Hiatus

I have been barely treading water the last couple of months. That is momlife sometimes! Just gotta go with it. I feel a little overwhelmed to do individual posts to update everyone! Instead, I am going to post a photo update!!!!!!!!

Handsome Face and I spent our Anniversary celebrating at Epcot! Trivia: on the night he proposed, Jared took me to Epcot JUST TO SEE THE FIREWORKS! We had a great time!

Weston who is usually full-throttle fell asleep at church and I got a solid hour and a half of snuggles.

I spent May working my butt off in my business. I have the best co-workers.

Soccer season ended! The boys played hard and developed more skills. Very proud of them all.

I got a well-deserved mom-cation with my three besties in NC to see Bethany and new baby, Benson.

If you missed our music video, click here!

With soccer over, special nights are back! Love spending one on one time with my sweet babes.

My amazing Sunday school class completed a scripture challenge I gave them. We celebrated with pizza and board games! 

Mother's Day 2017. My children and dear husband spoiled me and gave me the most beautiful and touching homemade gifts!

The saga that is the HOA trying to banish my chickens has been resolved. Our girls can stay and a fence is going up soon!

End of school year celebrations!

Mrs. Fields will undoubtedly be Grayson's favorite teacher of all time. He had a fantastic year.

Mrs. LaRue was a lovely teacher and Landon adores her!

Mrs. Morales was an excellent teacher. Ethan grew academically and as a leader in her class.

JoAnn and I got to see Dave Ramsey live! It was amazing. I have big financial goals and Dave is helping me make my dreams a reality.

It just never ends!

Blueberry picking with Gigi! This is definitely becoming an annual thing.

Gigi knows how to spoil me! Chicken boots for the Chicken Lady!

Took all the kids to the beach. Not entirely by myself, as some amazing friends joined us. But, it was a big deal for me to do this on my own and I am still talking about how awesome I am. Hahaha.

Poor Landon got his fingers caught in the door jamb at church. It resulted in an ER visit. Thankfully no broken bones and we were able to glue things back in place.

This boy has a huge vocabulary and melts me heart with this look and a few others.

Drove to Gainesville with our favorite family, the Schroth's, and posed with the Ants and explored the Museum and thoroughly enjoyed the Butterfly exhibit.

After 10 months, Jared and I finished our Budapest puzzle. We enjoy the challenge, but more importantly, we enjoy the talks and singing that occur during the time we spent together.

Got a visit from my dear friend, Elisabeth! She even volunteered to wake up early and work out with me. I miss her and love her!

12 Years!

I am blogging about our anniversary a little early this year! I just have been thinking about Jared a lot lately and how much I love him. It may sound crazy, but when you are LDS and all you've ever wanted your entire life is to be married and have a family and then you get married and THEN you go through a divorce and then a temple divorce, you pretty much feel like a BIG, FAT FAILURE!
I recently had the opportunity to talk to a friend about my divorce and how it all went down. It made me ever more grateful for prayer and the knowledge that my Heavenly Father is REALLY there and HE knew my path before I did. I am beyond grateful for Jared and the second chance he has given me to have the life of my dreams.

I wanted to share about our engagement. I haven't officially journaled this on my blog and seems like a great time since I found this picture!

In the fall of 2004, I knew the engagement was coming. I knew, because he had talked to my parents and they totally spilled the beans. Or maybe I pried it out of them...

I think Jared was taking it slowly for my sake. He knew what'd I'd been through, he knew it had only been a year and a half prior. He knew I was scared out of my mind.

We had been dating for about 7 months when he asked me. He took me to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, where we had had our first date. After dinner, we went to Epcot JUST TO WATCH THE FIREWORKS!!!!!!!! I was freaking out on the inside. Who takes someone to Epcot JUST TO WATCH THE FIREWORKS!!!!!!!! I seriously am not sure he would have gotten a yes if he had actually asked in such a public location.

Following the fireworks, we left and I started to think, "Okay, maybe this isn't happening. And if it doesn't, I WAS WAY OFF."

Instead of driving me home, he took me to a lake where we had had one of our earliest dates. It was a beautiful night, but all of a sudden, he stopped and looked pretty disconcerted. I asked what was wrong. He answered, "Where's the dock?" I looked and pointed to the middle of the lake, "I think it is floating there in the middle of the lake." (This was in 2004 when our area was hit by 4 hurricanes in a row.)

Completely flustered, he got down on one knee (this was all supposed to happen at the end of the dock, you see) and asked me to be his wife! Of course, I said YES!

12 years later, I would say YES all over again!

