Simply Irresistable

We have had some yummy treats this week. Since we moved here, Avery and I have been experimenting with different flavors of homemade popsicles. We use Kool-Aid (simple enough) and they are delicious. I also found a recipe on Pinterest for some yummy fudgesicles and they are way better than store bought (and so much cheaper). Avery and Colt had fun one morning playing outside eating popsicles.

Colt decided to try the strawberry popsicle. He ate every last bit of that thing. You like his flip flops? Another way I'm making my life easier. Avery's flip flops (that she can still wear) fit Colt perfectly. I'm not going to go buy a pair of shoes for him to wear outside when he's perfectly fine wearing these cute flower shoes.

Look at that blonde hair! I wish it would stay that way, but Daniel won't humor me and tells me it will turn dark. Boo.

 

 

Avery likes the fudgesicles, and I don't blame her. She usually only eats half because they are too cold. That's ok, Mommy doesn't mind finishing it off. Hey, we don't want it to go to waste, right?

 

 

Remember how I said I haven't ventured out into Fayetteville much? Well, the other morning I had to take my recycling downtown and Mamaw had the kids so I decided to walk around the main square. There are so many cute shops! There are lots of antique shops and children's stores. There are also a few diners which I am dying to try. I even saw two men sitting on a bench outside a barber shop. Mayberry much? One shop that stuck out was called Sugar Shack Farms. I thought it would be a candy store, but I peeked in the windows and saw something even better...cupcakes! Once Colt woke up from his nap that afternoon we went to try it out. We got a strawberry cheesecake cupcake and a huge sugar cookie. I have to say I liked the cookie better, but the cupcake was great too. The kids had fun taste testing.

 



 

 

 

A sweet lady in the shop gave Avery this pretty rose. I thought it was so sweet until I smelled it and it was fake and covered in nasty perfume. And you're probably wondering why Avery has this same shirt on in every post. So she might wear a shirt, sleep in it, and then wear it again the next day...busted.

 



 

 

Colt man wasted no time digging in. He liked it all. Shocking, I know. Do you see this brown romper with blue and green surfboards that he is wearing? He also had on navy blue Keds, too. The lady who took our order thought he was a girl. People used to do this to Avery all the time. Looking back at pictures, she did look like a boy, but this child does not look like a girl. Good thing I had a cupcake to make it all better.

 

 



We found a park

I haven't ventured out too much in Fayetteville (or as Daniel calls it, Fayette-nam). If we get out, it's usually in Hazel Green or Huntsville. But I've been wanting to find a park for the kids. I got online and found a whole recreational park in Fayetteville. So the kids and I loaded up and went searching. And we found a huge park full of fun slides and swings.

I'm so glad Avery is finally at the age where she can pretty much be independent at a park. She had so much fun climbing on everything.

 

I love those action shots! I could watch her go down those slides all day.

Colt was a different story. He walked around for a bit then wanted to climb on everything. We had to leave because he screamed every time I walked him back down to solid ground. Lucky thing, though, because I didn't realize how hot they both were. We got in the car and both their sweet faces were bright red. So we swung by Sonic (which was a bad idea because it was $1 hotdog day) to get a slush. This is a regular thing with us this summer. Avery loves a slush. She and I got one, but I looked back at Colt and he looked so hot, so I gave him some of mine. He took it hostage. I'm pretty sure this is his first one....love at first slush.

 

 

By the way, have you tried the Miami Sunrise slush at Sonic? It is to die for. It tastes just like summer, and I've been wanting to put a little rum in one to make it a real summer drink!

I forgot we had some outside fun earlier this morning...I'll post those pictures soon.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above"    James 1:17

Hoarding

I often tell people I'm the opposite of a hoarder. I have no clothes in my closet because I'm constantly sifting through, giving stuff away. I always have a Hannah Home pile going. I take great pleasure in cleaning out and throwing away.

Lately I've been thinking about ways to simplify my life. I got excited because I thought a really easy place to start would be my shower. The shower in our new house is so tiny I barely fit in it. So the less I have to put in there and the quicker I can get in and out, the better. This is what is currently crowding my precious shower space.

First off, how much do you love the purple tile? You probably think it's hideous, but I absolutely love it. It's so cute and retro. Our guest bath has pink tile. Anyways, this might look like a normal amount of stuff, but I want to consolidate and make my routine easier. You can't imagine how hard it is to bend over to pick these things up when the shower is the same size as you. One of my favorite people, Sara Snow, always says to use what you have before you change things up. So I went digging in my cabinets, and this is what I found...

I'm a toiletries hoarder! Am I expecting a mass shortage of shampoo in the near future? Sheesh! So I will diligently use up what I have (which might take years) before I start my new routine. But I'll share it with you now in case you are dying to simplify your beauty routine.

Anyone who knows me knows I don't dry or even really brush my hair. I look like a hippy/hobo most of the time. So I think a 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner will work fine for my needs. And I will use a bar of soap as my body wash/face wash/shave cream. That goes from five items to two...score! And P.S. did you notice the purple tile on the counter, too? Love!

Oh, and one last thing...if anyone wants to give me a job, I obviously need one if I'm blogging about shampoo at 11:00 on a Tuesday morning. It is Tuesday, right? When you don't work, all your days run together.

Happy showering!

Simply Exercise

The act of running is not simple. Sure, you just put one foot in front of the other and go...until you feel like you're running toward the light. And into death. This is what running feels like for me.

