When I take a hiatus from blogging, I never know where to pick back up, but I thought I'd share what we've been up to, some pictures and recent recipes I've tried and recommend!
First up, for those of you who don't follow me on Instagram, here's some monthly pictures of Ava that I haven't shared on the blog. I was just looking at them as I updated her last picture and I think it's so neat to have these of her and to see how much she has grown!
Some recent recipes I've tried that I thought I'd share are,
This One Pot Mexican Skillet Pasta via Damn Delicious is SO delicious and easy to make! We ate it with multi-grain scoop chips and grated cheddar cheese. I froze half of it and we had it another night for dinner!
Another recipe via Damn Delicious that we enjoyed recently is the One-Pot BBQ Chicken and Bacon Pasta. So much flavor, so easy to make and this also froze well! I highly recommend both recipes.. honestly you can't go wrong with anything on her website!
A little update on us... I'm at home with Ava and really enjoy it! A little background history to my career path/decision before we had Ava, was that I was in school to be a teacher. I love children and figured that was the best career choice for me, especially since I have a passion for educating/helping children and just being around them! I also thought it was a great career choice as far as being available for my future family, being the best mom and wife I could be (not saying working moms aren't)-- all holiday's off and summer would be great, too of course. THEN I had Ava and I just didn't have a desire to continue with school and teaching. I feel most fulfilled being at home, raising Ava (and more children down the line God willing). There is a small part of me that wants to still contribute a part of my time towards teaching in some way and doing something for myself, so I applied for a substitute teaching position at a nearby Christian pre-school. I was hired, given the opportunity, but I haven't been needed/called to substitute just yet. As you know, a substitute position is an as-needed position and very part-time which is great for me. The best part is I am able to bring Ava with me to work when I am needed and she can stay in a nursery there with other staff babies around her age. I'm excited for this opportunity and think it'll be a great chance to fulfill that desire to teach on occasion, while still being able to stay home with Ava--best of both worlds in my opinion! I am also starting to volunteer again at a nearby Elementary/Middle school. I am trying to volunteer when I am able to have Daniel watch Ava on one of his lunch breaks. He works nearby and can take Ava to lunch or a nearby park for an hour or so. I am so fortunate he is so flexible and enables me to fulfill my needs and desires outside of the home. I also joined a MOPS group, so I am looking forward to being a part of that and making new mommy friends.
We had a pretty relaxing, but fun and busy summer! Late April, we visited family--Andrew and Briana in Ft. Myers. They helped us with Ava while we stayed in Ft. Lauderdale for our anniversary weekend by ourselves which was really nice. In May, we took a weekend family trip to Atlanta to visit friends and go to the Jack Johnson concert. In June, Ava and I joined Daniel on a work trip to Panama City Beach for a couple days and visited Seaside as well. In July, we enjoyed our annual family vacation in Sebastian, FL and visited some friends at the beach at their condo in Satellite Beach, FL. August and September were pretty relaxed, spent at home, but we took many beach trips as a family and Daniel took his annual surf trip to Nicaragua in August. We are making updates to our home (mostly painting and furniture updating/rearranging) and I am trying to stick to a new daily cleaning schedule. A weekly schedule that enables me to tackle every day cleaning and upkeep, while keeping up with the not so ideal chores I tend to put off like oven cleaning, wall/ceiling/blinds/fan dusting, etc. Ideally, I'd love for our house to be guest-ready at all times, but I think that's a bit unrealistic with a baby. It's fun trying something new, though and it has been nice having a cleaner, more organized home lately!
That's a little update on us! Hope all is well with you!
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