B+ GOALS: JULY

July is here and it is 100%, officially, wonderfully, SUMMER. We've been at the pool, out on the boat, barbecuing, and just enjoying every minute possible outside. Yeah summer!
My B+ Goals are going to be much more relaxed the next two months, because we are big proponents of slow summer around here. The kids aren't in any activities, I'm off work until September, and we live in a neighborhood that celebrates kids playing outside all day, and we are here for it. 

Let's review last month's goals:

1. Enjoy Ava's birthday party. I 100% did! We had her birthday party at Build A Bear and it was worth every penny. A+

2. Get to bed on time. NOPE. D.

3. Write something everyday. C-. I didn't write everyday like I was hoping too, in fact I even slacked off on my daily bullet  journal entries. 

4. Donate all our crap. YES!!! A+

5. Have a really nice Father's day for the husband. Did it! We went out on the boat and had a fantastic dinner at home. 

Onto this month!

1. Get in a Date Night. Living far from relatives, it's often hard for the hubs and me to get in a night to ourselves. I'm going to make it a priority this month.

2. Tone It Up Bikini Series, Round 2. I finished the first 8 weeks and headed into Part two this week!

3. Clean Out The Kids Closets. I'm tackled all the other closets in this house and they are next on the list! 

Just the three for this month! There are lots of other things I plan on doing this month: writing more, working on new recipes,  eating healthy, really working in my bullet journal. But, as far as goals I truly want to keep myself in check about, this is it. I want a carefree summer. I want to enjoy these days with my children and my husband and my home.  And I hope you're enjoying your summer, be it jammed packed or extra slow. 

"IT FEELS LIKE HOME"

"The traffic is about to start to get heavy," I said.

My husband smirked at me from the driver's seat. I knew what he was thinking, so I just smiled back. When we were dating, I'd driven the 90 mile drive from Atlanta where I lived to the military post where he lived almost every weekend. It'd been over ten years since this drive had been part of my weekly routine. But I knew. Atlanta traffic is always a mess in the heart of the city's spaghetti junction.

Five minutes and two miles later, we're gridlocked.

 

"Well, you would know." he says with a laugh.

 

 





 Our kids have never been to Columbus, Georgia, but they've grown up on stories about it. About the alligators in the rivers and ponds, about Daddy living in the barracks at the military base with a group of wild friends, about Mama making the drive every weekend to visit them. They've heard about Daddy coming back from deployments and Mama being there to meet him off the plane, about the little apartment we lived in after we got married, and the two dogs we adopted, one who has gone to doggie heaven and one who is their pet now still. They know that we fished in the river, and that the summers were humid and hot, and that there were friends there that we loved very much.

 

So this summer we decided to take them there for vacation. To see our beginning.

 

We drove. And on the second day of our mini road trip, we pulled into town. And as we turned onto an exit that I had taken countless times, we rolled down the windows. The humid heat filled the truck. My husband sighed.

 

"Something about it just feels like home, doesn't it?" he said.

"Yes." I replied. "It feels like home."

 

 

We grew up in California. So, nothing about the South should logically feel like home. But Columbus does. We've lived on the East Coast for almost a year now, and I felt more at home the five days we were in Georgia in our tiny rented cabin then I do here most days, or even the six years we lived in Texas.

 

 

I think sometimes in a person's life, you have a perfect combination to make days never be forgotten. Love and friends and war and first puppies made a solid foundation which our whole life has been built on. The Georgia Years are never to be forgotten days.

 

 

 

 

Yes, it feels like home.

EASY CUCUMBER SALAD

 

Need a last minute dish for a Fourth of July barbeque, perhaps? Let this salad help you. Three ingredients, and your done. It's crispy, tangy and delish. Not to mention, both adults and kids gobble it up. Winner!

 

 

 





Easy Cucumber Salad

(barely adapted from Tracy Benjamin at Shutterbean)

 

Ingredients:

2 large cucumbers

4 tablespoons rice vinegar

Sesame seeds

 

Cut up the cucumbers. Toss with rice vinegar and top with sesame seeds to your desire. Chill and serve. Enjoy!