I became a running enthusiast a few years ago when Daniel and I lived in Paducah, KY. I have every issue of Runner's World from the past 5 years. I will give you the stink eye if you tell me running is bad for my joints, and I cringe when I see someone stretching before a run. And I felt so proud when Meb and Boston showed those stupid bombers who is boss on Patriot's Day.

I go through phases where I run a lot and then I quit. Last summer I was running really well, and then I got injured. I went out too fast too quick. Once you stop running, sitting on the couch eating Cheetos feels so much better than running.

A couple weeks ago I started back up again. Besides all the dying stuff, running really is the most simple form of exercise you can do. This is the only equipment I need.

And you really don't even need the music. I like music because I think about stupid stuff if I'm left to my own thoughts, so I need something else to pass the time.

So who needs all those fancy workouts I keep pinning on Pinterest when you can get outside in God's beautiful creation, breathe in some fresh air (when you can catch your breath), and burn some serious calories? Just remember, if you see a bright light, run the other way!

Simple Garden...Ha!

We came up to the farm several times before we moved here. One weekend we planted our garden. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, okra, raspberries, cantaloupe, and peppers. We ended up staying in Birmingham longer than we planned, and by the time we got up here, the garden was all but ruined. The weeds had overtaken and were taller than I am. I wish I had a picture of the hot mess that was our garden. One day I spent the whole morning uprooting all the weeds in one tiny section of the garden. It was some hard work. Daniel weedeated most of the rest of it. The tomatoes looked like the only plants that would survive.

Yesterday I uprooted all the weeds surrounding the tomato plants, and now they are so nice and pretty.

When I started, you couldn't even see any of the soil because of all the weeds. My OCD kicked in and I had to pull every last one of them.

This is our first yield from the tomato plants. I don't like tomatoes, but I was still excited!

Since I don't like tomatoes, I decided to pick some green ones. I didn't want all the red ones to go to waste when they finally ripened. I don't like tomatoes, but I like almost anything fried, so I decided to try to make fried green tomatoes. I found an easy recipe on Pinterest, and tried it out. I didn't use a couple of the ingredients but they still turned out delicious.

Luckily my mom, aunt, and grandmother just taught me how to fry chicken, so I'm an expert at frying stuff now.

I pretty much covered mine in ranch dressing, but they were pretty good.

So even though our garden didn't turn out to be so simple, walking to the backyard to pick some tomatoes for dinner was super simple. Mission accomplished.

Catching up since the move

We moved to the country a little over a month ago. It's been a little bit of an adjustment, for me mostly. I'm used to working, and for right now I'm at home with the two hooligans. It definitely tests my patience every day. Town is about 10 or 15 minutes away, but to go to a lot of places we have to trek into Huntsville, which can take anywhere from 30-45 minutes.

The travelling is part of my simplify project. A lot of times I'm bored and want to get out of the house. I'm learning to be content at home with my sweet children just playing outside and getting dirty. That's really all they want to do anyway. I always feel so bad making them sit in the car for so long just to go to Costco or Chick-fil-A. And if we stay home more, we don't have to bathe as often, which conserves water. Win-win!

Enough with the diatribe. Here are some pictures to catch you up on what we've been doing since the move. I've been trying to use the camera more than I have in the past.

First things first...my little Colty man is finally walking!! I honestly thought he would crawl to college, but we moved to the farm and off he went.

                                                                          

We spend a lot of time outside. I love our huge yard and shade trees. They both love to play in the pool. Someone likes to swim with his clothes on. Daniel's sister found this used four wheeler, and Avery loves to ride it around the yard. Colt likes to sit on it.

 

My mom brought our two nephews down for a couple of days. Avery loves playing with Tate.

The 4th of July turned out a little chilly. Daniel bought the whole fireworks tent in Fayetteville and put on a good show in the field. Avery got to do a gigantic sparkler too.

We met up with my mom, sister, and nephews at Spring Valley Beach. Avery had a blast playing in the big pool and going down the small slides. I took her down a big slide and thought I could just lift her up at the end so she wouldn't go under. Yikes....I couldn't get my footing, and she went under pretty good. She cried....and cried and cried. After that we got a snow cone and decided to stay in the kiddie area.

This is what Daniel and the kids love to do. They have to take turns, and Avery has a meltdown when it's not her turn. No matter what's she's doing, if she hears the four wheeler start up she goes running for it.

We are just enjoying the long summer days. Doesn't get more simple than that.

 

Welcome!

Welcome to Project Simplify! My family and I recently moved from Birmingham, AL (suburbia) to Fayetteville, TN (NOT suburbia). My sweet friend Teresa wanted me to get on Facebook so she could see pictures of our 2 children. I thought and thought about it, and I just couldn't do it. Facebook makes me crazy. So I decided to start a blog (that probably only she will look at).

You ever look around your house and think you have too much stuff? I am constantly giving stuff to the thrift store, throwing away, pawning off on family and friends, but I still have too much. We moved into a nice sized house, and we still have a huge room filled with the crap that wouldn't fit.

My goal through this blog is to share my family and along the way learn and share how to simplify our life. We don't deserve or own anything we have on this earth. If I spent more time giving of my time and money to others, I wouldn't have time to collect more useless junk.

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you or forsake you'."                 Hebrews 13:5