What We’re Eating…

Monday– Blackened chicken alfredo from Carlsbad Cravings [This was my first time to make this, and we loved it! Notes: I subbed out her recipe for blackening seasoning with Chupacabra Cajun seasoning because we love it, and it’s less work, and it’s basically the same thing, haha! I also doubled the amount of pasta listed and doubled the amount of parmesan listed and it was just right for us. My sauce looks much darker than hers because mine stayed on the stove top for a little longer than the recipe time waiting for a certain doctor to get home from procedures 😉 but it was still delicious. We will definitely have this again!]

Tuesday– Bacon wrapped stuffed chicken breasts and roasted potatoes from Dinner at the Zoo [this was my first time to make this, and it was okay, but seemed a little bland. I’m not sure how I’d jazz it up if I were to make it again, but it wasn’t our favorite.]

Wednesday– Pot roast with carrots and potatoes

Thursday– Mix and Match Mama’s sausage and provolone pasta

Friday-Sunday– we are headed to the ranch!

What I’m Reminiscing About…

July 1 was this guy’s last first day of training! He has started (and is now a month into) year 6 of 6!!

I am so insanely proud of him, and what a hardworking, compassionate, personable, knowledgeable, and kind doctor he is. He’s a keeper, and we’re so glad he’s ours! 😉 But, it seems like just yesterday it was July 1, 2016 and we were just starting our first year of residency and here we are 5 years later almost done! I say it all the time, but truly, truly, the days are long, but the years are short!

What I’m Loving…

• Mkay, I think I might be the only one that is still ride-or-die for my paper planner and large paper kitchen calendar, but I am who I am. I love (WITH MY WHOLE NERDY HEART LOVE) color coding activities and appointments and everything per person in our family, but hate (LOATHE ENTIRELY) when something changes and I have to cross or scribble something out because I used a color pen. Which leads me use a pencil in my planner and pen on our kitchen calendar that I write on at absolutely the last minute when I am most confident nothing will change. I bought us a new kitchen calendar earlier this month (which I love!), and that led me down the rabbit hole of erasable colored pencils, which led to finding erasable colored pens. My little nerdy organizational heart was so happy! I have used the Frixion gel pens before (the summer I interned at Cook Children’s I used the black ones because we had to hand write charts to then be uploaded to the EMR and it was nice to be able to erase a mistake instead of scratch it out, but we had to use pens), but didn’t know they came in colors! I ordered this generic set like the Frixion gel pens because they are slightly cheaper, and I’d say they work just as well as the name brand. I also grabbed the Frixion Fineliner set (which are similar to a Papermate Flair felt-tip pen, but erasable!) to see which I like better, and to have two sets between my planner and the big calendar. Needless to say, I love all of them. 32 is apparently when you 100% nerd out over erasable pens. Sorry not sorry 😉
• Has anyone else been getting absolutely TORN UP by mosquitoes this summer, or just us?? My kiddos are like mosquito magnets- when they went for swim lessons on the first night, Henry literally ended up with 5-6 bites on his face because that was all that was exposed out of the water. The next day, I grabbed this OFF Botanicals Repellant Lotion as a Hail Mary to see if it would help and it is FANTASTIC. First off, it works. Secondly, it has NO SCENT (and all the praise hands went up!!), and lastly, it doesn’t leave you greasy or sticky. I haven’t used it yet in conjunction with sunscreen for the littles, so I’m not 100% sure what order everything needs to go on, but I do know that it kept mosquitoes off us so it’s a winner in my book!

What I’ve Been Up To…

We’ve had a busy July! I recapped our first few weeks of July here and here if you are interested…

Weekend before last, the Red Bank Land & Cattle acquisitions team (aka, the four members of our family because we are all the teams of RBL&C, haha!) went north of Decatur to pick up three new cows to add to the herd. We got two confirmed bred cows, Poppin’ Horn and Red Hot, and one heifer that we named Hot Grease (her dad is Greased Lightning and her mom has “Hot” in her name line, plus her coloring looks kinda like she was splashed, so Hot Grease seemed fitting. Also, all the best things come from hot grease, am I right?).

