Food, family, and fitness... all with a bit of style.

Fall Favorites at Trader Joe's

Hey friends! I cannot believe it is Thursday already...this week has flown by! Today I am doing another round up of some favorites at Trader Joe's....Fall Edition. I saw this meme and had to laugh......
Because, Trader Joe's is not really close to my house, or really convenient to get to....but I venture out there every 4-6 weeks for some of our favorites. This was my first time there in the Fall season and I got some yummy Fall favorites.
You can check out my favorite staples from TJ's in these posts.

Life Lately

Hey friends! First of all, how the heck is it the last day of September???
This month seemed to fly by, which is a total bummer, because I really love September! 
Second, last week was a blur....crazy work week, kids activities, Ella's birthday...all the things... except for blogging😉
So here is a peek a what we have been up to lately, or as I like to call it- a little life lately.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends!!
My goodness this week seemed to just fly by, and while I am ready for the weekend I feel like I didn't get to all the things I wanted to this week. Oh well...there's always next week 😉
I am linking up with my favorite bloggers, ErikaNarci & Andrea to share a few favorites from the week! 


Happy Campers!

Hey friends! So today I'm going to catch you up on one of our adventures from this Summer. We took a weekend camping trip with the kids....and the dog! Now growing up, we were not a camping family. My first big camping experience was when I first met Paul and went camping with his family.
I had come to the conclusion that you are either born a camper or you are not. 
I was the latter.
We did a few other camping trips here and there but not much more. 
Until this Summer when I gave it another shot. 

Something New for Your Family Table......Mini BBQ Chicken & Zucchini Tostadas

Happy Monday friends! We had a fun weekend putting out a few Fall touches and celebrating a Bills win yesterday!!  I'm excited to share this yummy recipe I tried out last week. These Mini BBQ Chicken & Zucchini Tostadas are full of so much flavor and a great way to get in some extra veggies!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends!!
We survived our first full week of school and are ready for the weekend!
I am  linking up with my favorite bloggers, ErikaNarci & Andrea to share a few favorites from the week! 


What I Have Been Reading!

Happy Thursday friends!!!  Gosh it has been so long since I have done a book review! I am excited to share the last 8 books I have read. A mixed bag of suspense, romance, beach reads.... a little bit of everything!

Something New for Your Family Table....Vegetarian Rice and Bean Casserole

Hey friends!!! Good to be back on a Monday sharing a recipe for Meatless Monday. So about a year and half ago we stared to eat more plant based meals and I have played around with a lot of different recipes. We try to have at least one or two meatless meals each week. I have shared quite a few plant based meals here and you can find them on the right hand side of the blog, under the category plant based.

Friday Favorites....I'm Back!

Happy Friday friends!!
After a bit of a blogging hiatus, I am so excited to be back this week!
I am getting back into my groove and linking up with my favorite bloggers, ErikaNarci & Andrea to share a few favorites from the week! 


Fun in the Sun....with a Twist!

Hi friends! So the beginning of my blogging hiatus kind of started after our whirlwind trip to Florida in February. We ventured down to visit Paul's parents, as we do every year. This year we planned to spend some time with them at their condo and then head to Universal to meet some friends and visit the park. Our trip started out with all the favorite things....time at the beach....
reading by the beach..... 
lunching at a favorite restaurant..... 
playing mah-jong with Grandama..... 
and reading some more.... 
Then on our third day there, Paul complained of a stomachache. I didn't think much of it and told him to just lay down after lunch. He continued to feel worse and worse and then finally decided around 6pm that we should go to urgent care. Paul is a pretty healthy guy and is not one to take any medicine or complain, so I knew something had to be off when he said he wanted to go to urgent care. They did some testing and bloodwork and said he needed a CT scan and would need to go to the ER. So off we went to the local hospital where we waited a long time. After a CT scan and an ultrasound they determined it was his gallbladder. There was a gall stone that somehow became "stuck", caused an infection and the only option was surgery! 
Even crazier was they did not offer the surgery at that hospital, so Paul was transported via ambulance to another hospital to spend the night and surgery was scheduled for the next day at 5pm. 
The kids stopped in for a visit the next day before surgery to say hi. Not the pic I thought we would have from our trip to Florida, but everybody was in good spirits. I was so thankful that we were with Paul's parents when this happened. Being in a hotel room or having to keep the kids at the hospital the whole time would have made for even more stress!
I spent most of the day reading in the waiting room.  
Surgery went well, but they wanted him to stay another day. At least he had a waterfront room! Ha! 
After a crazy 48 hours we left the hospital without a gall bladder...... 
The kids were happy to welcome him back home! 

Paul rested and I spent time with the kids at the pool. 
They were bummed about cancelling Universal, so we headed to an indoor trampoline park for some fun! 
And of course they requested Chik-Fil-A for dinner! 
The next day we celebrated National Margarita Day! I mean would you ever guess Paul just had surgery??? 
We went to Guanabana's, which is one of my most favorite restaurants ever! 
Luke enjoyed two of his favorites- steamed clams and a Pina Colada! 
I had two of my favs.. fish tacos and a margarita! 
Then we hit up the local mini-golf. Again- Paul had surgery 2 days prior to him mini-golfing! 
We packed up and began our drive back home. I drove the first day and we got to Charlotte. I saw the Charlotte Hornets had a home game and grabbed some really cheap tickets on StubHub. So we made the most of our night there and went to the game. 

