Insta Friday, Summer Canning Edition

Happy Friday y'all!

This week Mama and I canned.

A bazillion trillion cucumbers.

Canning is one of my most favorite things about summer time.

You know,

the scrubbing until your fingers hurt,

sweating like the devil,

shoving the "big" cucumbers into a tiny jar,

making them fit, having them break,

and then starting all over again,

enjoying the oven heat the house in 108 Texas temps,

getting sticky sugar and vinegar solution all over your hands,

waiting 4 hours for the lids to seal,

I mean what's NOT to love,

right?

;)

But seriously,

call me crazy,

I LOVE CANNING!

The kids love to help,

so I enlisted them to peel garlic.

Gaaaaaw,

is there a more fun job?

I mean, really.

 

Scrub a dub dub,

1,000,000,000 cucumbers in a tub.

We ended up with 32 jars worth.

32 GLORIOUS jars of cucumbers,

soon to be pickles.

Ahhhhhh,

the joys of summertime.

Too bad we have to wait two weeks to try them.

Boooooo!

Have a great day my friends!

Baseball Cupcakes

 

Good evening everyone!

Can someone please tell me HOW it is already Thursday?

Anyone, anyone?

I wanted to share a little recipe with you today, my friends!

A few weeks ago, our little man turned six.

Boooooo!

HOW is he six already?

He happened to have a tball game on his actual birthday.

So, I decided to bake cupcakes for the team.

They turned out great.

I think our little guy loved them most of all!



Grab any ole cake mix and bake according to cupcake directions.

Let them cool completely.

Next you will need:

Two containers of icing

Red "tube" icing

Piping tip {scews onto tube of icing}

*You can purchase everything above at Walmart*

:)



Frost your cupcakes as usual with white icing.



Screw your "skinny" tip on to your red icing.

Slowly make long lines and short lines to resemble a baseball.

 



That's it.

Super simple and perfect for the little baseball lover in your life!

:)

Linking up here this week!

Simple Summer Okra Skillet

Happy Wednesday evening my friends!

Just popping in for a quick second to share a recipe with you!

Grandpa plants a TON of okra every summer.

Okra is one of our favorite veges we enjoy out of the garden.

I prepare it for my family lots of different ways.

Today I will share with you the most simple way.

And, the most delicious, in my opinion!

Wash and slice up your okra.

I cut up enough to fill a large skillet.

Finely chop one small onion.

Heat your skillet over medium heat.

Put in a nice coating of olive oil.

Season your veges.

You can really use any seasoning you prefer.

I always use sea salt and creole seasoning.

Yummo!

Cook over medium heat for twenty minutes or so.

If it starts to stick, just add a little drizzle of olive oil.

Serve it up with some brown rice and chicken breasts.

We also enjoyed garden tomato salad with ours!

Linking up here this week!

Have a great evening everyone!

:)

What We Wore

For those of you who don't know her,

this is the sister.

Man, do I love this girl!

She is crazy, I am crazy, WE are crazy.

We speak our own language when we are together.

Always have.

We also can be very obnoxious and loud at times.

Who am I kidding, most of the time.

Okay, ALL of the time.

Just sayin'

Especially while enjoying a banana daiquiri,

on a two hour boat ride,

in Florida,

while listening to Bob Marley.

Goooooooood times!

Hey, it is what it is, peeps.

:)

Can you tell by the look on the hubs face?

Awwwww, he looks SO happy here!

;)

After 16 years he has learned to cope with our madness.

Bless him.

My outfit:

Top~Forever 21

Shorts and Sandals~Target

Jewelry~My Shop

Sisters outfit:

MINES!

{From Walmart}

:)

Linking up here today!

Toodles!

Catch Up, Random Thoughts and Thank You!

Howdy peeps!

Yes, I am still alive.

Oh, wait, what's that you say?

You didn't know I was gone?

Hmph.

Well, for those of you who read and DID notice my absence.

I.am.back.

At least, today I am!

Boy, have we got some catching up to do.

Our last few weeks have been filled to the brim.

Literally.

Our anniversary.

Father's day.

Little man's birthday.

Family vacation to Florida.

Little ladies birthday is this weekend.

And, we are celebrating both of our kiddos birthdays with a luau.

So exciting.

But, crazy I tell ya!

:)

So,

where to start?

Well, we just got back from our vacation to Destin, Florida.

Mom and sister joined us this year.

We drove and they both flew.

We had SEVERAL mishaps along the way.

