Sick of Shopping?

We needed groceries today... in the worst way... the kind where you have no cheese and no bananas and no produce left.  Luckily, I was cognizant of that fact last night, so I made a meal plan and grocery list based off some awesome recipes I found on the Skinny Miss website.  My cousin had shared recipes from this website numerous times on Facebook, but I'd never really poked around on it much.  I am really excited to have found it because all the recipes I looked at were incredibly clean, healthy, well-balanced meals that also didn't cost an arm-and-a-leg to make.  I'll have to share what we think of the recipes.

So first thing this morning, we headed in to do our grocery shopping.  It was a relatively quick trip for us (only 4 stores, only gone from home for 4.5 hours.)  The kids were well behaved and helpful, and as usual, a riot.  (Ruby told the guy at the automotive desk that if the lift crashed down on them, they would get dead - which he found funny enough to go out and share with all the other techs working in the automotive bay.)  And then there's our buddy, Denise, at Aldi.  She always takes the time to talk to the kids.  And then she says to me, "You must drink a lot."  LOL.  I should laugh at that, right?

By the time we were almost home though, I was feeling worse than sick - like someone had stabbed me in the stomach.  Andy'd had the flu the Friday after Christmas, and I'm still not sure whether I have a light touch of that or whether I ate a bad banana (on the way home.)  The kids were dolls and took care of themselves when we got home.  Ira made he and Ruby scrambled eggs for lunch.  And he even came running with an emesis bag when he heard me get sick (we had some left from post-surgery in March that have come in handy...)  They would usually watch movies when I'm sick, but they lost that privilege the other day, so they read and played together quite peacefully until Andy got home.

Ira found a recipe in his Highlights Magazine (a Christmas gift from my parents) that he wanted to make for dinner, so he and Andy tackled it together.  It was delicious and very soothing to my unsettled stomach.  While Andy was finishing up dinner, I snuck out of our room to see what all the ruckus was.  Turns out boredom and a bunch of plastic shopping bags (why can I never remember my reusable ones at Walmart?) are highly entertaining.

Ira said to title this "Let it Snow!"

Then we got the treat of the year when Jimmy's new CD showed up in our email inbox to download as part of our Love Good Music patronage.  He is such a talented guy and a good friend!  We are so thrilled for him to be releasing this CD!  And... it's positively wonderful.  Pain, suffering, redemption, hope, joy... it's all in there, beautifully orchestrated.  For a very limited time, you can get $5 off of the $15 monthly patronage by signing up through our campaign here.  Obviously, I would highly recommend it!

Whew, two days in a row, surely I can't keep this up...

Uno... you know?

Rang in the New Year quietly at home... doing shots of cold medicine... The big party we were going to was cancelled due to the stomach flu.  Which was actually okay by me (except for I feel badly for the family with the stomach flu) as we're all fighting nasty colds/sinus things.  Andy went out last night and bought blue liquid Tylenol cold medicine.  It's good stuff and has made our heads feel incredibly less balloon-like.

Mass this morning started off the New Year in the best way.  Now we're just hanging around home playing games... Uno... Spot it!... Candy Land.  The game playing keeps the kids' latest hobby...bickering... somewhat at bay.  Thank heavens!

Blessed New Year from our family to yours!

What I Loved About Last Week 19th Ed.

So, I'm reviewing my list of what I loved about last week, and I'm like "did those things really just happen last week?"  I know I'm a little off, because I'm not posting till Thursday, but still, seems like much longer than a week-ish ago.  Whatever...

1. I know I've talked about my monthly meal planning before, but lately it had just become too much for me.  So we'd been more like flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants.  Never works out quite as well.  So, inspired by my sis who does weekly meal plans, on Sunday I decided to sit down and plan meals just for that week.  Let me tell you, 100% better!  It is much less overwhelming and a lot more flexible than the whole monthly thing, so I can definitely see it sticking.  I actually enjoy it now and it's nice to get input from the kids and Andy for what sounds good to them.  Plus it makes my days so much easier when I know what I'm making for dinner!

1. Took the kids to the zoo.  On the Tuesday before Ira started school on Thursday, we decided to go to the zoo.  I let Ira pick what we did there (since it was his "final fling" and all.)  The first thing he wanted to do at the Zoo was play at the playground. Oh-kay - sure.  So he and Ruby played at the playground for a good hour or so.  We ate a picnic lunch, then they played a little more before we finally got around to seeing any animals.  I paid a dollar so that Ira and Ruby could feed the giraffe.  It was SO awesome.  I had to help Ruby, so I have no pictures of her (Ira tried to take one and captured maybe the top 2 inches of her head) but I love the picture that I got of Ira!

