A Great Thanksgiving + This Week's Plan

Hello!

(social media)

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving week!

(reality)

Our’s started out with Cora having croup, which included sleepless nights and lots of cuddle sessions. Thankfully her doctor called her in some steroids, which helped with her breathing, but her ickiness continued into the week. Then, Ina got sick.

Then, I broke my washing machine with my brute strength. Or carelessness. Let’s go with the former.

Regardless of sick children, our Thanksgiving was a good one. We hosted and provided the turkey while everyone else brought side dishes. My grandma sat in the kitchen and instructed me on the rolls, stuffing, and gravy, just as she did last year. This year I made some notes, so hopefully I don’t forget. Maybe next year I can do it on my own!

We have spent the rest of the week resting, watching movies, and decking the halls. I think we are officially ready for Christmas. 

Here is my plan for the week:

• Monday: Thanksgiving leftovers. One. More. Time. 
• Tuesday: smoked turkey BBQ pizza with salad
• Wednesday: smoked turkey and collared greens
• Thursday: easy chicken and bean bake
• Friday: Ina’s 4th birthday (how???) - out to eat
• Saturday: my gym’s Christmas party

I hope you have a fantastic week! <3

Thanksgiving Week Plan

Good Sunday morning to you! (<—Ina has been asking what exclamation points, question marks, commas, etc. mean when reading books and now I am hyper aware of my punctuation.)

Since we have last talked things have been pretty low key around here. I worked Thursday night in between child wrangling. Friday morning I went to the gym, then spent the day working from home in comfy sweat pants (seriously, living the dream over here).

After I picked the girls up from daycare we headed over to my friend Courtney’s house for a little meal prep action. I now have 10 meals ready to go in my freezer! 

(A pile of Kendricks at the bottom on the stairs. This is where they choose to congregate.)

Saturday was mostly a day of rest. We sat around the house, watched a movie, read books, etc. Ina and I did sneak out for a little grocery shopping and then we had some friends over for a dinner/play date. Even though we didn’t do much, no one complained when it was time for bed last night. 

We are so excited to get into the holiday spirit over here. We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner, which has to go better than last year when the giblet bag exploded inside the turkey because I forgot to take it out. Right? 

Right. 

Wait, do I need to start defrosting the turkey now? Thank God for Google. Someone hold me. 

This week is looking a little like this:

• Sunday: Church celebration service then dinner with some friends
• Monday: Our sweet, sweet friend Michele made us another chicken pot pie. I already cannot wait.
• Tuesday: Dan and I have marriage counseling and then I have to work (a scheduling error on my part), so Dan will likely grab Chipotle on the way home. 
• Wednesday: I have Wednesday through Sunday off work, which I am so excited about. The girls and I will likely get the house ready for Thanksgiving and maybe do a little baking. 
• Thursday: Thanksgiving! We are in charge of the turkey(s), cheese plate, and gravy. Simple enough, right? 
• Friday: Danielle and I have plans to binge watch the new Gilmore Girls. Thanksgiving leftovers will be on the menu. 
• Saturday: Christmas decorating time! Maybe we will have some soup for dinner.

I plan on going to gym class Monday thru Thursday and then pop back in on Saturday. I am going to try to stick to two rest days a week. On the weeks I only have one I feel so tired and on Friday I am afraid I did something to my left quad. I am hoping that resting yesterday and today will fix it right up. 

I hope you have a fantastic week! <3

Thankful

Hello! 

I know I say this every week, but how is it Thursday already? I feel like time is just flying by right now. Except for time doing burpees. That is still as slow as ever. 

Here is what I was thankful for this week:

Thursday:

1. Our gym. I seriously don’t know how I could like it more.
2. Chipotle saves the day for dinner.
3. Amazon Prime. I now almost always have birthday gifts wrapped and ready to go days before a party.

