What I'm loving #1

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a great weekend.

I thought I would do a fun little post about things that I’m loving right now. I always like reading these from other bloggers and they can always lead you to new things. 

1. Luna Protein Cookie Dough Bar - I once read in a magazine that a good way to get over your chocolate craving is to have a healthier chocolate bar.  So I found these luna bars and they are so delicious. I’m not gonna lie they don’t taste exactly like cookie dough but they are dipped in chocolate and have chocolate chips in them and something that resembles caramel.  So they totally fill that chocolate craving. They also  are great to throw in the diaper bag and go.  

2. Sunflowers -  I usually grab a big bouquet at the farmers market and they brighten up my kitchen.  If I good about changing the water and cutting the stems I can almost get two weeks out of one set.  

3. Ibotta - Ibotta is an app that you can get rebates or cash back for things that you buy.  All it takes is a couple minutes after you go shopping and you can get back a crazy amount of money, even more if you buy a lot of name brand stuff.  The thing that I love about this app over the other grocery apps is that you can get rebates for just regular stuff. I always grab the milk, bread and eggs one that I can use for any brand that I buy. They always have a lot of different stores that you can get rebates from and some of them aren’t even grocery stores.  I know joann’s fabric and old navy are offering $5 rebates.  Once you get $20 you can turn it into a gift card do a lot of different places.

4. My Favorite Murder (Podcast) - If you were in one of my many writing classes during college you would already know this little fact about me but death interest me.  And I don’t mean in the way that I’m gonna kill someone but dying and different ways to die, I find fascinating.  So when I stubbed across the podcast, My Favorite Murder, I couldn’t get enough. If you aren’t in anyway interested in this topic, feel free to skip down to the next item, you are interested or might be on the fence, I will tell you a little about the podcast.  My Favorite Murder podcast is hosted by two friends, Georgia and Karen, and they sit in Georgia’s house and talk about murders that they find interesting. It is a comedy podcast (they don’t make fun of the people killed) and they will even say this themselves, don’t came to them for the facts.  But they are amazing story tellers and you will get lost in it.  And totally laugh out loud more than once.

5.  Running -  I have been dabbing my foot into running again and it just feels so good.  I think thats when you know you are onto something that you might stick with.  Almost all of last week James was sick, fever, running nose sick.  So I couldn’t take him out with me on a run.  I know I could have gone in the morning before he woke up but he was having some rough nights and I wasn’t gonna do that.  But everyday I thought about how great it would to get out there and run.  To feel my legs stretch, to listen to my favorite podcast, to be a runner.  We finally got out on Saturday and it wasn’t my best run but I had to remind myself overtime isn’t going to be magical, that some runs are gonna be harder and some runs are gonna feel like magic. 

6.  Shopkicks - This is another app that I have found recently and I don’t think I’m at the love stage because of the options lately but when I first found it, I was in love.  This app allows you to get kicks or points for just going to stores and scanning certain products. Then you can use those points to get gift cards. 

7.  James’ Laugh - Okay, to be honest this thing I’m always loving. Day in or day out I can’t get enough of his laugh.  What I find so fascinating about it is the things that he finds that are so hilarious.  On Sunday, it was the word ribbit, like the sound a frog makes.  Last week, it was me dancing and tickling him with a tape measurer.  And oh man, don’t think I danced and tickled for as long as I could just to hear that sweet little giggle just a little bit longer. 

So thats just a little rundown on these that I’m really loving right now.

-Megan

Do you find yourself looking for new things to try or do you just stick with the old stuff?

Do you have any weird interests or hobbies that you don’t share with everyone because they might think it’s a little too weird?

Day In The Life #2

Hi Everyone,

I hope you guys had a great weekend.  We surprising had a pretty busy weekend running errands around town and making a trip to Ikea (more on that in another post). I thought I would do a Day in the Life from Saturday but we will start with Friday night.

9:00 pm -  I forgot to grab some cash at the grocery store and I always like to have some on hand for the farmer's market.  So after James went to sleep and Wes and I did a little work outside, I hopped in the car and went to the ATM.  

