Weaver Adventures

Do you ever feel like you're going a million miles a minute? The busy of life overwhelms you. You just dream of a vacation, quiet, getting away. Then I have the perfect place for you >> Woodland Cabins in southern Illinois. Located just outside of Carbondale Illinois, its nestled perfectly on a quiet plot of land so you are close enough for convenience but secluded in your own little piece of heaven. This was our first visit and our entire goal was to RELAX. Literally do nothing for two days other than enjoy each others company. We arrived Friday and the FIRST thing we did was open the door to awe. Our cabin was WoodSong & it was quaint, adorable and so homey. They even had an adorable Christmas tree set up for the season. The second thing we did was jump in the hot tub! It was located just outside our bedroom door so the perfect way to relax on a cold winter night. We surprised some friend who were also staying on the property. The fireplace was lit and it w

If you've been following my weekly marriage posts, then you've seen my top tips. Truthfully it doesn't get more basic than that. A good marriage doesn't happen by chance. It happens because TWO people are willing to fight for each other. Everyday they choose each other. && everyday your marriage can get better. I look back on the day I married my husband and never thought I could love him more, but here I am today with a heart so full. Each day that loves grows. Some days I want to punch him in the throat. Some days I cry. Some days we struggle. But through it all, we walk together for each other. We've been through good, bad and ugly. We've had our fair share of arguments and disagreements (and i'm sure we have plenty more to come). At the end of the day I remember its him and I & I make a decision to choose us. If you want to work on growing your relationship it starts with YOU! When you can fully love yourself, the love you have to give

OMGGGGGG ya'll. My newest obsession. Chocolate peanut butter mug cake. Hell yes. I don't know about you, but I kinda have a sweet tooth. it doesn't matter how healthy I am my body genuinely craves sugar. However, I know loading up on junk food won't bless me or my body. So I am always on the look out for healthier sweet options. I normally have a daily Supershake. Its a product my company creates and it helps me fight that sweet craving, while getting my daily source of vitamins and nutrients. For those anti veggie eaters, like I used to be - this is the perfect way to help supplement, since it acts like 7 salads but takes like a milkshake. HOWEVER. I despiseeeeee cold weather. I dislike being cold. It makes me grumpy. As the snow rolls into central Illinois I'm finding I don't want a milkshake, so I've been trying new ways to enjoy my supershake. Let me share with you, my mug cake recipe! Ingredients 1 scoop chocolate Shakeology 1 egg 3 tablespoons w

Always say how you feel or what you want. This topic compounds on some of the others I've already covered but I think it's so important it needs it own blog post, so let's dig in! How many times do you want your spouse to do something a certain way? Say a certain thing? Apologize for hurting your feelings? Take you somewhere special? BUTTT we don't say it or ask for it well, because sometimes it would just be nice to be surprised. ORRR they should already know how you feel. When you get in the argument and 3 days later you're still upset and he acts like he doesn't know why.... **eye roll** he SHOULD know what he did. The problem is, he doesn't. Your spouse isn't a mind reader. I know, its logical. I know you know that, but how many times do you catch yourself expecting them to respond perfectly. The issue goes back again to we are two different people brought together and just because you think, act and respond one way doesn't mean they d

Weird, right?!? It sounds so gross but y'all it tastes so good. This is one of my summer favorites but now Ill grill it or bake it to help me prep food for the week. It makes the chicken so juicy and not dry one bit! Ingredients: Whole Small Chicken: varies $5 to $7 A can of Bush Light: .63 cents 2 Tablespoons real butter: .05 Mrs. Dash Seasoning: $ 2.62 (optional) Total: 7.68 (or 10.30 with the Mrs Dash) Directions Before preparing the chicken, open the package then take the bag out of the chicken. (That little package has the gizzards, neck and liver? in it. I don't eat those things so I just throw them out). With an empty chicken, grab a can of beer. My dad says the rule is to take a big drink, but I'm not a beer fan so instead of drinking it, I pour a little bit into a bowl and set aside. Your beer should still be 3/4 of the way full. If you are baking the chicken, then you adjust your racks in our oven to fit the chicken if its standing. You put the beer in the

