Friday fun and Meal Planning Night

Thursday flew by and all of a sudden it's Friday!  After work on Thursday we had all sorts of fun racing around downstairs.


And making silly faces..


Max is thoroughly enjoying school.  

Especially when they have new farm books!

Sometimes I pretend I thoroughly enjoy work too!  Or maybe I am just excited there were cookies at work (for someone’s birthday)?!

Eleanor says check out her pretty new outfit (it has deer and penguins and whales!) and Max would like to share his blueberries with you...


I was just RELIEVED when they went to bed somewhat nicely and I had some time to start my meal planning / grocery shopping list for Saturday morning.  Jason has been at a work training thing late for the last few days, so we have not seen much of him.  We are looking forward to having him back on Sunday.


Here's the plan!
Saturday:
lunch: at my Mom & Dad's
evening: toaster waffles, Almond Butter and bananas
Sunday
brunch: popcorn, peppers, apples & sunbutter
evening: crockpot pork, mafalda pasta, & fresh bread
Monday-mixed greens salad w/veggie burgers
Tuesday-chicken-black bean taco salads + avocado
Wednesday-green beans, sweet potato fries, tofu & peanut sauce
Thursday-cereal night
Friday-pizza night

Happy Friday to all and to all a good night!

Standard Saturday - The Ongoing Race Decision - Our Date Attempt

The sick kiddo was not so sick this morning, so we proceeded with a pretty standard Saturday.  I managed to get in a workout this morning - I nearly skipped because I was so tired from a night of Eleanor wake-ups, but decided it would make me feel better if I even just ran a little 1/2 mile.  1/2 mile turned into 2 miles at 8:50 pace average.  Max got to watch a tractor video & Eleanor was entertained by her little rainbow gym.

I am leaning more and more towards doing a half marathon this spring.  A few reasons...
1.I really want to up my speed.  For me, running is a little more enjoyable when I can hit a 8:00/8:30 pace (I don't have much experience going faster) and be comfortable there.
2.Training is much less demanding than a full.  When I started training for a full with Max, he was like 6 months old and it was so tough to find time to run with him.  I learned I can't cheat the week-day runs - my marathon was extremely slow.
3.A half tends to be cheaper than a full.  Plus then I am not obligated to stay up at Grandma's, so could easily just make a day of it instead (it's tradition to go..).
4.There's a great race in Minneapolis at the end of April, that I have actually done before.  Meaning I know I like it.:)  It's called Get in Gear and it runs along the river parkways.
Should I do it?!?

Eleanor is 4 months today - hooray!  We took her to the Home Expo to celebrate.  Actually, she went with me to Aldi and Target first.

The Home Expo was just something Jason and I thought it would be fun to go do - and since Eleanor is 4 months old, she gets to tagalong.  It was a little underwhelming.  There were not that many vendors, and the ones that were there, were not anything we were interested in. Except for maybe the fireplaces and the decks.

Then she took a nap with Jason afterward.

And finally, all 3 got on the couch for a photo op.

Sick DAY and Friday night foodie planning

It's the first sick day from the new daycare!  I think that was pretty good - we made it nearly TWO whole months without getting sick.  Max is feeling much better today already, so hopefully that continues and we are healthy by Monday.

It felt like the weekend since I had both kiddos home today, and my Dad even stopped by for a few hours to keep us (me) company and play a bit.  Max woke up early to keep me company with my morning workout & he decided that I needed to run in addition to my cardio workout video.  He is quite convincing, and I do like to run, so we added another mile-ish on the treadmill.

The highlight of the day was that Max saw the garbage truck AND the recycling truck pickup AND then we saw the school buses at the Elementary school across the street twice.  It was pretty amazing.


Super smiley Eleanor thought it was silly that she should take anything longer than a 20 minute nap today.


And she also wants to show you she has been working on her abs.  Seriously, the girl tries to do sit-ups all the time. 

Onto the most exciting part of my Fridays... meal planning for the upcoming week!  I actually do look forward to planning this out, if I haven't mentioned that before.  Last week was sort of a flop in terms of sticking to the plan, but we rearranged things to work (we did not run out of food or anything crazy).

Here's what I am thinking for this week... the thing we are making for Foodie Husband this week is French Onion Soup.  He's pretty pumped to try that one.  Tuesdays seem to be turning into taco night.

