Nadine

Short work weeks are always the best work weeks. Three day weekends definitely need to be a thing every week. Where can we sign up for that? This week has flown right on by. Today my mom is supposed to come over and we are going to hit up some of the local stores in my area and maybe do some lunch. Zoe is super excited to spend some time with Grandma.

Speaking of Zoe, she had a big day yesterday, it was her first day of gymnastics! I am so proud of her. She walked right into that class, introduced herself to the coaches and took a seat next to two girls she never met. When we signed up for the class, Zoe said she was afraid of the bars and wasn’t sure she was going to be able to do them. Girlfriend was hanging from them by her legs and said it was her favorite part. I think she will be fine!

We had gone to the library to take back her first set of books and get new ones. This time she picked out 12! I just quickly walked down two of the adult fiction aisles and happened to see Big Summer sitting there, so I scooped it up and hope to fit it in before it is due back. I have a zillion ebooks right now and some BOTM books sitting here. Yet here I am, grabbing even more.

Favorite Purchase: I found a Bogg Bag at a local store yesterday. I figured there was no way they would have them, since everyone is sold out and we just had one of the biggest beach/pool/lake weekends of the year. But there they were!!!! We hope to squeeze in a beach trip later this summer and I want to be prepared. I got the large pineapple one. They do ship, so if you are needing one…check them out! I know the small bags are online, and I think if you call them or message them, they will ship the large bags too.

This dress is on clearance for under $20 and has super cute details. I am always a big fan of puff sleeves.

Favorite Aldi Finds: I had some boring trips the last few weeks, but we did grab some new stuff this week! The purple shoes for Zoe were $3.99, the large ice cube trays were $2.99 each, and the giant tic tac toe was $5 or $6? I can’t remember. I was really excited to share dunkaroos with Zoe! They were just like I remember.

I also found this cheese! I am not sure what I am doing with it yet, but it sounded fun! Any suggestions, throw them my way! They also had a garlic and a bacon flavored version.

I also had a small Thrive haul. I needed more hemp seeds and Zoe and I crave those Plantain Chips. I like this particular brand because they don’t have any garbage oils in them. Canola, vegetable, soy bean….all that stuff is actually really bad for your health. You are better with olive, avocado or coconut oil. Of course when you eat out, you can’t control what oils they cook with. But at home, I try to stick to most products that don’t contain that crap. Zoe was a really big fan of the Mavericks pizza crackers, and the Simple Mills brand is a staple in our house. I like their farmhouse ceddar crackers better than the cheez its and such when you need a crunchy snack.

Favorite Workout: Heather always kills me in a good way, and this one was excellent. The perfect combo of strength and cardio supersets.

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up for Friday Favorites, have a great weekend!

It is time to share some more Amazon finds! I have some great finds this month, and one major fail. Linking up with Tanya, let’s do this!

Caldrea Rosewater Driftwood – This is the BEST smelling cleaning spray I have ever used. I like to use cleaner ingredient products, and this fits the bill. It smells so amazing, and the scent lingers for awhile after you cleaned the counters….it makes me clean them more often just for the smell. It reminds me of a luxury hotel. I know that sounds weird, but just go with it. The packaging is pretty, and the spray is perfection….a really nice mist. A must try!

Sprinkler – We love Melissa & Doug products. They just tend to be made better than some other toy brands. This sprinkler is so cute, and a lot of fun when you have it hooked up to the hose! I see us getting a lot of use out of it this summer, and more!

The Happiness Project One-Sentence Journal for Mothers – I am not a journal keeper, nor am I good with things like baby books, memory books, etc. If they require some creativity and upkeep….it is hard for me. This however, has space to record a sentence a day for 5 years. I can do that! Especially when I leave it on my desk with a pen. I am in my home office every single day and see this sitting out and have done very well with writing something little I want to remember about each day with Zoe. Whether it was a smores party, a fun board game we played, something funny that she said, an activity we got to do. I LOVE this!!!! Everything is set up for me, all I have to do is open and write a few words. I highly recommend this to every mom out there. I hope Zoe goes back and reads it one day and has fond memories of the little every day things.

Slip Shorts – I wanted to wear something under dresses that wasn’t restrictive, helped with rubbing thighs and was seamless. You get a three pack, and they are long enough to be comfortable without sticking out under my above the knee dresses. I liked that they came up pretty high and smoothed without sucking you in too tight and making you miserable in the heat. I do want some that are more girdle like as well, but these are great for loose fitting dresses.

