Hi and happy Thursday! I was going to post my Tween gift guide today, but am still finishing it up. Are you buying Christmas presents yet? I definitely am not, but I’d like to get to that point of organization and readiness- ha.

If you are, you can see my seasonal picks here, though I’ll be doing blog posts for them too, like my teen girl guide that’s already up! I’m so glad these are helpful. There’s something about someone having a kid that age to know what the girls (or guys) want that I’ve always found helpful myself!

Moving on…

Since I’m not quite organized yet, I thought it could be fun to do a little life catch up in the form of a good old fashion photo dump. Here’s a little bit of life lately, according to my camera roll.

Homeschool Room Clean Up

While the girls were at youth group, I grabbed a couple trash bags, turned on my audio book, and went to work on cleaning up and reorganizing our homeschool space. It’s definitely our center for crafts and creativity (love), but had gotten out of hand so that every time I set foot inside for morning time, my cortisol would spike. No more.

I moved my chair to a cozy corner with my own bookcase of supplies and reorganized and cleaned out all our craft baskets. The girls are going to be so surprised this morning!

.

Cool Mom Points

Earlier this week K asked me if my second piercing still “worked.” I hadn’t put an earring in it for years so I decided to try and… it does! The piercing job I did in 8th grade one night by shoving an earring right through my ear held. Who knew?!

Also, raking in some cool mom points by making the girls lunches for co-op days. They had been doing this, but honestly, they are juggling a lot on their schedule right now and it’s small way I feel like I can say I love you!

.

Fireplace Regret

There are 100 things I LOVE about the house we built. And a small few things I would have done differently. File this under first world problems (trust me, I know!), but if I’m sharing openly here, I regret not having our builder fix their fireplace mistake.

Long story short, David and I never chose stone for our fireplace. One day it was just up. We made a special trip to come see it and I was pretty upset because I love warm tones and the stone chosen and installed was such cool tones. Our builder agreed they had no record of us choosing the stone, but since it was up, the only choice to change it would be to chip it off bit by bit, hope to not damage the floors that were already installed, and redo it, which would push back our timeline significantly, and we were so anxious to get moved in.

So, we decided it was fine. And in many ways it is. It’s fine. But in a moment of weakness this week I asked AI to show me what the stone I would have chosen would look like and ughhh I wish I didn’t. I love it so much more.

Lesson learned the hard way- have it corrected before move in, even if it pushes back your timeline.

Lemon Dijon Chicken Thighs

Last night’s dinner was fairly easy and tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1½–2 lbs boneless chicken thighs
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1½ Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp each smoked paprika & dried thyme
• Salt, pepper & olive oil

Method: Season chicken with salt, pepper, paprika & thyme. Sear in olive oil over medium-high heat for 5–6 min per side. Mix Dijon, honey, lemon & garlic. Pour over chicken, reduce heat and cook 2–3 more minutes until glazed and cooked through (165°F minimum).

This one might deserve a dedicated blog post. I’d love to try it over rice, too.

.

Dazzle Dry

I can not will not hush up about this system. I’ve been consistently doing my nails for months now because the effort is worth it, as the manicure lasts weeks. Also, Canyon Ranch and Blackberry Farm use it too, so you know it’s legit 😉 Non-toxic, fast drying, long lasting. It’s awesome. If you’re looking for a good fall starter mini kit, I think this color is beautiful! Or build your own system with this kit.

Once you have the basics, you can play around with all the mini bottles. I have a pouch of colors from different mini flights and the girls and I love playing around with them all. K does French tips, H and I end up always choosing the same nuetralish colors, ha.

.

Food is love. And so is driving.

My love language lately is David driving the kids to evening activities. Some days we have to split, but when it only requires one of us, I look at him all googly eyed when he happily volunteers. This gives me the evenings to light a fall candle, get everything cleaned up, tackle organization projects, and have late night snacks waiting for them when they get home at 9:45 PM. I accept love by volunteer driving and apparently I show love by making food.

.

That’s all I’ve got for today, time to go surprise the girls with the organized homeschool room! But tell me– if you built a home, any regrets? Have you eaten anything delicious lately? What’s your funny love language for the stage of life you’re in?

Hope you have a great day!!