Living Better One Day At A Time
Saturday, July 5, 2025
Fave breakfast, BBQ festival, and 4th of July
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Boys home, margarita and maybe a new job
Happy Saturday everyone! I can't believe it has been over 2 weeks since I last wrote. I didn't mean to go radio silent, just been dealing with some depression and other things and the hot/humid weather that means I don't want to do anything at all.
Not much has been happening, except dealing with the hot and humid weather like a lot of other folks. Really it has been too hot to go outside as heat indexes have been over 100 degrees and the humidity is sky high.
So what HAS been happening since the last time that I wrote. Well, I had to get my windshield replaced. I had a huge crack along the bottom that developed over the winter and then a couple months ago a truck threw a rock and made a crack in the middle. Thankfully, there is a company called Safelite which will come to you to replace the windshield. $300 later I am good to go.
The boys made it home from camp. They had a great time. Ben conquered the giant swing! Jacob had a blast with his cabin mates and he even gave a testimony before the final mass of the week. The final mass was really cool as the Bishop of our diocese was actually there to celebrate mass. And yes the boys were very stinky! 🤣🤣🤣
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Camp and Orientation
Happy Tuesday everyone! As promised here is the continuation of my crazy busy weekend, which began with Rebecca's graduation party.
Saturday night, I came home from the party. Froze the leftover meat. Left everything else that I brought home either on the counter or on the floor in the boxes that I brought them home in and then went to bed. I had to get up and continue packing for the boys to get them ready for camp. I also had to pack for myself for a short trip Rebecca and I were taking to Bowling Green for her orientation. And we had to leave by 12:30 for all this to happen.
It was a stressful morning. I hated leaving the house in a mess but honestly it is what it is and I know I will clean the house when I get home.
Rebecca and I got the boys dropped off for their week-long Catholic Youth Summer Camp. I hope they have an amazing week. I know Ben was nervous to go, but I have seen a couple pictures of him and he seems to be having fun! Now the fun questions to ask are "will the boys shower and use soap this week?" "Will the boys change their clothes each day?" "How smelly will the boys be when I pick them up on Friday?" 🤣🤣🤣
After dropping the boys off, Rebecca and I headed north to Bowling Green. She was scheduled to have orientation yesterday and it was an all day event and she had to be there at 8 AM so we decided to make it a little road trip.
We got to the hotel around 3:30 PM and that is when the fun started. We decided to take a dip in the pool. No worries. Pool water was decent temperature. We were the only ones there. Then we decided that we wanted to watch the Tony awards Sunday night. When we got back to the room, we tried to turn on the TV. It wouldn't work. So I went down to the front desk, as she wasn't answering her phone, and she apologized and said she could move us to a new room. Great. We move to another room just down the hall, and TV is on and seems to work. Great. Rebecca started watching TV and about 30 minutes in, the TV shuts down and says no connection and won't work. I call down to the front desk and explain what happened. The front desk lady apologized profusely and said that maintenance was not there and she could move us to another room on the opposite end of the hotel and on a different floor. We didn't mind. So we ended up on the top floor with a working TV. (It did glitch at one point, but immediately came back on). She was so apologetic and said that she was so sorry that this was happening and that they had just come off a sold out weekend and they had to shut down several rooms due to the WIFI not working in those rooms, etc. I wasn't upset as we have stayed at this hotel a number of times when we have come up to BG and this is the first time we have ever had this problem.
We ended up walking across the parking lot to go to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, where Rebecca discovered that the mild wings are still a little too spicy for her. When we got back we watched the Tony Awards and I enjoyed all the musical numbers, including the Hamilton reunion.
Yesterday was orientation day. We had to be at Bowling Green State University at 8AM. It was a long day with a lot of information that I already had received at previous events. However it was good for Rebecca as she got to get her class schedule, meet some new people, and saw her dorm layout to get an idea of what her actual room will look like and get some valuable information about dates, and events, etc. It was a lot of sitting and listening to presentations for parents.
They did feed us lunch though and it was yummy. Dining hall food has sure gotten better since I was in college! Overall it was a productive day.
