Life Lately | tornado, graduation, smoothie, 10K steps & more

Hi friend! I hope you are doing amazing! I’ve missed you the last few days.

Life Lately

I wasn’t able to blog the past few days and wanted to give you a life update and share what’s been happening here lately. I can’t believe we are in the last week of school and summer break officially starts Thursday at noon!

Tornado

A tornado unexpectedly blew in on Thursday night and left so much devastation in its wake.  Technically, it was a Derecho; a rare, large storm mass with winds 58-240 mph.

The difference between a derecho and a tornado is that in a derecho, the winds are straight line, not rotating, and they typically affect a much larger area.

Tornado damage is usually more localized, whereas derecho damage is more widespread. Derechos can have tornadoes embedded in them and our storm had at least 2 known tornadoes embedded, but many areas of this large storm had winds of 100 mph.

10 transmission lines were damaged and over a million lost power. There is so much damage and destruction everywhere, and most devastatingly, several people were killed in the storm.

It was so crazy how the storm came out of the blue. My mom called and warned me that she got an alert on her phone that there was about to be bad weather. Well, I better bring my trash can in, so I headed out to my driveway and saw my neighbor. Everything looked fine, and I mentioned to my neighbor what my mom said.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be that bad” she said. “Yeah, probably not,” I replied. My mom is always worried about weather.

Well, I turned to come inside, and just in case, called for Kitty. When she didn’t come after a couple of minutes, I went inside.

I was barely in my front door when the power went out and everything went pitch black. The winds were howling like a freight train and my trees looked like they might blow over. The umbrellas flew around my backyard, ending up in the pool.

I texted my neighbor and said, “that happened fast!”

She replied that she grabbed kitty and her husband and that they were currently in the bathroom taking shelter.

Oh sh*t! Should I be in my bathroom too? So, I got Luke and we hid out in my downstairs half bath until the winds died down about 30 minutes later.

I’m very thankful that our home is safe and sound, just a few tree limbs down and lots of debris to clean up. But, when I looked out my front door and saw trees and fences down, I couldn’t believe it.

I took a walk in my neighborhood and the destruction is unbelievable and so sad.

How in the world did the whole earth come up with these trees?! So many 100+ year old trees uprooted.

Surrounding neighborhoods were even worse and some people are still without power, including Rhonda as I type this:(

I’m hearing it should all be restored by Wednesday. Our energy company has brought in thousands of extra workers and crews are everywhere you look. Street lights are still out in some places, but it’s improving every day.

That is Ali-Shaun’s office building. Just wild. Elliott grew up in Kansas so he’s well aware of tornadoes and told me about the ones he lived through growing up.

It’s wild how traumatic weather events can be, but it’s also heartwarming to see how people come together. Neighbors helping neighbors and everyone you pass offering a friendly smile.

Since my kids were with their dad, Luke and I were able to shelter with Elliott who lives 45 minutes away, and his place was fine. I packed up quickly, thinking I would be back home soon, but the power was out for 48 hours.

It’s so hot here, so we popped into Target so I could buy a swimsuit and we could use his pool. Scored this green two-piece for a steal.

Bikini Top Bikini Bottoms

And y’all have been the sweetest – sending support and prayers our way. You guys are such an encouragement and I appreciate you so much.

I was without Wifi until last night, but now it’s back and things are getting back to normal.

Back Home

When we first got back home, we went to work cleaning out the fridge, cleaning up all the debris in the front and back yards, getting the pool clean and balancing out the chemicals, doing chores.

I was sooo happy to be able to get a reprieve from the heat with the pool. Elliott is the biggest help when it comes to keeping the backyard in tip top shape.

Since we didn’t have groceries yet, we ordered wings and ate out by the pool.

And the dogs swam. Maggie LOVES the pool, Luke is still getting used to it, but he’s doing great!

Jordan loved eating outside so much, she asked to do it again. But this time, we sat around the coffee table in the patio.

Chargers • Melamine Plates • Napkins • Cups • Tray • Vase • Real Touch Hydrangeas

I got everything on the table on Walmart, except for the silverware. The plates are melamine, and the cute cups are indoor/outdoor. They’re both dishwasher safe too.

It’s really nice to be able to eat outside and have an elevated table setting – even if we’re just eating wings or pizza or grilled cheese:)

Chargers • Melamine Plates • Napkins • Cups • Tray • Vase • Real Touch Hydrangeas

The coffee table was my living room table and I’m currently waiting for this coffee table to arrive.

It actually hasn’t been bad living without a coffee table. My patience is doing well, but it’s only been a couple weeks. I’m thinking the new coffee table should be here soon.

8th Grade Graduation

We were supposed to have 8th grade graduation on Friday, but it was cancelled due to the storm and tentatively rescheduled for Monday.  Since power was still out at the church and school on Monday, the graduation got moved to another church.

It was a lovely ceremony and I’m so proud of all of the graduates. They are a tight community of friends and most of them have grown up together.

