What's Up Wednesday





Eating:

Monday: we had a late softball game so we stopped by KFC

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday

Wednesday: Chicken & Dumplings

Thursday: Easy Cheesy Ranch Chicken

Friday: Crawfish Bread 

Saturday: Mexican themed Pokeno Night

 

Reminiscing:

on those days we could enjoy being able to come straight home after school

with all of the kids being so active they are always having practice or games so I enjoy and look forward to our afternoons at home

 

Loving:

when all 5 of us are together

these moments are getting fewer and it makes me sad

it seems like someone has something

 

Been up to:

Cheer, softball, and repeat

 

 

 What I love most about this picture is I have my Big and Middle all in one cheer picture.
Mauri is doing her cheer while Maci is waiting to do theirs.

 

 

 

Dreading:

seeing all these Momma's who are sending their kidos off to college has really made me start to thing and I'm so not ready for that. Can I keep them at home forever?

 

Working on:

I have been doing some updating and redecorating in my house.

I ordered Rhett new bedroom furniture and new curtains. We are turning his room from toddler/little kid into a boy room with sports. He loves baseball and it will have little aspects of a sports theme. I am updating my bedroom with fresh new pillows and throws. I am hoping to get my furniture painted and distressed. My entrance hall I am trying to change it up along with sprucing up my living room.
Look here for ideas that I'm getting for Rhett's room

 

 Here is my bedroom that I am going to redo I am going to paint and distress my bed to match my dresser, more pillows, change out curtains and rods add some décor and spruce it up

loving this Master tae a look here for my inspiration

 

Excited About:

Seeing Maci cheer at her pep-rally's and at football games. This is her first year to become a JV Cheerleader and she has worked so hard and practiced all summer long.

 

 

Watching/ Reading:

I'm a Housewife watcher and my favorite is Don't be Tardy for the Party.

 How Cancer made me a Mommy


For the Love by Jen Hatmaker

 

 

Listening to:

I listen to anything and everything but

 my favorite song right now is by Cole Swindle: Let me see ya girl

 

Wearing:
Being that it is back to school and we are in full swing. I have been wearing cheer and softball shirts from Mr P's Tees
They are the softest thing I have ever put on my body and they are made from my town so that's a Bonus

 

 

Doing this weekend:

 Hopefully absolutely nothing and I look forward to it like nobody's business
 

Forward to next Month:
My Birthday!!!!
 

 

Beachin'

Rollin' white sand, cold can koozie in my hand, just a summertime strolling
Chillin', breazin', sippin', singin' whoaoaoh

Beachin'



Sorry got a little carried away and cant think of the beach without Jake Owen's song popping in my head. When we arrived it was perfect from the weather to the non Jellyfish, water, waves were mellow and the kids were ready to get down there and hop on in.



 My Rhett man was so glad he decided to come and he had the best time.
 He spent the majority of his time trying to master the skim board. Bless his poor heart he took some spills and face plants and got back up and would try it again.

This was constant and non stop







 

Maci and Bradley found the Yolo board and took it out for a paddle. I think my little brother got the best end of the deal. lol This was not the easiest thing to master.

 

 



This little fish obsessed boy loved seeing all the fish swim by and it was killing him to catch a few

Mauri found a really big shell and it was so pretty but when we were out in the boat diving for sand dollars she dropped it and we never found it again. She was heart broken. But we did find a lot of sand dollars. 

 

 

The little bro who just celebrated his 21st birthday a week before the beach had made a couple of comment about how boring it would be going to the beach with women. He started off with a bang then I must say this big sis who doesn't play beer pong was way ahead and he even had to step back and say ok this is embarrassing I'm a college kid and getting beat by my old big sis. We had a good laugh and finally he did come back and beat me. I had on cup left forever and that one cup got me. 

 

Love this picture

Mom, MIL, Grandma whose last day of radiation was the day before we left. I

I am so glad she was able to make it and had a great time. 

 

Maci's early morning walk on the beach she found a leftover grab from the night before and again another perfect day and clear water



 

The kids and I all agreed we need longer time at the beach,

 we have decided a month long trip will be better. LoL 



 

 

Maci has gotten to the age where pictures are not something she wants to be part of unless its snapchat. So getting in a picture with all of us may or may not have been made with threats.

Can you tell how happy these kids are to take pictures with their Mom

 

Mauri has become a beach babe and could see her life here



 

You can take the kid out of the country but not the country out of the kid:

he tried catching this poor bird over and over. Even diving into the sand



Rhett found some big kids who tried to teach him how to do it.

These young men who looked to be high school maybe c=early college kids took time out of their day to help Rhett and I appreciate that. Their Mommas raised these kids right and should be very proud. I mean hello young adults did not come to the beach to play with a 7 year od boy they came to take a peek at the girls and have a good time but when they came over and talked to Rhett and helped him it made Rhett's day. he thought he was just as big as him. This is the kind of characteristic I am trying to instill in my Rhett man. 