Sweet Potato Brownies

I LOVE treats! But, as I learned on the cleanse I did, treats are my nemesis. It is interesting to discover that things you ate regularly (more regularly than you'd even care to admit) make you feel so crummy! Before the cleanse, I didn't attribute changes to my body's physical and mental health to the foods I was eating. After eating so clean for three weeks, and really being mindful about what I was eating, I continue to learn so much!
For example, yesterday was my baby's birthday AND Easter. Candy and treats were abounding all week. I held off pretty well, but yesterday I told myself I could enjoy the festivities, including the food. Here is what happened: it didn't taste a great as I remembered and I not only had a bellyache, I was grumpy! Today, my kids were all in tears about menial things and they are tired and grumpy too!
Don't try to tell me sugar isn't bad for you! Hahaha.

I have been wanting to try a recipe my friend, Michelle, sent me and today seemed like a good day. There are still treats in the house and I WILL NOT eat them! But, I will eat my Sweet Potato Brownies! Don't be fooled, they do not taste exactly like brownies, but they are good and guilt free! Give them a try and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

1 cup of cooked sweet potato, smashed (about one medium sweet potato) 1/2 cup of cashew butter 2 tablespoons of maple syrup 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder 1 good size handful of carob chips (I used three pieces of dark chocolate roughly chopped) 1 egg, whisked

Preheat oven 350. Spray loaf pan. Mix all ingredients together, except carob chips. Add those in last. Put in loaf pan. Bake for 25 minutes.
After they are cooled put it in the fridge. They are best served cold.

Weston is 2!

I spent Weston's first birthday crying the ENTIRE day! I fared much better this year. He is 2 and he is perfect and he is totally a toddler. No denying it!
Weston is talking up a storm and loving life. He is fiercely independent and can even peel his own orange over the trashcan like a boss. And in case you were wondering, he can also open the fridge and thinks he can do almost everything BY HIMSELF!

This year he had an Easter birthday, so there were egg hunts galore. And Candy is one of his newest words! 

He is still very much the baby of the family despite the fact that he is quickly growing up! He wears a size 9 SHOE! I just cannot believe that. The older children continue to spoil him and let him get away with most things. We will be in serious trouble!

Happy birthday to my selfie-lovin, cake eatin, happy koala baby! 

Roasted Beet Salad

Roasted beet salad

1 can of beets (fresh and sliced if they have them)
Mixed salad greens
Goat cheese, 1/4 cup crumbled
Coconut oil
Pecans
Maple syrup
Balsalmic vinegar
EVOO
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Toss beets with 1 TBSP coconut oil and season with salt. Place in single layer in baking dish and roast for 15 minutes. Flip beets and roast additional 10 minutes. Cool completely. 

Lower oven to 250 degrees. Chop and toss pecans in 1 TBSP maple syrup. Spread on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, stir and bake additional 15 minutes until dry and crispy. Cool. 

For the dressing: whisk 2 TBSP balsamic, 6 TBSP EVOO, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

Toss greens with 3/4 dressing. Divide all ingredients in 4 equal servings and serve.

Zucchini Chips

5 Health Benefits of Zucchini

💚Reduces blood pressure and risk of heart attack and stroke
💚Improves eye health
💚Helps lower cholesterol
💚Fights asthma and other respiratory problems
💚Strengthens bones and teeth

To make these zucchini chips (4 servings), thinly slice two zucchini and place between paper towels to draw the water out for about 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 225 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place zucchini slices on prepared baking sheets.
Brush zucchini with olive oil (about 1 TBSP for all slices) and sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake for 2 hours or until golden brown and crispy.
Cool completely and enjoy.

Ultimate Reset

In December, my dear friend, Amy, asked me if I would be interested in doing the Ultimate Reset--a 21 Day Cleanse that detoxes your body from the inside out. I thought about it for about five seconds and said NO!

I am at my goal weight. I don't need to do that. I don't want to lose more weight. I don't want to limit my foods. I had a lot of excuses. I said NO and figured that would be the end of it.
Instead, I kept hearing her voice in the back of my mind. I watched a few other colleagues do it. I began to move from a firm NO to maybe there is something to this.
Then, in February I was diagnosed with pneumonia and even after a week of antibiotics and steroids, I was still struggling to breathe doing basic mom tasks and fatigue was a huge problem. My mindset was struggling in a big way. I was doubting myself in all areas. I was sick for weeks. I had to DO something.
I remembered Amy's invitation in December and all of our talks about her cancer recovery and the role food played in how she felt. I wondered if maybe food could play a role in my asthma and respiratory problems that have vexed me off and and on for the last couple years. One of my clients informed me she was going to do the reset. She was the last factor. I didn't want her to do it alone. I would join her. I decided to go for it.
Within a week, I had ordered my kit and I had even recruited, Amy and a couple more friends to join us. So, the five of us began our Reset the second week of March.

Nori Rolls

Lots of Fresh Fruit on the Reset

Lots of Miso Soup too! Yummy Stir Fry over Brown Rice.