Sweet little boy wanted to hold his sweet little sister.  She doesn't always oblige so kindly to his "affections" but she definitely did then!

2. Celebrated my dad's birthday with all the family.  It is so fun to see my dad be the "center of attention" because he's more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy usually.  Glad we could help him celebrate his day!

3. Celebrated our 9th anniversary of getting engaged.  What can I say?  Time flies when you're having fun!

4. Went bananas.  Well, sort of, my younger sis had mentioned how they always have bananas on hand because they are like the cheapest fruit, and I was like, "wait what?! - I have so been missing out!"  So now we go through 2 bunches of bananas at our house every week.  And we usually need more by Friday...

5. Ira started school.  Yes, I am now the parent of a 1st grader!  Ira really seemed to grow (physically) and mature (emotionally) a TON this summer.  I really do miss his company while he's at school, but it's also nice to have some quiet time to myself while Ruby is napping.  We've settled back into the "school-year routine" pretty effortlessly (thank goodness!)  Though, I still hate waking up early... blech...

6. Cleaned the house (for no reason, other than that it needed it.)  Usually, I only like to really clean my house when I have some reason to (like someone coming over.)  Alas, last Friday I knew that I needed to clean, so I thought I might invite my sister and her family over to at least make it "worth it."  Why have a sparkling clean house if there's no one other than you (and your hubs) to notice/care.  Yeah, our house will probably never get cleaned when we're old and such (why clean, no one will see it?...)  They couldn't come out Friday, but I sucked it up and cleaned anyway.  And it turns out that they could come on Saturday, so it was worth it in the end.

7.  Rain, glorious rain!  I take no credit for that one, but I was glad to see it happen.  Although now the bermuda grass has taken an even stronger hold on my flower garded... Pffftttt.

8.  Biking.  In the evenings after dinner, we've been going on bike rides.  Andy pulls Ruby in the bike trailer and Ira and I ride our own bikes.  That kid is a HORSE.  He is definitely more in shape than I am!  I have to try to keep up with him.  So far we've done: 5.5 mile, 4 mile, and 7 mile rides.

9. Cat Chat.  My sister gave us "The Ultimate One" and a promo copy of "Amazing Angels & Super Saints/ The Mass Comes Alive."  We ALL love them.  Ira and Ruby sing all the songs and ask for them in the car (and in the house) all the time now.  Ruby will say "Listen J-e-s-u-s!"  I really enjoy them as well and find much comfort and peace in the lyrics of the songs.  It is great to have great music to listen to.

10. Rubyisms.  "Tomo leche" when she wants to drink milk at night (and only then oddly enough.) "Don't get it all gone! (or "Don't drink it all gone!")  WhenEVER ANYone handles ANY kind of food/drink - this is what we hear.  Not sure what makes her so paranoid about it, but it is really funny, because you can nearly guarantee that if you pick up your water, or pick up the cheese to put it away, or let Ira have a drink of your water in the car, she's going to yell.

11. Work perks.  Andy brought home a HUGE roll of paper that was going to get thrown away on his job.  It is essentially construction paper.  The kids have had a blast drawing big pictures together.  I thought this picture (of Ira and Ruby holding hands on the top of a hill) was too cute not to share!

I think that's about it for this week.  Just wait till next week - I've got a doozy of an"Ira-ism" to share!

What I Loved About Last Week 17th and 18th Ed.

So, I'm doubling up weeks again, forgive me!

What I loved about July 9-15th:

1. Wet and Wild.  Our local volunteer fire dept. came to the city park to spray the fire hoses for the kids to run around in and have fun.  Surprise, surprise, brave, crazy Ruby was more into it than cautious Ira.  Both of them did have a lot of fun though.

2. Playing together.  Ira and Ruby really do play so well together.  The other day, I overheard them playing with dinosaurs.  Talk about your total boy/girl difference.  Ira was knocking them down and having them fight with each other.   Ruby having the dinosaurs bite each other than give each other a kiss and say sorry.   It was so funny!

