Simple Joy

This week, I've been soaking in the simple joys - kid's laughter, barre3 classes, good food and time with friends. I'm trying to take time to enjoy the simple moments, the ones that aren't always remembered but make up the core of our beings. Here's to the simple joy of life.

Whole30 Week 2 Round-Up

As of last night, I'm halfway though Whole30 and I'm feeling strong. Scott and I were talking after dinner last night about Whole30 and we both mentioned how good we feel. We are more even-keel. We don't have any energy peaks or dips throughout the day. Our clothing is fitting a bit looser and while we haven't felt the tiger blood yet, we feel good.

I braved a birthday party with delicious looking treats this past week but found a few things to snack on. There was fresh fruit and date-nut balls that fit right into the Whole30 diet. The cake looked delicious but I was able to avoid it because I wasn't hungry. Molly ate an extra bite for me and told me, "It is really good!"

Next week is going to be our biggest challenge though. Scott is heading out of town and will be eating out. He feels ready for the challenge. I will be home with the girls and probably looking for wine by the end of the day. I'm planning to watch some trashy TV as my treat though.

One thing I'm grateful for through this challenge is how I am keeping our food simple. No crazy recipes with a billion ingredients, just simple, good food. In fact, just last night, we had a friend of Scott's over for dinner and I made Salmon with a purchased (whole30) sauce, potatoes and broccoli. I kept it simple which meant the kitchen wasn't a mess, conversation was lovely and we kept to Whole30. 

Jenny On The Spot is doing another Whole30 and I really enjoyed reading her thoughts on the subject. This is my second Whole30 and the first time I've stuck with it. I don't feel deprived. I feel so energetic and alive which keeps me keeping to the guidelines. I am looking forward to that Tiger Blood though. When is that going to show up? 

Week 2 - barre3 Challenge Check-In!

It's almost the end of week 2 of the barre2 challenge and I am still so pumped about this workout. I just finished 5 straight days of barre3 in-studio workouts and every single one of them was awesome. I took this morning off to rest and catch up with some things at home but I'm missing my workout and my barre3 buddies.

The instructors at my studio challenged themselves to NOT repeat any of their workouts and so far they haven't. It's been awesome doing different routines and moving different body parts. I can feel my body strengthening in so many different ways. After my first class, I joked that my abs were missing but now I can feel them screaming deep inside. I've awoken them and they are angry. 

I'm also finding that barre3 allows me daily time to myself. I have an hour each morning (when I go) purely alone where I don't think about anything but "down an inch, up an inch" and I badly need this. I have a hard time shutting off my thoughts and just being in the moment. 

I made the recommended smoothie last week and did not like it. I tried so hard to choke it down and finally just gave up. I'm not that big of a fan of smoothies and I'm not surprised that I didn't like it. This week's recipe, Chocolate Truffles, looks awesome though and is Whole30 friendly. I have groceries coming tomorrow morning and I plan to make these with Molly. I'm also planning on hitting the 10 minute workout this afternoon to re-energize and get some of Molly's wiggles out. She has so many wiggles. Two weeks down! Two to go! (though I'm pretty confident that I'll be continuing on because I'm addicted!) 

Ruminations, Resolutions and Revelations round out this Week's Links from Around The Web

I just finished taking 5 straight days of barre3 classes. I'm in love with barre3 and actually enjoy my early morning workouts. I am really enjoying this new routine. I get up at o'crack of dawn and head to the studio for a hard, hard workout. Then I come home where my family is usually still asleep and I head straight to the kitchen to cook a Whole30 breakfast. They usually hear me clanging around and stumble out with sleep in their eyes. Maggie gets the most excited when she sees me because after eating, I'm her favorite thing. We sit as a family at the table and eat breakfast together before I head off with the girls to start our day and Scott heads to work. It's been a really nice way to start the day and honestly exercise is helping me find my happy again. After 2014, I really needed to find some happy and I think I have.

I've also been diving into so many awesome things on the web and I can't wait to share them with you this week. 

5 Tips for a Better New Year I strongly agree with #1, #2 and #5. Scott and I have a monthly date night but we'll be adding in weekly date nights too. With two kids, busy lives and adult responsibilities, we sometimes forget to connect with each other, weekly date nights will help with us stay connected.

Little Known Social Media Site Features I love finding out stuff like this. Makes me feel a bit secret spyish.

Cozy Up for an At-Home Date Scott and I will be starting at-home dates as soon as Whole30 is over. It's hard to make special cocktails when you can't drink. These brownies might be the first thing on our date night menu!

Does Parenting Get Easier? I was telling someone just last week that each stage of parenting is hard and you hope and pray that the next one will be easier, yet it just feels harder. I feel like each stage is different and hard in their own ways. Some things get easier and some things get oh so much harder. We are in a hard stage right now. 3 years old is hard but you know it is also awesome. Molly says the best things and does the cutest things. She gives huge bear hugs and sloppy kisses. She observes the most interesting of details and is just all around awesome. She also tests every single limit and rule, every single minute of every single day.

