Wednesday, June 26, 2019

What’s Up Wednesday - June 2019

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The month of June flew by, probably because a good chunk of it was spent on vacation at the beach.  Time always flies when you’re having fun, right?  Let’s get to the recap!

What We’re Eating This Week

Mon – Broccoli, mac n cheese, black eyed peas, corn
Tue – Beef and parmesan pasta with zucchini
Wed – Ham and cheese biscuit sliders, fruit
Thu – Eggs, grits, bacon, toast
Fri – Out
Sat – Out
Sun – Sunday dinner at Momma and Daddy’s

What I’m Reminiscing About

I’m still reminiscing about our beach trip earlier this month.  I just started recapping the trip here on the blog, so I’ve been going through all of the pictures and remembering every little detail.  It’s always one of my favorite weeks of the whole year with my favorite people.  <3  If you’ve missed any of the recaps so far, you can see them below and you can also check out the "Beach Trip '19" story highlight in my Instagram bio.









What I’m Loving

I have spent the better part of this year reevaluating our home décor, storage, and organization, and I’ve been making little changes here and there to get everything in the house exactly how I want it.  I’ve eliminated several pain points around the house, for example, not having a good place to allow our dish rag to dry.  I used to lay it over the faucet (which was annoying and kinda gross) but I finally installed this command towel rack inside the cabinet under the sink, and we now have a nice place for it to dry.  It’s out of sight, and it doesn’t fall off the faucet and into the sink every time I turn on the water.  It’s a tiny change that has made a world of difference and I could not love it more!

I also cleaned out the décor in the house and moved some things around to get everything looking great!  We still had decorative pieces hanging around the house that were cheap and meaningless and leftover from my apartment college days, and I finally took the time to really reflect on each piece.  If I didn’t love it (or if it didn’t spark joy I guess… thanks, Marie Kondo!) it was ousted.  Ever since, I’ve been acquiring pieces slowly and intentionally to decorate every inch of space only with the things that I absolutely love.  I used to be really bad about buying cheap stuff just to fill space, but now that I feel like I’ve found my decorating style, those days are gone.  My new reversible sign from Target (Let's Go Out/Let's Stay In) might just be one of my favorite things EVER.

I also acquired a few old pieces from my grandmother in recent months – her old mirror, an old serving tray, some glass dishes, an old scale, and an old children’s bible – and I have sprinkled those trinkets throughout the house to have some meaningful items.  Her old bible looks awesome in a stack with my grandfather’s old books that I’ve had for a while, and it makes me so happy to see all of those things on a daily basis and be reminded of her.



I plan on doing a more in-depth post about some of the recent changes I’ve made around the house that have made my life easier, so stay tuned!  I’ll share as soon as I can get everything together.

What We’ve Been Up To

The kids and I have been living our best lives since it’s summa summa time!  We went to the beach, the kids have been taking swimming lessons, we’ve ridden bikes, gone to the library multiple times, made too many homemade waffles to count, and played lots and lots of games.  We've also spent lots of time with family and we celebrated out favorite guy for Father's Day!  I’ve been recapping all of our daily happenings in weekly posts, and you can see all of the recaps below.


Summer - Week 1
Summer - Week 2 was our beach trip












What I’m Dreading

Summer heat is still the only thing on my dread list for this month.  Well, that and a potential allergy flare if the grass pollen spikes.  My allergies went crazy last summer in early July, but I’m hoping that won’t happen since I paid my dues back in March.  Everything seemed to bloom extra early this year (from our lack of winter) so I’m hoping the worst is over until fall.

What I’m Working On

We’ve been on the go since school let out, and I’m trying to spend all of my extra time with the kiddos since they’re out of school, so I honestly haven’t been working on all that much.  I have knocked out a few projects around the house, though.  Here are a few of the things I’ve accomplished this month…

  1. Sold several old things around the house that we’ve been wanting to get rid of.
  2. Took that money and bought a new rug for our kitchen table and a new rug for our living room.  See more below!
  3. Developed pictures and updated several frames around our house.
  4. Finally decided what I wanted to hang next to our entertainment center in the living room.  We’ll be heading to IKEA this weekend to grab what I need to complete it.
  5. Painted my grandmother’s old stand alone mirror.  It looks gorgeous!  I'll be sharing the completed project on Friday!
  6. Updated the kids’ baby books.  I haven’t quite finished but I’m getting close!
  7. Still whittling away at my Master To Do List.  I’m on track to cross off about 25 more things this month!  This month was all minor stuff since I haven’t had a lot of time to do anything.
  8. And, of course, blogging.  Here are some highlights from this past month:





What I’m Excited About

My new rugs from Target!  As I mentioned before, I sold a few things around the house and used the money to buy two new rugs.  We’ve been in need of a new rug under our kitchen table because the old one was disgusting since it was the one we had when the kids were teeny tiny and always throwing food on the floor.  I went with this natural outdoor rug because I thought it would be a little sturdier than a traditional rug.  The kids still occasionally spill things and drop food on the floor, so that’s exactly what we need under the table.  It actually looks and feels like more of an indoor rug, though… it’s surprisingly soft!  It looks perfect in there and I got a SWEET deal on it!  It happened to be on sale the day I looked at it plus I had a coupon to take an additional 20% off.  Add my 5% off from my Red Card and it was a friggin’ steal.  It's currently on sale for 5% off + an additional 25% off if you pick it up in the store.  That brings it to just $56.99!!


We have never had a rug in our living room, partially because I’m soooo picky about rugs and can never find one that I like, and partially because our living room is kind of small and awkwardly spaced.  Standard rug sizes are 5x8ish or 7x10ish, but our room is too small for a 7x10, so I had no choice but to get a 5x8.  Well, interior design rules state that rugs in a living area should be big enough to touch every single piece of furniture in the room and that you should never have a rug just “floating” under the coffee table.  Unfortunately that’s the way it has to be in our house, so I had no choice in the matter.  I stressed over it for a couple of days because I was breaking one of the main interior decorating rules, but I figured, I love it so much so why does it matter if it doesn’t follow the “rules?”  Who makes these rules anyway?  ;o)  And I honestly think that having the smaller rug in there looks better than no rug at all, so there’s that.

I've had my eye on this rug from Target for a good year, so it was nice to finally make it ours.  It's currently on sale for 10% off right now, too, which is rare, because this is the first time I've seen this one on sale!  They're stingy with this brand for some reason.

I’d love to know your honest opinion, though… 5x8 rug under the coffee table or no rug at all?  Do y’all think it looks awkward or anything?  I put a video and a poll on Instagram stories this morning so check there and let me know!



What I’m Watching/Reading

Watching – B and I are watching The Bachelorette and also eating up every single episode of The Handmaid’s Tale as it comes out.  Same for Big Little Lies.  We’re also watching America’s Got Talent with the kids and we’re bingeing Better Call Saul during the times that we’re caught up on everything else.

Reading – Last month when I answered this prompt I had just started my first book of the summer – My Oxford Year – and I’ve since blown through 3.5 more – Confessions of a Domestic Failure, Swear on This Life, The Dinner List, and I’m now reading Nicholas Sparks’ new one, Every Breath.  I LOVED My Oxford Year, thought Confessions of a Domestic Failure was so cute and the perfect beach read, thought Swear on this Life is one of the best books I’ve EVER read, and I loved The Dinner List, too.  I’m on fire with choosing awesome books this summer.  Every Breath has proven to be pretty good so far, too, so we’ll see where that one goes.  And I already have two more books lined up to read once I finish this one.  Library for the win!







What I’m Listening To

The kids are completely and utterly obsessed with Old Town Road by Lil Nas X so that has been on repeat for weeks over here.  We’ve had numerous dance parties to it.  Other than that, we’ve been doing a lot of shuffling of our summer play list!

What I’m Wearing

I’ve been wearing lots of summer dresses this month.  This Amazon dress is a favorite as well as this one from Kohl’s.  I’ve also been living in these cutoffs.  They’re stretchy and soft and so comfy!  And Olivia has been living in this pineapple dress from Target.  It's her favorite right now and it's on sale for 20% off!



Cutest dress from Amazon here


Most comfy summer dress ever here!

