Work Wear on Sale

Turtleneck/Black Dress Pants/Black Flats/Stud Earrings/

Scalloped Blouse/Gray Ankle Pants/Leather Tote/A Line Red Dress/Seamed Flippy Skirt

I love seeing all the Instagram and blog posts sharing casual weekend outfits. However, as a girl who works in a professional financial setting Monday through Friday, I'm always looking for some cute work clothes too!  I like pieces that are comfortable and stylish while also looking very professional.

I put together a collage for you all of some of my favorite pieces on sale right now!  Several are available in multiple colors.  I picked these pieces because they can all be mixed and matched to make several outfits and that's how I try to build my work closet!  I like simple and classic pieces that I can make several outfits out of to keep from repeating the same outfits.

Do you work in an office environment?  Do you struggle to find good work clothes like I do?  Would you like to see more office style ideas or outfit posts?  I could even do some vlogs on how I put together work outfits.  Let me know what you want to see!

Doterra Home Essentials Kit [VLOG]

Happy Monday!! Hope you all had a great weekend! 

Remember when I shared my one word for 2017 last week?  I am taking my word very seriously.  I am committed to my 21 day fix workouts & health plan right now and we're taking all the healthy steps we can in our house! 

One of the healthier living options I wanted to explore this year was essential oils.  I finally ordered my Doterra Home Essentials kit and it came in this weekend!  Watch my vlog above to see what we ordered, what came in our box, how I plan to use the oils & more!

Do you use essential oils or Doterra?  Tell me everything!  I want to diffuse them, clean with them, use them topically where I can and more!  Let me know what oils you love and how you use them in your house and lives!  I can't wait to give these all a try. 

If you haven't yet, please subscribe to my channel!  I have lots of great content planned to share this year but am very open to suggestions.  Let me know what you want to see & hear about!  Also, I'm trying to grow my channel so any likes, comments or sharing of my videos/channel are very appreciated!



Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!! It's so hard to believe it's already time for our first Friday Favorites of 2017!

This year has gotten off to a VERY busy start!  Between house projects, starting a new workout routine, our regular jobs and getting our personal businesses moving again in the new year, it has been a whirlwind!! Hope you all have had a great first week of the new year!

My first favorite this week is this coat!  I bought this on our Opryland Christmas trip and am in LOVE!  If you need a good winter coat, this one is on sale and so cute & warm.  I love that it's longer so when I bend over in it I don't get cold air up my back (please tell me y'all know what I'm talking about.  So. Annoying.) and I love the belt because it accents my waist and doesn't make me look like a big marshmallow! 

As I mentioned, I started a new workout routine this year and am loving it!  I started the 21 day fix on Monday and so far so good!  I love the workouts because they're only 30 minutes and I do them in the living room so I really have no excuse not to get them done.  Stay tuned for a results post!  You can see my 2017 goals post here and sticking to this plan is definitely on the list!

On Monday, we had the day off and we are SO tired of eating out from the holiday season.  Tired of eating processed food & tired of spending so much money on it.  Anyone else?  Not to mention I am working on getting in better shape and need to stick to the 21 day fix meal plan as much as possible.

We used to do freezer & crockpot meals all the time and it's amazing how much less we spent and how much healthier we were.  I spent all day Monday making up 22 freezer & crockpot meals and packaging up chicken & ground beef to use for other meals. 

Tip: brown 5 lbs. or more of ground beef at a time and freeze each pound in a quart freezer bag.  When you're ready to cook spaghetti, tacos, etc., you can just pull the cooked meat out, defrost it and then get to cooking.  This saves SO MUCH TIME and isn't that something we all need? 

I'm thinking about doing a YouTube video on how I meal plan & make all of these.  Anyone interested?

I am not a breakfast girl.  I like it on the weekends every once in a while or as a treat on vacation but I really just don't like to eat a bunch of food first thing in the morning.  I'm also running around the house like a crazy person in the mornings trying to get to work and never have time to make breakfast.  When I started the 21 day fix, I decided to give the Shakeology drinks a try and guys, I'm hooked.  It's kind of pricey but it breaks down to like $4 a day which is less than most people spend on Starbucks.  I'm loving it because I can just blend it up on my way out the door in the morning.  This is making me less crazy and less hungry.  Definitely a favorite this week!!

