Summer Bucket List – 2024 edition

  • Plan a staycation somewhere with a good pool and beautiful scenery – better with some friends!
  • Catch a movie at your local cinema – indulge in the buttery popcorn (snacks are so expensive at the movie theater, we like to visit the store beforehand and sneak in some goodies into mamas purse. Shhh! )
  • Have a day at the water park
  • Visit the beach, get in the water, and enjoy a pina colada – Mexico is calling our name
  • Spend a weekend at the lake with friends
  • Watch fireworks
  • Have an ice cream date
  • Enjoy an outdoor concert
  • Have a picnic at your favorite park
  • Make a time capsule and bury it deep into the ground open it in 10 years!
  • Make friendship bracelets
  • Camp in the backyard on a Friday or Saturday night and watch a movie on the projector
  • Go bowling
  • Dance in the rain
  • Host a movie/game night
  • Participate in a water balloon fight
  • Visit the library and visit more than once
  • Create your own tie dye shirts with some friends
  • Make ice cream sundaes
  • Go on a boat
  • Swim in lots of pools
  • Make homemade pizza
  • Do a science experiment
  • Have a total lazy day with no obligations
  • Complete a puzzle
  • Visit Grandma
  • Have an all day girls day – brunch, pedicures, shopping, Starbucks!
  • Start and finish a new book
  • Go for a morning hike
  • Go for an evening walk
  • Learn a new recipe
  • Play in the sprinkler
  • Make a clothing/toy donation to your local thrift shop
  • Have an electronic free day
  • Spend more than one morning doing yoga
  • Paint a canvas to display in your home
  • Watch a sunset
  • Make a recipe book
  • Have a family dance party

What will you add? 🙂

Party Pico De Galo

This is one of my favorite things to make for outdoor parties along with homemade tortilla chips. It’s yummy and refreshing, and guests love it!

What You Need:

4 limes

6 to 8 jalapeños chopped depending on your spice level

1 medium white onion chopped

27 to 30 roma tomatoes chopped

1 bunch of cilantro finely chopped

Salt for taste

Steps:

1. Chop all veggies and mix together in a large bowl.

2. Add your lime juice from the limes and mix well. Add salt lightly, mix, and taste until you achieve your desired taste.

*tip: taste test your pico with a tortilla chip. And always add salt gently. better to have little salt where others can add salt to their pico vs your salsa coming out too salty*

3. Serve immediately or allow to refrigerate overnight before your big party.

Enjoy!

Click here to learn how to make homemade tortilla chips

Super Easy Chicken Thigh And Veggie Sheet Pan Dinner

What You Need:

1 1/2 lbs of chicken thighs (bone in and skin removed)

1 large sweet potato peeled and chopped into bite size pieces

1 yellow squash sliced with skin on

1 head of broccoli chopped

1/2 of a sweet onion chopped into bite size pieces

1 tablespoon of olive oil plus 2-3 extra tablespoons

1 tablespoon of jarred minced garlic

1 packet of McCormick Seasoning Farmers Market Chicken And Vegetables SHEET PAN

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400 and line a cookie sheet with foil. While the oven is heating up prepare your veggies and remove skin from chicken.

2. Place veggies and chicken on sheet pan. Prepare McCormicks seasoning packet. Rub majority of mixture on the front and back of the chicken. Any additional mixture add onto veggies.

3. Drizzle the extra olive oil on veggies, next add a few dashes of salt and pepper on veggies, and then add the minced garlic throughout the veggies. Mix well with your hands.

4. Ensure the chicken is directly on the foil surrounded by the veggies (see photo below) . Bake at 400 for 30 mins. Once complete, allow the chicken and veggies to rest for 10 mins.

Best served with rice or potatoes.

Enjoy!


The seasoning packet
Before pan enters the oven
After the pan has been removed.

Happy cooking! 🙂

It Was In A Health Class….

Describe something you learned in high school.

