Menu Monday | New Recipes To Try #5

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // June 27, 2016 // 7 Comments

It’s the last Monday of the month! That means I’m teaming up with Whitney from Come Home for Comfort and Whitney from Polka-Dotty Place to share our favorite Pinterest recipes that you HAVE to try! Also a special welcome to our 4th meal round up blogger – Stephanie from Wife Mommy Me! So there are going be SO many recipes to add to your must try list.

Thanks to some sweet friends, we’ve had a chance to try several yummy recipes that have now been pinned to make again. So delicious!

Spinach and Cheese Strata from Smitten Kitchen

I’ve made this several times for various brunches, but I pulled it out again to make this past weekend for a baby shower brunch. Yum! I forgot how delicious this was. And if you aren’t familiar with Smitten Kitchen’s recipes yet, it’s an excellent source for just about every dish imaginable.

Rhubarb Cake

This…. yum! It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it tastes like a delicious hybrid between a summer dessert (thanks to the rhubarb) and coffee cake! Definitely a winner for when you’re hosting a brunch or need something lovely to have on hand with some coffee. I’m confident I ate half the pan myself.

Creating a 2 Week Menu

This is something I’m excited to actually implement starting this week! We’ve been living off the kindness of friends delivering food so far this last month, but this week we’re getting back to simple menu planning. I decided it would be easy to shop if I pre-created a 2 week menu and just reuse it over and over this summer. K.I.S.S.

Asian Noodle Salad from the Pioneer Woman

Another winner of a delivered dish! It was such a good cold pasta salad, but completely different in flavor profile from the usual pasta salads. My friend added cashews to it for protein, and then later when we were eating the leftovers, I chopped up some Trader Joe’s veggie chicken strips to add. Perfect! The sauce was delicious! I plan on doubling up on that next time to ensure there is enough to go around.

What are some amazing recipes you’ve tried lately? Are you guilty of the Pinterest board that goes neglected like me?

Check out Come Home for Comfort, Wife Mommy Me and Polka-Dotty Place for their recommended recipes from this month!

We’ve also created a Pinterest board where we’ll be pinning all of our tested and approved recipes we find! Head on over and follow for more ideas!

Follow Whitney’s board New Recipes We Tried And Loved! on Pinterest.

Linking up at Menu Monday with Org Junkie

High Five for Friday #76 | A Full Week

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // June 24, 2016 // 12 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, and Della! If you want to know more, read about it here!

This week’s featured blogger is Michelle from Grammie Time! She is one of the most positive bloggers out there. Her blog is full of wonderful, encouraging posts for women meant to inspire. She also hosts two of the best link ups – Tuesday Talk and Party at My Place on Thursdays. If you haven’t had a chance to meet Michelle, do it now!

Mercy, we had a full week, full of fun!

1. Our Father’s Day weekend was glorious! The weather was beautiful – sunny skies but not too hot. So we ended up skipping church Saturday and we headed off to a new park. The park had a great playground and walking trails. And a bonus on Saturday – there was a bird rehabilitation group that was releasing falcons and owls back into the wild. So we got to witness that. So neat!

2. We got to enjoy another playground that weekend too – I camped under the shade with William while my husband gallivanted around the playground with Elizabeth. Loved it! (That little sunshine patch on William’s cheek? Turned into a short-lived sunburn. Ooops!)

3. It was hard getting our act together to actually make a little Father’s Day craft, but we whipped one up quickly! Elizabeth and I couldn’t stop giggling at how silly it looked. The idea was using the kiddos’ hand prints to look like monkeys hanging from a vine, and it would say “We love hanging with you, Daddy!”. Super cute! But when it came to William, I realized a newborn’s hand is always in a fist, making it nearly impossible to do a hand print. So we did a foot print! And we declared it a “slow moving sloth” ala one of Elizabeth’s nature books.

4. We took Wednesday to run over to a nearby mall. I had heard a rumor that they had a large fountain area outside that would double as a splash pad. When we got there, the fountain wasn’t turned on! So we headed inside to wander and enjoy the AC. Turns out, being inside was more fun! The mall had a carousel! Elizabeth also enjoyed the classic ride on toys and a few trips up and down the escalator.

5. So I found my second tick of the year this week! I swear, I need to stay indoors for the rest of the summer. But yesterday I actually started to feel sick. I also have several weird rash things on my back where the tick was. So….. I may be headed off to the doctor’s office today to make sure. I don’t feel sick enough to say something’s actually wrong, but I am definitely not normal…. I’m hoping it’s just a false alarm. But it could make for an interesting weekend to come!

