Walmart Aldi & Sams Haul

Happy Wednesday everyone!! 

I have a lot on the schedule today with Trinity's party coming up but I wanted to hop on and show what I all I got from the grocery store last week and what my meal plan looked like. I usually go to WalMart and Aldi each week and then Sams once or twice a month.  

Click on the video below to see what all I purchased:

For dinners this week we had Tater Tot Casserole, Taco Soup, Crockpot Roast and Salmon Patties. We had left overs two nights and then were out of town the other. 

My Taco Soup Recipe:

I will try to post my Tater Tot Casserole and Roast recipes soon! 

Hope you all have a blessed day! Off to go run around like a crazy mom! LOL

Our Weekend

This past weekend I had such a blessed time at my Grandma's house! RJ took Trinity to a FSU football game so the boys and I took off to spend the weekend with her. She had mentioned wanting to get her Christmas tree put up because she wasn't sure it would get done otherwise so ofcourse I jumped on the opportunity. 

Trinity enjoying food in the Champions Club with Daddy.

Growing up, Christmas was magical at my Grandparent's house. My Papa would start decorating in October and the house was lit up in lights, figurines in the yard and Chipmunks music playing outside for the people passing by. If anyone asked where I lived, I just told them, "The house with all the Christmas lights."

It's hard to see this photo but this is only about half of what he did.

Ofcourse my Grandma cannot continue this tradition anymore (the church came out and did it for her two years after his passing) so it was nice to help bring some of the Christmas joy back into her house. She even gave us a few ornaments she made many years ago for us to enjoy at home. I will cherish them for many more years as I know my kids will as well. 

I make it a point to help her clean and organize when I visit as well. This time I focused on her living room and was able to get the whole room dusted, touch spots wiped down, floor cleaned and her magazine rack cleaned out. Next time I will focus on another room to clean and hope to continue visiting once a month to help her out. Plus I enjoy spending time with her and we love watching Hallmark together. :) 

I hope you all had a blessed weekend as well and made just as sweet memories with your family! God bless, Michelle

Target Dollar Spot Haul

Happy Monday everyone!!

Hope you all had a blessed weekend! The boys and I went to visit my Grandmother over the weekend while RJ took Trinity to a FSU game. They seemed to have enjoyed a weekend together enjoying football and the boys and I enjoyed helping Grandma decorate for Christmas. I will post pictures from our trip tomorrow.

I wanted to hop on here and let everyone know Target has their Christmas decorations out in the dollar spot! I know most probably already know but I wanted to share with you what all they have in stock right now and what I ended up getting.

So many cute stocking stuffers, decor and DIYs! Love the dollar spot! 

This is what I ended up getting the first day I went up there. They were not completly stocked up yet so I did go back the next day and got a few Christmas items for the kids. I forgot to snap a picture so if you would like to see what else I grabbed, watch the video down below. Hope you all have a blessed Monday and I talk to you later!!!

Halloween DITL ll Thrift Store Haul

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween evening last night! My kids had a blast and it was so sweet going to the nursing home and seeing how the kids just light up the people's faces! We went to the mall afterward to trick or treat but after a few stops, we decided we had enough candy and decided to enjoy dinner at Chick-fil-a with Nana. 

Earlier in the day, after going to the gym, I stopped by a local thrift store and racked up on some goodies. I found a good bit of Christmas stuff and got a few pieces of clothing for the kiddos. I believe I will have to start visiting the other thrift stores in my area! 

Hope you all have a blessed Wednesday!

Fall Fun l DITL

Happy Halloween everyone!! 

The kids and I are looking forward to a fun filled evening after school today! We are planning on going to the nursing home to hopefully bring a little extra joy to the people up there, afterward (if it is not busy) we plan on going to the museum for their Halloween bash and then to the mall to get some goodies! 

Here is a look into a little bit of fall fun that we had the other day. Chick-fil-a had their pumpkin party that the kids love taking part in and then the kiddos school had their fall festival that evening. Trinity loved seeing all her friends from school and getting painted up like a kitty cat again. Gabriel had to try about 20 times in the cake walk to get a prize but was determined to go home with some yummy goodies. And Asher of course had a blast jumping on the bouncy houses! 

Hope you all have a fun day with your loved ones and again,

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

and stay safe!

God bless!

Tackle Thursday // Bathroom Cabinet Cleanout

Tackle Thursday // Bathroom Cabinet Cleanout

Festival, Fun & Family // Weekly Vlog

Busy week ending with a very fun weekend with my family!

WalMart & Aldi Haul // Grocery Haul // Meal Plan

Good Morning everyone!!! I thought I would give you a look into my meal plan for the week and what I purchased at WalMart and Aldi. I spent around $95 at WalMart ($14 was for an outfit lol) and then around $20 at Aldi. Hope you all enjoy the video and have a blessed day! Love, Michelle

Tip Tuesday // Keeping Counters Clear While Cooking

DITL // Day on the go // SAHM

Vlogtober 10-3 / SAHM

Our Family's September Favorites

Happy Tuesday everyone!! 

