Keeping it Simple

What a wonderful time of year, all the new life around us. The beautiful trees and flowers all just starting to blossom and show us the chance to restart again! Boys playing outside in the sunshine and baseball... I can not wait to get into the garden...putting a few seeds in the ground here at this house and then a few fall plants for the property. I figure we are moving in during the fall...when it will be time to be decorating with pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks...hmmm....wonder if I will have the energy to decorate? But hey, I am going to be ready to decorate and the boys couldn't be more excited about their pumpkins sprouting out of the ground.  Her are four of their sprouts...the boys decided that the sprouts should have an army of rocks around them to help protect them.  So cute! We had a friend dig out where my garden will be and I wish I had a picture to show you it...but really it is a 30' x 40' area with a trench dug around it. A trench ...

So it is Week 2 of Home Building...So Exciting!!! The forms are going up this week and then they are pouring the foundation...our builder sent us the following pics: Just realized that this will be the garage. That triangle shape area will be the laundry room, pantry, powder room and mud room area. After traveling to the property five times last week....I decided that this week I was going to wait and go out on the weekend. Let a week's worth of work be done and then go and see it all in surprise and ah with my husband when we can go together. So last week after much debate, prayer, a restless night or two and a little more money out the door...we decided to move the house closer to the lake. When we originally placed we were thinking back off of the lake about 130' or so. It has to be 100' away...so we were going to add an extra 30' to our distance so we had some extra play room. Well...we ended up back up at the 100' line after many trips out to ...

This week I have lots of leftovers from the weekend so you will see those in my menu...but then some new items too. Breakfast Lunch Dinner Monday Day 8 Broccoli Spinach Frittata with Caramelized Onions Cinnamon Braised Beef Over Ice Berg lettuce with salsa and Avocado I had one of the Aidell’s Chicken Apple Sausages Tuesday Day 9  Broccoli Spinach Frittata with Caramelized Onions Cinnamon Braised Beef Over Sautéed Yellow Peppers and Zucchini and Topped with Fresh Salsa Taco Salad with Boiled Taco Chicken Wednesday Day 10 Broccoli Spinach Frittata with Caramelized Onions Taco Salad Grilled Chicken Over Salad Thursday Day 11   Slow Cooker Breakfast Meatloaf and Easy Over Egg Grilled Chicken over Salad Paleo Bang Bang Shrimp With Zucchini Noodles and Asparagus Friday Day 12 Breakfast Casserole Paleo Shrimp Coconut Chicken with Thai Sauce   Saturday Day 13 Sweet Potato Hash Coconu...

Well I completed one week on the Whole 30. I really want to make it to 30 days without any major slips. I think the key is to listen to your/my body and take time for myself right now. (This is a hard priority to make when I have a 5 month old and we just broke ground on our new home and the list goes on....) But, trying to relax more and have more grace for myself. This is the menu after I adjusted it with what I really ate all week: Breakfast Lunch Dinner Snack Ideas Monday Day 1 Sweet Potato Apple and Pancetta Hash Tuma Salad on top of Fresh Grens Paleo Tex-Mex Casserole Larabars Tuesday Day 2 Sweet Potato Apple and Pancetta Hash Tuma Salad on top of Fresh Grens Paleo Tex Mes Veggies Wednesday Day 3   Sweet Potato Apple and Pancetta Hash Paleo Tex-Mex Casserole Paleo Tex-Mex Casserole Apples and PB Thursday Day 4 Leftovers of Sweet Potato.. and Tex Mex Asian chicken salad with friends…not totally ...

Let the process begin... Let the digging begin... Today, I received a text from our builder. One of many to come in the future I am sure. He texted me, "We are digging today!" Digging out where the foundation will soon be pored! So far we have been doing different tasks and getting ready and waiting. My DH (Dear Husband) was the task manager for getting electricity into the property, as well as hiring someone to take care of the existing well. He will still be in charge of putting in the sewer tank? Is that how it is referred to? Then we applied for our loan and the builder applied for the building permit. After the loan was approved about two weeks later the building permit was approved. It took about a month total for the building permit. Pretty short amount of time from what I hear. I think that Toby's as well as our builder's constant checks on it to make sure it was moving along definitely helped the process. Where our future home will be. Which pu...

Well, it has been over four months since our daughter was born and it is time to get back in shape. I really like to think of it as getting healthy...I am pretty healthy most of the time but do love my sweets! I have been loving my sweets a little too much in the past few months and if I don't do something soon...I am going to have to buy some new clothes - NOT AN OPTION. So it is time to do something...I am an all or nothing kind of gal...if I am going to do something, I need to do it 110% or my excuses take over and I end up doing nothing at all. So I came across a blog called  Whole 30  right after I found out I was pregnant with my third child and I knew that I needed to start this pregnancy off this way. So I did my first Whole 30 about a year ago...I ended up not doing it 110% more like 80% but it was great, I felt wonderful and was on a healthy track to kick my pregnancy off. I believe in the Whole 30, I really do, I think we eat a lot of crap because it is so easy ...

You know, I am not a writer...I taught Language Arts to highly capable sixth graders...so one would think that writing could be a passion of mine. Well it is not and never has been. I do not think it has ever come easy for me. This could be why I have such a hard time blogging. I am trying to change this...there is so much in my life that I would enjoy documenting and looking back on it later and I often find myself lost in other's blogs...just normal people much like me. So really not normal at all...very fun and unique individuals that have so much to share and offer. So here I go again, hoping to make a consistent entry of my normal life where I am trying to enjoy each moment and keep things simple.