Happy half birthday to Kevin!
Do you celebrate half birthdays? Why not right? It’s always fun to have a reason to celebrate something!
We made him half of a cupcake! Something super small, but he appreciated it. Today is also his anniversary of getting on at the fire department! Three years ago today he started his dream job, and he couldn’t be more happier!
Love ya babe!
Happy half birthday!
Do you ever wonder why people pick the names of their blogs or websites?
It was hard to pick this name, but after lots of thinking I decided to go with Mandy Joy Loves. The reason I picked that name is if you don’t know already, Mandy Joy is my name. And what better way to keep a forever online journal if you will of this life! Mandy Joy Loves….all the things!
You can read the About Mandy section located above in the header photo. The About Mandy section goes into a little more detail but you pretty much get the gist.
Super super short post today, but sometimes people wonder about blog names so I thought I’d share. Hope you enjoy reading the blog as much as I enjoy coming up with things to share!
Friday had dinner with the girls. Margaritas, tequila, and girl talk. Fun fun!
Saturday had my cousins baby shower. It was so nice and great to see everyone! My Aunt Cindy from Florida came in town for it too!
Saturday pictures from the fire fighter never get old.
Sunday went to the zoo with my Aunt and Uncle and family visiting from Mississippi! It was a beautiful day.
Sunday had a volleyball game at night, since Kevin was working my cousin Becca filled in for him. Hadley is just the best kid. Sitting there entertaining herself, until after each game when she can bump the ball in between games.
What a busy weekend it was! I met my steps goal both days just about, and man my feet hurt! Lots of walking, lots of talking, and lots of patience. We had great weather, and it looks like the next few days are looking to be amazing too. Looking forward to a great and hopefully easy low key week!
Happy Earth day!
Do you ever go to Bing? I just love the photos they have each day, and if you didn’t know, you click on the bottom right and it gives an explanation of the photo. See below…
I remember a year ago this week, I was furloughed and home an entire week with Hadley. It was right in the beginning of Covid, and I had a theme planned for each day of that week. One of those days was Earth day!
Here is the photo from last year on Earth Day. I remember this day so much! Started our morning with Hadley doing my hair. After breakfast, we went to the office and watched a video on the planets which Hadley still remembers a year later! And then we made Earth cookies! They don’t look so good in the above photo, but they were delicious. Hadley put on gloves because of the green and blue food dye. The cookie recipe we used can be found here.
To be honest, I’m not much of an “earthy” person. Meaning, we don’t recycle at our house because you have to pay for it. We don’t do compost, which most of our neighbors do. The things we do to help the earth are things like, we don’t litter, we turn the lights off at home, we turn the water off, we plant flowers, and we donate old toys and books. Things like these small simple things can help Mother Earth everyday! So do your part!
This is my birthday project for the next 52 weeks. You can read more about it here!
Week five! Face mask. If you’ve seen my Instagram stories, you’ll already know that I’m soo obsessed with face masks. I have one drawer in my bathroom that is bursting at the seams with nothing but face and eye masks. Some weeks I do them every night, some weeks I do them once a week. It all depends. But when I do them, nine times out of ten I fall right asleep.
Some masks are white like this one, some are black, some are red, it all depends on the brand. The particular brand I’m using in this photo is from Vitamasques, and it’s called the Vegan Collagen Lychee Face Sheet Mask. You can read more about this mask here. The majority of the face and eye masks that I have are from the FabFitFun subscription box, every few months they have sales where you can buy products at half the cost! Thanks to my beauty product guru friend Kristin, I’m addicted. On occasion, I do buy masks at the local grocery and drug stores like Kroger, Walgreens, and Target. You just have to try them out and see what works for you!
Face masks have become part of my self care routine for awhile now. Something so simple as putting on a face mask before bed is super relaxing!
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This is week 5 of 52.
I am attempting to tackle 52 weeks of self care projects for the next year.
You can follow along here on the blog, or on Pinterest.
Every once in awhile, we will do a movie night! It’s usually a super random on a whim night. Which means I end up throwing things together at the last minute, but it doesn’t take much when you have little kiddos!
Sometimes the kids pick the movie, other times it’s a surprise. This nights pick was The Sandlot! It’s definitely an oldie, and one I remember watching as a kid. I thought it would be a good pick since Hadley just started playing softball.
We do movie nights in our basement where we have a little bar area, and put up some small decorations. I always go with the idea that less is more. Hadley is six years old, and she doesn’t need much when it’s just her and I doing a movie night. Dad was at work, and the big kids weren’t with us.
Printed out a baseball from Google images and taped it to the TV.
I bought the small candy bars that remind me of baseball, and the main idea of the movie has to do with Babe Ruth! So I bought some mini babe ruth bars too. If you don’t know about Babe Ruth and how he ties into this movie, then you need to go watch it!
