tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-110430402024-02-07T21:02:50.878-05:00Joys In My LifeFamily, Recipes, Fitness and HealthHeatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.comBlogger887125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-49945053379760459692020-03-30T17:22:00.002-05:002020-03-30T17:22:36.705-05:00Disclaimer, First Day of Homeschooling and Next 90 Days<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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BTW, if yesterday's post seemed very frivolous considering COVID-19, that's OK. I've really needed some escapism from the endless bad news and things not getting better. That said, my family, is not going out of the house to do our part to help our country and our world recover from this pandemic. I pray daily for my family, friends and all others that are required to work daily as they are considered essential ... health care workers, grocery store employees and truckers that are making it possible for the rest of us to remain home and only go out for emergency supplies.<br />
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I'm glad I had yesterday's escapism, as today was probably the hardest day since this started. Our 5th grade boys are doing more school work today than they've done since they've been home. The past two weeks was practice exercises to keep them from losing knowledge. Starting today, they are learning new work and trying to stay on track with the lessons that were originally planned. Of course all of this is when Mommy is trying to handle her corporate job from home. Although I'm sure this is stressful for anyone that is not used to being in total charge of making sure our children are still learning. Today's math was learning to multiply fractions, language arts was reading and dissecting non-fiction, science is the earth and moon and social studies is current events. I also set them up on Libby for Overdrive with their library cards and both boys took out their first books and put some on hold for when they are available. Next up is setting up their own Goodreads accounts so we can track what they are reading this year. I'm going to show them my reading goal, which I'm a bit behind on, but believe I can get back on track shortly! We had some good moments, but lots of rough moments, especially around trying to navigate the coursework and identify what needs to be done. They have a daily schedule and checklist I put together for them, but I'm sure we're going to refine it over the rest of this week as we find our footing learning at home. <br />
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Last, but not least is the <a href="https://thehollisco.com/pages/next90">Hollis Co's #Next90Days challenge</a>. I'm in! I highly recommend you join us. This is usually the last 90 days of the year, but with COVID-19, they saw a need for us to make sure we come out of this stronger and more resilient than we went in. The basic concept is to ensure you do the "5 to Thrive" daily, post about it on social, the Hollis's are sending weekly emails with a theme and encouragement for these times and you can read other posts on social of others who are participating. The 5 to Thrive at a high level are:<br />
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<li>Wake up one hour earlier than the kids to work on things for yourself personally - exercise, journal, cup of coffee, gratitude, etc.</li>
<li>Move your body at least 30 minutes a day</li>
<li>Drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water</li>
<li>Write down 5 things you are grateful for today (be real specific if you can, not generic "I love my family")</li>
<li>Give up one thing (usually food) - I'm giving up alcoholic beverages on weeknights. I'm going to allow myself to have some on the weekends.</li>
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I'm so happy they decided to do this, as these times are tough, but I'm trying to come out of them stronger ... and if my house can be cleaner and more organized, that would be great too! But the way this schoolwork and working from home is going, I'll save the house organization for the weekend.</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-35252868081708920362020-03-29T08:37:00.002-05:002020-03-29T08:37:36.641-05:00Aging, Health and Genetics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Staying home during this Coronavirus, I've had a lot of time to think and watch stuff on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and research on the Internet. I turned 49 this year. Being in my thirties or forties never bothered me. But I'm looking at 50 a year from now and I want to work even more to set myself up for a long, enjoyable life. I know genetically, I won the lottery on looking younger than I am, but I want to know what I can do to maximize those lottery earnings. <br />
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I watched the Goop Lab episode on Netflix yesterday about aging and it was really interesting and provoked a lot of thoughts. Some of these episodes are not my cup of tea - magic mushrooms and cold-therapy, not really my thing. I'm petrified of drugs and I hate to be cold more than anything! This episode on aging was right up my alley.... In the beginning of the episode, they asked the three ladies (Gwyneth was one of them) what scared them about aging. I thought about that for myself. I fear losing my brain as well as losing my mobility. My grandfather died of Alzheimer's. He was very physically fit, but he didn't know anyone around him at the end. I'm really afraid of going this way. I'm very proud of my brain and how it functions. I want it to stay with me until the end ... like my teeth. Unfortunately, the episode didn't focus on how to preserve your brain health. I'll have to do more research on that on my own.<br />
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There were other things that were interesting in the episode. I'm really curious to do some research into the blood test the ladies had done to test their biological age. I'd love to know who could do that for me. Most people that meet me guess I'm in my early 40s, but they say they only skip the 30s because they know I have a college-age daughter. I'd love to know what that blood test would say! <br />
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What I really liked was the three nutrition plans they had the ladies on: Gwyneth tried the 5 day calorie-restricting, nutrition supported fasting, another had a 3-week vegan diet and the third had the pescatarian, vegan diet. I don't think I could ever go full vegan. My body (and blood-sugar) does better making sure I'm supported with protein. Granted I do a lot of nuts, nut butters and beans, but I like more variety to my protein sources. However, I'm also thinking of trying a 3 or 5 day fast of some kind while we are stuck at home. They are always so much harder to do when you are going into the office, so now would be an optimal time to try it. I'm thinking about it. But if I did one, it would not be a purchased plan like was shown in the show. It would be more like a Goop-detox food-wise. I'm not sure when yet. I think we at least have two more weeks at home, so I'm going to do more research this week and think about it for next week. Right now, I'm enjoying getting back to using the elliptical machine at our house every morning for at least 45 minutes every day. I can't do that when restricting calories. <br />
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The last thing I really liked in the show was the different types of facials or the one low-invasive plastic surgery treatment they showed. I haven't done anything plastic surgery-wise with my face ever and I'm petrified to. I don't want to look unnatural. I'm not really interested in looking into doing any of those treatments anytime soon, even if we weren't homebound, but it did inspire me to do a coffee grounds and coconut oil facial and followed up with a sheet mask yesterday afternoon. Now if something could help me figure out how to get rid of the dark circles under my eyes!!!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-36316396268156043402020-03-27T17:14:00.002-05:002020-03-27T17:14:50.875-05:00Latest Happenings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've last posted. There is so much to say, but up until now, I've had very little time! With COVID-19 having me working from home, slowing down my husband's looking for a new job, Phoebe home from college, and the boys home from school, all we have is time! <br />
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We are looking to make the best of our time here at home, as we are lucky to have what we need to stay at home (food, water, wi-fi, movies) and all of our family is healthy. This week, the boys were working off a checklist of things to do for schoolwork, they had a piano lesson using FaceTime, and I started exercising on our elliptical most mornings and getting dressed for my day. I'm trying really hard not to lounge around in leggings and work out clothes! I even put on a little makeup every day, at least to not scare myself in the mirror or look totally awful on Zoom calls with work.<br />
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We're definitely making good food in this house. With Tom being home and this time of us all here it's good we have an elliptical machine to burn the calories! Tonight's dinner is fish and chips, but the boys are having homemade cheese pizza. This week Tom did make an amazing French bread. Two loaves were gone in 24 hours!!! <br />
