Sophie 1st month

How sweet is this precious granddaughter of ours? Mr. C. And I already over the moon with her arrival. I have found that I’m making excuses after work to go over to The Crow’s to hold baby Sophie.

She looks so much like her daddy and brother Lane.  Love her beautiful skin tone.

Baby is so peaceful in her sleep. 

Look at how wide awake she is tight now.

Her brothers sure do like to be near her. I just know they are going to be so overprotective of their baby sister. 

Happy 1st month with us Sophie! 

A day in my mid-life

I took off work today for a doctors appointment over at Lawton. Mr. C. Woke me up at 6AM. We are putting a roast in slow cooker for our dinner tonight. My husband seen the recipe on Tic Tok and wanted to give it a try. It’s a bit different than our usual roast method.  I will be adding the recipe in a later post. 

We spent 2 hours in the doctors office. I will say that my anxiety was rapidly rising. No way should anyone have to wait that long to be seen. Hopefully the next visit the wait will not be that long. This was the first time to be seen by her, so will see how we like her going forward.  She did seem to go over everything carefully, so that eased my anxiety.  Dr. Grimm seemed friendly enough so that helps. 

Mr. C. And I ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant Espranza’s. He ordered his usual dinner. It has a little of everything. I can’t believe I didn’t take a photo of our lunch!  When Jon delivered our food we dug right into the middle of the plate. 

Pictures or it didn’t happen! As we get older I am trying harder to document our days. Life is too short not to be recording our daily lives. So I am being intentional with memory keeping.  Am still working on a big personal journal and hope  to get it finished by October.  Of course having this blog in place helps to preserve my personal life as well.  If anyone would have told me I’d still be blogging after all these years I would have said no way. Some years I wrote more than others but at least I wrote a few things. 

Our neighbors were having a garage sale. So I walked over when we got home.  Seen several cool things , but I honestly don’t need anything at all.  But found this brand new stationery kit from Hallmark for only $2.00.  In fact I will be writing a letter this evening, hopefully at least a couple of letters. Lately I have enjoyed going to garage sales.  Maybe it’s the thrill of the chase. Might be something Dawn and I could do every now and then. She is always finding good stuff.

We watched an episode of  the new season of Wednesday.  The past season was fun to watch. So hope this season will be even better. 

We just finished watching The Hunting Wives…oh my! Would hope they are going to make a second season. So much happened in that series that it was easy to get confused. Lots of twist and turns. I absolutely enjoyed watching this show. 

So for rest of the day we will probably chill and relax. Being in our mid-life season is pretty basic.  My husband isn’t in the best health so many of our activities revolve around how he feels for the day.  I wouldn’t change our lives ever. 

New journal for Swap-bot

 

Here’s a few pages out of my journal. Just remember I am not a artist but still like to add fun pages to my journal.

This journal will have a few entries about my love for books. I am avid book reader.  Don’t know why I haven’t incorporated more pages about books in my past journals. 

Am a big animal print person.  I am trying to branch out my likes but at the end of the day I go back to my favorites.  I should have ordered more of these cute stickers for my collection.  While I am working on this journal, I also am working on my personal journal. Some pages will be similar in both journals.

I also like to use pictures showcasing my daily life.

I can’t be the only one who has random stickers laying around unused. I have so many stickers. There is a back story on why I love stickers and have so many of them.  Maybe one day I will write about that in my blog. I do know I got my love of stickers from my Grandma Pearl. 

 

This is a favorite spread for my journals. Rainbow have always been another favorite of mine. I know these days it represents something other than what I was taught. But we can all share our love of rainbows.

I’m currently working on a composition notebook journal for a trade over at Swap-Bot.  It’s a two month project.  I’m really excited about trying new to me ideals. Have watched quite a bit of YouTube videos on techniques and can’t wait to try them out in this new journal.  I really want to decorate the cover really nice with fabric or colored duct tape.  

Unfortunately I can’t draw to save my life, but I will use a million stickers and miles of washi tape.  The pages must be decorated with something.  Lately I have been using packaging from items I have bought.  That definitely adds a layer to my pages.  I also ordered some junk journal supplies off Etsy. Ordered a pink bundle and a yellow bundle. That I’ll help make my pages pop. I know I plan on ordering a green bundle and a purple bundle as well.  

This journal will include pictures, art journaling (simple as I lack drawing skills), list of all kinds, quotes and so much more.  I do write quite a bit. I enjoy the random junk journal swaps as you never know what you will receive from your partner. I have received some over the top where they spent a lot of time on it. Then others was rushed and not great. It’s definitely a gamble on what you will receive. That’s part of the fun as well. 

Retirement thoughts

 

Do you sometimes wonder how you to to this exact point in your life? I always wondered if  I would be here when I was 50ish years old.  Am amazed with my life, it’s much better than I could have ever dreamed.  No it’s not perfect and it’s a lot messy, but wouldn’t trade it for anything else. 

As I look toward retirement I know I am not prepared. I have just started my 401k and Roth plans. So not very much money in them.  Looking back on my past life is I was just trying to survive. Neither one of my parents really spoke about saving money for the future. They did the best they could with what knowledge they had.  I just wish I had someone who could have taught me the importance of saving money. Now I am struggling with when I can retire on just social security. I don’t want to work forever, but realistically I may have to work till I am 65 years old. I haven’t exactly put budget to paper to see what I may be looking at going forward. 

