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Fresh mozzarella and tomatoes paired with chicken creates a simple yet savory dish!

Looking for an easy summer supper or lunch? This light soup is perfect to pair with a salad or a grilled cheese!

If you follow along on social media, you probably saw my stories throughout the month of May where I shared my daily habits I live by. These habits came about when I needed to make some major changes to my life. In my recent blog, Change for a Purpose, I talked about finding purpose and how you have to take the action to make things happen! Our daily habits are the basis of our behavior. So, here are the 31 habits I shared over the month of May! I hope little changes like these can help you live your best life! Make the bed! Make the bed right after you get up. It will be an accomplished task for the day that motivates you for more and makes your room look more welcoming! Clean the kitchen nightly! Before you go to bed, have all the dishes done and the counter tops wiped down. Walking into a clean kitchen in the morning not only helps alleviate the stress a messy kitchen causes, it will also motivate you to make something healthy for breakfast rather than just grabbing something at a drive thru. Drink water! I drink over 100 ounces a day! Being hydrated helps keep you feeling full and it does wonders for your skin and hair. Skip the soda and drink water! Take a shower! I know that sounds silly but us mommas are notorious for not taking care of ourselves because we are taking care of little ones. Even a quick shower will revive refresh you! Get 8 hours of sleep. Now, I know if you have really little ones this one may be hard. But, so many of us are guilty of staying up too late and when that alarm goes off we are dragging. Make a bedtime reminder if you need to! Exercise! Even if it is just a leisurely walk with the stroller or the dog. I do 3 miles every morning, walking or running. I try to do it outside for fresh air unless the weather is really bad. Get moving and clear your mind! Turn off the TV! The pandemic shutdown created a lot of binge watching. Guilty here thanks to Yellowstone. Evenings in front of the TV are easy but that is so much time to be productive. I even unsubscribed from Netflix and others. Wash your face! Commit to an evening skin care routine. Wash your face, put on some night cream, and take care of you! Say your Prayers! I committed to reading the Bible in 2021 and it has motivated me to be much more intentional about my prayers: prayers for me, my family, friends, the world we live in, and on and on. Create morning devotional and journal time. Morning is when I do my daily Bible reading, a devotional, and write in my journal. It completely shapes my mindset for the day. During that morning time, I plan out my day. I think we are all guilty of putting too much on our to do list. So, I map out that to do list with the actual hours of the day. And I prioritize the top 5 tasks of the day! If there isn't time for some things then they just get moved to another day. My hours are committed to the top 5 of the day first! The top 5 includes doctor's appointments, a client call, getting groceries, meeting with your child's teacher, etc. I often try to have these "done by 1:00!" Go through your mail each day. Don't let it pile up on the counter. Purge the catalogs and the junk mail. Organize pertinent things on your desk or go ahead and get them done right then! Do a load of laundry. If you have kids, then you have a lot of laundry. I start a load almost every morning then throw it in the dryer at lunch and fold it when I get home. This keeps it from piling up and becoming overwhelming! Get in bed early enough to have some quiet time. Read a book or a magazine. Silent your phone or better yet, leave it in the kitchen. Reflect on the 3 best things of the day. (I do this during my bedtime quiet time.) This could be anything from a rigorous workout that you accomplished, meeting an old friend for lunch, gaining a new client, sticking to a diet plan, etc. Whatever made you feel great that day! Fruits & Veggies! they make a huge difference in how you feel! Knock them out early by having a smoothie for breakfast full of berries and other fruits, plus some kale or spinach, and non-fat plain greek yogurt for some probiotics too1 Compliment someone. Preferably a stranger or someone you don't know well. The smile you bring to that person's will make you feel better then they do! A simple, "I love that dress, it looks great on you" or a "I appreciate the great service you gave today." Do a good deed for the day! Return an elderly person's shopping cart, let the mom with little kids in tow cut in line at check-out, let someone over in traffic. It's the little things that spread kindness in the world. Stretch! The older we get, the more everything hurts. Take just a few minutes each day to stretch. Release tension and keep those muscles pain free and strong! Stop and smell the roses. Enjoy the nature in your yard as you come and go. Grab a small bouquet from the grocery store or cut flowers from your own yard and put them around your house. Flowers really do lift spirits! Get the trash out of the car! When you get home, just go ahead and collect it all and toss it in that garage trash can! Reach out to a friend. Someone that you don't talk to everyday. Stay in touch. Stop and break for lunch. Even if you have to eat at your desk, put the work away. Slow down and enjoy it. Keep a book in your purse and read for a few minutes. Go sit outside on a bench and just enjoy the fresh air. Start the morning with 8 ounces of lemon water before coffee. Use the juice from at least half a lemon and drink it fast. This has helped my digestion so much! Put your clothes away! Hang up what is clean and put the dirties in the laundry bin! My bathroom used to stay a mess because I would create stacks around the tub and it only takes a minute to actually put it where it belongs! At the end of the day, tidy up your desk so it is a blank canvas when you sit down the next day. Hug your spouse and kids and tell them you love them. Before everyone goes their way for the day, give a good hug and say "I love you!" When you sit down for supper, say a blessing. We have so much to be grateful for everyday, not just at Thanksgiving. Straighten up your relaxing space. Fluff the pillows, fold the blankets, remove the clutter. Make it the welcoming place you need. The porch is my go-to in the summer time! Weigh-In. I know a lot of people may disagree with this one and that is okay. But, when I decided to get the weight off I had gained, I weighed in every day to track my weight loss. Now, I know the few pounds my weight can fluctuate by and everything is okay. And I know when the scale tells me I have overindulged in Mac and cheese.

