Snow Days

THE KIDS ARE BACK TO SCHOOL! Do you know how many SCHOOL days my kids have had this far in 2017? Three. 3. THREE. It is January 18 and they have had three school days.

So, yes, I am very excited and relieved they are back in school today. They were starting to turn on each other. Yesterday was the longest day of all time. Currently the toddler is napping and the house is quiet for another 2 hours. Sweet sweet bliss.

Image result for when the kids go back to school

I got a phone call and email around 4am yesterday that school was cancelled, I was already awake and knew it was going to be a long day, so I decided to just stay awake and get my workout done.

image

Step Blast – it was insane, but I also loved it!

Breakfast –

Waffle and peanut butter.

DSC_0151

Lunch –

Chicken (cooked in a Thai peanut sauce), brown rice and grape tomatoes

DSC_0152

Dinner –

Image result for taco tuesday

Tostadas with ground turkey, refried beans, cheese, sour cream and GUAC.

DSC_0154

Those single serve guac cups from Costco are my #1 pick at Costco right now. We go through them at an alarming rate and it makes me incredibly happy that the phrase “ ___ is double dipping!!” doesn’t have to be yelled, because everyone gets their own cup!

Learning to Love the Stepper

Back in 2008, I was a new stay at home mom and not only did I go from working full time to staying home full time, but I also went from 1-3 kids as well and they were 5,3 and newborn at the time. Going to a gym no longer fit in our budget, but I knew that I still needed to workout. I was up one night with the baby and caught an infomercial for Turbo Jam and I was sold. From that day, I was a straight Beachbody workout kind of girl. But then my sister in law turned me on to Cathe Friedrich workouts and it was love at first sight. After a few months, I knew these were the types of workouts I was craving and needing, so I purchased the monthly On Demand plan and like I have mentioned before it is the best $20 I spend on myself every month. This also comes with the added bonus that with Cathe workouts, coaches don’t exist, their own line of supplements don’t exist, and there is nothing anyone is trying to sell me all day every day for using her workouts.

After a few of the videos, it became clear to me that using the stepper was going to be included in almost every single workout and I would need to purchase one.

Image result for cathe stepper

Two months ago, I HATED that thing. My legs burned, I couldn’t get the moves down and I was ready to throw it through the window, but with pretty much everything in life, there is a learning curve and I stuck with it. And now – it’s growing on me!! I still get fumbled up on the moves sometimes, and when she does jumps and pivots and turns, I laugh at myself, but dang it…it’s making these workouts a million times more effective!!

Moving on – finding time to blog. Just like I need my workouts to be at a consistent time every day, so does my posting times. I need the routine and schedule and I have been trying to figure out when I want to post. I think (and this may change again) that I’ll do a post in the morning post-kid drop offs at school while Emma is occupied doing something else, that’s typically her coloring and craft time and that keeps her occupied the longest!

Before I hit publish, I am seriously considering running this Half Marathon in June! My husband and I have been talking about taking our kids for some weekend get aways this Summer and this is somewhere that none of us has ever been!!

Picture

Instant Pot BBQ Pork Tenderloin

After taking off a couple of weeks off from the exercise streak I was on, I knew today had to be the day I got back to it. I told myself “just 5 minutes,” and then 5 minutes came and passed and pretty soon I was 1/2 way through…and dying!

IMG_6356[1]

It was just about 50 minutes of sweaty, heart pounding step aerobics and it left me feeling all sorts of awesome after it was all done!

Related image

IMG_6357[1]

Sure sign of a toddler living in the house- finger prints. Everywhere.

Once I dropped off the youngest at school, I made a much needed grocery run.  One of the medications I take kills my appetite. Especially breakfast, I usually have to force myself to eat and this morning was no exception. Larabar to the rescue.

IMG_6358[1]

Pre-lunch snack before meeting the husband and Emma, an apple and some cheese.

IMG_6359[1]

My 3 oldest kids have school this week, but the husband is off of work until January, so we took advantage of just the 3 of us and treated ourselves to lunch. It was getting close to naptime, so we went somewhere close; Qdoba.

IMG_6360[1]

I broke out my new favorite kitchen appliance –the Instant Pot.

DSC_0122

Instant Pot Pork Tenderloin

*Pork loin

*1 cup of water

* salt, pepper, onion, garlic

* cover in BBQ sauce (we used this one)

Season the pork, pour the water in the bottom of the pressure cooker, cover the pork in BBQ sauce. Then turn it to MANUAL and 90 minutes and then let it work it’s magic.

DSC_0123

DSC_0124

This used to take 6+ hours in the slow cooker.

DSC_0125