A day in the life

I haven't done a day in a life post since July, and I can tell you for certain, that many things have changed since then!  I've always found that the mundane details of peoples lives, rather than the amazing highlights, are the things that interest me the most.  I do these posts for that reason, as well as to be able to look back & see what things looked like in this season of my life.  It doesn't hurt that I'm constantly tweaking my schedule to make things work! 

5am: Alarm goes off.

5:35am: Leave for work.

6am:  Start work.  I'm now a salaried employee... hell yes!  So, if I arrive 5 minutes late, it's not the end of the world, thank goodness for logical, realistic rules!  I'm very thankful that my boss is so flexible.  Print reports & screen patients for nutrition risk.

7:30am: Try to take a quick walk around the back of the hospital...

Since I've been having major issues with plantar fasciitis right now, walking has been limited.  That's a post in itself, but lets just say it's been awful.

8am: Grab breakfast & eat at my desk while working.

9:15am: Go up to the floors & round on patients.

10am: ICU rounds.

10:30am: Finishing seeing patients & start charting.

12:45pm: Lunch.

1:30pm: Finishing charting.

2:30: Leave & head to the gym if my plantar fasciitis isn't horrific.  If it is & I can't workout, I run errands or grocery shop as needed.

3:30pm: Pick Reese up from daycare.

3:50pm: Get home & try to do as much as I can before we head to the bus stop to get Cam.  Clean up Mike's mess from the morning, set up the coffee for tomorrow, get laundry going, make Cam's lunch, etc.

4:20pm: Let Reese ride her tricycle to the bus stop which takes forever!  She pedals like a snail & stops more than she moves!

4:35pm: Cam gets off the bus & we head home.  We went through a spurt where one of the two cried every single day for whatever reason.  Pretty frustrating!  But now we're on a good streak, yay!

4:45pm: Cam heads to the playroom with his homework & we get started while he has a snack.

5:15pm: Let the kids decompress & play outside or watch TV as I start dinner.  This is when I have to say a million times, "The kitchen is closed, there is absolutely no more snacking!"  "But, Mom, I'm so hungry!"  "Great!  We're eating dinner in an hour!!"

6pm: I try to bathe the kids at this time, but sometimes they're having so much fun playing that I push if off till later.  Although if we're being honest, it's probably because I want to hold off until Mike can do it!

6:30pm: Mike gets home from work & we eat dinner.

7pm: Mike bathes the kids if I haven't already done it.  I clean the kitchen while he does this.

7:30pm: Kids wrap up whatever show they were watching & we brush teeth.

7:45pm: Wrangle the wild beasts as they run like maniacs around the house.  I must say, "Cam!  Get up in your bed!" 50 times.

8pm: The kids are mostly quiet & falling asleep.  Cam usually gets out of bed to poop even though he told me five minutes earlier that he didn't have to go.  Bedtime is like milk of magnesia for Cameron.

8-9:30pm: I watch TV, go online or do whatever I feel like until I head to bed.

Lights out by 10pm!!  Wake & repeat, wake & repeat!!

Happy birthday, Reese Elizabeth!

My little gal pal is THREE years old today, how did that happen?!

So, what is my three year old girl up to?  You're in P2 with  Ms. Kasey & Ms. Beth but soon you'll be moving up to P3.  You wear 4T clothes but I just got rid of all of your 3Ts & replaced them with 5Ts which even fit you.

Speaking of fitting into 5T clothes, you absolutely love to snack & would seriously be munching on something every waking hour if we let you.  Your favorite foods are peanut butter, frozen blueberries which you call "purple strawberries", grapes, applesauce & cheese.  Your most used words are, "I want" & "I need."  There are times you're asking for something & you don't even know what you want.  That's when you say, "I need.... something..." Needless to say, you keep me hopping!

You're an absolute character & constantly crack us up with your awesome sense of humor.  Lately you cooked up a little booty shake while you say, "little butt, butt!"  It's absolutely adorable & I ask you to do it all the time!  You can be extremely sweet & loving & also feisty with some harshness sprinkled in.  My feelings have been hurt a few times recently when you say, "NOOO!  I want Daddy to do it!"  Since you've always been such a Mama's girl, it's hard for me to see you preferring your dad over me!

 You love playing outside on your new playground & you also love to watch movies & TV shows after a long day of school.  Your favorite movie is Mickey's Three Musketeers & your favorite show is Paw Patrol.

We did our fourth picture with your BFFs, Sammy & Taylor.  The first time you girls posed for this shot, you were 5 days old, Sammy was 4 days old & Tay was 6 months old.  How far you girls have come!

The mommy's tried to pose for a pic too, but as you can see, we were photo bombed by three little stinkers!

