Create.Simplify.Inspire. #81

Hi everyone! Apparently I have lost track of time and this post is nearly 24 hours late...better late than never, right? I've had the last two days at home with the kids - no schedules, no errands to run - but I have been trying to get caught up and ahead on everything because starting tomorrow I will be working my "other" nursing job 5 out of 6 days. Not bad for a lot of people, but I'm not used to that many days in a row working outside of the home in addition to the work that I do from home...and my kids aren't too happy when I'm gone that much either. I tell them they're spoiled. :)

What have you been up to this week? I'd love it if you shared!

This link up to to share anything and everything that inspires you. 

           ~Melissa

Create.Simplify.Inspire. #81

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11 Years Ago Yesterday

11 years ago yesterday I gave birth to a 6 pound 1 oz baby girl a month premature. We spent our first two weeks together hanging out in the NICU getting to know one another. Anika has always been a fighter, a ball of energy, a girl that wants to do it all and who is not afraid of failing. We celebrated Anika's birthday last weekend with a little BBQ and sleepover for her and a few friends, then the next day Wayne and I took her out to lunch (a tradition we do with each kid on their birthday) - she chose McMenimans because they have her favorite Cajun tots and rooftop seating. We had to take cover shortly after we began eating though because an exciting lightning storm started happening. It made the meal memorable. Afterwards I took her school clothes shopping and then we got pedicures together. 

11 years ago yesterday I was a scared girl - I had a sick baby and had no idea how I was supposed to take care of an infant. 

We've both done a lot of growing since then.

Happy Birthday Anika - you'll always be my little baby girl.

~Melissa

Turn Back to School Scheduling into a Date Night

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Last night Wayne and I finally had a few minutes to sit down together and talk. My dad rode the bus up and stayed with us over the weekend to celebrate Anika’s birthday with us (she officially turned 11 today!) and so we took advantage of having “Papa” with us and went outside on the back patio to have a few minutes of alone time to regroup and discuss things.  I have to be honest I was completely exhausted after the weekend and as I speak the entire backyard is still adorned with leftover decorations! We decided to open up a bottle of red wine and I cooked up a package of DiGiorno Small Pizza Dipping Strips to eat outside in the summer weather.

We had needed to sit down and talk about the upcoming school schedules and what we had to do in order to get everything ready. With everything going on this summer just flew by and I know that we both weren't really prepared. Last year our system consisted of me keeping track of all of the scheduling and activities and writing them on our family calendar and then Wayne would grab his pocket schedule every couple of weeks and update his as needed, but this year with Anika going into middle school we will have all three kids in different schools and that is a whole new set of activities to add! We both enjoyed our wine and marina-dipped-pizza-strips together and decided that in addition to double checking our calendars, we needed to do date nights in more often so we can plan and coordinate more together.

I always strive to make family dinners one of the most important parts of the day – even during the school year we do sit down meals together almost every night, but every once in a while we used to feed the kids dinner and then get them off to bed and then we would either make a meal together or at least eat some #FoodMadeSimple so we could have an hour to ourselves.  When life started getting busier though, this date night kind of got pushed aside and we seriously haven’t done it in forever, so that’s why last night we decided to do it again. We are going to do it once a month and we can help keep each other on track and motivated to get through the month! ;)

We will stock up on things to munch on together, like the DiGiorno Small Pizza Dipping Strips – I found them in the frozen pizza section at our last trip to Walmart. There's also some good recipes that you can use if you want to cook a special meal together HERE. 

How does your family prepare and plan out schedules during the school year? Thanks #CollectiveBias for letting me share our ideas with you!

~Melissa

Easy Meat and Cheese Wraps + Printable Coupons!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Hey everyone! How was your weekend? If you follow me on Instagram you can see what a busy lady I've been lately! Friday I was at The Bite of Oregon up in Portland (a fun food festival that supports the Special Olympics), Saturday the family and I took a day trip to Hood River, and yesterday we had Anika’s birthday BBQ and sleepover!  Since we've been traveling and on the go so much summer I've been making these easy wraps and I thought I’d share them with you today since there are some great Kraft coupons that you can print right now!

I've always made wraps here and there when I had the time, but since we were at the fair a couple of weeks ago I began making them regularly when we are going to be gone for a long period of time and putting them in an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack to keep them cold. Obviously wraps are pretty simple and easy to make, but this is how I make them for my kids and they love it – they don’t even mind the lettuce I sneak in to them (too much!) 

Here’s what I use to make them:

Easy Meat and Cheese Wraps

• 8” Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

• Philadelphia Cream Cheese

• Lunch meat (I used 4 slices for each wrap)

• Kraft Ranch Salad Dressing

• Kraft Natural Shredded Cheese

• Romaine Lettuce

I spread the Philadelphia cream cheese on each tortilla first, then add the lettuce, lunch meat, and ranch and top it with cheese. Then roll them up, slice them in half and place in a plastic bag. We throw enough in a lunch bag with a few cold waters and Capri Suns to keep us full until we get home – or for days like the fair we took them for lunch and then bought something later for dinner. It’s just a good way to save a little extra money so you can budget more for fun or “special meals” together.

Whatever you put in your wraps, Kraft has a bunch of printable coupons right now that you can use on your next shopping trip. We stopped by Walmart the other day and stocked up.  What’s one thing you always make for meals on the go?

Thanks #CollectiveBias for letting me share my #PackedWithSavings idea! 

~Melissa

Soccer is Near

So I can't believe that it's seriously time to sign the girls up for soccer again! It seems like Anika just finished softball and like we should have another couple of months to go before fall activities begin - not weeks!

We've always had the girls in the McMinnville Parks and Rec, but Anika is now getting too old for it, yet there isn't any soccer offered in middle school, so if she wants to have a chance to play in high school (which there is a really good chance) I'm going to have to put her in a club and to be honest I was completely scared to do that.

I have always thought that being in a club always meant that you did a lot of traveling, which really isn't something that I can handle with all three of the kids being so young and having different activities, but I ended up finally looking online and doing a bit of research and learned some more information about the local club in this area and found out that Anika can be on a player development league and not travel - in fact she'd get to play at on the same fields that she has been playing on for the past few years and the cost isn't much more than what we've been paying either. 

Soccer is Anika's all-time favorite sport to play and if she had to give everything else up in order to continue to play I know that she would.

While I was doing my research online I also checked out a site called Pear Up. It's like a social engagement platform website that helps groups earn sponsorship from brands and it doesn't cost anything. The website matches your team up with organizations in the community and helps make sponsorship easier.

This quick video explains it a whole lot quicker than I can:

It seems really easy and groups can earn up to $1000 in a 10 day time frame. I'll have to wait until Anika gets placed on a team to try this out, but I thought if your kids were already on team you might want to check Pear Up out!

You can create your own Pear for your child's sports team HERE, or if you'd like you can  support the Pear of the team HERE.

Noah has wanted to start soccer too - but he won't be old enough until this next spring. I don't know if I'm ready for all three kids in sports! How do you manage all of your kid's schedules? I think I'll need all the tips I can get! :)

~Melissa
Full Disclosure: This post has been compensated, but as always all opinions are my own. For more information on working with me, visit my sponsorship page.