I snapped this photo and it reminded me how much I miss my morning runs.  There was just something so relaxing and peaceful about running before, it seems, like the whole world is awake.  So when I got home I asked Wes, would he be okay with it if I went for a run in the morning as long as I was home in time to nurse James.  He feels very passionate about his morning feeding.  I went to bed a little later than I would have liked and set my alarm for 5:30.


5:30 - Alarm goes off and I hit the snooze button. Snoozes goes off, I turn the whole alarm off.

6:00 - My other Alarm, aka James, goes off and there is no hitting snooze on him.  I nurse him and we wonder out into the living room.  We hang out and watch a little TV.

6:45 - I started breakfast.  On the menu for this week is french toast so I had a little extra prep to get done and didn't want a whinny baby while I was trying to make breakfast. Wes wakes up and plays with James on the floor with one his toy rotation boxes. 

7:00 - We eat breakfast and just play around the house/ get ready until it was time to leave for the farmer's Market which opens at 8am. 

8:00 - We leave for the farmer's market.  I was planning on taking my bike and pulling James behind me but Wes decided to come and didn't feeling like biking so we all piled into the car.

8:30 - Arrived at the farmer's market and did a couple laps around seeing if there is anything that I just had to have.  

After grabbing a waffle, we settled down to watch a band play.  I think we all enjoy watching the band.  James isn't quite at the point of dancing to the music but it's nice to just sit down, enjoy a waffle and relax.  It's a great start to the morning. 

9:15 - James started to get a little fussy so we packed up, I grabbed some flowers and we headed home.

9:30 - Almost as soon as we got home James went down for a nap.  Taking the opportunity of James' napping and Wes being home (aka napping on the couch) I took off to the store to grab a couple of things that I forgot at the store yesterday.  After I got home and James was still asleep (Score!!) I started on a little meal prepping. 

I diced and sliced some strawberries, got the veggies all chopped for dinner and made some oatmeal bites (not impressed, throw them out this morning)  for James for the next morning.  

Does anyone else all seem to be losing one of their wool balls?  Mine always get trapped in the clothes. 

James ended up napping a crazy long time so I was able to get a few more things done around the house like pick up and do a little laundry all while listening to my new favorite podcast - My Favorite Murderer.  If you are in anyway interested in Murder/ true crime I would check out the podcast. It literally makes me laugh out loud while listening to it. 

12:30 - James wakes up and by this time I was so ready for lunch.  So I started making some BLTs and I couldn't possibly make them without my little helper.  

The climbing gene is strong with this one.

1:30 - After lunch is all cleaned up, Wes said that he need to run an errand.  We order windows for James' nursery but they came in the wrong size so we had to return them.  We pilled into Wes' newish truck, first family trip in it and headed over to Home Depot.  We returned the windows with an issue (so thankful) and did a little drill window shopping.  

After leaving Home Depot, we went to Cabelas to do a little more window shopping and to look at fishing poles.  Wes recently bought a new fishing kayak and is now on the mission to outfit it. 

James and I enjoyed looking at the fish tank/ pond that they have in the store.  

3:30 - We finally get home and I want, hopefully quickly, to show signs that he was tired and ready for a nap.  Sadly those didn't come and we only took one nap that day. So we just played in the living room waiting for dinnertime.  

5:30 - I turn on the over to preheat and finish up prepping dinner.  The oven beeps and I put the chicken and veggies into oven and put a pot of water on the stove for the corn that we got at the farmer's market. 

6:30 - It's dinner time and man it was delicious and so simple.  For the chicken and veggies all I did was place them in baking dish sprinkle it with a garlic herb seasoning and some olive oil and that was it.  For the corn on the cob, I just boiled it and then melted some butter in the microwave, add some cajun seasoning and brushed it on the corn. Delicious!!

7:00ish - It wasn't bath night and thinking it was going to be an early night, we changed James into his PJ's and got him almost ready for bed.  An early bedtime didn't happen, he seems to be filled with energy after dinner and didn't show any signs of slowing down. 

