just really bummed out). Right now, I’m reading A Case for Jamie from the Charlotte Holmes series (so, this is a teeny bopper series about the descendants of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solving big mysteries while going to boarding school together. It’s cute! This is the 3rd book in the series. I’ve read the first two, and there are four total). I’m also about to pick up The Road Back to You from the library so I can finally get a full education on the Enneagram!
What I’m Listening To…
Y’all. I may be 30 years old, but you better believe I’ve been jamming to the new Jonas Brothers album ALL SUMMER LONG on repeat. And that Shawn Mendes single “If I Can’t Have You” has been on repeat, too. It’s so dang catchy. Also, if you are a Big Boo Cast listener, you may remember that Sophie had a terrible time one episode remembering Shawn Mendes’ name, and subsequently started calling him “Bryan Chalmers”. I think about this every time I listen to anything by Shawn Mendes and it never fails to put a smile on my face. 🙂
I have also been loving the Work and Play with Nancy Ray podcast! I found Nancy when she did a take-over for the Mama Well Instagram account, and have just adored her ever since. I secretly pretend we’re best friends and she’s just giving me advice as a mama in the same season of life but just far enough ahead to give wisdom when I listen to the podcasts. I love that the episodes are short (15-30 minutes), and very practical and knowledgeable (like backed with Scripture, research, etc.) . Nancy is a breath of fresh air and I look forward to Tuesday mornings for a new good word!
What I’m Wearing…
I have been completely obsessed the last few weeks with these overalls!
They are a linen type material, so they are super comfortable and pretty lightweight. They’ve been out of stock for weeks and finally came back a few weeks ago, so I ordered the charcoal first and the green a week or two later. They aren’t in store, so I had to guess size and have them shipped to me, so I started with a size small in the charcoal. They were a little big but still workable, but I went ahead and sized down to the extra small in the green and prefer that fit better.
I wore them to work today with just a plain white tee, but I’ve also worn them with this tank in a black/white stripe and it looked cute! I like that they can be styled with tanks/tees and flats/ sandals for the summer, but I think the darker colors will allow them to transition well into the fall/ winter (we have such mild winters here in Texas so they would work) with a cardigan and some cute booties!
I’m also trying to branch out a little with my jewelry, and picked up this set of hoop earrings (in silver) to try out. I liked that the set had three different size options so I can mix it up.
What I’m Doing This Weekend…
We are sending Steven off on Saturday to an endoscopy training conference until Monday, so Livy and I will be on our own. I’m hostessing a baby shower at church on Sunday, but other than that, we’ll just be hanging out! (Probably binge watching Veronica Mars if I’m honest, haha!)
What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month…
Steven taking his board exam and officially being done with internal medicine! Isn’t it funny how you are excited for the things your spouse is excited for when you’re married like it’s your own thing? I guess that’s how it should be, haha! But he has been so happy so far in GI that it makes me so happy to see him actually enjoy his day to day work. Also, being done with boards means a lot less studying, and more free time to do the things he likes- working with the dogs, working out, and hanging with us! So, we all win once boards are over!
What Else is New…
We’re just enjoying the last few weeks of summer! We’re ready for cooler temps and college football!
Happy Wednesday and Happy August, y’all!
What a sweet little family you have! I’m seriously drooling over that food. It’s been so interesting to read all the varying opinions of Where the Crawdads Sing…I loved it but it definitely brought me to tears. Have a super weekend!
I love Method products as well and Mrs. Meyers to, if you like to use that stuff you should seriously check out the website Grove Collaborative. They sell all kinds of “green” products and good prices there is a membership with it but it’s not expensive ($25 annual I think) and always free shipping sometimes free gifts and great customer service.
I will have to check that out, thank you!