I don't know about everyone else, but at the end of a long day, the last thing I want to do is 1) stop at the store, 2) spend a bunch of time trying to figure out what to cook for dinner or 3) slave over the stove forever. I don't mind cooking but I also would not say that I love cooking. It is part of life but I am always looking for ways to simplify and shorten my time in the kitchen.
One night I was struggling so hard to figure out what to cook when my husband started begging for Chipotle (his favorite restaurant). Neither of us felt like leaving the house, Chipotle doesn't deliver and we were starving. I decided that I would make the closest thing to Chipotle burritos I could... and hence this recipe was born. So, today, I am sharing one of my favorite simple recipes for a busy weeknight. It is a staple in our home and a favorite of my husband.
I keep ingredients on hand for this at all times. This recipe is not groundbreaking or creative. It is simple, easy and filling. There will be some leftovers but not an excessive amount (cooking for two is always a challenge) and it makes the perfect taco salad for lunch the next day. I make it gluten free from scratch for my husband who has a gluten sensitivity. You can easily make it with gluten too.
So, here you go. One of my favorite, go-to, simple weeknight recipes.
A few tips:
Make sure to drain the beef after browning it- too much grease will make them drippy
You can sub shredded chicken for the beef to change things up
Leftovers can be served over tortilla chips or lettuce for an easy lunch
This was supposed to get posted yesterday but I went to my parents for the weekend and forgot my computer so it had to get pushed back until today.
This week I am finishing up my Christmas shopping including stocking stuffers. Today's gift guide is full of great stocking stuffers under $10. I tried to select multipacks when available so that you can fill everyone you love's stocking while still sticking to a budget!
Since it is the second Sunday of December, I am continuing my gift guide series! The first installment, A Gift Guide for Law Students, came out last Sunday.
Today I am talking all about gifts for the dog mom friend. Millennials are quite well known for being obsessed with our fur-babies (See this article). As a very proud dog mom myself, I love getting gifts that celebrate that. I have three of the sweetest pups in the world and our life revolves around them.
Here are my fur-babies:
Gracie, our Golden Retriever; Garth, our Toy Australian Shepherd; and Annie, our rescue Mutt (left-right)
I am finishing up my first week of exams. I only had one exam this week (thank the heavens!) and I am working hard to prepare for my next exam on 12/12. Because I only had one exam, I actually had some spare time this week- a total rarity during finals! Here are a few snapshots from my week:
A friend of ours got a new puppy and brought her over to visit- I am obsessed (puppy fever is real!). I made my dog wear a Christmas sweater all week and I am obsessed with our Christmas tree. There was only one day this week I did not wear leggings so I made sure to get a picture of me in real pants during finals week. I also bought antlers because for $4 at Walmart why wouldn't I? and Starbucks is necessary because of #finalsweek and a looming exam over Business Associations.
Here are a few of my favorite things from this week!
I am jumping on the blogger gift guide wagon this year! I am going to do one specific gift guide for each of the Sunday's in December leading up to Christmas.
Today, I am doing a gift guide for law students! I found a variety of things that are either useful to a law student or just something sweet that they can enjoy. So this is for friends and families of law students who are struggling with what to buy the law student in your life.
My first exam is in less than 48 hours (SOS). I am sure many of you have exams coming up very quickly as well (if you have not already had one or two). Now that I am in my third year, I have exam week to a pretty good science. Here are my best tips for last minute exam prep and things you should bring to the exam.
Today is my last day of normal classes for the semester and my first exam is less than a week away. These facts are really bumming me out so I am trying to find something positive to think about today.
I have seen lots of other bloggers doing their Christmas wishlists so I decided to do the same. As a naturally nosy person, I always find these so interesting and often find a gift idea that I want or something to get for someone else who is hard to buy for.
I made a Christmas wish list on Amazon every year and send it out to family and friends who ask me what I want for Christmas. Throughout the year, I add things to the list that I like but don't immediately need. Making a list on Amazon is super easy to create, edit and share.
Is it just me or did the semester FLY by?! Exams are going to be here so fast.
My exam study habits have not changed much since 1L year. I pack up all my stuff and hunker down in a library study room for hours upon hours with my study group or on my own. It is not much fun but I find it to be the most productive study environment for me. My library study sessions are long and I like to be prepared. Therefore, I carry everything but the kitchen sink with me: books, snacks, blankets and sometimes even a tiny humidifier (yep- I am THAT extra and study rooms can be very dry). I have compiled a list of the 10 essential items I have to have for my library study sessions. This list is not all-inclusive (I bring lots of other crap too) but it is the big stuff that I CANNOT leave home without when I am heading into the library to get some work done.
I feel like I blinked once and Fall is almost over. Where did time go?!? Thanksgiving is next week! Wowzers. What this means is that I only have a few weeks and a lot of turkey and mashed potatoes between me and Fall semester final exams (my first exam is 12/2/18).
I wrote a post not too long ago on my final exam prep during the month leading up to exams. You can read it here. I had a few questions lately about what you should do over Thanksgiving break to get ready for exams so I decided to write up a post about it.
