High Five for Friday!

This is my favorite post (and sometimes my only post) of the week!

As always I'm linking up with Lauren to go over my favorite memories of this past week!

1. Monday Nights with my Best Friend.

I went to my best friend's house Monday night to watch our favorite show together and have girl time! Even her puppy Roxy got in on the gossip!

2. Precious Moments

My mom taught my boyfriend how to make cobbler last night and it was just one of those precious memories you won't forget.

He did well!

3. GATTILAND!

The kids and I went to Gattiland on Tuesday and it was a blast! I haven't had that much fun in a long time! It was good to feel like a kid again and to see them happy at the same time!

(The pizza buffet didn't hurt either!)

 4. HUDSON!!!



My friend and fellow blogger, Lindsay, will be having her little boy TONIGHT possibly! Just another gift from God! I can't wait to meet him and spoil him rotten! ^^^ see above for details.

5. Spiritual Growth

I decided I would finish my devotional book, A Lady in Waiting, this week. In doing that it made me realize I need to grow as a Christian. I think I become stagnant at some times in my Christian walk because I've always been in church and I  got saved when I was a little girl and baptized. I need to realize that no matter how old of a Christian you are, there's always room for growth. Anywho, I decided to start a new challenge for myself to help me grow closer to God. I've been keeping a journal for about three years, so I decided to start writing about my walk with God. I journal about things that are on my mind or my weaknesses, etc. I keep a list of each day of things I do to glorify God and things I do to hurt God. This helps me see on paper my weaknesses and faults and helps me realize what I need to pray for. I also write a list of people I want to pray for. Overall, it has helped me talk to God everyday and become aware of the kind of witness I am being to others.

I'm also thankful to have friends who influence me to be a better Christian. This week my best friend started a new spiritual growth with God through fasting. She wrote a great post about it here challenging her readers to do it with her! I'm in!

I hope you all have had a WONDERFUL week. God has blessd me more than I dserve that's a for sure!



Week Recap

This past week has been filled with friends, family, and fun! 

Last Friday my best friend and I went to a concert (or attempted to see a concert). A horrible storm came through and ended up cancelling the outside event. However, we managed to have a BLAST just like any other time we are together! 

My favorite picture of us. EVER.

We came home to power outages and extreme heat EVERYWHERE. I think my house was the ONLY house in a 50 miles radius that had power, thank the Lord.

I started my full time babysitting job last week, so on Tuesday my girl Sarah and I decorated a FABULOUS 4th of July cake! 

1 Box of Cake Mix (Chocolate for us!)

12 oz of Diet Coke (use Diet 7UP for white cakes)

Sugar free icing! 

Saves lots of silly calories! 

The 4th of July came and my family's annual cookout was cancelled due to the power outage at my uncle and aunt's house, so we improvised and threw together a little cookout of our own. My boyfriend and I had another couple down to my pool along with my family and we all just relaxed and ate our weight in cookout goodies! 

I did manage to throw in some semi-healthy snacks! 

Thank you Pinterest! 

Last week was insanely hot. I mean... heat index of 105. So, my kids and I did a little swimming on Friday! 

 

Love my job! 

This weekend was seriously one of those perfect, relaxing weekends that you just wish never would end.

Friday Pup and I spent the evening relaxing with one another. Saturday one of my good friends, Kati, got married in a beautiful outdoor wedding, then we met up with my brother and his friends to watch the UFC fights. 

 

Sunday was filled with church, good cooking, good company, and relaxation! I'm a very blessed lady, that's for sure.

Have a wonderful week!

Summertime Fun: Keep the Kids Happy!

Hi all! I've officially finished up with my summer classes, so I am in full blown babysitter mode now! Most of my followers either are babysitters, like myself, or Mommies that are home with their kids for the summer, so I've decided to share with you some of my ideas for this summer! 

First off, it has been hot, hot, hot, here in West Virginia, so naturally my kids and I have been trying to find a pool! (Luckily, I have one.)

Yeah, how can you not go wrong with a pool?! BUT I do realize that not everyone has a pool, so I tried to come up with some alternatives that will keep the kids cool this summer...

Water guns... 97 cents at Wal-Mart AND they even have pink for the girls! I understand some people don't like their kids playing with any type of gun, so my second option (and favorite option) is...

WATER BALLOONS!

I'm telling you right now, go to the store, buy 1000 water balloons. Water balloons + bored children = happy kids.

My favorite things to do with water balloons:

- Play baseball with them and a wiffle bat

- Have a water balloon toss

- Throw them to the kids like a pop up (they get soaked everytime this way)

- Play dodge ball

I realize that sometimes we won't be able to go outside and as a the babysitter/momma/daddy/guardian you may not want to get completely drenched, so here are some other alternatives I 've come up with to keep your kids happy throughout the summer! 

I started my full time babysitting job yesterday, so my little friend, Sarah, and I decided to come up with ideas for the rest of the summer so we never get bored! 

First idea: Decorate a cup/jar to hold all your ideas! (Anything counts right!?)

We came up with A TON of ideas, so I'll share Sarah's with you first! 

1. Go to The Pottery Place 

(This is a fabulous little shop where you can pick out pottery and paint it, then pick it up after they have fired it!)

2. Go to Gattiland

3. Go to the pool

4. Go to the movies

5. Go bowling

While I LOVED Sarah's ideas I was thinking more frivolously -- ? good word there?! Haha.

Here were my ideas -- parents/babysitters thank me later! Fun and cheap ideas to do with your kids! 

 - Create a scrapbook/journal of your summer

- Create a name collage and frame it

- Go to the pet store and look at animals (we aren't close to a zoo and Sarah loves animals)

- Go to the park and have a picnic

- Have a fashion show

- Have an indoor movie day with popcorn and special seating

- Have an ice cream social

- Plant some flowers in a special painted pot 

- Plan a scavenger hunt

- Make a pizza

- Have a field day (great for when friends are over)

- Make volcanos! (baking soda + vinegar)

- Create your own board game

- Make bird feeders out of pine cones and peanut butter

Those are just a few off the top of my head, but there are SO many awesome things kids would rather do than sit in front of the tv all summer, so put your heads together and do them! 

One of my favorite tips is to look up a "special days" calendar. It is hilarious how many "days" there are.

Did you know that July was...

National hot dog month

National wedding month

and 

National ICE CREAM month?!?!

See, three ideas right off the bat - Plan a wedding (for girls probably), have a hot dog cookout, and ice cream social. 

There are also some crazy wacky days in July as well...

July 6 - National Fried Chicken Day

July 7 - National Chocolate Day (YES!)

July 9 - National Sugar Cookie Day

July 22 - National Parent's Day

July 29 - National Lasagna Day

July 30 - National Cheesecake Day

Okay... I realize all but one of those were food days, but hey, what kid doesn't like food! Plus you can easily make all of those with your kids! 

I hope this has been somewhat helpful and if you have any tips you'd like to share feel free to leave a comment and help out a fellow babysitter! 

As for today, my kids and I will be baking and decorating a cake for the 4th of July! Wish us luck!