Friday:

1. Danielle’s fashion help when I dropped the girls off. She helped me answer the question I always have about cuffing my jeans. 
2. Lunch with my sister in law. 
3. My mom was not seriously injured in the car accident. Even more that my cousin was able to go get her and stay with her in the hospital while we were at the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday:

1. Time to see my aunt and grandma while visiting my mom.
2. My family did a great job at the wedding: Dan as the officiant and the girls as flower girls. I was one proud wife/momma.
3. Garth and Kotey are married! We love them and are so happy to see them tie the knot!

Sunday:

1. A Chiefs win! Just in time. 
2. Bauer boy is one! It feels like yesterday that I had the huge privilege of watching him being born. See, time is flying.
3. An early bedtime. Whew, what a weekend.

Monday:

1. A balanced budget. It always feels good. 
2. The girls were so good at the grocery store. I didn’t even have to bribe them with crackers. Not that I would do such a thing.
3. We came home from the grocery store to a warm and cozy fire built in the fire pit. I am loving these beautiful fall evenings (and mornings!). 

Tuesday:

1. Our workout was over. Seriously, it was that hard.
2. I have a job that is flexible enough to be able to take my mom to her doctor’s appointment. Everything is going well!
3. Grace. When I have a hard time dishing it out I try hard to remember what it feels like to receive. 

Wednesday:

1. While I was doing the morning shuffle the girls picked up a book, sat next to each other, and looked at it together. I turned the corner to see them and almost lost it. 
2. My work provided the Thanksgiving lunch yesterday. Delicious.
3. Time for food prep and chatter with friends - more on that later.

What are you thankful for?

Have a good day! 

A Wedding

Hey there!

How has your weekend been treating you? Our’s was mostly wedding focused. Dan’s sister Kotey married our favorite guy Garth. Dan officiated the wedding and the girls were flower girls, so we were so looking forward to this weekend! 

(Photo borrowed from the bride’s Facebook page)

Friday night, I spent most of the rehearsal dinner making sure Cora wasn’t throwing a fit on the floor or giving someone a death glare and preventing Ina from destroying all the decorations in the church. The fact that the burlap curtain stayed up was a straight miracle. 

After the rehearsal dinner I met my mom and cousin in the ER because my mom was in a car accident and fractured 7 ribs. She is one tough cookie and hadn’t even had any pain medication by the time I showed up. After some prescriptions and a finger brace, we were out the door. 

Saturday morning I went to gym class and then we packed and prepared for the wedding. We visited my mom (who was doing well) for a few hours and then headed to the chapel.

(Pre-wedding Cheeto snack)

When you have 3 flower girls, the odds of them all being in the mood for a picture at the same time are very, very low, but maybe the photographer can work her magic. 

I was in charge of changing the music during the ceremony, so let me tell you I was pretty surprised when both girls walked down the aisle with smiles on their faces in a timely manner. However, I didn’t quite think about worrying what the girls would do during the ceremony. Dan officiated like a boss, but early on did get a little choked up. While he was trying to get his composure, Ina blurted out, “Oh, come on Daddy!” 

That got everyone laughing and lightened the mood. Soon Cora decided it was her turn for the spotlight and started screaming until I put her down, and then walked to Dan and Kotey and Garth. I told her she couldn’t get married quite yet and we spent the rest of the ceremony in the back room. 

We celebrated the new couple with a great dinner, laughing, and cupcakes. 

(Negotiating who would get the first cupcake)

We were plenty tired on the way home. Today we have church, my nephew Bauer’s birthday, and then small group.  

Here is my plan for the week:

• Sunday: leftovers
• Monday: chicken tikka masala with brown rice and sautéed kale 
• Tuesday: slow cooker sausage and lentil soup
• Wednesday: Dinner prep party at a friend’s house. The rest of the fam is on their own.
• Thursday:pot likker soup
• Friday: garlic lover’s salmon with roasted green beans and potatoes 
• Saturday: out to eat

I hope you have a fantastic week! <3

Thankful

Good morning! Where did this week go? I had every intention of writing daily this week and all of a sudden it is Thursday. 