 Happy, happy birthday to my sweet, little baby girl!  Reesey Cakes, I love you more than you'll ever know!

Winner, winner, delicious dinner on the fly!

I am a Pinterest addict & refer to it anytime I need a recipe for dinner, an appetizer, football Sunday, whatever.  I wanted to highlight some recent recipes that have been a definite hit in our house.

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This crockpot brown sugar, roasted garlic pulled pot roast was an awesome addition to a Sunday Bears get together with our friends.  The Bears certainly didn't win, but this recipe absolutely did.  Since we knew our Sunday morning was going to be busy, we roasted & smashed the garlic the day before.  Come game day, it took minutes to throw together & I was free to hang out with my friends & watch the game without worrying about dinner.

If you like Panera's broccoli cheddar soup, you will love this copycat recipe we made this past Sunday.

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I've made many broccoli cheese soup recipes but none have been this spot on to the real deal.

This crispy cheddar chicken is a cinch to throw together & delicious even without the sauce.

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I toss any veggies I have on hand with salt, pepper & olive oil, roast for 20-30 minutes while this is cooking & dinner is ready from start to finish in less than 45 minutes.

On a recent Saturday night, we whipped up this quick homemade pumpkin ricotta gnocchi. 

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If you've never made gnocchi before, it's a yummy way to make fresh pasta without any special tools.  You just roll out the dough, cut & boil for a few minutes.  While the gnocchi is boiling the sauce can be quickly made in less than ten minutes.

During the week when evenings are rushed, I tend to make quick chicken recipes that contain only a few ingredients.  I've been buying boneless, skinless chicken thighs since it's a lot cheaper than the breasts.  A large pack at Target is around $10 & I easily get 2 meals for the four of us, plus leftovers.  I'll make 1/2 the pack & freeze the rest for the following week.

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Melt in your mouth chicken is 6 ingredients that takes about five minutes to assemble & 30-45 minutes to bake.  Again, I serve it with roasted veggies.  Most of our dinners are a protein & veggies, not usually a starchy side.

Equally as easy is this "man pleasing chicken."  You see a lot of this recipe on Pinterest & it is again only a few ingredients.

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I'm not a huge fan of the name, but Mike is a man & this dish definitely pleases him, so I suppose it's accurate.  I just use the knock-off pancake syrup since I'm too much of a cheapskate to buy the real deal.  Most of the time I forget the fresh rosemary that's growing in a pot in our backyard & it's perfectly fine without it.

Since I'm on my own with the kids in the hectic evenings, I have to be prepared with a plan going into the week as far as our meals our concerned.  We use a lot of frozen leftovers like meat sauce I've made in big batches or the leftover chicken with simple ingredients I mentioned above.  Not only do I hate to grocery shop but we're also on a tight budget.  With a good plan in mind, weekday meals don't have to be a stress!  It seems that with Cam in kindergarten & Reese in daycare, there's a million things to remember & I'm not always on the ball.  Last week, I filled out Cam's flu vaccine report for school & today I got a letter back saying he wasn't vaccinated since I forgot to circle one of the questions.  Did I mention that I kept him home from school on Columbus Day thinking he had off?  Um yeah, he didn't & he missed an unnecessary day of school.  Who does that?!?!?  Me.  Yeah, this gal.

Halloween fun!

Cooler weather has breezed into hot & humid Florida just in time for Halloween, woo hoo!  As I sit & type this, snuggled in my blanket, it's a cool 59 degrees outside.  Love me some fall!

I love that with my favorite time of year the cooler weather arrives just in time so we can actually go outside to enjoy it!  Like most falls, we've taken advantage & done something outside most weekends.

Reese's school did a cute fall festival & I was lucky enough that my schedule worked out where I was able to swing by & participate after work.

Reese & Sammy are BFFs!

We also made it down to Sarasota to spend the weekend with family & we hit up two festivals.  One was at a church & everything was completely free; food, games, activities.. it was so nice!  They wouldn't even accept a donation at the end.

Let me just tell you how much I hate snow cones at festivals... the cheap paper cone that dissolves before they're even done, spilling all over Mike's head as he carries Reese on his shoulders or all over my beige car interior as Mikayla says, "Oops, I spilled my snow cone!"

I think Reese may have been an equestrian in another life.. she is so comfortable on horses!  On the other hand, I'm 35 years old & I have NEVER gone horseback riding in my life!!  We may need to pursue horseback riding camps for Reese though, she was in her element.

Thursday we painted pumpkins which was a hot mess!  That green paint was impossible to wash off & Cam took it upon himself to scratch his face & neck while holding his paintbrush, getting paint all over! 

Our Sonic & Aurora were ready to hit the streets in the pursuit of candy yesterday!

