Christmas Recap

Well hello there friends! I hope all of you had a Christmas to remember! I wanted to take a minute to share with you a little about mine. When I started this blog it was with the purpose of documenting how I was trying to live out a healthy lifestyle. However I come to realize that the way you live your life has everything to do with what is happening in your life at the moment. Not every day is an easy day to work in an hour long work out or 5 servings of veggies. I think by journaling my life events that surround healthy living I'll be able to keep a better record for myself of the choices that I've made and what I can improve. 

Literally the night that we arrived in Oklahoma an ice storm hit hard. This made for some beautiful winter wonderland views, as well as power outages, and extremely cold temps! Fortunately for us there was no ice that stuck to the roads this time so travel was not an issue. The grass did become one large sheet of ice though, and since I usually walk Georgia all around the property lines and in and out of each pasture this definitely complicated things and made our walks a lot slower.

Jason and I spent Christmas Eve with my family. We had a little bit of a cooking competition going on with our dinner and watched Christmas movies before playing games. 

 

The first Christmas movie we watched was a super cute British film called Nativity. 

If you havent seen this movie yet I recommend it! In my opinion its a mix between Sister Act and Daddy Day Care! It's family friendly and will have everyone laughing. Then we watched the classic Home Alone and started on the games that my sister Courtney had brought over. She had several to choose from including a mini air hockey game, which was a perfect  warm up for Christmas Day.

Christmas morning we had brunch with my mom's family. It's always fun to see our cousins and uncles all together. This year we had a full on air hockey competition! We all had so much fun playing each other and determining that my little cousins Grace and Luke have some serious skill when it comes to this game. My arm was also pretty sore afterwards which was embarrassing.

After brunch was over we went back to Jason's parents house to spend some time with his mom's family. There was a bunch of delicious food prepared and we had fun catching up and spending some quality time together. On this side of the family there are two toddlers which make everything so much fun. They get spoiled in the best way on days like this!

One of the unique things about gifts with this family is Jason's dad loves to surprise people every year with some beautiful furniture that he has either salvaged from family heirlooms or made from scratch. This year he made me a gorgeous fold up craft table out of an old desk top that I found! Not only did it turn out beautiful but I know I'm going to love having this table for multiple reasons! He is an amazing craftsman!

When we finally made it back to Texas Jason and I exchanged gift as well as giving Georgia her first Christmas present!

And that is pretty much the gist of our Christmas celebrations! We had so much fun and feel very blessed to be able to see both of our families for each holiday. 

I hope you had a Merry Christmas as well! 2014 will be here in just a few days! Stay tuned to hear about my New Years resolutions!

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday festivities so far! We are soaking up time with family and doing our best to relax, eat, and repeat ;)

In all seriousness I have made an effort to continue my workouts since we have been away from home and our daily routine. However, I knew that sticking to a diet this week would be almost impossible! It would require preparing all my own meals separately, staying far away from the kitchen (where everyone likes to be this time of the year), and saying "no thank you" to all of the meals that had been graciously prepared for me  by family and friends. So for this week I'm not going to worry too much about the food that I eat. I know that I feel better when I take in more veggies and less sugar, breads, and dairy so I won't be going crazy. But I'm not going to be beating myself up over eating what I want the week of Christmas! 

This morning I got my exercise in with a good run/strength training combo! It was a high of 24DEGREES when I went out for a run this morning. Incase you were wondering that's about 26 degrees too cold for this Texan girl. I had planned on doing a longer run, and when I first made it about half a mile I realized something was going to need to change so I could feel my toes! That's when I started going into the garage for some strength training. I did one set of a ST circuit then ran another half mile and repeated the process for a total of two miles. Going into the garage several times helped me to stay warm and sweaty throughout my exercise. And man did it feel good to sweat! I hope to get a couple more exercise sessions in during our stay. I would love to go find some different running trails to switch things up a bit. 

Here's what we've been up to so far this week! (Not in order, I'm random as usual😊)

Cutest Christmas hat during our 'holiday hat day'

Snow globe ornaments for parent gifts in the classroom ❤️

Georgia snuggles 

Garrett family advent candle lighting

PJ party day! Complete with the best partner a girl could ask for and bunny slippers (not shown). Whoop whoop!! 

Tomorrow is Christmas! I know this can be a stressful time of the year for some and a lot of focus on the events that surround the season. 

My prayer is that you all feel the peace and comfort that comes with this new born savior's birth! Know that he has a plan for your next year that is far greater than you can dream, He has grace waiting around every corner, and is willing to give you everything your heart can desire if you only ask. 

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Run Playlist

What motivates you to get out and move?

I tend to find motivation in many different places but music is probably one of my top inspirations. 

A good play list can make or break a good run for me, and at Christmas time I've got to have some motivational seasonal tunes!
These are the top songs on my Christmas playlist. These songs get my heart pumping and put me in the mood to push for that extra mile. 
(I had some trouble with the links and wasn't able to get a link to each song. But I'm sure you'll live :) )

Jesus Is Alive by Josh Wilson
I just love this song! It's so upbeat and encouraging! Especially this part 
"Noel, Noel, Jesus is alive.
Emanuel, hope is here tonight.
So go, and tell, the world that death has died.
'Cause Jesus is alive. Yea Jesus is alive."
I just love it!

Born is The King (It's Christmas Time) by HillsongOne of the most fun Christmas Songs I think I've ever heard!

