Friday Faves and a low key Valentine's

So, everytime I would sit down to finish up this post I would somehow get sidetracked, imagin that! Now have have 57 minutes to get this post finished for it to be legit.

Everytime I think to do a post like this, The Sound of Music song "These are few of my favorite things" (not even positive that is the title of it) comes into my head and I spend the entire day humming it and maybe singing it really loud to Crewe, who then looks at me like I am crazy.Its the little things to not make the day mundane that go ALONG way.

Back on topic. I have some products that I religiously use and I am one of those people that will stand in the isle at Wal-mart for much longer than my husband appreciates, going back and forth as to whether I should try something new. I usually end up asking anybody who is on that isle if they have tried or liked it. I hate wasting my money on a product that I use once, hate, and it ends up sitting in my makeup bin for decades, because that is how often I clean it out.

I thought I would share some products from my bathroom that I will never stop using becuase they are that good.

Friday Fav numero uno:

I have never believed in a whitening toothpaste like I do this one. I have used it for about 5 months now and I enjoy the teeth staining vices like coffee and wine. While my teeth don't look like that have been professionally whitened they are a shade I am happy with.

Numero Dos:

There was a lot of hype going around about this mascara, so I had to try it. The current mascara I was wearing was from Clinique and over $15 a tube. With us being so budget concious I new I would had to find a cheaper route. This stuff does not disappoint, is very affordable, and lives up to the hype. It even makes my lashes look good and they grow in every direction.

Numero Tres:

Love putting this gem in my bath every night. It keeps mine and Crewe's skin super soft especially during the winter months. We use the baby oil along with grease. The off brand is just as good as the name brand and you get significantly more.

Numero quatro:

If you are an allergy sufferer like our family this product is amazing and has kept so many sinus infections at bay. I used it every night for several years and then found out it is better to use it every few days because some of the bacteria in your nose it good and need not be washed out daily.

Numero cinco:

I could not get a good picture of these, but they are the Neutrogena make-up remover wipes. When you are a tired momma and your two choices are wash your face or go to bed, these allow you to do both. They are also awesome at removing mascara. I would know this because I will reapply mascara after I was my face because I hate how I look without it. Us blondes get the short end of the stick with having eyelashes without make-up.

Lastly, I wanted to throw this one in for any women out there who has a mann that loves his hair to be rock hard, but don't want to spend the $15 that we used to on John's hair gel. This stuff is great and smells amazing. It will definitely give you the rock hard look.

We had a pretty low key Valentine's, but it ended up being a fun night. Who doesn't like breakfast for dinner??? I think I could eat pancakes swimming in syrup for 3 meals a day. Did I mention I have to slather on the butter as well?

We had my starving, college student sister over for dinner and made a night of it, finished off with, none other, than strawberry shortcake.

 Crewe, too, has a deep love for syrup

 He was sure hoping he was going to get a bit of the strawberry shortcake.

In our house, when it comes to dessert, you go big or go home!

Hope everyone has a great and relaxing weekend.

Budgeting 101

I dont know if it is even appropriate for me to have a "Series" considering I only have a few followers, but I want to share how our little family makes it work on one income. When I quit my job we cut our income in half and we have had to nickle and dime A LOT of stuff to make it work.

I have been struggling quite a bit with the "Keeping up with the Joneses" persona, which is in no way condusive to living on one income. I have to remind myself daily of Matthew 6:19-21.

 ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I still want to go shopping everyday and buy a new car and my gosh I have to really keep myself in check with comparing myself to others. The saying, "If we all through our problems into a big pile everyone would go diving in looking for their own." I think that is sooooo true. I think my problems are big and then read a blog about a momma whose baby has cancer and WHAM it all puts everything into perspective for me. That is another post for another day though! ; )

At the end of the day our needs are always met, we have our health and each other. That is more than a lot of people have.

So onto the budgeting. I will start by giving a broad view of how we live then go into more detail in later post, like how to shop for groceries, make-up, kids cloths, etc.. on a budget.

We have all heard of Dave Ramsey right? The financial guru! Well our family lives by the envelope plan. For our groceries and gas we have a cash envelope system. We allot a certain amount for groceries and gas, take that amount out at the beginning of the month, stick in the envelopes and only pay cash for those two items. When the money is gone, we are done until the beginning of the month. It is very motivating to make that amount work. ; )

We both drive older cars, but they are paid off, so we do not have a car payment and John does most of the repairs on the cars including oil changes. I wouldn't necessarily call mine a "beater", but it is getting up there in years. I think 14 to be exact.

John drives an old dodge pick up.

I have a spreadsheet set up on the computer that has the amount that John makes each paycheck and what bills come out of the which paycheck based on there due date. Make sense? The bills come out before anything else. The minute his check hits the bank I sit down and pay all the bills.

I keep a list on my phone of any purchases we have coming up that is over $20. Car tags, walmart purchases that are not food, dog food, John's protein powder, diapers, or if we have anything we want, but don't necessarily need. Those are the second things that come out.

