Berry Goat Cheese Salad with Balsamic Glaze

Good morning! Here is another salad I whipped up for lunch this week that could easily be a side salad (without protein) or a main dish (with protein).

What's Up Wednesday

Good morning all! I woke up this morning feeling a sense of hope because things around us are slowly starting to return to normal (not quite in NC yet, but in other places). I am so hopeful that these places are able to find a way to safely open and we can safely start to resume some of our regular activities. How are you all feeling??

Anyway, today is What's Up Wednesday and I feel like there might not be a whole lot to share, since we haven't been doing very much. This might be an abbreviated version 😀

What We're Eating This Week: We have been trying to eat some salads around here in order to offset all the takeout we've been getting. We've been frequenting our favorite bagel place, pizza place, Chinese restaurant and more. So when we aren't eating all that? Salads, salads and more salads! Including this one on repeat:

Books I Read in April

Good morning! Is everybody else out there trying to fill up some of your time by reading as many books as possible right now? Despite feeling like I have less time on my hands, I still somehow managed to squeeze 4 books in (well, almost 4... I'm like 20 pages away from finishing the last one so I'm counting it 😀). It's a big variety this month: a novel, a thriller, a book about health and fitness, and a Christian based book about stopping negative thinking patterns. I really liked all 4! Let's have a look:

Friday Favorites

Hi there! I don't know about you, but things really hit me hard this week. I've started running out of things to do in order to stay busy and the reality that I most likely won't be going back to school sunk in. I have found a few things that have helped to keep my spirits up and thought I'd share with you just in case you needed a mood booster too!

Southwest Shrimp Salad with Mexi Ranch

Hey there! Today I wanted to share with you a recipe I threw together quickly this week for lunch. Now, this was not a "side item" but a "main dish", but you could easily make this a side salad by not adding protein to it. This would make for a great side salad if you were having Taco Night and didn't want too many tacos. 😀

Family Quarantine Month 1

Good morning friends! I am trying to stay positive amidst all the craziness going on in life right now and was flipping through pictures/videos of some of the highlights of the past month. I thought it might be fun to put them together with some music and make a little video. 

Click below if you'd like to see a brief summary of what we've been up to the past month 😀

Blast From the Past... Our Honeymoon

Good morning friends and happy Monday! Recently my hairdresser, who is a big world traveler, has been posting pictures from her many travels and saying "today in my mind I'm in ________" and it has been such a fun breath of fresh air to see her pictures from her travels and also have a little daydream vacation. 

What I've Been Wearing Lately

Good morning everyone! One of my girlfriends, Allie, just started working from home (WFH) last week and was asking me for any recommendations about how to keep focused and productive while working from home. I told her a few of the things that Devin and I noticed had been working for us and one of them was getting dressed every day. Even if just for the hours you are working. I won't pretend like I don't wear yoga pants almost every day over here, because I totally do. But I also do try to put on "real clothes" at some point throughout the day because there's just something about it that makes me feel more professional, focused, and ready to work... even if nobody can see me because I'm just checking emails that day.

So just in case you are like me and like to wear "real clothes", even if just for a few hours while you're working, I figured I'd post a few of the outfits I've been wearing for WFH. Sometimes just seeing an outfit that someone else put together can spark some creativity in me and I think "Oh I have something like that, I can easily throw that on!".

Garlic and Shallot Green Beans

Good morning! Today's recipe is coming to you from a quarantined kitchen... it was one of those "what do we have left to eat? Okay, let's make that!" recipes. This one is simple, quick, and you are almost guaranteed to have everything (assuming you have green beans 😀)

Enjoy!

What's In My Bag

Good morning everyone! When Shay and Erika cancelled this link up a month ago I was so bummed because I was really looking forward to looking into other people's bags. I'm so nosy and love to know random little tidbits like this. I know I'm not the only one out there and all of you are interested in this too... otherwise you wouldn't still be reading, would you??

Now, a little forewarning here... this is just my purse. Not my "mom bag" or diaper bag. That is a whole other beast and would be worthy of it's own post (if you're interested, maybe I could do that next week?). I also cleaned my purse out before this post, but normally my purse has everything you're about to see, plus about 20 receipts/shopping lists/other lists/etc. I clean it out every few weeks when it gets embarrasingly bad, and apparently today was the day for that!

So without further ado, here's a look at what's in my bag 😀

Not Just A Mom: Cleaning Routine

Good morning everyone! Today we are doing our next installment of "Not Just a Mom" and the theme of the month is our "Cleaning Routine". I'm a little nervous to show you my cleaning routine because my extreme OCD craziness is about to show 😂. Promise not to judge me?? Or maybe it's time for an intervention... I don't know?!