Daylight savings time always does this to me. 

(source) 

I tried to put Cora to sleep at 6 the other night. Sigh. 

On a more positive note, here is what I am thankful for this week:

Thursday:

1. Ina not getting too hurt when she face planted on her trip to Burr Oaks this week. I think she freaked out at first due to the blood, but once she came home she seemed perfectly fine.
2. My replacement FitBit! My FitBit Charge stopped charging (ironic?) and after a very long conversation with FitBit customer services, and now how a few one! 
3. Frozen vegetables! Seriously, I almost forgot how amazing these are - already prepped and no worry about them going bad. My current favorites are fresh green beans and chopped kale. 

Friday:

1. Checking things off my to-do list. So re-charging.
2. A quick and easy car estimate. Who knew that a little scratch would cost over a grand to fix?
3. Having a movie that the whole family can enjoy together. Goonies FTW. 

Saturday:

1. Waking up at 4:30 on a rest day and having plenty of time to plan for meals, birthday parties, the holidays, etc. 
2. Garage parking. Please don’t let me give this up.
3. Family park date. It was fantastic to have no plans on a Saturday night other than playing at the park.

Sunday:

1. Having friends in high places (friends with free suite Chiefs tickets!)
2. Teresa watching the girls while Dan and I had a fun day.
3. Early bedtime. I am so old. 

Monday:

1. An “easy” mobility workout.
2. Danielle watching the girls extra long so Dan and I could go to counseling. She is the best.
3. Trader Joe’s easy meal options, so that after work, and then counseling, we still can have dinner at home. I bought their pre-cooked chicken patties and Dan sizzled those up while I roasted some baby potatoes and green beans. Dinner was on the table in 20 minutes and the girls loved it. 

Tuesday:

1. No lines at my voting station. 
2. My replacement credit card came in the mail. Want to decrease your spending? Lose your card. Ha!
3. Watching the election coverage with Ina and explaining the process to her. I think I learned a few things myself. 

Wednesday:

1. I live in a democracy. That is about as political as I will get. :)
2. Flu shots at my work. So easy! 
3. Dinner with family! I had some delicious white pizza, but my stomach wasn’t very happy about that decision this morning. Ha!

What are you thankful for?

A Clean Garage + My Plan for the Week

Hey there!

I am currently so, so, so excited because in a few hours Dan and I are going to the Chiefs game. Tailgating plus game watching was our Sunday ritual pre-kids, and oh have things changed. Now Sundays are filled with church and grocery shopping and catching bits of the game through replays while attending to Ina and Cora or in between meal preps. 

 (We were babies!)

 

 Of course I love our new Sundays too, but watching (parts of) the game on TV just isn’t the same. If you see a girl with a ridiculously big smile on her face on TV today, that is me.

Thankfully, the weekend so far has been very low key, so I have a lot of energy to be used today. Friday night Dan made breakfast for dinner while the girls and I hung out with him in the kitchen. Cora has figured out how to climb into the kitchen tower. 

I see lots of baking in our future. 

After dinner we watched The Goonies as a family. Dan and I had never seen it before, but somehow Ina has, because she kept on telling us what was about to happen. It was super cheesy, but we loved it. 

Saturday I worked for a few minutes, we hung around eating breakfast and watching Frozen, and then the entire family ventured out to the garage for most of the day to complete one of my November goals, and boy did we. 

We cleared out the entire bay of the garage, including the wall. Now, not only can I park there, but I can also open all the car doors all the way which is nice when buckling children in carseats. Seriously, I think I hear angels singing every time I open the door.

We celebrated that accomplishment with a family trip to the park where the girls wore themselves out so much that they both went to bed early while Dan and I watched the latest episode of This is Us. 

On the food and fitness front:

- I am taking a fitness rest weekend this weekend. I love my new gym class so much that I don’t want to take days off and that is catching up with me. 

