I feel like I've been blowing up Instagram lately, and while I try not to over-post I did post almost a picture a day this last week.  This is surprising since I spent all of last week trying to figure out what day of the week it was each day of the week.  I guess the Memorial Day holiday got me off schedule.  I even went on our bi-monthly grocery shopping trip and made it home with half of the list's contents.  It turns out, I never turned the paper over to reveal the last few items on the list.

On Wednesday, Katherine got her very own library card.  She was very excited, and explained that now she would be able to "pay for it" when we checked out books from the library.  

Katherine got to accompany me to ballet class later that night when my mom's car battery died and she wasn't able to come babysit.  Katherine learned some basic ballet moves and actually paid attention during class for the most part.  She may be ready for her own dance class.

On Friday during the earlier mentioned grocery shopping trip, I got crazy and let Katherine ride in one of those shopping carts with the toy car on the bottom.  While Katherine stayed fully entertained throughout the grocery shopping trip, learning to maneuver one of those huge carts probably requires it's own driving class.  Katherine, on the other hand, has the driving-while-holding-a-drink-also-with-a-ponytail-holder-on-your-wrist thing down.  She gets it from her mama.  

Tonight I celebrated the end of Jason's night shift with a little meat sauce prep and wine.  Everyone drinks the rest of the wine not used in a recipe right?  Like, from the bottle while you cook dinner?  Right.  I thought so.

Is tomorrow really June?  Where has the year gone?

This is the second installment of "A Photo Every Hour" (see what Wednesday looked like here) and just as before I'm sure you'll be blown away by the excitement of what our day looked like.  Jason was working nights on this particular day, so I was able to go run a couple of errands by myself (what?! YEAH!) and plan whatever we wanted for dinner.  Usually, when Jason is working afternoons/evenings I cook lunch for us and then later Katherine and I have an easy dinner.  I decided to impress you with my culinary skills and cook, not one, but TWO meals that day.  I can tell you're very impressed.  We also spent lots of time outside.

This is what our Monday looked like:


7:30


8:30


9:30


10:30


11:30


12:30 pm


1:30


2:30


3:30


4:30


5:30


6:30


7:30


8:30


9:30


10:30

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, full of family, fun, and thankfulness for those who gave their lives for our country.  I had every intention of taking advantage of this weekend by bringing Katherine to some sort of Memorial Day ceremony or parade, but like most attempts to do something out of the ordinary, it didn't happen.  Instead, Katherine and I put the American flag out on our porch, discussed it's importance, and read a couple of 4th of July books.  (Although we did pass a cemetery hosting a Civil War ceremony on the way home from church on Sunday....so that counts, maybe.)

We spent the weekend playing outside, cooking out at my parents' house, and watching Monsters University during spontaneous rain showers.  With Jason working nights over the weekend, it meant some serious girl time before bedtime, which included dance-offs and Disney movies.  On Monday, we got crazy and brought out the water table from it's winter hibernation.


Happy "unofficial" start of Summer!  

It's time for my May favorites list and I'm excited to share this one with you!  I'm so so glad to finally be in the warmer months and can't wait for summer, but in the meantime I'm going to enjoy every last bit of spring I possibly can.



One of my favorite events to go to in May is the Greater St. Louis Book Fair.  My mom and I stumbled upon this little gem several years ago when we were in town for a music competition, and we've tried to go back each year since.  Each spring, thousands of used books take over the Macy's parking garage and are priced to move with proceeds going to non-profit education and literacy programs.  People literally line up to get first dibs on these books and you have to fight the crowds all weekend.  It's fantastic!




Speaking of books, May is also the start of the summer reading program at our library.  I signed Katherine and myself up again this year with hopes that I'll actually get through mine.  Katherine completed her program in record time because we read books to her constantly and go to weekly story time.  While I started strong last year, I only finished 4.5 of 6 books.  I got stuck on book 5 and never recovered.  It's a lot harder to read once you have a child.  If only they'd let adults count the number of books we read to our kids.  Anyway, I'm hoping to complete my program this summer.  Are you trying to decide what to read this summer?  Here's a fun quiz to take to help you decide!  





I recently started using products from The Honest Co. and I'll have to say, this is probably my new favorite product line.  I first bought the bubble bath for Katherine because I wanted a bubble bath that wasn't too fragrant and wouldn't irritate her skin.  I loved it and went back to buy other bath products for her.  Then I started using the multi-surface cleaner.  These products smell great, but don't have a strong fake scent.  I'll also say that the organic healing balm is great for really dry skin.  My hands are always super dry and putting the healing balm on them at night before bed has helped tremendously.  