Love without expectations. This one is a hard one. It takes lots of practice and refocus. In life, everyday we live filled with expectations. Expectations of how our days will go, what blessings we will receive, how our kids will behave. Expectations for birthdays, events, promotions. But let's be honest, how many days actually go according to our "plan"? Mine? Almost none. Its the same for our marriage. When we get married, start a relationship, have a crush. We set certain expectations for how we want them to treat us. What we expect them to do. Open the door, send cute notes, buy you presents.  You know, the ideal picture of what our love will look like. & a lot of the time its like one of those cheesy love stories >> anyone else thinking of The Notebook??? We want the beautiful wedding, amazing honeymoon. The laughs and love. The cute children who are so behaved. The white picket fence. Then we actually get in the season and realize its freaking ha

Its holiday season and that means all the treats! Sometimes potluck style foods can add up quick so I want to share with you one of my simple, easy and affordable snack food that you can take to your next party. Mexican Style Pinwheels. I honestly don't remember where I first saw these, but over time I've added my own spin, flare and adjustments. Ingredients: Flour tortillas : .89 cents x 2 = 1.78 Canned Chicken: .98 x3 = 2.94 Taco Seasoning: .23 cents Cream Cheese: 1.89 Shredded Cheese: $1.99 Optional: Hot Sauce: .89 cents Rotel tomato & green chilies: .98 cents Total cost: $9.72 Directions Mix all ingredients in a big bowl! I prefer the hot sauce over Rotel just because its smoother and doesn't make the tortillas soggy. If you do use the tomato and green chilies, be sure and drain the juice as much as possible! I also love to use my mixer to stir it all together it makes the chicken super fine and the cream cheese blend in smoothly. Add the hot sauce

Date nights are a must. No questions asked. But for real, sometimes they feel impossible. I don't know about you but Kenny and I we literally jumped into life together && it's never slowed down. We got together, engaged, bought a house, got married & had 3 babies back to back to back. Yes, for those of you asking... They were planned that way & I indeed do know what makes them . But regardless its pure total, utter chaos. You have no idea how to parent or add people to a home. You literally just learn to manage. People ask me all the time how do you do it? I can honestly say its 100% survival mode, and too often couple push away from each other instead of join forces. We forget that we were once just us and in 18 short years, it will be just us again. We love these babies & they need us and we didn't set boundaries before they got here because how the hell are you supposed to know what to expect? And if we are being honest no two kids are the same

Another cheap meal for you my friend.  I will be totally honest, my meals are never sexy so this is one of my more wild recipes.  I know, I know, no potatoes. BUUUT hear me out you potato eating men, this is still good.  Chicken Kabobs. OHHH yeah!  Chicken -- $10 Peppers -- $1.99 Onions -- $1.39 Mushrooms -- $1.89 Rice -- $1.79 Carrots -- .88 Garlic -- $5.26 (8 oz container) _________________________ Total Spent: $23.20 Now let's break it down!  Chicken -- $10/ 2 = $5 Peppers -- $1.99/ 3 = .66 Onions -- $1.39/ 7 = .20 Mushrooms -- $1.89/ 3 = .63 Rice -- $1.79/ 5 = .36 Carrots -- .88/ 4 = .22 Garlic -- $5.26 (this is a LOT)/ 20? = .26 -- you could probably get way more uses out of it than this __________________________ Total for one meal = $7.33 UMMM yessss, under $10 &&& celebrate! Its a good mix up for special meals, maybe date night!? If you're loving these $10 meals, please hit subscribe, drop a comment, share with a friend! All the l

Know your love language. Friends, this is key. Knowing your personality and love language is such a powerful tool. When you merge two people together in a relationship, its more than just you. This is ANY relationship, not just with your spouse. This is you and your momma, your best friend, the girl you sit next to at work. No two people think, act, respond, internalize things the same. When you realize that no one else understands or thinks like you its kind of liberating. We get caught in our own minds often. We tell ourselves certain things that we believe to be true, but turns out they aren't always. How do you figure out what is true and what isn't? It starts by understanding who you are. Remember how I said last week, if you want to change your spouse it starts with you? THIS is the first step! For me, I needed to figure out my personality type to figure out who I am. What makes me tick? I'll share the image I love and use here! Its the Dani Johnsons gemstone p