Nothing quite says summer is almost here other than strawberries. I wanted to create a strawberry based poolside drink that could be spiked for the mommas and virgin for the kiddos. So, I created this simple syrup to use as the base. For the momma version, I fill an 8 ounce glass with ice. Then, I add one ounce (or one shot) of the strawberry simple syrup and one ounce (or shot) of vodka and then I top the rest of the glass with club soda or unflavored seltzer water. For the kid version, I used about 2 ounces of the simple syrup and then topped it with the club soda or seltzer. To make the strawberry simple syrup: 1 pound strawberries, tops removed and hulled 1 cup water 1 cup sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice In a blender, combine the hulled strawberries and water and puree. In a saucepan, mix the strawberry puree with the sugar. Over medium-low heat and stirring consistently, bring the mixture to a boil. Add the lemon juice and simmer (stirring consistently) until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer will be about 5 minutes. Let cool then transfer to a mason jar to store in the refrigerator.

What am I living for? What is my purpose? Have you ever felt lost and unfulfilled? Like you are going through the motions and just fulfilling the expectations of others? I have been there, my friend. It may have all looked perfect and fulfilling from the outside but it was anything but that. So, I decided it was time to change. You can't just wish for change, you have to make it happen! You have to reflect on what drives you and decide who you want to be. You have to decide what you want your days to be filled with. Then you have to commit to making that change happen! If you know me personally or have even read some of my blog posts, you most likely know that 2017 was a traumatic time in my life. It's crazy to think that it's been almost 4 years since I received that phone call that forever changed my life. 2018 and 2019 were pretty difficult too because I continued to endure malicious acts related to the betrayal as well as dealing with constant slander and lies. Once you realize that your life as you had known it up to 40 years old was nothing but a big sham full of manipulation, you need some time to reflect and recourse your life. My biggest mistake during that season was constantly being held up in the WHY! Why did this happen? Why would people I love choose to hurt me this way? Why did I never see this when I was younger? I was going through the daily motions but I was not taking care of myself and I definitely wasn't my best self. I started keeping a terrible schedule, staying up too late and not getting enough sleep which caused me to feel bad. That turned into eating poorly and neglecting exercise. Of course that caused me to gain weight which made me feel even worse about myself and the cycle just goes on from there. In the fall of 2019, I started to get back on track. I remember going to Atlanta for the Apparel Market and, even though the market was a huge success, I just did not enjoy it. I realized right then that I was not fulfilled by what I was spending my days doing. My focus had been so pre-occupied that I had not even realized this. But what would fulfill me? That I needed to figure out. I returned home from the market and told my employees that I had decided I was going to try a new path with my life. This part was super hard because the two girls that worked for me were awesome. They stayed through the end of the year and helped me organize things to finish my commitments. Thankfully, they both landed doing great things! During that fall, we also had to make a huge decision about our home. Our home had a delayed major mold issue from Hurricane Florence and it was not healthy to continue living in it. The entire house needed to be ripped out and replaced. It was going to be a year plus project and we were unsure where we would live. Just as we were getting our heads wrapped around this process, our widower neighbor decided he was ready to downsize. We took it as a God sign and decided to buy the home and move. The craziest part is I had no idea how much I