Monday, September 22

Happy Fall Y'all!

Happy First Day of Fall! After a long day at work, I am so excited to have some time now to sit down and finish this post to share some fall -freebies that I just love! Shout out to my sweet husband for working on dinner tonight so I could write!!

For what it is worth, my favorite season, out of the four options, is summer...by far. Give me a warm sunny day any day, heat/humidity and all, I will take it! Fall is mixed for me because the arrival of fall means that my beloved summer is over and winter is probably not too far behind... 

BUT,  with the arrival of fall means pulling new clothes out of the closet, events like Oktoberfest and apple picking are in season, not to mention enjoying warm ciders & lattes, flannel sheets on the bed, cozy blankets, leaves changing color, and a new season of decorating...all of which I love. 

So now that we are a full day+ into fall - I thought I would share a round-up of the top 25 must-have printables to help color your fall!

As someone who loves change, especially when it comes to rearranging/organizing/decorating our apartment, free printables just make me so happy! I love that there are so many talented and creative people who share their work and in turn help newly married people like me (Read: saving money like crazy) have cute & seasonable art for their homes :)

With all of these Top 25, each is only for personal use - not for re-sale and should not be altered or changed. There is nothing more frustrating than finding a cute pin on Pinterest labeled "free download" that is neither free nor downloadable (in my opinion) so I have found the direct links for easy downloading, and listed the blogger/artist/site who created the original printable. There are also 2 banners included on this list that I just love, so make sure to check those out.

I had my husband pull out my fall box this morning, so I will share some pictures later this week of some of these printables up in my own home. Until then...happy downloading & decorating to you!



















PS. Be sure and follow my Thanksgiving Board! Adding lots of ideas lately :)

Follow Kyla's board Thanksgiving Planning on Pinterest.


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Monday, September 15

A Monday & A Meal


I don't know if you are anything like me, but I have a hard time embracing Mondays. I can get a great night of sleep, have a delicious breakfast, a good cup of coffee, and have a good hair day but it still does not seem to impact my attitude towards this particular day of the week. I wish I could share that I have some strategy to overcome this, but for now I don't - just big plans to work on it.  

Overall, today was a regular kind of day with one exception - the silver lining of looking forward to Monday Night Football. Adam and I are Indianapolis Colts fans and when it comes to watching games we have 2 things working against us. 

1) We don't have cable/satellite (very loyal Hulu/Netflix consumers of course) so we are at the mercy of local channels and their broadcast rights to games. 2) We live in the heart of Green Bay Packer country, so all television programming revolves around Packer programming. 

All of this to say, when we have the opportunity to watch the Colts play, we get pretty excited about it. So that is a little bit of life today. Just a regular kind of Monday. A little ministry and then finally time for some football watching together. 

In honor of the Colt's game tonight, we tried a new recipe for dinner which I thought I would share here! Last year, my mom gave us a year-long subscription to eMeals which meant that every week for the last year eMeals has sent me a weeks worth of recipes and a grocery list to match. 

Since it is just the two of us we usually do not cook 7 nights a week, so even though our year-plan is over, we still have lots of meals to try out! 

On the menu tonight was a dish called Mexican Rolls - takes about 20-30 minutes to prepare, and then cooks for 40 minutes aka not something to make last minute BUT after making and eating it tonight, it is worth the process! 

Mexican Rolls

INGREDIENTS

10 uncooked lasagna noodles
1lb ground beef or turkey
8 oz low-fat neufchâtel cheese, softened
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
15 oz can black beans, drained & rinsed
1/2 cup corn kernels
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 TBSP chili powder
1 TSP cumin
1 TSP garlic powder
1 TSP salt
2 TSP dried oregano
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

  • Preheat oven to 350F
  • Cook lasagna according to package; drain & lay flat to dry
  • Cook ground beef or turkey in a skillet until brown and crumbly
  • Combine cheese, yogurt, taco seasoning, cooked ground meat, black beans and corn in a medium bowl
  • In separate bowl, combine diced tomatoes (drained), with tomato sauce and all spices
  • Spread enough of the sauce mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 pan
  • Spoon meat filling onto each lasagna noodle, spreading evenly over the length of the noodle; roll up and place seam side down in dish; Repeat with remaining noodles and meat mixture
  • Spoon remaining sauce over top of rolls, sprinkle with shredded cheese
  • Cover with aluminum foil & bake for 40 minutes

Hopefully you enjoy this meal as much as we did, would love to know how it turned out for you. Download your own copy of this recipe too :) 1. Gray 2. Yellow 3. Blue


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Friday, September 12

Flashback Friday.

One of my best friends reflected to me this summer that she feels like my life is always busier in the summertime...and this summer that has felt especially true! Despite finishing internship, moving, AND getting married last summer...all of that still somehow seemed to take less time/energy/busy-ness than summer 2014 in the Rodriguez family. 

Thankfully though, our summer schedule has been full with seeing family and friends and doing ministry (yay jobs and Jesus!). We celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary with a day-trip to Chicago. Adam surprised me which was fun, despite the fact that that meant being woken up at 5am the day we were leaving...He's just great :) I will share more about our trip in a post all it's own...here is a sneak preview for now:
For Adam, work is still kinda crazy since his church is still without a pastor, making Adam the only full-time ministry position on staff. For me work isn't crazy BUT as of this past Sunday I am officially transitioning from being a temporary fill-in to the official & called Director of Christian Education. In an added bonus, I teach 2 mornings a week in the school at Adam's church to help cover Confirmation classes that the Pastor used to teach with Adam. This time one year ago we had no idea where I would be working...God is cool.

Both Adam and I took our middle school students to a place called Camp Luther for their yearly Confirmation camp trip. My students go on a different weekend than his however, so I got to head to camp twice in the span of a week! 


Adam picked me up from my second camp trip and in keeping with our summer schedule this year, we headed straight to Indiana for his sister & brother-in-law's US homecoming :) Thankfully traffic was in our favor both directions of the 8 hr drive. It's been 20 months since all of us have been together, not that Adam's mom was counting or anything... :) Our trip was short but sweet. We squeezed in a spontaneous tour of Lucas Oil Field where the Colts play, celebrated Allison's birthday, skyped the all of the grandparents in Alabama, and his sister, mom, and I even got a mini-girls 'day' in. Whew. 



Our trip to Indiana was our last big trip/event of the summer...Kaitlin's wedding in Indiana, Jamie & Scott's visit, my family's visit, Vacation Bible school at my church, road trip to Mobile, Alabama for Granddaddy's memorial service, mission trip to Michigan, mission trip to Indiana, Camp Luther x 2, road trip to Indiana, Vacation Bible School at Adam's church...and now the school year has started which actually means our schedule goes back to more of a 'normal' rhythm. Ah. 

Today marks 30 days until we run the Chicago Marathon. Despite our schedules this summer we have been managing to fit training time in. We are at the point though were our long runs are just that..LONG. Tomorrow a 17 miler is on deck. Wish me luck!


I may sound redundant in writing this again, but I really could not be more thankful for getting to be together with many of our friends and family throughout this busy season of summer. Mostly, that means scheduling Skype dates or scheduling phone calls to make sure we don't miss out on life together...but hey whatever works :) If you have made it this far in today's post, I'm impressed...kudos to you, enjoy finding this cute & free download to use! Free download here > Lost Bumble Bee Last thing, for those of you who were wondering > yes it is cold here, it is currently 48 degrees outside...yikes! Winter is coming. Help!

Love, 
Kyla

Free download here > Lost Bumble Bee
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