 

No beach trip is complete without taking a boat out to crab island

There were quite a few jelly fish out in crab island but we still managed to enjoy ourself

 

All in all we had a great time and cant wait til next year to do it again so its only fair to end this post with this:

 



Privacy on Fleek



After a year long decision of going back and forth weighing all the options:

My blog is private now and only open to blog authors I am sorry I had to make it this way but my pictures were being taken and used without my permission. I didn't know I had to watermark them for the uncouth after much thought and trying to watermark all the pictures I hated doing it that way so I decided to only open my blog up to authors only because I know they feel the same way I do.
I am sorry if you follow my blog and are currently not an author. You can leave me your email address in the comments or email it to me and I will add you. But as of the end of this week my blog will be private. I don't play when it comes to my kids and I hate his has come to this. I am in the decision making process of shutting down my IG and only using twitter because thus far that's the only place my pictures have not been taken from. The IG is so hard because I know some of you bloggers who I love to follow have been using IG for the blog so I am weighing heavy decisions and if I keep the IG it will be like the blog for authors only. I hate this is what it has come to. It breaks my heart to know I have to lock my shit up but I guess that's what this world is coming to.
Any ideas or helpful information that will keep my from being catfished or having to switch to private is greatly appreciated.

How I do it: Packing

I am a list maker so its only right for me to start with making list. I find free pintable's on Pinterest and make them my own. I found this one and loved the colors and the fact that it had boxes that can be checked off. I am currently packing for the beach. There are 4 boxes on this page so for the kids I used them for each day.

For example:

fist box= Day 1: Beach 

Swim cover

Swimsuit

Flip flops

Night time outfit

PJs

Undies

next box: Day 2: Beach

Swim cover

Swimsuit

Flip flops

Night time outfit

PJs

Undies

next box: Day 3: Big Kahunas waterpark

Swim cover

Swimsuit

water shoes

Night time outfit

PJs

Undies

next box: Day 4: Beach

Swim cover

Swimsuit

Flip flops

Night time outfit

PJs

Undies

On the next page I used the boxes for going there outfit, coming home outfit, and extras.

When its time to pack I will make a copy of the list so I have the master one and will get the copy list to the kids and they can pack and check their stuff off in the boxes. They will them bring them to the table or living room rug where the next step is to pack it up in labeled zip lock bags.

I am very visual so I typed up some labels that I could put on the gallon zip lock bags. I didn't put a day because I wanted to be able to use them when I needed them and I can now just write in the day: Day 1, Day 2 and so on. You can also keep the bags and use them on another trip since all I put in them is clean clothes. Of course I use different colors for each kid. I tend to use their favorite color.

 

 Mauri Laken takes after me with OCD so she gets me and my system and loves it while Maci and Rhett would rather just throw everything all into one bag. Then they each have a bag for each day then they also have a bag for swimsuits. Normally I would then place these bags into their own suitcase but since we are going to the beach I have decided to use one big bin and put everything and everyone into that one tub. I will take all these bags and then throw into the gain zip lock with their name on it. When we open the big bin they can pull their giant zip lock out and all of their stuff will be in it instead of every ones mixed up. I also bring a pop up hamper wherever I go and we pop it up throw dirty clothes into it and when we go home I will take a trash bag throw all of those clothes into the big bin then into the washer when I get home.
We can only do one page at a time so we don't get overwhelmed and get all mixed up. I find for me this is the easiest way to do it. I give them one page and when they are finished with that one page and have everything packed up in bags we can move on to the next.

 

 

 I am obsessed with my Erin Condren planner and if you want to see all about it you can read about it

here. Ive also ordered my new one and cant wait for it to come in. I write down in advance al the things I need to do in my planner and this is what it looks like.

 

 



 This is my jewelry organization, no one wants to show up all tangled

This bag is what I call my Bathroom Bag:

It stays packed all the time, the contents contain:

Shower stuff, hair stuff, blow dryer, brush, soap, teeth, deodorant, razor, you know all things involving getting ready except my makeup. 

This bra and panty hard case is a must. One side is for Bras and the other has a pocket for panties. Here is another option but I think it is soft and what I like about hard case is that I don't have to worry about the wire in my bras getting bent out of shape. {No Pun intended}

 

 

I always bring these hangers because we all know there is never enough hangers in the closet where you are staying. They are so skinny and take up such little space. These will be your best friend. 





Fishing out at the Farm

Nick got off early one afternoon so we decided to do a little fishing on the farm with the kids.

 

This is my favorite farm out of all the farms we farm.

There are endless things to get into here and if I had my way I would move all the way out here and spend the rest of my time of earth  here I think it is probably the closest thing to heaven.

 

Some parts are clear and as you can see that dark spot in the water is a fish and the kids love seeing is swimming around and trying to catch it. 

 

Nick and Mauri moved to another spot and began to have a fee bites and nibbles.

There was a gar and Mauri wanted to catch it so bad even though we told her they were not a good fish to catch but she was determined.  

Catch and release is what we were doing that day due to we were not wanting to clean and fry fish that day. It is also a good lesson to teach the kids about preserving wildlife and not being wasteful. 

 

Another thing I am thankful for is that this picture says it all:

How many 7 year old do you know that can change bait, hooks, corks, know how to put the weight on it and how deep to put the line. Rhett is obsessed with anything outdoors and I foresee many of times like this in his future. It also comes in handy when I can pretend I don't know how to do it and tell him how awesome he is at it and then he will do mine. Well played I know

Mauri is trying to catch her a shark, she calls catfish sharks ever since she was little and saw it for the first time. Still to this day she calls them that and we still laugh.



 This 4 foot gator got hooked on Nicks line and I kind of panicked for a minute but he would spit out the line and then Nick would throw it back at him and had a blast watching him. The kids and I were in the back of the truck because we are not as brave. I yelling let him go he is going to eat you, Mauri is yelling get him daddy and make me a purse, Rhett is yelling no I need some boots and Maci is yelling she wants to fry him up so it was all blast. Needless to say we left him alone and there are several more out there and even a huge one we love to just watch them and observe.