Saturday: brunch-grilled cheese
French Onion soup w/toasts and salad (or swap for Sunday eve)
Sunday: brunch-pizza w/pesto and roasted tomatoes
Pancakes with berries, almond butter and bananas
Monday: leftovers / spinach salad + tofu
Tuesday: chicken verde / black bean tostadas
Wednesday: baked chicken and green beans w/lemon-dijon-tahini sauce
Thursday: cereal night
Friday: leftovers / frozen pizza / salad

I ended my day the best way.. baby cuddles with my chocolate nighttime treat.

Saying goodbye to our first home

Wednesday night we drove down to our old house since we will be closing soon.  Jason and my Dad took a load of last random stuff from our garage.  And then we all played downstairs for a little while one last time - another supper of snacks (think maybe I should make real supper tonight?).

It is a little bit sad leaving our first home.  Jason and I bought it before we even were pregnant with Max.  And now we have both Max and Eleanor - an entire little family.  We have lots of memories in that house.

A few things I will miss:
* Distance to the playground and ease of getting there via sidewalks  - two of them, actually
* Location among a bunch of walking/biking/running trails
* Little storage spots all over the house (in our new home, I'll actually have to buy smaller storage nooks)
* The backyard patio was covered with a full roof - the perfect spot to sit while it rained.
* Neighbors - SO nice!

Cheers to our new place & the new memories we'll make here!

Fun times being sore

Day 2 of the new strength workout and I am a little bit sore.  I can feel all of my muscles and I love it.  I am a weirdo that enjoys being sore.


Jason had a work thing so was gone again, so the kiddos and I had a fun night of snacks for supper and running around downstairs. Max even helped me fold diapers for a while.

Strength training - it's a love hate thing

I started a new little program to boost my strength.  I started with some Plyometrics and I remembered how much I love Plyo!  I definitely am a little bit out of shape to do that sort of stuff, so it is a very good thing that I will be doing these things daily.  I did a fast 1 mile on the treadmill first as a warm up.  In my head, I only want to run and these workout videos are lame.  But then when I actually do it, I really have at LEAST as much fun as a treadmill fun.  Plus, the only injuries I have ever had as a runner came from me having weak spots in my hips and/or legs.  This should totally help that. After the workout it was clear I need to do this about 421 times more before I am proficient.:)


Today I went to our old house to take care of a few things before we officially sell it.  Almost there!!

It looks like Max had a fun time at school while I was busy.

Low Key Sunday, errands, and a trip to Michaels

Max is a pro at running a way from me while we are trying to get dressed for church.  He loves going, but when you are a two year old, it is just so fun to run away...


Ms Eleanor wanted to see what this football hype is all about.

But then we decided it would be more fun to go to Michael's to get our 2019 planner (50% off yeah!) and check out some fun home stuff.



Neither of the kiddos wanted to go to sleep tonight, so it is WAY to late and I am tired.  Bedtime!

Saturday Adventures + we tried fondue

My Dad came over to play again - after playing at home for awhile, he took Max and they went to the nature center again & Max saw a whole bunch of different animals. 


We made a fun dinner tonight.  Jason requested fondue.  In addition the cheese-overload there was ham, green beans, bread, and apples to dip.  Making the fondue felt a lot like making macaroni and cheese without the noodles - and fancier cheese.


I had a great helper with the green bean chopping (breaking).


Max is getting so big - he totally looks like a little boy rather than a toddler now.


He also knows how to do some pretty good duck lips already haha. We love being silly.

Visitors & oh hey there, it's meal planning time again

Last night was a ton of fun because my brother and his girlfriend came over.  They are normally fun, but this time they also brought presents too.  We had a fantastic time playing.  Eleanor went to bed fairly soon, but we let Max stay up a little later than usual since he was having such a great time. 


Onto adulting - It is meal planning night where I get my grocery list all ready to go.  Here is what I have planned out for the week.

Saturday: brunch-leftover soup
fondue supper incl. bread, apples, ham, and veggies
Sunday: brunch-pancakes or muffins + fruit/applesauce
pizza with tomatoes, pepperoni, mozzarella
sauteed mushrooms, spinach salad
Monday: leftovers / spinach salad
Tuesday: mexi-style pasta
seasoned ground beef or chicken to add-in
Wednesday: vegetarian stroganoff with egg noodles
Thursday: cereal night
Friday: baked chicken and steamed broccolini

Tomorrow's grocery plan is both Aldi and Target.  We'll see what other shenanigans we have time for throughout the day.  I am looking forward to trying out some fondue, even though I won't have much since it's pure cheese = not exactly healthy.  I think it will be fun to try.

It is not 2018 anymore

I keep writing and/or typing 2018.  I think it is going to be a while 'til my brain realizes that it's 2019 everyday now.

