Feeling Like Ourselves Again

I got kinda carried away yesterday with my weekend update and forgot to tell you about the fantastic advice our pastor gave in his message yesterday.  He was talking about difficult conversations--how important they are and also how to be so careful when you have them.  I thought it was definitely worth sharing and remembering.  He gave us a sort of checklist for how to approach difficult conversations.  When handling difficult conversations, you need to:

• make sure you're the right person for the job.
• make sure the Lord sent you.
• only go if your heart is broken.
• speak the right language.

He then challenged us to start by asking our spouse this difficult question...

What can I do to be a better wife/husband??  Talk about a heavy question...but one that could really impact your marriage in a positive way if you allow it to.  Are you up for the challenge?  I sure am!

He had a couple of other zingers in there too in terms of treating others with grace and I know he told us who said them, but I was just trying to keep up and will have to paraphrase...something along the lines of "we treat others according to actions while judging ourselves according to our intentions." Ouch!  and "we're often blind to our own character"...another eye-opener.  A question we can ask of others is...What do you see when you see me?  Then reflect on it and decide if that's really what you want others to see.  And always remember to forgive and allow yourself to be forgiven.  Heavy stuff!!

Now for some more light-hearted topics...

Thankfully our evening went much more smoothly than our morning did yesterday. While the boys napped, I made a very yummy recipe inspired by this recipe for crispy quinoa sliders from Food and Wine.  I left out the chives and subbed sauteed mushrooms for the zucchini since that's what I had on hand.  They were PHENOMENAL.   I highly recommend you try them out.

We just ate them alongside some veggies but they would be great on little buns as well.

I also got in a good lower body workout while they were napping yesterday using these exercises and my tabata timer app...

...10 exercises, 4 minutes for each one, some rest in between...less than an hour for a good butt-kicking workout that got my heart pumping as well.  NICE!

We all felt better after our respective naps and workouts.  Thank goodness!! We also all managed to get a good night's sleep which always makes for happier Plankers.  I think we're all back to ourselves today...

I kicked off this morning with some peace and quiet along with a HOT cup of coffee.  Once the boys were up, we got in a quick run and were successful in beating the rain...

We quickly cleaned up, got some breakfast, and were off for the the morning.  I was on a to-do list tackling mission while the boys were at their play group.  Colton helped me load the chlorine containers into the car...what a good helper!!

Check out how strong he is :-)  He was SO proud of himself.  

Apparently Colton was more interested in the craft today...

I asked Mason about it and he said he didn't like the markers.  I asked him what he likes to color with and he said "I like pencils."  I doubt they'll be handing a bunch of sharp pencils to a group of toddlers any time soon so we'll just have to do our pencil "coloring" at home.  

He may not like markers, but he has no problem coloring his monkey with chalk, it seems...

The monkey looks like he has a sunburn :-)

While the boys played, I made some significant progress on my to-do list.  I think I got all of my non-kid-friendly errands out of the way for a while...always a good feeling.  Here's to hoping this stuff produces a good feeling in my neck as well...

I'm so OVER the knots in my neck.  Anyone got any other tips for getting rid of them??  A day floating around in this thing might help...

I told Mickey we need one...not sure he's convinced.  It looks fun to me!  The only thing it's missing is a drink holder.  I'm on the lookout for the perfect, affordable pool raft...since we all know I lounge all the time :-)  A girl can dream, right??  

Time to get cracking on some household chores I've been avoiding...or maybe I'll just keep avoiding them and paint my nails.  Happy Monday!