Friday, August 17, 2018

Happy Friday! I’m linking up with Momfessionals today for Friday Favorites. 

Number One:  My boys started their junior year.  How is that possible?  They were born 10 weeks early weighing 2.9 and 2.14 pounds, by the way.  That’s a story for another time, but now they are pushing 6 feet tall.  So, the fact that they are getting so old isn’t a favorite, but the young men they are becoming is a favorite.  

Number Two:  Sunday meal prep for breakfast, at least.  I have not prepped for my lunches, but it sure helps to have my breakfast done.  The boys eat cereal, but I like this low carb mixture that I started eating over a year ago.  I took a break from it this summer and really missed it.  Low carb egg casserole, turkey sausage, zuchinni, mushroom is the mixture I eat.  

Number Three:  I’m almost done with this book below and I recommend it.  It is a fun, quick read and I can’t believe I read so much this week considering school started.  The night before school started I couldn’t fall asleep, so that was when I knocked several pages out.  

Number Four:  I’m hoping to see the movie below this weekend.  The trailer looks good!

Number Five:  I bought this circular leather keychain at a local boutique, but I’m sure you can find them on Amazon or Etsy.  My SIL had one first and I liked hers.  I love it for school because you can wear it on your wrist.  I’m not a lanyard wearing teacher and we aren’t required to wear one at our school.  Plus, a lanyard would mess with my necklace game! 

Number Five:  I found my fake apples to add to my mantel decor.  

Number Six:  Are you a fan of Rae Dunn?  Today is her release at Kirkland’s.  I don’t own anything of hers yet, but I like it, and would like to.  I can’t get there until Saturday so I debated telling you about this.  Just kidding! I plan to check it out when I run some errands, but I’m worried the fall decor will start calling my name!

What are your favorites from the week?  

Any fun plans this weekend?  We have to buy some school supplies that were requested on the boys’ syllabi, clean, do laundry, food shop, meal prep, and do some school work.  I hope to do the movie I talked about and eat at a restaurant.  We might do a boat ride but it usually takes up the better part of a day.  We shall see!

Have a good one and thanks for reading!

Amy 

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Whew!  We got the first day over with and it was pretty smooth.  I never sleep well the night before though, so I was running on adrenaline.  I teach six 50 minute classes with 4 minutes between each one and a 20 minute lunch halfway through.  I was tired at the end of the day.  I didn’t cook because I decided we would do take out Mediterranean from near our house – chicken kabobs, rice, Greek salad.  Yum!

I like to wear a dress on the first day and I like to wear something new if I can.  This dress did not disappoint.  It comes in 26 different colors/patterns.  The material is super soft, it has pockets, and it has two slits on either side that go up to the knee.  I didn’t have to hem it, so that was nice too.  I think it runs true to size.  My other color is plain olive and I think that will look good in the fall.  I will have to avoid buying more.  Check them out and let me know what you think.  Amazon fashion is pretty good.  I’m afraid I won’t even leave the house before long because of Amazon.  

I can’t believe I have been doing this job for so long.  Every year seems different, though. I hope that I’m still as effective if not more effective each year.  I started at the young age of 22 and I was so naive.  I will be 47 this fall.  Time really goes by quickly.  

These are the shoes I started the day in.  I lasted about 4 hours and could’ve gone longer, but knew my feet would hurt later. These are from Amazon and by Corky’s Boutique.  They are quite comfortable, but teacher comfortable is a whole other level.  They come in camo and I was oh so tempted. What do you think?

These are the shoes I changed into.  My faux Target Birkenstocks in rose gold have been great!  

Here are my most comfortable teacher shoes. They are both by Dansko and both several years old from consignment stores.  They are kind of ugly but both pass the all day teacher test.  

Maybe it’s a sign I’m getting older, but I just can’t wear uncomfortable shoes anymore.  Even to do weekend activities I want comfortable footwear.  Last weekend on the Urban Bourbon Trail, we did about 3 hours of walking or standing. I decided to wear the gold Tieks flats because I didn’t want to get grouchy.  

What are your most comfortable shoes? I want my shoes to be cute and comfortable, but for teaching on my feet all day, I can sacrifice some degree of cuteness.

Here is my classroom all ready to go.

