What I've Been Priming- August

Hey ladies! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Today's post is short and sweet because we spent the weekend in the mountains celebrating my dad's 66th birthday-- woohoo! Now we are back and in laundry/grocery/get ready for the week mode. This week is the first week back at my former school and I am subbing a few days as a floating teacher assistant to help anywhere I'm needed. It's going to be a busy but fun week! I hope all of you have a good week ahead of you as well.

I am linking up with Tanya on Tuesday for Prime Purchases but don't typically post on Tuesdays.. so here's a look at what I bought on Amazon in the month of August:

Books I Read in August

Good morning friends and happy Friday! Today I am sharing the books I read in the month of August-- and believe it or not I was able to squeeze in 4! Every single one of these was an audiobook this month and I think that's the only way I was able to get through so many. I listen while I put on my makeup for the day, while I do laundry, while I clean the kitchen after dinner, while I am out for my walks/runs, etc. Anytime I have a spare minute, I'm listening! Do any of you listen to audiobooks?? I love a good thriller while out for a run-- I swear I run faster! 

Anyway, every single one of these books was hit! If you're looking for something good to add to your list, maybe some of these will fit the bill. 

My Favorite Breakfast-- With a Twist

 Good morning friends! About a year and a half ago I shared with you my favorite healthy breakfast idea. I still eat this breakfast probably 1-2 times a week, but mix it up a bit to keep it from getting boring. Here's one of the ways I like to change it:

What's Up Wednesday

 Good morning everyone! I know we all say this every month, but where did this month go?!? The month of August flew by! Our September is going to be even busier/crazier so I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing next month. 😂 Grab yourself a cup of coffee and come see what we've been up to!

What We're Eating: We are pretty healthy eaters around here and are usually trying to find some new ways to sneak some veggies in. These broiled sweet peppers were delicious and super easy!

Weekend Highlights

 Good morning everyone and happy Monday!! This weekend was a perfect blend of busy and relaxing. I can't wait to share with you all what we were up to!

Friday felt like fall in Charlotte! It was in the 70's and rainy all day, and I have to say, we were NOT complaining about it! We moved Lily Grace's art/Play-Doh table from the back patio to the front porch because it's covered and we sat out there and played all morning!

Backyard Camping!

 Good morning friends and happy Friday! Today I wanted to share a few pictures from one of our recent activities: camping in the backyard!

I have the fondest memories of camping in the backyard with my sisters and my dad. We would roast s'mores, tell spooky stories with flashlights under our chins, and listen to nature. Meanwhile mom would stay inside and get a good night's sleep-- which I appreciate SO much more now! 😀

While the kids were taking their afternoon nap, Devin set the tent up in the backyard. When they woke up, LG was so excited to see a tent popped up in the backyard, ready for camping! She wanted to put on her Pocahontas dress because she thought it looked like a teepee 😊

Honey Sriracha Salmon Salads

 Good morning friends! Okay have any of you been watching "Down to Earth" on Netflix? Well you may or may not know that I used to be fascinated by Blue Zones and the Mediterranean diet, but over time kind of fell off that wagon. Well, after watching Zac and Darin go to Sardinia and learn more about centenarians and the Blue Zones, I am back to my obsession with Blue Zones! 

Today I am sharing a salad I made for Devin and I last week that had the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. It also had some greens, some protein and some carbs all mixed into one meal. If you like sweet and spicy, give this one a try!

Back to School Clothes

 Good morning friends! Yesterday as I was doing my morning rounds of reading blogs, I saw on Shay's blog that she was talking about her kids school clothes and I thought "Holy cow I haven't bought LG's back to school clothes yet!!!" Luckily I still have a few weeks, but still! It's time to get on it! 

Hiking Crowder's Mountain: The Pinnacle

 Good morning friends and happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! We had the most beautiful weather yesterday and were lucky to spend a majority of the day outside. No humidity, temperatures in the 70's most of the day, and sunny. It felt like a glimpse of fall!

So as you know, earlier last week we were in Wilmington, NC visiting my in-laws. We had to come back to Charlotte about mid-week because we had some appointments and things to take care of, but my in laws wanted to let Lily Grace stay behind a couple extra days with them so they could stay busy/not go crazy during quarantine. Since we had appointments and such anyway, we figured it would be easier to only have one kiddo while getting our stuff done. We had one morning off without any appointments/errands so we decided to head to one of our favorite hiking trails a little bit outside of Charlotte: Crowder's Mountain State Park. Here are some of our pictures from that day:

Life Lately

 Hi friends! Today I wanted to share a brief update with you about what we've been up to. As most of you know, we did a lot of local (but safe!) travel in the beginning of July. It worked wonders on improving our overall mood/sanity/mental health to have something different to do than the same old stuff at the same old house day in and day out. 

