weekly rundown

Today is a bittersweet day, our youngest little boy turned three. Three? Excuse me while I go hide and cry. Why do the years have to go by faster and faster every year? I remember the details of his birth day so clearly, my first natural birth after three epi babies- he was born a whopping 9.7lbs of all boy! These past three years he has kept us on our toes! He is our family comedian, our escape artist (we won't talk of the time he ran away from home on the power wheel. Twice.) Our rough and tough, tree climbing, dirt digging, bed jumping, play outside until he passes out boy. He makes some days really hard, but even so, he is loved to bits by us all!

This week was a fairly slow one. We played at the park and splash pad with friends, and have I mentioned how grateful I am that our tiny town put in the money to build a beautiful playground and splash pad? We are blessed by it! We visited friends in their home, the kids chased frogs while I talked all things parenting, Jesus, homeschooling and life with my dear friend. Lets not forget that she made these amazing..HUGE..homemade peanut butter-oatmeal-M&M-homemade marshmallow cream stuffed cookies. To die for. I have all of the ingredients to make them now and I'm trying my best to hold out at least a few more days before indulging in another! So good.

I think I may have my first case of "runners knee". Maybe. I have a really tight feeling in my knee, not pain. Almost like something is squeezing it. Running actually makes it feel better, so I haven't stopped. I've gone a little crazy and began training for a half marathon in November- what is it about running? Can't stop. And on another note, my husband took a photo of me over the weekend. It was not a planned photo or a posed photo, he didn't even tell me he was taking it. Basically- there was no altering or staging or any trying to look good for this! And when I saw it, I was like "hey...that doesn't look so bad!" and then I was like, "hey...that is one of the first pictures I have seen of myself that I don't hate!". Non scale victory. It's the small things.

We have two weeks of school left. Two. This is my first year homeschooling that I have felt completely confident with what everyone has/is learning and the first year that I have really and truly enjoyed. It is also the first year that I have not gone back and forth on whether or not we want to continue homeschooling the next year, I am already shopping curriculum! Praising the Lord for this peace! Look out for a post on our curriculum run down for the upcoming school year this summer.

Tomorrow, our Addy turns SEVEN. Seven. I'm not even going to go there until I HAVVVEEEE to, so, not tonight! Enjoy your week, friends!

A Summer Reading List for Mom

I'm a goal person. I never use to be until recently, and because I know us Mama's have so much time on our hands I came up with a great list of books to read this summer. I have already been asked..."how do you find time to read?". I read when my kids are in bed for the night, or during quiet time each day. I keep books in the bathroom, yes. I will sit on the porch and read while my kids are playing outside. On the weekends my husband spends a good amount of time with the kids keeping them occupied and doing different things, I take advantage of this time to either nap or read (or blog, or shop, or run). Some days I don't have time to read anything, some days I get only a few paragraphs in, and some days I can read a few chapters. It all depends, but I like to always have a book around to read.

This list is mostly novels, with one homeschooling book. During the school year I read enough books, blogs and articles about schooling, parenting and teaching, I use summer to read the fun books that have nothing to do with child training and real life. On the other hand, I know a handful of Mama's who use summer to do the opposite, to read up on all these kind of books in preparation for the new school year and it works out great for them! Find your own preference and balance! Reading is like a little getaway even if it's only for a few quick sentences!

Right now I am reading "The Giver"

Once finished, my list goes as follows: 

"The Secret Life of Bees"

"A Thousand Splendid Suns"

"A Spool of Blue Thread"

"A House in the Sky"

"All the Light we Cannot See"

"The Well Trained Mind"

I am making my children a Summer Reading list as well and will update this with a link to it once it is up! Enjoy! 

Isa this, Isa that.

I know I am not the only one who's social media feeds are bursting at the seams with post's about Isagenix. I'm not the only one who has considered taking the dive and actually using it, either.

At the start of this journey I decided that I was not going to do any of that stuff. Because there is so much out there, and everyone knows that the only thing that really lasts is hard work. Not to mention, hundreds of bucks to lose a "possible" fifteen pounds, yikes.

So I have not given in. And sometimes it just plain stinks, friends. To see posts from friends about how they lost 14 pounds in a week sitting on their behind when it takes me two months to lose that weight working six days a week. Not. Fun. And then I remind myself that I am not in this for a quick loss.

I recently hit a big wall in my loss. I stayed the same weight for three long weeks, the longest I have gone since the start without seeing any progress scale wise. It's going to happen. It is. But that doesn't mean it's not discouraging. It is! So I'm sitting here at this weight and running and lifting and I hear "isa this, isa that" all over.

I dug for information, and Isagenix is not a horrible product, it's not. It's actually good protein (although it does have synthetics if that is a concern for you).  But again, those crazy numbers ($300!) just to get past this wall. It's two shakes a day, with two snacks and a sensible meal. Easy enough, I chose to see if I could make my own shakes for two of my meals a day (using whole 30 approved ingredients and a really good plant based protein) to see if I could kick this wall down.

