Cheers to Friday! And the first “real” Friday of the New Year!
In typical first week of the new year vibes, I’ve been on top of my “goals”.
We’ll see how long this lasts….. 

This is my 5th blog post for the week (who am I?), I used my instant pot to try a new “recipe” (see below), and I’m almost finished with the book I started over break (Little Fires Everywhere).
AND – most importantly – we are getting a babysitter and going OUT tonight.

After the girls go to bed.  I’m still not ready to do the before bed situation because sometimes they are A LOT for one person to handle from 6-7, even for me.  But, baby steps!

A few random thoughts for the week :

:: INSTANT POT :: 
Last night I tried cooking frozen chicken in my instant pot and it turned out amazing! I was shocked!
I have only used it once before to make Chili, so I hadn’t really utilized the “pressure cooker” or “instant” aspect of it yet and oh my goodness it is a GAME CHANGER!
Once I finally managed to get the frozen chicken off of that little paper thing (ran it under some hot water) the rest was a breeze.
I googled how to do it and the first two sites said the same thing so here is what I did:

2 frozen chicken breasts
1 cup stock (or water)
HIGH pressure (change it to high, it will auto to low) for 12 minutes
Release Valve to vent for 10 minutes and wait for little button to go down
DONE!
I shredded it with two forks and had some leftover taco seasoning so I used the saute setting with a little water to mix that in.

I mayyyyy have thrown my phone in the air and had it crash down to the ground when I hit the pressure release because even though I knew what was coming it still scared the crap out of me.
So, warning, don’t have a phone or knife or anything in your hand if you startle easily 🙂

This is the instant pot I use and it is currently 30% off!
It has over 50,000 reviews!

:: 10 MONTHS :: 
The girls turned 10 months on January 1 and I can’t believe it!
I posted some photos and videos of them in an Instagram post since I haven’t gotten
my act together to do Baby Updates on them with a blog post yet.
Collins learned how to stand in her crib and I recorded the excitement between both of them when it happened for the first time.  Hadley is still as obsessed with Collins as ever and wants to chase her and eat her up (especially her tush) every chance she gets.  You can see the pics and videos in this IG post. 

:: NIGHTSTANDS :: 
I’ve been wanting (NEEDING, really) nightstands for years.  We are still using the same cheap white end tables I got for my apartment when I was 23 years old.  I haven’t pulled the trigger because there is always something else I’d rather put the money towards but also because we have a narrow space beside our king bed for them.  I think it has to be under 20 inches? But definitely under 21.
In my Timehop (love this app to see photos from the same day previous years, always makes me happy when I open it!) a photo from 3 years ago came up of night stands I fell in love with from Outrageous Interiors in Marietta.  (They have such great stuff, highly recommend checking them out!)

A few of you sent me two similar styles and (but without the marble) and they are so, so pretty!
Thank you for sending my way!
// side table // nightstand //



:: CHICKEN FINGER SALAD ::

A favorite lunch this week was my usual garbage salad but with some organic chicken tenders thrown in.  These are shockingly good.  Kind of chick-fil-a-esque?! I will definitely be repurchasing from Costco on our next trip there!

:: SMART PLUGS RANDOM RANT :: 
My husband has an obsession with Smart Plugs and it is making me *CRAZY*.
He loves his little gadgets and technology stuff.

We feed the girls their bedtime bottles in the living room so that we both can sit on the couch, so we turn the lights off and just keep a lamp on in the kitchen so that it is dark for their final feeding before bed.  The lamps on our hutch switch off when it’s time to make the bottles and feed and I love that we are able to have it automatically do that so I don’t have to keep checking the time, switch off those lights, etc.  But lately Kip has been trying to put EVERYTHING on the smart plugs.  For example, once they’re in their cribs I come back out and can’t turn any of the OTHER lamps back on because they’re “programmed” to turn back on at 7:15 (if the girls don’t go down easily, they stay in the living room, if they go down quickly, I have to climb under our table and flip the switch to turn the darn thing back on.) . It’s a silly complaint but I told him ENOUGH with the smart plugs! It’s easy for me to turn a lamp on, I don’t need to pull my phone out, open an app and switch it back on. Hutch lamps ONLY, please!
So last night he snuck the smart plug into the BEDROOM for our big lamp on our dresser.  It switched off at 10 PM (we are never asleep at 10PM) and I’m like KIP.  I can use my hand to turn a lamp off before bed.  I’ll suffer through the strenuous workout of walking 3 steps to the dresser and rotating my wrist.
Get. The. Smart. Plugs. Out. Of. Here.

….. My guess is this probably makes no sense to anyone…
and you have no idea what I’m even saying or complaining about……

but I spent all week having to climb under the living room table to push the smart plug button or pull my phone out and it’s so silly to me.
They ARE great though when you travel to have your lights turn on and off at proper times.
And I do love them on the hutch before bedtime.

ANYWAYS.  Have an amazing weekend!