Hope you all are having a blessed day so far. I am about to go start fixing supper but I wanted to share with you all really quick a few of my family's "favorites" from this past month.

For our home:

Lemon Zest Yankee Candle

I am just now getting my fall candles out but one that I love (and you could use all year long) is the lemon scent Yankee Candle. I got mine from TJMaxx and couldn't find the exact same one but this one from Amazon I believe is similar. It has a very "clean" smell and I think is great in the kitchen any time of the year!

SpaMist Ultrasonic Diffuser

A few months ago, I had a real bad sinus infection and my sweet husband went to Vitamin Shoppee and picked up this diffuser and essential oils to see if it would help. I got on Pinterset to find good combinations for sinus problems and have been loving Tea Tree Oil. It really helps to clear me up and I also like to diffuse Pillow Potion when I go to sleep. Now since then, I have realized TJMaxx sells the oils and I prefer to get them from there. Lemon is currently my favorite and I also use it in my homemade cleaner. If you are interested in trying a diffuser, the SpaMist is a good one to start with as it is only $24.99.

...............................................................................

For Me:

Not Your Mother's Dry Shampoo

My hair usually gets oily the day after I wash it but I like to wait at least another day before I do to prevent damage since I also have dry scalp. I have tried out a few dry shampoos but have stuck with this one the past few months. It doesn't leave a white residue (as long and you rub it in some) and it actually works on taking care of the oil in my hair and does not cake up. I usually purchase it from Ulta because I am able to use a coupon. 

Dr. Teal's Epsom Salt

I have issues with my back and sleeping well at night so I started trying out detox baths. So far, I am loving them and try to take 2 detoxing baths a week. I add a couple drops of some lavender essential oil which help my sinus' a lot too. There are other options of detoxing baths and Pinterest is the best place to search for them. I plan on adding some ground ginger, apple cider vinegar and baking soda to my next one.

Skechers Memory Foam Sneakers

A while back I started having issues with my feet hurting real bad and knew it was time to replace my sneakers. I didn't want to spend a fortune so I headed to TJMaxx. They always have a wide selection of shoes to choose from but as soon as I put my foot into these, I knew they were the right fit. I couldn't find the same ones online so I just suggest if you are looking for new sneakers, go to TJMaxx and see what they have!

...........................................................................

For Him:

L'HOMME cologne

If you are ever looking to find a new cologne/perfume, just go up to Belk and ask for samples. We keep small cups with samples in them to try out for a while. RJ recently started trying this one and has almost gone through the entire sample bottle. I am hoping he will move onto other samples because I now know what I can get him for Christmas! :)

...........................................................................

For the kids:

Stackadoos

Right now, my boys are enjoying playing with these Stackadoos. We bought them from Target and thought they would be good for fine motor skills. They make me take them out every day to play with and it is fun to see their imaginations at play.

Letter Factory DVD

I home school my boys and right now my youngest is having trouble recognizing his ABC's. A friend of mine recommended this DVD to me and so far, it seems to be helping. I will let him watch it once a day usually after "school-time." 

Alright, that is all I have for this month! Let me know if any of you try any of this stuff out and how you liked them. Hope you all have a blessed day!



*My YouTube video:

Aldi's Grocery Haul

Happy Friday everyone!! Hope you are all having a blessed day! We are looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. My daughter is going to spend the weekend with a friend and the boys are having two friends over to spend the night tomorrow night. Going to have fun playing outside in this beautiful weather and also go do some Christmas shopping! Trying to get a head start on it this year and we already have one big purchase made, an iPad for our youngest. We usually buy their iPads on tax free day to save some money so we checked off his "big present" off the list.

 Anyway, I am about to head out to pick up Trinity and go to a play-date. I just wanted to share my Aldi Haul with you all real quick and then I am off to start our weekend. Hope you like the video!

Praying for Townville

Not sure if a lot of you heard about the school shooting at Townville Elementary School yesterday but for me, it hits close to home. I live about 10-15 minutes away from Townville and when I heard about the shooting, I was in the car rider line picking up my daughter from school. So many emotions came over me and I instantly started crying.

I first felt relief and fear....relief that it wasn't my child but fear because it could have been. We live in a crazy world which seems to be getting worse with each day! I remember the days where I could ride my bike around the neighborhood and my grandparents weren't scared that someone would hurt me. Now it doesn't even feel safe to send our children to school! I know incidents are more publicized now with social media but you cannot tell me that this world isn't getting scarier every minute.

Then I felt guilt and sadness....guilt because I was glad it wasn't my child and sadness because it was someone else's. I cannot imagine what it had to have been like to be that parent sitting at home and hearing over the news that there has been a shooting at your child's school. It makes me tear up now thinking about it. My heart goes out to all the parent's that went through this. Some are friends I know and children that I used to keep in childcare and knowing they are safe makes me happy but they should not have had to experience this.

Then I felt angry....angry because those children and teachers should not have had to have gone through this. Angry at the 14 year old who killed his father and then went to the school and shot at innocent people. Angry at his parents for not seeing the signs and for letting their child even have a gun. Angry at a situation that probably could have been prevented.

