Author: Sarah Marshall

Menu Plan for the Week – Here We Go Again

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

Menu Plan Monday
I’m linking up with Menu Plan Monday at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Let’s not count how many times I’ve posted a meal plan and spewed on about how I’m back on the wagon and its going to be different from here on out. I’m just gonna be thankful that I got a plan done for this week and let’s see how next goes – because there is no doubt, life is much nicer when there’s a plan. Even if you change it 14 times by Wednesday. (Who me?)

My go-to tool for menu planning for the longest time has been Ziplist. It’s free, it has an easy recipe clipper for my favorites bar, it organizes my recipes into a nice little shopping list…it worked great for me. But recently they did some work to their site and I don’t like it. It’s not intuitive to me and although I’d probably be just fine after awhile of using it, I have no desire to. Weird but oh well.

So I decided to get on board with Plan To Eat. I’ve seen lots of bloggers rave about them and did the trial once but blew it and let it lapse without really giving it a good try. So I decided to get just a one month subscription and give it a really good effort this time. I’ve been adding some of our favorite recipes, playing with the menu planner and shopping list features. So far I like it quite a bit. I’ve got a week left on my month subscription and I see giving it another month or two before I make a final decision. If you want to try it out, go here.

So our plan for this week:

Breakfast
For Mom – I made a big batch of Pumpkin Pie Steel Cut Oats last week so I’m still working my way through them
For Brooke – French toast bites & waffles, need to come up with some healthier, make-ahead options she’ll eat
For Dad – Protein shakes after the gym

Lunch
For Mom – I will probably get stuck with leftovers again, days that I don’t turkey or PB&J sandwiches
For Brooke – turkey or PB&J sandwiches, popcorn, grapes, blueberries, carrot sticks, cheese crackers,
For Dad – salad

Dinner-
Slow Cooker Meatballs & Noodles
Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
Grilled Cheese & Popcorn (our standing Thursday night dinner)

We’re hoping the weather and everyone’s immune systems hold out for a third attempt to go to King’s Island in Ohio this weekend. We’re hoping to save some money on food by bringing a cooler and avoiding eating out much. So we’ll have lots of sandwiches and snacky lunches and dinners over the weekend and hoping breakfast will be provided Saturday morning at whatever hotel we stay in.

Just Freakin’ Do It

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

It’s painfully obvious that this blog has been abandoned lately.  I’ve wanted to get back into it for so long though.  I have so many ideas in my head that I’ve wanted to get out there and I think I need some kind of outlet right now.

But all the blogging gurus out there tout the importance of having a good focus for your blog, decide what you want people to get from it, don’t be all over the place.  And I haven’t figured out exactly what the focus of this blog will be and so I’ve hesitated to get started until I could address all those things.

During my commute to and from work, my new thing is listening to podcasts.  The topics range from parenting, blogging, organizing, fitness…kinda like me, they’re all over the place.  But twice lately, I’ve listened to episodes where the underlying message was that you can’t sit and wait.  You’ll always wish you started sooner.

Just Freakin' Do It

So I’m getting it rolling again.  I had intended to start with an inventory of finished posts just waiting for me in my editorial calendar, all scheduled out and ready to go.  But I’ve been waiting for that for months now.  No more.  I’m just gonna write about what I want to write about.  I might jump all over for a bit because I like a lot of things.  I hope that as time goes on it will become clearer what I’m really meant to focus on.  Seasons will change and so will my interests and the things taking priority in my life.

But I’m not going to sit and wait until its all pretty and perfect.  That doesn’t exist.  I’m just gonna freakin’ do it.

We Bought a House

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

I had vaguely mentioned on the TMT Facebook page that we were house hunting – but other than that, Hubs & I were both pretty quiet about our house hunting journey. I don’t think it was intentional as much as just left out in the midst of other things we’ve been busy with.

And really, it was a pretty simple process. Hubs asked for recommendations around the Athletic Department and got the same name for mortgage provider and same name for realtor from everyone he talked to. So that was easy.

After the pre-approval, we touched base with our realtor and we started getting listings sent to us. We made a list and made appointments to see some in the Bluegrass area of Knoxville and some in Maryville. Out of the first batch, we really liked one in Maryville and were super excited to see if it was as great in reality as it was on paper (er, website).

The house we really liked in Maryville was awesome just like we had hoped. We weren’t quite sure if the kitchen was going to be big enough but loved so many other aspects of it that we kept it on our short “Has Definite Potential” list. Our realtor was going to touch base with theirs to get some more info since it was on the top of our list.

That’s when things got topsy-turvy. They were about to sign with a management company to rent the house and if we were thinking of putting in an offer it had to be, like, right then. We weren’t comfortable making such a big decision that quickly with that kind of pressure so we said “Thanks but no thanks” and reluctantly kept on searching.

But that house stayed in our minds – even though it wasn’t available. We compared other houses we looked at to it, we still debated about the kitchen size and basically found ourselves still obsessed with it. When it was still popping up on Zillow searches and the For Sale sign was still outside (yes, we were still doing drive-bys), we felt there was new hope! So off we went to take another peek at it, hoping either way we could get some closure on the whole deal.

(If you’re wondering, rental company wanted a 5 year commitment from the sellers and that was too much so they pulled out of that deal and decided to give it another go at selling.)

The second time we went in with a game plan – confirm the number of bedrooms and really analyze the kitchen in terms of cabinet & pantry space. After that, we just did another drive-by through the other rooms, the garage and backyard. Standing in what is now our kitchen, we just couldn’t deny that the house just felt like we belonged in it. We could picture our couch in the living room, I envisioned Grandpa & Grandma Vining’s kitchen table in the breakfast nook, we could almost hear the girls playing in the backyard and the bonus room.

Obviously being a big, expensive decision, we decided to give ourselves a day or two to sleep on it and be sure that was THE ONE! I don’t know if we lasted that long before we contacted our realtor about making an offer. Before we knew it, we were with her in a conference room talking numbers and signing what would be the first of many forms! Now for the waiting game….

Which was thankfully short! We had a counter offer by the time we’d eaten dinner that night. We were good with it and accepted minutes later!! They’d even thrown in the playhouse & picnic table for the backyard! Since the sellers had moved out of state already, they were eager to close and so two weeks later, after the home inspection and more signing of forms for the mortgage lenders, we were at the closing table to sign even more forms.

That night, shiny new house keys in hand, Brooke opened the door to our new house and a new chapter of our lives started, homeownership!!

House cropped WM