FAVORITE THINGS: JUNE

 

 

Ya'll, SUMMER IS HERE. Swimming, barbequing, gardening, outside until the sun goes down SUMMER. I'm enjoying every. single. minute. of it.

 

Here are my June favorites:

1. Beach Blanket Bingo One Piece from Mod Cloth. I'm a little bit in love with Mod Cloth in general (the shoes!) and a lot in love with this suit. It fits perfectly (order up a size like the comments advise!) and is super cute. I can't seem to find a two piece that fits properly, so I spent the money on a great one piece. I'm never going back! I receive compliments every single time I wear this and it stays put. // 2. Grapefruit and Sumac Salad from Plenty More. Go to summer salad. //3. So despite the fact that it's summer, it still rains here all the time. So non-sandal foot wear is part of my summer wardrobe. Plus, there is lots of walking here, and flip flops are not made for lots of walking. I love my rose gold TOMS. They are no longer available (sad face) but I have my eye on the Classic Red as a second pair (TOMS is donating to the Special Olympics with every purchase of the Classic Red right now!)//4. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. Fantastic read. I loved the main character, and the descriptions are amazing. I enjoyed Eat, Pray Love a couple years ago and this novel doesn't disappoint. // 5. Monogramed tote from MJ Custom Embroidery. My friend Morgan does amazing embroidery! I picked up this awesome tote from her to use this summer as a pool bag and I love it.

 

Favorites Around the Net:

Instagram: @elsiejoy, inspiring maker with fantastic photos

Pinterest: skinnytaste, awesome & healthy recipes

Blog: Iowa Girl Eats

 



PLANS FOR A SLOW SUMMER

 

 

Next week, summer vacation will finally begin for Dylan. We had possibly the most hectic, jammed pack month ever in the history of our family last month and we are so ready for summer break to start. SO READY.

After the insanity of last month, my husband and I decided that this summer is going to be a slow summer. And the truth is, we almost always decide this. Summer, especially for school age children, is such a fleeting few years, that we try to just let it be a true break for our kiddos.

For our family though, because I work from home and my husband works long hours outside of the home, we still need some sort of routine in place. So I've put together a list of our Slow Summer Plans.

 

1. We aren't signing up for anything. There are so many amazing options for camps and activities during the summer that it's hard not to want to sign up your kid for them all. But we aren't signing up for anything officially: no Boy Scout camps, no summer dance class, no vacation bible school or science day camp, I'm not even signing up for the summer reading program at the library. Because I don't want to be tied to a schedule that I will come to resent. So we'll go camping as a family, we'll dance in the kitchen, we'll do science projects at home, and go to the library when it works for our schedule.

(My only exception to this will be swimming lessons.)

 

2. Get up early. I like the idea of sleeping in, but when it comes down to it, I'm a morning person. I can get a lot of crap done before 10am. So my goal is to get up early M-F and get some work done in the quiet, and then go for a run before my husband has to leave for work.

 

3. And speaking of quiet, we will have quiet time everyday. Ava still naps everyday, and I'm going to take her nap time and have both kids have quiet time everyday. Dylan will be allowed to stay up later this summer, but he's not one for sleeping in, so a rest period will be essential for everyone. Plus then, I can have two quiet hours everyday to work in the afternoon. Or even nap too.

 

4. Fridays will be my prep day. I try to do this now, most weeks, but have really been hit or miss lately. I like to take Friday and do all the grocery shopping, cleaning, and laundry, plus food prep and meal planning for the week. This makes everything SO MUCH easier and the weeks I don't do this and do it thoroughly, are always tougher. I like to start the weekend with a clean house, food in our fridge, and clean clothes in our closets.

 

5. Disconnect for part of everyday. I have gotten into a bad habit of checking my phone all the time. I check on orders, I check on emails, and I check on social media. And I need to stop checking so much. Yes, all this connection is helpful and everyone does it, but there had to be a limit. And  I need to check myself. So, no phone or computer from 6-9 everyday for me. I got this idea from Teaching Sam and Scout (where she also has a summer list like this; which I just realized that my list here is nearly identical too. I LOVE that blog. She's a smart lady :).).

