Life – Page 15 – simplify the chaos

Outfit catch-up + Juice!

Hi y’all!

Another day off of school due to snow (I don’t know about you, but I am READY for spring to get here!) which I spent cleaning, doing laundry, and . . . napping. Not even a little bit ashamed about it either.

Morning Burst Juice

Today for breakfast Justin and I tried a new juice and we LOVED it! I am calling it my “morning burst” juice because it seriously gave me the perfect boost of energy to start my day! This is definitely going to make it into our regular rotation.

Ingredients:

-2-3 handfuls spinach

-1 banana (two if they are small)

-1 large apple

-1/4 pineapple

-1 pear

So delicious! I added water to mine to make it less thick but Justin loves the thicker/frothier taste so he didn’t. We were both big fans!!

Outfit Catch-up

Since I’ve been horrible at blogging lately, here are my latest work outfits! Details to all available pieces can be found on the wear page. Enjoy!

Kale in my kitchen

So, I’ve been terrible at blogging lately. All I can say is, life happens sometimes! As much as I love blogging, my life and relationships are so important to me and that will always take priority. The last week has been a busy one with work and other obligations; the free time I’ve had has been spent with my hubby and fur babies. But now I’m back and I’m going to try to make a solid effort to be more consistent.

Juice!

Tomorrow I’ll do a re-cap post of all the outfits I’ve worn since my last post, but today I want to tell you about Justin and my latest adventure: juicing!

This all started with a friend recommending I watch the documentary “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” on Netflix. I just so happen to love food documentaries, so I watched right away. The movie really surprised me: it follows the journey of two men and their decision to do a 60-day juice fast to lose weight and get healthy. They end up dropping tons of pounds, going off medication, and becoming happier, healthier individuals. Both had really amazing transformations!

Now, Justin and I are relatively healthy people. In the fall I made a commitment to try to cook “cleaner” meals and we’ve stuck to that — we always choose whole grains and try to avoid refined, processed foods as much as possible. We eat fruits and veggies regularly and exercise several times a week. We don’t have tons of weight to lose or medications we want to get off of. So why juice?

Winter months tend to make me feel kind of “blah.” I can’t go outside as much ((especially because we just got ANOTHER snow storm)) and I feel my energy level dropping like crazy. After watching the documentary and talking to several friends about juicing, we decided to try it to see if it helped us feel more energized. We had no desire to do a juice fast, but we thought it’d be nice to incorporate juice into our meals.

We bought a juicer over the weekend and decided to get started right away! We checked out several recipes that appealed to us and hit up the grocery store to stock up on fruits and veggies. **Sidenote: There is KALE in my kitchen. K-a-l-e. I honestly didn’t even know what this stuff was up until a few months ago and never thought it would make it’s way into my kitchen. But it’s here! And so is something called bok choy. We’ll see how that one goes…

Juicer

We decided to try a simple juice for our first try. Carrots, celery, apples, and ginger!

It. Was. HORRID.

That’s right. It was absolutely TERRIBLE. We each had one sip and had to dump the rest. We followed a recipe but the ginger was completely overwhelming — we used waaaaaay too much.

Not to be discouraged, we tried again today. We had a juice for breakfast this morning and then another one for lunch. Both were really yummy!

Justin was starving all day. He did not really feel fulfilled by the juice and was more than excited for a “real” meal for dinner. I didn’t feel overly hungry, but I did have a bit of a headache after lunch. This pretty much solidified our decision to not to an actual juice fast/cleanse. However, I do already feel more energy! At the gym today I ran two miles and spent an additional 15 minutes on the elliptical — I felt so good afterwards that I added strength training after all that cardio. It was awesome!

We’ve decided the best time for us to juice is in the morning. We want to start our day out right with lots of fruits and veggies, which will hopefully help us make better food choices throughout the day.

We are definitely looking forward to trying new recipes and I’ll be sure to share good ones with y’all!

