Goodbyes, Turtles, and SANTA

We bid goodbye to my parents yesterday.  I was sad to see them go after such a great week.

I'm TERRIBLE at goodbyes, and sometimes even get a little depressed after people leave, but I've learned over the years that the best way for me to deal with those situations is with some fresh air and some exercise.  We had a pretty fun day making that happen.

We kicked off our morning yesterday with some veggie-scrambled eggs before hitting the road along with my parents.  They were off to Birmingham and we headed to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Jupiter.  I love that place and used to take all of my out-of-town guests there.  It's that cool!  I am embarrassed to admit it was the first time I took the boys to check it out.  They were celebrating "Blue Friday," which in my opinion was the PERFECT alternative to Black Friday shopping and we decided to join the fun.  I'm so glad we went!

We had hoped to see a Tropical Santa there but apparently I got the wrong information.  Good thing I remembered santa was going to be downtown later in the afternoon.  In the mean time, we headed home for naps for the boys, and a workout for me.  I'm still muscling through the Best Body Fitness Bootcamp plan and had switched up the order of the workouts for the week, attempting to avoid the burpee workout, but had to bite the bullet and finally tackle it yesterday.  I ended up doing 158 burpees in that workout.  OUCH!  I'm pretty sure I reached total muscle failure with that one.  Now I'm really dreading week 6, since it includes 2 more burpee workouts as well.  I have a love/hate relationship with those things.

Once the boys woke up, we headed downtown to track down Santa.   We ended up running into a friend who detoured us into the Arts Council for the Tykes and Teens Festival of Trees.  There were some gorgeous trees in there!   Guess who else was in there---SANTA!  Thankfully Mrs. Claus was kind enough to give up her seat so I could hold the boys for the photo.  There was no way Colton was getting anywhere near him without me.  Poor guy!

Maybe we scarred him last year...

What a difference a year makes.  That Santa really is a great one!  (So much better than the one we ended up finding downtown--creepy!)  Hope we can track him down again every year.  

I rounded out my day with a very sad, but good movie and a glass of wine on the couch.  

Not a bad day at all...much more eventful than today.  We've had a cozy day at home today, lounging in our jammies til  at least 10 and playing with just about every today in the house and the yard.   I love hanging with my little men.  

Pancakes, Rest Day, and a side of Produce

Today started off nice and lazily, like any good rest day should.  I enjoyed lots of coffee and stayed in my pajamas til almost 9.  Bliss!  Tomorrow is a long run day on my half marathon training plan so today calls for rest, which for me equals a nice 4 miles walk with the boys.  It was a beautiful morning for a stroll.

On Labor Day, I made pancakes for breakfast and today I enjoyed the leftovers.  They're super healthy, super yummy, and super easy, which qualifies them for staple status at our house.  Here's the recipe:

Protein Whole Wheat Flax Pancakes
Combine the following in a big bowl:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup vanilla protein powder (I use SunWarrior)
• 1/2 cup flax seed
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 2 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Let sit for about half an hour to give the oats time to soften.  Then, prepare as you would any pancake on a hot griddle, waiting for bubbles along the edges before flipping and cooking until cooked through.  Enjoy topped with pure maple syrup or as I like them best, topped with fresh berries that were simmered with a splash of water while the pancakes were cooking...oh and a dollop of peanut butter.  YUM!  I devoured them before I remembered I wanted to snap a picture.  Sorry!  

Today is also Annie's Organic Buying club day.  I'm the coordinator so that means I'll have lots of yummy produce to sort at my house today before everyone comes to pick up their shares.  It's a beautifully yummy thing.  Check it out.  

The delivery of boxes that comes for me to sort.

The pre-sorted goods.

Sorted and ready for pick up.

Check out the size of this heirloom tomato.  YUM!

My boys have discovered the joy of stickers, thanks to my grandma, their great grandma.  She is AWESOME and sent them a whole bunch to play with.  If you're the praying type, please say a prayer for her.  She's in the hospital getting her heart checked out.  Something's just not quite right and they're trying to figure out how to help her.  She is the most inspiring woman I know.  I'm so blessed to be able to call her my grandma.  I LOVE HER!

Check out Colton's face in the top left.  Too funny!  Mason must have been trying to steal his sticker.

Their other new favorite toy is the thermos.  Figure that one out!  They sure do love carrying that thing around.  Silly boys!

 Oh look, another silly Colton face.  Haha!  Caught in the act.

I hoping my long run tomorrow is better than last week's long run.  In order to help things along, I chugging water today, eating well, and planning on a good night's sleep.  Maybe I should ask for prayers for myself too :-)  This long run will include the stroller and two silly boys.  Can't wait!


As a little side note, since it's been going round and round in my mind since yesterday when a friend of mine said something along the lines of..."I don't know how you do all that you do.  And you have TWINS!", I wanted to let you all in on a little secret.  I'm NOT anything special.  I am just like all of you.  I have good days and bad.  I have times when I am loving life and times when I just want to scream.  Sometimes I think my kids are little angels and other times I want to "pretend I never birthed them."  (I read that line in a parenting magazine and it stuck.)  Sometimes my workouts are amazing and others I just feel like I'm pulling myself through the mud.  I am NO superwoman.  I am a mom who has my challenges just like all of you but I have found that finess is my therapy.  Running and working out are what keep me going.  It's how I deal.  It's my "me time." It's my time to have long chats with god.  It's my prayer time.  You know me...I'm a multitasker  If you haven't discovered the joy that is exercise, why don't you give it a try.  It is a powerful thing.

Make today great!  Find you therapy and remind yourself, life is good!  God is good!