I will be honest, the first week was pretty easy. I was excited and felt better almost immediately. I had more mental clarity and more energy! Plus, I was at my parent's house for part of that week and my mom and dad cooked my kids fav foods and I stuck to my plan without having to cook two separate meals!
The second week was HARD. You start drinking a detox supplement and detox is definitely accurate. My body was detoxing, my mind was detoxing. I was more emotional than a teenage version of myself. Seriously, I was weeping at the drop of a hat and really off my game.

Several supplements were implemented at different times throughout the 21 Day Reset

The meals continued to be easy to prepare and delicious, but now I was cooking two separate meals, three times a day. It was a huge commitment. The hardest part was that my day literally revolved around when I would make my meals, when I would take my supplements, when I would eat. Because eating even took longer! The meals were very large and it is not an overstatement to say eating lunch could take me close to an hour from start to finish. I was exhausted.

I definitely LOVED eating all my meals from mixing bowls. 

It was as week 2 wrapped up that I broke and my emotional eating won. I ate nearly an entire bag of barbacue kettle chips AND some candy I had bought for my Sunday School class. I stole from my hard-working Sunday School Class, you guys! I was WEAK SAUCE! And as if the mental guilt wasn't enough, I physically felt AWFUL! When you eat super clean for two weeks and go overboard on crap, you feel like, YOU GUESSED IT! CRAP!

Thanks to my text message thread of beautiful friends. I got the support I needed and picked myself up to finish out the third and final week without huge incident. Unless, you count the cucumber-avocado soup that was the worst meal of my life! I should have just eaten them separately and called it a day!

In the end, I am so thankful I took the leap to do this! Within days I was breathing better than I had in months. My digestive system felt amazing. Mostly I know it felt amazing because now that I've integrated some of my normal foods back in I have found some major contributors to discomfort, including DAIRY! Thank heavens for cashewmilk!  Seriously, any time I have tried even a small amount of a processed carb, I have a stomach twisting itself up in knots. The pain and discomfort are unbelievable. I am so grateful for all that I learned and gained from this experience. I think now that my gut is squeaky clean, it will help keep me on track and really tell me when foods are no bueno for my body.

Power Greens NOT for the faint of heart

I loved learning new recipes and food combinations that I can continue to implement to feel great from here on out. I hated the power greens, and if I ever feel I need to have more greens, I'll just blend them right into my superfoods shake!
I haven't put meat back in yet. I didn't miss it and have now NOT had meat for a month. I have cooked meat for my family and I am just not interested yet. We'll see how my body responds when I give it a whirl in the future.

Throughout the reset I did yoga. You are not supposed to engaged in rigorous exercise for the 21 days

If you are struggling with serious dietary issues or your body just isn't performing at its peak, this might be an affordable answer to your problems. I would love to talk to you more about my experience! P.S. If you do want to lose weight and inches on the Reset you totally can. I lost a few pounds, but worked hard NOT to. I ate the men-sized portion and added avocado whenever I could. :)
However, the group of women I did it with lost about 30 pounds combined and I am so proud of all of us for doing this!

Meal Prep Basics

One of the things I have put off for a long time is meal prepping! Just getting the meal plan done and making (and sticking to) the grocery list were enough for me for many years. Recently, I attended a four-day online meal prep course and learned so much! 

Mostly, I learned that I was already doing the hardest part about meal prep: the planning and shopping!

Moving towards the actual prepping part takes a good chunk of a day, but pays off big time! 

One of the easiest things to meal prep are your fresh fruits and veggies!

Before putting them away, wash, rinse and chop them! Then they are ready, they are more likely to get eaten before they go bad. They are also more likely to be your grab and go snack than the carbs crowding out your pantry. 

I struggle with NOT eating the entire loaf when I make homemade bread. I like to use it to make my own bread crumbs, though. So, I usually make two loafs, turn one into breadcrumbs and just let everyone indulge in fresh bread with butter, jam or honey. It is a treat on meal prep day!

I recently acquired a Vitamix thanks to having incredibly generous friends. I have been so excited to try making almond milk again. My previous blender just couldn't handle the process. It turned out so beautifully! I also have several cups of almond flour on hand from the leftover pulp I dried out and ground down, again with the Vitamix.

Always make sure you have your recipes on hand and stagger your meal prep day with the way things cook and definitely utilize your slow cooker when possible.

Chili is a great one to meal prep! It freezes great and if you make a double batch,  you can eat one on meal prep night and save the rest for a busy night when cooking just wouldn't happen otherwise.

Because that is why I am now a believer in meal prep! It allows me to still provide fresh, homemade foods even on the nights I don't feel like it! I a working on developing my own meal prep course. What kinds of questions do y'all have about meal prep? I would love your feedback, so that I can create content that is truly helpful to you.