Other favorites:

- All our tv shows are coming back on! Yay!

- The energy the new year brings that keeps me cleaning out drawers, accomplishing all those "another day" projects & more.

- My first Doterra essential oils order came in!  Stay tuned for a video about that!

- Looking forward to the weekend with my husband!

- I made up a new recipe this week.  Two words: taco lasagna.  Holy yum!  Y'all are going to love this recipe!  I can't wait to share :)  It's healthy, filling & doesn't taste healthy at all.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Goals for 2017

SNOW!!!! We finally have snow and I am one happy girl :)  It may only be a few inches but there's something about a fresh blanket of white snow on the ground that makes me happy.  It also makes me look forward to 5 so I can go home, eat a yummy dinner and spend the night curled up with my husband watching our shows!


On Monday, I talked about about my word for the year.  See that post here!  I like to pick a word that just represents all that I want to accomplish that year.  On top of that, I like to make some specific personal and blog goals to hold me accountable as well.

My goals for 2017:

Personal

- Lose 25 pounds
(I am currently on day 4 of the 21 day fix so stay tuned for my results!)

- Read 2 books each month
- Daily devotional or scripture reading

- Stay committed to my new workout & healthy eating goals.  This is about more than weight loss for me, I just want to be the healthiest version of myself.
(I'm currently obsessed with this hoodie and these leggings for working out!)
- Spend quality time with my husband & family (you know the kind where you don't have your phone & just enjoy spending time together)
- enjoy trips and getaways with Jared
- grow our personal businesses and continue to do well at work

Blog

- Consistently post new YouTube content & be at 250 subscribers!
(If you haven't yet, subscribe to my channel here!)
- Blog at least 3 times each week & grow blog following
- Explore using Facebook Live videos in addition to YouTube
- Learn more about SEO (if you fully get this, help me!)
- Learn more about my camera and how to take better quality pictures
- Continue to cultivate blog friendships!

What are your goals this year?!

One Word 2017

A few years ago, I talked about One Word the first time.  I have gotten out of the habit of doing this each year and this year I decided to start again.  

My word for 2017 came to me pretty easily.  I haven't talked about it much on here but 2016 was a challenging year for me in a lot of ways.  I spent a lot of 2015 really focusing on my health, losing a lot of weight and really taking care of myself.  2016 started out okay besides a bad sinus infection and a bought of the stomach flu (which was foreshadowing for the rest of the year).  Flash forward to the summer, I started having some serious health issues and ended up gaining a lot of the weight back, feeling awful every day and spending way too much time in the hospital and in doctors offices.  After 6 months of looking for answers, we still aren't sure what caused the original problem but we were able to eliminate the scariest options.  We did discover several things about my health through the process though that I am thankful to know and am able to work on.  I didn't really want to share any of this on my blog but I decided to give you all a few highlights for a couple of reasons.

One, this blog is about my life and that includes the dark and crummy parts too.  It makes me feel so much more normal when I read about others going through something similar to me and I feel like I owed it to those bloggers to share parts of my story too.  Two, I took large blogging breaks this year and that's why.  There were days I just didn't have it in me to post on here, I was barely getting through the necessities of each day.  Three, because I want you all to pay so much attention to your health.  I almost blew off the symptoms I was having and they were super scary ones.  It's so easy to just say oh maybe I'll call my doctor next week.  When I finally decided to call my doctor's office and listed off my symptoms, they had me leave work and be in their office in less than an hour.  In that moment, it got real.  Do not brush off symptoms - get checked out!  Even though we're not 100% sure what caused my original issue, we did find some very important things out about my body to keep me healthier going forward and we would never have figured those things out without some of those tests.  This allows me to take care of the issues they did find in the ways my doctors recommend and if I have issues again it will give them a starting point.  

I have a bad habit of putting me and my health last.  I like to take care of other people, our house, my work, etc.  I have learned that I can't do that anymore.  It's like the airplane oxygen mask.  I have to take care of myself so that I can do all of the other things I want to do and to pursue the things God wants me to.

