My August Favorite Things

This is my first favorite things and I'm so excited to share! Head on over to Cleared for Takeoff to find an awesome linky of other hot momma's favorite things!

1. Urban Decay's Pocket Rocket Lip Gloss, MAX Shade

This stuff is heavenly! I only wear nude colored sticky, sticky lip gloss and this is just that!

2. Crate and Barrel Oil Spritzer

This takes the place of that aerosol non stick spray. I use olive oil in mine, it's healthier for you and it's all natural, no extras added in!

3. Ipad

This should have been #1 because I can't live without it!!!!! I'm obsessed.

4. Pottery Barn Bella Paisley Shams

We're redoing the bedroom and I've just added these shams. My secret is, however, I ordered them from eBay - brand new still in the package for 1/2 the price!

5. Pinterest

Yea I'm the last one to join, but I finally did it and all you crazies were right...IT'S SO ADDICTING!

Date Night Do Over - Japanese

A little while back I showed you how to make my favorite chicken pesto pizza that I get at a little pizza place downtown. I showed you how I make it at home to save $$ (and the hassle of going out).

Now I'm going to share another dirty little secret of mine with you.......

We have Japanese date night at home too! I looooove hibachi chicken, fried rice and sushi! At my local Japanese place we can easily spend $75 on one meal. For years now I've been 'ripping' them off so to speak. I'll be honest I cannot make fried rice like they can. I've tried and it sucks. I also can't make sushi. I've wanted to try, but I'm afraid I'll get nasty fish and poison Hubs. So I take a little help from them and add a little of my own stuff and it turns out GREAT.

First I place a call in order for 3 orders of fried rice, yea, yea I said 3...we like a lot of rice. They're only $3 ea!

I also order sushi - $5

and seafood sauce - $3 (it's ohhhh so good and we eat it on all the meat not just the seafood).

So my total with tax is $18.53 from the restaurant.

Then from the store you'll need:
1 lb chicken - $3
teriyaki sauce - $2 (I used Lawry's.)
shredded cabbage -$2
any other veggies you want to stir fry

My store total with tax is $7.63.

This time I only did cabbage along with some carrots and green onion I already had.

You cut up the veggies you want to stir fry.

Add them to a pan with a little olive oil, teriyaki sauce, salt/pepper and cook until tender.

You cook your chicken the same way. Cut it up and stir fry with a little olive oil and teriyaki sauce until done.

Then you plate with your rice.

Total for everything $26.16!
Total savings $48.84.

To make it a complete meal break out a bottle of Trader's Joes' 'Two Buck Chuck' and you're set and you'll still save over $45.00!

Wordless Wednesday

Momma's Back!

Hello blog world! It's been a long, long wait, but.....I'm back! I haven't written a post since December. I have so much to share! I've been working on my goal and I'm proud to say there have been some drastic changes in our lives. Changes for the good. Since the last time I shared with you, my precious baby boy has turned 2! He's actually 2 1/2 now. He's thriving and beautiful. The biggest change is I've gone part time! Alert the media! I'm not just a SAHM wannabe now. I'm a PTSAHM (new word!). So I'm kinda still a wannabe since it's only part time but I also can kinda own the stay at home mom thing too. Word.

My focus for this blog was to share my journey from a full time working Mommy to a full time stay at home Mommy. Honestly, I quit blogging because, along with being busy with life, I got discouraged. It seemed like too long of a 'journey' to blog about. I got bored because I felt like I was repeating myself - like I wasn't actually doing anything to make it happen. I stopped and had a heart to heart with myself, my husband and my Lord. I prayed so hard for it to happen if it was meant to happen. I didn't sit back anymore. I got focused and it happened. The big changes I needed to make, didn't seem so big anymore. I sold my newer SUV and got a less expensive one. We buckled down and paid off our other car. We actually stopped eating out. Before we had stopped, but caved so quickly soon after. This time it was real. We also have decided to be more healthy so it's a win, win. Less expensive car = less expensive insurance and tag, cable is still cut back, Walmart trips are really nonexistent now (a victory in itself - I really loathe Walmart), date nights are more creative, meaning less money. I don't miss any of my cuts. Truly, it excites me to do them. Yea I'm only part time right now - I'm only half way there...but I'm HALF way there!!! It's a blessing and I couldn't be more thankful!

Since cutting back I've had time to do so much more. The things I've been wanting to do for so long. I've been doing crafts, re-dos, homemade foods and cleaners....tons of stuff I'm going to be sharing over the next few weeks.

I'm ready to learn, share and possibly inspire.

Gift Giving...