I took this health related class my junior year of high school with Mr. Paul Johnson. He was such a cool teacher.

I loved this class btw, I had a group of friends in here and I looked forward to this class everyday. We would laugh uncontrollably, tell secrets, notice things that others didn’t and honestly it was more of a giggle class than anything.

Anyways, we were taking a test and my friend was letting me cheat off her test. One of the questions was a fill in the blank.

It said,

“When in doubt, (fill in the blank)”

I could have sworn my friend wrote, “pull it out”.

So on my test I wrote, “when in doubt pull it out.”

I finished the rest of the test and my teacher begins grading our tests while he let us do whatever.

As my teachers grading at his desk he calls my name.

Mr Johnson: “Marie, come up here…..”

Me: “Yes….”

Mr. Johnson: “What does this say?”

Me: “Ummm……When in doubt pull it out?…..”

*we just stare at each other for a moment and I realize how inappropriate that sounded and that it definitely was not the answer*

Mr. Johnson: “It’s THROW IT OUT.”

Me. “That’s what Kristina wrote though!”

We all started laughing immediately! Me, the teacher, and my classmates! It was hilarious. I’m laughing now just reminiscing on this memory.

But guess what, I’ve never forgotten this saying because of this moment in a high school class.

I especially say it whenever I’m cleaning my fridge.

And I literally said this yesterday to my husband last night because he was asking if it was okay to take Benadryl that’s been expired for two years.

“I don’t know honey, I’ve always known, “when in doubt throw it out.”

That is something I have learned in high school.

Dear Readers, I’m Sorry I Haven’t Posted In Awhile

Good morning my beautiful readers, how are you all doing?

I’m still here, and I am sorry that I have not shared anything in quite some time. To be honest I’ve just been very busy and this blog hasn’t been a priority at the moment.

I have 4 kids in case you didn’t know. An 8 year old, a 7 year old, a 4 year old, and a 1 year old. I’m a busy mama. And no, we didn’t just boom boom and decide to have kids back to back. Two of them are biological and two are adopted.

I know I don’t have to share that at all but I want those who read this to really understand. I like to joke that I got the “have a baby get one free deal” because that’s exactly what happened.

We actually just adopted my son (the one year old) in January. So thankful that that has been finalized.

I like to consider myself an open book so if you ever read any of my posts and would like clarification on anything don’t ever hesitate to ask me. We are friends on here I like to think.

Anyways, I’ve been busy. But it’s been a good busy.

I’m going to make an effort to release all that I’ve been absorbing and share it with you all.

I’m getting back into reading and I’ve already gained so much new insight! I love it!

Thank you my readers for taking the time to read what I share.

There’s something so intimate and comforting about being in the blogging community.

Lots of love, always

Marie

The Wild Gems

Skydiving

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

This is random but you know what I would love to do but just can’t…..

Is SKYDIVE!

I so wish I had the courage to skydive but I just don’t.

I don’t enjoy flying and I’m pretty sure I’d have a panic attack in the sky.

But I love watching skydiving videos on instagram. It’s seems so liberating and the views, wow the views…… I can only imagine.

Complaining Just Brings Others Down

What do you complain about the most?

I don’t really complain. At least I don’t consider myself one who does. And I think deep down I know I don’t have the right to complain.

But I do vent. Mostly to my mom, thank God for her.

Complaining is a defence against the courage to change, while venting addresses the issues and inspires you take action.”

Dear Readers, I am raising the future

No pressure right.

To anyone else raising the future…..just do your best. That’s all anyone can really do. Continue to learn and teach.

Better yourself.

Sometimes I don’t know whether I am raising my children or they are raising me. I never realized how lost I was before my children entered my life. I also never realized how angry I was.

I don’t know that everyone needs children to self discover. There are some incredible insightful people out there and I always wonder how they became to be.

Each persons journey is a different road, however this path of parenthood has revealed a spectrum of colors I never knew existed.