I have chosen Health as my word for 2017.  I want to pursue a healthier body and lifestyle through my food choices, regular exercise, resting my body and taking care of this vessel God has gifted me with.  I want to pursue a healthier marriage and relationship with my husband.  I want to pursue healthier relationships with my family and friends.  I want to pursue a stronger relationship with God through intentional prayer, devotionals and bible study.  I want to improve our financial health by paying down more debt and saving for our future goals.  The word health applies to all aspects of my life I'm wanting to focus on this year which makes it the perfect word for me.

Hopefully, this time in 2018 I'll be able to say I'm in a much healthier place and feeling great!  I'll be checking in during 2017 to let you all know how I'm doing with my word.

Are you all choosing a word this year?  If so, what's yours?

2016 Year in Review

2016 has been a year.  Several downs but more ups, special vacations, precious time spent with Jared and our family.  It's so hard to believe another year has come and gone!  As much as I've enjoyed a lot of 2016 and the recent holiday season, I'm ready for 2017.  There's just something about a new year, getting organized, setting goals and starting fresh.  Before 2017 is officially here, I thought it would be fun to do a recap of 2016!

January

We had our first snow of 2016!

I spent a day sledding with my family!

February

Attended a casino night with family to raise funds and awareness for a local service organization!

We celebrated my sweet husband's birthday!



Louisville + Bruce Springsteen trip!

March

I traveled to Cincinnati to visit Katlin!

We celebrated Easter!

April

We went to see Garth Brooks!

We traveled back to Louisville for the Spring Game!

I finished re-doing our bathroom!

May

A lot of business work took place in May!

We celebrated Mother's Day with Darlene!

June

We enjoyed several drive-in nights!

We celebrated Father's Day!

I started using BeautyCounter!  See my review here.

July

I shopped my favorite sale of the year!

July was full of lots of work and not much blogging this year.

August

I got to go on a really cool tour of where my brother works!

August was a really tough month for me and date nights and this guy definitely got me through!

September

I started swimming for exercise which I'm hoping to really commit to again in the new year!

I launched my YouTube channel which I can't wait to add more to this coming year!

We all got together to celebrate Dylan's birthday!



Darlene, Granny & I went to see Pride & Prejudice at our local theatre.

At the end of the month we snuck down to Florida for a few days with my grandparents.  See part 1 and part 2!

October

One of my best friends got married!!!

We enjoyed our annual trip to the GIE Expo in Louisville!

November

Dyl and I spent a Sunday with our grandparents driving around and seeing all the family sites and cemeteries.  It was so interesting and good quality time spent with them.

We enjoyed our trip to Texas!  We had so much fun!

Houston

San Antonio

Magnolia Market

AT&T Stadium Tour

Cowboys Game Day

Dallas Aquarium, Galleria & Grapevine

We celebrated Thanksgiving!

December

We decorated for Christmas!



We enjoyed our annual trip to Opryland!

We celebrated an awesome Christmas!

2016 has been an awesome, trying, busy and successful year and we are looking forward to seeing what 2017 holds!

Christmas 2016

Get ready for photo overload!  Before diving into the new year & all the fun posts that come with that, I want to recap our Christmas!

Christmas Eve started out with lots of cooking and loading up at our house and then we trekked over to my aunt & uncle's for our Mann family Christmas!

Secret Santa

Our 3rd married Christmas!

My little brother & grandfather.  Two good looking and good men!

So much love in this picture.

After lunch, gifts and visiting with my Dad's side, we headed over to Dad & Darlene's to do Christmas dinner and gifts with them.

Stockings by the new fireplace!  (They just renovated & I love how the fireplace turned out)

They crack me up.

We were so spoiled!  

We ended the night at our Christmas Eve church service which was so beautiful.   It's easy to get swept up in the commercial side of Christmas but it's so important to remember and celebrate the real reason for the season!

On Christmas morning, we woke up and exchanged stockings and spent the first part of the day cooking and enjoying the morning together.

On Christmas afternoon, we went to my grandparents to eat dinner and exchange gifts with them.  These three guys make my heart happy!

Delicious dinner!

Love these 4 so much!

Christmas 2016 was a great one!!   I do not take for granted how lucky I am to have these amazing people in my life.  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with your family!