If you ever want a lesson in humility…Come for a meal at our house.

Whether it’s last week’s announcement over supper with students, that “Daddy sleeps in his underwear” or it’s an interruption mid-lecture about not using harsh words, that Little Miss pipes up with “Mommy, YOU use vewy hawsh wowds in the mornings when you awe weading youw Bible and you want me to go back to bed.” Humility is the name of our parenthood game. #welldang. Yes.

I took the “hawsh wowds” comment to heart. Who is harsh while reading the Bible?? Yep. Me. After many days of alarm clock training (which worked great when Pull-ups were our mode of operation, but has bombed since we NEED to leave our room at approx 6 am), trying to distract with library books and toys, I stumbled upon EVERY MOM’S QUIET TIME LIFELINE.

Favorite thing #1…

Hipster haired Jesus! The makers of YouVersion have created the best Bible App, ever!!

This app not only teaches kids the redemptive storyline of Scripture, but it also is soooo fun and interactive! Each page has characters, animals and objects to tap that make noise and move. Note: You’re gonna want to supply earphones, unless you enjoy the sound of elephants and giraffes at 6 am.

Both of my kiddos are slightly addicted and beg for “Bible Time” all the time. But it’s perfect for while I am reading MY Bible. And.it’s.free….Download. STAT! 

Favorite thing #2…

Am I the only human who didn’t know about cooking bacon in the oven? What in the world?!? How have I been spattering the fool out of my forearms and stinking up my entire house for years when I could’ve been evenly crisping bacon with zero mess?!? Make the bacon in the oven, people!

Favorite Thing #3…

Typically on the weekends I hoard my energy like it’s Y2K, but on Labor Day Weekend, I gave Sunday Prep a try, because I knew that if it wore me out I’d have Monday to recover.

Have you seen this blog post floating around the internet? The chick for sure deserves a moment of silence because she has masterminded how to prepare massive quantities of food and clothing for your entire week in a seamless fashion. I prepped meals, laundry and tidied the house in the order she suggested and it was amazing. Even good ole EG helped and we made It really fun!! Until we smashed a very large jar of garlic on the kitchen floor, that is. (My only suggestion is to add a carton of stock to the taco soup.)

Also, favorite thing 3.5 will come in the form of a confession. Someone gave us an upright freezer this week and I have walked out to the garage MULTIPLE TIME just to stare at it and open it and admire the food inside of it. Multiple times. Not even ashamed to admit it. Feels like Christmas in September to me.

Favorite thing #4…

I recently decided that with two kids in uniforms it was time to start working smarter and not harder. So, I asked around for ways to end the daily sprint to the laundry hamper and lo and behold my brother-in-law’s girlfriend had the answer…people….for $6.88 you too can be sane.

Each Sunday the kids and I load the closet organizer with the appropriate clothes for each day of the week…we are 3 weeks into school and we have not had one question of what to wear/where the clothes are/mad dash to the dirty clothes hamper!! Praise the Lord and thank you, Walmart. I feel like maybe I should do this for myself too?!

Anywho…those are my faves! What are your favorite things this month?

I guess I was born a cheerleader. If I find something I like, I can’t help but tell somebody. 

Thus, this months installment of my Favorite Things.

The one where I avoid the topic of tragically long cheerleading skirts and jump straight into “Crema di Aceto Balsamico” and how I slather it.on.everything. 

Do y’all know about this stuff? I was en route to make Shauna Niequist’s Watermelon & Feta Salad for our “Bread & Wine” book club (BOOK CLUBS! ALSO A FAVORITE THING!! Could be it’s own post. Maybe it will be. If you like high-brow food and/or the best chapter I’ve read about infertility in a while, check this book out from the library, have friends bring a dish from the book and enjoy the discussion questions in the back while you sigh with joy over flourless brownies and ice cream) and all I could find White Balsamic Reduction vs. just plain White Balsamic Vineagar…I went with it and my taste buds have never been so glad. It’s almost a sweet balsamic syrup that literally tastes good on everything. Especially starches like cauliflower and baby new potatoes. Oh mama. Go getcha some. Your book club will thank you.

And can you really still call it Skinny Pop if you eat the whole bag? Joel read some article about GMO corn products and autistic symptoms, so of course I have been on a witch hunt to rid us of the lurking evil. (I compulsively go on these hunts and then move on after a while.) But, with one of our favorite snacks being popcorn, the choices are a bit limited…enter Skinny-till-you-eat-the-whole-bag-Pop.

Next, podcasts. Specifically Edie’s series (my fave one is the Life of Faith) and anything by Sally Clarkson. Y’all, seriously. How else can you have heart transformation like this while matching socks and scrubbing floors? It’s changing me one bit of truth at a time.

Speaking of Edie…her puffy tacos have changed my life.

And my pant size.

Which is fine because I am still enjoying Stitchfix and I am really loving the referral credit that allowed me to snag those sassy red jeans pictured above…for free!

Back to Mexican food…I’ve literally dreamed of the Barbecue Margarita (on puffy) Tacos with Mexican Quinoa Bowl meal that we ate a few weeks ago. Def my fave meal of the month/year. It would be wrong not to share it with you.

I mean, I looked down and even the food was smiling. You NEED to make this meal. 

But when you make the Mexican Quinoa use “Seeds of Change Certified Organic Quinoa & Brown Rice” because it’s ridiculously yummy and it’s so easy that a kid could make it…specifically MY kid. He’s a great kitchen helper. Favorite Thing: kids helping in the kitchen. 

He asked me to take his pic cooking :) Does opening a bag and putting it in the microwave count as cooking? If a meal-time task is being delegated, it counts. 

It would also be wrong not to tell you that when you cook this meal, you should not immediately go out into the sun…y’all, who knew that lime is so acidic that it can cause crazy looking (and extremely painful) burns?

Word to the wise via my derm, do not squeeze or use lime if you plan on being out in the sun. I’ll spare you the burn and then burn with stitches photos (and the outrageous dermatology bill) and just say that if by chance you accidentally do get burned or if you just have dry skin…this is your ticket to healing. Somehow I left the derm with a huge bill, some stitches and no burn cream. Nontheless, I have had great success with Eucerin Intensive Repair Extra-Enriched Hand Creme.

So there you have it. Food, Jesus, and hand creme.

What are your favorites this month? If you post, please share with me! xoxo