Walmart Dress

James got the School Spirit award a presidential award and was also recognized for A/B honor roll for the year, outstanding achievement in science, liturgical minister, and certificate of service.

I’m a ball of emotions looking through his scrapbooks with him. So many memories and he’s just grown so much since preschool! He’s happy with his luggage and I also gifted him this book that he requested after one of his friend’s recommended it to him.

Green Smoothie

Unfortunately, with our power being out for 48 hours, we lost our refrigerated food and some of the frozen food. When I restocked our fridge, I was craving something light – especially since we had ordered chicken wings the day before.

I found a recipe for a green smoothie that looked pretty good – I adapted the original recipe because it called for protein powder, ginger and coconut flakes and I didn’t want to have to buy those things.

This green smoothie is easy to make because it includes simple ingredients you may already have on hand – spinach, banana, pineapple, milk, chia seeds (you could omit) and ice.

Top • Jeans

You just blend everything up in your blender and it’s soooo good! Very light and refreshing. The banana and pineapple give it a sweetness, but it’s not overly sweet with the spinach.

click here to print recipe

I used my Vitamix Professional Series 750 and one of the new features to this upgraded Vitamix blender is that it’s 64 oz and fits under most cabinets. The old Vitamix I had from many moons ago was really tall and I couldn’t store it on my counter.

This new one is also quieter, which is nice.

It has 4 preset settings and a clean function. You can simply turn the dial depending on what you’re making: smoothies, frozen desserts, hot soup or purees. The little bubble icon is the clean setting.

It also has a variable speed dial (1-10) and a pulse function.

This Vitamix is a workhorse – it does the work of 13 appliances: whole food juicer, blender, food processor, stick blender, hand mixer, ice cream maker, ice crusher, meat grinder, chopper, cheese grater, peanut butter maker, fondue maker, and a hot soup/sauce maker.

This Vitamix comes with three hardcover cookbooks with gorgeous photography and also a Vitamix recipe book with 113 recipes.

The Vitamix Professional Series 750 retails for over $600, but it’s on sale for $379 with free shipping.

Another appliance I’m so thankful for (especially lately) is our Dyson fan. It’s absolutely perfect with how well it cools and it’s minimal in shape with its bladeless design.

I keep it in my bedroom since I don’t have a ceiling fan in my room. But, I also move it into the bathroom and it’s so nice to blow cold air after a hot, sweaty run. When I get out of the shower, I’m usually still sweater, so this fan helps cool me down.

When I’m using the fan in my room, I can operate it with a remote. It has 10 airflow settings and one-touch oscillation, plus an LED display. You can preset the time from 15 minutes up to 9 hours.

When you’re not using the remote, it magnets onto the fan for easy storage. If you’re interested in the Dyson fan, it’s about $100 off and free shipping.

Decluttering

Right before the storm, I did another big declutter. I wanted my pantry to be less cluttered and also wanted to reorganize where I store some of our bowls and such in the kitchen. I was thinking it would help when we unload the dishwasher and also when we go to grab those items.

I also went though my office desk drawer and the outdoor storage.

Elliott recently bought two new hoses, so our old ones could be donated, along with a few pool noodles since we still have more.

The two new hoses are awesome because they are “pocket hoses” that are small and lightweight when there’s no water in them, but they expand when you turn on the faucet. And they come with an adjustable spray nozzle. The water can shoot so far- perfect for if I need to water my magnolia tree or water down the tile in the back patio.

My umbrella was so worn after many years and didn’t have the strap to keep it closed. I ordered a new umbrella that’s also more compact so I can put it in a handbag.

Also, since we have two large outdoor storage bins, I don’t need the large white one anymore.

Similarly, we’ve decluttered Jordan’s room and had extra baskets, so those can go. The clear things are hat display holders, but I’ve decluttered my hats down to my favorite few so I don’t really need those anymore.

In my bathroom, I donated my stool because the light pink was purchased for my old house and I’ve never really loved it in my bathroom. I’m using a wooden stool I already have in its place.

It was a harder decision, but I also let go of our record player and the few records we had. Honestly, we just don’t listen to them and it felt like they were simply taking up space and the record player needed dusting often. The sound was ok, but Alexa plays music better and that is what we end up using more when we want to hear music.

I’m still surprised I have anything left to get rid of since I’m been decluttering for a long time and also did that huge 500 things declutter a few months ago.

My home continues to feel lighter and easier to operate the more I go through and declutter. It’s on my list to share our kitchen and pantry with you soon.

10K Steps Challenge

One more thing I want to chat about before I sign off. I’m going to do a 10K steps a day challenge starting on June 1. I’d love it if you want to join me. You can read about how I did that last summer – it was great and I’m excited to do it again, hopefully with you this time!

I just wanted to mention it now so you can get that on your calendar and be mentally prepared!

What’s Next

So, I think that gets you pretty much up to speed! Tomorrow, I plan to prep and pack for San Diego and I’ll share that with you. On Friday, I’ll have new Amazon styles to share. I’m considering scaling those back to once a month – I currently do them twice a month. What would you think about that?

Have a fantastic day friend!