Olivia's pineapple dress here
Best cutoffs here

What I’m Doing This Weekend

We have a super fun weekend on deck… we’re taking the kids to our first Atlanta United soccer game!  They play at Mercedes Benz stadium in ATL, so we’ll be heading there for the day Saturday.  We’ll also be making a stop at IKEA for a couple of frames.  Be sure to follow along on Instagram stories!

What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month

Having more weeks off with NOWHERE TO BE!  So far we’ve had a week of appointments and packing for the beach, a week at the beach, two weeks of swimming lessons, and one week of VBS (this week).  It’ll be nice to finally have a few weeks without obligations.  I’m excited to get back to the lazy days of summer instead of go go going all the time.

What Else Is New

We received Olivia’s professional dance pictures earlier this month and they turned out so sweet.  I can’t believe we’re only a few weeks away from signing up for another year of dance! 





Another new development is that the kids have started requesting that we ride with the sunroof open every day.  My last two vehicles were purchased with a sunroof because I used to love the sunroof so much back in college.  Most of the time nowadays I forget all about it, though, and it had probably been years since I’d opened mine in my current car.  Just a few weeks ago, Jacob asked what the hole was in the ceiling so I showed them, and they’ve been requesting to ride that way every day since then.  I don’t mind a bit… makes me feel like I’m in college again!


And finally, I shared this story on Instagram a few weeks ago and I realized that I never shared it here, so in case you missed it…



And you can get the infamous pineapple dress here.  She loves it so much and it’s always her first choice in the closet when it’s clean!  The little criss-cross back just kills me!

Happy Wednesday, y’all!


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15 comments:

  1. Your daughter looks precious in all her dance outfits and it looks like y'all had a fab time at the beach. Yay for sunroofs! Especially in the summer!

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  2. Ahhh sunroofs are one of life's simple pleasures. :) Although I forgot to close mine one time (thank goodness it didn't rain) and have since been too scared to open it again, hahaha. I don't want to forget again! I say go with the rug. I know some design rules are good, but at the end of the day it's your house and you should do what you like, rules or not! I have been wanting a rug for my living room. Not sure when that will happen, but it will most likely be 'floating' too! But it'll be nice to have something to break up all the carpeting. So much more to comment on, but I already feel like I am writing a book. :)

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  3. I think the rug looks awesome! We have the opposite problem at our house; our living room is so big that the largest area rug we could find only touches the couch. Unless we covered the hard wood with wall to wall carpeting that's the best it's gonna get. I think rules smules when it comes to decorating your house. I do what I like and what makes me happy; rules be darned! :)

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    1. Thank you for your input. And dang, your living room must be MASSIVE. And I agree... I pretty much just do what I love and don't worry about the rules so much when it comes to home decor!

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  4. Adore the rugs! I love that the kids want the sunroof open everyday. My first car had one and I’ve had one ever since. I can remember my girlfriends hanging out the top in high school, crazy. Olivia’s dance outfit is precious! You all are precious!!

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  5. Your house is looking great. I really like the book piles, I want to do that too!

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  6. Getting the house organized is such a great feeling and incorporating things that make things so much easier. We have a lot of things that we need to sell that I need to just take pictures so I can get them out of here!

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  7. I feel like you get so much done throughout the week - it's amazing! I'm hoping to sell a few things that we aren't using because the clutter is real around here LOL! Hope it's another fun summer day for you guys! xo, Biana -BlovedBoston

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  8. So much summer fun already! And I need that reversible sign from Target - LOVE <3

    Green Fashionista

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  9. Y'all are just killing summer! I think the rug looks just fine, rules always have exceptions. I think I am going to get that same rug for my dining area, I have no kids but I spill just like one, lol!

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  10. I'm slowly easing back into the world of blogging now that I'm escaping the newborn fog! Just trying to catch up on all of my blog reading now. It looks like you are having a great Summer and had an awesome trip to the beach!

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    1. Girl, I feel ya! It's HARD having a newborn and the newborn fog is so real! We are definitely having a great summer so far!

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  11. Thanks so much for hosting! I’m linking up with my very first bucket list - 2019 SUMMER BUCKET LIST! Do you do such lists?

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    1. You're so welcome! Thanks for linking up! And yes, I do seasonal bucket lists all the time... they are always some of my favorite posts to do!

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  12. LOVE the beach pics -following along was so fun and makes me countdown to when we get to go next month!

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