 

And finally...6. We are going to embrace the ice cream truck. I have always been a big downer about the ice cream truck. I'm the first to say no, to roll my eyes at the music. I think it comes from growing up in the country where such things just didn't happen. It always feel like a waste of time and money. But you know what? My kids eyes light up when we buy them ice cream from the ice cream truck. They always appreciate it. Plus, a  Mr. Softee truck drives right through my neighborhood. We are going to enjoy that and not feel bad about it.

 

I hope you have the summer that is best for you, whether that means a slow summer like us or one packed full of fun activities!

SCENES FROM AN INDEPENDENCE DAY

 

 

 

ROASTED GREEN BEANS

 

Growing up, green beans made an appearance on our table at least once a week. Unfortunately, they were of the canned variety, boiled until they were mushy. This resulted in me thinking that I did not like green beans, that they were something to be choked down but never enjoyed.

I was wrong.

When I was 18, I moved to Georgia. And let me tell you, Georgia knows how to cook fresh beans. I learned first hand how lovely fresh green beans are. The taste of a fresh green bean is simply not comparable to the canned ones. They are crisp and clean and delicious. As green bean season is approaching, my local grocery store has piles of them and my garden is full of buds on the bean plants (grow beans, grow!) Sometimes though, it's hard to think of a way to cook them other than just boiling them.  Enter: roasting. These roasted green beans are just yum.  I love the flavor of green beans cooked this way: lightly crispy and bursting with taste. Try them tonight!

 

 

Roasted Green Beans

from Shutterbean

 

 

Ingredients:

1lb green beans, trimmed

2 cloves garlic, sliced thin

2 swirls of olive oil

pinch of red pepper flakes

juice of half a lemon

salt and pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 400. On a large baking sheet, toss trimmed green beans with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. Add salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes. Toss beans, and continue roasting for 15 minutes more, until beans are slightly browned and crispy looking. Serve warm.

 

Enjoy! 





CANNING TOMATOES

Hello folks! Let's start off by saying: it's been a while. It's been BUSY. It's been, frankly, insanely busy. And here lies the problem. I feel that sometimes, blog posts take so much effort and time that they just never get posted. I want things to be nice for you, dear readers! I want correct measurements (something I never do in real life), I want pretty pictures (which I always forget to take in real life), I want this to be a neat, tidy, lovely, inspiring place (which never happens because I spend all my time planning these lovely posts and then never post them because how many tablespoons went into that? Where are the step by step pictures of that craft we did? Oh, right. I forgot to take them.)

So things around here are changing, slightly. Instead of detailed oriented posts, each day I'll post a photo from the day and explain what it is, and provide basic information about it. The blog will be a peek into the daily life of me: parenting, cooking, homemaking, and work process. I hope you enjoy it!

<------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Today I took a last bit of summer and cooked it and canned it. I've been freezing all the tomatoes from the garden that we weren't eating right away, and today I pulled them all out, cooked them up into a pasta sauce, and processed them for canning, It's a lot of work, but there's something about the old fashion-ness of it that I enjoy. I always love using everything I can from my garden, and this was nearly 100% from there: the tomatoes, the bell peppers, the herbs.

{I follow these rules for processing jars.}

Summer in a jar for winter.  

SCENES FROM A COUNTY FAIR

 

 

 

This time each year in our hometown
The county fair comes our way
Where the folks gather round to be happy and spend their day.

 

-The Beach Boys, County Fair

EGG SALAD AND BACON SANDWICHES

I have not always been a fan of egg salad. At one point in my life, not so very long ago, I was a solid egg salad hater. This probably has something to do with growing up in a  house where hard boiled eggs were boiled until the yolks were a grayish color. It might also have something to do with a trip to Las Vegas and watching friends order egg salad at the "New York Deli" to have delivered to our table a dozen eggs trapped in a mountain of mayonnaise and served on soggy white bread. Shudder. Plus, I loath peeling hard boiled eggs. It is my least favorite of all kitchen chores.*

But egg salad has slowly creep up on me. If started with a recipe on Smitten Kitchen where egg salad spread on a piece of crusty bread looked very intriguing. And then I had a deviled egg smashed on toast after Easter. So I thought about it, got myself into the kitchen and started trying different things out. And at home, turns out that egg salad can be rather delicious. I keep my actual salad very simple, but then add a kicker to my sandwich - bacon. Because there is little on this fine earth better than bacon and eggs and a nice piece of toast.