But now, now I don't know how I feel...
I know I am proud of the people that help keep the children safe. I know I feel like hugging those poor children and wishing I could take that experience away from their little minds. I know I feel thankful the ones hurt will more likely be ok physically in the long run. I know that I forgive the child's parents because you cannot predict what another person may do even if it is your child. I know that I will pray for the young man who did this terrible act.

We can blame a lot of things for what happened but all I know is, I am going to continue loving my children, teaching them to come to us if they need advice/help and hope & pray that they will help make this world become a better place. I just hope others do the same and maybe we can help turn this world around.

*Update: One of the children shot at the school is in critical condtion. It is heart breaking not knowing what will happen but if anyone would like to help, here is a ling you can go to if you would like to help. Please pray that this sweet little boy makes it!!!

Mini Front Door Makeover

Part of my zone cleaning today was cleaning my front doo. As I was wiping down the door, I realized it has not been re-painted or updated since we bought our house 10 years ago. So, of course I had to do something about this! :)

First on my list was to spray paint the handle of my glass screen door. It has bugged me for a long time and was well over-do! We bought this spray paint a while back to re-do our light fixtures (which I am hoping to do soon) and thought I would try it out on the handle. 

After cleaning the door handle, I taped off the area to begin spray painting. I tried to take the handle off the door frame but apparently I am too weak and could not unscrew the screws and did not want to risk stripping it. 

Got to spraying and here is the before and the after...

Here is a peak at the inside handle...

After doing that, I decided that the lookout glass of the door needed an update also.

Yeah, that used to be white but I guess 15 years (our house was around 5 years old when we bought it) made it turn yellow. LOL

Since I am trying to get rid of the gold accents, I decided our address numbers needed a little sprucing up too.  So here is the before and after...

I still need to repaint the door because when you look up close, you can see scratches and spots from years of using it. I think it looks good for now until I come back around to it in two months for another zone clean. :) 

First week of school!

Happy Friday everyone!!

The first week of school is finished and ours went great! 
Hoping yours went well also!

Glimpse into our first day!

My oldest, Trinity is in 3rd grade this year and is loving it! Luckily she has always enjoyed school and other than a few nerves, her first week went smooth!  She was even chosen as the first "Captain of the week" and gets to take part in special activities next week.

So proud of her and looking forward to having lunch with her one day next week. 

........................................

This is my first year home with the boys and I want to be sure that I am preparing them well for Kindergarten so I homeschooling them. I am pretty much doing what we did with the kids at daycare...crafts, working on writing, bible lessons, etc. I was nervous Gabriel was not going to do well for me but so far when I say it is time for school, he screams "YAY!" He does tend to rush through his tasks while Asher likes to take his time. Our theme this week was "Back To School" and here is a look at some of crafts and pages we worked on:

School Supplies Handprints

Creation Book

Paper Plate School Bus

Handprint Craft-printable below

The poem is a little different than the one I did because I typed it up wrong. LOL 

I will probably redo them with my boys because it will bother me.

I found this book from my local Aldi store (they also have a great selection at Toys R' Us) and worked on the letter A and tracing this week. 

I like that they are front and back also. 

Well, I am about to head off to go walking with a friend and then my husband and I are taking the kids to Toys R' US as a surprise. Looking forward to a relaxing weekend and hope you all have one as well! God Bless!

Organizing...Extra Cords

Happy Monday guys!!! Hope you all have had a blessed weekend! We cleaned, organized, ran errands all day Saturday and then yesterday we had a full day of fellowship with our church family. We stayed fairly busy but I am looking forward to a relaxing day playing in the pool with my babies before school starts tomorrow.

*********************

The other day I was looking for the cord that went to my digital photo frame to only be greeted by this mess....

Insert: minor panic attack

So something obviously had to be done about it and quick. 

After looking through my craft closet, I came to the conclusion that rubber bands would fix my problem. Now it was time to tackle the mess!

Sorting

Some types cords we had double of so I just wrapped them all together. I only kept up to 3 of the same and donated any extras. Threw them all back in and here is what it looks like now:

I can breath!

Much easier to search through!

I keep this tote in our garage on a shelving unit we purchased off of Craigslist. They are great for corralling extra things for the home and I got them from Home Depot for around $5.

While on my organizing kick, I went ahead and labeled the kid's iPad chargers with their names to keep in their rooms. 

They get one full charge per day and once it goes dead, on to the charger it goes and it cannot be used again until the next day. We got rid of cable a while back so they have Netflix on them so this is considered their "TV" time also. We are currently trying out Playstation VUE but my husband is the only one who really watches television so at $35 a month, it suits our needs. We did just put up a satellite dish so we get local channels free and it seems like we have a found a reasonably priced solution for our TV needs! :) 

Well, I am off to go get in the pool with the kiddos and then get ready for open house at Trinity's school tonight. Cannot believe school starts back tomorrow!!! I am going to miss having my baby home with us! Till tomorrow...God bless!