This Week Finds and Girls Swimsuits

ONE - not many sizes left in this one but this dress is cute too!

TWO - on sale and so cute. 

THREE - the most adorable bath mat. $45

FOUR - the detail on this top is beautiful 

FIVE - one day we will have lamps in our bedroom so it looks like adults live in this house!

SIX - Girls bathing suits are super cute right now! Loaded up for camp this summer. I got these left to right:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Recipes I've Tried Recently

1. Chicken salad - love having this in the fridge for the week. I even used half plain Greek yogurt (other half mayo) to lighten it up a bit and it was good! I had never tried that trick but I was pleasantly surprised. 

2. Viral Pasta - made this for my kids on a snow day and it was sooooo good. 

3. Crockpot Baked Potato Soup - nice on a cold day and easy with hash browns from a bag!

To try:

4. Marry Me Chicken Orzo - my friend Hilary told me this was amazing and I want to try it! 

Happy Cooking!

Icey Weekend

The county closed school for Friday because the meteorologists thought we'd get snow and ice. We got a little but it was underwhelming! The kids were so excited about even the possibility of snow. We hadn't had any in 3+ years. Grady doesn't really know about snow!

He was soooo excited! He had put three ice cubes down the toilet, slept with toothpaste on his nose and a spoon under his pillow. And with his pajamas inside out and backwards. 

The kids played and Hilary and I solved the world's problems. I had made this chicken enchilada soup which was delish. 


Grady had his first friend spend the night - Neyland!


Molly Anne slept next door!


This is about as much as we got! 


Saturday night I went to my friend Natasha's birthday party in the neighborhood. It was apres ski themed!

Sunday we had tennis, kid birthday party and choir. Whew!

Gift Card Spending

I don't know about you but I love to keep a "would like" list! As I told Molly Anne the other night, it's good to want things. It's not good to buy all of the things all of the time. Not necessary and doesn't let you appreciate what you do have. 

ANYWAY! I decided the other night I was going to make a would like list for a couple gift cards I have. I probably won't get any of these but I certainly love them all! 

ONE - basically obsessed with this light jacket. My SIL and next door neighbor have it and it's wonderful. 

TWO - cutie shirt 

THREE - loving these kicks for hanging around. I have figured out by looking at my running shoes that I prefer neutral!

FOUR - this long sleeve tee is so soft!

FIVE - and a new bag. I don't really need a new one because my black bag just like this is perfectly fine. But I love this color! I use mine to carry my computer, notebook and all of the things every day. 

Career in Early 40's

I think as a working mom in your early 40's, it is an interesting time. You've worked for 20 years and you have 20 years to go. Your children are likely around the ages of 8-10 years old. They're busy doing after school activities that you want to be around for. They are at an impressionable age and actually want to hang out with you. 

So what do you do? Keep working? Scale back but keep working? Or stop all together?

I was recently out with my group of friends that I've stayed in touch with from Molly Anne's 3's daycare class. I love this group because we are all in different elementary school bubbles in Charlotte but we all know each other well. Also we all work or have worked for a long time. Anyway, at our recent Christmas get together, we chatted about this exact topic. One gal just "retired". Two gals are scaling back. One is unhappy and looking for a new job. Some of us are keep on keeping on. It is interesting right? 

I think a lot depends on how much flexibility you have in your job. I'm fortunate to have a lot of this as I'm sure you can tell. I also require being very busy and as long as I can manage that concept, I'm good. And let me tell you, I've gone through phases as recently as in the last year that I'm like, "I cannot do this any more! It's not worth it." 

Right now, it's worth it. I really like what I do. I like who I work with. I think financially it makes sense for me to work. It's healthy for me to be very busy. We have Julie who saves me on the regular and helps with our children. I have flexibility. I like having another mission other than my usual neighborhood/school bubble. I get to be with my kids when I need/want to be. It's kind of the best of both worlds right now. 

I'm haven't mention the late nights I work to be able to go on the school field trip the next day. Or the years and years of travel I've done. Or the other grind behind the scenes. Because there is all of that too! It's a constant balance and sometimes I sacrifice one or the other.

In general, I'm happy with where I am and what I'm doing. But it could change in a few years. Or it might now. We'll see. Day by day and year by year. 

Rock - 9.5

We came back from the beach on Saturday. I think we all needed to be home for an extra night before the school prep began. 

Mills did well on the ride to and from the beach. We put him in the way back and brought his bed so he was extra comfortable. You may remember about 6 months after we started going to Ocean Isle, he refused to stay in the back. He wanted to lay in the floorboard at the kids feet the entire way, as close to all of us as possible. So he's done that ever since. But he needed the comfortableness of his bed this time and I think he was happy with that! 

Yesterday Grady and I painted the rock at school for Molly Anne's 9.5 birthday which was on Saturday. She LOVES to have the rock painted and her summer birthday isn't ideal for that so this was extra exciting. Homemade rock painting coming right up! Grady wanted to surprise her with a golden retriever on there. I used one of Molly Anne's paintings of Mills as a go by. Of course it didn't look as good as hers but I tried! 

Goofball

We meal prepped, churched, brunched and got our act together the rest of Sunday. Still taking things day by day with the puppy. His leg that has been open with mrsa for months finally closed after that whopper med he's been taking. His back legs are still quite shaky but he can still get up on his own somewhat okay. He's a good boy. Not eating his dog food much anymore. Been battling an upset stomach. But rotisserie chicken makes it all better! 


Chat soon friends. Glad to get back into the swing of things at work and at my office! Well for a half day at least! 

Relatively Healthy Kids Snacks

Well happy 2025!! Fresh, new, excitement, organize are some words that come to mind today!

I let my kids snack basket dwindle down to almost nothing at the end of school. They only use this basket during school because they have to pack a snack for the next day. So we have a basket of individually wrapped snacks for them to choose from. Here are some relatively cleaner snacks that they like and a couple they haven't had in awhile. I have my Target cart full!

I'll portion out the green pea crisps. 


Maybe this gives you some ideas? Feel free to share your kid's favorites!