So then we came home and spent the next 2 weeks at our house, which was GREAT (it was like a whole new house again since we were refreshed!). That being said when my in laws said they were getting cabin fever and wanted us to come for a visit, we couldn't have jumped in the car faster 😀. It helps that they live near the beach and we knew we would have a bunch of different opportunities for "activities" with the kids. I am beyond grateful that Devin's job is flexible with his hours and understands that he may be sending e-mails at 5 am or 10 pm rather than typical 9-5. As long as he's getting it done, they don't really care when. 

So let's have a look at what we've been up to!

Refreshing Cucumber Smoothie

 Good morning friends! Today we are off to hike to one of our favorite trails and I wanted to start the day off right by being well nourished and prepared for our long trek. Which brings me to our recipe of the day, a super refreshing and hydrating smoothie.

Let's Look: My Desk

 Good morning friends! I hope you're all having a good start to your week. I'm still stuck in this rut of "what day is it?" and I cannot for the life of me keep up with it! Is it quarantine? Is it summer? Is it both? Not really sure, but a week ago I had a hair appointment and showed up on the wrong day because I didn't know what day it was. I had to do the walk of shame back to my car and come back to my appointment the following day 🙈😂 I mean what else can you do but laugh it off, right?

Anyway, today's topic for Let's Look is "my desk" and.... about that... we no longer have an office because we keep having kids and needing to use more bedrooms... so if I'm being completely honest, my "desk" is more like our dining room table. Anyone else? When we first moved into this house we had more rooms than we knew what to do with! Now, we are actively using every single square foot. 😀 So come and have a look at my "desk" 😉.

Not Just a Mom-- Back to School

Good morning friends! Today is our next "Not Just a Mom" link up. If you're also a blogger I hope you'll link up with us today! 

Target Home Decor Finds

Can you tell I've had home decor stuff on the brain lately?? We have some big changes happening in our house here pretty soon (more on that next week) and in the meantime I just keep Pinning and Pinning and Pinning all the pictures that feel cozy, warm and welcoming!

A couple weeks ago I posted some home decor items I found at Walmart.com and apparently you all loved it as much as I did! I decided to venture over to Target and see if they had anything that fit into that same Boho/Beachy/Casual vibe that was also inexpensive (comparatively). I'll be real up front-- some of the Target stuff is significantly more expensive than the same thing is at Walmart.. but then some of it is priced very similarly. Either way, the items were all adorable and I love that this look is "in" right now and so easy to find everywhere. I've seen it at HomeGoods, Marshall's, Amazon and World Market just to name a few!

Broiled Mini Peppers

Hi there! Today is a random recipe we came up with last week when we were having a "shoot, there's not much left in the fridge, what can we make?!" moment. Sometimes those kinda recipes don't work out at all, but sometimes they turn out to be great! This was one of the ones that ended up being delicious and we will gladly make again. Since you are deseeding the jalapeños, they shouldn't be too spicy. That being said, we didn't give the jalapeños to the kids.. we kept those for ourselves 😀

Books I Read in July

Good morning friends! Today I wanted to share with you the two books I read in the month of July. I was hoping to read a little more than I did while we were at the beach, but as I'm sure you all know, beaching with two young kids doesn't exactly lend itself to quietly reading! I was only able to squeeze 2 books in, but I loved them both and can't wait to share!

Be the Bridge-- This was the second book I picked up as I'm trying to learn more about how to incorporate anti-racism into my life. Last month I read White Fragility and while I learned a lot from it, I finished it feeling depressed and like "there's so much hurt, where do we go from here?". I loved Latasha's book because it addressed the hurt from racism and racist acts, but the overall theme was reconciliation and moving forward. It was almost as if Latasha provided a roadmap between where we were/are with racism and where we can get to, assuming we choose to treat all people as if they were truly made in God's image and show them the love the Bible teaches us to show. If you are looking for an anti-racism book with a Christian/Bible based theme, add this one to your list!!

The Librarian of Auschwitz-- One of ya'll recommended this book a few months back and I am so happy you did. I love your recommendations! This book was heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. It is based off the true story of a young girl who was tasked with keeping the secret library for the children in the family block at Auschwitz. The pain and horrible conditions the prisoners had to go through is difficult to read, yet I think is important for us to know about in order to prevent something so awful from ever happening again in the future. Dita, the main character, and her family/friends go through some truly terrible situations yet somehow Dita stays strong. It amazes me that someone who goes through something so terrible can still think of other people and not just herself & her own survival. 

Those were my only two for the month because July turned out to be much busier than expected! What about you? Did you read anything good in July?? Or do you have anything else I should add to my list?

What I've Been Priming-- July

Good morning friends and happy Monday! I hope you all had a good weekend. We did a whole bunch of nothing over the weekend and it was great! We played a lot in the backyard, had a friend over for dinner on Saturday, and went for a long family walk on Sunday. It wasn't much, but it was exactly what we needed it to be. 😊