Thankfully Thankful

Every year as the weather begins to change I find myself in a nostalgic mood. Fall is the best time of year and I often catch myself feeling more grateful for the people in my life. I don't know if it's because Thanksgiving is nearing and you often have those conversations around the table or what but I continue catching myself taking moments to reflect on how grateful I am and decided this time to quickly write some of it down.

It is extremely easy for me to get wrapped up in the negative and I have to consistently remind myself around October to take a deep breath. October is a busy time at work and I catch myself feeling burnt out. Between commuting, working late, conferences, and life, I begin to feel emotionally and physically exhausted. However, regardless of how busy and crabby I get, I know when I walk through the door Andrew is there. There are weeks we go without seeing each other for longer than a millisecond as we run out the door but once the dust settles we are still in stride with one another and no matter what season it is- I am extremely grateful for that.

Someone's sleepy. 

An integral part of our family are our dogs-Alba and Bailey. If you follow me on any social medias you are fairly acquainted with them. They truly are our kids and when they're not around we are lost without them. Over the summer as we prepared for a vacation and had dropped them off to be dog sat at Andrew's brother's house. That evening we decided to go on a walk which we frequently do with the dogs and we both discussed how a piece of our life was missing without them there. On top of Andrew being behind that door every time I come home I know one of them will be there to greet me.

How could you not be grateful for these two?

Believe me- there is a ton more I am grateful for! Remember I said October was busy? Maybe I'll be able to carve more time in the future to continue to share things I'm thankful
for. Until then....

Food coma

The holidays always make my heart and stomach full. Spending time with both Andrew and my family is always full of laughs along with delicious food.

This past week I told Andrew I wanted nothing more than a salad for dinner. We gorged ourselves on Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, and the day after that. There is always a ton of leftovers and everyone just ends up eating those the remainder of the weekend.

When we came home Sunday, it was rainy and gross outside. My all time favorite food in the winter is soup. Since the gloomy weather was supposed to continue I decided to prep two soups to take for lunch throughout the week.

This Black Bean and Lentil Chili has already made an appearance once on my blog. Last year I was given this recipe to try and absolutely feel in love. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been looking forward to winter just to have an excuse to eat this!


While in Beaver Creek, CO for a conference a couple weeks ago we had Pumpkin Soup and I became obsessed as fast as I ate the soup. While we were eating, someone recommended Panera's Autumn Squash soup and I am forever grateful. Unfortunately, it will not be in my budget or stomach's best interest if I ate this soup everyday. So I found a replica to try on my own and I'm looking forward to eating it this week for lunch! Behold- Butternut Squash Soup!

**I completely blanked and forgot to get the coconut milk while we were at the store so I substituted greek yogurt

A few of my favorite things

Lately I've been in a "mood" according to Andrew. His exact words tonight were "What has gotten into you? Crafting, cooking, and cleaning?!"

In all reality, when we're at home I don't want to just sit around and watch football. I want to do something. With the holidays in full swing we've started to decorate our apartment. My husband is a real life Grinch. He doesn't see the fun in doing all these things but that makes it more fun for me! :)

Two weekends ago, I started cleaning and came across a DIY Burlap Wreath I started making shortly after Andrew and I got married. It was looking a little drab so I decided to finally take the Nebraska football down outside our apartment and switch it up with something more festive. 

The wreath itself was super easy to make. I unwrapped a wire hanger and thread different types of burlap through. I then fastened the Santa and pinecones on with ornament hangers. The whole project probably took about 60 minutes total, which is exactly what I need since I get bored easily with projects. 

Next we decided to put our Christmas tree up. This was supposed to be done "after Thanksgiving" but since we planned on going home for Thanksgiving we had to have it up so we can return home to it! Andrew put a total of three ornaments on before he got bored. 

This is him telling our dog Alba to sit for a photo in front of the tree

Since I was already in the crafting mood and we were at Michaels, I decided to update our tray we use to hold remotes in our living room. I painted the tray and used scrapbook paper to cover the inside. Again, super easy and done within one night. 

1. Painted the tray

2. Cooked dinner

3. Painted a second coat

4. Ate dinner

5. Glued the scrapbook paper in the middle

Phew... and I'd be lying if I said I don't still have the crafting bug. When I get into these "moods" as Andrew calls it, I end up spending hours on Pinterest. My t-shirt quilt is a project I've slowly been gathering supplies for and tonight I officially "started." Stay tuned!

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