If you have not been to an NBA game, I highly recommend it! They are so action packed- such fun family time! 
We finished the second half of our journey home the next day. Back to reality, laundry..... 
And this cute little face! 

Once we got home from that trip, I think I was just mentally exhausted. After the first couple months in a new job and then the craziness of the trip I took a break from the blogging world. It was feeling more like having to get a post written or a recipe shared instead of blogging because I wanted to. 
But I have really missed it. It is definitely an outlet for me and I am so happy to get back into it. 
Can't wait to share some more with you soon. See you Friday... there is always room for one more at our family table. 
xoxo
Genevieve


Coming Back.......

Hey friends!!!!  I am coming back!! So, my last post was about 6 months ago and gosh I have missed this blogging space. I have heard from so many sweet readers, friends and Insta followers that they missed reading along too. 
I started a new job last December.  I really enjoy the field I am in & the team I work with, but I had a really big learning curve. I checked out of blogging, social media, reading... pretty much checked out of all the things,  to focus on learning my new role. Any spare time I had I wanted to be with my family. I finally feel like I'm in a better spot from a work-life balance perspective and really missed this blogging space. While some may think it's a lot of work to blog (it is) it feels less like work and more of a release for me. It's a place I can get creative, share some fun things and connect with readers across the country. 
I am going to ease back in and hope share a few posts each week. I am not going to stress about a post, but rather write when I can. 
 I have a bunch of new recipes to share......
  quite a few book recaps......
some family adventures.....
and thoughts as I am in a new parenting phase with a tween 😉.
If there is anything you want to see more of here, share in the comments below.

Happy to be back & see you soon. There is always room for one more at our family table. 
xoxo
Genevieve




What's Up Wednesday...February Edition

Hi friends!!! So somehow tomorrow is the last day of February and I feel like this sums up the first two months of 2019....
Yep. Not sure where Feburary went! Since it is the last week of the month, I am linking up with Sha and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday... February Edition. 
 A fun monthly post where we answer these questions....

What a Vacation!

Hey friends!!! I had big plans to be back here yesterday with a fun recap of our vacation, but we found ourselves in this situation.....

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends!! I am plugging away through one more day of work and then we are off to find the sunshine!! Yay! I have a bunch of favorites for you today, to let's get right into it! As always, I am linking up with my favorite bloggers, ErikaNarci & Andrea to share a few favorites from the week! 


Let's Look... Favorite Reads!

Hey friends!!! I hope you are all having a good week! We are heading out on vacation this weekend, so I feel like this week is flying by, as I have so many things to get done before we go!
I am so excited to link up with Shay & Erika for their new monthly series, Let's Look.
A fun monthly post looking at some fun things. This month is one of my favorites...sharing my favorite reads! 

Something New for Your Family Table...Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli

Hey friends! Not sure about you, but I am always looking for an easy meal for busy weeknights. I saw a recipe for this Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli on  Narci's blog and thought it sounded good.
I made it last week and  my crew loved it! Simple ingredients, cooking in the crockpot all day... come home and dinner is done!
The perfect meal for your Monday!

Friday Favorites... Hello February!

Happy Friday Friends!!!!
So I am not sure about you, but this week seemed to fly by! I mean January took forever and just like that, we are already one week into Febraury!
Maybe it's because we are T-minus one week until we are going on vacation. Or maybe it's because we had Spring like temps this week. Whatever it was, this week went by fast!

Let's get into some Friday favorites. As always, I am linking up with my favorite bloggers, ErikaNarci & Andrea to share a few favorites from the week! 


TBB Asks.... Relationships

Happy Monday friends!!! We made it to February!! I am finishing up this post on Sunday morning, so not sure who won the big game last night. Three of us were #teamrams and one was #teampats. So at least someone is happy this morning!
I am linking up with my friends at The Blended Blog for their monthly link up. This month's is a fun Q&A around relationships!

Friday Favorites.....Frozen & Snowy Edition!

Happy Friday friends!!
So remember last week when I said January didn't feel so long? I lied. these last 6 days have felt like an eternity!
Image result for january 2018 longest month ever meme
 Maybe because my kids have had 4 snow days out of the last 6 school days?!  Seriously, I thought "yes we made it" on January 30th. And then I was like... really? Another day in January? Ha!!
But today is February 1st!!!WOOHOO!!
I am linking up with my favorite bloggers, ErikaNarci & Andrea to share a few favorites from the week! 


What's Up Wednesday....January Edition

Woohoo!!! We are almost done with January! I don't know about you, but January is just cold, dark and feels like an extra long month! I am ready to flip my calendar to February on Friday! But before we say goodbye to the month, I am linking up with Shay and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday......January Edition. 

 A fun monthly post where we answer these questions....


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