This chick on the swing was creepy as all get out as she sang, "la, la, la, la, la, la!" over & over.

We have a disgusting amount of candy, especially because we didn't hand out a single piece since we were out with the kids trick-or-treating.  Must get rid of it soon!

Here's a glimpse of what Cameron is going to look like on Halloween night in 14 years when he's away at college!!

Holiday fun on a budget: Total Money Makeover

It's hard for me to digest that Halloween is two short days away & November three!  That means Christmas is right around the corner!  Christmas is by far my favorite time of year, but with it comes stress.  Get togethers & parties cramming every weekend, shopping, wrapping, trying to fit in as many magical moments as possible for the kids.  But most of all, the stress topper tends to be all of the money flying out the window $$$$$$! 

 

Money doesn't have to be the star topper on the Christmas tree of stress though, if you're prepared & on a budget.  I've blogged about our budget, but not lately.  We follow Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover & stick with a completely cash-based budget to help pay down all of our debt.  We've been doing this for nearly two years & we've made a lot of progress & hope to be debt free in the next year or so (minus our mortgage).  I keep envelopes in my purse that my sweet friend Lesli made for me, take cash out of the ATM each Friday & use no more than what we allot for each household expense.

 I keep six envelopes: Groceries, Entertainment/Fun, Gifts, Clothing, Pets & Personal/Home Care.  Sometimes I get strange looks when people see me with my stash of envelopes, but it doesn't bother me.  I get harassed the most at Target since the cashiers are always looking at me with shock, "You DON'T want to get a Red Card & save 5%?!?!?!?!!?"  Um, no, no thank you.  Just today I was asked & my response was, "No thank you, I'm a cash girl!" 



Week to week, things go very smoothly with the budget since we only spend what we have, never using our debit or credit cards.  Vacations, birthdays & holidays take much more planning though.  Last year I worked out a Christmas budget including anything we'd be spending money on:  Who we shop for, how much we spend on each person, the Christmas tree, Christmas cards & postage, teacher gifts, etc, etc, etc, etc.  For us, this adds up to $1,500.  Sometimes it's not fun to budget & plan, but it's a must for us to stay on track.  Like Dave Ramsey says, Christmas comes every year in December, it's not unexpected & our budget shouldn't be blown because of it. 

 

When we hit the stores last year, I literally had a calculator out to stay on budget for each person we bought for.  That curbed the tempting, "Oh, but he/she would love this!"  Those little extra buys throughout the holidays seriously add up. 

 

I find that so many people live in a world of excess with instant gratification & unnecessary purchases happening constantly.  Your kid loves Lightening McQueen so he has every car available in stores.  Minimizing is another perk of staying on budget; it keeps your house less cluttered & your kids less distracted.  So here's to hoping we all have an awesome holiday with less stress & less unnecessary money spent!

Crazy little thing called fun

We have had quite a bit going on these past few weeks while Mike's mom was in town from Chicago.  We headed to Disney & the whole Pernecky clan flew down from Chicago & met up in Orlando.  It was very exciting since it was Reese's first time to Disney World.  Even though we live less than an hour & a half away, it's so expensive!  Mike's mom & dad have always dreamed of taking their grand kids, so they were sweet & generous enough to treat the whole family!

In keeping with firsts, Reese got her first pedicure with me & Grammy; all matching with a Disney theme!

With the matching pedis came the adorable matching t-shirts that Mike's mom & sister designed.  We got so many compliments & I loved that we could easily spot each other in a crowd!

Even though "they" say it's the happiest place on Earth, Reese had a mega meltdown within twenty minutes of getting into the Magic Kingdom.  I tried to pawn her off on passerby's, but had no takers!

The kids met a bunch of characters.

But absolutely nothing compared to Reese's visit with Cinderella.  Lets just say she was star struck; she did not know what to do with herself.  Positively adorable.

Reese's dream come true was when Cinderella asked her if she would play hide & seek.  Absolutely precious.

Cameron was tall enough to ride every single roller coaster & he did awesome!  The look on Nick & Erika's face in the picture above on the Tower of Terror is hilarious!!

Grammy & Papa wanted to take the kids to Disney's Not so Scary Halloween so we were able to park hop over the food & wine fest at Epcot for some adult beverages & awesome food.   So fun!

Anyone who has taken a Disney vacation knows it isn't relaxing & you end up absolutely exhausted after, but it was totally worth it!  We had a blast together & it's so rare that the entire Pernecky family is together; I was very thankful.

On our last morning, we dragged our lifeless bodies out of bed at the butt crack of dawn to make it to the only character breakfast we could get into.  Word to the wise, you really need to reserve any character dining 180 days in advance or you won't get in.  We know from experience!

What an awesome trip that we'll never forget!