When we got back, Steven went on call at the main hospital and the littles went to swim lessons Monday-Thursday. They each had a private Red Cross certified teacher for 30 minutes each night to mostly get comfortable in the water and an introduction to form. They both did really well and we adored their teachers!

Friday was my 32nd birthday! We hung out at home all day, and then went to Freddy’s for some custard after dinner. My kids smothered me in sweet kisses and “Happy Bir-day, Mommy!” all day and I couldn’t imagine a sweeter day ☺️

We went to eat pizza for lunch on Saturday at our favorite local place and it was so good! We hadn’t been in a while because they are only open on the weekends, but it was just as delicious as we remembered! It was a great little birthday lunch for the four of us!

And we just relaxed the rest of the weekend while Steven finished up call!

What I’ve Been Working On…

Actually, I’ve been working on my skin care routine lately. Just, you know, baseline of washing my make up off every night, or washing my face before bed if I didn’t wear make-up. Using habit stacking, I added nightly moisturizer and retin-A every other night. And because I don’t want my face to be angry when I’m out in the sun because of the retinol, daily moisturizer with sunscreen in the morning (and I’m trying to be much better about sunscreen out in the sun in general, period). I think I can tell a difference and I think my older self will thank my younger self for getting it together on this, even if it took a while! 😂 I’ve also been habit stacking on taking daily vitamins right after I brush my teeth every morning and can tell a difference in my energy levels! I love the Olly Women’s Complete gummy, and the Olly Daily Energy!

Favorite drug store skin products: either this face wash or this face wash (I keep one on my bathroom counter and one in the shower and alternate depending on where I am); this night cream, this AM sunscreen/ moisturizer. I am not a skin care expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like those products, and they won’t break the bank!

What I’m Watching/ Reading…

Ted Lasso is back!!! And we were unpleasantly surprised that only one episode was available Friday because we got into the first season after all the episodes were available and binged it. But the first episode was good! I’ve also binged the new season of Never Have I Ever on Netflix. It’s got some questionable things, but overall I find it so light hearted and clever.

I didn’t read as much this month, and it feels like I’m kind of in a slump. I couldn’t find anything I could really get into for a while, but I’m hoping it breaks soon. I did get through 2 and one was good and one was meh.

• Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid– this was my first with this author and I enjoyed it! It went quickly and was an interesting storyline. I have a few more of hers on my waitlist at the library so I’m excited to check those out! (Although, I did read one page of Daisy Jones and the Six and stopped because I just wasn’t into it at all. I guess the next book of hers I try will be the tiebreaker!).
• I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon– this historical fiction started out really interesting and went downhill as I got further into it. It’s the story of Anna Anderson, who is thought to be the long lost Anastasia Romanov, and her quest to prove her identity. Now, as a member of the generation that grew up with and was a HUGE fan of the animated movie Anastasia, I was pumped about this book. The problem was that it had two concurrent storylines- Anastasia’s childhood through being forced out during the takeover to exile and murder, which is all told chronologically forward. Then the other is Anna’s story trying to prove her identity starting from the 1960s moving chronologically backward. And that’s where I lost it. I lost count of how many times I flipped back and forth (on my Kindle) trying to keep up because the chapter would start with a date, then move three months back, then a few more months back, and it was just so confusing. I also made the mistake of looking into the case and learning the real outcome and that was just the final nail in the coffin. I think I’m sticking with Kate Quinn for historical fiction from now on!

What I’m Listening To…

My hold at the library for Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey just came in, and I’ve listened to about fifteen minutes so far and it has not disappointed. It’s going to be a doozy 😂 Annie F. Downs recommended the audio book in her interview with him on the That Sounds Fun podcast, so I decided to go with it instead of reading the book like I normally would, and I think adds a little something for sure!

What I’m Wearing…

Nothing new, and anything that is cool since we are in the dog days of high heat and humidity #summerintexas

What I’m Doing This Weekend…

We are headed to the ranch! We have friends we’re meeting up there for the weekend to show them around!

What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month…

We will be getting Livy ready to start preschool next month! Meet the teacher will be at the end of August and then she’ll officially start the week after Labor Day. She is SO excited (like asks every day to go to school), and I’m so excited for her!

What Else is New…

Just ending with a little photo dump of my favorite littles lately! Happy end of July!