***

Please be advised that I am not a dietician and you should consult your physician before attempting any diet or juice cleanse/fast.

Valentine’s + Roanoke Trip

Hi there!

I have been off the grid lately and it’s been great! Between Wednesday and Thursday of last week we got over a foot of snow so I had no school Thursday and Friday. I spent the whole time unplugged — just hanging out with the hubby and pups! It was great! I also did quite a bit of crafting for a Valentine’s Dinner I’m helping put on tonight (more details to come in a later post!) which was lots of fun.

Valentine’s Day

Justin and I tend to keep it fun and simple for Valentine’s Day. We don’t like to spend a lot of money so we always try to find something to do that is inexpensive and involves spending a lot of time together.

Our V-Day date night involved a trip to the store to buy our favorite candies from childhood that we never allow ourselves to splurge on (cotton candy for him, cookie dough bites for me!) and we also got a “game.” Technically, we bought a bunch of dice but we ended up playing Yahtzee for hours with the dice. It was the perfect, fun way to celebrate with each other! (And cost less than $10–whoohoo!)

In addition, one night last week I came home from school to this awesome display:

Justin had volunteered at a local nursing home to help make Valentines with the residents and he made one for me (in addition to cutting out a ton of paper hearts). He also had the table all set and ready to go! I loved it!

Roanoke: Center in the Square

After Justin was finished with classes on Friday we took off on a road trip to Roanoke, VA to visit a college buddy of J’s. We spent the weekend hanging out at a local dog park (our friends have a puppy named Charlie and all the dogs got along SO well!), checking out local restaurants, and exploring downtown Roanoke.

My favorite part of our downtown exploration was a science museum called Center in the Square. There was quite a long wait for our lunch spot so we decided to kill some time by walking across the street and checking out the museum. We didn’t have time to see every exhibit (they had TONS) but we made the most of the time we had!

We first checked out the seahorses. These creatures are so cool!

Seahorses have a difficult time navigating water and it was fun to watch them swim around!

Next up were jellyfish. These are absolutely fascinating to see up close! The tank had lights that changed color, which made the jellyfish change looks — super awesome!

Possibly my favorite part of the aquarium was the giant fish tank. It had plenty of different fish, including “Dory” and “Nemo” (I just love that movie!) and was so beautiful.

I could’ve sat and watched these fish all day! (PS- Did I mention all this aquarium viewing was FREE!? There is no charge for this part of the museum!!)

Next up, we bought admission tickets and went upstairs to the butterfly exhibit.

Check out this staircase leading upstairs! Sweet, huh?

Walking into the butterfly garden was like walking into a tropical paradise. It was super warm and humid and I felt like I was in the middle of the rainforest. It was awesome!

There were over 300 butterflies fluttering about in the garden and it was so amazing to see all the different types! So many colors! It was difficult to snap pictures of them but I got a few good ones.

The last one was my favorite!

There were small plates of fruit around the garden for the butterflies to eat in addition to the nectar from all the flowers.

The whole experience was super fun and I wish we would have had more time to explore the museum. Just peeking in at all the other exhibits showed me that the museum has a LOT more to offer! All in all, I would highly recommend checking Center in the Square out if you are ever in Roanoke!

Have a wonderful Monday!

***

Shades of black and gray for today’s outfit! Links to available pieces on the wear page.

Cardigan: Maurices

Blouse: New York & Company

Skirt: Via Ross

Tights: Express

Pumps: Maurices

Necklace: Purple Peridot

Style Me Feb

Hi there!

I had a bit of a sleepy morning today and it took me a long time to wake up! i always get less sleep on Monday nights than other days of the week because Justin and I watch “The Bachelor” (yes, he watches on his own free will!!) and then I somehow always get sucked into “Castle” even though I’m already super sleepy. Both shows captivate me . . . for very different reasons. 🙂

Style Me Feb

On sleepy mornings like this, waking up and selecting an outfit seem to be extra hard. My brain doesn’t want to function yet and it’s far more interested in finding a way to sneak back under the covers than color-coordinating and figuring out an outfit. Lucky for me, I recently discovered “Style Me February” on Instagram and it has made getting dressed SO much easier!

