Brad travels often for work. Sometimes the trips last 4-5 days, sometimes 4-5 weeks. When he takes short trips, we try to include a small happy. This is usually something like a small lego set or keychain. For longer trips, I try to do something bigger. Now this doesn’t always happen, but if I know about a trip long enough, I try to plan something to give him some encouragement while away for so long.
Lunch can be a struggle. I get bored easily, and I want things quick. I don’t care for leftovers, so I feel my options are fairly limited. But I decided to make myself some wraps using chicken tenders from Slim Chickens. This turned out perfect and is a great lunch to have on occasion.
Back in early 2021, we renovated our kitchen. We added a backsplash, lowered the bar counter, got a new sink and faucet, and added under cabinet lighting. We knew we would eventually need new appliances, but we were not in a rush to get them. However, we were having some small issues with our dishwasher, and I was desperate for a fridge with a water dispenser. After the stimulus check back in March of 2021, we decided to start researching new appliances.
Last year, I bought three Simplified monthly planners. I gave one as a gift to Melody’s teacher. I used one to help keep up with Melody. Then I used the third to keep track of all the things I do around the house. This lets me have an easy way to look back and see when the last time I did something such as change my contacts or clean our backsplash without hoping I remember.
For many years, my mom and I took trips to either Disney, a cruise, or both for MLK weekend for my birthday. We have not done this as frequently since having Melody. But Brad was out of town, and we decided to head to Opryland for MLK weekend. While we go often, mom has never went with us, so it was a fun treat.
I found this recipe by searching past recipes on Home Chef’s website. I did adjust it some for our taste. And next time I would make this using shrimp with the tail OFF.
January has been quite the month. Brad had to go out of town basically the entire month. We went to school some but also started virtual school. We went to Opryland. And we caught COVID!
On January 2nd, we had the unthinkable happen…it snowed! And it was a fairly heavy, wet snow. Now the surprisingly part is that on January 1st, it was in the 70s, and we were having tornados. Alabama weather is purely insane.
We took Melody to her first college football game back in 2019. We went to a non-SEC game, and while it was cold, she had a lot of fun. We decided to not go to any football games in 2020 due to COVID. But we continued with our season tickets this past 2021 season. We decided to take her to the Ole Miss/Vanderbilt game. This was basically the best game for us timing wise to take her due to Brad’s work travel and such.
I found these wraps in the Noom app way back when I was doing Noom. I did make some adjustments to their recipe to better fit what I had on hand and what I prefer (I am not a mushroom fan for instance).
We had such a good experience with gymnastics this summer, we wanted to give it a go full time. We waited about a week too late and were waitlisted for the fall, but by October they had found us a spot. Melody still wanted to try it out for the year, so we signed up. I have really enjoyed seeing her progress with a full semester worth of gymnastics and not just a few classes in the summer. She has definitely become braver and is more willing to try things. Here are a few pictures from our time this fall.
Back in October, we made a last minute decision to head to Disney World for Melody’s fall break. We had Hilton points, so that made the trip more appealing. We had enough to stay for free at DoubleTree at Disney Springs. It was the best deal out of all the Disney Springs Hilton hotels, and we did like the idea of having the separate bedroom and mini-kitchen.
On Christmas Eve, we spent the majority of the day at the ER with Melody. It was her first visit. You can see a little bit about it below.
I love making s’mores. I went through a phase of making s’mores at home in the microwave probably once a week for a while. I have wanted to make a s’mores dip for quite sometime, but it makes a lot, so I needed a group to make it for. So for Christmas with the Owens, I made it. It was quite delicious and actually easy to reheat.
Dance started out very similar to how it ended in the spring. We are still dropping off and picking up via a carline. This is our first year having to take a night class since Melody is in elementary school now. It is kind of sad and really hard on bed times, but we survive. Near the end of the year, they did start letting us come in for the last 5 minutes to see what they have learned. I hope that will continue into the spring as well. Here are a few pictures I was able to get this fall.
Christmas is always so much fun. It can be so magical to see it all through Melody’s eyes. Now it can also be super stressful. This year I made sure to finish my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. Most was done before November. We also cut back on our traveling this year because we wanted some time at home because Brad’s work travel will pick by up in 2022. But we kept busy, and I decided to just throw all of the fun in one post!
I have been searching for some easy lunch recipes. I stumbled across this one, and I immediately wanted to try it. It was really good the day of. My lettuce did get a bit soggy the next day. But I did really like how easy it was to make in general.
As I mentioned earlier this week, December was a month of survival. It was also a really fun and memorable month too. We saw a lot of family, spent time with a lot of friends, experienced Melody’s first ER trip, and spent a lot of time with each other.
We had what was probably our most laid back New Year’s Eve that we have had in quite some time. Alabama was playing football, and we just made the most of spending the day at home relaxing. We did add a few bits of fun in the mix too!
So I have been a little MIA for the last few weeks as I focused on spending all of my time with our families and friends during the holiday season. During the holidays, we dealt with sickness (not COVID related thankfully), lots of traveling, spending time with everyone that we could, playing with Melody as much as possible, and surviving. The key word was definitely surviving. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the last few weeks for the most part. But now that the return of normalcy is upon us, I am exhausted!! I feel like I need a break, but technically we just had a two and a half week break. So I decided to start this year with more intention.