Ice Cream Machine – We have been wanting to make some homemade ice cream for awhile. I looked into several different machines, and I decided I didn’t want anything you had to buy ice and salt for. I wanted it to be simple. This one was reasonably priced, it is actually really cute!!! (it comes in several colors), and you don’t need a ton of set up to make the ice cream. You just freeze the bowl a day in advance and it takes about 15-20 minutes for the machine to do its thing when you are ready to make ice cream! It wasn’t too loud, and it was super easy to clean.

Ice Cream Storage – I didn’t think about storing our leftovers, and immediately ordered these for the future! I love that you can write and erase what kinds are in it.

Beckham Hotel Collection Pillows – I have had some terrible luck with pillows lately. They are too big and firm, not full enough, causing neck problems, can’t sleep, etc. These pillows were on a few different home related accounts recommendations and they have great reviews so I figured I would try them out. I have had them about a month or so….and they are the best that I have tried so far. They have a coupon you can add right now.

Comfy Princesses – I am still collecting the comfy princesses for Zoe to put aside for her birthday/Christmas. She has 2 of them currently, and I think I have gotten all of them but one now for her collection? They seem to be phased out at stores, you rarely see them. Target only carries 2 in stores, and Walmart only has them online now. On Amazon, several say only “x” amount left. We made the mistake of not getting all the petite dolls for her last year when she was getting into them, and now she is obsessed for looking for the last two that we weren’t able to find before they quit making them. Her doll collection brings her HOURS and HOURS of entertainment…so I don’t mind her obsession with them and tend to enable her obsessiveness haha.

Massager – So many people have raved about this massager, and Chris had some back pain recently…so I thought it would be a fun little Father’s Day surprise. Since we share an Amazon account, Lindsay was sweet enough to offer to get it for me with her account. It is great to keep in our blanket basket in the living room for when the need arises.

And I have one major fail for you…..

Lume Lavender Sage Deodorant – I have tried so many natural deodorants. Some of them had me fooled into working for a little bit, until they didn’t. And when they quit? THEY QUIT! I was going to order BeautyCounter, but was skeptical when I noticed that the for the most part, the only people who actually talk about it our BC consultants. Laura asked me if I had tried Lume before and I said I hadn’t, and so she ordered it. I had a little bit more to go on my Dove deodorant and decided to let her test first. She said it held up through her workout, so I figured why not. She ordered a different scent than me. And that was my mistake. I thought lavender would be safe? It was not. This smelt so sour and rotten. Like it was spoiled? I don’t know. I wore it two days and I couldn’t stand it anymore. It actually did work…but the smell is so awful I would just rather not.

Look at me, with a weekend post on a Monday. Mainly because Chris and I have off today, so it is more like an extended weekend day. How was your 4th? We kept ours pretty low key. I worked on Friday, but Chris worked from home that day and my sister came over as well. Tracy played with Zoe for awhile as I worked, and Chris had his meeting. Then we all went out to lunch at Half Shell Oyster House. It was so delicious, as always! We shared crab dip and fried green tomatoes. I got a poke bowl as my entrée.

We went to Best Buy after, they had a really good sale on their Switch games and we picked up quite a few. That evening, Zoe and I headed up to FatStuff to pick up cheesesteaks for dinner. While we waiting on them to be made, she enjoyed a strawberry swirl ice cream and I had Dole Whip! SO GOOD. I highly recommend traveling up to Springville to check that place out. Even if just for the Dole Whip.

We headed to Ferus for lunch on Saturday. Chris and I shared some appetizers, they had a great poutine! I ordered the best blackberry sour beer I have ever had, and Zoe enjoyed her chicken tenders. After, we headed over to Chris’s parents house to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening with them. His dad smoked ribs for dinner. They are always the best!

For the 4th, we went to Publix and grabbed all the essentials…hot dogs, pasta salad, baked beans, mac n cheese, chips and dip. We hung out at home, crafting, eating, and Zoe played outside in the sprinklers.

I am not sure what all we have in store for today. I would like to get some cleaning done, and we have some burgers to grill. The weather was so nice Saturday and Sunday, in the low 80s. I think it is supposed to heat up again today. I am just glad to have a three day weekend!

It was nice scrolling through Instagram yesterday and seeing all the patriotic posts, families gathered in their red, white and blue. I am today and every day thankful for the rights and freedoms that we have, and I never take them for granted. Despite the issues we have, there is still no greater country to be in than America.

Another week went by, and I never got around to talking about the weekend. Nor did a I finish any of the draft posts I have going. Last weekend we had the opportunity to do several events, which is just felt so crazy, but so normal. Our neighborhood hosted a yard sale. we live on a smaller street with a 4 houses, and one of those houses driveways isn’t even on our street. So needless to say, I didn’t get near as much traffic are the main streets. I did manage to sale $150 worth of stuff, unloading a ton of clutter. The rest I need to take for donation.