3. You may have noticed that the pictures I feature on my blog are on SmugMug (a photosharing/storage site.)  Well, it saved my tushy the other day.  I usually try to keep 2 copies of my pictures for back-up purposes: one on my external hard drive, and one on SmugMug.  Well, I was reorganizing some folders on the external hard drive and accidentally deleted the entire month of December 2011.  (And no, it wasn't in the recycle bin, before I deleted it, it said "this folder is too big for the recycle bin - delete files permanently?")  Luckily, they were on SmugMug and I was able to recover them all in about 4 zip files.

4. Put up 7 quarts of dill pickles!

5. Had a new nephew!!  My beautiful sister had her baby on July 11th and we got to go up to the hospital and snuggle him before he was even 12 hours old.  Man do I love me some squishy newborn!  The kids were absolutely enthralled too.  Come on God, give us one in our house too!

6. Picked out Ruby's hair.  What do you do when you're bored... you pick out your daughter's extremely curly hair to see how "big" it gets.  What do you think???

Girl would've been a rockstar in the 80's... or in Texas...

7. Updated our budget.  It was about 6 weeks behind, and although it's a pain to track every penny - it is totally worth it for us.  It feels really good to know where we stand with our finances.

8. Along those lines, I am so proud of my hubby who got a promotion and a raise!!  We sat down together and re-worked some of the budget to allow for more savings in a few places.  We'll see how diligent we can be!

9. Spent a crazy Saturday going to 4 different events.  1.Met up with a good online-friend who I'd never met in real life.  We also got to snuggle her sweet new baby!  2.Went to an anniversary party for a family friend where I got to catch up with some people that I hadn't seen for 15+ years.  It was a really neat party!  3.Celebrated the baptism of aforementioned nephew.  It is such a beautiful ceremony - welcoming a baby into God's family.  Love it every time!  4.Went out to my younger sister's house and played cards and toured their new property.  It was a full day, but boy was it fun!

10. The day after all that craziness, I wasn't sure how productive we'd be, but we actually got something checked off the to-do list that I'd wanted to do for a LONG time.  After we laid Ruby down for her nap, we set out all of Ira's toys in the basement family room and decided which ones to keep and which ones to chuck (or sell, any ideas on how to go about that?)  We started by asking Ira which toy he absolutely couldn't live without (his drum set) and then asking him to pick one that he absolutely didn't care about at all anymore (a hacky-sack.) And continued asking those same 2 questions until we'd gone through every single toy in the house. If you're good at math - you'll realize that means we have HALF as many toys as we used to!  It's working well for us.  Ira seems proud of the job he did and is happy with the toys he has left.  Combatting commercialism/materialism one toy at a time here...

Before

After.  Kind of hard to tell, but there really are a TON less toys.
All the toy box lids close now!

Here's what I loved about July 16-22

Hmm.... I can't even remember what we did last week really...

I know we took care of Andy's parents' plants while they were out of town...

Ruby got her hair trimmed to help some major tangle issues...

I went to the dentist to get a pesky tooth looked at... it still needs some work...

We welcomed Andy's folks home from their trip and looked at awesome picture of whales and eagles and glaciers...

We played at home...

We welcomed Totus Tuus teachers into our home on Saturday...

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and homemade pizza for lunch on Sunday...

I don't know - apparently last week wasn't that exciting.  I have no pictures, and no notes written down about anything that happened.  So there you have it I guess.  I bet you're hoping I take notes about this week.  Definitely makes for much more exciting posts!  Blessings!

What I Loved About Last Week - 15th Ed.

Sheesh, I didn't really take many pictures or write down much about last week (usually I write down keywords on a notepad by the computer) So this one's going to be from the 'ole noggin alone... results may vary...

Here's what I loved about last week - June 25 - July 1st.

1. Met with my Napro doctor again.  No, I am not pregnant. Keep praying on that one.  We have decided to pursue post-peak Progesterone shots to see if they make more of a difference than the Progesterone capsules were.  I am both excited and scared.  Excited because this is THE protocol that Pope Paul VI Institute in Nebraska would follow -  Scared because first off, it seems much more serious than just using progesterone capsules and secondly, because I have heard that the shots are painful.  The progesterone is compounded in sesame oil, which means that it is a thick shot – think cortisone shot.  It is administered in the rump (I know, laugh away) and has to be administered slowly because of how thick it is.  Andy gets to learn how to give them to me.  Fortunately, the progesterone is longer lasting than the capsules, meaning I only have to have the shots every 3 days.  Prayers for bravery (for me) and a steady hand (for Andy) would be appreciated!