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Hope everyone out there is healthy and safe! <b><i>What kinds of things are you doing to keep your sanity? Are you able to stay home or do you still need to go to work every day?</i></b>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-77126840212254204032019-03-30T13:45:00.003-05:002019-03-30T13:45:42.455-05:00Stopping the Voices in my Head - aka Mastering my Mindset<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The more I work on my personal development, the more I realize I need to stop listening to and changing the negative things I tell myself in my head. I'm also noticing the older I get the more the negative things I hold as beliefs about myself are not true. This reinforces that I should second guess the other negative beliefs I hold inside ... maybe those are not true either. Here are a few things I've realized are not true:<br />
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<li>I need help to put air in my car tires - This was one of the first things I learned as my husband had to move to Colorado for work. I did this at the Wawa up the street where the machine will stop and beep when your tires are at the right pressure. I also learned and committed to memory that the pressure you want your tires at is inside your gas cap, something I have to open at least once a week. This was something that was super easy to learn to do and had me zipping along the roads in a few minutes without the anxiety that I was going to pop a tire anymore.</li>
<li>I'm not mechanically minded - our dishwasher stopped cleaning the dishes on the top rack. I Googled how to fix it, learned a few things about how the mechanisms in our dishwasher work, did get the top of the dishwasher to work, but now not the bottom, called the dishwasher repair in for next Tuesday, but I know that it's a part that needs to be replaced (that diverts the water from the intake to the two washer arms) and not something expensive like a control panel or other electronics.</li>
<li>I can't do basic home stuff - I'm working on this one still. I will try some stuff - cleaning the basement, fireplace and organizing my stuff ala Konmari. I've had some successes and some mishaps, but I know its making me a stronger more confident person. </li>
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Today I'm listening to "I'm a Badass at Making Money" from Jen Sincero on Audible and I know this is exactly what I need right now. Even though I'm listening to the book, I am using my bullet journal to do the work she outlines at the end of every chapter and let me tell you this is eye opening stuff!!! If you are a person to listen to personal development books, but never do the homework they tell you to, let me tell you to stop that shit! This is my first time as I'm usually that girl that listens and doesn't do the work and I don't think I'll ever do that again. The things I'm learning I think will really help me for the rest of my life. I did the homework from Chapter 2 and I don't think I ever realized how much stinking thinking I had around money until today. <b><i>What have you learned recently about yourself that you think will take you to a better place in your life?</i></b></div>
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<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-1868988821424584502019-01-29T07:01:00.002-05:002019-01-29T07:01:50.562-05:00Konmari-ing My ClothingI finished watching the first season of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and I loved it! I think I was finally able to understand the concepts in her book, by seeing it all in a video format. I started re-listening to the audio book over the weekend while I was doing the weekly cleaning and it really started to speak to me and things I needed to hear. Here are the top things I've learned about the process I need to go through:<br />
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<ol>
<li>I do not want my daughter's cast offs. Those are items that are not going to spark joy for me! I am the mom that when my daughter purges stuff from her room, that I go through her bags and look for things I want. I have sweaters from my daughter in with my clothes that I thought I would wear, but never do. I still like her old sweatpants. She got rid of them as they were too small in the leg, but my legs are shorter than hers.</li>
<li>I do not want to sell anything that I am purging. That is poor thinking. I can take my unwanted things to Goodwill and bless someone else with the items that aren't serving me anymore.</li>
<li>I am missing some key items in my wardrobe that will help me put together outfits to wear to work or errands. I really need new ballet flats in brown or beige, new black closed-toe pumps, a pretty nude color bra and some sweaters that I would like, not hand-me-downs from a teenager.</li>
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I believe this is exactly the thing I need to do right now for this phase of my life - my daughter is transitioning to college, we're done having any more children and after this year, it will be just the boys and me until Tom comes back from living in Boulder.</div>
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I totally see what people on the show say that it can be overwhelming to go through all their clothing they own in one shot. I am following the method truthfully, and pulled out all of my clothes at once, the closet, the armoire and my dresser. Here are some pictures of what I was faced with.</div>
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I am more than 3/4 of the way through everything. There are some shoes and clothes that have made it back to my closet. I have two trash bags full and I need to finish packing up stuff for Goodwill into the back of my car. It is going straight to the back of the car and out of the house! Funny thing is the trash service here was supposed to pick up Monday morning, but they didn't come at all yesterday! I have bags of trash still left over from last week that I couldn't fit in the can! We usually never fill our trash cans, but between the boys' playroom and now my clothes, I need a week or two to get back to normal on our weekly trash pickup.<br />
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I will post after pictures in the next day or two! I've already setup a drawer for my bras and they look so pretty!!! I might even post a pic of how cute they look, even though that is slightly embarrassing! I really do like looking for what sparks me joy! I've always been about finding joy in my life (hence my blog name!) and now I really feel like it's coming my way through Konmari.</div>
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-75623479334669391022019-01-21T14:11:00.000-05:002019-01-21T14:26:37.558-05:00Progressing Nicely with Konmari<img id="id_29a7_ae30_b6c8_ea16" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPcInT6XjcLibCNpkM65PbS9I1hm_Y6sKsUxRGDt9BvrToPSM6vciKC7fdMBXIVO90hfa2EJAORGjfcROGNopJvM21Yz9NqdoI6oBoc1XQdp_K2QwHvxrNM7l3y31N66VvhPhoNw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 353px; height: auto;"><br><br>Boys after piano recital yesterday morning. They are getting so big!!!<br>
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Phoebe and I had a great time yesterday cleaning out the boys toy room. We involved the boys in the parts that we thought were important for them, like cleaning through stuffed animals. However, their toys in bins needed to be sorted through as some was junk (old McDonalds toys) and others just needed to put together - Playmobile castles vs. Legos. They did help make some major decisions of toys they've outgrown - a Cars car track for preschool age children. We did come out with about 6 bags of trash. Thank goodness the trash went to the curb last night, as the bin was overflowing. I think the only thing we didn't do very well was thanking some of the items that were put in the trash for the service they did to us. I'm sure they did entertain the boys a bit before they were put to the side and piled up.<br>
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I am taking the things I was going to donate to Goodwill to the basement for now. I'm doing some research on selling them on eBay. Since I have some extra time on my hand, it might be nice to make a few dollars. I'm going to test a few items, not a lot at one time so I don't get overwhelmed with shipping things, and see how it goes. If it's a pain, I'll drop it and start donating things, but I know I need to focus on our finances and Gary Vaynerchuck always talks about selling your old stuff online to make some money, so why not!<br>
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I think all this cleaning out of stuff was good for Phoebe and for her to understand I'm serious about getting the house in order and decorated so we can enjoy living here. We also watched another episode of Tidying Up after the boys went to bed, but I think I'm going to see if I can get the boys to watch an episode with me today. I'll see what the next episode coming up is and if it would make sense to them, like if there is one with school age kids in it.<br>
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We have the day off school today and I plan to be productive. It's very windy and cold outside, so I'm going to stick to indoor projects for now. I just ordered some supplies to make some of the awards for Pinewood Derby that is on Saturday. This is a Cub Scout activity that happens once a year (we do the third weekend of January) where the Scouts make a wooden car that fits within certain parameters and they race them on an electronic track. We have awards for first, second and third place of speed races, but then we have other awards such as best paint job, most creative, etc. I'm making those awards out of spray painted spark plugs. I needed some black and white checkerboard ribbon to hang the award around the child's neck and I just ordered that on Amazon. That saved me some time on errands. <br>