needed such a big restart! We moved in January 2020 and I began reading The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. This book was exactly what I needed during this time. It made me ask myself hard questions but also gain so much focus into what fulfills me and creates my purpose. As I was beginning my season of transition, the pandemic hit and the world shut down. It gave me the quiet I needed to reflect and assess. Shortly before the shutdown, I had approached my son's school about teaching a personal finance class in the high school. (My formal education is in finance and accounting and I am a CPA and spent nearly 20 years in corporate America.) They added it onto the curriculum offering for the 2020-2021 school year and I began organizing my class. I had something new to look forward to and shift my focus towards. I also began helping friends that reached out to me during the shutdown with financial and business questions. I enjoyed teaching people so much! I had no idea I would ever have enjoyed doing that! A thing I learned in The Purpose Driven life was that two of the main characteristics of serving others from the heart is when you are enthusiastic and effective without even trying to be. The joy is in the act because you are using your talents to serve and it is fulfilling when you see that you have helped someone's life for the better. For so long I had focused on the wrong things. I focused on fulfilling the expectations of others. I focused on the why of being hurt. I focused on continuing what I was already doing rather than growing as a person. When I stopped long enough to look at myself from the outside I realized how unfulfilled I was by maintaining the status quo. Now that I had finally figured that out, it was time to cultivate a new beginning by finding my purpose and living it. As I was starting to change my life and became motivated for more, I realized how much I had let myself go. My daily habits had made me an unhealthy person, both physically and mentally. I had a conversation with my husband one day about that and I simply said "I wonder when I will get back to my old self?" He responded "whenever you make the decision to." I immediately got up, went and put my sneakers on, and went for a long walk. As the book said, "We become whatever we are committed to....To change your life, you must change the way you think. Behind everything you do is a thought. Every behavior is motivated by a belief, and every action is prompted by an attitude." I haven't looked back since that day. I am living my best life. I am my best self and striving to be better. I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. I am the best version of me for my husband and son and that carries over into our family life. I look for new opportunities in each day that are meant to be a part of my story. I am grateful for new people I meet and new chapters that are opening. If you are at a crossroads in your life, if you are unfulfilled and unfocused, if you don't know what your purpose is and how you should be living it, I encourage you to make a life change today and start a new beginning. We are never too old to reinvent who we are and what our purpose is. If you can't answer "What am I living for?", it may be time to reflect and reassess and discover it. Decide to be the best version of you. Commit to being that best version of yourself. Change your habits, change your focus, you may even need to change who you surround yourself with. You have to make the change to change your life.

This quick and easy casserole makes for an easy week night supper. You can easily substitute a pound of ground turkey or beef for the chicken. Looking for low carb? Bypass the tortillas and serve over salad greens.

Easy comfort food for weekends or holiday morning breakfasts. I used spicy sausage and sharp cheddar to kick up the flavor a notch.

This Slow Cooker Chili recipe is super easy and delicious!

I used Low Country Boil leftovers to make a usual clam chowder recipe, and it did not disappoint!

Craving a pizza but trying to cut the carbs? This easy casserole packs all the delicious flavor of your favorite pizza!

