Bekah’s Summer Update: The End of One Thing and the Start of Something(s) New
This has been quite a significant summer for us at the Bani Bungalow 🙂
We all survived intern year (Year One) of my hubby’s Pediatric Residency at UCSF Fresno. After one week off, we quickly started another year, but now we are that much closer to completing another step of this medical journey.
We found out that the newest addition to our family is a BOY.
He will be our second and are anxiously awaiting his arrival and seeing how Sophie likes being a Big Sister. This will be the 10th grandchild in our family making it a tie at 5 girls and 5 boys 🙂
We celebrated 5 Years of Marriage.
We did a mini celebration at the Underground Gardens here in Fresno (never stop exploring your home – you never know what cool adventures you will find!) and we will be doing a trip in a few weeks to Napa. Stay tuned for a post on how to do a Napa trip on a budget!
And, our happy girl continues to be HAPPY 😀
She is so curious and explorative. She loves trying new things and doing as much as she can on her own. She is a full on walker and is saying so many new words! And, she is such a girl. One of her newest favorite things is to put on her sparkly Minnie Mouse platform shoes and wear them around the house while she plays (Thanks for the hand-me-down, Cousin Mikah)!
As summer is coming to an end, always remember to CELEBRATE – big things, small things, victories, overcoming fears, trying new things and the people that you are surrounded by! Use these last few weeks of summer to not be overwhelmed by the coming year and everything you need …
Read MoreBirthday Boy on a Budget
A week ago my little boy turned 1! I can’t believe it. A year ago I was blessed beyond measure with my little baby boy, who we named Garrett and has brought an enormous amount of joy into my life. And of course, in normal mom fashion, the one year old birthday party became a thing. I set out to not make it a big deal… but I was just having way too much fun! But one thing I did stick to was my budget. I was able to throw a fairly large birthday party and not spend too much money. It took lots of lists, preparation, help, delegation, and lots of time. But I loved it!
My best advice in planning a party: Simplify. Say no to things. Do little touches of pop. You don’t need every decoration or every DIY you see. Choose a few things that you can have fun with. Don’t break the budget or break your sanity! Within reason you can have a cute, fun, creative birthday party!
A couple tips:
- Pick a theme or color
- Make a general budget
- Sale shop a little bit online
- See if family wants to contribute to the party
- Use a food favor or something people can use
- Wait to buy your baby presents until after the party and you see what they get
Decor:
- Bought plates, utensils, and napkins at the dollar store in my color
- Chose a few things on etsy that I could print out myself and make
- Got some ideas on pinterest and etsy and made them myself
- Used amazon prime for puff balls, bean bags, and bubble machine
Activity:
- Choose a few activities for kids
- Lawn games
- Music
- Food
Snacks:
- Buy kid snacks and juice boxes at Costco
- Otter pops or popsicles in the
Fresh Harvest Vegetable Marinara Sauce
This is the FIRST OFFICIAL recipe I have cooked in my new kitchen!!!!
We still have a few little repairs that need to be finished before it is completely done, but I can start creating new recipes and get back into my love of cooking now that I don’t have to cook in my laundry room anymore. It has been a LONG 8 months.
One of my distractions while waiting on the kitchen to be finished has been tending my vegetable garden…..Having a vegetable garden is fun and rewarding. The challenge is to use up the produce as it fills up the kitchen. So I decided to be creative and see how many of the vegetables from our garden I could use up in one recipe. I combined our garden veggies with a few things added from our local farmer’s market and cooked up a batch of vegetarian pasta sauce.
Ingredients
2 Tbs olive oil
2 onions
5 cloves garlic
6 carrots
5 stalks celery
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup fresh basil
1 cup fresh parsley
3 cups spinach
10 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 tsp sea salt
1 Tbs sugar
2 (28 oz) cans organic crushed tomatoes
I washed all the vegetables and starting with the onions, I cut them each into chunks and used my Cuisinart to finely chop each vegetable one type at a time. I put a large pot on medium heat and added 2-3 tablespoons olive oil. Add the onions, garlic, celery, carrots and saute until vegetables are soft, 5-10 minutes. Stir regularly so vegetables do not stick. Chop the basil, parsley and spinach and add to the large pot and stir another 5 minutes. Add 2 cans of organic crushed tomatoes and fresh tomatoes that have been chopped into chunks in the cuisinart. …
Read MoreWE ARE BACK!!!!!!
If you have been wondering where we have been for the past few weeks……we decided to take a break to fully immerse ourselves in our families for the month of July.
Starting tomorrow you can read about some of the fun experiences we have had this summer…..BUT as we all know, life is full of joys and sorrows so we will be posting about the difficult aspects of life as well. I will include a few pictures from the past month to entice you to come back and read about how we have been doing life together although we live far apart.
Rick and Kerry visit a full scale replica of Noah’s Ark-AMAZING!!!
Hiking Bishop’s Peak-INCREDIBLE!
Celebrating Garrett’s first birthday-how has the year gone by so fast!
Celebrating Ashkon’s birthday-such JOY!
Visiting Tilden Park-feeding animals, hiking and riding the train-such FUN!
Enjoying extended family time celebrating July 4th!
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Read MoreAmazon Prime Day!
Today is Amazon Prime Day!! Are you a prime member and love a good deal? Then, head over to Amazon right now!!