Style Me February was put together by Hilary (check out her adorable blog here) and so far I am loving it! It is a fun challenge (and sometimes very difficult–try wearing Broncos colors to a Super Bowl party while also incorporating animal print!) and helps give me ideas in the morning. Even though I had little brain power this morning, having a “theme” was a helpful way to kick-start an outfit!

This is also a great challenge for me to not shop and try to find ways to achieve the daily theme without buying new things. It’s inspiring me to get creative and look for new ways to utilize the stuff already in my closet. Win-win!

I encourage you to join me in this month-long challenge — even if you don’t want to attempt the whole thing but want some inspiration for a day’s look, check out the #StyleMeFeb hashtag on Instagram. It’s really neat to see how others style according to the day’s theme!

Happy Tuesday!

***

Today’s Outfit: “The Chicness of Black and White.” As always, links to outfit pieces can be found on the “wear” page.

Jacket: Maurices

Tank: Express

Pants: New York & Company

Flats: Maurices

Necklace: Purple Peridot

Bracelets: Express

Super Bust + Treadmill Workout

Hey there!

I hope you all had a great weekend and are refreshed for another week! Some of Justin’s college friends come into town on Friday night and we had a great time hanging out with them and catching up. We also spent a lot of time playing games, which was awesome! Justin and I are huge gamers so we love when other couples come and are up for a little friendly competition. 🙂

Last night we went over to our friend’s house to watch the Super Bust (oops…I mean Super Bowl). Nearly everyone there had wanted the Broncos to win, so we were all really depressed most of the night. When the game got out of hand we ended up switching back and forth to the Puppy Bowl which was way more entertaining in my mind.

Speaking of puppies, how cute was the Budweiser commercial with the puppy and horse!? I died. SO adorable!!

Treadmill Workout

I have had a lot of knee injuries over the years and lately, running on a treadmill has become more painful on my joints (I know, I sound more like I’m in my mid-eighties rather than mid-twenties). Wintertime is the worst for me to stay motivated to keep my cardio routine up because I can’t run outside and I get bored on the elliptical every day. I recently tried mixing up my routine with some incline walking/light jogging and it has made a huge difference! I still get my heart rate up and feel like I got a good workout but I switch things up enough so that my knee doesn’t bother me by the end of it!

I wanted to share my routine with y’all in case anyone else could benefit from a change in workout. **Please note: I am not a personal trainer. This is just a workout that I have found to be beneficial to me. It may not be right for you, so please speak with a medical professional before making any changes to your current workout routine.

The thing I like about this workout (besides the fact that I can do it without causing pain to my knee) is that it keeps me from getting bored on the treadmill. Having to switch gears every two minutes keeps my mind occupied and my body from getting bored. I hope it works for you!

Have a wonderful Monday!

***

Here’s today’s outfit of the day, plus some catch-up outfits from the weekend. As always, links to available pieces can be found on my “wear” page.

Sweater: Forever 21

Jeans: Maurices

Boots: Forever 21

Scarf: TJ Maxx

Super Simple Roast

Hello there!

Today was yet another day off of school (this time not due to snow but rather to extremely low temperatures) and it was a productive one for me! I did a lot of cleaning and spent a solid 1 1/2 hours at the gym, which was really nice. Normally I only have 30-45 minutes to spend there so it was nice to get a nice long session in. I also had lots of time to snuggle my fur babies and give them plenty of love! 🙂

Simple Roast

Since I had plenty of time today and Justin and I happened to be hosting some friends for dinner, I decided to make a yummy roast for dinner. I used a super simple recipe that my mom passed down to me. When I say “super simple,” I mean that even beginning cooks can easily make this and have it turn out delicious! It does need to spend several hours in the oven, so I don’t often have time to make it; however, today I had the time to do it so it was the perfect choice!