One of the lessons in my class recently was teaching the students how to make a budget for themselves. Now my students have very limited expenses but we were looking at someone that would have been out on their own with a job and household expenses. We would evaluate hypothetical situations and look at ways to decrease the spending and increase the saving. Oftentimes the students would always say that the person could lower their grocery bill. It was quickly apparent that a lot of kids don’t realize the true cost of groceries. Since meal planning and grocery lists that only involve exactly what we need are one of my top priorities, I decided we would do an exercise of the sort. I asked my students to make a food journal for a week of what they ate. From that journal they had to create their entire grocery list of what they would need to purchase. Then they went online like they were making a grocery order and created a cart of everything they needed. They also had a column to list out all the times they ate out. I had student’s individual weekly food budget needs vary from $56 to $140 based on what they had eaten. One student’s family had eaten fast food every night which greatly increased their total. A student with dietary restrictions that has to eat a lot of specialty food had a higher grocery budget than many others but her overall fell in the middle since she didn’t eat out much. This was a very eye opening experience for many of my students. I even had some comment that they now understand why their parents got irritated when food got wasted. After telling some friends about this exercise I did with my students, they were interested in learning more about saving money on groceries. So, stay tuned, I will continue to post tips and ideas to eat well, not waster food, and spend less overall on your grocery budget!

So, it isn’t as fun as pretty wallpaper and cute dresses but my educational background is in accounting. I have a Master’s Degree in Accounting and I am a CPA (Certified Public Accountant). I drive my husband crazy with budget spreadsheets, meal planning, and grocery lists. During Christmas of 2019, my son was at the grocery store with me and asked how my debit card worked to pay for the groceries. While he was only in middle school, I realized there is a lot that adults have learned (oftentimes the hard way) about how money works in life. So, I approached the headmistress at his school and asked if they offered a Personal Finance class for the high schoolers. I thought it was valuable information they should all have before graduating. At that time, they did not offer that but she explained to me how they wanted to offer that in the curriculum in the future once they had someone to teach it. So, I offered to teach it. Fortunately, we got everything lined up for the 2020-2021 school year before the pandemic shutdown started. I never thought I would enjoy teaching as much as I do. The students ask fantastic questions and are so engaged in the material. I am using the Dave Ramsey curriculum and I love it’s emphasis on avoiding debt and encouraging wealth building. I have even had students open IRA’s they get so excited about saving instead of spending! The time value of money always seems to blow them away. Not everyone has a financial background and enjoys keeping track of budgets and planning. I am starting to also help individuals, families, and small business owners make better financial plans for their futures to get themselves out of debt and start building wealth for their future and retirement. I can’t wait to share more tips and stories for keeping your finances working for you!

My childhood pediatrician recently passed way. He was in his 80’s and contracted COVID. He was a very healthy man and in great shape (he climbed Mt. Kiliminjaro at age 75)! I have very fond memories of him from my childhood. Even if you had strep throat or the flu, he would still make you laugh when you went to his office. He instantly made people feel better just from being in his presence. I was very sad to learn of his passing and very sad for his family because I know they were very close. I read many tributes on social media about him, some from friends his age, but mostly from the close friends of his children. Here is a quote from one of them: “There were so many nights that we’d come home from being out and he’d be playing cards, making a bet, or crafting while waiting on us. He’d ask us questions about what we did but also questions about who we were. He wanted (us) to know.” The other tributes were similar. Clearly, a man that valued family. That family included his children’s friends too. To ask teenagers about who they were because he wanted them to know who they were, Wow! Talk about instilling character. I have attended funerals where all that was spoken about was the person’s business or financial success. No mention of the person’s family or their successes as a parent. Why? Because not everyone values family or their role as a parent. I recently heard a quote (not sure who to give credit to) that said “If you want to know someone’s priorities just look at their calendar and their checking account.” If people don’t have date night with their spouse, helping their children with sports or school, going to church and brunch with the family, etc on their weekly calendars but instead spend 80+ hours a week working, attending numerous social events, etc then you know where their priorities lie. If their bank account shows lunch at Chuck-E-Cheese, a week at Disney, a tithe to their church instead of a trip to Vegas, nightly bar receipts, etc then you know where someone’s priorities lie. My word for the year 2021 is Intentional. Who do you want to be Intentional with? How do you want to be Intentional with your time? Because how you spend your time and who you spend it with are your priorities in life. We can’t take the riches of this world with us when the Lord calls us home. If Jesus asks you what is the legacy you have left behind on earth, what will you be able to truthfully say? A legacy of putting your family first, of children that adored you, of being a disciple? Or will it be a legacy of worldly success and riches?

This recipe is for an individual sized salad to make ahead for on the go.

This recipe is for an individual sized salad to make ahead for on the go.