What's Up Wednesday

Well, unlike January, February flew by! I'm only excited because typically March brings warmer weather, and I am so over winter and cold days! 

Since today is the last Wednesday of the month, I'm linking up with a few bloggers for What's Up Wednesday and sharing what's up! 

1. What We're Eating This Week....

Monday- We drove through CFA, because our evening was jam packed full of activities.

Tuesday- Chicken Tacos made in the crock pot

Wednesday- Pot Roast

Thursday- Spaghetti

Friday- It's our usual pizza night, but we're having that on Saturday at lunch, so we'll have to come up with something

2. What I'm Reminiscing About...

Wittle Tiny Babies.

I'm finding it hard to believe that Adalyn will start kindergarten next year, and we're officially done with the baby stage. I miss the rocking and cuddling. There are a lot of things I don't miss- sleepless nights, pumping at work, a super messy house. But man, those days were great, and I know that we're entering in to lots of great days as our girls get more involved in sports and activities, but sometimes I miss them being little babies. 

3. What I'm Loving....

I'm loving that Spring is right around the corner! We had a few warm days, and it just gives me hope that Winter is over, and sunny days are coming! 

I took the little girls to have a cookie while big sister was in speech therapy, and we sat outside enjoying the sunshine. 

4. What We've Been Up To.....

Lots of basketball! The girls have had practices twice a week and games on the weekend. But, it's our last week of basketball, and I'm kind of looking forward to having "free" Saturdays. Except, just now, I remembered that we begin football practices on Sunday, so guess where you'll find us every Saturday for the next few weeks?!

We've been squeezing in movie nights when we can....

And a few weeks ago, we made a road trip to Pawhuska to see the bison at the Tallgrass Prairie. 

5. What I'm Dreading....

Hmm.... I'm actually not dreading too much right now. If I had to dig deep, I would tell you that I'm dreading the upcoming tornado season, and I'm dreading that we will have state testing after Spring Break with no days off from school once we return from Spring Break! It's typically the longest time of the school year for us in education. 

6. What I'm Working On....

Beginning tomorrow, we're hosting a Lavender Lounge, and I'm working to put the last minute touches on it! If you've ever been curious about essential oils, then this is for you! We're going to be chatting about what essential oils actually are, Young Living's Seed to Seal, our body systems, and we have a ton of giveaways, including a $50.00 Amazon.com gift card!!!

If you want to join in, just shoot me an email or connect with me on Facebook. 

7. What I'm Excited About...

Spring Football starts on Sunday! 

And we're heading to Silver Dollar City on Spring Break. 

And, I'm looking forward to celebrating Easter with the girls! 

8. What I'm Watching/Reading...

I'm super excited for the Bachelor finale on Monday... but mostly to find out what happens after the final rose. 

9. What I'm Listening To...

Ed Sheeran is on repeat while I'm at work.... 

DJ and I went to the Blake Shelton concert a few weeks ago, which was so good! So, I've actually been listening to lots of country music lately. 

10. What I'm Wearing...

I ordered this shirt from Sashy Pants last week, an I'm super excited to wear it as we transition in to spring. 

11. What I'm Doing This Weekend...

We're taking Megan to try out a competitive gymnastics class Friday night. 

My parents are coming in for the weekend.

And both girls have basketball games this weekend. 

And of course, practice starts on Sunday. 

12. What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month...

Spring Break!!!

We don't have any fun, big plans, other than a small trip to Branson planned, but I'm looking forward to having some down days and relaxing a little. 

13. What Else is New... 

Not much else. I feel like life is same old same old, but I also know that March is going to go by just as fast as February did. 

HPA Goes Oily: Our Oily Life

Happy Monday. Each month, I like to share a few of our oily adventures with y'all! 

You guys already know we're obsessed with essential oils and Young Living in our house, but I know that it's also super overwhelming for anyone that is just starting out. So, hopefully, posts like this will give you some ideas of how to use your products! 

You can find January's post here.

We grabbed this diffuser bracelet from Young Living last spring, (it's also on Amazon) and Addy likes to wear it to school when she's needing some extra support. She was feeling sniffly, so we added some oils to help support her nose and breathing for her.

I love trying out new diffuser blends, and this one was super fun for February! 

And, when I need to give my make up brushes a good cleaning, I soak them in water and a capful of Thieves cleaner. When they've soaked for a while, I rinse them and lay flat to dry. My make up brushes are also from Young Living. 

Earlier this month, I used Young Living's Nutritive cleanse to help get my body back on track. You can read about those results here. 

And when my kiddos just won't fall asleep, I add a drop of Sleepyize on their toes. 

 And my favorite drink for boosting my immune system- Ningxia Red, Orange Juice, and Elderberry Syrup. 

We also like to diffuse Thieves. 

At work, I've been diffusing En-R-Gee in my Orb diffuser to help me survive all the paperwork that SLPs have. 

And, I've been cleaning my house with Thieves cleaner. It's so easy to mix up a capful with water, and use it all over our house- on the tile, granite, stainless steel. One product cleans my entire kitchen. 

I love using oils on my skin, and I made a bentonite clay mask with a few of my favorite oils, including Frankincense. You can find out how to do it in this post. 

And, I often use Endoflex to support my Thyroid and Progessence Plus, to support healthy progesterone levels. I polled y'all on Instagram, and 37% of you had no idea that essential oils could support your hormones! So, I'm wondering if y'all would like a post about it?? Let me know if that interests you! 

OOLA Grow is one of my favorite scents, and I love wearing it on my diffuser bracelet. It gives me all the happy feels! 

So, that's a little bit of our oily life from February!