Here are a few awesome deals we are looking at…
The Instant Pot 8 qt.
$89.00 usually $129.95
Chicco KeyFit Infant Car Seat
$199.99
Save 20% at Checkout!
Check back later for more Prime Day deals!
— The Growing Weisser Women —…
Read MoreHealthy Meals in the Summer Heat
Anyone else melting in this heat? I sure am. And it can make sticking to healthy meal plans tricky.
I have 2 tips to make things easier for you and your family.
TIP 1: MEAL PLAN and MEAL PREP
Spend one day with the AC on and get all your baking and cooking done!
I roast veggies, made cookies, and prepared easy to grab snacks.
Lots of healthy superfood shakes
Then use your crock pot or make lots of fresh meals that don’t require the oven!!
TIP 2: Get creative
Make just a few meals and stretch them to as many meals as possible. This will support less evenings in the kitchen and longer days outside or at the pool.
I made a large crockpot of Bolognese and stretched it 3 or 4 nights – over pasta, over salad, “meat” ball sandwiches, and pizza sauce.
Last week I added our Mexican Summer Salad to a bowl of spinach and crock pot salsa verde chicken!
The freshness really accented the crockpot meat and it was perfect for the heat.
TIP 3: Get outside and BBQ!!!
Make meals fun and involve the whole family!
We hope that you have enjoyed our tips to highlight communication in your family during playtime and during meal time!
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Picnicking and Potlucking
Summer is filled with potlucks, picnics, bbqs, and get togethers! Most of the time these events are a shared effort where every family brings an item to contribute. I find myself bringing the same types of things to every event… So I am going to share a list of some new ideas I am finding as I tackle the summer potlucks.
Salads
- Corn salad
- Quinoa Salad
- Coleslaw
- Pasta Salad
- Potato Salad
- Orzo salad
- Watermelon and mint salad
- Succotash
Sides
- Watermelon is always great! Find creative ways to cut and serve!
- Fruit tray: Make a flag for the 4th of July, arrange creatively for the event
- Sweet potato fries
- Baked Potato
- Corn on the cob
- Roasted Vegetables
- Bread
Appetizers
- Meatballs
- Chip and Dip
- Veggie Tray
- Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
- Flat Bread Pizza
- Mozzerella cheese and tomatoes
- anything on a skewer
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Making Summer Meals Fun
I LOVE to cook and during the summer months I like to try new recipes and use the barbecue. I LOVE to eat outside and to have friends over for homemade ice cream and spend long summer afternoons and evenings hanging out by the pool. BUT, this summer has been a different story……You may be wondering what these pictures have to do with making fun summer meals……well, the reality is that this summer, I am attempting to make fun summer meals from my 60 square ft. laundry room. My creativity and patience have been put to a test for the past 7 1.2 months as we have waited and watched our kitchen restoration/floor repair/remodel take place after a refrigerator leak last November. Since Thanksgiving, I have been cooking out of my laundry room. With much anticipation and hope, I thought my situation would be different than it is today. With most of our family coming for the 4th of July holiday, I was certain I would finally be able to entertain and cook for my family out of my new kitchen, but alas…….it does not look like that will be a reality for us this holiday season. So this past weekend, my sweet husband and a few dear friends and my brother worked tirelessly to get the rest of the house as ready as possible for the arrival of our long awaited visitors.
This is the result of being able to at least unpack some of my bins full of kitchen items.
This is where most of the contents of our home have been stored during this process. We are frantically trying to get this room ready for the grandchildren coming in a few days.
Here is a number of boxes that still need to be sorted through.
Here is …
Relationships Are Meant to Be FUN!
Relationships are FUN! Sharing time, laughter and memories is a JOY!!
It can be easy to get caught up in our own schedules and our own struggles, but that is when it is most important to look for those connections with others!
I have made a personal goal to make more connections this Summer! I created a Facebook group to get other moms together for playdates and memories. I am guilty of waiting to be invited to things, so I decided to be the INVITER–To set up times for connecting and playing and not allowing myself any excuses not to get out and HAVE FUN!!
We’ve had a few events so far and it was a blast to see so many people I truly care about! It feels really good to connect with others! So far we’ve had a park day at the splash pad, attended a free library event, and visited the local children’s museum followed by sno cones!!
My challenge for you this Summer is to proactively seek relationships and connections. Start a group. Pick a regular day or meeting spot–just connect and create a place for friends new and old to be together. See what fun you can have!!!
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Real Relationships through Tangible Connection
Do you find yourself connecting with people through looking at your social media feeds?? This may be a way to know about their life, to see what they are up to, but its not real connectedness. It almost feels like an empty connection. It is a awareness without the heart and soul connection. We were created for relationships, togetherness, and real relationships.
When was the last time you shared a coffee with someone, went on a walk with a friend, had a real conversation. Or are you stuck knowing people through the phone or internet? It is hard. We are all busy doing different responsibilities, activities with our families, theres not much room. But we can make space. Make it a priority to spend time face to face with people. Do an activity together, go shopping, run errands together, pick up kids together, invite people into your home.
In the book Craving Connection, the authors invite you to
- “Embrace the desire God has given each of us for connection
- Invest in meaningful relationships, right where God has you
- Become the friend you wish you had