Lifestyle Photography Prompts I've been doing these child lifestyle prompts to help improve my photography skills and capture images of my favorite little people. I'm having so much fun with this and look forward to prompt day (Wednesday) all week long.

Earlier this week, I talked about gardening and one of my friends left a comment about a post she did on Spring gardening in Seattle. I thought I'd share the link for other aspiring Spring Seattle Gardeners. Five Great Things to Grow in Your Pacific Northwest Garden Enjoy! 

The 14 Week Home Organizing Challenge!

Photo Credit: A Bowl Full of Lemons

Last week was the first full week of the 14 Week Home Organizing Challenge and our focus was on the kitchen. My kitchen was a disaster and now it is only half a disaster. Seriously this challenge has already helped me so much and I can't wait to tackle the rest of the house.

I knew that I wouldn't have a whole block of time to clear the clutter out of the kitchen so I decided to separate the kitchen in to zones and focus on a zone a day.

I started by clearing all the drawers, wiping them out and then putting stuff back in. I moved some lesser used items to the basement storage and put more in the donation bag on the back porch. I also took this opportunity to deep clean the baseboards, the front of the cabinets and a few other areas that never seem to get cleaned.

The biggest challenge for me was tackling the counters. I have a lot of stuff on the counter because we have an extremely small pantry. Also I find if I keep fruit on the counter, we all reach for that as a snack before anything else. I decided to clean off the counters and look at them with a critical eye. The counters look so much nicer when cleared but since I need a functional kitchen, I had to move some stuff back onto the counters. I tried very hard to only leave items on the counter that are used every, single day.

Once the counters were set-up, I cleaned out under the sink where the trash/recycling is kept. That was quite the chore and something I really need to clean out more often. I was so pleased with the kitchen that I decided to wax the kitchen floor and make everything shine. 

Now when I go into the kitchen, I smile instead of groan. I'm excited to open the drawers and not have to shove things down in order to close them again. This week, we are focusing on the laundry room and my first task is to get all the laundry washed, folded and put away. I have a few ideas on how to make my laundry area more inviting and I can't wait to implement them. Some of my ideas might not happen this week but by the end of the week, the room will be cleaner and all of my laundry will be done. 

Planning the 2015 Garden

Last year, I had my first garden in this house and it was awesome! I have high hopes for this year's garden and I'm hoping to expand it from just a Summer garden to a Spring, Summer and Fall garden. 

In preparation for this year's garden, I should have prepped the beds last Fall but to be honest my life was too chaotic for me to even get laundry done in an appropriate time manner so the garden was thrown aside. Today though was a gorgeous day and the kids were hopped full of energy so we headed out to the backyard so they could run around and I could work on the garden. 

I spent some time pulling out the dead tomato plants, the failed broccoli and the never took off spinach. Then I raked out the dirt and swept up some of the leaves. I didn't spend too much time sweeping up things because March is still due to come along with its wind. 

Now I just need to figure what I want to plant in my Spring garden and start planting. I'm also planning to hit up the Tilth Plant sale in the spring to get a load of plants. I'm not sure if I want to start seeds this year or not because to be honest, I'm not sure I'm interested in that much effort. 

Sunday Moment

I've been fighting a losing battle around my house. Everyday I get up and I start cleaning and everyday my girls get up and start making messes. The thing is they are having so much fun, they are experiencing life and learning through their messes. I'm just learning the fine art of futile frustration.

Photo Credit: A Holy Experience

What I really need to remember  (and possibly learn) is that we are building a close family - one that eats meals together, goes on adventures together, creates messes together and loves together. All of that is more important than having a clean house. You can not eat off the floors in my home (that doesn't stop the littlest one but she's building immunities or something) but you can feel the love and that is the most important thing in a home. And so this week I plan to clean less, play more and laugh as much as I can. 

Whole30 Weekly Round-Up

We are 9 days into Whole30. Almost 1/3 of a way through Whole30. There are 20 more days until my coffee goes back to being the best thing about my day. Until then it will be a sorry substitute.

The past 9 days haven't been hard at all. I mean I do miss creamer in my coffee, I really miss that but otherwise it hasn't been too hard. The downsides are all the dishes and preparation each meal seems to take but the upsides have been huge!

I haven't had my mid-afternoon slump. I am rarely hungry. I have really been enjoying our meals with a few exceptions. There was a chia pudding that we made and well, let's not discuss that horrible experience. Seriously you people who eat chia pudding have way different taste buds than I do.

The kids have been eating most of the same food as Scott and I with the exception of lunch where I've been caving and giving them their most often requested Mac-n-Cheese. I've noticed that they also have more energy (how, I am not sure) but are a bit more even-keel.

We haven't always stuck to the meal plan but we've done pretty well. There was a late doctor's appointment on Wednesday which led me to the hot bar at the local grocery store searching for things in which to make dinner. I found an awesome sauce that was perfect on some steaks we had at home and some roasted veggies that rounded out our meal.

