Tiff's Turn

School has begun! That's pretty much why I've been MIA with blogging. The first few weeks back to school are the most exhausting weeks of the school year. Once I'm home, I only get to spend a few hours with Aria before bedtime, and blogging has not been a priority. So to tidy over my loverly friends and family, here is a quick post with seven things we've been up to: 1. Spending time at Mimi and Grandpa's on Wednesday nights while I am at orchestra rehearsal. She loves bracelets! 2. Being silly and Mommy and Daddy allowing toys to take over the house. 3. Sidewalk chalk. (Finally crossed that off the summer to-do list!) I'm happy she is actually drawing with the chalk now and not just trying to eat it. 4. End of summer party: What's better than a party with swimming, water balloons, homemade ice cream and a movie outside? 5. Being this tired from hanging out with friends. 6. Refrigerator organizing: It's not the

My big sister and her family are starting a new chapter. Tomorrow they will move to South Carolina. I'm thankful we got to spend our Sunday evening with them, hanging out and eating tacos. It was a rough week, so tonight was bittersweet: being with my sisters always makes me feel better, but since we won't see them for a while, it was sad too. Today wasn't the only day filled with family and food. Uncle Justin and Aria's cousins were here Saturday, all the way from Ohio. Out-of-town visitors equals everyone in your family getting together. We had quite the family get-together at our house last night. It felt like Christmas in August. Besides entertaining family, my hard-working husband has completed a couple projects around the house. Since our basement has flooded a few times, which seems to be a common problem with the houses in our 'hood, he figured out how to fix the problem. (Don't ask me how. I just cheer him on.) We'v

Aria and I have been busy soaking up what's left of summer, because we know that sooner than later, mommy has to go back to teaching. Aria has already been helping me in my classroom. When we aren't working on crossing off our fun Summer To Do list , like going to the zoo, we are helping Grandpa in the garage, shoe shopping and our typical days of playing outside.  I've also decided to make dinner time a wee-bit easier around our busy household. Inspired by Running with Rachel's blog, I am going to begin a weekly meal plan. There are several sites like Emeals and saymmm.com that will help you plan, create a shopping list and a budget all in one app or website. Life just got a whole lot easier.  Here's this week's food plan, all centered around Clean Eating:  Saturday : Pork chops with pineapple-cucumber salsa and rice Sunday: Shrimp, sausage and okra kabobs Monday: Steak wit