Hello, Wednesday!
I know this week has been a somber one for so many of my fellow Texans. I have family and friends in the Houston area (all are safe) but seeing their pictures and hearing their stories is just breaking my heart.
I keep trying to imagine the scenario if it were to play out in my house. I picture water creeping higher and higher up our driveway until it reaches our front door and then watching that first trickle start to come in. I imagine scrambling trying to save what we can and get it up the stairs and into the attic. What would I even try to save? Our computers? Our pictures? Important documents?
I can even picture making Craig help me lift our new kitchen table up onto the kitchen island! (I really like that table!)
I know I'd be in full on Mom-mode though. I would have life jackets on the boys and cell phones charging upstairs for as long we could. Shoes for everyone, backpacks stuffed with clothes. Shut off the gas. Shut off the water. (Would it even matter?)
Yes, I think about these things. I like to be prepared but I know that so many of those people thought there was just no way anything like that would happen. That it would never come to that. And I totally get it. Which makes it even more awful.
And for the people who have lost loved ones...there are just no words. My heart breaks for you.
I've been watching the news steadily while I work for the past couple of days and feel so helpless and even guilty that we are fine and our little bubble has remained in tact. I am trying to do what I can though.
I have been praying constantly. We have donated money. I am going through our closets looking for clothes, shoes, blankets, bedding...whatever may be helpful. And I'm hoping to volunteer a couple of hours this morning (more on that below).
Today, I wanted to put together a list of donation opportunities in case you wanted to give a little something, but are overwhelmed as to where to do it.
MISSION REGAN
Our friends here in Mckinney have an AMAZING charity called Mission Regan and they are taking physical and monetary donations. They have already loaded up a truck with medical supplies and headed down there to do everything they can to help and from what I understand, this won't be their only trip this week. If I can make it work, I plan on going out there this morning to help them sort and pack things up for round two.
Find them on Facebook.
Find them on Facebook.
To donate money to Mission Regan, you can go here. Select "general fund" and add "hurricane relief" in the notes box.
Physical donations can be dropped off at:
3400 Eldorado Pkwy Suite 4
Mckinney, TX
Every little bit helps!!
MAGNOLIA MARKET
Those amazing people over at Magnolia in Waco will be donating 100% of the proceeds from their cute Texas Forever tees from now through September.
I didn't think twice and grabbed mine immediately! I saw the shirts in person when we went to Waco this summer and they are soft and so very Joanna. ;) #welovejojo
I posted this on Instagram yesterday on both my IG accounts (@amandanall and @thatinspiredchick). And by just doing THAT, I felt like I was doing something. Even the small things matter!
Grab your shirt here!
Other reputable disaster relief efforts: (Just click the name to go to their page)
RED CROSS (or text HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation, as many times as you'd like)
Houston, we are praying for you!! Stay strong!!!
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There really is no way good way to transition from something so serious to something so...NOT serious...so I'm just going to jump right in.
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There really is no way good way to transition from something so serious to something so...NOT serious...so I'm just going to jump right in.
Every last Wednesday of the month we link up with Shay, Mel and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday but this morning I saw that they had decided to move the linkup to next Wednesday instead so we could focus on Hurricane Relief.
I did both today though so I'm just going to leave it. :)
So here goes!
I did both today though so I'm just going to leave it. :)
So here goes!
What we're eating this week...
Sunday we had a breakfast casserole for dinner, partly because it is easy and delicious and partly because it made for a quick back to school breakfast Monday morning! We just popped some leftovers in the microwave for a minute and there was a hot breakfast! It tastes just like a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. Yu-mmy.
And man. My food pictures most definitely need work. #workinonit
Here's the recipe. Be sure to pin it for later! (I'm pretty sure I made all these pictures pinnable.)
Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit Casserole
1lb Jimmy Dean Mild Sausage (or spicy if you want a little kick!)
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
16oz can of biscuits
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese (depends on how cheesy you want to go!)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350.
Brown your sausage and drain. Set aside.
Spray or grease 9x13 baking dish.
Cut each biscuit into 6 pieces.
Spread biscuits evenly on bottom of dish.
Add crumbled sausage on top of biscuits.
Sprinkle on 1/2 cup or so of cheese.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and milk.
Pour over sausage and biscuits.
Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. (Add as much or as little cheese as you'd like!)
Pop in oven for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees or until eggs are set.
Enjoy!!
And don't forget to check out my Super Easy Baked Mac-n-Cheese I posted here last week!
And yes, we love cheese.
My friends should be so proud of me. They know I HATE to cook!! I'm doing better lately though! And speaking of friends did y'all pre-order Shay's new book Simmers?! It's all crockpot recipes which is sooooo much more my jam. I just feel so responsible and adult-ish with dinner cooking away all day in a crockpot. Total mom-win.
What I'm reminiscing about...
All of those past first days of school.
That year Matthew insisted on wearing his favorite way too small, long-sleeved shirt (in August...in Texas...) for his first day back to school. It was also my first day at my new job as a PE coach so I decided to ignore it.