The story of our lives I tell ya!

But that's okay.

It didn't stop us from have a great time!

We left Texas at 1am {on our 11 year wedding anniversary}

Cheers to celebrating with a 17 hour car drive.

That should have only taken 12 hours.

Yes, I am serious.

Gooooooood times.

Wooohoo!

I have to say the kids were SO GOOD,

all thanks to "the car store"

{Details to come later}

;)

Our first full day there was Father's day!

We spent the whole day at the beach!

It.was.beuatiful.



Mama has been out of the country too many times to count.

Isn't she fabulous?

However, this was her first time to see white sand and blue water!

She was very taken back to say the least!

She did NOT want to come home.

AT ALL!



Can you tell we are Texans?

Hahahaha!

I spent alot of time thinking on this trip.

Like, ALOT.

Many deep thoughts about my family, my business, and just life in general.

Also, lots of thinkng about this little blog here!

:)

What do the donuts below have to do with those thoughts?

Absolutely nothing.

Other than, I ate WAY too many of them.

I miss the beach already.

It was so beautiful.

Beyond WORDS beautiful!

Except for when Hurricane Debby was about 5 miles off shore.

Luckily, we decided to head home ahead of all that mess.

But, back to the deep thoughts.

;)

I miss blogging about DIY and craft projects.

I feel like life got crazy hectic for us in April.

And, just hasn't slowed down.

My blog has taken a "back seat" for awhile.

And, that's okay.

My family is and always will be my first priority.

I admire you women {and bloggers} who can balance IT ALL.

I, however, am not one of you!

Just being honest here!

:)

I love sharing tidbits of my life, OUR life, here on my blog.

But, I also love sharing projects and inspiration with you all.

I have so much to share and am searching for "the time" to do it.

So, basically, I want to thank all of you, my "followers" {FRIENDS}

for sticking around and supporting me.

Sending emails and messages asking if all is well.

THANK YOU!

Everything is fine.

Just doing some soul searching over here and working things out!

:)

I know this post was somewhat all over the place.

Just been wanting to share and decided to in one jumbled post!

Take care my friends!

XOXO

What's Happening

Hey friends!

What's going on with you?

Hope you are enjoying summer so far!

We busted out with our slip 'n slide.

The kids absolutely love it.

So much that they actually fight over who gets to go next.

Shocking, I know.

They thought it would be even more fun with their goggles on!



One of our most favorite things about summertime,

snacking and eating on the patio!

:)



Another favorite,

enjoying our campfire!

The hubs built this little firepit for us.

Boy, have we enjoyed it!

 

Cinnamon waffles for breakfast.

Yummo!

We had a rain out game last week.

Mom picked us up early Saturday morning for our makeup game.

Our little man played the best he has played all season!

He had two great hits,

then got the third out when bases were loaded for the other team!

They never caught up and we won the game!

After the game, he was awarded the game ball!

SO PROUD of this little guy.

I may or may not have teared up.

Okay, I did, ALOT.

:)



We celebrated at McDonalds with a family breakfast!

It really was a great day!



Hope you have a great Monday!

Insta Friday, So Far Edition

Summer break is off to a wonderful start!
We have gone swimming almost everyday.
Rain moved in on Wednesday,
so we decided to bust out with all of our board games.

After the rain comes, you guessed it, flowers.

And tomatoes.

And squash.

However, I assume you have seen enough of my vegetable pictures lately.

These lovely marigolds are taking over our flower beds!

So very pretty!

Oh. What's that you say?

More vegetable pictures?

Sure!

I knew you just couldn't get enough.

Potatoes fresh out of Grandpa's garden.

No words to describe the delicious taste of these bad boys.

Seriously.

                                     Little man built this huge lincoln log tower.

All by himself.

He was so proud.

"My tallest tower yet Mama"

HOW will my baby boy be six next week?

HOW I ask you.

We spent Thursday morning with Granny at Grandpa.

Cleaning and washing, then eating vegetables!

What a special treat!

The kids absolutely LOVE going to Granny's house.

It was my favorite thing to do as a child!

The playroom is their favorite.

We are so lucky to have them in our lives.

They are actually the kid's GREAT Granny and Grandpa.

I.know.

Crazy blessed, huh?

LOVE THEM!

Granny sent home this vintage racetrack with the kiddos.
I had a long day of work ahead and she knew it would keep them busy!
And let me tell you, they played with it for HOURS!

Hope you have a great weekend my dears.
Love to all!
:)