We were invited to a birthday party for Zoe’s friend the same day, but we also had my niece’s wedding party! So obviously, we went to the wedding party. We got to see my sister’s whole crew, minus one…and my dad and his wife came down for Nashville. We hadn’t seem him since December 2019. Zoe had so much fun there, and the time flew by. Afterwards, we decided to hit up the Bargain Hunt that was next door. Zoe scored some super cute clothes and two toys that we hadn’t seen anywhere else.

Sunday we walked around the antique mall, grabbed some very disappointing Sonic for lunch, and then hit up Buc-ees! It was our first time being in there, and wow. It was overwhelming. We grabbed some fudge and Buc-ee Nuggets and got out of there. We will have to hit it up during the week when it might be less crowded.

I have been participating in Heather’s ‘Merica Challenge this week. Basically you wear some combo of our nations colors every day this week. I have loved all the patriotism, and her message behind it. Of course, in true fashion of my life lately…I didn’t document any of the said outfits. Maybe I will get a snap of some this weekend.

Favorite Finds: Abercrombie is having a sale right now. Highly recommend their jeans and shorts if you are in the market for some. After a closet purge and examining what I have and what I want to accomplish with my “style,” I am on a mission to find a few really good basics that are missing from my wardrobe. I grabbed this white button down, because shockingly I don’t have one!

I love all the ways that they styled the button down in this picture….

I really loved this Aerosmith tshirt! They had several great bands and I will probably wish I had ordered more.

This tshirt was just a really good price. It reminds me of one of my favorites I had for years that I had to retire a few years ago, as it was literally falling apart.

I am here to tell you that I painfully pulled the trigger on the Skinceuticals C E Ferulic. I have used some vitamin C serums in the past. I used to like Paula’s Choice, but had very minimal results. I used an entire bottle of Glowmaker from Maelove…and while I feel like it did provide a little glow, I didn’t notice much else. It is time to pull out the big guns. People I trust have raved about this, and my dermatologists recommends it as well. I will report back!

Favorite Workout: I haven’t worked out much this week. Whatever cold Zoe caught at princess camp last week has caught up with me. I saw Heather Robertson posted a quick, no equipment upper body…and it is the perfect ease back into my routine. This would be great if you were traveling and didn’t want to bring anything with you!

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up for Friday Favorites! Do you have any plans for the 4th? I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. God Bless the USA!!!!

Friday!!! Man, what a week! I spent a lot of it in the car, on my way to and from the dance studio this week. Zoe had princess camp there, plus the first class of the summer dance session was also this week! Zoe got to meet a different princess each day of camp. At pickup, parents were allowed to snap pictures of their kiddos with the princess of the day. They made some really cute crafts, had snacks, watched movies, and learned some dance moves. I was so glad that we signed Zoe up for it! I had seen it previous years, but she was always enrolled at daycare and the hours aren’t the greatest for parents who don’t have flexible work schedules. This was the perfect summer for her to participate with me still working for home.

I never got around to recapping our weekend….but the highlight for me was going through my closet and getting rid of a TON of stuff. Clothes that do not fit me correctly, ones I haven’t worn in years, things that aren’t really my style anymore. Sadly, I also am clearing out a lot of shoes. Not because I don’t like them…but because I have so much foot pain these days that most of them I simply cannot wear anymore. Like ever again. I am hoping to unload some of it in our neighborhood yard sale this weekend!

Favorite Finds: I am almost through with my first container of the Soap and Glory Glow Your Mind cleansing balm. I LOVE this stuff for removing makeup in the evenings. You rub it on your dry face, and then watch your makeup essentially melt right off. It reminds me of the much more expensive Clinique one, performing just as well for a third of the price. I have already repurchased.

I grabbed this Happiness Project for Mothers journal a few weeks ago, and I seriously cannot recommend it enough. I don’t keep a journal, and I am bad about scrapbooking or writing down memories. This gives you a few lines to write a sentence or two each day based on the date, and you come back and write in it for five years. I LOVE writing down our everyday things. It is really a practice of gratitude for finding something to share about each day, and I cannot wait to give this to Zoe when she is older…so that she can see glimpses into her daily life as a child. It is also on sale right now.

On our way back from camp yesterday, we stopped by a local kids clothing shop called Whoopsie Daisy. They have the sweetest things there. They were having a tent sale, and most everything was marked down. I scooped up a dress, some shorts, a skirt and a dance outfit for Zoe there for an unbelievable deal! They don’t have the tent sale items online…but they do have tons of other cute things and ship all over.

Favorite Recipe: This balsamic chicken salad recipe looks amazing. I think I am going to try it next week.

Favorite Workout: Did this one earlier this week. She always kills me, in the best way.

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up for Friday Favorites. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!