6. And a bonus 6! Today is William’s 1 month birthday! Hooray! We’ll be snapping the classic 1 month pictures if he cooperates 🙂

What was your highlight from the week? Can’t wait to hear about it!

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

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$10 at Target | Impulse Snack and IG Props

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // June 20, 2016 // 17 Comments

I’m so excited to actually have my act together enough to participate in this fun $10 Target Haul link up! If you want to see what other bloggers snagged for $10 at the best shopping mecca, go over and take a peek.

I did this little haul just before William was born. I went to stock up on some pre-baby essentials and figured while I was there I would see what I could snag for $10. Admittedly, I found a lot of treasures in the Dollar Spot. There are so many treasures there!

Here’s what I bought.
Bark Thins Chocolate Pretzel with Sea Salt $2.49
E.L.F. High Definition Undereye Setting Powder $3.00
Notepad $1.00
Sticky Notes $1.00
Shark $1.00
Go Fish Card Deck $1.00

For a Grand Total of $9.49!

I bought the sticky notes and notepad for an IG prop box. I saw a blog post recently (don’t remember where…) about having consistent IG images and one way to achieve that is a prop box of items you can use for staging IG photos. Genius! And the Dollar Spot has adorable paper goods.

Elizabeth loves the shark! And it’s squeezable!

I mentioned the E.L.F. HD Undereye setting powder in a favorites video a while back, but said that I couldn’t find a replacement so I bought the face powder instead. Let me tell you – the Undereye setting powder is SO much better than the all-over face loose setting powder! The undereye powder has some sort of brightening quality to it, and it looks better under the eye. The face powder has a tint… or something… that changes the look of my concealer.

That little deck of Go Fish cards has been tons of fun. Even though we aren’t technically using them to play Go Fish, it’s still providing fun games. We’re using them for matching games, “find the number” and “find the fish”, counting practice, etc. A handy teaching tool for just $1!

And then, finally, you know I’ve got a dramatic tale for you.

The Bark Thins were purchased as an impulse buy at the register. And delicious! But we had the most STRESSFUL trip to Target, which included a 10 minute showdown in the bathroom because Elizabeth declared “I have to go potty!” but when we got there, she refused to go. She finally did, but it was not pleasant… as a 38 week pregnant lady crouching on the floor, trying to keep a toddler from touching things, I deserved the Bark Thins.

And then, tragedy strikes at the checkout register! I unloaded my very full cart laden with food stock ups pre-baby and had it all artfully arranged, with all the frozen/cold items together, the canned goods together, etc. I really should have snapped a picture to remember it! It was like a grown up Jenga. BUT when it was my turn, the register gets frozen, and we have to start all over again at a NEW register! GAH! All that work for naught.

Anywho… I highly recommend trying this $10 challenge EVERY time you go to Target. It will keep you from going crazy with the impulse buys.

High Five for Friday #75 | A Week of Ups and Downs

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // June 17, 2016 // 12 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, and Della! If you want to know more, read about it here!

This week’s featured blogger is Kate from The Neat Nook! Her blog is full of great ideas!! This post on eating and drinking with fresh herbs is fantastic! (She also mentioned her mom was a Master Gardener! Mine too!) And today she’s got a special Father’s Day camping post! Swing over and say hello!

This week was full of ups and downs, hence why it was so quiet around here…. Let’s review!

1. Saturday we did the unthinkable… we all made it to church ON TIME! William got to go to Elizabeth’s class for the first time and Elizabeth was so thrilled. There’s a favorite song where they get to wave and welcome each kiddo, saying their name. And Elizabeth wouldn’t let mommy (the teacher that week!) forget to welcome Baby Bruder. He was a great church attendee the whole time. We lasted there for a few hours, but eventually headed back home. But a victory, nonetheless!

2. Our week’s downs were basically centered around someone crying loud…. I think at one point everyone was crying… William, Elizabeth AND mommy. I don’t very often let things with the kids bring me to tears, but this week was different. Maybe hormones? Maybe sleep deprivation? (probably sleep… definitely sleep) But we were all weepy this week.