I owe my children for giving me life in this world.

And I will do my best to raise a beautiful future.

I will do my best.

*listening to ‘my tears are becoming a sea*

A Person That Reads Lives A Thousand Lives

What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

Reading.

There’s nothing like discovering a book that you just can’t put down because you’re eager to know, you’re eager to learn and grow, you’re eager to soak up and then disperse what you learn.

If it’s a really good book I can make time almost anywhere to read a few pages.

Do you enjoy reading?

You have to a little bit if you’re reading this. 🙂

You Can’t Point The Finger Forever

At one point or another we’ve all done it. We have avoided responsibility and placed the blame on something. Our parents, our childhood, our lack of not knowing better, our friends, God, that door for being in the way that just stubbed our toe, etc.

It alleviates the guilt or negative feelings that we fill inside….but deep down we all know that choices, decisions, and reactions are our own.

Many of us prefer to play the victim rather than scatter the broken pieces and discover a new creation.

What good does blaming do? Truthfully, is there a positive outcome to making that choice?

Before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean

Bob Marley

He who has not sinned can cast the first stone

Jesus

I love these quotes, both of these shout LOOK AT YOURSELF. And reminds us that we are flawed just like the rest.

You’re not alone.

My kids are at that delightful age where there’s a fair amount of tattling and a great deal of blaming one another.

Mom, she made me do it!”

“It’s not my fault, it’s theirs.”

“I only did it because she told me to do that.”

*something doesn’t go their way* – This is YOUR fault!”

And so forth.

This kind of stuff is expected right now. They are kids!

Although,

I do believe there is importance in teaching children accountability, acknowledgement, and acceptance. As we know, you can’t point the finger forever.

There comes a time when each of us have to look at ourselves, reflect on our own choices and decisions and take accountability for our part. Whatever that may be.

I would say a majority of people don’t enjoy doing this. It isn’t a pleasant process. It’s like holding hands with guilt and shame while walking down an empty road. You don’t want to hold their hands but they know where they are going and you don’t.

This is necessary for our own personal growth. Especially if we have a goal to be our very best selves and want to move forward and make improvements in our life.

There are many grown ups out there who still behave like children and are saying exactly what my kids are saying.

This is all YOUR Fault!”

And guess what the other grown up is saying,

No, this is your fault!”

Neither grown up wants to take accountability for their part. How will the issue get resolved if someone doesn’t step up?

Again, because it’s hard. Who wants to admit when they are wrong? Be honest.

Let me share something,

when you begin to take accountability for the directions and outcomes in your life, your life changes. Someone may argue, “but I got dealt a bad hand of cards.”

Maybe that person did. There are many lives out there who have truly been dealt a shitty hand of cards. But there are also lives out there that even with their bad cards they played a heck of a game.

Even in poker you can win a game with a bad hand.

Learning to take accountability and learning to acknowledge what is changes your life, and it changes for the better. In doing so you learn to give yourself grace which leads to giving others grace. You learn to forgive yourself which leads to you forgiving others.

Everyone needs grace and forgiveness. If you can learn to give it to yourself, you can learn to give it to others.

We cling to too many pains and aches from the past. They are like anchors that hold us down from exploring.

And then we blame those pains and aches for the outcome of our lives. When all we have to do is release the anchor so we may set sail. We get frustrated at the knot that we tied.

Living a life of pointing the finger will do nothing but poison you. It poisons you to the core.

And if you keep letting your pointer finger poison you, eventually it paralyzes you.

That is not how you want to live your life. Beautiful things await when we acknowledge ourselves, our situations, our reactions, and recognize that we hold in ourselves more power than we know.

You are powerful. You are strong. You have strength inside of you to get you through what you are going through. It’s nobody’s fault.

Pain in our hearts can lead to bad choices. Think about that, and ponder it.

Let’s practice not pointing the finger together.

peace and love