My dad provided Justin and I with several roasts that he purchases from a local butcher every year. I am always thankful for local food and meat is no exception; however, this particular cut was rather fatty so I had to spend a little time cutting off most of the excess fat. I placed the roast in my roaster and surrounded it with five potatoes, peeled and cut in half, and about 8-9 carrots, peeled and cut in half.

I poked several holes in the top of the roast using a fork.

I sprinkled a bit of seasoned salt on top of the roast and then filled the roasting pan with water until it covered all but the top of the roast. I then sprinkled half a packet of onion soup & dip mix into the water.

Then I covered the pan and put it in the oven. (The picture below looks a little gross but trust me . . . looks aren’t everything!)

After about 4 hours, I removed the roast and separated all the ingredients. I added some flour to the leftover “soup” mixtureand voila! Gravy for the potatoes!

I also served this meal with some homemade bread that I made on another day off school. It was delicious and a huge hit with everyone! Easy and delicious meal? Great success!

Super Simple Pot Roast

Ingredients:

-Beef Tip Roast (mine was about 2 pounds)

-5 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut in half

-8-10 carrots; peeled and cut in half (you could also use baby carrots)

-Seasoned Salt to taste (I used roughly 2 tsp)

-1/2 packet of Onion Soup & Dip Mix

-Flour (to thicken gravy)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the roast in a roasting pan.

2. Surround the roast with the carrots and potatoes.

3. Use a fork to poke holes in the top of the roast.

4. Sprinkle seasoned salt over roast.

5. Fill the roasting pan with water until all but the top of the roast is covered.

6. Sprinkle the onion soup & dip mix into the water.

7. Cover the roasting pan and place in oven for 3-4 hours (depends on how fast your oven cooks). Potatoes should be soft and roast cooked through.

8. Remove from oven; separate meat, potatoes, and carrots.

9. Mix remaining water with a bit of flour to thicken into gravy.

10. Enjoy!

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3-4 hours

Serves 6 (may depend on the size of your roast)

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

***

No school but at least hosting dinner gave me a reason to dress up a bit! 🙂

Lace Shirt: Maurices

Cami: Target

Purple Sleeveless Top: Forever 21

Skinny Jeans: Maurices

Flats: Target

Necklace: Forever 21

Belt: Bluetique

Family of . . . FOUR!

Hi there!

I finally went back to work today after six days off of school due to weather. It was nice to be back — I was really starting to run out of things to do around the house and I was ready to get back to my students! It’s already snowing again though so we’ll see how long this lasts . . .

New Family Member

I am so excited to announce that my little family is growing!

Before this gets out of hand, I should clarify that Macie’s new little sibling is furry and has four paws. (Gotcha, didn’t I? ;))

Justin and I have been talking about getting a second dog for probably a month now. We adore Macie so much and love having her in our family. She has been the perfect dog for us! However, we hate having to leave her at home by herself all day long. Justin is able to come home during lunch for now, but once he starts his medical school rotations, that will no longer be the case. She is such an active dog that we hate for her to sit around bored all day. We wanted a playmate for her!

Meet Macie’s new little brother, Scout!

Scout was rescued by good friends of ours last week. He was dumped off in the snow near their house and wandered up to their door in subzero temperatures (can you believe the cruelty of some people?! It makes me sick to think of how someone could do that to a puppy, or any pet for that matter) and was skin and bones. They immediately took him in. After calls to the local pound, no one had claimed him within the week and he wasn’t wearing a collar so we knew he had been abandoned and hadn’t just run away from his owners. My friend already had two dogs and so we decided to give him a home!

We are so in love with Scout already. He is such a sweetheart!