Which leads directly into...
...what we've been up to!
Matthew is in 4th grade this year and Mason is in 2nd. How did my babies get so BIG!?!!
They barely let me snap some pics before running off to meet their friends on the corner to walk to school together.
When I talk about my boys "house-hopping", these are the people who live in said houses. ;) We are SO blessed with these sweet neighbors!
BFFs.
After we got them sent off, I headed to Spoons in downtown Mckinney for the annual Back to School mom's breakfast! This group of girls just makes me happy. There is never a shortage of laughs, stories, and fun, inappropriate mom humor. Nothing is off limits and I love it.
We've also been up to this once again!
Matthew and Mason kicked off their fall baseball season with back-to-back games. We watched Mason play first then hit up Sonic to grab some slushes before heading over to the big boy fields to watch Matthew.
And yep, I'm still rocking my favorite flip flops EVER, anywhere and everywhere. Thankfully in Texas, I'll be able to wear them for at least another month if not 2.
What I'm working on...
The shop has been in full-swing since I reopened after our vacation! I'm once again covered in glitter, sawdust and paint all the time. But that's how I prefer it. ;)
Check out the shop HERE!
I also got all inspired the other day and made a cute little homework caddy for the boys this year! You can read more about it here but it's working already! Matthew came home with homework yesterday and he was actually excited to start it! But then he got distracted. So hopefully he'll get excited again tonight. ;)
What I'm watching/reading...
At the mom's breakfast the other day, Shay brought in a giant stack of books to pass along to whoever wanted any and I grabbed Balancing in Heels by Kristin Cavallari. I have a TOTAL #girlcrush on Kristin.
She's just SO incredibly put together, beautiful, successful, stylish...and if you watched her on The Hills, you know she's also got a super sassy side to her. ;)
I had an appointment yesterday morning and drove through Starbucks on the way home. When I got home, I flipped through her book while I ate. The whole book is #goals.
And I'll be posting my August book review soon but for now you can go back to see my mid-summer book review here if you haven't checked it out yet. There are TONS of great books in that post!
And I'm watching Big Brother. I also watch the live feeds. And y'all. Yesterday, the chat rooms (yes they have those running next to the live feeds) were going crazy because Matt is apparently and a have-not this week and has just ignored ALL the rules. He's been eating whatever he wants, taking hot showers and sleeping in a normal bed (with Raven). They are talking about him getting a possible penalty vote because of it.
Everyone is also turning on Kevin. Poor guy. He's so confused about why everyone has turned on him! :(
And Matt and Raven will be out the door sooner rather than later. Raven is getting a great edit in the actual shows on TV. She is HIGHLY annoying in the live feeds though.
HIGHLY.
What else am I watching? Real Housewives of the OC and Real Housewives of Dallas (I don't particularly love the Dallas girls...and feel like a traitor saying that about my fellow Dallas-area wives....). I just can't with Leanne. Are y'all with me on that?? She came dressed as Two Face Stephanie for Halloween to Stephanie's party! But I feel like she's incredibly two faced herself. Hypocrites suck.
And Brandi completely cutting off Stephanie-her very best friend- all summer long because she was mad about something Stephanie said in the press?! The craziest part about it was that Brandi never bothered to tell Stephanie what she was so mad about!! She just cut her off, blocked her completely and moved on. Who does that?! I don't get it.
What I'm loving...
I think I covered this pretty well in last week's Friday Favorites! It included my MVP picks from the summer. Hop over to that post here.
What I'm wearing...
I got new jeans in last week and I've been wearing them a lot already (see my first day of school outfit above)...which should say something about how much I love them since it's still almost 100 degrees every day. ;)
I love these jeans not only because they are a great fit but also because they are shorter which means I can wear them all the way rolled down or I can roll them up a little bit for a small cuff. It's hard finding skinny jeans like that that hit at my ankle. They are always too long to leave unrolled. But these are really great if you are 5'5"ish and over. If you are shorter, they'll still be cute!! You just might have a little bunching around the bottom unless you cuff them.
I'm a total fan.
What I'm doing this weekend...
Craig will be going back to Louisiana for a dedication of his high school football stadium. The stadium is being renamed in honor of his coach who left quite a legacy and passed away recently.
We've also tentatively made plans to go to the Larry the Cable Guy/Jeff Foxworthy show on Sunday night but I'm not sure if it's going to work out just yet. Craig has been friends with "Larry" (real name Dan Whitney) for many years so we usually get to any show he has near us. He is just the best guy and hooks us up with tickets for us and any of our friends every time. And we also get to go backstage afterwards and hang out for awhile. Great guy for sure and so funny!
The last time we saw them was January 2016.
I hope we get to go but we're still sorting out a few things before we make the final decision. Anyone want to babysit?? ;)
So that's what we've been up to! Don't forget to check out the different ways to donate to the Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief! Please feel free to drop in links or other ways to donate in the comments! There was no way I could get to them all! Thank you!!!
#texasstrong