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With everything that’s been going on with the new house and work and winter weather, it’s been busy!

My blogging schedule has changed – and I don’t mind it – but it’s taking me a while to find a balance again with everything else, too. Our new house is awesome and we love it and just feel so blessed to be in the place that we’re in, but we also have an even longer drive to work every day, which has caused us to make some changes in our schedules.

All in all, things are going well. It’s just taking some time to get used to it all.

While I haven’t been documenting all our meals, I’ve been trying to make sure I get pictures of great new recipes and things that are happening.

And right now, these are some of my favorite things:

My nephew. Seriously – one of the cutest babies I’ve ever seen. And I’m not just saying that because he’s family! He’s adorable, right?

Our hallway with the cabinet we got from Nick’s parents. The house is coming together and no longer feels empty.

These Xpress SmartCups that I won from Janetha!

They’re travel french press cups and they have given us the option for fresh coffee on a few busy mornings lately : )

So easy to use: put your coffee grounds in the cup, add in your boiling water, put the lid on and let it sit/brew for a few minutes – then take the rod and press into the lid slowly until it clicks in at the bottom.

And you can’t really see it in this picture, but right in the lid (where you take your sips), there’s a thin layer of mesh that also helps keep any grounds from getting out into your coffee.

I love these cups! I’m going to be sad when they’re gone.

But my favorite 2 things?

1. I finally have a KitchenAid! My mom and dad bought this for us as a housewarming present, since we finally have room for a stand mixer in this house. I am so excited about this and have been baking up a storm!

2. Eating dinner at a real table.

At our old house, our layout was a bit strange and our “dining room table” was more of a catch-all in a room that also served as a “catch-all” so we never ate at our table.

In the new house, we have dinner at our table every night and just catch up on the day. No tv blaring right in our faces OR in the background – just us enjoying our meal. It’s been really nice to have that time together each evening.

 

What about you? What are you loving right now?

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Frenched + Pressed

Good morning!

Happy Saturday, and thank goodness it’s finally here, right?

I’ve got a super busy day today and am already taking too long to get going. Oh well – having no alarm clock going off this morning was glorious, breakfast was awesome, and now I’m getting on my way.

Nick gave me a lesson on how to make French Press coffee in our big press, so now I can make it if he’s not here!

We have 2 French Presses – 1 baby, 1 mama.

After finding out how much better french press coffee was, we went out and bought the big mama french press a few months ago…and we rarely use the baby one anymore. It would be the perfect size if just one of us wanted coffee, though.

I also got to grind some of our Sumatra beans in our antique grinder this morning!

Does that count as an arm workout?  🙂

All in all, I made a good cup of coffee this morning!

We had the end of that cinnamon raisin loaf left, so Nick made some french toast + the last of the turkey bacon this morning while I worked on the coffee and cut up fruit.

This cinnamon raisin bread made the BEST french toast! I eat my french toast naked – no syrup, nothing. I never used to put syrup on it when my mom made her french toast, and I just got used to it that way! I love being able to taste the bread, eggs, and cinnamon/vanilla in the batter.

I got this bread at our farmer’s market last weekend and it was still perfect today. This new bakery at the market started just par-baking some of their breads, so they last longer. Basically, they only bake them about 1/2 -3/4 of the way and then it has instructions for you to finish it at home AND that means you get to have hot, fresh bread out of the oven when you make it. They also have freezing instructions on the bag, too, which is nice.

We had 3 slices of bread to use: 1 big, 1 medium, and 1 little. We each had one slice and then split one between the two of us.

I also cut up our last farmer’s market peach + some strawberries.

I’m hoping to stop by the market today for just a few peaches to get us through Tuesday. They are so good and I’m already sad that we ate the last one this morning.

Alright – I’ve got to get going!

My agenda is super full today and I’m getting a late start:

• Target for tiny aleve containers
• Walmart for some food stuff plus sanitizer, tp, etc for the trip
• Kroger for the rest of the food + the few groceries I’m getting
• Farmer’s market?
• Goodwill/YMCA thrift store to look for extra suitcases for the trip

Then back for something for lunch?, laundry, and starting to get stuff packed.

At least I have a fun dinner planned that we haven’t had in a while!

What do you like on your french toast? AND what’s your favorite QUICK and EASY lunch? I need ideas for today  🙂

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