Can you tell Justin is super excited to have another dude around? Macie is clearly a mommy’s girl so he is hoping that Scout is a daddy’s boy. 🙂

We took him to the vet on Monday and other than some worms, a bit of frostbite on his tail (again, how can people dump a puppy off in freezing temps!?), and being very small due to lack of appropriate nutrition, she said he was actually in pretty good shape! He’s receiving worm meds, an antibiotic, ointment, and lots and lots of LOVE now so he is on the mend!

Our vet’s best guess is that Scout is a cocker spaniel/hound mix and he is probably around 12 weeks old, though he looks much younger due to his size. We were so impressed with how well Macie took to him! She didn’t bark or growl when he went for her food bowl (although now they each have their own) and they love to play together! She does exhibit a bit of jealousy around me because she is used to getting all my attention, but overall she is very kind to him and they get along well!

They also like to snuggle and nap together 🙂

Aren’t they adorable?

We are so happy to have Scout join our family. My heart is FULL!

The only problem we have run into with Scout is with crate training. He HATES going into the kennel. I’m not sure if maybe he had a traumatic kennel experience prior to being dumped off. We’d really like to crate train him for potty training purposes, but I don’t want to make it a negative experience for him. I would love to hear any advice from other pet owners who may have experienced this!

Side note: If you are unable to care for your pet, please please PLEASE take the time to drop him or her off in a shelter or find someone to take him or her in. No pet should have to be kicked out into the cold and left alone. And a huge thank you to those who are willing to open their homes to strays and rescues!

***

Today’s outfit of the day. Feels good to get to dress up again and not just lounge around in sweats.

Cardigan: Old Navy

Dress: Maurices

Belt: Maurices

Tights: Express

Pumps: Maurices

Glitter Showdown

This is getting just a bit ridiculous.

We didn’t have school again today . . . and I already got a phone call that we won’t have school again tomorrow! The entire week off! Why didn’t I plan a vacation to Florida this week!?

I guess the good thing about not being on vacation in Florida this week (if there is such a thing) is that I’ve been catching up on all of the things I have wanted to do for a while but haven’t had a chance to. My to-do list has gotten much shorter and it’s awesome!!

Nail Rock

One of the things I checked off my list was to try out a new glitter nail polish that I got in my latest Birchbox.

I was initially a little skeptical of the glitter aspect of this duo because my experience with glitter has never been good. It just always seems to get everywhere! But I decided to give it a shot and try Nail Rock anyways.

The first step involved painting two coats of what looked like a pale pink polish on. Once applied, I couldn’t have even told you the polish was pink. It was so sheer that it hardly colored my nail at all. I was a bit disappointed, because I had initially planned on just putting glitter on my ring finger nails. Once I saw how sheer the pink was, I decided to just go ahead and put glitter on all my nails.

Step two was dipping my nails in the pot of glitter and pressing the glitter in. I then had to let them dry for 15-20 minutes.

This step was MESSY. Glitter lived up to its reputation for me because it got everywhere. I even put a paper towel down so I wouldn’t touch anything but it still managed to get on my face, clothes, the couch, you name it. Yikes!

After waiting 20 minutes, I washed my hands and most of the glitter came off of my fingers. I immediately put a layer of topcoat on over my fingernails to seal in the glitter.

I have to admit, I liked the way they turned out but I’m not sure the process and mess was worth it. I might try it again for a special event, but for a day-to-day basis I’ll stick to plain old regular nail polish.

Sorry for two nail polish-related blog posts this week – – this is what happens when I’m snowed in for so long!

Happy Thursday!

SNOW DAY!!

There is just something so magical about waking up and seeing huge flurries of snow silently fall to the ground. (Doesn’t hurt that the waking up was accompanied by a phone call that there was no school today…)

Today was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It snowed constantly until about 6:00 in the evening. All day long whenever I looked out the window, I felt like we were in a snow globe. It just kept coming and coming! Around lunch time, Justin and I decided to bundle up and head outside for some snow day fun.