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Now I'm off to finish the weekly house cleaning that didn't get done yesterday because we spent the day cleaning out the boys playroom. The laundry is caught up on, so maybe I'll throw in one load to keep up with it. I also want to spend some time looking at paperwork for scouts. I have some leader volunteer applications that I need to make sure I request them to send their clearances so we can submit them.<br>
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Hope everyone has a great day! Thank you so much for the comments over the last few days!!! Marcia, you have the right number on What'sApp. I've just been too stressed and disorganized with Tom gone to reply. I will do so today. It was so nice to hear your voice!!!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-51543738104288118302019-01-20T13:57:00.001-05:002019-01-20T13:57:29.200-05:00Tidying Up With the Family<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Phoebe and I started watching Tidying Up with Marie Kondo last night. I think this is finally a reality TV show I can love! What I believe it's inspiring me is how she's getting the whole family involved. I see now that is something I need to work on more with the kids - teaching them tidying up, so it's not something just Mommy does. <br />
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I have the perfect projects for us to start with - the boys' closets, drawers and playroom. The playroom is also the guest room and right now, no guests can stay in there. There is a bed in there that is covered in toys. There is also a desk that matches their bedroom furniture in the other room that is in the same state (covered with toys). I'd like to clean out their toys <b><i>with them involved in every step</i></b> and decide what ones they will not play with anymore that can be given away or sold. I'd like to repaint the room, get some guest room furniture (bed to put the mattress on, bedside table and one dresser), make some new curtains and bedspread to make the room ready for guests at any time. I'd like to refinish the desk and move it into their bedroom to use for homework and stuff. There are two of them, but I'm sure they can take turns who wants to use the desk. <br />
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If I get the guest room ready for guests, I'm sure it will spill my motivation into the Jack and Jill bathroom that is the boys and is shared with the guest room. I'd really like to change the current doors to the bathroom into pocket doors, but I'm not sure how involved that would be. I think I may ask a friend who is a contractor, but let me know if any of you out there have any experience with converting to pocket doors. I think it would make the flow into the bathroom better. Right now the doors take up too much space in the bathroom when they are open. At some point the boys may want to split bedrooms and share that bathroom and if we get the basement finished, the guest room can be down there. We have one area that would make a great bedroom/craft room as it has windows that overlook the backyard. <br />
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My brain is running away with ideas on the house! Right now, I'm going to go finish my daily and weekly chore routines, so I can have some project time with the boys to start tackling their space! I am also working on having the boys help with chores around the house. I'm giving them a little quiet time right now though, as they were altar servers at 8AM mass this morning and had a piano recital at 10:30AM.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-28355378196746484822019-01-19T11:14:00.001-05:002019-01-19T11:14:50.663-05:00Hitting the Reset ButtonThe holidays are over and the decorations are put away. Life is back to work and school and this is our first three day weekend after the holidays. It's a Saturday morning, I'm missing my husband, and I'm ready to tackle our life that is not quite living up to our expectations these days. I've decided to pull up my big girl panties today and get started on making our life the dream life we've always wanted. I'm pulling out my bullet journal and using this weekend to take charge of our life. By the time Tom is home for good I want things to be the way we've always wanted them.<br />
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What do I need to work on:<br />
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<li>Our house is not setup the way I'd like it to be. I can't wait to get hardwood floors and want projects not to be half finished. You know when you're putting your house on the market and you finish all those projects to make it look good to sell? I want our house like that now while we have time to enjoy it!</li>
<li>Phoebe is leaving for college this summer. She's talking about going to the University of Alabama. I am going to miss that girl terribly and want to enjoy every last minute we have with her still at home. I also want her to feel secure in who she is and how strong of a person she is!</li>
<li>The boys are in 4th grade, which is a tough age at school. They need to learn to be more organized at school and I want them to feel in their bones how smart they are and feel confident in their ability to make friends and learn new things. Scouting helps a lot and they are going to be crossing over to Boy Scouts from Cub Scouts a year from now. </li>
<li>I need to make more time to take care of myself - get time to exercise and eat healthy. I also want to make sure the whole family eats healthy. Menu planning is about to get very important around here - as well as making sure I follow through on the meal plans. I will make time on the weekends to spend some time in the kitchen meal prepping for the week for us all.</li>
<li>Tom is far away, thousands of miles away in Colorado. I want to make sure we have time to talk to each other, that he knows how much I appreciate what he is doing for his family. He's really the best husband I could ever have! I'm realizing though now that he's away that he's been suffering from a bit of depression. I want to help him make sure he's still connected to the kids and taking care of himself while he is away from us.</li>
<li>And last, but very not least is our finances. I'm going to put it out here, we owe on our federal taxes from last year and need to finish paying it off. It was for a good reason, we sold some stock to buy his grandmother's old house so we could begin a rental property business. It will be worth it in the long run. We just need to get out from under the current result in our finances. I also want to get rid of all credit card debt and student loans we both have left from graduate school.</li>
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For the few readers I have left, please comment. You have no idea how important that is to me right now. I'm promising myself to get back to writing and reading other blogs because it uplifts me in a way like nothing other. This is going to keep me moving forward like it did in my infertility days. That and the fact that Phoebe and I are talking about getting a Golden Doodle puppy in the spring. We're going to find ourselves a good girl and name her Bailey. That and I'm planning on my breaks from working this weekend to watch Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix!!!</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-25680333456965081592018-12-08T11:39:00.000-05:002018-12-08T11:39:45.919-05:00Missing The Man<div>
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Not the proverbial "Man" that wants to keep us down, but my man. I've been pretty quiet about it on social media, but Tom had to move to Boulder, Colorado for work and I stayed behind with the three kids. He had to move because his company decided they wanted to move certain central roles in the organization to corporate headquarters there. He's been super lucky for about 14 years he's been working from home for the same company. I guess paybacks are a bitch. We decided not to move the whole family as our daughter is a senior in high school at an amazing school that is giving her two years of college level (AP) Calculus, she's already had AP Chemistry last year and has two AP Physics classes this year. She is applying to schools for engineering and has a bright future ahead of her with law school when she's done with her undergraduate work. One might ask why not find another job locally... did I mention we have a daughter going off to college and that costs money??? They did make a great financial offer for him to go to Colorado which will help with college expenses.<br />
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While we're not enjoying the time apart, we are looking at it as a time to grow. I'm trying to get things done around the house, working hard at my new job (machine learning models for our Operations department, v. exciting!!!), trying to find time to exercise, eat healthy and most of all reconnect with who I am without my husband around. I wouldn't say reconnect with who I was - we've been together for over 25 years. I'm not the same person as who I was back then, thank goodness!!! Rather, spending some time reflecting on who I am now and what I love about our life. What I want more of and what I want less of. Fantastically, one of the things I want more of in my life is my man. I can't wait for us to be all together under the same roof, both for the Christmas and Year End holidays and for good. I really did luck out at such a young age (21) to meet an amazing man that I want to spend the rest of my life with. He truly is my best friend and the person I want to share everything with. <br />