- I am continuing on my little food reset of no sugar/refined flours and it is going well. The first few days were hard, but now that the sugar is out of my body, I am good. I have to admit that I will take a little hiatus from this during the game today. 

Here is my meal plan for the week. I had plans to go grocery shopping yesterday, but that didn’t happen, so this may have to be improvised a little.

• Sunday: leftovers
• Monday: balsamic beef with roasted green beans and baby potatoes
• Tuesday: chicken pot pie soup with salad
• Wednesday: dinner with family 
• Thursday: picadillo with brown rice and 
• Friday: Dan’s sister’s rehearsal dinner
• Saturday: Dan’s sister’s wedding! (The girls are flower girls and Dan is giving the ceremony, so I am going to be one nervous momma/wife.)
• Breakfast: Sweet potato and spinach egg bake. I will have to double the batch this week because Cora has single handedly eaten last week’s. She seriously screams until she gets it every morning and then screams again when it is gone. Ha!
• Lunches: leftovers OR roasted veggies, steamed lentils, and cooked chicken bowls with a tahini/vinegar dressing.

Thankful

Good morning! 

(I never shared the picture of Ina visiting her Uncle Cody’s fire station.)

I am cashed after a butt kicking gym class and will be thankful if I have the energy to peel myself off the couch. Here’s hoping. 

Until then, here is what I was thankful for this week:

Thursday:

1. Two opportunities to eat cake in one day (gym class and work party; hence the need for a little detox. Ha!)
2. I won a restaurant gift card at a work party! Dan and I had a date night in our future. 
3. No one was hurt and my car was minimally damaged when someone rear ended me. My phone, however, shattered during the aftermath. Although I was upset about the screen I kept reminding myself that if a shattered phone was the worst thing to come from the experience, I should be incredibly thankful.

Friday:

1. Finished pumpkins. Well, Ina’s was “finished.”
2. A chance to take Ina out and leave Cora with Dan. I love one on one time with both girls!
3. I met some of my sister’s co-workers and I love it when people say I look/talk/act like my sister. I think she is pretty much the best, so I consider it a huge compliment. 

Saturday:

1. Dan made me corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast! After running a double workout (running 3 miles with Danielle and gym class), I needed to refuel. 
2. Having friends who have kids who are friends with my kids. 
3. The community of my brother’s family’s church. Everyone was just so nice and welcoming at their Trunk or Treat.

Sunday:

1. We started a financial/money management sermon series at church. I love personal finance, but this is an area where I tend to think, “I’ve got it under control” and don’t rely on God’s help/guidance, so I am excited to learn more. 
2. After church I was excited to balance our spreadsheet budget, only to find out that someone was using the credit card I lost while on vacation that I thought I would find in my car, but never did. Hmph. I am thankful that I was able to catch this really quickly. 
3. Small group. Always thankful for them. 

Monday:

1. My co-worker gave me some butterfly wings she made for Halloween a few years ago. They were so pretty and Ina was throughly impressed.
2. We live in a great Halloween/trick-or-treating neighborhood. So fun. 
3. After multiple police officer attempts, Eric and Kyle were finally able to get Danielle’s van unlocked. This was very important, because her van was holding the cheese dip hostage. 

Tuesday:

1. Vinegar on cold roasted veggies. Delicous. How am I just now learning about this? 
2. Listening to Cora squeal. Is there anything better than hearing a child laugh?
3. Making it through the day without stealing a piece of Ina’s Halloween candy. The struggle is real.

Wednesday:

1. New phone screen! Texting was becoming increasingly difficult.
2. Parents as teachers. Our teacher is absolutely fantastic and had the cutest games for Ina to play yesterday. She has inspired me to work more on teaching the girls stuff, although Danielle does a great job of that too. 
3. Slow cooker buffalo chicken on top of a baked potato with sautéed kale. So good and so filling and very little time spent in the kitchen. Don’t let the picture fool you, it was delicious

I hope you have a fantastic day! What are you thankful for? 

<3

Barbie Jeep + WIAW

Good morning and Happy Hump Day!

