Back To Reality

What a day yesterday was! It was a crazy kind of produce day and I had to say goodbye to my sister in the midst of it all.  I can't even put into words how helpful and wonderful she was to have around.  It's such a wonderful thing to be able to call your sister your best friend.  I love her!  Things did start to get better after all the produce was picked up and the missing items were documented.   I got tot tutor one of my favorite students and then I hit the road for my tried and true stress-reliever, a run.  The weather was glorious and I returned home after 5.5 miles feeling much better about life.  The boys and I ate dinner and played before I put them to bed.  Then my friend came over to give me some highlights.  She ended up using two tones and I love the variation--so natural.  Thanks, Heather!  It was great to catch up.

I was so glad to be able to start fresh today.  We kicked off our morning by lazily sleeping in til 7:30.  I love going in to get these boys in the morning...

"Peek-A-Boo"

Colton

Mason

For breakfast, we enjoyed some homemade apple butter on english muffins...

...with a side of scrambled eggs before heading off to the library for some fun.  I forgot my camera...woops!  We had a blast, as usual, at the Family Place.  It was a small, intimate group this morning.  I love being able play with my kids, and watch them play with the other children, while chatting with the other moms.

After the library and a couple of errands, the boys let me squeeze in a workout which included two workouts from Tina's Best Body Bootcamp (I had to catch up from last week where I was focused on the race) along with some sprint intervals on the elliptical.  The exercises on the Bosu ball never seem to disappoint.  Tina's workouts have been a great way to shake up my exercise routine.  I missed my workout buddy though :-)

My 20 minutes on the elliptical looked like this:

• First 5 minutes: warmup
• Alternate 1 minute sprints with 30 second recoveries (6 times)
• Alternate 1 1/2 minute sprints with 30 second recoveries (2 times)
• 2 minute cooldown

I made myself a quick protein smoothie to replenish my body after my workout while the boys ate their lunch.  Then I started snacking on these little gems my sister left behind...

I guess I'm a bad mom because I was letting my 19 month olds enjoy them along with me...and it's not the first time I've share nuts with them.  Check out this warning I noticed on the bag...

WHOOPS!

Speaking of things I've discovered, I got this sample in my Target beauty samples bag and am now on a mission to buy some.  I love this stuff.  

It's a "flawless beauty primer" and I feel like it really gives my face a fresh look and it feels nice going on too.  I am such a minimalist when it comes to makeup and I love stuff like this to just brighten up my look a bit.

The rest of my quiet time is dedicated to laundry, studying, and sipping on some tea.  When the boys wake up, we are definitely going to get our butts outside to enjoy this gorgeous day.  Dinner is just leftovers so we can soak up as much fresh air as possible until we get hungry.  Maybe we'll even eat outside :-)  Have a fabulous Friday!

Painting, Food, and Food For Thought

I think I finally redeemed myself from my beach towel/ conch shell painting fiasco last night at Quench Your Palette.  My sister and I were the only ones in the class so we got the instructor's attention completely to ourselves.  It was so much fun!

They really should put better lights in there so that when people pose with their paintings, they don't look so washed out.  Oh well...

Maybe the painting went better as a result of the yummy dinner we consumed prior to the class....

I changed up my original plan a bit and made black bean-smothered sweet potato fries instead of using the whole potato.  It was my attempt to speed the baking process along and it worked.  The boys even ate their broccoli last night too.  Of course their sweet potato fries were smothered in ketchup, not black bean salsa, but they did devour their side of seasoned black beans...also dipped in ketchup of course.  

Speaking of food, that apple butter turned out to be delicious.  I could eat it by the spoonful!  Yum!

I found some other interesting things in the blogging world this morning too...

I like this idea of making your home a haven during the holidays.  I definitely want to try out her tips.

The challenge starts off with lighting a large candle in your home every day.  I'm never sorry I lit a candle, especially a festively scented one.  I think this is a challenge I can handle.

I also found this post from Tina to be quite interesting, especially in light of some comments I've heard from people lately.  She explains how we ALL have motivation.  

Source 

I think you probably need to figure out what your dreams are first, which should be easy but I always struggle with that question, then figure out what drives you to those dreams, but I agree that it's within all of our abilities to achieve our dreams.  We just have to channel our energies in the right direction.  

Just some food for thought...

Anyways, today looks like it's going to be another beautiful day.  We're hoping to fit in a bike ride to the bagel shop, a trip to the park, a best body fitness boot camp workout, sriracha corn chowder (don't worry friends that are joining us for dinner, we're going easy on the Sriracha and have sour cream to cut the heat if its still too spicy), trick-or-treating with friends, hopefully a quick little run, and DEFINITELY lots of giggles and snuggles. 

Can't wait to see what our little superheroes think of trick-or-treating!  I hope they have as much fun collecting candy as they had eating it the other night.  Did you know you can face paint with M&Ms?

Blue streaks compliments of that blue M&M he's holding.  That's right friends, they do melt in your hands if you hold on to them long enough.

Colton didn't get quite as crazy but he sure did have a good time eating the M&Ms.  Happy Halloween!