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I may be around this blog more as I explore my life as what I call the "married single mom". I'm also curious to see if there are other blogs around that are about the same topic. I'm sure there are some for spouses of deployed soldiers. Those might be helpful as to how to cope, but I'm curious if corporate career decisions have done this to any families. When I was fighting infertility blogs were my oasis, both to write down my feelings and to read others thoughts and coping (or not coping moments).Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-33301130340723080552018-08-09T09:49:00.003-05:002018-08-09T09:49:41.997-05:00Motivation Resources<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It takes regular doses of content to stay motivated. I don't think I'm the only one, but I can get so bogged down with the mundane: work, bills, the to do list; I forget how powerful I can be. Places I go for motivation can be podcasts (I'm an active podcast listener. Will have a whole post on favorite podcasts soon!), books or websites. When it comes to books, I've been using <a href="https://meet.libbyapp.com/">Libby by Overdrive</a> and my library card to borrow books for free. It really feeds my frugal spirit to be able to drop my Kindle Unlimited subscription as the electronic books from the library/Libby make popular available. I just might need to put a hold on some books I want to read and practice some patience. Here's a run down of some of my favorite motivation content and why it motivates me:<br />
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GaryVaynerchuck - <a href="https://www.instagram.com/garyvee/?hl=en">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://garyvee.lnk.to/audioexperienceFA">Podcasts</a> - I love Gary! He really knows how to cut through the bull and tell it like it is. We're going to die and it's up to us to live our best live now! Today's IG was a classic telling us to stop waiting for permission to go and do what will make us the happiest best version of ourselves.<br />
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<a href="https://motivationtomove.com/podcasts/daily-boost-motivation-podcast-archives/">Daily Boost Premium</a> (Podcast) - This is by Scott Smith and I've been an avid listener for years. It is worth the subscription. Scott also cuts through the bull, but in a much different way than Gary. I'm sure in his shock jock past he might have been more Gary. Now he delivers his wisdom in a no-nonsense, but caring kind of a way. Love how he will have some limited woo-woo interruption and talk about the Law of Attraction and that it works, but you need to put the hard work in to make it happen. <br />
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<a href="http://www.chalenejohnson.com/">The Chalene Show</a> (Podcast) - Chalene Johnson is my girl! She is everything I want to be in life. I just don't want to be on video or podcasting as I hate the sound of my voice, LOL! I've seen her speak in person at Beachbody Summits and she always makes me cry!!! I feel like she really speaks to me and what I need at any given time. I loved a podcast she did recently where she talked about her and her husband being very in debt at one time and successfully getting out of it. She lives in California and has a beach house, whereas I live on the East coast and want a house in Cape May. <br />
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<a href="http://www.marciafrancois.com/blog/">Organizing Queen</a> (blog and Instagram) - My dear friend Marcia in South Africa!!! She is my girl as much as Chalene is! Always says what I need to hear and we are usually doing the same thing at the same time, except on opposite sides of the planet and she is much more together than I am! She inspires me totally!!! I also hope she had a great birthday this week!!!!!<br />
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<a href="https://gretchenrubin.com/">Gretchen Rubin</a> (books and website/blog) - I've read The Four Tendencies (I'm an Obliger) and Better Than Before. I currently have The Happiness Project on hold on Libby. I love Gretchen as she focuses on habits and how they can transform your life. I do love habits and want to foster more good habits and understand how I can keep them. I know she has a podcast, but I haven't listened to it too much.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Not-Giving-Spending/dp/0316270725">The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k </a>(Book) by Sarah Knight - I borrowed this as an audiobook on Libby and listened to it on my commute. A really good book for Obligers as I know sometimes I need to push what others are asking from me out of my way in order to get to the stuff I want out of my life. <br />
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<b><i>What motivation resources do you use to keep you going in a positive direction? Let me know in the comments and I'll be sure to check them out!</i></b><br />
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-8793809816963654822018-08-08T10:43:00.002-05:002018-08-08T10:43:23.219-05:00Anti-Procrastination Day<img alt="" height="320" id="id_7250_1e4d_4527_9e9a" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmEiJiEFUrsNKeRyZ1Ugbn6AH4tNAc0-5RQiylqUsxQ7zfU3DtHKy4lK7IszN1-FnxcNH6pF5bn6hf0FasbsoW61gTrvc9mYpUKUP5HtgiE0fN6nqazPWB-HGl-oUuzi7wTO_8A/s320/%255BUNSET%255D" style="height: auto; width: 353px;" title="" tooltip="" width="239" /><br />
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I took this week off from my corporate job and we're kind of laying low and getting caught up on some things. I'm feeling real progress, but today I'm going to kick it into high gear and make it an Anti-Procrastination Day. I've been keeping it busy and getting through tasks that need to be done. Last week I had car maintenance done on one of the cars, balanced the checkbook and we picked up Phoebe from JFK airport as she came back from Amsterdam for a field hockey camp. She had a great time!!!<br />
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Monday we went to Wildwood and Cape May for the day with the kids and that was a lot of fun!!! We enjoyed the water park in Wildwood with the boys, Phoebe and her boyfriend. She's been friends/seeing the same person for two years now and he's leaving for college the end of the month. That is a whole post in itself. <br />
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Tommy enjoyed all the slides at the water park that the big kids like. He's a confident swimmer and he doesn't get nervous about trying new things. We got Liam onto some of the smaller slides that he wouldn't even try last year and he had a great time! We couldn't get him on any of the bigger slides, even the one that is pretty tame and he could go on an inner tube with me or someone else. He had a good time at his own speed.<br />
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Yesterday, I organized the pantry and the one corner cabinet with a lazy susan that hold some spices and canned goods. That and some laundry and I felt pretty accomplished.<br />
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Today, I'm going to kick it into high gear. I have some appointments to make, things to take to the bank, Cub Scout stuff to do, and some other paperwork to organize for the house we bought as a rental and our taxes to organize. I can't wait to get an even bigger feeling of accomplishment as I check off some items on my to do list!!!<br />
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-48901331723787805052018-07-31T20:03:00.000-05:002018-07-31T20:03:27.469-05:00Organize... The One Thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm going to have a lot to write about over the upcoming months. I'm undertaking a massive initiative to get organized. Over the past 18 years, I've fought infertility and won with three kids, went to graduate school, my husband went to graduate school, we bought a house in a great school district and we've managed our life as a family with two parents working outside the home. Let's just say we've created a big mess! <br />
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I am now deciding that in order to take control of our lives, I need to organize everything. I haven't finished reading the book "The One Thing", but I get the concept and my one thing is getting organized. Our finances are a mess. We are carrying a lot of debt and I can't take it anymore. My pantry is a mess. The kids closets are a mess. My husband's closet and drawers are a mess - mine were cleaned out recently and it's been liberating and saves me so much time! The basement is a mess. My brain is a very very big mess!!! So armed with my bullet journal, podcasts and library books to educate me and friends and blogs to support me, I'm embarking on a new journey of being more organized! <br />
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I'm trying to take it in 15 minute increments so I don't feel like I need to bite off too much at one time. Right now I've been tackling my desk, finances and budget. I just finished cleaning out the mail on my desk last night and tonight. I'm about to do some filing of papers and then will begin the process of balancing my checkbook against 6 months of bank statements I have not gone through. I'm admitting this for anyone else that may feel guilty for being so behind. I'm letting go of the guilt. I'm owning up to it and the adulting is in progress. I'm also laughing that spell check in blogger doesn't know what "adulting" is. For those of you that haven't heard the term either. It's pulling up your big girl panties and acting like an adult! <br />
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<b><i>Help me out! Let me know in the comments what are the blogs, podcasts or books you've read or listened to that inspire you in organizing or taking control of your finances. I'm looking for all the help I can get...</i></b><br />