After that we just let the other money stay put for other expenses that always come up.

Any big purchases we save up for. If a store is offering no interest for 12 months or more we might make a large purchase from there and figure out the monthly payments to have it paid off in the amount of months necessary, so we don't pay interest. It helps keep our credit scores up as well.

Most of our credit cards are paid off; however, we have some monster student loans that are factored into our bills. If we ever get a large sum of money those will be the first to go. Hey a girl can dream right?

We also have 2 rental properties that we hope to use for retirement someday. They provide a little cushion now too.

I do clean one house a week for a little extra income and have been racking my brain for some other ideas to bring a little money in the home without having to put Crewe in daycare.There are days that I question whether or not I should go back to work full time and think how much more we could have if I did, but remind myself that our needs have always been met and we have never been without. I dare say that most of our wants are met too.

We don't drive the nicest cars, wear high dollar clothes, or live in a huge house, but it works for us!

I hope this helps even one person that is debating whether or not they can afford to stay at home. Trust me it can be done. There are just a few things that have to be tweeked and lifestyle changes that have to be made.

I promise that the consecutive post will not be months apart. I hope to make them once a week. Oh and please stick with through all the blog changes. I am trying to find a style that I like.

And just because this post didn't have a ton of pictures. Here are my sweet loves.

Tomorrow is Friday!! YAY!

A Glimpse...

A glimpse into just a few of the many things I love about my husband. 19 to be exact because not only is today the 14th of February, but also our 5 year anniversary (just in case you were confused where 19 came from).

Let me give just a tad bit of background because I feel it is important to understand the greatness that he is.

When John and I first hung out it was exactly 2 weeks after I had moved into an apartment and out of my house. The house that my ex-husband and I shared. A divorce was imminent. I was convinced I would spend Valentine's Day alone, when my phone rang at work. John, who had gotten my number from a friend, was calling to see if he could cook me dinner because he didn't feel I should spend Valentine's Day alone. I was hesitant, but accepted. 

You see, John and I had crossed passed several time over the past 4 years, but it was never more than a casual "Hi" because we had mutual friends.

I am surprised he hung around after that night and me rambling on and on about how much baggage I had and really wasn't in a point to start a relationship. And that is exactly where we left it for months. He was just my friend and there for me. Yes we hung out and talked and got to know each other, but there was never any pressure for anything more.

And that is where we all started.

A beginning

A Baby

A Wedding

and a home and (in that order) we have loved, fought, grown, cried, laughed, prayed, and healed. I couldn't be more blessed to have him as a husband. God has confirmed multiple times that this was ALL part of his plan.

So onto the 19 things I love about John:

1) He will always let me have a bite of his food even before he takes one and I am sooo stingy with my food.

2) He loves giving Crewe a bath and has done it every night for almost a year. Crewe now only wants Daddy to bathe him, but I tried giving him a bath a while ago and he cried and reached for John the whole time.

3) He is one of the most laid back people I know and Crewe is following in his footsteps which this momma loves.

4) He always gives me a choice in what we watch on television.

5) He L.O.V.E.S hunting. I mean loves!!! He can spot a deer from a mile away.

And as you can tell, I cleary have hunting and country pulsing through my veins ; )

6) He will be the first to try any sweet with the justification that he is just making sure it is safe for everyone else to eat and he goes to great length to create healthy low calorie desserts to satisfy his sweet tooth.

85 calories in case anyone is interested

7) He has been so dedicated to losing weight, hence the low calorie sweets, and when he is passionate about something his in it 100%. He has lost 30 lbs and I am so proud of him even more so because I know how much he loves sweets.

8) He always tries to show interest in the things I like, Pinterest being the most comical, because I still don't think he understands it.

9) He is my number 1 blog reader and commenter too.

10) He is always trying to be creative and come up with good picture ideas for me. For example:

Seriously I was so impressed!

11) He is an awesome dancer, I mean good. Like sexy good.

12) He carries my purse all the time for me and never complains.

13) He always tells me how beautiful I look, even when that look is 5:30 in the morning with matted hair and smeared mascara. (Not my best look) I will spare yall the picture.

14) He is a manly man and does all our car repairs.

15) He has sacrificed SO MUCH for me to be able to stay at home with Crewe. He never acts like it is a sacrifice, but that he is happy to do it.

16) He has always helped me with Crewe in the middle of the night even though he has to get up to go to work.

Sidenote: We have concluded together that 3am is not the best time to make parenting decisions or any decisions, for that matter, that could lead to an argument.

17) We an talk about our faith and God, I mean really dig deep talk, and he never gets offended or thinks I am crazy. He is an awesome spiritual leader of our house and gets up early to have time to read the bible before he works out and goes to work.

18) He gets up early to workout so that it doesn't cut into his time with us when he gets home from work.

19) He never brings up previous fights when we have a disagreement. My head is like a huge filing cabinet when we get in an ahem... argument. Sorry honey I will work on that.

Ok lets make it an even 20.

20) He is our rock and I hope Crewe grows up to be just like him when he is a husband and father.