First thing we did was build a snow fort for Macie!

simplifythechaos.com

She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the fort, but she loved the snow! There is no word to describe what she did in it other than frolicked. That girl was prancing around in the snow the entire time. We would throw her little rubber toy and she loved digging around until she found it. So much fun!

Part two of our winter wonderland was pretty obvious: a snowman!

We recently watched the Disney movie “Frozen” and I became slightly obsessed with it. I may or may not listen to “Let it Go” at least once a day. Seriously, it is SO good! I decided to name our snowman Olaf in honor of it, even though our snowman looked nothing like the snowman in the movie.

Before we went inside, Justin decided to measure how much snow we had gotten so far. We already had over 6 inches and it was still coming down strong! I’m kind of hoping for another snow day tomorrow just because no one has plowed our road yet and we can’t get out of our driveway!

No outfit of the day today because I have been either in sweats or snow pants the entire day. And it has been AWESOME.

Happy Tuesday! Stay warm!

Simple DIY Wine Charm Labels

Hello there!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a serious case of the Mondays. We had two days off last week due to weather so I had a hard time rolling out of bed this morning. I needed a chocolate Hershey kiss to give me an extra boost at school!

Wine Charm Labels

On Saturday night, I had a bunch of friends over for a game night. We played the F-R-I-E-N-D-S version of Scene-It and it was a blast! There was a good mix of avid and casual F-R-I-E-N-D-S fans so we played on teams — we ended up just watching a ton of the DVD clips because the show is just too funny! I highly recommend the game to any fans of the show (buy it on Amazon here).

My mother-in-law gave me a mix for a hot-spice red wine for Christmas and I decided this was the perfect time to try it out! Usually when I host a big gathering, I use plastic solo cups so people can label their cup with a permanent market. People mingle and move around so much it’s nearly impossible to keep track of whose cup is whose so labeling is key! However, hot spiced wine in solo cups is just wrong in my book so I got out my wine glasses and decided to make some labels.

I see tons of creative wine charms using wire and beads on Pinterest and to be honest, I’ve already scoured craft stores for materials to make some of my own. I think it’s such a cute way to distinguish glasses but I have never had the time or energy to put forth into the task. For my game night, I wanted something simple, cute, and most importantly, quick!

I started with a piece of beige card stock and some brown gift tag labels from the $1 bin at Target (am I the only one who loves that part of the store!?)

I decided to go with the thin banners on the bottom right corner of the sheet. I had two sheets of tags so I could make twelve total labels.

I cut out around the banners and left room at the top for a single hole punch.

Next, I pulled out a bunch of white twisty-ties (is there a more scientific name for those? I really have no idea!) that come around various items in my pantry such as bread. Being the frugal person I am, I keep all the ties in a magnetic tin on my fridge because you just never know when they will come in handy. I was very glad to have plenty to choose from!

I kept all the labels out next to the wine glasses with a pen for people to write their name and attach the label to their glass.

Simple? Check.

Inexpensive? Check. The tags were 2 for $1 in the Target bin and I already had the card stock, single hole punch, and twisty-ties.

Quick? You betcha! The entire process took 10 minutes maximum.

I was very pleased with how these turned out and I got compliments on them from my guests. One modification I might make in the future would be to try to get chalkboard label tags so I can re-use them with different guests’ names. Since everyone at game night was a good friend who is sure to be back at my house for one thing or another, I am saving them for the future anyways!

Have a lovely Monday!

***

Today’s outfit was dots, dots, and more dots! Seriously loving the polka dot trend right now! As always, outfit details and links to available pieces can be found on my “wear” page.

Sweater: New York & Company

Blouse: New York & Company

Pants: Express

Flats: Target

Necklace: Purple Peridot

Stud diamond Earrings (not pictured): Lia Sophia

Recent Outfits: