-
Favorite Vacation Outfits
I thought it would be interesting to look at the outfits I wore on vacation last year and pick out my favorites. I usually am a minimalist packer especially on trips abroad so as to have space for gifts and souvenirs. On trips to the beach, I usually overpack and come home with clothes I didn’t wear and on other trips I am usually right on point. Trip to Europe (France and Spain) I am choosing two outfits for this trip since in the second one I am wearing a shirt I bought in France and did not pack. My jeans were my most worn bottoms on this trip as…
-
Get dressed formula
How does an outfit come together? My thought process usually starts with one item. Sometimes I want to wear a particular pair of earrings, or a top or a pair of shoes. I like to create different outfits and while I sometimes repeat a particular outfit, since I take a picture of my daily outfit for my Instagram feed, I really try to be creative and at least change something. Here is an example: I love the combo of the striped shirt with the vest but I created a new look by changing the shoes and the earrings. Today I am sharing the process for one of my weekend outfits.…
-
Share a recipe: Boston Butt
This is one of those recipes that is so simple but yet so delicious. Before getting married, I had never had Boston Butt and when my father in law lived with us for 6 month early on, he shared a couple of his simple but oh so tasty recipes. This is the Boston Butt at its best. Ingredients: boston butt worcheshire sauce garlic salt tabasco sauce BBQ sauce I usually buy my Boston Butts when they are on sale for 99c/lb at Kroger but sometimes Aldi sells boneless ones for $1.49 and it is sure worth getting a few then too for the ease of not having to take the…
-
2020 Travel Goals
Here were my travel goals and plans as of September. A few things have changed in the past few months to where we might be able to add a few trips and vacations this year if I am careful with saving. Winter break The boys have a short winter break in February, 4 1/2 days long. I am hoping to head to Chattanooga for a couple days with our family. As usual for a vacation that involves a hotel stay, we will use hotel points we have so our expenses will include lunch and dinner as well as any fun activity we plan to enjoy. I am thinking, the children’s…
-
Nativity Outfit
I do not typically buy the same piece of clothing in different colors apart from very basic pieces so as tanks, layering tees long and short sleeves. However, when my sister in law gave me two identical dresses in black and in purple, I knew that them being the same was not going to bore me but would give me even more incentive to wear them and style them in different ways. Last week, I wore the black version of this Calvin Klein dress with a red peacoat jacket, a blanket scarf and caramel boots. This past Tuesday, I wore the purple dress but with different toppers and accessories, totally…
-
2020 Budget Goals
Each year, at the start of the year I revisit our budget, make adjustments and outline some goals. This year, with a new tool in hand (my Budget by Paycheck workbook, see this post and this post) and a somewhat of a new budget, here are my adjustments and goals. Food budget These 4 boys of mine can eat! While my husband travels out of town 4 days of week, I still go through groceries quickly. Yogurts and snacks disappear quickly and sometimes meals don’t leave any leftovers. So I adjusted my grocery/household budget from $600 to $700. I will still strive from $600 but I will not beat myself…
-
Orthodox Nativity
Since we celebrate Nativity, Christ’s birth (Christmas) on January 7th, I wanted to share a peek into our celebration. Since we follow the old church calendar, we are on the same calendar as the Orthodox church in Russia and in the Republic of Georgia. We actually spoke to my father in law on the 25th who is in the Republic of Georgia right now and he was saying the kids were just returning from school. Their school break lasts about a month and starts this week I think. Other Orthodox do follow the new calendar and celebrate on the 25th such as my parents’ church. On a practical side I…
-
Sunday’s Best
This Sunday, I was very excited to wear one of my new dresses that my sister in law handed down to me a couple weeks ago. The dress was still new with tags and was a Calvin Klein dress she found at TJmaxx. It skims the body without being too form fitting and the knee length is appropriate for church. I paired it with my Nickel and Suede saffron earrings, an old Target blanket scarf (cut in 2 for less weight and bulk) and my really old caramel boots I just don’t think I can part with yet. I love that the sleeves are 3/4 so the bell shape is…
-
2020 Word: Growth!
A couple weeks ago, I started working on my 2020 planner, adding school breaks, potential vacations as well as working on my January budget. I first thought about 2019 and what I was proud of: establishing a weekly game night and spending more quality time with the kids in the evenings great family vacations (2019 might be hard to top!) having regular fun times with my sisters in law starting the blog Next I started to think about areas that I would like to improve: quality time with the hubby, more regularly prayers and reading time with the boys save more money: with increased income comes increased opportunities to save…
-
Top Posts of 2019
I started this blogging journey on March 6, 2019. Today I am sharing my top 5 posts and some fun stats. I have 20 blog followers and 186 Instagram followers. I have had 23,171 views (which is different than a visitor: a visitor might visit once and read 3 blog post, and that would show as 3 views). I have 2718 comments and my best day was 254 views. My visitors come from all over the world (thanks to the time I take to link up to other awesome bloggets link ups). An example was that Mondays’ visitors came from the US, Finland, Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Serbia and Bulgaria! Pretty…