Just kidding 21, there are just too many great things about him.

21) Most importantly he loves God. I love that inside my wedding band he engraved "you are my #2", because we always talk about how God should be our #1 and your spouse your #2.

I never want to reach a point where I take him for granted and it doesn't phase me. I will always strive to be a Godly wife and mother.

Honey you're the best and even though our evenings sometimes consist of sending each other facebook messages from opposite couches just to make the other one laugh, I am so glad I get to experience all of this life with you.

I love you!

A Gathering of Hearts and Moments

Do you ever have times in your life where you just have so much fun you never want to forget the way you feel in the moment, the smell of the moment, and all the details of the moment? Well this weekend was one of those moments for me. Maybe it was the hotel or having a husband and baby to share it with or all of the above. Staying at hotels has made me giddy as long as I can remember!

I seriously think the length of this post could set some world records, but we had such a good time!

We went road trippin on Saturday to a Valentine's Party in Abilene. It was also Crewe's first experience in a hotel and minus the whole night of not sleeping it was a blast. So much love and care was taken in preparing the atmospere, meal, and who can forget the wine. There was cousin time, good food, drinks, wonderful company, babies, and who can forget all the love!

I will let the pictures tell the story, but I want to go back to Saturday so we can do it all over again.

For the trip down there we had great weather and a sleepy baby which made for a good drive.

The elevator was Momma's Crewe's favorite part of the hotel. We had to have the moral support of Scout and Mickey.

Cousins reunite over bed jumping

And of course coloring on the pillow case (oops). Crewe wasn't sure what to think about Cousin Wyatt getting in trouble.

I don't know about ya'll, but my sister and I always appreciate a hotel which offers free happy hour

There is so much I could say about this picture, from J.'s face to the placement of the water. It is definitely a framer.

Wyatt felt it was his responsibility to restock the fountain with change and he took that job VERY seriously.

We wrapped up happy hour and headed to the party. We were greeted by two pretty little ladies and a more than welcoming atmospere.

The company was pretty spectacular.

And is it just me or does having a kid make pictures of you and your honey non-existant??? I was looking through pictures the other night and pre-baby we have TONS of pictures together; post-baby? Maybe 2. All of our pictures are of one of us with Crewe or just Crewe; which don't get me wrong I LOVE all thos pictures, but I also want to Crewe to see how much we love each other too.

 The older we get the more I think we look alike.

And just in case you are curious. Your hair can look just like her's for a mere $189 in the Dallas area! Are you kidding??, but it does look amazing!

The food was scrumption. Like make you drool scrumptious!

This little girl stole my little man's heart. He was smitten and I actually got to eat without setting my fork down 50 times. It was glorious!

We didn't leave until 11:30 and I seriously was so impressed by all the kiddos. They were angels the whole night. Crewe maybe had an hour nap that day and he was soooo good because little man knows how to partay!. Now after we got back to the hotel sleep was questionable, but I couldn't blame him, the lack of schedule was Momma's fault.

I think it was midnight when I took this picture!

Middle of the night

And the drive home???? Well they were predicting a dusting of snow which never means anything AT ALL, so we headed back and what should have taken 2.5 hours ended up taking 5.  Look at this:

And we were pulling this....

Which made momma almost sweat through her shirt. I seriously think I had multiple panic attacks in those 5 hours.

This little man did not cry once.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day from Crewe!

My "in a clutch" quick recipe

This is one of my all time favorite recipes to make because it is soooo easy, cheap, and relatively healthy. I am a casserole and crock pot kind of girl. This casserole is super quick and could be made in the morning and popped in the oven when you get home or thrown together when you get home.

Here is what you need

Cook the rice according to the package. I add a bit of butter

Get all the good stuff off the chicken and feed what you don't want to the dog

(or at least that's what I do)

Get everything measured out

Combine it all together and stir, stir, stir!

Transfer to a casserole dish and top with a bit of cheese.

Here's what you need:

Ingredients

• 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts or 1 rotisserie chicken
• 4 cups Cooked Brown Rice
• ¾ cups Frozen Corn
• 15 ounces, fluid Can Black Beans, Drained And Rinsed
• 1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt (or Sour Cream)
• 4 ounces, fluid Can Green Chilis
• ½ cups Salsa
• 1 cup Low-fat Cheddar Cheese, Plus More For Topping
• Garnish with fresh cilantro (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cook the rice according to package directions

A rotisserie chicken is sooo much quicker, so just pull all the chicken off that you want.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, except cilantro, mix thoroughly to combine. Make sure the yogurt and cheese are stirred in throughout the entire bowl. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

Transfer to an oven-safe dish and top with extra cheese if you would like. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until heated through. Garnish with cilantro. We don't garnish at our house unless there is company so I leave it out usually.

This is sure to please even picky eaters and this is one of those leftovers that is gone the next day.

I usually pair it with a salad.

Hope you enjoy and let me know if you try it and what you think!

Happy Friday!


Linking up with Raising Bean! Go cheeck her out!