Then it was back to the hotel for some rest. We ordered Campus Pollyeyes famous stuffed bread sticks for dinner. They were so yummy! Then spent the rest of the evening relaxing-- Rebecca played games on her tablet and was texting friends. I was working on this here blog and catching up on some reading of blogs.
For the rest of the week, I need to meal plan. I need to clean house. I need to head over to my sister and SIL's house and take down graduation party stuff and return tables and chairs to rightful owners. I have lots of things that I need to do. So if I go silent for the rest of the week, I will either be sleeping off the exhaustion from the long weekend, or Ill be too busy doing housework.
Hope everyone is having a great day! Until next time.....
Monday, June 9, 2025
Rebecca's Graduation Party
I went simple with the menu-- chicken and beef soft tacos with lettuce, shredded cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa for toppings. I also had nacho cheese and tortilla chips, beans and Spanish rice. Cupcakes for dessert. I will say that I bought enough food for everyone who she invited because I literally got 3 RSVP texts. Does no one RSVP anymore? I should have bought half of what I did and that would have been enough. Oh well, live and learn. I froze the taco meats and we will definitely use them up for dinners.
One of the fun things that Rebecca wanted to do for her party was she wanted to burn her college recruitment letters from all the various colleges that sent her mail. So we were able to make that happen. Her friends thought that was a pretty cool idea and seemed to enjoy it. They also enjoyed the yard sized Jenga and they played UNO and enjoyed the photo backdrop.
Overall it was a nice party, although Rebecca did end up getting a migraine level headache and that dampened some of the party. Good thing her aunt is a nurse and got her medicine (ibuprofen and then Tylenol) and caffeinated her up to help the head.
We cleaned up the food, but left everything else out because it was late and we were all EXHAUSTED. I had to get up early on Sunday to finish packing for the boys, shower, and pack my stuff up for a short trip for Rebecca's orientation at college.
I will continue this tomorrow as this post has become really, really long......
So until then, have a wonderful night!
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Random photos on my phone
Happy Wednesday everyone. Today's post is brought to you by randomness. Just some short things that really can't be put into posts on their own. Just some randomness that is happening around my home brought to you by photos on my phone.
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The kids and I tried these and they were nothing special. Jacob, who loves PB and J was disappointed in them. I felt like they tasted just like regular Reese's as they had almost no jelly in them. |
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I had a ton of bananas that went very ripe. So I made a new recipe, a chocolate and banana Bundt cake. It was pretty tasty. |
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The inside of the cake. |
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Gus and Gronk are confused why I am home all day everyday. They also like to sit and stare at me. |
Does anyone else have any randomness occurring in their lives?
Monday, June 2, 2025
Menu Plan Monday
Happy Monday and Happy June! June officially started yesterday but who's counting? Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was pretty good. Low key. Didn't really do a whole lot. I have a busy week coming up... I have to get ready for Rebecca's graduation party AND get the boys ready to go to their week long camp next weekend. Lots to do. I also have to make sure that the kids are fed and that we don't waste any food and I want to start clearing out older food that has been in my freezer for a while. So I thought at least for the foreseeable future I would go back to doing menu plan Mondays to make sure I am keeping myself accountable not only for time but also for budget. So what are we eating this week:
SUNDAY: Turkey breast* (cooked in crock pot), mashed potatoes, green beans, crescent rolls, gravy
MONDAY: Breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, sausage biscuits*, roasted red potatoes, fruit)
TUESDAY: Turkey pepper wraps (a new recipe), chips, cucumbers and fruit.
WEDNESDAY: Y.O.Y.O/ boys are with their father
THURSDAY: Fried chicken*, macaroni and cheese, green beans
FRIDAY: Pizza??
SATURDAY: Rebecca graduation party--- taco bar and cupcakes
* This symbol shows food from the freezer that needs to be used up as I have had it for a long time.
What are you eating this week?
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Books read
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This book was okay. ★★★☆☆ |
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Good read, but very predictable Colleen Hoover. ★★★☆☆ |
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I felt this book was okay. Got really repetitive, but overall was an okay read. ★★★☆☆ |
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WOW! Loved this book. Very powerful. ★★★★★ |
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Very enlightening. ★★★★☆ |
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Easy summer read. ★★★★☆ |
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★★★☆☆ |
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★★★★☆ |
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This was really good. ★★★★★ |