Christmas time is upon us folks! It's an exciting time of year. This year we have decided to take it easy on gifts. We've been blessed throughout the year beyond measure. Our family doesn't go lacking for anything. All of our needs are met and for that we are so thankful.

We have decided to go 'light' on the gift-giving this year. We want to make a point not to shower our child with gifts for Christmas. Christmas isn't about spending money and being self absorbed. It's about helping others, showing love, enjoying family and being thankful for the many blessing that we have. We're going to give Baby Boy one, kinda big thing from Santa and some small things from Mommy and Daddy. We want him to know from an early age the reason we celebrate Christmas.

As for our families we're also scaling back on the gift giving and we're giving part of the money we would normally spend to other families in need. We have adopted the most humble family for Christmas. I've already felt so blessed just to have met them. In the end, we'll be the ones to carry away the blessings.

So I've been racking my brain trying to think of some great homemade gifts for loved ones, like my grandparents. Something that will be from the heart that they can keep. I think Shutterfly is going to be the answer to my prayers. It's not exactly homemade, like a popsicle stick candle holder, haha, but that's probably better, I mean who really uses a popsicle stick candle holder?!

Shutterfly has all kinds of things you can make with your uploaded pictures. I think a calender will be the perfect thing for my grandparents. They'll be able to use it and save it as a keepsake for the photos. It's a win, win. Shutterfly also offers Christmas cards that I'm going to give out to everyone. It's a step beyond the normal card because you actually put time into it and people can keep it because of the pictures.

They're so cute!

I think the whole thing is just doing something more personal -again it's about giving things from the heart. Things that mean something and make your think of the people who you love. You don't have to break the bank to give a gift that really means something.

Finally...

I HAVE MISSED YOU!


I finally have time to catch you all up now and brace yourself because I'm about to unleash it all! Like I said before this Momma has been one busy girl and I've been having loads of fun along the way. So I'm going to share it all with my fellow bloggy Momma's!


Fall has nearly sucked the life outta me. We've had something planned every single weekend and most days during the week. But I'm blessed...it's been a rich & full family filled time.


First we went trick or treating. Oh and yea I know everyone else put up their costume pics 3 weeks ago - oh well.


Since Baby Boy is really too young to choose what he wants to be, I have the liberty of choosing exactly what I know he'll look adorable in! I'm trying to get all the ones I love in before it's all Spiderman, Star Wars stuff, and well you know all the things little boys want to be.


Anywho, I chose a policeman! He rocked the heck outta the po-po costume!

It definitely was a hit! He was arresting people left and right! Well maybe not, but he worked that whistle like a pro. He actually learned how to say trick or treat, which sounded more like 'ticka-teeeet', but it worked and he got tons of candy. In fact, we still  have tons of candy.

That same weekend we hit up a local fall festival. Inflatables, cotton candy, cake walk - it was all there. Baby insisted on getting into the inflatables with the big kids. He screamed for it, so we caved and let him in.....once in the older ones took over (just as Mommy knew would happen) and he cried to get out!

He didn't ask anymore after that. Mother knows best. Ah ha ha ha!

So then the local fair came into town. We have a rather large fair in our area and you have to go every year. It's not an option, it's just understood that you're going. Last year we took Baby Boy, but he was too little to really know what was going on, however this year he was all about it! He did it all. We ate like crazy, played games and rode the rides.

This little gem here costed us $5! I mean seriously, 5 bucks to take one swing?! Total rip-off! He inherited his daddy's 'guns' so of course he hit the bell at the top! He also won a $0.50 hammer....gee thanks!

PS I'm not quite sure what's up with the carnie, skinny jeans & flip flops. Next..........

To sum it up my child had a blast, I got sick riding with him on the Merry-Go-Round and we blew tons of money because everything is highly overpriced! However, he loved it so much he cried when we had to leave - it was totally worth it.

Well these are just a few of the things that have been going on in the last few weeks. I should be back blogging like normal now. What has everyone else been up to? I haven't been keeping up with anyone lately....got lots of reading to do.

Fell off the Planet?!

Yea so, this girl has been super busy! I'm quite possibly the worst blogger right now. It's going on.....3 WEEKS since my last blog.

My excuse?

Life.

This time of the year is apparently quite busy when you have a near 2 year old. The pumpkin patch (which I did squeeze in time to write about), the county fair, trick or treating, festivals galore & photo shoots for Christmas card pictures are just a few of the things we've been up to the past couple of weeks. It's been busy, but I'm not complaining. We've been having a blast and Baby Boy has been enjoying being out and about. He adores being outside!

I have lots of ideas and adventures to share with you guys - so stay tuned!

As for now I'm off to do laundry from the past 3 weeks....yea I said 3 weeks, don't judge!