8:00 - James finally slowed down and I put him to bed. 

I didn't really document the rest of the time.  I think we watch an episode of 'In An Instant' and it was really sad.  A lady was driving on a highway and a semi-truck over took her and pushed her off the highway bridge and she and her two kids were stuck on the side of the bridge, barely hanging on.  Everyone was fine but whenever I see a story or read a story that has to do with a baby, I can't help but get teared up. 

11:00 - After the show ended, we went to bed.  

Father's Day

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a great Father's Day.  

Sunday, I would say, was Wes' first official Father's Day.  We did  celebrate last year but James was like two weeks old and we didn't do too much.  But this year we did a little more. 

Wes was able to take the weekend off from the shop to spend at home which meant that James got to see a lot of him.  On Saturday  James and I went up to Lafayette for a couple of hours to spend some time with my dad.  We had a nice picnic at Happy Hallow. 

James enjoy eating outside in his camping highchair

 My mom did a great job putting it all together and it was a lot of fun and a great way to be able to spend part of Father's Day weekend with both Wes and my dad. 

A custom made bag

On Sunday morning, I tried to pull together a last minute 'Happy Father's Day' sign but the printer and construction paper failed me so that didn't happen  but I do feel like I scored a big win in the gift department.  For those you don't know, Wes is very very very difficult to buy a gift for.  He isn't one of those types of people who say 'oh I wish I had that' or 'that would be nice to have'  and the times that he would say something similar to that it would be something that there would be no way I could afford it.  So for christmas, father's day and his birthday it's a constant struggle to find something that he would like/use.  There may or may not be a corner in the basement that is filled with Wes' yet to be used gifts.  I may or may not have said something about reusing them when I accidentally put his birthday twice on the calendar.  



But this year, this Father's Day, I did it.  I found a gift that he liked, he liked so much that he had it going within 30 minutes of opening it.  And what is this gift you might ask, it's called Tiles.  

It's a handy item that help you locate your keys, wallet and phone.  I had heard about it before but it wasn't until Wes couldn't find his wallet that I decided to get it for him for Father's Day.  I got a 4 pack because I was sure that we could use him.  The thing that really cool about them is that you can find your phone, even if it's on silent, just by pushing twice on the tile.  

So now we don't have to spend 5 minutes searching for his phone, wallet and keys.  Unless he misplaces all of them, then we will be in trouble.  Not too much because you can look them up online but it would slow us down a little bit. 

Along with the tiles, James and I made him a 'I'm hooked on daddy' picture.  This was quite the project and actually required my mom's help.  

It's difficult to hold, paint a baby's hand and place it on the piece of paper all by yourself. An extra pair of hands was needed.  I also included a recent picture of Wes and James at the Indians game.  Last year we had received a 'Daddy and Me' picture frame and that was part of Wes' gift last year but I thought it might need an update version. 

Along with a card, I included some jolly ranchers, Wes' favorite candy.  

After Church,   James took a nap for almost 3 hours and Wes and I worked on some stuff that's a whole lot easier to do sans James.  

A couple of hours after James woke up and had lunch, we went to the park for a quick  trip.  James loves to swing, he could probably swing for 20 minutes straight if I let him.  And anyone with a baby/toddler knows thats a long time.  It was getting kind of hot so we cut the park trip a little short and headed up.  

After the big trip to the park, James made sure he gave Wes a lot of Father's Day cuddles.  

For dinner, we had steak and corn.  I found this great recipe for a corn flavor topper in my recent Health magazine and it tasted just like the corn you get in your big shrimp and seafood bucket at Joe's Crab Shake.  

I made some apple crisp and we enjoyed it as a family and then it was PJ's and bedtime for James.  

I think all in all it was a great Father's Day and can't wait for the one years to come that James can be even more active in. 

How do you like to celebrate Father's Day?
Do you stay at home or go out?
Is the Father in your life easy or hard to buy gifts for?

-Megan