Here is my observation of the typical high school girl outfit:  

jeans, Birkenstocks, v-neck t-shirt with bralette showing

So, now you know.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Amy 

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Happy first day of school for students in my area!  Teachers, parents (especially parents of kindergarteners and seniors), and students are in my thoughts today.  School is such an important part of life.  May patience and kindness be shown and may everyone feel safe and secure.

I wore this outfit to run errands on Friday.  I am not really into wearing shorts out much anymore. I never go to Ross but I was nearby and popped in and this was taken in a mirror there.  Our Ross is empty!  There are only a few racks of clothing.  Needless to say, I didn’t find anything.  

I watched some Instastories on Instagram and someone talked about the second Old Navy dress below being on sale for $12.  I went in one day last week and of course, it wasn’t $12 anymore.  I think it was $22.  But, I thought the gray was a nice material called “plush luxe” that would work into fall.  The first dress was also $22 and I fell in love with the grey and yellow floral and already wore it on Saturday.  Again, I can picture this in the fall with my cognac riding boots and a cardigan, maybe.  

I pulled these pictures off of the Old Navy website so you can snag the plain dress for $10 now, I think! It also comes in a pretty bubblegum pink color.  

This is what I wore for the Urban Bourbon tasting we did on Saturday.  My friend shopped at Loft and got her shirt and necklace combined for $16.  I think this is a great time to hit Loft but I haven’t been in myself.  

Monday and Tuesday were teacher work days and I wore my white skort and blue and white stripe shirt on Monday and below is what I wore on Tuesday. We sat through meetings and it was a important to be comfortable.  I did wear shoes both days, but I forgot to keep them on in the photo!  

On Monday I saw that one of my consignment stores had gotten in a bunch of Matilda Jane clothes for women.  I have liked their knit ruffled pants for a long time, so I popped in and found these charcoal grey ankle length pants for $29(retail value of the pants is around $50-60 and these still had tags on them). I hope I can pull them off.  I don’t want to look like a little girl or a clown.  I went to my trusty Pinterest to see what women wore with them and I’m going to go for it.  

Finally, this is my first day of school outfit.  This is a long floral maxi from Amazon (brand Huskary) I talked about a few weeks ago with a white lightweight vest.  The dress has pockets!   

So, if I had to sum up my recent oufits in a few words:  flowy pants and swing dresses.  

Happy Wednesday!  Thanks for stopping by!

Amy 

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

I like to go to Trader Joe’s in addition to my regular grocery.  Sometimes I only go twice a month, but there are certain products I like to have on hand.  This trip I am also trying some new to me products and I will give you my thoughts if I have tried it.  I also shop weekly at Kroger and monthly at Costco.  

Freezer:  I think they have some great frozen products.  

Here is what I usually have in my freezer:

broccoli, fries, corn, green beans (haricot vert), orange chicken, Jasmine rice, turkey corn dogs.  I’m trying the cauliflower gnocchi for the first time and I’m trying the soft pretzels for the first time (Excellent – have already tried)

produce:  bananas, potatoes, avocado, lemons, limes – I like all of their produce!

bakery:  Everything bagels

canned:  black beans, green chilies

dairy:  don’t like their string cheese, whipping cream, butter, cheeses

snack:  corn puffs, restaurant style tortilla chips, haven’t tried strawberry cereal bars yet

I tried to take photos of my last trip.  Now, I realize this means nothing to you if you don’t live near a Trader Joe’s!  

Let’s talk about how to meal plan.  I like the idea of themes and I’m going to try to have loose themes this school year.  I might add that my husband wants meat at every meal.  I will also add that I like cooking, meal planning, grocery shopping, and it’s fun for me to try new recipes.  I hate cleaning, though.  We all have our strengths.  If cooking isn’t your thing, that’s o.k.  Most of what I talk about will be loosely referred to as cooking – it is more like heating up many nights!  

Here is a recent and typical meal:

frozen tortilla encrusted tilapia from Costco, mashed red potatoes (homemade – super easy – just boil for about 20 minutes, drain, mash with a masher and add buttermilk, butter, and spices), Trader Joe’s green beans, boxed couscous (didn’t really need but had on hand)

I start dinner around 5:30 every night and we eat around 6:15.  My boys have activities after school but not many evening activities so we can usually eat at home.  We don’t eat out because it takes too much time away from homework and everyone says “my food” (remember I use a lot of shortcuts) is better.

Loose themes for this year:  

Sunday – restaurant leftovers or sandwiches (This past Sunday we had BLTs, frozen                  TJ’s fries, cucumber salad

Monday – pasta

Tuesday – Mexican/ Taco Tuesday but will do different things – Mexican lasagna or                        burrito bowls instead of tacos sometimes      

Wednesday – chicken with 2 sides

Thursday – fish with 2 sides

Friday – order pizza or other takeout

Saturday – go out sometimes/home sometimes

What do you think of the theme approach?  I use themes for each day in my classroom and it’s been really helpful for me and for the students.  Have you heard of decision fatigue?  The more decisions you have to make in a day the more exhausted you are.  Make as many things in your life automatic as you can.  Anyone?  I like this concept and believe that it’s true.  

How to Meal Plan Another Way:

Take some time on Friday night, Saturday morning or afternoon, or Sunday morning to look at the week ahead in your calendar.  You don’t keep a paper calendar, you say?  O.k,, look at your phone, but I would argue that seeing the week laid out on paper is helpful.  You could print out a template to write on.  

What nights do you have to be out of the house at dinnertime?  Make those soup and sandwich nights or something that can be prepared ahead of time like a pasta bake.  If you have time in the mornings, can you go ahead and cook and then just microwave at dinnertime?  Also, when you brown your ground beef for spaghetti, brown more to have in the freezer.  Go ahead and add taco seasoning to some.  

When I was very organized last winter, I had 3 pounds of cooked ground beef and taco meat labeled in my freezer.  Talk about easy!  

You don’t have to cook as many nights as I do.  You can just cook three nights a week and use leftovers.  If you only cook for two people, maybe you could make grilled chicken and use it in two different ways or make a weekly soup to eat a few days.  

I hope this helped someone!

Leave me your best dinner tip in the comments!

Amy

Monday, August 13, 2018

I’m linking up today with My Glittery Heart, Lindsay’s Sweet World, and

The Sirois Family for their Hello Monday link up.  Be sure to check out some more posts over there!

Happy 40th birthday to my baby sister!  I’m the oldest of three girls and I still remember vividly the day she came home from the hospital.  I can’t imagine life without her.  She is a second grade teacher and is spending her day at work and then shuttling her four kids around afterwards!  

Now, today marks my first day back of full time employment since June 4th.  I am going to do my best to keep up with my blog posting, but you will understand if my posts are shorter, no?  

I had a great weekend.  It was the perfect mix of relaxation, fun, and productivity.  Sometimes it’s hard to achieve that balance.  

Friday I made a Trader Joe’s run.  Here are a few of the things that I purchased.  I’m thinking about another TJ’s post.  Check here for my first post I did on shopping at TJ’s.  

After TJ’s, I hung out with my boys, made lunch for them, read a little bit, and watched a bit of tv.  I wanted to take advantage of my last week day off.  

Friday night, we went out on my friend’s boat and headed downtown and across the river to Indiana.  

We parked the boat (we were lucky to get the last spot), walked about three blocks to eat dinner, and came back for an outdoor concert.  

Saturday morning I walked, did cleaning and laundry while hub did some biking and boys hung out.  

In the afternoon, hub and I went to help celebrate a friend’s birthday by doing some of the Urban Bourbon Trail in downtown Louisville.  If you’ve heard of The Bourbon Trail, it is referring to places surrounding Louisville, maybe about forty minutes away. The Urban Trail is relatively new and they are working to revitalize the famous historic Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville.  I don’t know much about bourbon and my hub doesn’t drink at all.  Even so, the history is very interesting and we loved our tour guide at the first one, especially.

We started with The Evan Williams Experience which is part of Heaven Hill Distillery.

The second one we did was Old Forester, which is part of Brown Forman.  We had to hustle about three blocks down to do this tour, which was very different, but still very interesting.  They both cost about $15 a person and you get three tastes of bourbon at the end.  At the first one, we also got a delicious bourbon ball. 

After the second tour, we went across the street to Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen where we had a bourbon slushie and some nachos.  There were three couples and we had a great time.  They were moving on to dinner, but we wanted to spend time with our boys so we headed home.  We really enjoyed the afternoon.  My friend’s husband put the day together and he did a great job.  It’s hard to coordinate this kind of thing and get people together but it was a good reminder that the effort is worth it.  

Our family has a favorite comedian Demetri Martin and you can find some of his shows on Netflix.  He has kind of an academic sense of humor and we started letting our boys watch him around age 13.  We had some dessert and watched a show that was new to us as a family of four.  

Sunday was very low key.  I did some meal prep for the week – my low carb egg casserole and I made kale chips for my son who loves them.  

I finished this book.  It was really good.  Their story is inspiring.  

I also had a chance to run to the library branch that is open on Sunday and grab some easy chick lit books that look good.  I won’t have much time but I like to read a bit in the evenings.  

How was your weekend?  What does your week look like?  Are you still “summering” or is it back to reality?  Have a great week and thanks for reading!

Amy

Friday, August 10, 2018

Happy Friday!  I’m linking up with Narci, Andrea, and Erika today for Friday Favorites!  Check out the other posts here!

1.  This book!  You guys, this might be my favorite of hers.  I have read all but about 10 pages in 24 hours.  Go get it for this weekend!  

2.  I didn’t know lash primer was a thing, but this is great!  I already used this brand of mascara and I love it. This primer helps you use less mascara but you get better results.  Thanks, Olivia of Joyfully Prudent for recommending it on Instastories!  

It it white/pink when you put it on.  

3.  Kelly of Kelly’s Korner told about her lip color in Instastories.  It is Revlon Super Lustrous GoldPearl Plum.  I don’t think the name or sticker color fits it.  It is a shimmery coral in my opinion.  It will be great into fall.  I also bought a clear gloss to put over my lipsticks.  

4.  John B. Crist’s Instagram is hilarious!  I can’t remember where I first heard about him, but I have thoroughly enjoyed his posts and stories.  

That’s it for this week!

What are you up to this weekend?  I’m hoping to have fun on this last weekend of summer, get organized, meal plan, and rest up for a five day work week.  It’s back to reality!

Thanks for stopping by!

Amy 

P.S. – I did a post yesterday on the thredUP Goody box here, and a post on Tuesday about my makeup products and how long my routine takes here.  Check them out!  

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Have you all heard of ThredUP?  It is an online consignment store.  How cool, right?  Not everyone lives in a city of great consignment shops like I do and not everyone has the time it takes to comb through the items.  Besides shopping thredUP.com, you can also order a “clean out” kit which is a prepaid bag to send in your unwanted items to receive credit to shop.  

Even though I can and do frequent consignment shops and talk about it here frequently, I thought I would give it a try and let you all know how it went.  I found out about it through http://www.modernmrsdarcy.com which is a blog mainly about reading and the writer of the blog lives in my city of Louisville.  In addition to writing about books, she has some other posts on things she has learned in a given month, her uniform for getting dressed, interesting, links, etc.  She offered up a link to save on this Goody Box so I ordered mine for only $10.  Normally it is $20.  I was not offered a link and they have no idea who I am, by the way.  So, for $10, they sent me a box of 10 items and I could put the $10 toward anything I kept. It was free shipping and free returns.  Basically, it is Stitch Fix but with consigned clothes.  I might add that they are highly curated consigned clothes because they were in pristine condition.  I don’t use the word “pristine” lightly!  

Here is my cute box – it took exactly a week and a day to arrive from my placing of the order!

Inside the cute box is a list of your items along with the retail value and their price.  I should also mention that when I ordered, I was asked my size, age, style, and shops I like.  I said I like boho chic Anthropologie -ish clothes.  I also said I prefer pants and skirts that are knit and elastic waist and that I didn’t want anything sleeveless. 

Now, I will tell you that in addition to the pristine condition, 3 of the 10 items were new with tags!  But, look at the prices.  I rarely spend more than $12 on an item at my consignment stores.  The prices ranged from 16.99 to 48.99. They also gave you the original retail price.

I think they missed the mark on boho and gave me more of a vintage/feminine feel.  Also, what is up with all of the purple!  

The photos aren’t great but it will give you an idea.  They were wrapped in tissue paper and folded nicely. After I loaded my photos, I realized I forgot to take a picture of the Women’s City Chic Cardigan, so you will see only 9 of the 10 pieces.

I liked these pants below but they were HUGE!  

