Good morning! Happy Tuesday. This is what I ate for lunch yesterday – it was so good.
Roasted red potatoes, butternut squash, and broccoli; baby bell peppers and onions; and three over-easy eggs. Plus two fresh apricots on the side.
I spent Monday in recovery mode from the weekend. We had a lot going on and a ton of visitors (the Husband’s grandparents are visiting us all the way from England!). There was a lot of cleaning up to do. One big task I tackled was re-organizing our Toy Rotation boxes (<—that’s a how-to guide to keeping kids’ toys organized and fun). Henry got so many new toys for his birthday that it was necessary!
I am trying two new things with the toy boxes – I have four boxes, and I consolidated Henry’s toys into two boxes (plus the toys that are currently out) and made a toy box for Claire. Girlfriend loves her toys! I made the last box into a “too young for Henry, too old for Claire†box.
Feeling organized is good.
In the evening, I snuck away for a workout. I wanted to make 5:30 boot camp, but that was too late – it was my sister-in-law’s birthday and we had dinner plans at 7:30. Yay! So instead, I stuck my head into the boot camp room and checked out the whiteboard for the workout of the day… Then I headed over to the gym and did my own version.
You’ll need a bosu ball, two 10-pound weights, a 20-pound weight, and a bench.
This is a banana crunch – I am proud of myself because I can actually do the full version of the move now. Well, I can’t do 8 rounds of 10, but I only need to modify half of the moves by keeping my hands on the floor. Banana crunches have been super hard for me post-baby, so I’m loving that progress.
Well, I have TWO Book a Week reviews to share with you (I went on a reading binge this weekend, obviously), but I’ll do that later in the week. Until then… Have a fabulous Tuesday. We’re in the middle of a record heat wave here in the South, so I’m gonna try to stay cool. Whew!
This Friday was Henry’s birthday. Big number three. Can you believe it? I certainly cannot. Nothing makes you more aware of how time truly flies than watching a child grow up.
Here is what I think of when I think of Henry at age 3: Talkative. Obsessed with animals (favorite animal is a cheetah by miles; T-Rex is a distant second). Sporty. So fast and super agile. Really funny. Rough and tumbly. LOUD. Likes pizza, soccer classes, swimming, his baby sister, being right, and playing outside. A great kid, through and through.
Somehow I found him cheetah-print balloons!
For his birthday, Kristien and I got him a PlasmaCar and Magnatiles. Both items were definitely splurges but I think he will play with both of these toys for a long time. Fingers crossed. I tried so hard to get a picture of him on the PlasmaCar, but like I mentioned… he doesn’t sit still for long.
Oh, and Henry’s cake was a gluten-free Funfetti cake! I randomly stumbled across this in the supermarket… I have to say that it was pretty good. Funfetti rocks.
Claire wishes she could have some, but she was stuck with butternut squash…
Let’s see, what else?
Oh, I squeezed in some wonderful workouts. That’s saying a lot because the weather was BOILING and an outdoor workout was challenging to fit in. On Wednesday, I did a 1000 meter swim following by a 2.0 mile run in 17 minutes – pretty speedy for me!
On Thursday, I woke up at 5:15 to run a 10K with training buddy Brandi. That was a pretty great accomplishment for me because 1) I almost never pull myself together to run before the kids are up and 2) I haven’t that far since before I was pregnant with Claire.
I took off Friday and Saturday. Desperately needed a break.
And on Sunday, I did a 2.2 mile run – we had a lot to do, and I would’ve loved my workout to be longer, but I was pretty pleased that I managed to find the time to do anything at all.
So now it’s MONDAY. And I’m pumped for a new week. I’ve got some grand plans, and I have a sneaking suspicion this is going to be a great week. I hope yours is fabulous, too!
I made this recipe over the weekend and then ate it all in two sittings. It’s really tasty, healthy, and simple to make <— basically, my ideal recipe!
In fact, there are only four ingredients – canned artichokes, white beans, pesto, and salt.
From cans + jars to dip in less than 5 minutes! I made this because I was really craving a dip but am sooooo tired of hummus. I’ve just had hummus overload lately – know what I mean? This gave me that hummus texture and scoopability with a totally different flavor.
Artichoke + Pesto Bean Dip
Ingredients:
1 can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup basil pesto
1 can artichoke hearts (packed in water, but squeezed in a towel to eliminate extra water in the recipe)
Salt to taste
Directions:
Combine everything in a blender or food processor.
EAT! <— Told you it was simple.
What are you munching on lately?
PS – HAPPY 3rd birthday to the coolest boy I know –> HENRY!
I was recently challenged to try something outside of my fitness comfort zone. That same week, my friend Jen asked a group of momma friends if they’d be interested in joining her Warrior Dash team. It was a perfect fit – obstacle mud runs are definitely outside of my norm!
Switch It Up, brought to you by Ford, is a fun new show on YouTube that documents experts trying something they’ve never done before. In last week’s episode, Blogilates’ Cassey Ho challenged interviewer Chase Jarvis to step outside of his comfort zone and teach a Pilates class. Check it out here:
One of my most Googled posts is “Obstacles Runs – Cool, But Are They Safe?†I’ve long avoided mud runs because I felt like the risks (mainly twisting an ankle during triathlon season!) outweighed the benefits. But Jen and the rest of my friends promised that we would stick together as a team, go slowly, and could skip any obstacles that felt unsafe. So I decided to give it a go – and I’m SO glad I did because it was SUPER fun. Also – no busted ankles, so that’s good. Hah!