 

Angie's has done it again with Boom Chicka Puff cheese puffs.  I've mentioned Angie's popcorn a few times before in different posts, but this is the first non-popcorn product I've tried.  I'm not really a cheese puff fan, but on a whim I picked up a bag of Boom Chicka Puff (nacho cheese) at Target the other day.  They are really, really good.  They don't have a heavy "Cheetos" flavor and no harsh fake "cheese" color that sticks to your hands.  Katherine loved them too so that's even better.  She literally couldn't stop smiling when she was eating them.

What is your favorite thing about spring?

Another slightly uneventful, yet productive weekend in the books.  I learned that you can't hide anything from anyone when there's a toddler present and that you can't always go by what the weatherman (or woman) says.

Friday night we made the trip out to my parents' new house so that Jason could see it for the first time.  It feels like a long drive to their house, but 30 minutes beats three and a half hours any day.

Although the weather forecast called for storms all weekend, we luckily just got a few rain showers.  Saturday, Katherine and I met my mom for some indoor swimming, followed by a what was supposed to be a secret lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.  I explained to Katherine that Daddy might have his feelings hurt if he knew we ate at El Maguey without him.  (Spoiler alert: she did not keep the secret from Daddy.)  The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping for t-shirts to make more scarves for the Etsy shop.  As soon as we walked in the door a few hours later, Katherine immediately listed off to Jason all that she had eaten for lunch, spilling the beans about our "secret" lunch.

Saturday night was our 2nd annual neighborhood block party (read about last year's here).  Jason grilled us some dinner out on the deck before the party started.  Much to his "disappointment," the Cardinals game went into extra innings just as the party was starting.  So, I loaded Katherine up in the wagon and off we went riding solo, Lime-a-Rita in hand (mine, not hers).  Jason arrived just in time to briefly chat with some neighbors before it was already time to head back home for bath, book, and bed.

Sunday brought church, another trip to El Maguey (thanks to my little tattle-teller), naps, laundry, and waiting on storms that never came.  C'est la vie. 

Happy Monday!

We eat a majority of our meals at home, and you shouldn't have to guess that I prepare all of them.  I have some picky eaters in my house, but one meal seems to always be a hit whenever we have it.  If it involves pasta, bread, and/or cheese we're sold, so "Meat Sauce on Garlic Toast" is one of our favorite meals.  I call it "meat sauce on garlic toast" because I really don't have a creative name for it and Jason just refers to it as "meat sauce."  The meat sauce is basically a homemade spaghetti sauce that I make from scratch.


I use Ree Drummond's meat sauce recipe, because it's the best sauce recipe I've found and because....well, I love Ree Drummond.  This recipe makes a lot of sauce.  I usually make a batch, then freeze it in meal-size portions.  We'll eat the first portion that night, then I'll have between 4 or 5 portions to freeze for later.  This recipe also calls for a lot of ground beef.  Because beef is mad expensive these days, I have on occasion substituted some of the beef for ground turkey (don't tell Jason).

You can obviously add this sauce to any pasta, but we especially like it on garlic toast topped with cheese.  Meat sauce on garlic toast is super quick and easy to make.  It's one of Jason's favorite meals and Katherine thinks it's pizza, so everybody wins.

Meat Sauce on Garlic Toast

What you'll need:

Already prepared Meat Sauce (recipe here)
Frozen garlic Texas toast
Shredded Italian cheese

What you'll do:

1.  Thaw frozen meat sauce and heat in a sauce pan until hot.

2.  Bake the frozen toast according to the package directions.  (I sometimes bake mine a little longer so that it's nice and toasted)

3.  Scoop desired amount of heated meat sauce onto each piece of toast, then top each piece of "sauced" toast with cheese.  (We add a lot of cheese.)

4.  Bake in oven again (at same degrees as before) for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.



It literally couldn't be easier.  You could always use a different kind of bread, but because we (Jason) tend to be creatures of habit I don't change anything about this dish.

I personally like the meat sauce on spaghetti noodles.  The possibilities are endless, really.

Enjoy!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we're back home after a mini vacation to Branson (read about last year's trip to Branson here), and still recovering from a few days of colds and travel.  Once I got out from under the huge pile of laundry that always accompanies a family trip somewhere, I was eager to get back into our normal routine.  

{We did not stop to pose in front of a beautiful creek with water fall.  We stopped to pose in front of a green screen at the request of the Dixie Stampede ushers.  You can't really go to a cheesy dinner attraction without a cheesy souvenir photo.}