I hope you can tell what everything is.  I almost kept the last item – Athleta pants – great material but ultimately decided that I would prefer them in black.  

I ended up sending everything back.  It was worth $10 to share it with you, even though I didn’t keep anything. I am extremely picky at this point about what I let into my closet.  I am a fan of Marie Kondo and I’ve learned from my mistakes and I am not going to buy something just because it’s cheap or because it almost works.  

So, do I recommend this to you?  Maybe.  I think it depends on how you feel about someone else picking things out for you and how much you are willing to spend on consigned clothes.  I love the concept and love that people are recycling clothing.  Part of the cost is the shipping and the work of the stylists to curate these items for you.  Also, time is money.  You may think this is worth your time savings.  

Let me know if you try it!

Amy 

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

So, last Thursday I wore this to my professional development workshop.  This is my black Old Navy swing dress and a LulaRoe kimono.  Some people wore jeans or shorts and some people dressed up a little bit more.  This outfit is as comfortable as if you are wearing pajamas, but I think it looks pulled together.  

This is what I wore to the second day on Friday.  I forgot to take a picture in the mirror.   I was equally as comfortable.  I love these pants!  The top is the Target Universal Thread flutter sleeve.  The pants are from Steinmart.  I wore my black Tory Burch wedge flip flops that you can kind of see.  I bought them 5 years ago on sale on Nordstrom.com.  They still look brand new.  

This is what I wore Saturday to run some errands and go to the movies. These are black linen Old Navy shorts, white detailed Old Navy top, and black Birks.   

Monday I set up my classroom so I wore athletic shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes. There is no photographic evidence!  My boys helped their history teacher set up and were rewarded with pizza and then I took them to get their back to school haircut.

Tuesday I put this on to run some errands.  It is just a simple tee from Nordstrom.com and the skirt is a LulaRoe Cassie.  I really love this print – birds and flowers.  I really like some of the LulaRoe line but I don’t plan to add anything to my closet unless it’s from the consignment store.  I love the kimonos, the long vest, the long sweater, the Carly dress (a simple knit that is a little higher in the front than the back – I could do without the tiny chest pocket – why?), the Cassie skirt, and the perfect tee.  I did a post in the spring on my feelings toward LulaRoe and Lipsense that you can find here if you are interested.  

I am also wearing the fake Jack Rogers/Pierre Dumas shoes.  Can I call them “John Rogers”?  I really like them, by the way!

I went to the library, the mailbox store, and to get my back to school pedicure.  

I also wore my new $12 leather earrings from the pop up boutiques on Friday.  

Caution:  I will now be talking about The Bachelorette finale from Monday if you haven’t seen it yet.

I couldn’t watch all of The Bachelorette finale Monday night because it ran too late, but I did finish it Tuesday.  I just wasn’t that invested.  I was fine with either guy.  I thought they were both kind of boring and I thought Becca was, too.  I’m sorry if that sounds harsh.

Maybe the real issue is that I’ve outgrown the show.  No, that can’t be it…

Bring on Bachelor in Paradise, baby!

Here is a bad and awkward photo of my back to school blue/grey pedicure using the new Orly De-Stressed Denim I bought last week.  

I had books that I had requested ready at the library!  

Do you read her blog?  I am definitely not this hardcore frugal, but she has a beautiful writing style and I’ve loved seeing her journey to her farm in Vermont through her blog.  

When you can’t watch Season 4 Poldark yet, you consider reading the series, right?  I was surprised that it was written in 1945.  

I have seen many people post about this book below so I’m excited to read it during this last week of my summer.  Elin Hilderbrand’s books don’t disappoint for fun summer reads.  

What can Rachel Hollis not do?  I currently have her book “Girl, wash your Face”, too.  This is a great cookbook.  I have also checked out her blog – www.thechicsite.com.  She also has two works of fiction – Party Girl and Sweet Girl but my library didn’t have them.  I enjoyed my 3:00 p.m. coffee Tuesday with a squirt of whipped cream for a little bit of fancy.  It is a Dunkin Donut hazelnut k cup.

My top from Amazon came in.  You can find it here.  I think I like it but will probably learn to tie it better as in the product photo from Amazon.  

So, that’s where I’ve been since the week started and those are a few outfits from the last week.  

Thanks for stopping by!  

Amy