Feel Good Friday 43

Well, sorry I disappeared on you last week, but at the beginning of the week I made the decision to take the week off of blogging and instagram.  As we were settling into the new school at home routine, I was feeling the struggle immensely, and needed to take a breather and assess what I want for my blog and social media at this moment in time.  I didn’t come to any conclusions, other than I will be posting when and if I can, and I pulled out of any Fall tours I was in this year because I know that there is NO way my house can be clean, styled, and ready for any of that.  I’m lowering my expectations of myself this year, and letting some things go to give myself room to breathe and take the pressure off.  That being said, I will still be showing up here, but not as much as I had hoped for this season, and I will continue to take things one day at a time. I do have some upcoming projects to share that I’m really excited about, like a new mural and a mantle we’ll soon be installing, so stick around.  In the meantime, here are some of the things keeping me on this side of sanity lately. (I am an Amazon associate and earn a small amount for qualifying purchases made through my links.  Thank you for your support!)

Farmers Market Tip

You guys might remember my love for making applesauce and canning it.  I shared my tutorial on how to make it the old fashioned yet easiest way here. When we lived in Maryland, apple farms were aplenty, and I could easily find inexpensive fruit for canning.  Here, we don’t have any apple farms too close, but we do have an awesome large farmers  market we try to hit each week.  Last week, I simply asked one of the apple vendors if she sold her “seconds” for making applesauce, and she was happy to put together the big basket you see above for just $10.  Seconds are imperfect produce items that are perfect for canning, baking, cooking, and more, and using them will save you a lot of money.  Monday afternoon I put my seconds, my canning pot, and my food mill to work and cranked out 5 large jars of applesauce, and it’s delicious!  It’s especially delicious when it comes out of the food mill, warm and steaming!  Our kitchen smelled absolutely divine and felt like fall, my favorite season of all!

Daytime Dates

Now that school has started, our weekly date nights became more challenging simply because I am too tired by 7 pm to want to do anything.  (I get up at 5:10 every morning, so cut me some slack!).  The first week of school we had a date planned for Friday evening.  Chris arrived home at 7 and I said, “Date night is cancelled, I am going to bed.” Last week I told him we were going to have to figure something else out… in the end we decided to have the kids babysit Sunday morning and take a day date which was awesome!  We had 90 minutes in the car each way to talk, plus we hiked for a couple hours at beautiful Stone Mountain.  We’ve actually got a little mountain getaway planned soon, and I can’t wait.  This little hike was a taste of having time along with my spouse when I actually have the energy to pay attention to our relationship.  If you have any fun day date ideas that are safe and possible during this pandemic, let me know!

Helpful Book

I read this book a couple of years ago, but there is a very good chance I will reread it soon as I feel like it’s the book I need at this moment in time.  I am struggling to keep up with everything, but the bottom line is that I don’t have to… I just have to be present in my life, stop living for perfection and the good things waiting for me around the corner.  I wanted to share this book now because I felt like it might help someone else who is feeling the same way that I am.  Let’s take a deep breath in, breathe out, and let go of all of the pressures and expectations we put on ourselves and just be in the moment as best we can.  This book can help you do that!

Delicious Healthy Muffins

I shared this recipe last spring for mother’s day, but now that we have fresh applesauce in the house, I’ve been baking them! I thought I’d reshare as they’re perfect for this season.  I’ve also been toying with my favorite paleo pumpkin bread and replacing half the pumpkin with applesauce, replacing the coconut flour with oat flour, and changing the spices a bit and they’ve turned out SO well!  Of course, chocolate chips totally help. 😉

A little sneak peek

I have been wanting to paint a mural in my home, and I enlisted Emmy to help me a bit.  Truth be told, I wanted her to paint it because I was feeling so uninspired, but when I told her as much she looked at me and said, “me, too.”  Guess it’s not just the moms!  We pulled out the paint and just went for it.  I will be sharing it in a couple of weeks.

That is all I have for you this week, but I would love to hear what is saving your sanity these days.  I will say the one thing that truly saves me is my self care routine, and I wondered if you would be interested in hearing about that?  I’d be happy to share!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.