Last night Max decided to pick out his jammies & this is what he picked.  I like his style.. with this plan he doesn't even NEED to get dressed in the morning.  Briliant!


Little girl is coming down with a bit of a cold. She actually woke up in the middle of the night last night and wanted to be all smiley, but by morning she had sniffles.  Hopefully it sticks to just a cold.  I was then woke up this morning around 5:00 and told to "get up". 5 is nearly too late for a legit run, but I hopped on the treadmill anyway and managed to sneak in a mile before work.  Better than nothing!  So that was the workout for the day!

And after kiddos were FINALLY in bed & lunches were made, I gave up on doing diapers tonight & made a cup of cocoa.  I made cauliflower soup tonight that was sort of a dud.  Turns out it needed lemon juice as I found out after we were done trying it out.. oh well, the biscuits were truly great.

My Garmin may be an antique by now

Yesterday my dad installed our water softener, which sounds simple, but the house was not built with any water softener hookup at all.  And he is not a plumber, so it involved quite a bit of pre-work before any pipes were sliced.  It has been a work in progress for a while!  So far I have not found any leaks & we have used all sorts of water-producing things (sink, shower, washer, etc) so I think he gets an A in his plumbing skills.  We are so lucky to have his help.  Our water is extremely hard in our new house and we are excited to see the difference it will make.

This is my awesome amazing Garmin that has been with me on almost all of my runs (and skis, and skates, and bike rides) since 2007 or 2008.  My first races I actually just used a regular watch with a timer.  And if I am honest, it is actually my 2nd identical Garmin 305 because my first perished after I left it on top of my car after a run one time.

Anyway, there have been so many new Garmins since mine & mine is getting trickier to upload - I literally have to connect a cord to my laptop in order to do this.  I am looking at the Garmin 635 and 935.. it will be a tough choice when I am ultimately ready to make the switch.  I love training by heart rate, so I definitely want one that can pair with a real heartrate monitor (not just a wrist check).  I am currently in the process of gathering recommendations from my runner friends.

Don't ever slice your finger in the wintertime.  Cleaning and dishes are hard enough on my hands this time of year - my finger is not interested in healing very quickly. I should probably get better about wearing my gloves/mittens outside & that may help.


It was taco night at our house tonight!

Meal planning notes and things

Jason has inquired to see what I am planning, recipe/food-wise for the week.  So I thought this would be a great place to post it.  I definitely do not always stick to the plan because sometimes things come up or things take too long, or sometimes we have too many leftovers so I don't need more food made.  But this is my plan that I use for getting groceries.
Note: we always pull out extra stuff like fruit, hummus, crackers, salads - in addition to the actual meal.  That helps me make sure the picky toddler eats SOMEthing.

Sunday: brunch-leftover soup from my mom
supper-tomatoey soup with chickpeas (at home)
+guacamole to bring to a friends gathering this evening
Monday: leftovers / spinach salad
Tuesday: tacos:seasoned shredded chicken OR beef
+ gardein crumbles, hard shells
+ toppings: salsa,lettuce,avocado,chips,cheese
Wednesday: creamy cauliflower soup
+ quick biscuits
Thursday: cereal night
Friday: roasted tomato pizza
+ pepperoni on half
+ mozzarella + oregano
+ sauteed mushrooms

The weeknights are all post-work, so easy is important.  Otherwise it won't happen and/or it will be done after everyone's had a slightly unhealthy supper of snacks.  As opposed to just a sizeable appetizer of snacks.

I used to make meat occasionally but I think now I am going to stick to just once a week.  I do not wish to eat meat myself, and my attempts at adding meat in didn't have great reviews anyway.  Maybe I'll add another one in - we will see!  I'm always trying to figure out what works best for meal planning with a little kids and crazy schedules!  Tips are welcomed...

The soups both contain a few different veggies in it, for flavor.  The tomato soup I plan to puree a little bit (LOVE my immersion blendeR) so it maintains it's tomatoey-soup-ness.  And I think the cauliflower one is just supposed to be pureed in the first place.

Here's to a successful start to the week!

My little buddies decided they both needed to nap at the same time, so here we are again, all sacked out in Max's bed.  It took a little longer, but I got them both sleeping.

Beautiful sunshiney day

Today was a great day.  It started out with showers for everyone - yay for getting clean sometimes.  Jason ran off to a meeting, but is still sick so didn't have much on his agenda other than spending time with the couch.
Then my Dad came over and picked up Max for an adventure to the nature center at the park reserve near our house.  Max also went over to Grandpa and Grandma's for a lot of the day afterwards & apparently had a ton of fun playing outside there too.

