SOCIAL MEDIA

Monday, August 30, 2021

Books I Read in August

Hi there! How was your weekend? Devin and I spent Saturday at the lake with friends while my parents watched the kids, and then came home in time to celebrate my dad's 67th birthday on Sunday. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was wonderful. I obviously loved spending time with our friends at the lake, but an unexpected bonus was getting to drink two cups of coffee consecutively, uninterrupted by our kids on Sunday morning. I cannot tell you the last time either of us was able to do that! 

Friday, August 27, 2021

Friday Favorites

Good morning and happy Friday! Do you have a fun weekend coming up? Today we are celebrating my dad's birthday and then tomorrow we are headed to the lake with friends. I am really looking forward to it! Today I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites.. here's a look at this past week:

Favorite Activities:

One day this week after the kids naps we headed to one of our favorite parks ("The. Enchanted Forest" as Lil calls it 😊) and hiked the trails. 

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Air Fryer Roasted Garlic Hummus

 Hi friends! On Monday I wrote that we make hummus multiple times a week, and I figured it couldn't hurt to share our recipe. Sometimes we will add some cayenne, hot sauce, or other ingredients to mix it up... but this is the basic recipe we always start with. 

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

What's Up Wednesday

Good morning and happy hump day! Today I am linking up with Shay and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday. Let's get started! 

What We're Eating: A whole bunch of plant based recipes! 

Monday, August 23, 2021

Plant-Based Diet Grocery Haul

 Good morning friends and happy Monday! I hope you all had a nice weekend! We spent a majority of our weekend in our favorite place, the US National Whitewater Center. We got to kayak and paddle board, then lay in the hammock and eat popsicles. 

Friday, August 20, 2021

Friday Favorites

 Hello hello and happy Friday! We've had a busier than usual week around here which has made this week FLY by! Here's a look at our week:

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Protein Packed Acai Bowl

 Good morning! One of the questions we have been getting asked the most since we switched to a plant-based diet has been "how do you make sure you're getting enough protein?" This was my biggest concern with making the switch too and I am happy to share some ways that we make sure we are getting enough protein in our diets. The example I'm sharing today, an açai bowl, is nothing new.. but by making it a little bit differently we are able to pack as much protein into it as possible. Let's have a look:

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Life Lately Part 2

 Hello again! On Monday I wanted to write a Life Lately post and realized how long it had been since I'd done one. We have been busy and have an awful lot of pictures to show for it! Today I am picking up where I left off and am finishing with Life Lately Part 2. Starting with what most mornings look like around here...

Monday, August 16, 2021

Life Lately Part 1

 Good morning friends and happy Monday! My teacher friends in the public school system start back today (kids next week) and my friends in the Catholic schools have the kids' first day on Wednesday. One of the teachers at my old school is taking her child to college, so I get to sub on Thursday. It's going to be a busy but exciting week! 


I realized it's been awhile since I've done a "Life Lately" post and I have what feels like a million pictures to unload here and share with you. I am going to split this post into a "Life Lately Part 1" and "Life Lately Part 2" since there are too many pictures. Starting with...

Friday, August 13, 2021

Back to School Shopping: Kids Clothes

Hi there! Happy Friday! Today I am writing about some of the back to school shopping I've done for the kids, but I need your help! Where do you buy your kids shoes? My kids are hard on shoes and seem to go through them quickly. They both need to wear sneakers to school and I'm wondering if it's worth it to invest a little more in a better quality pair rather than buying multiple pairs that are only so-so quality. Thanks in advance for the help, let's get started!

My first stop when back to school shopping for the kids is usually the outlet mall. We have two outlet malls in Charlotte, and there is one in Blowing Rock near my parents. When we were there this past weekend, I went to go grab the kids some clothes but was disappointed to see some of my favorite stores had not survived COVID 😞. We were still able to get a little shopping done, mostly for Liam. I hit up the Polo Factory Store and usually head straight to the sale section. On top of the current discounts, the store was offering 20% off, then an additional 20% off that. Most of these shirts were less than $10!

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Let's Look: Phone Apps

 Good morning friends! Today's theme for Let's Look is phone apps and such... except I already wrote this post back in March for our NJAM link up. I thought about whether or not there are any different apps I'm using since March, but they're all the same. So today I'm phoning it in, and straight up copy and pasting my post from March onto today's post. So here are my favorite phone apps-- still the same from March!

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I broke down my favorite apps into categories because I know we all have different interests. Some of you may be more interested in health/fitness apps, while others may be more interested in organization/daily life, etc. 

Reading Apps:

My reading app folder is definitely one of my most used folders. I keep a list of books on my phone and then as I am getting close to finishing one, I'll add a few more to my wait list at the library. Since the pandemic started books seem to be taking a lot longer than they used to, so I check out 3-4 at a time and hope that one is available when I'm ready for my next book. 

Monday, August 9, 2021

Not Just a Mom: Daily Must Haves

 Good morning! I hope you all had a nice weekend. We got to head up to the mountains to visit my parents. It was a perfect weekend getaway and I'll share more about it in a separate post next week.

Friday, August 6, 2021

Another Year with The Happy Planner

Good morning and happy Friday! Last week we got the email from Lily Grace's preschool with her calendar for the year. I went to go add the dates to my calendar and realized "uh oh, my calendar ends in December 2021!" I needed a new calendar and because I am such a creature of habit, it had to be a Happy Planner. I attempted a non-Happy Planner at the beginning of this year, but it just didn't do it for me. I am a Happy Planner person through and through. I know I am not alone on this because so many of you have commented over the years that you are Happy Planner addicts too!

This is the one I went with:

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Books I Read in July

 Good morning friends! Happy book day! Last month I read 3 books and while I liked all 3 of them, there was 1 that really stood out. That book will possibly make my "top books" list at the end of the year. I'm excited to share all 3 with you today.

Monday, August 2, 2021

Thoughts on Plant-Based Diet

 Good morning everyone and happy Monday! A little over a month ago I had written that we were going to try switching to a fully plant-based diet for the month of July. You can read that post here. Today I am here to report back on how it went and our plan moving forward. 

First of all, I have had so many friends and family members ask "what exactly is a plant based diet? Vegetarian? Vegan? What's the difference?" Now after having done it for a month I have a much better understanding of it! I have watched documentaries, read countless articles, and plant-based magazines (Forks Over Knives is my fave!). Plant based is most similar to vegan, but they actually have quite a few differences. A plant based diet is about eating more whole foods and eliminating meat, dairy, and processed foods from your diet. A vegan diet eliminates meat and dairy, but not processed foods. Basically I could live off of Fritos and Swedish Fish and that would technically still be considered vegan. A plant based diet would recommend having carrot sticks and cucumbers as a snack instead. This infographic sums up some of the differences pretty well: