Back to Reality...

It's always kind of a bummer when the party is over and you have to return to real life again.  I miss my sister already and I'm counting down the days til her next visit.  It's not too far away.  Good thing I have my boys and my man to keep me company in the mean time.  They're great!

Today was business as usual with a 5 am wake-up call to drag my butt to the gym.  It's week 5 of my half marathon training plan and Mondays call for cross training.  I hit the elliptical for a little over 5 miles while I finished Gone Girl...what a crazy ending!  I'm actually kind of disappointed.  I feel like the ending was quite a let-down after the crazy suspense throughout the rest of the book.  For those of you who've read it, what did you think?  I can't say that I wouldn't recommend it, but if I was the author, I would have chosen a much different ending.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  (I don't want to spoil it for any of you who are planning to read it or are in the middle of it...)

With that book behind me, and some more time to put in on the elliptical, I started my book club's book--The Happiness Project.  I am already engrossed with it.  Can't wait to see all the insights it has in store for me.

One thing I've already found interesting is that she comes up with a plan for the year to target all aspects of her life, choosing one specific goal each month.  I think I could come up with 12 areas to target for a month at a time to give me a little more focus on finding regular happiness.  

1.Faith

2. Husband

3. Family

4. Fitness 

5. Household

6. Energy

7. Nutrition

8. Relaxation

9. Cooking

10. Education

11.  Organization

12.  Outreach

See...I came up with that list in about a minute.  Now I need to come up with a plan to put it into practice.  I'm hoping the book gives me some ideas for that as well.  It might help me tweak my list too...  This one was completely off the top of my head.

I returned home from the gym with plenty of time to enjoy coffee and catch up on my emails before the boys woke up.  Then it was time to tackle the workday.  Breakfast, diaper changes, getting dressed, cleaning up breakfast, cleaning up pee...On that note, Mason peed next to the toilet at least this morning.  Things are moving in the right direction!  He was quite proud of himself.  We didn't get to really tackle the potty training at all this weekend with my big surprise so we were back to square one today.  Fun times!

This week begins week 2 of the Peak313 challenge.  I reported back on meeting my goals for week one and am excited to begin week 2.  The verse for this week's memory work is a good one...

I am loving the combination of faith and fitness with this challenge.  If you haven't checked it out, you should!

We went to the library for Family Place today.  It was at a different library which meant different toys for the boys to check out.  I especially had fun since we met a set of twins that were 3 months old.  It brought back some serious memories.  They looked soooo snuggly!  I'm still not quite ready for another one yet though...  We LOVE the family place and Miss Lisa!

After the library we stopped by our second favorite place, Publix, to pick up some ingredients to make dinner for our friends who had a baby over the weekend.  I'm looking forward to seeing their little one in just a couple of hours.  I can't believe how many people have been having babies lately...

While chatting with a friend this morning, I committed to running the Palm Beach Half Marathon in December with her.  I'm planning to just stay in training mode.  It will give my fitness some focus during the holiday season.  I'm looking forward to running in some cooler weather.  She also told me to check out the Superhero Scramble.  I'm hoping we can do that one too.  It looks super fun.  Check it out.  

Tutoring and chores have filled the rest of my day, as well as some play time with the boys.  I'm hoping to finish off my day with a movie.  This one came today...

Do something to make yourself happy today.  You'll be glad you did.

Nice Day for a Duck

It's another dreary day here on the Treasure Coast but we are counting our blessing that this is a tropical storm and not a hurricane.  My husband likes to say it's a nice day for a duck.  I'd have to agree.  The tornado warnings are a bit unsettling though.  At least in Indiana we had basements.  Here in Florida, I guess I'll be crawling in the kitchen cabinets if things get scary.  Wouldn't that be fun for the boys!

Speaking of the boys, I completely forgot to show off their cuteness on the rides at the mall yesterday.

Today started bright and early.  I actually did something I've been wanting to do for a while...I got up before everyone else in my household just for ME.  I know, it sounds crazy to get up when no one else is demanding my attention but I keep hearing this advice from other moms, and even from the Bible, (see Proverbs 31) so I decided to give it a try and I must say, it was quite nice.  I had my coffee and did some reading, greeted my husband, used the bathroom in peace, and then went to the gym.  What a nice way to start the day.  The boys were still sleeping when I left but they were awake when I got home.  They got to have some daddy time.  I think if I can get up a little earlier, I can still squeeze everything in before the boys get up so Daddy doesn't have to do the morning wake-up call all alone.  It's definitely something I'm going to be pursuing.  The only drawback is an earlier bed time but as they say...

I wouldn't mind being all of the above!  It's worth a try. 

This is week 2 of my half-marathon training plan and today called for cross training.  After alot of jumping around yesterday, I opted for the elliptical in order to give my legs a break from the pounding that running and plyometrics provide.  Don't worry though, I kept the intensity high by increasing the resistance or incline every 10th of a mile for a total of 5 miles.  My workout looked like this...

• Mile 1: from easy resistance, increase resistance every tenth of a mile
• Mile 2:  slightly decrease resistance and increase incline every tenth of mile
• Miles 3-4: from low resistance and flat incline, alternate between increasing resistance and incline every tenth of a mile
• Mile 5: alternate between decreasing resistance and lowering incline every tenth of a mile

I liked this pattern and the constant changing helped pass the time quickly...so did reading my book.  I'm about a tenth of the way into Gone Girl  by Gillian Flynn and it is a page turner.  Anyone else out there read it? I'll let you know my overall opinion when I'm done with it.

When the boys got up from their nap, I had a smoothie waiting for them and couldn't wait for their feedback.  So far they've liked spinach in pancakes and muffins so today I decided to give it a try in their smoothies and it was a winner.  For those of you who have trouble getting your kiddos to eat greens, I seriously suggest you try it.  You can't even taste the spinach.  

I made two smoothies for them using:

• 1 Chobani champions yogurt
• 1 small banana
• 1 BIG handful of spinach
• 1/2 cup orange juice

They gulped them down.  This will definitely be a repeat on their menu.  Hopefully they like the spinach stuffed meatloaf we'll be eating for dinner tonight too.  I'll let you know.

Time to turn this cabin fever upside down with a little dance party and the best dance partners a girl could ask for.  Stay safe and dry...and don't forget to MOVE!