3. One reason for sleep deprivation – my husband had his fellowship graduation dinner on Tuesday!! This means he is COMPLETELY finished with all of his medical training, and the real job begins July 1. SO proud of him! This has been 10 years in the making (14 if you add in undergrad) – 4 years medical school, 3 years of internal medicine residency, and then 3 years nephrology fellowship. During the dinner they called up each graduating fellow to say a few words/tell stories. Since my husband is staying on as faculty and not moving away, the remarks were thankfully fairly lighthearted. But it was wonderful to hear that he started blowing away the program WAY back when he was a first year resident, before nephrology even entered his mind. They even mentioned that the newly hired chief mentioned in his interview that he would make sure to hire that guy with the beard because he’s clearly doing great things. Proud wife! It was a late night, but it was fun getting a chance to celebrate this amazing Doctor Husband! We really should have snapped a few more pics.. and that selfie was only snapped to text to fellows that left last year saying “wish you were here”.

4. Elizabeth has been an absolute hoot this week! There have been so many things that cracked me up! A new activity for her is going on Deer Patrol. We have thick woods in the back yard and constantly have deer back there. Normally, that would be fun! But we’re always watching diligently to make sure they don’t eat flowers. And Elizabeth has taken ownership of that task. So now, if there is a deer back there, you just tell Elizabeth, and she runs to the sunroom, climbs on the sofa and starts shouting “Shoo Deer!”. She’s been pretty successful! I think I’ll keep her.

5. I mentioned a few weeks ago that we were thinking of hiring someone to come clean the house 2x a month. Well, we did! It may be temporary, BUT we are all about outsourcing what we can right now to keep us sane.

What are your plans for Father’s Day? I asked my husband what he wanted to do, and the best he could think of was “hang in the backyard”. HA! So we’re no doubt in for a laid back day.

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

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High Five for Friday #74 | Five Thoughts on Being a Mom of Two

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // June 10, 2016 // 16 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Tif, and Della! If you want to know more, read about it here!

This week’s featured blogger is Jessica from Life. Love. Reality! I love that she says one of her purposes of the blog is to give other women a chance to just honestly express their thoughts on life, marriage, family, etc. Her summer bucket list looks like such fun! Since I didn’t create one for us, I may just borrow hers! Be sure to swing over and say hello! That’s what I love about featuring a blogger each week – it gives us all a chance to meet new people!!

It was a pretty normal week around here… and not too many interesting highlights. SO I thought I’d switch things up and talk about the 5 things on my mind now that I’m a mom of 2.

1. When I’m running the show solo, I don’t like being outnumbered. My husband has a light schedule this month, so he’s been able to spend a TON of time at home with us, which is great! But when he is gone for meetings, that seems to be the time when both kids start crying. It’s inevitable! And I’m instantly pulled in two directions… some days it would be nice to be an octopus!

2. Adjusting to having a newborn again has been just fine… EXCEPT for the middle of the night feedings/cry sessions. That part of Elizabeth’s first few months must have been sponged from our memories, because my husband and I swear she didn’t do multiple wakings at night (I’m sure she did… it’s just all one big sleep deprived blur). It’s been hard to get used to operating on limited sleep… not going to lie. I’m pretty sure last night I was asleep standing up.

3. There are so many things to look forward to with these two kiddos! I can’t wait to see how they’ll play together. I wonder if they’ll be best buds like my sister and me. I can’t wait for William to start crawling so they can follow each other around! But then I’m all caught up in holding a little baby, and my sweet girl trying to take care of him, and I just don’t want these moments to go by quite so quickly.

4. Newborn bodily fluids just do not phase me. Poop on the hands? Fine! Spit up on my shirt – do I really need to change? But if any of my toddler’s ick ends up on me? Hazmat suits come out. Bleh!

5. Staying connected with my husband is SO much more important now. We’re, understandably, feeling like 100% mommy and daddy right now. The idea of organizing a date night and a baby sitter that can handle a newborn and toddler seems overwhelming to me. But I’m realizing regularly connecting is going to be so crucial. Veterans – any tips on how to incorporate this when you’re just trying to survive as a parent? It’s feeling like being a spouse is almost too much to ask for right now.

BONUS! I was quickly scanning the week’s pics and realized, hey! There were a few things that happened!

Clockwise from L: William celebrating 2 weeks on Tuesday! Elizabeth enjoyed the “paddling pool” and wearing a “swimming costume”. My parents came into town last weekend and Elizabeth soaked all that time up. We also snuck out to our favorite breakfast spot and I loved sitting next to my favorite girl!

Also, did you see this week’s posts? I shared my idea for a 2 Week Rotating Menu to make meal planning easier this summer. I also have my labor and delivery story up!

What were you up to this week? Let me know!

I’m also linking up with Oh Hey, Friday, Meet @ the Barre, 5 on Friday & Diary of a Real Housewife

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