If you'd like to learn more about essential oils and Young Living, head here, and if you're ready to grab your Premium Starter Kit and receive $25.00 cash back, head here. 

Friday Favorites

It's Friday, friends! And, I'm in Oklahoma City at a continuing education conference today.... Boo. I'd rather be anywhere else! But, we're going to pass the time today with some Friday Favorites! 

I'm linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci to bring you a random assortment of favorites today :) 

Addy Pearl is getting entirely too big. I feel like it was just yesterday, that she was a baby, and now we're thinking about kindergarten in the fall!!! I feel like I've blinked, and she's all grown up. 

I found a new favorite shop on Instagram, Sparkle in Pink, and ordered this doughnut dress for Adalyn. She's absolutely in love with it, and I'm thinking it will call for a doughnut date soon :)

Addy is in to spelling all the words lately. Of course, she doesn't really know how to spell, but she does love writing her letters and asking us to spell the word for her so she can write them all down.

I never workout at home, but Tuesday night, I was craving yoga, but couldn't really fit it in at the gym. So, I found a yoga video on You Tube, hooked up our apple TV, rolled out my mat and did some yoga until DJ made it home. It did my body so good. I try to get in at least one yoga practice each week, but there are some weeks when it just doesn't happen. 

This last week, I've had some tough conversations in person, at school, with my kids, and on social media about the school shooting in Florida. No matter, your stance on gun control, we can all agree that something needs to be done to keep our students safe in schools. I have this overwhelming feeling, that these students will be the ones to finally bring about changes and make a difference. I had contemplated writing an entire blog post about my feelings, but just know that as a school employee, I can tell you that are kids are not as safe as we would like to imagine. I can also tell you that as a parent, I'm heartbroken for my children, and those directly effected. Also, we have to be kind, and not be afraid of speaking out. 

My favorite oil this week? EnRGee. It was only a 3 day work week for me, but it's keeping me motivated to get my paperwork done, and my therapy sessions planned. Plus, it smells amazing when diffused! 

Our evenings have been cold and icy. So, we've come home each night and these girls have snuggled up often to watch some you tube videos. 

And, of course, yesterday, I wore my favorite bracelets from Rustic Cuff, and added OOLA Grow to my diffuser bracelet :) 

And finally, my big girls were both chosen to eat a pizza lunch with the principal! Our school has a challenge, and each classroom winner (chosen by the teacher) gets to eat a pizza lunch. Both of the girls were chosen for having high "expectations" for themselves and others. 

And I couldn't be more proud of them! 

Weekend Wrap Up: Wonder & Bison

We had a super busy-long weekend! But, we filled it with lots of fun!

Thursday night, DJ and I headed to the Blake Shelton concert. It was his opening night of his tour, and it was fabulous! All of the artists were amazing, and we knew way more songs than we thought we would!

We even made it on the "big screen" during the artists breaks. 

#famous

(Okay, not really)

I was exhausted on Friday, but the girls and I needed to run to Target after school. I picked up some fun paper straws. 

And the girls played hockey for a bit. 

After Target, we met DJ at Chili's and crushed dessert. 

And then we came home to watch Wonder! We read the book with the girls over Christmas break, and we haven't been able to squeeze in a time to see the movie, but when we were at Target, Friday night, we realized that it's already out on DVD! 

We really enjoyed the movie, but we loved the book more :)

Sunday morning, the girls were snuggled on the sofa watching cartoons, and I headed to spin class. 

After spin, I met DJ and the girls at Megan's basketball game. 

Then, the little girls and I ran some errands. And it was gorgeous outside!

We finished our errands, with a lunch date at Tropical Smoothie.

And then headed to Gretchen's basketball game. She played some heck of a defense!

Saturday night, DJ and I headed to a reception, for a fellow coach that had recently gotten married. We had fun celebrating with our football family!

And then we came home, and as I was checking on all of the girls, I found Adalyn passed out in her bed! Apparently she talked the babysitter in to letting her keep her clothes on rather than changing in to her pjs!

We were going to head to church Sunday morning, when DJ walked in (from a recruiting event that was early!) and suggested we head out on a trip. So, we googled some locations, and ended up heading toward Pawhuska. 

Which, just so happens to be where the Pioneer Woman, has her mercantile and restaurant. Unfortunately, both were closed on Sunday, and we settled for pizza at Simple Simons. 

But, we did drive by the mercantile! 

I have plans on heading back here this spring!

And, then we drove a little further north to the Tallgrass Prairie Reserve to see Bison!

We drove about 15 miles and would randomly spot a heard of Bison.

And just in case, you thought you could get out of the car, there were signs everywhere reminding you that bison are dangerous!

But, there was a little area, we could get out, right before we drove in further in to the reserve.

And, it was cold, y'all! And super windy! But, then again, it's almost always windy in Oklahoma. 

As we drove further we saw tons of bison. 

We made it to the nature center, and saw four deer grazing. 

The workers at the nature center were wonderful! They talked to us and the girls about the reserve, and educated us on bones, and bugs, and all that fun stuff. 

By the nature center was the ranch house, and we peeked in to some windows. And, fun fact- the land was owned by the Chapman family, whose TU football stadium is also named after. 

On our way out, we had bison crossing the road. So, we had to stop, which was way cool. 

This was probably my favorite photo that I took that day. 

If you're ever in Pawhuska, I'd recommend the drive to see the bison.

We were in awe over the vast landscape and animals. It's untouched land, and definitely not something that you see often. We were telling the girls that this was land that Native Americans lived on, that settlers crossed as they were heading west. It was such a humbling moment to think of those so long ago.