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Crockpot Italian Beef

Raise your hand if you love a crockpot meal! I LOVE a crockpot meal year round, but especially during the busy season of back to school. Nothing beats the feeling of walking into your home after a long day and dinner is simmering away in your crockpot. This is an easy recipe for Italian beef. We like to shred it up and serve it on a crusty roll with provolone cheese. If you don't like pepperoncini or giardiniera, feel free to serve without.  Crockpot Italian Beef Serves: 6-8 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10 hours Ingredients: 1 pot roast (I used a 2lb boneless petite pot roast) 1 Italian Dressing seasoning mix  1/2 16-ounce jar of pepperoncini peppers, plus juices 1/2 16-ounce jar of giardiniera, drained Beef broth Ciabatta rolls Provolone cheese Directions: Turn your crockpot to low, and add in your pot roast. Top with Italian dressing seasoning mix, pepperoncini peppers + juice, and drained giardiniera.  Add beef broth until it covers 2/3 of your pot roast.  Cook on low for 10
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Friday Favorites 9-22-2023

I've been back to work for a full week and can remember why Friday evenings are typically "pizza and movie nights" for our family. Haha! I'm READY for the weekend! I'm linking up with  Andrea and  Erika to share some of my favorites from the week. Here we go! My tired eyes are so thankful for this magic brightening stick. I think I put on makeup less than 10 times from the months of June-August, so it's been a change getting myself out the door in the mornings. Haha! I put a swipe of this brightening stick  underneath my under eye concealer and it seems to wake my eyes up. It doesn't tingle, it's not creamy, it's very similar to a concealer stick in consistency, but plus some skincare. Love! The beginning of the week felt hectic figuring out our morning routine. I am a routine girlie, and thrive on it. I told myself that by Friday we would have a solid routine figured out, and that's totally true. I was able to fit in consistent workouts this
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Trader Joe's Fall Haul

There's not much I love more than a run to Trader Joe's during the months of September, October, November and December. I took  a trip to Trader Joe's to stock up on our favorite fall items and wanted to share my haul. Basically the name of the game was "if it has the words apple or pumpkin  on it, it goes it the cart. Haha! Here are some of the items we picked up: Trader Joe's has a really delicious maple syrup. I use it in a variety of recipes this time of year! These little cookies are quite delightful. They aren't overwhelmingly pumpkin  but they definitely have a pumpkin spice flavor.  Yes, yes, yes. I put some of this Honey Crisp Granola over their vanilla bean yogurt and loved it.  I tried this soup for the first time last year and was a huge fan. I love to divide the jar between two containers, and voila! Lunch is served for the next two days.  Now these donuts are yummy, but they aren't going to be able to compete with apple cider donuts purchased
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Autumn Apple Salad & Meal Prep

Now that I'm back to work following maternity leave, that means that I am back to packing lunches. Womp womp - it's the least favorite part of my job. 😉 I thought I'd share a method and a recipe for packing lunches that works well for me, and helps me knock out the dreaded task of lunch packing in about 30 minutes, instead of packing a lunch each night. It also ensures that I have something wholesome for lunch instead of eating out, or eating something not as healthy.  Each week when I plan our grocery list, I include the ingredients for a salad each week. I want enough ingredients to make 4 salads that I'll eat (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). On Fridays, our secretary usually orders in lunch for us, which I often take advantage of. On this week I decided to make Autumn Apple salad, so here's the ingredients I needed to make sure I had on hand:  Ingredients:  1 bunch green leaf lettuce  1 package spring mix  1 large apple (I like honey crisp) 1/2 pound d
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The Reality Behind Family Photos

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I'm very excited to be a guest blogger on the Des Moines Mom Blog today. I'm sharing a mother's perspective behind family photos. If ANY of this resonates with you, I'd love for you to share my post. Us mamas could always use some encouragement to get in front of the camera. 😉 Find my post here:  The Reality Behind Family Photos In honor of sharing my thoughts behind family photos, here are some of my favorites through the years:  Photo Credit: Amy Doerring Photography Photo Credit: John Lee Photography Photo Credit: Morgan Moon Photography Photo Credit: John Lee Photography Photo Credit: Morgan Moon Photography
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Friday Favorites 9-15-2023

  It's Friday - hooray! As you're reading this, I'm probably shedding some tears as I get ready to go back to work after 15 GLORIOUS weeks off. Thankfully I go back on a Friday, so I only have to get through one day before the weekend. That was very strategically planned. 😉  I'm linking up with  Andrea  and  Erika  to share some of my Friday favorites. Let's go!  Easy favorite: this weather! Fall seems to have arrived in Iowa, and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. It's the kind of weather where you need a jacket in the morning and evenings, but afternoons are warm. We'll gladly take it!  Sammy has been loving his return to preschool! Look at him writing his name so well - it's a super proud mama moment for me.  Tuesday was the PERFECT day for us to go to our favorite  apple orchard . We had such a great day doing all the fall things! Both boys (and their parents) were exhausted by the time we got home. Haha! Look at this cute bib! My grandma pic
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Maternity Leave Reflection

Today marks the last day of my maternity leave, and tomorrow I'll return to my work as a teacher. I had some thoughts and reflections from my last 15 weeks off, and wanted to share them here.  When our little boy was born 15 weeks ago, I knew that this summer would completely fly by. My punctual baby arrived on the very first day of summer break (and 3 weeks early) which was wonderful because it maximized our time together. His timing couldn't have been more perfect!  When I first calculated our due date, I anticipated that this summer wouldn't really feel  like summer. While part of that is true (I didn't wear a swimsuit once this summer), we still enjoyed plenty of summer fun. Our days have been leisurely, our mornings have been slow, and we've made plenty of memories together.  Here are some of my favorite moments from our time off together:  Sammy meeting his brother Jackson was one of the biggest joys of my life. Sammy adjusted beautifully to life with a little
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