2. Rubyisms.  Luckily, my light-of-my-life’s (Ira & Ruby) keep me from stressing too much over the shots.  Ruby has been obsessed with going out and playing in the snow lately.  I would think the hours that we spend outside each day would be enough to convince her that it is most certainly summer.  Nope. Pretty much every day this week, she’d ask, “Should we put on our pink mittens and go out and throw snow?!?!” And she was genuinely disappointed each time when I told her “There’s no snow, Ruby, it’s summer!”  So silly.

3. Garden dinners.  We are still battling the squash bugs (removing 100-200 eggs from the plants every few days) but luckily, it seems as though we’re at least keeping up with them, because we are still getting zucchini from the garden.  Seeing as how it was the end of the month, I had to get really creative with dinner one night last week.  We had like nothing left in the cupboards (or at least not enough to make a meal out of really… cheerios with black beans and green chilis anyone??) So, Andy smoked some zucchini slices and we topped them with couscous that I had made with tomatoes (canned from last year) basil, green onions (both from the garden), and balsamic vinegar.  It ended up being really delicious.  Even the kids loved it. (Ira has decided that his two-year-running dislike for zucchini is a thing of the past – HOORAY!)

4. Shopping with my mother-in-law.  I am seriously SO blessed by my mother and father in law.  They are about the nicest, most generous people you could ever know.  Last Thursday when we were talking during swimming lessons, she mentioned about going shopping to get the 4 grandkids clothes for having their picture taken together later in July.  Later that day, she picked us up and we went into town and got the kids some adorable coordinating outfits for pictures.  She also let Ira get some Angry Birds underwear, an Angry Birds shirt, some cool (size 2 big kids!) leather flip flops, and a Toy Story Book.  She got Ruby a purple tank top, Nike flip-flops, and a “You are my Sunshine” book.  No, my kids aren’t spoiled at all…  After shopping, we went and got drinks at Sonic (strawberry vanilla limeades – SO GOOD!)  Although the kids got a little antsy while shopping, we had so much fun and enjoyed the diversion from being at home all day.

5. 3-2-1 Cake.  My parents (also kind and generous) surprised us with six, yes 6! boxes of angel food cake.  On vacation, we learned how to make this awesome treat called 3-2-1 cake.  You use one box of angel food cake mix and mix it with a box of any other kind of cake mix (confetti, strawberry, yellow are some of our favorites) in a ziplock bag.  Then, when you’re ready for a sweet treat, you mix 3 Tablespoons of cake mix & 2 Tablespoons of water in a microwaveable mug.  Heat for 1 minute in the microwave and voila!  Delicious, easy, one serving of your favorite cake.  Try it, you won’t be disappointed!

6. Swimming lessons are over!  Ira didn’t pass, but he really improved his swimming a lot over the course of lessons.  I am sure that with some more time and practice, he will be able to pass next year.

7. Family day. Last Saturday, for once, we didn’t have anything at all planned.  We had a nice lazy morning and went swimming as a family in the afternoon.  Ruby, who is just about too big for her britches, decided that she likes to jump off the side of the pool all by herself. She jumps in and bobs to the top at which point we grab her and help her to the ladder (in 5 foot water no less.)  She and Ira spent the better part of an hour jumping in. I’m glad that she’s not afraid of the water, but I wish she feared it just a little bit more.  We’ve talked to her about never jumping into a pool when mommy or daddy aren’t in, but I’m just not sure how much of that she “gets.” Pretty glad at this point that nobody we know owns a pool.

8. Pickles.  For the first time, I canned some dill pickles on Sunday.  We had fresh dill from our garden and 8 pounds of pickling cukes that needed something done with them, so I pickled them with a recipe from my Ball Canning Book (Grandma’s Dill Pickles for those who also have the book.)  They are absolutely, positively delicious!  And the pickling cukes really are more crisp and crunchy.  We don’t normally eat a lot of dill pickles around here, so I had thought the 7 pints would last us all year.  However, with as tasty as these are, I’m guessing I’m going to have to make a lot more to last us through the whole year.

