Babies

There are a lot of babies around the house lately. Sadly, none of them are located in my belly but we're okay waiting on God's timing for that. ;)

First are the babies that are our very first {container} vegetable garden!

Hubs looking very excited about this adventure

Our sweet baby plants. All in a row.

Our containers and accessories came from Walmart.

Garden soil came from Lowe's [on sale!]

The order of the plants (below) is as follows:
Rutgers tomato {big blue}, zucchini {orange}, cherry tomato {big yellow}, purple bell pepper {little blue}, pickling cucumbers {little yellow}, better boy tomato {green}, and green bell pepper {red}.
  

 

After everything was potted; being guarded by our citronella plant.

Our basil & stevia plants. 

Freshly watered basil

 The other babies in this household aren't plants. They are animals. Baby birds in fact. Josh and I have had the delightful pleasure of watching a mama dove lay her eggs, hatch her babies, raise them, and even teach them to fly. We were very sad when they flew away until a few days later when we noticed this:

Photos were taken through our window screen, forgive the grainy quality.

Talk about the circle of life. There are two new eggs in the nest with what we presume is a brand new mama.

Photo was taken through our window screen, forgive the grainy quality.

What are you guys getting excited about as Spring flutters in? I'm looking forward to sharing a few projects I've tackled here lately to spruce up our kitchen. :)

Until then,
-A

Yumday Monday

Woo hoo! One week of healthy lunches and budgeting and meal planning done- and it was fun, to boot! :)

Menu for this week: (there may be one or two meals that rollover per week depending on any last minute changes that occur)

Monday- Chicken & Broccoli skillet meal & breadsticks

Tuesday- Double date night! Looking forward to some qt with Mike & Kayla from two plus bink

Wednesday- Jack Daniel's BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches with salad and green beans

Thursday- Baked spaghetti, salad, & breadsticks

Friday- Venison meatloaf, mashed potatoes, & green beans

Saturday- Blue corn tortilla chip nachos

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Yumday Monday

Y'ALL<

That last two days have been awesome. Just. awesome.

Yesterday, we attended a Budget Class hosted by our church, Newspring. Now, I wasn't expecting much, to be honest. I thought to myself "I know what a budget is & we've tried to budget before, but I just don't think it can work for us." Boy was I wrong!

Our church has a saying: "Every number has a name; every name has a story; every story matters to God." People tend to think that because our church is so large with multiple campuses there's no way they can feel included and valued- and there is nothing farther from the truth. Check it out if you don't believe me. :)

Anyway, at our Budget Class the instructor told us to think about our money in the same way: "Every dollar has a name; every dollar has a story; every dollar matters to God." And for the next hour and a half she opened our eyes to making every single dollar that passes our hands honor God and bring blessing to our little family. Seriously amazing, guys. In the Stewardship area of the website you can access their monthly and weekly budget plans that are simple Excel documents. You just plug in your info and it does all the calculating for you! If you struggle with impulse spending like me, it will help you. If you are working paycheck to paycheck and feel like you'll never be able to save any substantial money (like us), it will help you. We are so excited to actually see on paper what we never thought possible for ourselves.

Which leads me to my next point- Food!

My husband & I love to spend time together in the kitchen. However, sometimes the urge to place an order over the phone or pick something up on the way home is too good to resist when you can't remember what's in your pantry & you don't know how long it will take to prepare.

This also applies to lunch- I'm more likely to eat unhealthy school lunch (chicken sandwich, chips, cookie) and Josh is more likely to eat fast food when we're scrambling around for something quick to grab and go in the mornings or we're bored with PB&J's.

Earlier today I found the blog BentOnBetterLunches and it is so cool! This lady documents the awesome, creative lunches she packs for her children and husband. There's a cool way of putting food together called Bento that involves making 'scenes' out of the food- really just making it fun to look at and eat! I spent hours today pouring over her ideas and checking out the healthy foods she incorporates into her family's lunches.

In order to help stick to our new budget as well as create a healthier eating lifestyle, I need accountability. So I hereby declare each Monday "Yumday Monday"! I'm going to try and share our weekly menu each Monday so that I can:

-Plan meals ahead of time to keep from impulse buying at the grocery store
-Hold myself accountable to cooking meals at home and not ordering out during the week
-Share more recipes with family and friends
-Keep variety in our menu so we don't get bored of the same meals over & over

I'm going to start just sharing suppers and work toward sharing lunches & suppers. I'm beginning packing healthy, organized lunches tonight and am going to give myself a week or two to get used to it before I start sharing what I'm packing.

First official Yumday Monday:

Monday- Breakfast for Supper (double chocolate muffins)
Tuesday- Parmesan Garlic Baked Fish with Salad and Steamed Corn
Wednesday- Crockpot Hawaiian Barbecue Chicken with Steamed Green Beans & Yellow Rice
Thursday- Baked Spaghetti with Garlic Breadsticks and Salad
Friday- Date Night! (thanks to our new budget! :D)
Saturday- Venison Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes and Salad
Sunday- Velveeta Chicken, Broccoli & Cheese Skillet Meal

Have a yummy week!

-A

Honeymoon- The Sequel

Friday afternoon after Josh worked half a day and I frantically cleaned the house and finished packing, we set off on our whirlwind romantic long weekend miniature vacay holiday!! I was a tad excited. :)

We stopped at Subway for lunch (I'm loving the Turkey Bacon Avocado sandwich!!) and before we knew it we were seeing sights all too familiar:

Instead of going up the Blue Ridge Parkway and coming into Tennessee through Sevierville, we came up the other direction and went through the Foothills Parkway. Beautiful overlooks!!

And we can't take pictures without some silliness:

When we got to our cabin we were SO excited!! It was just as we had hoped, but with one little hitch. We overlooked the fact that the cabin isn't a one bedroom cabin but in fact a one room cabin! For the two of us, though, that just made it even more perfect! Everything in one big open space made moving about and hanging out together easy. If Josh wanted to sit on the couch and watch TV but I wanted to lay in bed and relax we could do so and still be together! Haha! It was a beautiful cabin with complete privacy and an incredible view of the woods.

The following are 3 photos I took from the couch. They are horrible quality and don't do the details of the cabin any justice, but they do demonstrate how everything was in the same 'room' and easy to get at.

Eating nook and fireplace, door to the deck is just to the left.

Kitchen nook, entrance is just to the right.

Bed and bathtub behind the couch. The bathroom is to the left of the bed.

After we put our things down and got settled, we went to check out the hot tub and rocking chairs on the deck!

Source. I'm sorry it's so small!

To our disappointment, the hot tub was not working! The jets would not come on, but the water was still hot. So, we put in a call to get it looked at and then hopped in anyway! It was nice because it was still warm, but it cooled off and by the next evening it wasn't even as warm as bath water! Apparently it needs a new motor, so we weren't able to use it properly during our stay, but a very sweet phone call from the owner of the cabin promised us a free night or two for our trouble if we decide to come back!

By this time we had worked up quite an appetite! We decided to try a place that was new this year (at least in this location)- Big Daddy's Pizzeria. Guys- it was SO good! The pizza was about the same as what you could expect from Mellow Mushroom; fresh ingredients and fresh taste and delicious. What won me over was our appetizer. They are called Dough Daddies and are basically rolls doctored with garlic and spices and butter and served with their homemade mixture of alfredo and pasta sauce!! My mouth is watering for them again already! My prayer before I ate them was "Weight Watchers forgive me, for I have sinned!!!". Seriously, though. Super duper good.

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It's shaped like South Carolina! Holla! Excuse my face -_-

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This was by far our most expensive meal, but it was worth it and so yummy!

The next few days were full of fun, sun, snuggling, and putt putt-

Instagram- morning coffee with a view.

Breakfast!

He's making fun of this picture of me from our honeymoon last year:

Goob.

Awesome Barbecue

Barbecue Slider. Delish

Instagram. New Wax Museum.

Snuggled up watching Ace Ventura's When Nature Calls

Putt Putt!!!

He's too tall or I'm too short

Us laying out in the sun. J/k... they're pigs, silly people!

Please excuse the white glow in the dark legs.

He beat me 2/3 times. I got one on him!

One of these things is not like the other...

Breakfast- Red Rooster Pancake House. Cheap and yummy.

Trying to hide my excitement- we're gonna go feed bears!

Herrro!!!!

He's a model

Instagram- We were really hoping he'd fall in!

We made sure to leave a lasting impression at the putt putt course:

Aww

On our way out Josh told me he wanted to take me to Clingman's Dome. He said it was high up and there was a short walk to this big viewing station and you could see everything. Well I flipping love nature and pretty views so count me in! His short walk was actually a pretty steep climb. For about a mile. Super steep + one mile = me not in shape and about to die. It was beautiful though and we took lots of breaks and I drank lots of water and it was all good! So worth the sunburn (It's hard to remember sunscreen with a 60 degree breeze blowing against your skin. Whoops)-

An invasive species of insect is killing the beautiful trees!

I can't wait to share this with my students the next time I teach Ecology!

Amidst the deadly climb.

Finally there. Wind whipping my hair back and forth!

All the dead trees make me very sad.

We got pretty fried.

Thankfully, one of my fellow Pinterest friends recommended this to me, and it helped A LOT! It wasn't a miracle cure for sunburn by any means, but it made it feel much better.

So that was our little getaway. Now we are back to reality. I'm eagerly anticipating and planning for projects around the house and events happening in the Fall. I'm looking forward to sharing details with you about those soon. :)

Until then,