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-78384543616558413342017-06-12T20:05:00.003-05:002017-06-12T20:05:52.547-05:00Improving Habits<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been a little bad on my diet beta test plan over the weekend, eating bread and drinking wine. I'm ready for a hard do-over and get myself ready to try my first supported fast. Over the weekend while I was doing some much needed weeding, I was listening to podcasts, especially The Chalene Show, and one in particular about working on your habits. Right now I have two habits to work on - not drinking a glass of wine in the evening after the kids go to bed and exercising daily. I'm going to use the replace tactic for the wine and swap it for herbal tea or <a href="http://goop.com/recipes/ginger-turmeric-latte/">ginger-turmeric latte</a>. On the exercise, I need to keep to simple workouts like PiYo on Beachbody On Demand and remind myself how good I feel when I workout. Today my nutrition was as follows:<br />
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Waking - coffee, black<br />
Morning - intermittent fasting, drinking lots of water, until almost 11AM when I had my chocolate vegan Shakeology with unsweetened almond milk and coconut butter<br />
Lunch - salad with chick peas, avocado, pumpkin seeds and ginger carrot dressing (this is one of my favorites!)<br />
Afternoon snack - I went to get a coffee and warm up from the cold of the office. There was an ice cream truck from the local university that makes amazing homemade ice cream in interesting flavors. I gave into temptation and decided to get a scoop of ice cream in a cup. I was so happy and surprised to find out they had a goat milk ice cream that tastes like fig newtons!!! Mmmmmm....<br />
Dinner - sausage burgers on the grill. I had mine between two pieces of romaine lettuce with ketchup. <br />
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Now it's the evening and I'm making some tea instead of that glass of wine I like in the evening. Very proud of my day. By the way, today was also the last day of school for our kids. Sophomore year of high school for the girl and 2nd grade for the boys is now over! I'm looking forward to not having two shifts of getting kids moving for a couple of months, but more on that tomorrow.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-39790552348108723942017-05-25T19:53:00.000-05:002017-05-25T20:23:29.523-05:00Diet Beta Test Update <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wow! I will tell you this is life changing stuff! I've been wanting to give an update to everyone as I've been having great success experimenting with fixing my metabolism. Partly why I wanted to try this program, is I already was experimenting with different things like healthy recipes, cutting out dairy and intermittent fasting and was having some results. What I was really looking for was more guidance on protocols and why one would choose to try different protocols and why. That is exactly what this program is. You listen to lots of different audio programs talking about the following ideas:<br />
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<li>Healing gut health - this is one of the key ideas that we need to do in order to repair our metabolism and ensure we are receiving full nutrition from the healthy foods we eat.</li>
<li>Eliminating inflammatory foods - inflammatory foods do not help your metabolism and gut health. I've been avoiding dairy, gluten, alcohol, peanuts and nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, egg plant and peppers)</li>
<li>Eating ketogenically - when we say high fat, low carb diet, this does not mean eating greasy food. This is focused on healthy fats like avocado, walnuts and almonds, healthy meats and lots of veggies!</li>
<li>Performing intermittent fasting - I have been extending the time I fast from dinner until around 11AM or noon. I would never have thought I could do something like this. I've always been hypoglycemic and not eating would make me hangry! But eating ketogenically and getting your body used to that first has been the trick.</li>
<li>Getting ready for and performing a fast - either 3 day bone broth supported fast or a 7 day shortened window fast (4 hours eating, 20 hours fasting) - I haven't tried this yet, but I'm getting ready to. </li>
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Please note that me giving you this information above is just a drop in the bucket to the information Chalene provides in her program. I don't know if she is going to do Level 1 again, but I did just sign up for Level 2 today and that starts June 12th. </div>
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So what has all this done for me?... I have not been 100% faithful to the program. With some of the weekends, I have had a few glasses of wine and at a Cub Scout year end picnic, I did eat a hamburger on a bun. That said, I have lost 3 lbs already (and I'm not finished!) and my pants that used to fit perfectly in the winter are now sliding off my bottom, LOL. I have amazing energy and am energized to stick to the program more faithfully and finally reach my goal weight that I've been working on for years now. </div>
<img alt="" id="id_c4ad_42e_56e0_6b02" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivcsYsZXsSYEC12Z61UupXlGIbNuvz2WlCT9xAuN8KHxumDPXgro6aSTz5qWd7uSex9tywM85tl58C_TgZtneuN6vSW2JcLGtpNmQgYZNstoS4Uekfyxa9HMbtQbgOAZ35BAgD9A/" style="height: auto; width: 353px;" title="" tooltip="" /> <img alt="" id="id_1ad0_d06a_e604_5d0d" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA8eYpkzYtCyZt2uXpVKG_OrovKJ5yP9fAFztt7CWL9viJH3GfgrbLGF36CI711hWEwyXznH3QgqE4cXKXejYKG0IH-XOf3KzhJIaXDUJMsVHUXSKQ8VzQ7G6x7Ae6i31FE_Fokw/" style="height: auto; width: 353px;" title="" tooltip="" />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-60164770313358035542017-05-03T10:07:00.000-05:002017-05-03T10:07:04.104-05:00May Goals and To Dos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmxdMugs1B0i6Pis3STgaix3f3lmqmblzaLMggH08Bu_mS8gpUy7foOfBxSxKMCRn_qB3T7KSEBvcfFr8LejncWRdRGZUHUB5-3B7hJNaLymQW_97hXEbHxMIExOqOxxPl3X4OQ/s1600/May.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUmxdMugs1B0i6Pis3STgaix3f3lmqmblzaLMggH08Bu_mS8gpUy7foOfBxSxKMCRn_qB3T7KSEBvcfFr8LejncWRdRGZUHUB5-3B7hJNaLymQW_97hXEbHxMIExOqOxxPl3X4OQ/s320/May.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It's been a long time since I've posted monthly goals/larger to-do items. We have a lot going on this month and I really want to make sure my focus is in the right places. I'm very excited about some of the changes going on in our life. Things are definitely much different than where we were several years ago.<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Personal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Finish
Chalene’s Diet Beta Test – on Day 3 right now!</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Run or
elliptical 2-3 times a week</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Yoga from
Beachbody on Demand 3 times a week</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Have my
passport renewed</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Call the
doctor about the moles on my face – want them removed!</span></li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Family</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li>Boys’ First Communion on
May 6<sup>th</sup>!</li>
<li>Phoebe goes to a friend’s
Junior Prom on May 19<sup>th</sup>, but I think we are fully ready for that
already.</li>
<li>Work with the boys on their
math fact skills</li>
<li>Get Tommy new glasses – can
we use our regular eye doctor?</li>
<li>Schedule boys’ physical and
filling out form for Cub Scout camp</li>
<li>Schedule physical therapy
for Phoebe’s back (pinched nerve/mild scoliosis)</li>
<li>Schedule her follow up
orthodontist appointment after 7/24</li>
<li>Schedule the AI appointment
regarding her excessive flexibility</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Scouting (Yes, we are in Cub Scouting leadership for our boys' Pack! Lots of fun!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li>Contact families that have
not finished requirements this year</li>
<li>Figure out who hasn’t
received Cyber Chip or recharge that completed it.</li>
<li>Plan/Execute Year End
Picnic – May 21<sup>st</sup></li>
<li>Finalize gifts for outgoing
leadership</li>
<li>Send out emails to all new
adult leaders about clearances and training needed</li>
<li>Create a gmail account for
scouting and setup google drive to go with it</li>
<li>Plan summer schedule for
scouting</li>
<li>Begin planning for next
year’s scouting calendar</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<span style="background: white;">Business</span></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li>Beachbody business</li>
<li>Blog post 5x a week –
especially on the Diet Beta Test. I’m
learning a lot!</li>
<li>Get up to date on blog
reading on Feedly</li>
<li>Get to the office earlier -
8:30 is the target to meet. I will track this heavily this month. I
have a lot of work at the office going on.</li>
<li>Ensure I am
tracking/keeping organized all the tasks I have in the office</li>
<li>Plan with co-worker the
July Women in Risk networking event</li>
<li>Put together all the tasks
and complete them to purchase the Westmont house and get it ready.</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<span style="background: white;">Home/Garden<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li>Weeding and mulching (need
to find a non-rainy weekend!)</li>
<li>Clean out the basement</li>
<li>Clean off the back deck</li>
<li>Have broken window fixed</li>
<li>Have upstairs sitting room
couch reupholstered</li>
<li>Schedule/get estimate for
shower tile repair and kitchen grout cleaned</li>
</ul>
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<b><i><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Do you do work on monthly
goals and to do list? How is it going? I've missed doing it to keep my priorities
in focus and accomplishing more!</span></i></b><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-68983284598492754772017-04-21T15:00:00.001-05:002017-04-21T16:06:02.494-05:00Diet Beta Test - Learning Starts April 24th<img alt="" height="180" id="id_ed8b_bccb_adaf_7aa5" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjenGpEQ0oRiABMNxfRvbAR_-xcCS0uI5SsZGvyvmuoee2UwKRIi3KZC6EaY_z31jhC0CpkSz2gpVXlNsoxMCS6Zo_1lA_ieQ5YqmKOo1HasFKaY-_mAE-woj8HbBKJpralI-3vcQ/" style="height: auto; width: 353px;" title="" tooltip="" width="320" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">I'm about to embark on something amazing! I signed up for <a href="https://www.dietbetatest.com/">Chalene's Diet Beta Test</a> yesterday. Our prep week is next week and then we officially start our new way of eating on May 1. I can't wait to learn more about it, as I've been listening to Chalene's latest podcasts about sleep and diet. They all make a lot of sense to me as I've been experimenting myself with intermittent fasting, what foods I'm eating and better sleep. Sounds like this is the perfect solution for me to use her and her experts to help increase my knowledge on how to keep time from taking its toll on me.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Things were getting really tough since September of last year and right before my birthday in March, I decided things had to change. I've been doing a lot of soul searching, experimenting with different ideas and trying to keep an open mind. I'll try to update here more often with information on what things I'm trying, recipes I'm cooking and our menu plans and overall how things are progressing. Starting next week, you'll see some posts around how my meal plan is shaping up under this plan and what my thoughts are around how it will work.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: "lato" , sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">If you want to try this too or find more information about it, click on the link and let me know if you decide to go in too! (BTW, I'm not affiliated with Chalene Johnson at all. I'm just one of her lifers!)</span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-25641067995788536362016-09-27T21:35:00.002-05:002016-09-27T21:37:35.119-05:00Miracle Mornings - September Challenge<div>
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Wow! Have I ever been busy and there is so much to provide updates on. But I'll start with what book has been rocking my world and that's the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Morning-Not-So-Obvious-Guaranteed-Transform/dp/0979019710">Miracle Morning</a> by Hal Elrod. I've also been doing a 30 Day Challenge with the support of a private Facebook group of an amazing group of women. I will continue doing daily Miracle Mornings through the remainder of the year as I've been learning so much about myself. <br />
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The concept is relatively simple. In order to be successful, you need to put yourself in the right frame of mind for the day and ensure you are spending time improving yourself daily. Hal put together for himself and others several practices in a plan of daily Life S.A.V.E.R.S., which stands for Silence (meditation), Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading (personal development books) and Scribing (journaling). Don't think that this synopsis will let you not read this book. I strongly recommend it. Recommendations on how to wake up and increase your WUML (waking up motivation level) are outlined, each of the practices is thoroughly explained and there are bonus materials on his website for additional help.<br />
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I would not say I've been 100% perfect this month, but it's been a learning process. Here are the things I've learned:<br />
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1. I need to exercise first with the schedule I have with getting kids ready for school in the morning. We have two shifts in our house - the early high school bus and the bus an hour later for our elementary school boys. I really like to have at least 30 minutes for exercise and if I don't do that before I our daughter wakes up for school around 5:45, I'm not going to be able to exercise in the morning. It took me all month to figure this out. I will start working out<br />
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2. I'm still working on affirmations. The bonus materials from Hal's website are helping me greatly. I think my brain is still fighting it thinking it's a bit hokey to be saying these things out loud and I'm trying to really believe what I'm telling myself.<br />
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3. I love reading personal development books and writing in my bullet journal while I'm drinking my morning coffee. Right now, I'm reading <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Am-That-Girl-Discover-bethatgirl/dp/0989322289/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475027981&sr=1-1&keywords=i+am+that+girl+alexis+jones">I Am That Girl</a> by Alexis Jones.<br />
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4. I've been bullet journalling for the last two months and I'm sooooo in love! It's the perfect way for me to organize my thoughts and keep myself organized. I've been trying to organize myself digitally for ages and I've finally decided pen and paper is where it's at. I'll have more posts on that topic, but I'm still learning all the things I can do with bullet journalling, so I'm still a novice. <br />
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Here's how my morning routine will look starting tomorrow with the new order:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Exercise - 30 minutes</li>
<li>While making coffee (French press) </li>
<ul>
<li>Silence - Meditation</li>
<li>Affirmations</li>
<li>Visualization</li>
</ul>
<li>Wake up the high schooler - drink coffee</li>
<ul>
<li>Reading</li>
<li>Scribing (bullet journal)</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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I'll have a lot more updates on other items soon. Our daughter is doing well in school and is still loving being a field hockey goalie. The boys are in 2nd grade and in their second year of Cub Scouts. I'm their Den Leader and will be taking over as the Cubmaster for our Pack at the end of the year. I do lots of research on activities, skits and games to keep these boys excited to come to meetings. Hope all is well with you all!!!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-37576935553475664762016-04-12T09:24:00.000-05:002016-04-12T09:24:00.195-05:00It's Been AwhileI'm still out here. I'm currently working on getting my morning setup from "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Miracle-Morning-Not-So-Obvious-Guaranteed/dp/0979019710">The Miracle Morning</a>". One of the items is journaling. I was starting to put it in a notebook, but then realized why should I do that when I have my long neglected blog. <br />
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Things at my corporate job are going well. I've put a lot of time and energy into it and people are seeming to be noticing. Just yesterday, my manager got some great feedback from someone before I even got off the phone with them. Glad to see my hard work is paying off on that front.<br />
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I really want to spend more time on my Beachbody business though. I'm in a Dash to Diamond group and I haven't done much with it the past few days as by the end of the work day I'm exhausted and work seems to consume all my day hours. I need to work on that balance.<br />
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I think I'm also tired at the end of the day as I'm trying to get back into working out and being a better runner. I'm running a 5K in mid-May and I want to be ready for that! I did get to the elliptical machine this morning and that was awesome! <br />
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Next is the kids. I've been working with the boys on their areas they need: Tommy on his reading and Liam on his freak out tendencies that seem to happen at school. Both seem to be going well. Tommy's reading skills are improving and I think he'll be on target by the end of the school year in June. Liam had a really good day at school yesterday and let's hope that continues. I met with his teacher and guidance counselor last week to talk about his perfectionist tendencies that are even more intense than his sister's. We talked about strategies for helping remind him how to handle situations and reinforcement at home. Let's hope this helps, as he was starting to say he hated school! On his sister, that one is tough. We are in the throws of full teenager-hood. The need for independence, the tears around difficulties, the anger and silent treatment to the parents. I really can't wait to have the mood-wheel stay stable when she gets older. In the meantime, I exercise patience and wish our kids understood they didn't come with an owner's manual. We're all just winging it!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-77701566879726984372015-06-12T13:33:00.000-05:002015-06-12T13:33:53.934-05:00Tommy's Portfolio Breakfast - The End of KindergartenWow! The boys are officially done Kindergarten and moving onto 1st grade next year. I really can't believe it! With Liam being sick this week, things have been crazy. Tommy had his Portfolio Breakfast this past Tuesday, but only one of us could go, as one had to stay at home with Liam. Tommy said I should go when we asked him in the morning, but then when he got home from school, he said his dad should have gone. LOL - little guy, we wish we were both there!<br />
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He has such a different personality from Liam, whereas Liam wanted to hang with us and show us what he had done at school and point out one or two friends, Tommy introduced me to a bunch of his friends.<br />
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Liam on his day, was interested in all the treats and choosing the sweet ones he wanted. Tommy couldn't be bothered with going to get a snack. I chose some treats for him while he kept building things at the tables in the classroom and he snacked while he kept building. In particular, he loved this rocket he built.</div>
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I really enjoyed having the one-on-one time with Tommy and enjoying what he loves and not what us as a group do together. <br />
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I hope both boys have a great summer and can't wait to see the great things they do when they move up to 1st grade.</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-20612072080626777462015-06-11T07:13:00.000-05:002015-06-11T07:13:14.808-05:00Mercury in Retrograde Can Go Suck Eggs!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let me just say, if you can't tell from this post title, how much I hate Mercury in retrograde. According to the Farmer's Almanack, today is the last day. <br />
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During this retrograde Mercury cycle, we've had: two separate issues with Tom's car, lots of work frustration, feeling overwhelmed at both work and home, planning going awry, and to top it all off, Liam has missed the last week of school with high fevers and vomiting. We're currently on the fourth day of fevers that only both Tylenol and ibuprofen can get down. Both need to be taken an hour apart from each other and every six hours. Otherwise, complete chaos ensues. Poor kid. When his fever is down, he wants to play and is completely bored with me trying to work from home and pushing fluids and bland food on him. He currently loves goldfish crackers and Honest Kids juice boxes. Normally when it comes to juice boxes, I have a rule that we need to finish a box of the same flavor, before moving onto the next box. Right now, I don't give a sh(t if that is what will keep him interested in drinking down more fluids. We have three different boxes all open, and I'll be opening the fourth (Lemonade! Woo hoo! Please drink more!) in a few minutes.<br />
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We're calling the doctor again this morning. He was seen Monday evening and they concluded it is a virus. I called back Tuesday late afternoon with the new vomiting that happened after we left the doctor and they told me this is a virus going around and taking a few days to clear. We agreed that if he still had a fever Thursday, I'd call back. So I'll be calling today, as when his fever medicine wore off around 4AM this morning, he had a fever over 103F again. I still think it's a virus as his ears are clear, throat looks fine and his lymph nodes in his neck that swell when he has an infection are perfectly fine. He's angry at being sick and I'm feeling bad for him and wishing I knew what would make it go away. I've never had a child have a fever for four days in a row. But then again, I don't think I've had a child with a fever on the tail end of mercury in retrograde. <br />
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Stay tuned for September 17 - October 9th when all things will go crazy again!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-86624185019216466892015-06-03T14:47:00.000-05:002015-06-03T14:47:35.100-05:00Kindergarten Portfolio Breakfast - Liam's Class<div>
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Not sure how other twin parents have their children in school, but our school recommends twins be in separate classrooms. In our case, I think that's been working out fabulously! Liam used to be so quiet, shy and let his brother talk for him. Since November being in separate classrooms, Liam is much more able to talk for himself and complain if he doesn't get his turn to talk! <br />
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At the end of our elementary school year, there is a Portfolio Picnic at lunchtime, but Kindergarten is still half day, so they have Portfolio Breakfasts. Both are an event for parents and siblings to come in and see what the students have been working on all year. Today was Liam's class, so we got to spend one-on-one time with him reviewing some of his work over the school year, hence the term "portfolio". It was a lot of fun to have him walk us through his writing and he read some of his papers to us. We also got to start by seeing how they start their day, with the Pledge of Allegiance and going through the days of the week, today's date and some songs on shapes and numbers.<br />
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One thing I've noticed that is much different than 9 years ago when our daughter was in Kindergarten. There are a lot more dads coming with the moms to these daytime school events. I think it's fabulous! It's great for kids seeing their dads present at these functions and to feel the support from them, as much as the moms. It looked like a lot of the dads and moms were in work clothes, so it would be great to think employers are being more flexible for parents to be able to attend these types of events for their kids.<br />
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Next Tuesday is Tommy's class Portfolio Breakfast. I can't wait!</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-47679960344164694012015-06-01T15:20:00.001-05:002015-06-01T15:20:14.115-05:00June Goals<br />
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I'm getting totally psyched for the month of June! I'm understanding more about the Beachbody business and have lots to do this month for family, work, fitness and making our house a home!<br />
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Family<br />
<ul>
<li>End of school year on June 11! Ensure I know of all the school events that parents are requested to be at!</li>
<li>Boys start sports camps at the YMCA the week after school. Do they need any special equipment (cleats, where are their shin guards, etc.)? Get used to the schedule with where to drop off and pick up.</li>
<li>Plan what we want to do in August for vacation - one or two weeks? What would our itinerary be if we go to Massachusetts and Maine?</li>
<li>Continue reading with the boys and working on math skills (come up with some good games)</li>
<li>Date nights with Tom - this is a habit now, but I'm afraid to drop it from the goals list.</li>
</ul>
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Work<br />
<ul>
<li>Build my Beachbody Coach business - Now I have a month and two challenge pack sales under my belt. Goal is to get to Emerald by the end of the month. I need to sign my husband up as a coach and sign up someone else as a coach. Build a calendar and know who is interested in what: June 8-12 Coach Sneak Peak, June 15 - 28 Free Butts, Guts and Guns challenge group (I'm doing two exercise videos and two recipes for our team) and a 21-Day Fix Challenge Group (need to have the program and Shakeology) June 28 - July 18. </li>
<li>Blog post 5x a week</li>
<li>Get up to date on blog reading on Feedly</li>
<li>Get to the office earlier - 8:30 is the target to meet. I will track this heavily this month. I have a lot of work at the office going on.</li>
</ul>
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Health and Fitness<br />
<ul>
<li>Finish getting to my goal weight</li>
<li>Elliptical 5x per week</li>
<li>Daily strength training and stretching</li>
<li>Weekly yoga class</li>
<li>Menu planning</li>
<li>Meal prep on weekends and/or after grocery shopping - make hummus, salad dressing, prep salads, chop veggies</li>
</ul>
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Home/Garden<br />
<ul>
<li>Keep the garden and herbs on deck alive!</li>
<li>Paint guest room for Phoebe</li>
<li>Declutter the garage</li>
<li>Clean out the basement - find out what I can sell to the children's consignment vs. donations</li>
<li>Clean carpets in house</li>
<li>Do our assigned follow ups for the Landscape Designer - our next appointment is 6/24</li>
</ul>
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<b><i>Do you do work on monthly goals? How is it going? I've found it's part of my secret for getting things done and doing more than I ever thought possible!</i></b></div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-34800766594794814992015-06-01T13:45:00.002-05:002015-06-01T13:45:36.661-05:00May Goals - Recap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Where did this month go!!! It flew by so fast! I accomplished a lot, but still left a lot more to do and missed my blog friends for the last two weeks of the month! However, the boys had a great birthday and I'm learning a lot!!!<br />
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Family<br />
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<li><strike>Plan for the boys' birthday on May 29th. We're not going to have a big party this year, just small with family, but will need to do something for both of their Kindergarten classes and then their YMCA class in the afternoon.</strike></li>
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<b><i>The above picture we went to Whole Foods to find their birthday cake. We got a pina colada cake, perfect to kick off the summer!</i></b></div>
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<ul>
<li><strike>Phoebe's Field Hockey schedule - they have a big field hockey tournament on May 30th</strike></li>
<li><strike>Register boys for CYFF classes in the fall (these are Catholic Youth Faith classes)</strike></li>
<li><strike>Register boys for summer camps at the YMCA for June and one week in August</strike></li>
<li>Plan what we want to do in August for vacation - one or two weeks? where do we want to go and do? <b><i>Still working on this. Definitely looking to go north to Massachusetts and Maine</i></b></li>
<li><strike>Work with boys on sight words and numbers/math skills </strike></li>
<li><strike>Date nights with Tom - we're on a roll with this one!</strike></li>
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Work<br />
<ul>
<li>Build my Beachbody Coach business - I'm still trying to decide what my exact goals should be. I'd like to sign two coaches to become Emerald. <b><i>I am building my business. I did not make Emerald this month. I need to sign up my husband as a coach as he's drinking Shakeology daily now and I'm running out before the next shipment comes in. Then I need one other coach. I did get two new customers and signed them up for my first two Challenge Pack sales. One did Body Beast and the other PiYo. I'm going to work up a monthly calendar system and continue with the sales, but sign coaches!</i></b></li>
<li>Blog post 5x a week - I'm getting much better at posting more often. Now let's get more updates from me other than goals and what we are eating for dinner!<b><i> This did not happen, LOL. After mid-May, I got so busy with life!</i></b></li>
<li>Get up to date on blog reading on Feedly<b><i> Definitely not! I miss reading up on all my blog friends!!!</i></b></li>
<li>Get to the office earlier - 8:30 is the target to meet. I'm going to start tracking the number of days I meet this goal this month!<b><i> June is the month I'm going to make this stick!</i></b></li>
</ul>
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Health and Fitness<br />
<ul>
<li>Drop the remaining 6 lbs from last month's goal. <b><i>Getting there. I'm still at end-of-month stable with the beginning of the month. However, for two days, I did achieve my best weight ever in the last two years. I'm going to work this hard in June, as I want muscle, but less of me to have to pull up, around and over obstacles at the Spartan Sprint this July!</i></b></li>
<li>Elliptical 5x per week <b><i>I got in 14 days of cardio in May. Needs some work. One was a Body Combat class at the YMCA, so that was fun!</i></b></li>
<li>Stretch or do yoga daily <b><i>I did stretch most days and made it to one yoga class at the YMCA this month.</i></b></li>
<li>Meal prep on weekends and/or after grocery shopping - make hummus, salad dressing, prep salads, chop veggies <b><i>I need to make this a habit</i></b></li>
</ul>
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Financial<br />
<ul>
<li>Meal planning weekly <b><i>I will be picking this habit back up in June</i></b></li>
<li>Take a state of our finances and decide any plans to make changes to budget <b><i>This needs some work</i></b></li>
</ul>
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Home/Garden<br />
<ul>
<li><strike>Setup the outside garden with veggies and herbs</strike></li>
<li>Paint guest room for Phoebe</li>
<li>Declutter the garage</li>
<li>Clean out the basement - find out what I can sell to the children's consignment vs. donations</li>
<li>Now that the carpet cleaner is fixed and our bedroom carpet is done, I can clean all the carpets in the house <b><i>No to this and the two above!!! I need to get moving on this stuff!</i></b></li>
<li><strike>Plan/build out where the hot tub is going by contacting/setting up an appointment with a landscape designer. I have a message into them from their website, but need to follow up as I haven't heard back.</strike> <b><i>Had the meeting with the landscape designer and have another meeting on June 24th. Very excited about this</i></b></li>
</ul>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-63535808606587560782015-05-14T16:07:00.000-05:002015-05-14T16:07:11.856-05:00Greek Salad CravingsBefore two years ago, I was never a big fan of Greek salad. I had tried it several times at restaurants, but something always seemed off. Either there was too much dressing, the feta or dressing was too salty, or something else was off. Nothing ever impressed me to be like, "Oh my God, I have to have that again!" But then two years ago, I went to South Africa and let me tell you, they know how to do Greek salad right! And it was everywhere I went, I swear I had it twice a day! <br />
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When this time of year rolls around, I actually start to crave the deliciousness of that Greek salad, but am still very nervous to order it at restaurants. I had to learn to recreate this goodness at home, and I quite believe I have now. I made it on Monday night to go with the salmon and I was so happy with the results. I had to take some creative license though, as we were out of feta, but had gorgonzola cheese It was still pure awesomeness!<br />
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<b>Salad fixings:</b><br />
Chopped romaine lettuce<br />
Halved cherry tomatoes<br />
Diced red onion (I only had about a 1/4 onion and I was making a lot of salad)<br />
A leftover scallion already chopped up (to make up for the missing red onion)<br />
1 cucumber cut into quarters lengthwise and then sliced into pieces<br />
Two handfuls of pitted black kalamata olives chopped (this was a big salad!)<br />
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Feta cheese (on the side to put on at the table) - or in our case we used the gorgonzola we had<br />
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<b>Salad dressing:</b><br />
3 cloves garlic put through a garlic press<br />
1 tsp dijon mustard<br />
1 tsp oregano<br />
1 tsp kosher salt<br />
1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper<br />
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar (I used balsamic)<br />
1 Tbsp honey<br />
1/2 cup olive oil<br />
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I mixed the salad dressing up first and let it sit while I chopped and constructed the rest of the salad. At the table, we served the salad on our plates, added the cheese per the person's taste or omit if they don't like it and drizzled the dressing over the top. This salad dressing reminded me so much of what I had in South Africa, I was so happy!!!!<br />
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I prefer not putting salad dressing on the salad in the bowl as my husband really hates any kind of vinaigrette salad dressing. He's more of a ranch or honey mustard kind of guy. It also makes leftovers easy to put away, as salad with dressing on it, doesn't keep as leftovers very well. When you make a salad this big, it leaves a lot of leftovers, but that encourages people to have salad if they get hungry. There's no excuse as it's already made. It also makes me packing a salad for lunch that much easier. I love anything that promotes easy, healthy eating!<br />
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Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11043040.post-65537023315880434762015-05-14T10:18:00.001-05:002015-05-14T16:07:28.891-05:00Relaxed Menu Plan This WeekThis week, we've had a pretty relaxed menu plan, in that I didn't really plan too much. Below are the dinners we've had so far this week and considering Phoebe wasn't feeling well Tuesday and Tom came down with a stomach bug Wednesday, I'm glad I didn't have grand plans for dinners this week! Here's what we've had for dinner so far this week. I have no idea what we're going to do tonight and tomorrow. I still need to see how Phoebe and Tom are feeling. Hopefully no one else comes down with it.<br />
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<b>Sunday - Mother's Day - DH made me dinner</b><br />
Grilled marinated flank steak, wedge salad with chipotle ranch dressing, grilled green onions, marinated cherry tomatoes, red onions and olives in a vinaigrette dressing<br />
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<b>Monday</b><br />
Sweet teriyaki salmon, roasted asparagus, black forbidden rice, greek salad</div>
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<b>Tuesday</b><br />
Leftover tomato sauce and sausage over rigatoni<br />
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<b>Wednesday</b> - Phoebe was supposed to have field hockey practice but it was canceled.<br />
Sandwich night - if it ain't broke don't fix it!<br />
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I've also been spending more time in the garden in the evenings, as it was a mess of weeds that needed to be cleaned out before I could start planting. Last night I finished the weeding and I'll begin planting tonight. Then I need to get the herbs on the deck cleaned up and plant a few new ones. I should have some good pics of everything in the next few days. Down in the garden, the strawberries are taking over and I don't mind. I'm going to stop them from spreading beyond where they are right now, by cutting back any future runners. I hear that will make the plants that are left produce more fruit. If so, we may be in for some good strawberries this year! And my cilantro in the garden grew back beautifully. On the deck, it looks like the thyme and oregano are coming back and we planted some pumpkin seeds in two containers on the deck and they are doing great. I'll be transferring them to the garden below sometime in the next few weeks.</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07843760065614670505noreply@blogger.com0