I will start with a disclaimer- everyone is different and everyone studies differently. Take my advice with a grain of salt; what works for me may not work for you and vice versa. Read it, use any tips you find useful and do what you need to do to be successful. You know yourself better than anyone so do what is best for you.
I normally do this on Friday but I had a really busy week and I just ran out of time. So instead of a "Friday Five", I am doing a "Sunday Six" of things I am currently into.
Ohio is currently freezing and experiencing our first snow so I have spent most of my weekend bundled up and cuddling with my hubby and pups. We also took down Halloween decorations, did some Christmas shopping, cleaned our basement and I got one of my outlines up to date. I know, we are really living it up. I have no class tomorrow so it's a 3 day weekend and there is nothing better than that to get rested and prepared for the week ahead.
I have seen a few other bloggers do something like this so I thought I would give it a try. I have done quite a few questions and answer sessions on Instagram and they seem pretty popular. But, I know not all of my followers are on Instagram and have not participated in one of my question and answer sessions in Instagram stories. I decided to take all the questions I have gotten and compile them into one big blog post that everyone can see!
The topics of the questions range from LSAT and application concerns to lots of during law school questions and beyond. I am going to sort them into a few Catagories to make it easier to navigate.
Can you believe it is November already?!?! My cold is almost gone, I turned in the paper I have been working on for 2 weeks and I am done with studying for the day so it's a great Friday at my house! The past month has been crazy busy (which is why I have been pretty non-existent on here). I am so ready for things to slow down just a bit through November before exam season hits with a vengeance.
Now that I have a touch of free time, I can actually catch up on some favorite things to share. Here is my Friday Five!
I am currently dressed up as Elle Woods, including carrying a stuffed Chihuahua, because I realized this is my last chance to do that as a law student and let's be honest, Elle Woods is our queen.
Maybe it is just me, but this time in the semester is always super stressful. Currently, I am low on sleep, fighting off a cold, behind on all my homework and my face is breaking out. If anyone else is feeling the same way, I have exciting news for you.
On my Instagram, I am doing a giveaway! I am calling it the "Pick-Me-Up" Fall Giveaway because I think we could all use a little pick me up right now, am I right? One lucky person will win a fall scented candle, a Pioneer Woman hot/cold tumbler and a Starbucks gift card!
Details of how you can enter the giveaway are on my Instagram.
In case you didn't know, it is Law School Mental Health Day (it's also generally Mental Health Day so this applies to everyone). I think it is so great that law schools and the larger legal community are getting better about encouraging mental health in law students. Law school is so hard... it stresses you physically and emotionally. Historically, law school existed with a culture of "weed out the people who can't stand up to the challenge" and was pretty unforgiving (watch The Paper Chase on Netflix to see what I mean). I think the trend has moved in a positive direction to have more academic help available, encouraging a balance between law school and regular life and encouraging students to take care of their physical and mental wellbeing.
During my own law school journey, my mental health has been at an all-time low. The stress and pressure of law school have on more than one occasion sent me into a downward spiral and I have had more panic attacks than I care to admit. I can't even count the number of times I have had an emotional breakdown in front of my husband and told him I wanted to give up on this crazy lawyer dream. If anyone ever tells you that law school is easy, they are either lying or crazy. Law school is really hard and really stressful but there are so many ways to handle it and get through it.
Today, I am coming at you with a highly requested blog post on managing stress in law school (or life in general). I am not going to say I am an expert at managing stress (I am far from it), but now that I have reached my 3L year, I do think I have learned some quality coping tips.
At risk of sounding like a basic white girl, I LOVE Fall. I love the decor, I love the cooler weather, I love pumpkins, I love leaves... I seriously love it all. I have been baking all the pumpkin things and my house has pumpkins on every surface... I may be out of control but I have no shame.
One of my favorite things to do on a crisp Fall day is curl up with hot tea and a blanket to watch my favorite Fall movies. I have a slightly random list of Fall movie favorites... some are probably super obvious but others might surprise you.
I hope everyone had a good week- mine was better because I am finally feeling motivated again. It was a busy week at school but the weather finally feels like Fall so no complaints from me. I am super excited for this weekend; tonight I am having a girls night with a few of my law school friends and tomorrow we are going to Cedar Point to ride all the roller coasters. Sunday will be reserved for catching up on homework and grocery shopping for my new healthy meal plan (see point 3 below).
1. Family Photos
Maybe I am crazy but I am low-key obsessed with photos. It drives my hubby nuts. I have a close friend who is a professional photographer so I make plans to do family pictures with her every Fall so that we have good pics for our Christmas card... and I just like having family photos. I just can't let the memories pass by without capturing them... these first few years of marriage while it's just my Hubs and me against the world... our precious furchildren in all their fluffy and cuddly glory... our horses... I want pictures of everything.
I think there is some truth to the gripes about people in my generation being obsessed with documenting life and not living it. I am just as guilty of being addicted to my phone and snapchatting everything as the next millennial. However, I love having the memories captured for posterity. I have over 10,000 photos on my phone and every single one makes me smile or laugh or feel some sort of emotion. So I am going to keep on living my life and snapping way too many photos of it because I want to remember everything.