9. Early Independence Day.  We celebrated 4^th of July a few days early with Andy’s family.  On Sunday, we went out to their house and had brats (with our yummy dill pickles on top) and shot off fireworks.  Ira is still pretty leary of lighting anything (although he did let grandma pay him a dollar to light a smoke bomb.)  Ruby loved helping light things (again with the no healthy fear thing…) and doing sparklers.  Andy and I had fun throwing firecrackers in the lagoon and watching (and listening) to them explode.  While we were shooting fireworks, a kitten showed up and the kids had lots of fun petting it and holding it.  I tried my hand at some long-exposure photography (despite the fact that I didn’t have my tripod) with the fireworks.  I got a few good ones I think!  It was a great end to a great week!

Stomping snap-n-pops.

First shot

 

Last shot

What I Loved About Last Week 11th Edition

Blargh!  I'm behind.  I promise you will be rewarded for your patience. 

Here's what I loved about the week of May 28-June 3

VACATION!!  Our family took a wonderful vacation to our favorite place, Galveston, TX from May 27-June 3rd.  My parents and my younger sister and her two kids went with us.  My sister's in-laws generously loaned them their Suburban so that 8 of us could go down together, so our family and their family went in the Suburban while my parents followed us in a rental car.

Let me tell you what, our children are awesome.  They (6, 2, 2, and 9 months) made the 13.5 hour trip (one way) like PROS!  We only stopped 3 times going and 3 times coming back.  They didn't even watch any DVDs (though we did have a portable DVD player at our disposal.)  We just slept and talked and sang and colored and snacked and sight-"see-d" our way there and back.  The only time that things got a little rough were the last 30 minutes to an hour on the way there(traffic was CRAZY in Galveston) and the last couple hours on the way home.  Nothing earth-shattering, just everyone was ready to be done and home.

This was our family's 4th time to go to Galveston, but the first time for my sister's family and my parents.  We tried to show them a good time with some of our favorite things to do, and did some new things as well. I journaled about the whole thing as we were going, so as far as documenting the vacation for myself, I'm done, but I've been putting off blogging about it because I wasn't sure how much I wanted to write... again.  So I've decided on just sharing our favorite pictures and captioning them.

The sun's not up yet, but all the kids are awake and we definitely need our sunglasses.

Ruby is quarantined to the middle seat with Mandy and I (wanted to make darn sure HFM didn't get spread - although, by Monday morning, all of her sores were gone) Since getting the carseats to all fit was no small feat, we just kept everyone in the same place for the whole trip.

The traditional picture of our kids in front of the Texas rock.

First trip to the beach, the night we got there.

Ruby developed an unhealthy addiction to licorice... and "Damien's Cheerios" (Fruit Loops) while on vacation.

On the ferry the second day. (SO fun to have someone to take pictures of all 4 of us!)

At the beach on the second day.  The ocean was a favorite with everyone!  Well, the beach was I guess.  Anna and Ruby didn't love the water, but they did love the sand.

Ruby playing in the "pool" we made on the beach.  She did like that!  So did Luke!

Proof that I did in fact go on vacation with our family.

We took Ira's kite and attached it to a 500 yd. spool of fishing line then let it all the way out.  Never flown a kite that was 1500 feet away.  Pretty cool stuff.

Can you see the kite?  And the string for that matter...  It's there I promise.

Hosted some wonderful friends for dinner at "our" beach house.

Toured Bishop's Palace.

Andy and Ira took a trip to the Bayou and witnessed dozens of fish jumping out of the water.  Pretty sweet to have a camera that could capture it.

Two of my favorite people.

Ain't he sweet!

The awesome ocean on a jetty at night.

The whole group on the point watching the sunset.

Dueling photographers.

Ira showing off a propeller (I guess?) at the ferry yard before our nighttime ferry ride.

At LaKing's getting ice cream and homemade candy.

Went and got some of those "Old Time" photos taken.  It was SO cool!

Look at those two!

Look at us, straight out of the 20s (one of our favorite eras!)

Ummm ADORABLE!

Wouldn't be a trip to Galveston without eating at one of our favorite restaurants - Benno's.

Our family spent the last day at a Sandcastle Competition.  This won the Golden Bucket - top prize. Very cool.  

Last night - other favorite restaurant.  Such a wonderful way to end a wonderful vacation!

What I Loved About Last Week 7th Edition

Here's what I loved about the week of April 30th - May 6th.

1. The scent of roses wafting through the house.  When we have the windows open, I often catch the smell of the rosebushes in the front of the house.  I don't like the smell of rose-scented things (lotions/soaps/perfumes) but there is nothing like the smell of a fresh garden rose (our yellow ones are especially fragrant.)

