Joys In My Life

Family Easter planning Update Phoebe's Field Hockey schedule - she's done Spring Break the day after Easter Work with boys on sight words and numbers/math skills - come up with some fun games Date nights with Tom (already have next three weekends planned) The last two goals will continue next month! Work Become a Beachbody Coach - Working on helping people, finding out who needs our services, products and who wants to be a coach on my team! Blog post 5x a week - This is post #12 for this month, which is not where I wanted to be, but it is better than in the past Get up to date on blog reading on Feedly - Sort of.  I'm still working on finding time to read and comment on blogs more. Build my blog followers:  Google - 50 and Feedly - 50 This so did not happen.  However, I do have more Instagram followers.  I need to identify what I really need to be targeting for growth in getting my message out. Get to the office earlier - 8:30 is my new target. ...

Wow!  Have I ever been busy working on those April goals! I know some will not get done as the exercising and learning the Beachbody business have kept me busy.  I'm having a great time though and my clothes are fitting me better than they have in a long time. I will be posting tomorrow on how April goals went.  I'm very pleased and I have been keeping menu plans.  We may deviate from them every now and then, but it is more of moving around menus at home, rather than ordering take out or going to a restaurant.  Healthy eating and exercise has become quite the priority in our house. Here is this week's menu plan (better late than never) and without any pretty pictures. Sunday Ate out at Not Your Average Joe's. We have not eaten out in quite some time. They have lots of healthy choices.  I had grilled chicken with a cauliflower mash, garlic-y spinach and cucumber & tomato salad. Monday Teriyaki salmon, Asian cole slaw, roasted asparagus and brai...

We're continuing to rock the menu planning.  It keeps our budget and our bellies happy!  Although I'm sure the kids would love some Chinese take-out at this point..... Sunday Tom made dinner:  Corned beef brisket, mashed potatoes and roasted green beans. Monday Leftover night - Phoebe wants to go to a yoga class at 7PM with me.  We have leftover fish, mashed potatoes, macaroni & cheese and green beans. Tuesday Taco Tuesday!  Ground beef soft or crunchy tacos, home-made guacamole, shredded cheese, black beans, green and red salsas and lettuce. Wednesday Sandwich night - Phoebe has Field Hockey practice at 6PM.  I bought lunchmeat at Whole Foods this week and the ham is beautiful!  Ham and smoked mozzarella sandwiches on whole wheat rolls or ezekiel bread, lettuce and tomato. Thursday Liam's favorite chicken and roasted veggie quinoa salad . Friday Home-made pizza night with a roasted beet and gorgonzola salad. Saturday Keeping i...

Lately, I've really wanted the kids to go off on their days to school in a good mood.  It's been very important to me.  I've been making them the berry-kale smoothies, which make them very happy.  I've been playing perky music while we eat breakfast.  I want the kids (and my husband and I) to start our day off right by being happy and energetic. Today, Tommy was in a grumpy mood.  He was getting his clothes on all wrong, he had a complaint about everything, including the music.  I teased him it was odd as he's usually our happy guy.  I teased him I was going to have to bring in The Odd Squad .  Nothing was working.  He had complaints the whole way down to the kitchen for breakfast.  As he sits down at the island with his brother for a bowl of cereal, the sun is in his eyes.  OK, let's move to the dining room.  It's too sunny in here too - grumble, grumble, grumble.  All of a sudden, I had a brainstorm that made smiles al...

We're getting glimpses of Spring this week!  Weather is getting warmer and we wanted some easy dinners this week.  Breakfasts for me have been Shakeology, as usual, lunches for Tom and I have been salads and some kind of protein.  I have my salads with a homemade salad dressing.  I'll need to post some of those dressing recipes soon.  With the healthy eating we've been doing and the cardio I've been doing in the evening, I'm doing really good on my losing weight goal.  I've lost almost 4lbs so far and have 9 more to go.  That was even with Easter candy around!  However, I have not been drinking any wine most evenings, so that helps too! Sunday - French onion soup, cheeseburger sliders and cole slaw Monday -  Homemade pizza - with grilled chicken, roasted garlic and spinach Tuesday - Hot roast beef sandwiches and roasted Brussel sprouts Wednesday -  Fish and chips - made with cod fillets, I need to post this recipe! ...