Here are some highlights from our 2018 family photo session.
2. Fall Decorating
So I have had my house decorated for Fall since September 1st.... no shame. I take Fall very seriously! However, as a law student with pretty much no money, decorating for Fall has to happen on a pretty serious budget. Thankfully, I have found some awesome ideas for cheap decorating online. I made a few trips to my local Dollar Tree, the Target Dollar Spot, and Walmart and I was able to decorate my whole house superrrr cheap.
If anyone else is looking for ideas to decorate cheap, here are the ones I found the most helpful!
3. Tone It Up 31 Day Challenge
I have been feeling very blah lately and it has been taking a toll on my work out regime (aka I have not been working out). One of my closest friends from law school and I are going to kick off the Tone It Up 31 Day Challenge and do it together (working out is always easier when you have someone to hold you accountable). I have done Tone It Up stuff in the past and I love the short workouts that are so easy to do at home in your living room. I am not really interested in losing weight because I am generally pretty happy with my body and my weight but I do want to tone up... spending hours sitting in front of a computer for law school or in class makes it hard to stay toned and that frustrates me.
For this challenge, I am getting the meal plan also because my eating habits have been less than healthy lately. I am so excited to try out the recipes and implement some healthy eating habits into my everyday life and hopefully feel better as a result (and I would love to tone up a bit). The 31 Day Challenge meal plan is only $31 so this is the time to try it!
If you are interested, it is completely free to sign up!
4. Last 90 Days
So I finally jumped on the Girl, Wash Your Face train last week and started reading Rachel Hollis' book. I am really enjoying the book (it's hilarious) and it kickstarted me into checking out all of Rachel's stuff.... holy shi*t that girl is a freaking boss. #ladygoals
Anywho, Rachel and her husband are kicking off #last90days on Monday and I am going to try to do it. Basically, instead of saving all of your resolutions and good habits for the first 30 days of the year, Rachel challenges you to make positive habits and changes over the last 90 days of the year. For more info, check out her website and sign up for the free program.
5. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Crimes of Grindelwald
Guys. It's almost here! If you have been reading my blog for a while, you probably caught on to the fact that I am a huge Harry Potter nerd. When Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them premiered in 2016, I was elated and obsessed and in the theatre for the midnight premiere. It surpassed all my expectations and left me very impatiently waiting for the next movie.
Thankfully the wait is almost over. The next movie comes out on November 16 and they just released the final trailer yesterday. Holy crapballs does it look amazing. I simply can't wait!
If anyone has been following my Instagram stories lately, you might have noticed that I have been in a little bit of a "rut". It's the 5th week of classes, I've been fighting a little bit of a head cold, I have a million things going on, work is getting busy, we are trying to get projects done around the house before the weather turns and I have just been feeling blah. I come home and just want to do nothing but sit on the couch and watch TV and avoid my responsibilities.... hence, I am in a no-motivation rut.
I feel like I hit a rut like this every semester at some point. Once the excitement of starting a new semester wears off and the hype of exams hasn't set in yet, I get super burnt out and unmotivated for a time. However, I really don't have time to give in to this. I am a busy law student and lazy time is not built into the schedule. As this has happened to me several times, I have established a little routine for pulling myself out of the rut. It might not work for everyone, but this does work for me!
This is a highly requested post that has taken me a little while to compile information for because it is not something I have personal experience with. I do not commute a large distance to law school- I have about a 15 minutes drive. I know that many people have to commute to law school (or grad school of any kind) and I can imagine it would be difficult on top of an already busy and exhausting schedule. Though I do not have personal experience, I polled a few of my super successful classmates who commute to law school for the information found in this post. Though this is not my own thoughts or opinions, I trust the people who I talked to implicitly and I think their advice is very valuable as they have all managed to commute through law school while still doing amazing in school. Sometimes I quote them directly and sometimes I summarized but overall, I hope this is helpful to those who are currently commuting to law school or those considering it in the future.
Hello everyone! Today we have a fun post from a different point of view- my wonderful hubby is guest posting! I have had several people ask for more posts on what it is like to be married while in law school. I thought it would be interesting to see the other point of view- what is it really like to be married to and to live with a full-time law student? I am sure there are lots of spouses/boyfriends/girlfriends out there who wonder what it is like to live with and deal with a full-time law student. I successfully bugged my husband until he agreed to do this post. A little background: my husband and I got married the summer before I started law school. We were still very fresh newlyweds living together for the first time when I began my 1L year. It has not always been easy to balance marriage and the demands of law school and I know it has been hard of my husband. To his credit, he is has been a trooper. He puts up with my constant studying, listens to all of my whining and complaining about classes and makes sure I eat and sleep during final exams. I am beyond lucky to have such a wonderful partner beside me throughout this journey! Now without further ado, I turn the keyboard over to my wonderful hubby!
Hello blog-people. I am the husband of this situation. My wife won't stop bugging me to write this so I finally caved. Maybe it will help future law student husbands or wives or boyfriends or girlfriends. I have 5 tips for being married to and living with a law student. It is not a walk in the park but I am still happily married after 2 years so it is possible.
