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Five on Friday

Happy Friday!

1. Camp Mimi & Grandad

We are picking up the kids today from Mimi and Grandad’s house where they’ve been having a blast this week! They’ve been in a super fun full-day camp, Caroline lost a tooth, and they got spoiled with some school shopping!

It’s been so weird being home without them — yet also productive. I’ve been tackling some projects on my to do list, knocking out doctor appointments, working on lots of blog content and packing for our vacation.

2. The Vision Board Lock Screen

I received a handful of requests to share more about the vision board lock screen we made during the Community Group Retreat. I was originally going to show you mine, but it would require me to explain each photo…which could take an entire blog post in itself. We’ve got some fun and not-so-fun stuff going on right now behind the scenes so each photo is deeply personal to me and y’all would think I’ve lost my mind if I tried to explain why there’s a random cute old couple running down the beach together on my lock screen, right?

So the purpose for my vision board is to inspire me in different areas of my life. It’s set as my lock screen to serve as a powerful visual reminder of the things that make me really happy right now, dreams and goals I’m chasing, and a few images that motivate or encourage me.

And it’s SUPER easy to make.

How to Make a Vision Board

  • Step 1: Grab my VISION BOARD TEMPLATE from Canva (which is a free app/program if you don’t already have it).
  • Step 2: Create a list of six goals you’d like to achieve. These can be long-term, short term or a mix of both. This is YOUR board, so make it however you want! Maybe there’s a trip on your family bucket list you hope to take, a health or fitness goal you’ve been working on, a marriage or relationship goal, a professional milestone you hope to reach, a new hobby you’d like to start, an overall happiness goal, etc.
  • Step 3: Source the photos. You can use your own photos, take screenshots from Instagram, or grab images from Pinterest. You can also use quotes or words that resonate with you!
  • Step 4: Once you have all your photos, drop them into the template and download your board to your phone.
  • Step 5: Set your photo as your lock screen. And chase those dreams!

Here’s an example of a vision board. Again, this is not mine, but I did steal a few photos from Matt’s (pool and golf course) to put in this example.

VISION BOARD TEMPLATE

3. Amazon Favorites

A few things from Amazon I’m really loving this week…

Pop-Open Lunchbox Cards

I wanted to re-share and highly recommend these sweet little cards for lunch boxes, school bags, pockets, or anywhere you want to leave a love/empowerment/motivational/happy note for your kids!

I have the You Can Do It version, but there are some other super cute options like Dream Big, I Love You, You’re Amazing and there’s even a Pop-Open Card 3-pk if you want to switch up your message theme each day! There’s also room on the back of each card for you to write a personal note. I should also mention there are adult versions of these too (with 21 different message themes to pick from) which would be fun to leave for your spouse/partner, neighbor, co-worker, mailman, etc. 

hydration Powder

I’ve been trying out lots of new electrolyte powders all summer and this one is my fave so far. The watermelon flavor is delicious and not overpowering, it’s comprised of clean ingredients, has zero calories, is sugar-free, and is made with 6 electrolytes + trace minerals.

diva fragrance auto air freshener

For my fellow Glamorous Diva Wash lovers…did you know there is a car air freshener?! I just discovered these and promptly purchased them for our cars and now they smell heavenly (and are strong enough to cover up the rotten grapes I found in the back seat earlier this week). I am also jotting these down as the best stocking stuffers ever.

4. Meal Planning Tips

Earlier this week I shared my meal planning system on Instagram. I hope it’s helpful to any of y’all who find meal planning overwhelming. If you missed it, I wanted to re-share the system and some tips that help me get dinner on the table each night.

  • Weekly Dinner Themes: A few years ago I polled y’all for meal planning tips and this one was some of my favorite advice: make each night of the week a standing meal theme. For us, we always serve a salad on Monday, tacos on Tuesday, a pasta or rice dish on Wednesday, Thursday is usually breakfast or something from the freezer, and Friday is pizza! We meal plan for the weekends closer towards the end of the week so the groceries are fresh.
  • Family Recipe Book: I’ve been using a recipe binder since I was in high school. It’s evolved quite a bit over the years but currently, it’s divided into sections by dinner theme night (plus a few other random categories). So when I’m ready to plan our meals for the week, I flip through each section and find a recipe to add to the meal plan.
    • Pocket Divider Tabs: I really like these tabs because they are wider than the sheet protector pages, they have a pocket (where I store recipes I haven’t made yet but want to try) and are cute!
    • Recipe Binder Cover Page Template: If you’ve already downloaded Canva for your vision board, you may also want to grab my cover page template if you like it and customize it for your recipe book.
  • Meal Plan Pad: I have re-purchased this notepad a million times. I love that it has a Sunday start, a perforated grocery list side, and a strong fridge magnet. It also comes in two sizes and you can pick between Sunday or Monday start.
  • Felt Tip Pens: My favorite pens for color coding everything in my life. These pens have a very fine tip, come in a pack of 10, and are less than $5!!!

Lastly, I would highly, highly, highly recommend checking out my Meal Planning Tips & Family Dinners post. It is chock FULL of seriously good advice from this community!

Meal Plan Pad / Felt Tip Pens / Pocket Divider Tabs
Recipe Binder Cover Page Template

5. Family Vacation

It’s finally happening. The Disney cruise we booked for 2020 that has been rescheduled, rescheduled and rescheduled again is next week! I still don’t know if it will actually feel real until we board the ship. However, we have pushed this trip out so many times over the past 3 years that during our last re-booking, our incredible Disney planner (shout out to Kim: I don’t know how I would have been organized or prepared for any of this without you!) informed us that the NEW ship would be available for our new cruise date! So we are going to be sailing on the Disney Wish boat!! Thomas is beside himself over all of the Marvel and Star Wars magic ahead and Caroline has the most gorgeous line-up of princess dresses packed and ready to go!

I am planning to unplug when we get on board so I can soak up all the magic I can with my family. Of course, I will be taking LOTS of photos throughout our vacation and promise a trip recap when we return!

our 2019 Disney trip

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Melody

Monday 10th of October 2022

This post is amazing! The template and Diva air fresheners made my day. Thank you!! I can't wait to get to the trip post.

Alyssa

Wednesday 17th of August 2022

Have you tried Shuffles? I bet it would be an amazing tool for making a vision board!

Mk

Sunday 14th of August 2022

I always appreciate how candid you are about the "not so fun" aspects of life that we all endure at some point in iur lives. Thanks for your vulnerability in acknowledging that!

Gentry

Friday 12th of August 2022

How do you store the recipes you’ve made? Do you rewrite them on recipe cards? I’m looking for a new system!

Toni :0)

Friday 12th of August 2022

Have a fantastic time on the Disney Cruise! Your kids are the perfect age for all the Magic!