2. My Kitchen Aid Mixer.  It was our wedding present from my parents and although it's almost 7 years old, it still works (and looks) like it's brand new.  The kids and I used it this week to make pretzels and it made the whole process SO simple.  Well, as simple as baking can get with a 6 year old and a 2 year old bicker over pouring in every. single. ingredient.  Not that that frustrates me or anything.

3. Mulberry Vinaigrette.  Andy was feeling all hunter-gatherery and foraged some Mulberries from a vacant lot that backs up to ours.  Then he made them into the most delicious vinaigrette to eat on our home-grown lettuce.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

4. Ira. Ira. Ira.  One morning before school, he was looking at some papers on the desk.  One of them was a sign up sheet for Room Mothers.  At the bottom it said "Please circle which grade you would like to serve" then had each grade listed out: K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.  So he says to me, "Mom!  Look what the teachers are doing this year!  What grade do you think I should be in next year?  I'm pretty smart."  And in case that isn't clear as mud - he thought that he was going to get to pick what grade he'd be in next year.  Love that kid!

5. Diary Fieldtrip.  Each year Andy's mom's kindergarten class takes a field trip to their dairy farm.  Before Andy was in Kindergarten, he got to go along.  Before Ira was in school, he got to go.  Now Ruby gets to go.  Marilyn delights in showing off her grandchildren and her students love getting to meet the kids behind the stories she tells at school.  Not to mention it's just a little more in-depth of a look at the dairy than we get when we go to get milk each week.  The kids get to see a cow being milked, feel a milker, feel fresh, warm milk, see and learn about the milk tank, bottle feed a calf (pronounced "kev" for those who've never been around a dairyman), take a hay-rack ride, climb in a tractor, a combine, and a swather, and eat an ice cream sandwich.  Ruby was a little shy at first, but after awhile she was marching around acting like she owned the place.  She put her finger in the milker twice (that's a big deal, a lot of kids are scared of that) and ended up being in each of the 3 kindergarten classes' pictures (with "Crampa Beel")  She's such a goose!

6. Swimming.  It was hot on Friday, so I set up the kids' pool for the first time.  They LOVED playing in it.  Seriously, they were in there for no less than 2 hours.  I foresee LOTS of swimming this summer for those two.

7. Cream in my tea.  I've been skimming the cream off the top of our milk and using it in my tea in the mornings.  It adds such richness!!  I always wondered why my friend Jolene's tea tasted so much better than mine (despite the fact that we had the same tea.)  Turns out, cream vs. milk makes a BIG difference.  Yummy!

8. Playing Monopoly.  Monopoly has LONG been my favorite game to play.  When my younger sis and her hubby come over, we like to play games.  We usually rotate between Canasta, Pitch, International Rummy and Monopoly.  For the longest time we avoided Monopoly because it took FOREVER.  Well, it turns out, if you play by the REAL rules (not house ones like putting money in free parking, selling houses/hotels back for the same price you bought them, giving immunities when trading properties, etc.) it actually doesn't take any longer than any other game.  So we played on Friday night.  My brother-in-law royally trounced all of us, but it was still tons of fun.  I got out first, so I made the pizza (because it's not a get-together with my sister if we don't make a second dinner at 11pm.)  Life is good!

9.  Saturday.  It was just a great day.  Andy and Ira got up early and went fishing.  They brought home enough fish for lunch.  After lunch, I got to go shopping for new clothes by myself!  Andy watched the kids and put in the rest of our garden (tomatoes, peppers, herbs, melons, cucumbers...)  I shopped 'till I dropped and for once had WONDERFUL luck.  I feel like a new woman!  It's so nice to have "pretty" clothes to wear each day.  Maurices and Vanity were where I got most of the clothes.  Those stores just "get me."  I never have luck at the department stores because I feel like all the clothes are either way too young (and tight and short and skinny) for me or way too old (and baggy and dull and big.)  Although I did pick up a few pairs of shorts at the dept. stores (and another 2 lightweight cardigans - that I now have 4 of because I love them SO much - the picture in the link really doesn't do them justice) I got about a dozen (I really needed clothes) short sleeve/sleeveless shirts between Maurices and Vanity.  Vanity also had some really GREAT camis/layering tank tops that were both long and had modest necklines.  I am excited that all the clothes I found are both stylish and modest.

10. Birthday party.  We celebrated my Mother-in-law's birthday on Sunday and had a wonderful time.  The kids got to play with their cousins, we ate lots of delicious food, and just had a great time in general.