Updated Nursery

Good morning friends and happy Friday! I am finally getting around to sharing our updated nursery pics with you. I did a post about Liam's nursery months ago, but that was before he was born and before we knew he was a boy. It was all gender neutral then but we have switched it up to be a little more boy-ish now. The color scheme is navy and teal with hints of wood to give it a more natural/rustic feel. I will link everything at the bottom if you are curious where it's from. Here it is:

A Day in the Life... Quarantine Style

Good morning everyone! I had every intention of doing this post yesterday but then completely forgot to set a reminder to take pictures... and didn't remember until well into the day. Oops! So I figured I'd try again the following day :) Let's have a look at a day in the life of the Darrell Family, quarantine style. Here is April 8th, 2020:

Asparagus with Lemon and Parmesan

Good morning! I know Wednesday isn't my usual recipe day, but I had intended to take pictures for "A Day in the Life" yesterday and then completely forgot until it was almost lunch.. oops! So today I'm trying again with the pictures and swapping my Thursday recipe post with today.

What I've Been Priming

Hi there friends! Today I wanted to share with you what I've been Priming in the past month. I did a post a few weeks ago that was all about the things I've been Priming for this "stay-at-home" period. It's mostly what I bought to keep our toddler busy (chalk, puzzles, etc.). If you'd like to see that post click here:

What I've Been Priming for Our Isolation

Otherwise, I will share the rest of the items I've been priming below. Have a great week!

Flavored Coffee- We try to use the reusable k-cup pod around here as much as possible, but once in awhile I'm in the mood for a flavored coffee, so I grabbed a variety pack of the flavored ones. The Kahlua and Cinnabon ones are my favorites but I have yet to have one that I didn't like 😀

Swim Diapers- Lily Grace ran out of swim diapers right before her swim school closed down for COVID-19, and naturally I had just "stocked up" since we were swimming 2 or more times a week. Whoops. I guess we will have plenty for this summer!

Fire Pit Cover- Our fire pit cover was starting to look a little worse for the wear, so I grabbed a new one. 

Tap Lights- Our closet under the stairs doesn't have any light, so we grabbed a couple of these battery operated tap lights for whenever we need to get in there. 

Thomas Kinkade Disney Puzzle- I love the artist Thomas Kinkade and have several puzzles of his paintings. Amazon must know me well because they recommended for me a Thomas Kinkade for Disney puzzle collection and of course I had to buy it! There are 4 puzzles in a box and I bought two different boxes. The collection above is currently sold out, but the collection below is still available!

Fitbit Band- Last but not least, my Fitbit band broke this week and I needed a new one. It was super cheap to just buy a collection of different colors, and I figured why not? 

Can't wait to see what you all have been Priming! Have a great week!!

Monthly Goals: April

Happy Friday friends! I'm here with my monthly goals for April and am planning on being pretty lax about these. We are all in survival mode and there may be some days where I don't accomplish a single one of these goals, and that's okay! As long as I am actively working towards them.

Drink More Water: I don't know about you, but this picture above pretty much summed up my life the last few weeks of March! Coffee, coffee and more coffee, followed by wine at night. And I definitely was not feeling my best! My goal is to drink half my body weight in water daily this month. 

Move My Body Every Single Day: It might be gardening, a neighborhood walk, a run or some yoga... but my plan is to move my body every single day for 30 minutes. 

Read 4 Books: Here's hoping!

Check 3 House Projects Off Our List: Living in an older house, we seem to have this never-ending list of things that need to be done. Our usual excuse of "we'll get to that when we have time" doesn't really apply at the moment, so I'm hoping we can get a few things accomplished.

Zoom With Friends a Couple Times a Week: I have had several Zoom chats with friends this week and it is helping me to keep from going insane. The good thing about everyone being required to stay home is that we all have time to chat with each other. None of us have anywhere to be! I'm hoping we keep up with these because it makes all of us feel so much better!

Today I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites. I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Pomegranate, Pear, and Candied Pecan Layered Salad

Since being given the "shelter in place" order, we have been doing nothing but stuffing our faces with food. We aren't used to being home all the time and the temptation to eat is always around us! I've been trying to counteract our unhealthy snacks by eating more salads for lunch and dinner. This one we made last week and it was a big hit! Here's hoping you enjoy it as much as we did 😀

Book Review: March

Hi there! I was originally thinking I would have a lot more time on my hands to read some books this month, but I was WRONG! Anyone else? I still made it through 3 books, but I can't say I read one of them cover to cover.. it was more of a "pick and choose". Let's get to it!