Two Recipes - Sausage, Rice and Beans and Reuben in a Bowl

Reuben in a Bowl - my kids loved this and it took me 5 minutes to make. I used lunchmeat Roast Beef.

Sausage Rice and Beans - this is my friend Kellie's recipe and it was a lot better than I was expecting! I made it the night before then just heated it up for a quick dinner before sports.

Ingredients:
16 ounces smoked sausage
2 cans rotel

2 cans red beans
1 can black beans
1 medium sweet onion chopped
1 stick butter - I used unsalted
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Saute the onion in the butter. Pour all ingredients in the pan and let simmer for as long as you would like. I let it get to a boil then let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add the sausage in a few minutes before you serve.

You can also cook this in a crockpot. Add 1/2 cup water and let it simmer all day. Add the sausage in the last 30 minutes.

Serve over a bed of rice and add some hot sauce!

Baseball, Out, Swim

This weekend consisted of baseball, going out for a friends birthday and swim!

The boys practiced on Friday night and had a game on Saturday.

not a happy camper these days. Oh this part of owning a dog is so hard.

Molly Anne got a big haircut 5" taken off!

Moose was at the game Saturday - he's 11 weeks old. Both of my kids cannot live without Mills but they also want a puppy badly. Not happening any time soon! Glad we have Moose for now to love on.

My friend Nina had a little get together and she is 40! Yay! Loved getting to be there. She's a good friend and an old friend of mine. I'm wearing this dress that I just got and love so much. Kevin and I stopped by The Office on the way home for a drink, some nachos and to watch some basketball. Good times! Do yall see the baseball glow on my face?! Ha. That is with sunscreen.

On Sunday morning I took Grady to an event for one of his basketball teammates who has special needs. His mom set up a foundation to bring awareness to including others always even if they have a disability. I asked Grady if he wanted to attend this event and he said, "yes!" I was very proud of him. He has a soft heart for others and it just makes me so happy. You should have seen him high fiving others and cheering them on. Some of the people there commented to me about how kind he was. At the end of the day, isn't this concept what we should be teaching our kids the most?! I'm trying! Big shout out to Charlotte Aquatics who is SO good at teaching ALL to swim!

Then we had a little date at Amelie's before going back over to Charlotte Aquatics for a make up class! Then we ran some errands then went back to swim for his regular class. Lots of swim!

Happy Monday! Let's get to the grind!

Five on Friday

ONE - Grady has been smoking it at swim lessons. He's learning his last stroke - breaststroke. We love Charlotte Aquatics!

TWO - church girls! We love when Greer comes with us to choir practice.

THREE - we have loved the nicer weather and always try to "do the loop" after dinner. We walk and dribble basketballs, we scoot, we ride, we bike, any of it! Heading to the basketball court has been a high priority for them this week.

This boy has enjoyed hanging out front on his long leash.

FOUR - this week I was honored to attend the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Foundation luncheon. 1,750 people were there supporting our police. It's a foundation that my bossman helped start and they provide many things for our local police that they wouldn't otherwise have. It's a wonderful thing.

FIVE - sports update. Tennis wrapped this week because Eddie is leaving our club. We will miss him. He taught all 3 of us to play tennis. Going to take a bit of a break for the kids on tennis while we have baseball, field hockey and swim season!
Field hockey was fun for Molly Anne this week. She loves it.

appy Weekend!

Thursday Finds

ONE - this shirt is still my favorite from last year. I have it in black but love the blue and white stripe. It washes easily and I hang it to dry.

TWO - my friend Alisa had this sweater on the other night and it was adorable. Amazon! I don't buy many clothes from Amazon because of quality but this seemed decent!

THREE - I grabbed another pair of the miller sandals in gold. My other ones were history because I wear them daily when it's warm out. I haven't found anything that's as dressy and classic as these.

FOUR - a fun gift for a friend. Add a bottle of Prosecco and there ya go!

FIVE - I have my eye on this classic navy dress.

Meals for the Week

Nothing crazy planned meal wise for this week. Honestly with sports it's gonna be a lot of 4:30pm dinners. My kids go to bed when we get home from all of the activities. They have to get up at 6:15am for school. ANYWAY, here is what I'm thinking.

1. Yafo carry out - last night. Took a neighbor this same meal so it was easy.
2. Red Beans and Rice - made this last night for tonight. Will share the recipe if we love.
3. Meatballs with steamed broccoli and a fruit.
4. Reuben Bowl - never made this but looks good
5. Hamburger Helper and the below chopped salad. Not winning mom awards on this one.

OIB Weekend

Oh man, driving over that bridge to Ocean Isle is just sooooo good for us. It is our favorite place. A place where our worries fade for a weekend!

The queen that never sleeps because she doesn't want to miss a thing, fell asleep on the way down on Thursday. They had a teacher work day on Friday so we took advantage. Not winning any mom awards though because Grady missed his first baseball game. Not any more though!

Kids and I ran to Sharky's for dinner while Kevin caught up on work and unpacked. Tuna poke bowl is sooo good.

Hung around Friday morning and got some work and school work knocked out. Then we had some visitors and had fun the rest of the day! Hilary and I even got to scoot out to walk and stop at the surf shop and for a couple Orange Crushes at Causeway!

We all walked a ton and the kiddos played at the playground for hours. They were happy! All 8 of us went to OIFC for happy hour sushi and shrimp and grits haha.

Molly Anne spent the night with Maggie and Greer so we got to take our buddy out for breakfast as an only child to Purple Onion! He ate so much!

Grady also asked to go to Dollar Tree and that was a big adventure. Kids love the dollar stores where things aren't just a dollar!

Then to the arcade of course!

To the Perch for lunch. Did we basically go out for every meal? Yep. One of the band members that was about to play gave all of the kids harmonicas! They ran across the street to perform!

Drew took all of them to Beach Life Sweets and Hilary, Kevin and I got to go to Coastal Wine and Tap! Such a great spot.

To the east end to play with the puppies. Mills was so happy and pranced all over. It was wonderful to see!

Dinner at the Sugar Shack then wound down! It was so pretty but it was super windy this weekend. Still, so good to be there and happy. Here's to a great week of work and school ahead.

Cute Finds

ONE - my fav chill tank is 30% off. Wouldn't exercise in this but it's so comfortable. Always need another white one. My white shirts get so ucky!

TWO - love this dress so much. $178

THREE - I have these pants in black and navy for work but white is tempting for sure. Think elastic waist pants for work - whattt!!! Yes!

FOUR - a fun tee

FIVE - a classic dress