The Warrior Dash North Carolina was a 5K run with 15 obstacles, which included crawling under barbed wire, climbing tall structures, shimmying over rope bridges, traversing waist-deep mud puddles, and jumping over fire.
We were in one of the last waves (we started at 2:30 PM), which was honestly a great move for newbies. The course was pretty quiet (no bottlenecking at the obstacles) so we felt no pressure whatsoever to hurry up. I think that’s the key to being safe. Some of the obstacles truly were dangerous with HUGE drops, so being careful was important.
Although it was perfectly fine to skip obstacles, I am really proud to report that I did every single one! I could tell that boot camp made a big difference in my ability to climb structures and control my descent on the ropes. And I can’t say enough great things about those gloves – I was SO glad to be wearing gloves during the race.
The big finish? A jump over fire, a climb up a structure, and a huge drop down muddy slides into a giant pool of squishiness!
When we finished the race, we tied our shoe laces together and abandoned our kicks at the “donate†station…
And took a big communal shower! We were still pretty dirty – I had mud in my ears!
I have amazing things to say about Warrior Dash’s post-race party (it was bumping – free beer!) and the fact that they post FREE professional individual photos on their Facebook page after the race. Pretty cool, huh?
Wondering how I got all these personal mid-race photos? Funny story, actually – I bought an old school FILM waterproof disposal camera off Amazon. Yup – the crank and click kind. I felt like it was 1995 all over again! I kept giggling every time I took a shot… And, of course, I had to wait to write this post until I got film developed at the store, which totally blew my mind.
I would love to do another obstacle course race with my friends! It was a really fun way to squeeze in a killer workout (my arms were dying by the end!) while having a good time with people that I love.
<3 <3 <3
This post is sponsored by Ford. Thanks, as always for reading sponsored content. I appreciate your support a lot!
Sleep – precious sleep. As you guys know, I just renovated our bedroom to be more “hotel like†in quest of a better night’s sleep. And guess what? It’s working!
The couch has been downgraded – it’s no longer my favorite place in the house. This room is! But I didn’t just renovated the room for aesthetics – I did it for our health. Quality sleep has definitely been lacking in our house (and not just because of the kiddos!), and I knew it was time to prioritize better sleep. A better mattress, comfier pillows, a tranquil space = better space = a healthier and happier me. It was effort well spent!
1) Get a better mattress and accessories.
First things first – upgrade your mattress. I’ve been testing out Sleep Innovation’s SureTemp 12†Mattress for several weeks and have nothing but fabulous things to say about this innovative foam mattress. I love a soft bed, but squishiness isn’t really enough – a great mattress should hug your body, providing that pressure point relief. One big thing the Husband and I noticed about this mattress is that it eliminates motion transfer, which means we don’t get bounced around when the other person flips over.
Oh – this is pretty cool… If you buy a Sleep Innovations mattress, look how it will be delivered to your home! They vacuum-pack it into a box, which made it super easy to get upstairs. And it was fun to watch it uncurl when we opened the wrapper!
We tried sleeping on the mattress with the Sleep Innovations Gel Memory Foam Mattress Topper. Now, this is kind of similar to what we used to have on our old mattress, but way better. You can place it with the 3-inch thick memory foam air channels up or down (we preferred down). When you lay down on this topper, it’s not an immediate sense of “Oh, squishy softness!†but more like a gel foam that slowly hugs your body. Amazing. Seriously – amazing. Also, it doesn’t get hot like our old topper did.
Last – but not least – PILLOWS.
Kristien has been using the Sleep Innovations Cool Contour Memory Foam Pillow. He likes foam pillows that are firmer and hold their shape because it cradles his neck and lets his shoulder and back muscles relax. He gives this pillow two sleepy thumbs up, especially because it stays cool (his other foam pillow would get too hot, and he’d have to flip it).
I tested out the Sleep Innovations Anti-Allergy Pillow. You can tell the cover is designed to reduce dust and mites (it’s actually an all-natural, permanent fabric technology, not a chemical spray or anything). It took some time for me to get used to the height of this pillow (I like ridiculously flat pillows) but now I think it’s a winner.
Other suggestions for a better night’s sleep…
2) Get a BIGGER bed.
Switching from a Queen to a King was HUGE. No pun intended! It is so wonderful to have that extra space – we don’t bang into each other in the middle of the night anymore.
3) Use white noise.
I’ve blogged about this little desktop white noise machine before – I love it so much!
4) Buy blackout curtains.
Blackout curtains are clutch, especially during the summer. Not only do they keep your room dark, but they also really help keep your room’s temperature cool, which is also essential for a good night’s sleep! Our room’s new design required white curtains; you wouldn’t think could be very good at blacking out sunlight. I took a chance and bought these and absolutely love them! They don’t work as well as a darker curtain, but they are still very, very effective.
5) Get your pets on the floor.
Now, here’s one battle that has been well-documented on the blog! We finally trained both dogs to not sleep in our bed. We love to cuddle them, but it was a big problem – they’d toss and turn and wake us up throughout the night (I have two kids, I have enough wake-ups!). As part of the redesign, Maggie got a new bed (James actually prefers to sleep on the couch now that he’s out of the bed, which I don’t mind because it’s probably better for security). I tuck her in with a big, soft blankie, and she loves it!
Here’s where we bought all of our room’s accessories:
But the comfortable mattress, wonderful topper, and amazingpillows were all courtesy of Sleep Innovations – and here’s your change to win one of the pillows for yourself! Use the widget below to enter to win.
