Happy Monday!

I hope you had a great weekend.  I don't know what happened.  We did not have a ton planned but I was so busy and still left things undone on the To Do list.  But most importantly still got some quality time with the family and truth be told that is all that really matters.  I will eventually work that To Do list down.....eventually.

Loved hearing from you all on the Christmas in July wrapping session.  I hope to convert a few of you to taking up the tradition yourself.....it really is a lot of fun.

But let's get to the winners of the little giveaway

Winner #1 - The Alphabet Stamp Set and Ink Pad is

Shay B.

Winner #2 - The Cozy Throw is

Paula T.

Congratulations!!!!

Thanks to you all for entering.  I think we collectively lean toward the White lights....but several of you are like me and love the wonder of those multi-color lights.  Each year I do a little of both depending on how I am decorating that particular tree or room.  If you need to start gathering some inspiration, don't worry, Hobby Lobby is getting all the Christmas decor out so you can start browsing.......They kind of skip the whole back to school thing and just go straight for the one aisle of fall decor and aisle after aisle of Christmas.

Speaking of back to school, my younger daughter who is going to be a senior in high school this year purchased a headboard for her dorm room this weekend.  It was super cute so I agreed to it.  In my mind I was thinking why would she want to give up a queen bed for a twin....because surely she knows that we are just putting that in her bedroom upstairs.....surely she doesn't actually think she is moving out next year.....surely.

Ok, I am going to go do some deep breathing and get my heart rate back to normal.

Make sure you check back on Wednesday.  I have a new store to share with you.  It is the cutest!!!  I see many Saturdays of mine spent there.  I think you guys are going to love it as much as I do.

Talk to you on Wednesday!

Wrapped up and a Giveaway!!!

Well Wednesday was a joy....an exhausting joy but a joy all the same.

 We started the day by making the orange rolls recipe from the Magnolia Table Cookbook

Thank you, Joanna....you and your orange rolls are welcome at our Christmas in July celebration anytime.

We went to all of our storage places and pulled out the gifts we have been collecting all year.  I am pretty much the runner for the day because I know where everything is stashed.  My older daughter lets me hand her the gift and the paper it goes in.  My younger daughter does the gift tag and labeling.  All of this while mom is working through her stash of stuff and pitching in to help us get it all done.  Did I mention we started around 7:30 in the morning and finally finished around 7:00 pm?  Of course, we did take a lunch break and maybe a cheezit snack break. 

You know what's fun?......pulling out stuff that you know people are going to love receiving and wrapping it all up.  That, my friends, is a good time.  You know what is also fun?....finding stuff you completely forgot you even bought....now there's a pleasant surprise.

So if you are thinking how in the world can they spend an entire day wrapping gifts......check out the final stack

Again, I primarily used my brown kraft paper.  I wrote a whole post about it here. I have had this roll of paper since 2015.  I have used it like crazy.  It has now wrapped 3 seasons of Christmas gifts and countless occasions in between and look at how much is still left

I may actually cry when this roll runs out.  We've been hanging out together for so long.

If you noticed the packages wrapped in the red paper and the red/white paper, well those are 12 days of Christmas presents. I did a post about that little tradition that you can read here.

We used our alphabet stamps to label several of the gifts

Today I have a little giveaway for you and we are going to have TWO winners!

I have a stamp set and an ink pad for one of you

and 

a cozy throw for the second winner......because after you get all your gifts wrapped I want you to enjoy a little time on the couch under a throw.

To enter is simple......just leave a comment and answer this question

Do you prefer white lights or multi-colored lights at Christmas?

Leave your answer in the comments.  I will use a random number generator to select the two winners.

Giveaway open to U.S. Residents only and closes on Sunday, July 29th at noon C.S.T.

Have a great weekend!!!

July 25th - Christmas in July

We are celebrating Christmas in July today.  It is our tradition on July 25th to spend the whole day wrapping Christmas presents and watching Christmas movies.

The table is set

The candle is lit

There is a big crock pot of chili

And even the letter board is in on the celebration

On Friday I will have a full recap

PLUS

a fun giveaway.  

Make sure you come back on Friday for both.

Gotta go knock the air conditioner down a couple of notches......yes, we are wearing Christmas PJs.

Talk to you on Friday!!!!

And Merry Christmas in July!!!!

Oh and don't forget only 6 more days left in July.  If you still need to complete your Great Things in '18 Challenge for July, you still have time.

Our Clean 20 Experience

I have been waiting quite a while to tell you about this one.  I bought this book probably 3 months ago

The Clean 20

I read it.  I thought it sounded like a challenge.  I started counting 20 days from everything.....but there was always someone's birthday, we were out of town, there were holidays....there was always something.  Finally we decided we would just go for it.  We started on Saturday, June 23rd.  I warned everyone that the 4th of July would fall in our 20 days but they all said, let's just do it...it will be fun.  Ok, nobody said that.  They basically said let's just do it and get it over with.  Well I took that as a resounding yes!!!

I like the book  Essentially he explains all the clean foods you can eat.....think nothing processed, organic fruits and veggies, lots of chicken, fish and turkey.  After he explains why we should eat this way he lays out the 20 days.  Each day, you have a couple of choices for breakfast, a snack, a couple of lunch choices, another snack, a healthy dinner and an optional after dinner snack.  

I didn't take a ton of pictures but a got a few

Here is how we celebrated the 4th of July cleanly

That's a delicious turkey burger, with turkey bacon on a whole wheat bun with homemade baked sweet potato fries, corn on the cob and a side of fruit (mango, peaches and grapes).  I know.  You are totally jealous, right?  Honestly, it was pretty good.

After the first 5 days my husband announced he had lost 5 pounds......mentally I throat punched him.....but in reality I just smiled and told him that was great.  At that point, I had lost absolutely nothing.  I really wasn't sure we would lose any weight.  We eat fairly healthy....with a few cheezits, fries and cookies thrown in.  So the whole weight lost thing was just going to be a bonus.  The main thing was to get some of the bad stuff, especially sugar out of our system.

Personally, my toughest struggle was not having the one coke I have each day.  I enjoy the taste, the fizz, the experience of having a coke.  So for sure that was my struggle....but for only the first week. The other struggle was watching TV.  Perhaps we watch more Food Network than the average household but that was a struggle and every commercial no matter what channel we were on made my mouth water.  But since we were all doing it together.  I survived. 

I made little ziplocs with the approved amount of almonds, walnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds and whole grain pretzels.  

The key was having a healthy snack that I could pick up easily.  I bought a ton of fruit and kept is washed and ready. 

I even used my food scale and measured out the 3 ounces of chicken we could have.  The prep for this whole gig was no joke.  I had to cook ahead and make everyone their little zippie so they could pick up their bag and go.

By week two I actually had dropped a few pounds.......and yes I did feel better. By the end of the 20 days I had lost 8 pounds.  I have a feeling I can put them back on a lot faster than 20 days.... let's all hope not.

What I am really taking from the experience is having healthy options ready and accessible to me so I can make good choices AND I am more focused on appropriate portion sizes.

It really was a good experience.  

If you check out the book, let me know what you think.