For the ice cold beverages, I bought all kid friendly drinks in the old fashion glass bottles! Shirley Temple, Ginger Ale, and Root Beer. Of course my picky kid didn’t like any of them, but she did try them! I had this small wooden crate, and printed out an “ice cold” sign and taped it to the front of the crate.
Added two small bags of classic Lay’s chips, and some boxed candy from the dollar store. For the plates, all I did was print out a baseball, cut it out, and taped it to the paper plates. Super simple!
We had a fun movie night! Just love introducing Hadley to the older movies I watched as a kid. She was a little scared of the big mean dog, but I kept telling her he’s just like a big Beethoven. She loves bringing her blankets, and pillow down to the basement, and getting all comfy with her snacks. It’s a fun tradition to do with the kids!
Friday after school she asked for not one, but two apples for her after school snack!
Friday bought some summery plates that gave me all the summer vibes!
Saturday we went to the lake and took the boat home to get her all ready for the season!
Saturday was Kevin’s first time towing the boat behind his truck, and boy was he happy! It was rainy and not the best weather to clean up the boat. My BIL/SIL, and cousin came over and helped us de-badge the boat. We took the “Mastercraft” letters off both sides and we love it!
Sunday we were at it again, with much much better weather! My BIL and SIL came back over, we waxed, and did a clear coat wax, did a deep clean on the inside, and it looked awesome! Our neighbor let us park the boat in his driveway since it’s flat. We are taking it back down to the lake this week, now that she’s all clean and shiny! We’ve been in our home three years later this year, and we’ve never met this neighbor until about a week ago. Sunday, he must’ve spent all afternoon with us! It was so nice. After a fun filled day of boat cleaning, we had a 6pm volleyball game. Miss Hadley was exhausted, but she was a trooper as always.
It was a busy, productive, and fun weekend!
This is my birthday project for the next 52 weeks. You can read more about it here!
Week four! Watch a documentary. I have been a little curious about this documentary with Britney Spears lately. I’ve been hearing little blurbs about it here and there, and how her father still has her tied into a conservatorship. Until I watched this, I never knew what a conservatorship even was! According to Google, a conservatorship is “a legal concept whereby a court appoints a person to manage an incapacitated person or minor’s financial or personal affairs. The conservator’s duties include overseeing finances, establishing and monitoring the physical care of the conservatee or ward, and managing living arrangements.”
It all seems crazy to me, is Britney really incapacitated to make adult decisions about her life? But then on the other hand the documentary was a little half ass for me. I felt like it really didn’t give the full vibe of what’s going on with Britney in her life. I actually enjoyed Tiger Woods documentary a hundreds times better than this one, it showed way more of his upbringing and how his childhood made him who he is today.
Despite the opinions of Britney, it was nice to just sit down and watch a documentary as part of my self care project this year. It’s always nice to learn something you didn’t know before. Next on my list is to watch the Tina documentary!
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This is week 4 of 52.
I am attempting to tackle 52 weeks of self care projects for the next year.
You can follow along here on the blog, or on Pinterest.
Friday the drive into the office was just beautiful!
Friday at the office was not really a fun day. Had to pack up this office that has not been used in over two years. A new person is moving into this space and I was assigned the lucky task of cleaning it up!
Friday while I was at work, Kevin started on the front yard pavers. And oh my goodness, it looks amazing!
Friday night went to my parents house to celebrate my Dad’s birthday!
Saturday spent the morning outside.
Sunday had our first indoor volleyball game. Natalie is on our team this year! Hadley had a blast playing in between games, she’s getting so good at bumping the volleyball!
Sunday night, little Miss Hadley was just exhausted. She had a busy busy weekend!
We had a good, calm but busy at times weekend. The front yard is coming along nicely, we have big plans for the landscaping and we can’t wait to see it all come together. We all had fun getting together for my Dad’s birthday, all the kids love playing together. And we had fun just talking with all the adults! Of the big kids, just Natalie came over this time. Brady had baseball, and he went to the lake to do some yard work for Grandma and Papa. Natalie was so excited to play volleyball with us. It was a fairly late game, so we were all exhausted come Sunday night. Especially Miss Hadley. It was a great weekend though!
Happy Monday! Have a fantastic week!
This is my birthday project for the next 52 weeks. You can read more about it here!
Week three! Color or doodle. I’ve always loved to color, draw, etc. Ever since I was little, I’ve always loved to color, and now that I have a little girl who loves it as much as I do we often do it together. Sometimes we’ll have a movie or show on, or sometimes we’ll just sit at the table and talk.
There are many benefits of coloring as an adult! Stress and anxiety levels are way lower, unplugging from technology promotes creation over consumption, coloring can be done by anyone not just artists or creative types, and it can be considered a hobby that can be taken with you wherever you go. For me, the best part about coloring is I feel like my brain just shuts everything off and I’m super calm and relaxed!
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This is week 3 of 52.
I am attempting to tackle 52 weeks of self care projects for the next year.
You can follow along here on the blog, or on Pinterest.
mandyjoyloves.com 