I just sat down with a cup of coffee after my bootcamp workout. Yesh, it was a tough one. 

Last night while dinner was cooking, Dan took the girls to the field next door to ride the Barbie Jeep. Dan had mentioned that Cora liked riding it, but I feel like that was a little of an understatement. 

The entire time they were out there Cora squealed with joy and had the happiest look on her face, like she wanted to smile bigger but couldn’t. Ina was such a good big sister and took the responsibility of keeping Cora safe very seriously. For example, when Cora tried to open the door and exit the Jeep when it was still moving, Ina leaned over and shut the door, all without taking her foot off the gas. #skills

Yesterday was Day 1 of the reset/detox/100% clean eating thing I am doing. Here is what I had to eat:

Breakfast: egg and veggie bake (I chopped sweet potatoes and baked them in the oven for a little bit, then added zucchini, spinach, and peppers and baked for a little longer, and then added whisked eggs and baked even longer. I love having a great source of protein and veggies ready to go first thing in the morning.)

(Cora ate about half my plate. That child can’t get full.)

Morning Snack: mixed nuts + pear and cinnamon

Lunch: a salad of greens, turkey burger (prepped over the weekend), brown rice, tahini, goat cheese, white vinegar, and sriracha 

Afternoon snack: smoothie (spinach, banana, almond butter, greek yogurt, and almond milk)

Dinner: stuffed peppers (stuffed with brown rice, leftover taco meat, corn, black beans, spices, and tomato sauce) with roasted green beans and baby potatoes. 

Dessert: pumpkin spice coconut oil chocolate

I also had three cups of coffee with organic whole milk and a splash of pure maple syrup, chugged a lot of water, and a few soda waters. 

The first day was a little harder than I anticipated. This might be because I was working from home and was near the kitchen, but I felt hungry a few times during the day. This was likely my body being surprised that there wasn’t any form of sugar coming in. Ha! 

Here’s to an easier day today. I hope you have a great one too!

<3

November Goals

Hi there and Happy November 1st!

Did you have a fantastic Halloween? I feel like our’s was a blur. 

We did the trick-or-treat thing. Then the hand out the candy (er, chips) thing. Then the turn our lights off, eat nachos, and drink a margarita thing. 

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the 4:40 alarm this morning, but it felt good to sweat some of that out at bootcamp.

The beginning of the month always leaves me feeling motivated, so I thought I would put some of those thoughts to action by typing out some goals for the month. 

NOVEMBER GOALS

 1. Do a 7(+?) day “detox". Starting today. This “detox" is relatively simple and maybe should just be called “clean eating". You know, what I strive to do all the time, but actually do about 75% of the time. For the next 7 days I am staying clear of refined sugar and flours and focusing on real whole foods. I hope that if I enter the holiday season with a renewed taste for clean food, I can enjoy treats without overdoing it. 

2.Get family pictures taken. I am so embarrassed to admit this, but we haven’t had family pictures taken since Ina turned one. She is turning four in a month. I do, however, take lots of pictures, so maybe this makes up for it. Now I need to get them printed out.

3. Speaking of Ina turning four, I need to plan her birthday party. I think we are going ice skating, which sounds like a logistical nightmare, but I have high hopes it will turn out great. Instead of getting a party room, I think we will just set up a table with some cupcakes and call it a day.

4. Inbox zero. My inbox(es) act as my to-do list, and while inbox zero is my goal, I have been operating around inbox 5 with a few nagging to-dos that I haven’t done. I don’t want to go into the new year with these on my plate. so away they must go!

5. Squat challenge. This month’s challenge at my gym is a 1 minute max squat then add three to that number every day. My glutes are crying just thinking about it.

6. Clear a space in the garage for my car. The struggle of being married to a hoarder is real my friends. Driving to the gym in the cold wee hours of winter will be much easier if my car is inside the warm(er) garage. 

What about you? Anything you would like to accomplish? I hope you have a fantastic day and month!

<3