I will post this week's menu plan tomorrow, but here's the latest breakfast love of my kids.  I started making it over the weekend and especially the teenage girl is in love.  Recipe is as follows and it is so easy! 1 cup unsweetened almond milk 1 cup plain greek yogurt 1 cup frozen berry/kale mix bought at BJs Tbsp or two of local honey for sweetness Blend all ingredients in a blender or Vitamix.  If you do not have a Vitamix, I highly recommend one!  It blends things so fabulously and has much more power than anything else I've ever had before. The boys are getting used to it not being as sweet as the recipe they used for samples at BJs over the weekend.  Theirs had sweetened vanilla almond milk and sweetened vanilla greek yogurt and the honey on top of all that.  Here's the pic of the frozen fruit and kale mix.

I really love to listen to podcasts on my ride to and from work, especially as I am so sick of pop music radio again.  I go into waves of hating the radio and I'm on one right now.  I feel like they play the same music over and over again.  For music, I'm a huge fan of Spotify and Pandora, as well as whatever Phoebe downloads when she gets an iTunes gift card, LOL. Back to talking about podcasts...  I have more that I like than I can ever listen to in a week of commute time, so sometimes I also listen when I'm cleaning the house.  I'd also really like to spend more time with the Coffee Break French podcast, but that would require creating another 20 hours in the week!  Here are my current favorite podcasts: The Chalene Show - One of the reasons I decided to become a Beachbody coach is that I already listen and follow a lot of Beachbody coaches and trainers.  Her shows are truly wonderful and the topics have been spot on, especially the ones on...

One of my goals this month is to have a weekly menu plan.  During the craziness that was Spring Break last week, we ate out a lot.  We need to stop that or else we will blow our monthly budget. Sunday Easter Sunday - sister-in-law hosted dinner Monday Mussels in butter, white wine and garlic kids - angel hair pasta; adults - spaghetti squash sauteed kale with garlic Tuesday Fish and chips (homemade from cod fillets) Fennel, grapefruit and asparagus spring salad (Tom made this and it's amazing!!) Wednesday Phoebe has field hockey practice at 6PM - leftover taco night Thursday Liam's favorite chicken (I need to post this recipe.  It's crispy seasoned chicken thighs.  It's a kid favorite in our house.  Eaten down to the bone!) Roasted carrots Brown rice Friday  Pizza Night (Tom makes great homemade pizza dough) Saturday is TBD based on what we feel like after a long week, how many leftovers we have and if we are out late running errand...

Had fun at the sister-in-law's annual Easter Egg Hunt and dinner.  Getting the boys in pictures is difficult, especially when hyped up on so much sugar and excitement!  You'd think Phoebe would be easier to get in pictures too, but I have lots of out-takes with her with goofy faces.  As many as the boys.

I'm really happy with how our Easter Bunny picture came out this year, but unfortunately I could not get my free download until today, as there were technical issues with the company's website.  Really funny, is Phoebe told me she thought she looked huge in this picture, as in Amazon woman huge.  I looked at her with a straight face and said, "Darling, you're taller than me and you're pictured with two 5-year-olds, of course you look like an Amazon woman!"  I think she looks beautiful.

I really do love yummy crispy chicken wings.  Restaurants of course make them this way by deep frying them.  How's a healthy frugal girl going to reproduce this at home so we can put it on our dinner menu when I get the craving and don't want to spend the money on take out (or feel my hips expanding)?  My ultimate favorite is the Asian Zing sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings! After numerous tries of baking chicken wings that were failures (soggy), I've finally come upon how to make the crispy wings I'm looking for.  You need to bake them on a rack!  I've also found online a recipe for the Asian zing sauce that is made of ingredients we always have in our pantry, so I'm always ready if I get that craving and need satisfaction! Asian Zing Chicken Wings Asian Zing Sauce 2 tsps  corn starch  4 tsps  rice vinegar  1/2 cup  corn syrup  1/3 cup  sugar  1/4 cup  garlic chili sauce (has a rooster on the jar) 1...

Spring has sprung and I'm starting back posting my monthly goals!  I'm really excited about all the opportunities I have right now: corporate work, new Beachbody coaching, family time, and personal goals of fitness and eating healthy.  I think this excitement for warmer weather and the opportunities will put my goals into overdrive.  Let's see what we can do: Family Easter planning Update Phoebe's Field Hockey schedule - she's done Spring Break the day after Easter Work with boys on sight words and numbers/math skills - come up with some fun games Date nights with Tom (already have next three weekends planned) Work Become a Beachbody Coach - DONE!  Now working on building a business.  I'm not making any specific goals for customer and coach signups, as I want to be realistic based on initial results. Blog post 5x a week - I will be planning my blog posts to help me remember what I wanted to blog about.  I come up with ideas and write down...