You know my goal is $10 or less, What if I told you breakfast for under $2?!? YUPPPPPP! Friends, get on my level.  That's cheaper than stopping at the gas station, running through fast food and 100x healthier! Let me share with you one of my favorite breakfast meals! Overnight Oats & Eggs Super simple, super easy, budget win. x Now let's break it down. Oatmeal -- $2.29 Blueberries -- $2.29 Almond Milk -- $1.99 Eggs -- .88 Mushrooms -- 1.89 ________________________ Total spent = $6.57 But wait, that's before breaking it down by the number of days you can use it for. This is over a weeks worth of breakfast y'all. One tub of oatmeal can last me 2+ weeks! Eggs, you have plenty for 6 days, etc. So let me show you my best guess. Oatmeal -- $2.29 / 14 = .16 Blueberries -- $2.29 / 4 = .57 Almond Milk -- $1.99 / 7 = .28 Eggs -- .88 / 6 = .15 Mushrooms -- 1.89 / 5 = .38 __________________________ Total for one meal = $1.54 Mind.Blow

So many have been asking and encouraging me to share about marriage. Which honestly is so interesting to me because often Kenny and I fail. We struggle. We are human and humans make mistakes. In life each of us are just doing the best we can. We don't have a users manual or a how to guide. We just show up and react to what life brings us. That's both good and bad. Because our actions are often defense mechanisms. We only know what we are taught OR what we are willing to go out of our way to learn or unlearn. I want to encourage you to LEARN about marriage, about your spouse, about you. You can look at the next couple on social media. How perfect they look. Their life, their love, their family & be envious. Compare yourself and your marriage. Pick apart your spouse because they don't do what her husband does. Let me just tell you, your marriage is yours alone. You have nothing to prove to the next person on facebook or instagram. When you're showing up for t

Y'all know me. I'm all about budget friendly, simple & delicious foods. I like to keep it basic because I don't like to waste time && I definitely don't like the clean up. So I want to really focus on bringing that to you! I get all the time people who say they cant eat healthy because..... they can't afford it. I think this is karma because I used to use this excuse NONstop as I drove through fast food and went out to eat constantly. Anyways, I'm gonna start something called $10 Dollar Tuesdays where I share a meal with you that I made that costs me less than $10! You in?!? Our first $10 meal >> BBQ Chicken! One thing youll learn with me is that I love the grill (again back to the clean up aspect). For cheap and simple, I keep it basic. A meat, a potato & a veggie. Green beans wouldn't be my top veggie pick, but they are cheaper for us since we can them &&& my family actually likes them-- dinner wit

Mondays, A fresh start, new week, the inevitable day 1.  Today is day 1 for my new boot camp. && It always excites me to kick off a new boot camp because of the energy and hope my challengers show up with. They commit to joining with their heart set on crushing their goals. They are excited, full of energy, not sure what to expect but ready to try their hardest. They want to be healthier, happier and more confident. The BEST part about my job is giving others the opportunity to do something for themselves. I love seeing them PROUD. Sharing their sweaty selfies, saving no to junk food. Smiling because for the first time in forever they did something for them.  You see, these small acts. They are HUGE acts of courage. Facing your life and deciding you want to change, that is hard. It means you have to overcome old habits and create new ones.  Often our biggest struggle isn't that we aren't capable. Its that we don't believe in ourselves yet.  To get to

For better or worse, Marriage, it's a journey. I know when I got married I set expectations for my life. I'm a person who loves to be in control of the outcome. I like to know whats gonna happen. I make a plan and I follow it. I'm a realist, a logical thinker &&& one hell of a dreamer.  I pictured this life full of happiness, love, white picket fence type picture. I expected date nights and spending weekends on adventures. Creating our own little family, on our time, sweet babies & Pinterest worthy house. I was going to teach my kids all the things, do all the crafts. You get it. I thought it would all be perfect. Then life happens. You go through the honeymoon phase but at some point work, busy, bills take priority.  Then you have kids. && they need all your attention. Holding them, snuggling them, getting up 500 times every night. OHHH and the extra bills from having kids. More mouths to feed, meaning working more to cover the costs.