Tiff's Turn

Hi there.                                             Sad news around here this week: Levi's paternal grandfather passed . About three weeks ago had been diagnosed with  multiple myeloma , a cancer of the plasma. This cancer makes holes in your bones and a calcium build up in urine, which causes the kidneys to shut down. Like all cancers, it totally sucks. This picture is not how we will remember Grandpa, but we were fortunate enough to have been able to say goodbye to him before he went home. The funeral was a beautiful service with people telling stories about Grandpa, all of which were about what a prankster he was and how kind, outgoing and and full of life he chose to be. Not only that, but Grandpa's faith grew stronger the older he grew. So much that...

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 ...

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...