1. Monday brought a huge surprise to us SNOW! I know seriously, wasn’t I just outside raking leaves in shorts and a tshirt? Yes, yes I was. Welcome to Indiana. But honestly, did not mind at all. It got me excited just a bit for the season to come. So much so that I’ve been playing Christmas ever since. Oh yes I have. It only took the girls 2 minutes after seeing the snow to get out there and run around. I love this pic!

2. This little number is now on our counter top. A while back our coffee pot broke. So we started using the pour over method. This makes great coffee and we are kind of cofee snobs but for a multi tasking mom this is not my preferred method. I’ve been working on Brian to switch back to the good old coffee pot but he has been reluctant. Finally, we made the switch, went BIG (major sarcasm) and bought a $15 coffee pot from Wal Mart. But let me tell you it is programmable, it makes great coffee and I love it. I am so happy about my morning coffee right now. I tell you it’s the little things.

3. This week I made these peanut butter and banana muffins  fromt the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and they were a-maz-ing. And to top it off they are good for you too. I altered the recipe slightly. Instead of cauliflower puree I added butternut squash. I also added wheat germ just because, so I increased the banana puree so they wouldn’t get dry. Perfecto-mundo! I will definitely be making these again!

4. When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner I am the appetizer gal. Works for me because I could eat a meal of only appetizers. As you may have guessed I have beens scouring pinterest for some scrumptious apps. I found this pin the other day…all kinds of dips. Yes, that is all you need to say. I am in. I’m thinking some sort of cheesey dip and then a carmel dip with apples. Sweet AND salty therefore everyone will be happy until the real spread of food comes out!

5. We took a family trip to Wal Mart this week for eye appointments for Brian and I. I am basically blind and very much need glasses. Been wearing glasses since second grade, got contacts in sixth grade. It’s a part of who I am. Brian on the other hand barely qualifies for glasses but gets them more for a fashion statement. Haha, yes this is true. But let me be the first to say, he looks mighty fine in glasses so I’m all for it. We decided to order glassess from Warby Parker. They are priced reasonably, have a great selection and best when you purchase a pair they give a pair away to someone who needs them. Love this. Can’t wait to get them! Pictures coming soon…

Happy Friday friends! Enjoy your weekend. Do some relaxing, it’s good for you!

1. Are any of you other moms out there getting tired of being asked 5,000 times a day “can I have a piece of candy?” From the moment they finish breakfast till the moment before bedtime! After a week and half of this it’s gets to be a little much. This is by far my least favorite part of Halloween. Well I am about to impart a little secret to help with this problem. Drum roll please….. Candy brownies! Have your kids pick out their favorite chocolate candies (twix, snickers, milky way etc). Have them select quite a few and let them know they are going to get to eat them ALL. Chop them all up or throw them into your food processor. Make some brownie batter, pour all that chopped up candy into the batter and bake as normal. NEXT: this is key don’t miss it. While the brownies are baking THROW THE REST OF THE CANDY AWAY. This is the end of the question asking because now you all get to enjoy yummy brownies with lots of candy in them. The pan of brownies will be gone by the end of the weekend. At least this is true in our house. End of story with the Halloween candy. You are welcome.

2. My husband took a couple days off of work due to several weeks of heavy travel. Yay! I had just gotten the girls off to school when he called and asked what I was doing. I said I had exciting plans of cleaning the house and catching up on some email. Then the sweetest words came out of his mouth. “The kids are all at school, why don’t we hang out and get some coffee?”. Um, do I want to hang out with my husband in the middle of the day on a Thursday with no kids? Well, of course! Who wants to clean the house? Not I. We went to the mall and walked around and talked and just enjoyed each other. In the middle of the day. On a Thursday. Wonderful.

3. At the mall I found some killer boots at Urban Outfitters. I’m always looking for the perfect boot for me. This is hard to come by for a gal like me when I am not quite 5 feet tall. That’s right, you read correctly. 4’ll to be exact. Most high boot are WAY too high for me and take up 75% of my leg. Not kidding. So this makes for a very awkward look. But not these boots. These boots were pret-ty awesome. I subtly, not so subtly reminded Brian that my birthday was 3 weeks away.  Hint. Hint. Oh and you can’t see it in the pic but the best part is there is a zipper that runs all the way up the back. Love it.

4. At Allume (the blogging conference I attended 2 weeks ago) I came home with a ton of books from my swag back and then more just given away throughout the weekend. Pretty nice! So many. Most of them I am really excited. Here are my top 4 choices that I would like to read first. Have you read any of these? Any of these on your list?

5. Lastly, I took this picture this week. I love it. I love the colors and the background but more than anything it’s what the picture says. This is Theia following Mason. She LOVES her big brother. She looks up to him in so many ways and hangs on his every word. Yes, they butt heads quite often but she is always the one asking when Mason is going to be home from school. They aren’t just brother and sister but friends.

Friends, how is it Friday again already? I do not know. None the less, I am happy to welcome in another weekend! Enjoy!

1. Halloween has come and gone and the candy overflows. Here are our little trick or treaters. A zombie skateboarder (I don’t know), Ariel and Tinker Bell. Our neighborhood does Halloween right with a community potluck, warm chili, lots of kids and a bonfire afterwards. Seriously it’s like straight out of a movie! And I love it!

2. Tonight we are having an overnight visitor! I love having people come and stay with us, especially when it’s one of my favorite people like Jaime. Jaime was a friend of one of my best friends growing up. Through that mutual friend we have become friends. Did you follow that? Basically we are all friends, I love her and I am super excited to have her here. Although, my girls are not too happy she is not bringing her two girls along with her. And I hear the same is true for her. Sorry girlies, next time! Jaim excited to hang out with you friend!

3. For the last 5 weeks it has been a crazy schedule around here of Brian and I traveling. I hardly every travel alone and I did twice this month. We have flip flopped travel dates 5 times. Seriously, I think we have spent less than 10 days together this month. You know for a married couple that just doesn’t work well. Kaia confirmed this yesterday. She said, “Mom there isn’t much between you and Dad. What do you mean? I asked. Well you never see each other and you hardly ever hug.” Awesome. I agreed with the not seeing each other much lately but had to disagree with the hugging part. I am hugger people. I am also hoping for and looking forward to some downtime as a family. All 5 of us!

4. This week when the girls were at school I had a date with myself at Starbucks. Super exclusive. I took a pic of myself and several people asked about my scarf. It’s from Dayspring, which was a sponsor at Allume. I love it!

5. Last week we implemented a couple new behavior systems in our home. Behavior systems sounds intense but I don’t what else to call it. We saw the need to step up our game with certain behavior issues. Enter in the Lego jars. We have a couple friends that do something similar so we can’t take the credit here. For our family we are working on 2 things. TWO THINGS. Keeping it simple here folks. Legos can be received for the following:

1. Obeying on the first time.  aka first time obedience (I say this multiple times a day)
2. Serving others and showing kindness without being asked. This could be to each other, a friend, neighbor, stranger.

Ground rules: It’s not a guarantee you will get a lego in your jar each time you do either of these. You can not ask to receive a lego (kinda missing the point here kids). Also, legos are not taken away, though it is tempting at times I admit. God does not work this way with us though, thankfully!

The kids decided together on 3 rewards they could choose from when their jars are full independently. So far it is working pretty well. It is our prayer that these attitudes will become ingrained in them sooner rather than later without receiving a lego. I really don’t want to be handing out legos to my teenagers. I’ll let you know…

Do do anything in your home to encourage good behavior? I would love to hear about it! Share with us!

Have a great weekend friends! And don’t forget it’s time change, enjoy that extra hour of sleep!