What my mom did teach me was how to be thrifty so I do have that knowledge.  I love thrift stores and watching how people repurpose stuff.  Comparing prices from a few different grocery stores is next on my list to start doing. I do pay for Amazon Prime annually and do feel like it saves me money on shipping. Although I know if I order a certain amount that I will still receive free shipping. We do watch Amazon prime frequently. I already watch for sales on birthday gifts and Christmas gifts. I keep a tote of gifts I pick up thru the year.  For instance I bought a grill utensil set 1/2 off.  When Victoria Secret and Bath and Body have sales I will buy and put up. My love language is gifting others, so I need to save money when I can. 

We live out in the country on 2 acres on a dead end road. Our bills are very reasonable compared to so many others. So we are very fortunate in that area. We don’t have a water bill as we have a water well. The maintenance on it could be expensive but overall it’s been good to us.  We also have a septic system and that has also been a low maintenance system to us.  So as we get older at least our household expenses are lower than others.  

So here I am thinking about my overall life and what budget cuts I can do to make my money stretch. I think I will up the percentage to my Roth plan.  Like seeing the numbers add up each pay period. I won’t miss that money since it will be such a low percent every 2 weeks.  

I am blessed with my life no regrets just wish I had been more wiser with money.  If you have any tips on saving money as I move toward retirement, please drop them below. 

Sick beyond sick

 This morning I got up feeling sick. Before I left for work I was throwing up. My stomach was cramping badly.  I knew I couldn’t miss work as I didn’t want to get a write up. That’s just part of working in a call center, no unscheduled days off.  This year I have already called in twice sick.  

Looking back I started taking a higher dosage of medicine and I think that is the issue along with my eating habits.  I am going to see about going back to original dosage and go back to really watching my diet more closely. 

My manager sent me home about 8:30 AM.  I came straight home and went to bathroom and went to bed. I only got up to go to bathroom.  I was so miserable.  I do not want to keep being this sick. It’s miserable for sure. I slept off and on all day. What I will say from experience is as I am getting older when I get sick it just hits harder than when I was younger.  

Am thankful for my husband as he went and got me sprite and crackers.  He stayed away in the living room just in case I had a virus.  I really think it was my medication but can’t say for sure. 

Monday ramblings about routines

 Are you ready for the week? I can say honestly that I haven’t been doing my Sunday night reset.  When I was being intentional about getting ready for the week, it seemed to make me more organized.  Not sure what happened but I just completely stopped getting prepared.  Maybe I stopped because I was exhausted after being on the road and enjoying Sunday Funday’s. This morning it hit me hard that the routine that I enjoyed doing hadn’t been happening in months.  Then I thought maybe I am a failure, but that isn’t true at all.  I don’t want to beat myself up, instead I am going to create a list of what is important to me and try to get back into good habits that help my mental health and wellbeing. Just because I fell off the wagon doesn’t mean I can’t dust myself off and try again. 

What did I do that made my life easier on Sunday evenings you may be wondering…here’s a few things that helped me tremendously.

Pulling out 6 work outfits (one is extra so I have choices).  Paired with undergarments and jewelry.  That way I can make the decision quickly.  I do try not to wear same outfits every week. 

Using my medication organizer.  That way I am not having to use extra time to open all my bottles twice a day. If I have the pills ready to go, I will take them everyday as prescribed. Otherwise I may not take my medication every day. 

Meal planning for my work lunches.  If any prep work is needed will get that done as well.  With it being summertime I am leaning towards sandwiches, pinwheels, pasta salads and adult lunchables.  Meal prepping seems to make sense to me as it saves time and money. Waiting till the morning to figure out what I’m going to eat for lunch can be stressful. Who needs stress at 6 am? 

On weekends Mr. C. Makes sure my gas tank is full. He also will check fluids and make sure my air in tires is where they need to be.  Am so thankful that he keeps his eyes on our vehicles. Plus I don’t have to be out in either extreme heat or cold depending on Oklahoma weather.  

I also like to go thru the house and straighten up places that need a little assistance.  I need to make myself a cleaning chart, maybe focusing on one room a day or however I choose to clean. 

Do you have a routine that you are currently doing? I am open to any suggestions on what might work better for me. 

Baked Beans Crockpot Style

Sweet and spicy crockpot, baked beans

 At our house, we’re always on the lookout for easy recipes-Especially ones that make mealtime feel special without a lot of fuss. Mr. C recently watched a YouTube video on baked beans, and of course, we had to give it a try. Baked beans are a staple around here whenever we fire up the grill or make ribs so finding new-to-us recipes is always a treat. 

The best part about this dish is how simple it is to toss together with ingredient we usually have on hand. Plus, it’s a crockpot recipe, which makes it even better-you just set it and let it do the work. We ended up tweaking the original recipe to suit our tastes, because that’s the beauty of cooking at home: You get to make it your own. around here, we like a little kick of spices, so that’s exactly what we added.

Baked bean recipe

Ingredients

Two cans, bush baked beans, drained

1 pound of ground beef, browned

1/2 pound of smoked sausage

One large white onion

One Bell pepper, diced

One cup of brown sugar

1/3 bottle of brown sugar, honey, habanero sauce

2/3 cup of sweet barbecue sauce

Directions 

Brown ground beef in a skillet and drain

Diced onion and green

Combine all ingredients in crockpot

Cook on 3 to 4 hours until flavors are well blended.

What comes out is a sweet, slightly spicy baked bean dish that pairs perfectly with grilled meats, ribs, or even just a slice of cornbread. It’s hearty enough to be a meal on its own, and tasty enough to become a new family favorite. 

So next time you’re grilling out, give these baked beans a try-you may just find yourself going back for seconds ( or thirds!)