Scott has been a real trooper through this process. I've been making lunch for him to take to work everyday and he brings back the empty containers every night with a nice comment about his meal. Scott is a guy who hates taking lunch and just wants to check out all the food trucks around his office.

I've also found myself snacking less and less as time goes on. I used to snack all the time and eat bits of the kid's food. I have not been doing that at all. It's been hard to skip my afternoon Starbucks Chai Tea Latte but it's been good for me and my wallet.

This week I hope to spend more time on Sunday prepping ingredients and food for the week. I'm hoping that I will then spend less time preparing every meal. What are your Whole30 tips? How do you prep for your weekly meals? 

Paleo Whole30 Meatballs

Earlier this week, I noticed that one of my dinner recipes looked extremely boring. We were going to have turkey meatballs for dinner and the directions were basically to wad ground turkey into a ball and cook them. Ummm yum?

I looked in my fridge and noted that I had some ground turkey, ground chicken and ground beef. I then started flipping through my cookbook shelf to locate a few of my favorite meatball recipes. I knew I'd have to be creative since traditional meatballs call for breadcrumbs and bread is not allowed on Whole30. I started pulling together ideas, ingredients and a lot of spices. Then I asked Molly if she wanted to help me make dinner.

I gathered my ingredients and started mixing. I washed Molly's hands and asked her if she wanted to mix the meatballs by hand. She stuck her hand in the bowl, quickly withdrew it and said, "NO! THANK YOU!" I finished mixing the meatballs and forming them into balls. I ended up tripling the recipe below and freezing the extra which means we have two more meals of delicious meatballs coming our way. 

I served the meatballs with a homemade tomato sauce over a bed of roasted broccoli. I threw in a salad on the side since we are currently all about extra greens in this house. I'll be doing a Whole30 Week 1 Roundup post later today but I couldn't wait to share these meatballs with you. I love that they have some extra vegetables in them which is great for picky toddlers. Maggie and Molly gobbled these up and tried to eat mine! 

Paleo Whole30 Meatballs



by Rebecca Mongrain

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes




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Ingredients (15-20 meatballs)

1/3 cup ground chicken
1/3 cup ground turkey
1/3 cup ground beef
1 large egg
3 Tablespoons roughly chopped parsley
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground, dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely diced
3/4 cup pureed sweet potato




Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

2. Using your hands, mix all the ingredients in a bowl, combine until everything is incorporated.

3. Roll the mixture into meatballs, using about 1 Tablespoon per meatball.

4. Place the meatballs on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart.

5. Bake at 350F degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

To Freeze: Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet and freeze for approximately 30 minutes. Place the frozen meatballs in a ziploc bag and store in the freezer. When ready to eat, you can either defrost and cook as above or place them directly on your baking sheets and bake for 25-30 minutes.


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barre3 Challenge Check-In!

Monday morning at o'dark o'clock, I started the barre3 challenge. I woke up at 5:15 a.m. to get to a 6 a.m. class. While the studio is only about a 15 minute drive away, I need a wee bit of time to wake up before leaving the house. The soft, gentle snores of my family greeted me as I awoke and dressed in the dark. I left the house and it was so dark, so rainy and so dark but I still headed to the car. I munched on a larabar as I drove to the studio full of apprehension. 

I got to the studio a bit early! In fact the doors were still locked so I sat in the car for a few minutes thinking about my endeavor. One of my friends has been doing 6 a.m. barre3 classes for the past year. I ask her how she does it and she says it is often the only hour she gets completely alone in a day. She also likes that when you make a reservation, if you don't attend, you still get charged a fee unless you cancel an hour or more before the session, which she'll never do since she's not up at 4:45 a.m. to cancel. She's pretty much committed the night before when she heads to bed. 

Another friend joined me on Monday for the 6 a.m. class and we looked at each other like we were insane. Who gets up at before the sun to get a workout in? We had a HARD session and as we were stretching at the end, I realized that I am now a person who gets up before the sun to get a workout in. I felt amazing (tired but so energized). I felt even more amazing when I arrived home to find my rambunctious children awake and poor Scott looking exhausted. I quickly made everyone a hearty breakfast and set Scott toward the shower.  Since Monday, I've done two more 6 a.m. classes and this feels right to me. I get a precious hour alone to focus on me before anyone else is awake. I don't have to worry that anyone needs me or that Scott is going to get caught at work and not make it home in time for me to go workout. In fact, both yesterday and today, I made it home before anyone else in my house was even awake. This is awesome and fantastic! 

I did the 10 minute workout portion of the challenge with Molly. She was running around the house like a crazy person so I decided to wear her out. It was hilarious watching her attempt carousel but she kept up with me, like a champ! I haven't yet tried this week's recipe, Spiced Winter Greens Smoothie but I have a grocery delivery coming tomorrow with the ingredients. The nice thing is it fits right into my Whole30 diet. I'm just feeling a little unsure about the actual smoothie but I'm going to try it with glee.  

I have three more weeks for the challenge and then I'm feeling confident that I'll keep going. We'll have to see what the next three weeks bring!