Friyay!

Well hello most magical day of the week!  Alright for this week it is the most magical day and I'm so totally excited to admit that while you are reading this I am on the way to the beach with my most bestest friend in the whole entire universe.

And that makes my No. 1 -





Headed to the beach with my best friend!

I'm working backwards for this Friday 5.  Today I am cutting the apron strings, putting the Kool Aid and crackers back in the cabinet, and leaving my babies to spend the weekend with an assortment of their beloved family members (their delicious daddy, their favorite nana, and the other grandparents.)
Yes, my best friend and I are busting county and state lines to hopefully a warm and sunny South Carolina coastline.

Check out my post from Wednesday where I pulled the first five things from my Pinterest search on Girl's Beach Weekend!

No. 2



School is out for summer!

For me!  I wrapped up my stint at school on Wednesday.  Though I love it there I am glad to welcome in summer time and get ahead on some other things before my own kids are out.  Now my focus is on growing my cleaning business.  Oh and some blogging stuff :)  Like paying more attention to the series I want to do on giving up sugar, cooking, etc.

Check out my Tasty Tuesday post - yes I brought it back this week!  I talked THM, Sugar Free Living, and Aldi!

No. 3

Did any of you catch this episode of Psych? Haha.

Appointments everywhere!

This week has been very busy.  My daughter's vision has been growing worse so we were out to get that checked.  She really wanted contact lenses because she is suddenly self conscious about her glasses, eyes, and mouth - don't ask, I don't know.  I hate that she received my screw ball genetics for vision.  At least she didn't get my math genes.  Anyway, no contacts this year but we made a deal that next year she could try them.  Thank GOD for some Walmart glasses - I got my girl a brand new pair of glasses that are super adorable for a total of $38 (that is lenses and frames!)  We purchased her last pair at the Walmart Vision Center and were very pleased with the price and quality of what she got.  I tell you they will one day take over all markets...groceries, tires, glasses, hair, meds, clothing, banking....

Wednesday was a super happy appointment - hair day!  I celebrated finishing up the school year by getting my horrible roots and brassy ends remedied!  Lizz is the best of the best and I love that crazy girl to pieces.  We have some hilarious discussions while the bleach is eradicating my gray hairs.

My bestie had an appointment on Tuesday to get her nails did with her mother-in-law.  Oh it was funny she was texting me play by plays. Apparently the pedicurist was wearing a questionable outfit that led us to talking about massages and "happy endings" and then I got the text of all texts - a vomit face with "MY EYES!  I JUST SAW UNDERWEAR!"  At least it wasn't vajayjay!!!!  But still yucko.

Did you catch my Monday post - every Monday we're at the horse farm.  My girl is doing fabulous in learning the necessary English riding skills.  I'm so proud but find out why we are all also so sad.

No. 4

Mother's Day Rocked!

I had such a nice Mother's Day!  Actually the whole weekend aside from a brief tummy bug was fabulous.  Saturday we went on an adventure to the next county over for plants and it was a bust.  Then my stomach waged war against me.  My husband had a stomach virus the entire week before so I figured I was succombing to it.  He took the kids to a family get-together with some visiting family members from Atlanta that he hadn't seen in years.  I laid around reading Where'd Ya Go Bernadette and willing the stomach bug to pass.  Good news is that it did!  I made a delicious pineapple cake (sugar free) and did my nails.  The kids ended up spending the night with their nana - the hubs and I enjoyed the weather and watched The Cobbler.  Have you seen it?  Sunday was church, a trip to Lowes where I scored lots of gorgeous perennials for a romance garden I planted that day, and lunch at Sixty-Six Pizza.  Come to Winston-Salem and eat there.

If a day is spent with good food, family, and my hands in the dirt planting pretty things I am super happy.

Yesterday I posted quick tips on getting your home all ready for the upcoming summer!  Check it out by clicking here!

No. 5



This week I have been super engaged in my Twitter feed.  Probably because I'm crazy about live tweeting while watching my favorite shows.  It is my new wind down method - weird right?  Which reminds me if you are on SnapChat add me!  abullnojoke is my name on there and I would love to be friends! What you see above should snap to add me on :) My IG is more active than normal (did you catch the night of the bobcat?) @abrownieworld.
 




Five things I pinned this week!

Low carb doesn't always mean low sugar but I may just scope this baby out for a treat one weekend.

I want this house.  I was on a moving kick all week.  I want to pay off all my debt and move really badly.  No, it isn't happening.  I'm just dreaming.

For the rest of my life, please!

So true, so freaking true...I blame my kids.

My Mother's Day Gift To You

Hey mamas - Happy upcoming Mother's Day!

Today I am just setting my blog on Mother's Day Spin.  So here ya go...enjoy this bouquet of flowers I bought you.

I know you may not be the flower type but c'mon - we all are deep down.  Flowers are very simple but also an extravagant showing of affection.  Think about flowers for a moment.  Remember when your baby picked you a yellow dandelion weed flower - so happy to place it in your hand?  They were so proud that the flower was for mommy and they gave it to you.  

For many it is the first form of gifting or thinking of others.  That is huge in development and you were the lucky recipient.

My son picks me "weeds" and is excited to give them to me.  It melts my heart.

One day, if I'm lucky, those weeds will stay put and he may surprise me with a bouquet of flowers bought from Harris Teeter or the florist.  I'll swoon - but only because I'll remember those little chubby hands giving me the prettiest flowers from the yard.

So enjoy those flowers.

Now take a seat and have a glass of wine, coffee, sweet tea, lemonade - whatever tickles your fancy.  Just sit in that chair and breathe; take in the calmness you see and hear.  The bright green grass, blue sky, fullness of spring - it is all around you.

And remember.

Remember those moments you would have done anything for this moment right here?

The ones where you thought - now I will sit.  But you hear your daughter yell down the stairs for the seventeenth time -

"Mama!!! Come here!"

or 

"GET HIM OUT OF MY ROOM!"

And you sigh and close your eyes and go back up the stairs - you had great legs then.  You play referee and have another one following you back down the stairs - maybe sobbing - that you will need to entertain.

Or maybe it is that time of night and you are so tired you could just fall on to sleep without a shower or another thought.  Then you hear her feet padding into the room.

She can't sleep.

So you go up to her room and read her a story or talk about the day then the future.

Until she falls asleep and your fourth wind pushes back through.  May as well do those dishes now, you think and follow through with.

One day I hope she still comes to me when she can't sleep or something is bugging her to death.  I know the problems get bigger as they grow taller but won't we always look back on those nights where we just talked without end, in the dark, until we were the only ones still awake?

Relax in this moment and relish the ups and downs of the hardest job in the world.  Be thankful for the wonderful days but also the nights you spent in tears and worry.  You have been gifted the title mommy and you have done your very best - and will continue to until your last breath.

I understand.

Happy Mother's Day.