My one request for Valentine’s Day was to go to a Madewell store. I have been googly eyes over their stuff online and have never tried anything on, so I wanted to go into the store to find out my size in case I ever did order anything. The only thing I have from them are these beauties, you can rarely go wrong with shoe sizes, and it was a recent gift from my way cool parents!

It worked out perfectly yesterday afternoon because we switched cars with my BFF after church. We took her cute, little, red mini cooper and she took our SUV with our three big girls in it. Ben and I had a chaperone to make sure we didn’t get frisky and to ensure she stayed the baby.

After, we grabbed dinner at this South Indian vegetarian restaurant called Udupi Palace recommended by one of Ben’s patients. I was a bit nervous cause I was really hungry having not eaten lunch, so I wasn’t sure a vegetarian place was going to fill me up. Oh my gosh. This place was so good! We were oohing and ahhing over all the flavors in the dishes we ordered. I definitely left stuffed and we are definitely going back. I am craving it right now as I think about it.

Glow was so good the whole time and a good chaperone and the big three had lots of fun with Auntie Linda. Our last date was in November and we really need to squeeze more in. Dates with my husband are always fun and a good way to give us both a bit of recharge from the chaos of being with the girls all the time.

I know Valentine’s Day is really tomorrow and I love any excuse to celebrate, so you can be sure we will be putting the girls to bed extra early and carving out more alone time for each other at home. What do you have planned for Valentine’s? Anything special or do you prefer to not celebrate the day?

p.s. isn’t a baby-wearing daddy pretty sexy? i definitely think so! he is wearing the mama’s milk sling, see me wearing mine here. we have used these since True was born.

p.p.s. thank you bff for watching the girls! don’t worry you can be sure we will do this again, so john can be there too! love ya!

Hi! I am Rubyellen from Cakies and I am honored to be sharing a bit here on The Real Housewives Project.

I love blogging and reading blogs, but it can also be a terrible thing. Sometimes you can get caught up in reading blogs, idolizing someone’s lifestyle, and start to get easily discontented with your own life. You can start to think, “Wow! They have got it perfect! Why am I not like that? ” or “Why can’t I have that?”

Blogs can look quite dreamy and I know mine may even portray that from time to time, but I personally feel it would be a disservice or dishonest if I don’t acknowledge my faults and how un-dreamy things can be for our family too. We are just like any other normal family, so we have messes, I yell, my kids get in trouble, Ben and I fight, we aren’t always dressed to the nines are all things that happen in our real life too. What goes on in your house, probably goes on in my house. We are no exception.

I do love to document the pretty things in our life, but I have no problem admitting the bad too. I can look back and see God’s work through all of it. He grows me through the happy, pretty moments and also through those nitty-gritty, tough moments. Life is full of ups and downs and I want people to know that and rejoice through it all. It is only by God’s grace that I am able to go through each day, even if some days are harder (or better) than others.

If you are afraid to show your messy self in the blog world, don’t. We are all messy and I think we can all just get as encouraged from reading about our messes just as much as reading about the pretty parts of life. Life’s a mess anyways, so let’s just all find joy in God through it!

There was a lot of happy heart crafting this week and picking flowers outside in between. We made love day bags and then worked on cards for True’s class (she goes to regular school one day a week and homeschooled the rest).

I look at these pictures and they just look so sweet, but they also make me laugh cause this week I had one tough day with the girls and when Ben came home, I was on the verge of tears and saying, “It is too hard to be a mom! I can’t do it.” It was definitely one really rough day and I had a lot of anger and frustration. It made me want to throw in the towel, have Ben stay home, and me join the working-out-of-home workforce.

Now as I reflect back on the week and remember the sweet moments of making things together, reading together, them bringing me flowers, I am reminded that I really do want to stay home and that even when there are super rough moments, there is also a lot of sweet ones too. No one said motherhood was going to be a piece of cake. I just gotta keep working at it and through it with God’s help of course (cause when you leave Him out, oh man, you are in for a doozy!). It is kinda like marriage. Lots of work filled with ups and downs!

We have got four weeks of meal planning under our belts. Well, I only really cook two meals a week and the rest are leftovers from those meals or something really easy that I already know how to do, so that helps take off some pressure. We kinda of just wing weekend meals and Friday nights are usually for pizza. There was still a lot of recuperating from the wedding last weekend, so I only tried one new recipe this week.

Tuesday, I made Oven Baked Taquitos and Fresh Guacamole…

There are only a hand full of things that I know how to make well and from my own memory and oven baked taquitos is one them. Ben and the girls love it! I use chicken breast, which I boil until half cooked, then I shred and saute in a pan with taco seasoning. I warm up some tortillas, place some chicken in the middle, roll them up and lay them on a pan side by side. Once I roll them all up, I lightly spray them with oil and cook it in the oven at about 400°F for about 20 minutes and they get nice and crispy. A good healthy substitute to the normally fried taquitos.

Wednesday was for Citrus Soy Squid on Angel Hair Pasta….

I have never cooked squid and it isn’t so bad. They cook really fast! The recipe said to cut in 1” pieces and grill, but if we were to grill it, our pieces would have fallen through. Thus, I put half the batch in the oven and sauteed the rest in a pan. I like how the ones in the pan turned out better. I served it with lemon wedges and Mexican green onions like the recipe suggested. We needed some starch and I originally wanted buckwheat noodles, but we didn’t have any, so angel hair pasta was the next best thing.

Brave devoured her entire plate, squid and all, but True just ate the pasta. She seem to like the sauce though. The flavors were a bit mild for us though all the pieces went well together, so Ben and I just added chili oil to our plates. We like our food with kick! It was such a light meal that we got hungry real quick after.

I want to try cooking a dish with tofu. Anyone have any good tofu recipes to share? Preferably something spicy!

The girls and I will be making more of these little bags together, so each one will have their own. Then, it is Ben and my job to fill it with treats. I am kind of excited for some Love Day celebrating next Tuesday! We aren’t exactly sure what our plans are just yet, but I love any excuse to celebrate. Don’t you?!!

I have got my own set of glittery toms thanks to the BFF. It gives a nice bit of pizzaz and I like feeling kinda fancy! Us Bratcher girls think pizzazz and fancy make a winning combination. Would you ever wear some glitter toms?

p.s. happy birthday hanna!