I'm only on Day 3 of doing this, and I got past the wall having lost 2 pounds the first two days. Using healthy whole foods and protein that was already in my house, costing me nothing extra. Now, I know my Isa friends would be all over this "well it's not as high quality", "it doesn't have this special ingredient" blah blah.  It's not Isagenix. But you don't need Isa to see similar results without starving yourself.

This is what I use:

Garden of Life's Raw Fit  I typically put 1.5 scoops in to boost the calories.
1/2 Cup almond milk or coconut milk, your personal preference.
Veggies, whatever I have on hand. Lately it has been spinach, carrots and broccoli.
Fruits, whatever I have on hand. Lately it has been strawberries and blueberries. An occasional banana if I'm up for the sugar and carbs.
Chia seeds.
Occasionally I will add a teaspoon of almond butter in it.

Blend. 

The calorie content is going to vary on what you put in it, my breakfast shake this morning turned out being 396 calories. My lunch was 385, so there are plenty of calories, carbs, fats and a lot of protein to make this a good meal replacement option. If you are on the verge of ordering a meal replacement plan, I challenge you to try the same thing first and see what your results are. Here is an example of a what a day of eating for me looks like:

Breakfast: Homemade shake with a high quality protein
Snack: Hummus and celery
Lunch: Homemade shake with a high quality protein
Snack: Green apple (less sugar) with almond butter
Dinner: Anything healthy! Chicken, sweet potatoes, veggies, wild caught fish, turkey tacos, tons of healthy and whole options out there!

Because I am only on Day 3 of doing this myself,  I will post my end results once I finish. I plan to do this throughout the weekday and eat real whole foods on the weekend to change it up for my body. This is something Isagenix does not do, so if you want to go all out continue eating like this for a month.

Whole 30 Challenge Week 2

My goal for this week of the challenge is to eat more vegetables than fruit, and to cut back on snacks as much as possible. I am use to the "eat something small every 2-3 hours diet", along with working out and nursing, so my goal is to go from twice daily to once. The Whole30 says you are only allowed a pre/post snack if you are working out. I am, therefore snacks are compliant for me. If you are not working out, you should be trying to eat three good sized whole meals a day, no snacks.

Day 8
B- Banana Pancakes with almond butter and strawberries
L- Spinach salad with boiled eggs, raw veggies, EVOO and balsamic
S- Homemade lara bars, recipes here.
D- Baked salmon over lime cauliflower rice, mashed sweet potato and cantaloupe.

Day 9
B- Sweet potato crusted quiche
2med sweet potatoes shredded
1package chopped mushrooms
1package frozen spinach, thawed and dried well
1onion sliced
1dozen eggs
2T coconut milk
S&P to taste
Coconut oil
1c brothSauté onions and mushrooms in coconut oil until browned and start to soften, add broth and simmer until tender and pan is dry. Set aside. Fry sweet potatoes until browned and crisp in coconut oil, pat into baking dish like a crust. Beat eggs, coconut milk and add seasoning, onions, mushrooms and dried spinach. Pour over crust. Bake 400 for 20-25 min until eggs are set. Allow to cool, slice into individual servings and refrigerate. Grab your container on the way out the door, microwave for about 90 sec. 
L- Grilled chicken, cauliflower rice, steamed broccoli (grill extra chicken for dinner, or leave out/ready)
S- Almonds and Cashews
D- Spaghetti squash, complaint tomato sauce/marinara, mushrooms and left over chicken from lunch.

Day 10
B- Vegetable and Egg muffins
L-  Turkey avocado wraps, hard boiled egg.
Avocado and carrot shreds wrapped in compliant deli Turkey. Can dip in homemade mayo or other complaint sauce/dressing. 
S- Carrots, celery with almond butter
D- Sweet potato noodles and citrus ginger meatballs. Recipe here. I used turkey vs bison. Save some meatballs for lunch tomorrow

Day 11
B- Veggie Omelete
L- Leftover meatballs on top of a spinach salad with veggies
S- Baked cinnamon apples (microwaved peeled apples in cinnamon)
D- Buffalo ranch stuffed peppers

Day 12
B- "Banana pudding" with blueberries. See meal plan from Week 1 with recipe
L- Turkey Burger with steamed veggies and a sweet potato
S- Hand full of almonds, raw broccoli and carrots
D- Salmon with Avocado salsa and mashed cauliflower

Day 13-
B- Scrambled eggs with spinach and tomato, compliant bacon
L- Spinach salad with berries, chicken, EVOO and balsamic
S- Small apple with almond butter
D- Slow cooker chipotle pork with pineapple slaw and baked sweet potato, recipe here.
Save some meat for lunch tomorrow

Day 14-
B- Fruit and Spinach/Carrot smoothie
L- Left over pork and avocado with steamed veggies.
S- Hard boiled eggs
D- Chicken thighs baked with sweet potato, squash, zucchini, onions, peppers, EVOO.