Eleanor and I got to hang out!  We went to a Christmas gathering with a whole bunch of my friends & had a fantastic time.  Since being a mom I love love LOVE getting out to talk to other adults.  Probably because it does not happen quite as much ha.  There was good food, some gift giving, and even more babies (a 9 month old and a 2 month old - plus a mom of a newborn, but newborn little boy stayed home).  I quick made up a bean dip to bring with tortilla chips.  After that, we went to Aldi for some groceries.  We even got in a quick walk down the block because it was like 40 degrees out today.  I look like I need more coffee here.


Max came back around 5:30 or so and my parents stayed to play for a little longer while I got some extra cleaning/laundry things done.

We ended the evening with dual bedtimes (Eleanor tends to go to sleep first) so we all got to read books together on Max's bed.

Happy Saturday!  Time for me to go to bed now.

How important is sleep anyway?

I am starting to think it is important..but it sure is a challenge to get in these days.  Last night both Max AND Eleanor were up numerous times so I basically spent the night going back and forth between rooms.  The next person to tell me they spent hours laying in their bed not sleeping may get slapped.  Kidding, of course, because I know that's tough too BUT I would love to have extra hours to spend in my bed & it feels like you must not be tired enough if you are not sleeping when you can.  I wonder if I could figure out some hack to function better on low sleep... because it's a little stressful to stress about not getting sufficient sleep.  That and I consume entirely too much coffee every day.  Hmm.. I may have to find out.

This chart from my Fitbit looks entirely too colorful!

Sock in my pocket and mysteriously sore arms

Today on my way in to work I realized my arms were a little sore..  Odd because I didn't do any workout this morning - I am taking a day off of my early run to try and kick the rest of this cold (it didn't get any worse so a tiny bit of sleep must have helped?).  Then I remembered the pushups.  My lame-o 5 fish floppy pushups made my arms sore!  Yikes I am bad at pushups.  So I took a quick break prior to a pump session & did 5 more.  I do have arm strength - I can carry my two year old around for an hour without any issue.  He's pretty light, but still that is something...

But apparently those are totally different muscles. I just looked it up.  Traditional pushups use triceps, pectoral muscles and shoulders. Kid carrying uses more biceps, plus shoulders & core.  Totally different.  Hooray for working on my triceps!

I wanted to throw a crockpot meal in today (I have one ready!) but I did not leave myself 2 minutes to throw it together.  So we will have that tomorrow.  Oh well!

Sock in my pocket = Eleanor wanted to make sure I didn't forget about her while I was at work today.

Random photos + we like trains

Lucky kiddo got TWO new train-type toys this Christmas.  One was a duplos animal train and then this one is a wooden train track set (from my brother) that even Jason has been enjoying. This is just one example of all the fun new things he got.

I did my 4am workout today, and not sure I should have...I contracted a cold - most likely the one my toddler's had for weeks.  He pretty And much just has a cold nonstop and I don't try to avoid it myself, because I like to think it gives me a better immune system to be exposed to that.  Not that I could avoid him coughing in my face or things like that - but I also let him continue to share my waterbottle and half the time we eat off the same plate (because if you give my toddler a meal, he will eat 2% and leave the rest..).
I am drinking my AC vinegar water, drinking LOTS of fluids, veggie soup, and plan to go to bed by 9 tonight if at all possible.  That should kick it ASAP.

A few random pictures to share today...
Eleanor trying out sitting in a chair. In her head saying, mom I am clearly not ready for this..

And a new truck outfit was the easy choice for New Year's Day after a morning swim in the bathtub.

Can't hide anything from this kiddo.  He pulled the stool over and found some treats hidden in the back of the cabinet.

Good morning, and Happy 2019!

My New Year's Resolutions:

1. Pushups - figure out how to do them.  Action: start at 5 pushups a day and build.  Which at the beginning will be fish flop style pushups because that is all my arms can manage.  See why this is important now?

2. Complain less - like not at all because I don't think I am terrible at this now.  My downfall is negative gossip and imposing my perfectionism on others. Action: think of something I am greatful for each morning on my way to work.

3. Crockpot suppers - improve. Action: plan at least one crockpot meal a week, where everything is ready ahead of time.

Those are really just the first three things I thought of, but they are all things I would like to improve on, so they will do as resolutions.

I had a relatively disappointing NYE, but they can't all be great now, can they?  I choose not to let it define my 2019.  Max and I did have a fantastic time dancing to a kids music CD while munching on supper.  Here is my giggly little boy and our new year's eve spread.  We partied toddler style.