This is a great meal for summer because it requires no oven. You can boil your eggs in the morning, make up your salad, fry up some bacon and toast some bread. Add a green salad and dinner is done.

*I have found a way to make peeling hard boiled eggs less awful. See below.

Egg Salad and Bacon Sandwiches

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1/4 cup of mayonnaise

1 tbsp. yellow mustard

1/2 tsp. coarse salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. herbs de provence (this is available in the spice aisle in grocery stores; you can also use any combination of rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, savory, and marjoram.)

8 slices of bacon

8 slices good wheat bread

Bring eggs to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes. Drain and immediate emerge in an ice bath (a bowl filled with water and ice). Let sit for 5-10 minutes, drain the water, and peel. Roughly chop eggs. Mix mayonnaise and mustard in to the chopped eggs. Add the salt, pepper, onion powder, cumin, and herbs de provence. Mix well, smashing with a fork, and refrigerate until ready to use. Fry the bacon until crispy and drain on paper towel. Toast the bread, assemble sandwiches. Makes 4 sandwiches.

Enjoy!

SWEET AND SPICY HOMEMADE BARBECUE SAUCE

It's summer time in America, and that means long days, hot nights, and barbecuing dinner. 

 Let's talk barbecue sauce. Barbecue sauce that is tomato-y with spicy flavors and a touch of sweetness. Homemade, no-cook barbecue sauce is just what you need for a summertime barbecue.

I make a batch of this sauce and divide it in two, keeping one sweet and mild, and spicing the other one up with Sriracha hot sauce. Spicy and sweet, the perfect combo.

 Let's gather our ingredients. One of the great things about this sauce is that it's pantry food. You most likely already have everything you need. Ketchup, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, paprika, salt, and pepper. Sriracha if you want a spicy version. (You do.)

 Whisk everything up. DONE.

If you want to make both a mild and spicy version, divide up the sauce. The recipe makes just over two cups.

Add the Sriracha.

Sweet and spicy.

Sweet and Spicy Barbecue Sauce

adapted from Simply Scratch

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed

1 1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. ground mustard

2 tsp. paprika

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1/2-1 1/2 tbsp. Sriracha hot sauce (optional)\

Mix all ingredients except Sriracha together with a whisk until smooth and the sugar has dissovled. Serve immediately or cover and store for up to one month. 

If making the spicy version: divide the sauce into two containers, about one cup each.Add Sriracha to taste to one of the sauces and whisk. Store in separate labeled jars for up to one month.

RED, WHITE, & BLUE FROZEN YOGURT POPS

Fourth of July is right around the corner. Which means barbecue, fireworks, the pool. (And loving America, of course.) And hot weather. Crazy hot weather. I need something simple, cold, and sweet for dessert.

Frozen yogurt pops are the answer.

These pops are sweet with a little tang, and cold and creamy. They're healthy. And even red, white, and blue. Perfect for a hot, Fourth of July evening while you wait for the fireworks to start.

Start with raspberries and blueberries. These are some I froze previously, but fresh will work too!

Add a little vanilla and honey to some plain yogurt.

Make layers of yogurt and berries in popsicles molds. I have these from Groovy Pops. (You an use Dixie cups and popsicle sticks just as easily.)

 Freeze.

Bust out your patriotic smiles and eat.

Red, White, and Blue Frozen Yogurt Pops

Ingredients:

12 oz. plain yogurt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tbsp. honey

1/3 cup of raspberries (frozen or fresh)

1/3 cup blueberries (frozen or fresh)

Mix the yogurt, vanilla and honey together. In popsicle molds, divide the yogurt and berries evenly. Freeze and serve. Makes 4.

Enjoy!