A Baby Changes Everything by Faith Hill
What else can get your blood pumping like hearing Faith belt out "EVERYTHING" over and over again? Seriously you might not have thought to make this a running song, but its a good one.

I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayle Peevey
This song always puts a spring in my step. Like I want to skip like a child while running, lol.

Cold December Night by Michael Buble
His voice and Christmas is magical.

Sing Mary Sing by Jennifer Knapp
An oldie but goodie.

Question:
What holiday tunes make the cut for your playlist?

Best Field Trip Ever

I really do love my job! I mean who else gets to do so many fun things like field trips!
After a very relaxing (and unplanned) 4 day weekend due to snow days we came back to school and had our first field trip of the year. Talk about craziness!

Last year our team lead brought up the idea of going to Build-A-Bear for a field trip and we all flipped for the idea after we got the principals approval. The best part was we would be able to spend the day at North Park Mall and partake in all of the holiday fun that the mall had going on for Christmas. Of course we were all I was wondering how we would be able to explain this as an educational experience. Although I didn't understand beforehand, when we got back from the field trip it was all crystal clear.  
How To Writings, Personal Narratives, you name the writing assignment we were able to work it in! The kid's drew ideas for their writing from that day for the rest of the year. It was a teacher's dream. So needless to say, we were beyond ready to make some of those same memories with this year's bunch.

Our trip to North Park started with Ginger Town.

An amazing set up of Olympic themed gingerbread houses! It was wonderfully done and fun for the adults to try and guess what each stucture was. The manager over these set ups in the mall even came by an told the kids all about how Ginger Town was made. It was very cool!

Then it was on to the turtle and duck pond to throw pennies in the fountains, make our Christmas wishes (another future writing prompt), and aw at the Santa and reindeer made of candy that was flying high above. Truly magical moments for these precious friends.

Story time with Santa was next so we hiked our way to Santa's house and got a quick class picture before taking our seats and waiting for the main speaker. (Talk about the best place for a class photo! We definitely had some big smiles.) When Santa arrived we had great seats to hear all about Santa's elf named Trouble. It was adorable and the kids really got into it!

As soon as story time was over it was time for my homeroom class to go make our bears at Build-A-Bear! 

Of course my students desperately wanted me to make an OU bear :)

The employees there really have this down to a science and don't look overwhelmed at all when we bring in 20+ kids at a time. Each student had their choice of a brown bear and a white bear, they made a wish for the bear on its heart, then helped stuff, fluff, and groom their new friends. One sweetie from my class even informed me that she had named her boy bear "Mr. Garrett", baha! Of course I told the real Mr. Garrett later and he looked very honored :)

When Build-A-Bear was over we took each child's photo with the tin soldiers that we will use later for a crafted gift for their parents. And before we knew it, it was time for lunch!

We ate lunch in a perfect little tucked away spot near the food court where the mall had set up a Christmas themed puppet show. We enjoyed the show after we ate and but we still had more to do!

We went by Mrs Field's and they gave us free good sized samples of cookies. Uptown Popcorn gave us a small serving of popcorn. And all of our students had brought money to donate to the salvation army and when they did they each received a candy cane.

One of the last things that we did was going to see the doggies and kitty cats that were up for adoption by the SPCA. When we got there one of the workers had a really cute dog available for us to pet, which always puts a smile on everyone's face!

Not long after that it was time to head back for the buses and leave for school. 

It was such a fun day for the kids and the teacher's all had a great time as well! It's just one of those days that is hard to beat and you're a little sad to see end.

Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

Bootcamp Love

I've mentioned before how much I love The Workout Mama and have enjoyed following her bootcamp workouts. You can read more about my workout routine here. I truly think that this boot camp is a great way to get a fabulous workout on your time schedule and your budget!

Well, now you have no excuses not to join in on the bootcamp fun because for the month of December a mini bootcamp session is being offered for free! You heard me right its FREE! These workouts are always unique, have something for every fitness level, and can be done within 30 minutes. But the best part of these workouts...they are what you make of them. You can choose to do them once a week to however many times fits your fancy. You could also push yourself each time by trying the different levels of each exercises. You get to decide how much you want to transform yourself. I love that!

If you're interested in bootcamping  you can start with the Squat It Low Workout.

first 5K post ice storm

Today's workout was one for the books. Yesterday, I slipped on the ice while letting Georgia outside which left me sore, stiff, and bruised this morning. All day I was achy with every move and really did not want to do any form of exercise. But slowly I started to talk myself into it as I got home. You know how it goes...'well I have to walk the dog so I might as well just run and wear her out' which somehow led to running a 5K and taking 2 minutes off my time! Then, I was so excited about my running progress and already nice and warmed up so I decided to go ahead and knock out today's bootcamp workout. And I was glad I did because I think all this combined movement was exactly what I needed to loosen myself up and start to feel better.

If you decide to start the bootcamp let me know! My favorite part of the regular sessions is the private facebook group where you can talk to other members and see how others are doing with the same fitness program.Its very encouraging!

I hope y'all are having a great Thursday!
13 Days until Christmas!

Twosday link-up

We finally made it on The World's Best Field Trip Ever today!

Here's a little teaser for now of just some of the fun Christmas candy made things we saw that got our engineering brains workin! This is also my first link up hosted by Twentieth Street for a Twosday!

More details to come!

Back to the Hustle and Bustle with a Snow Day

This last week going back to work has been fast and furious! There are only 3 short weeks left before Christmas Break (praise you Jesus) and there is so much to do. Within this time we have the worlds best field trip planned at school, lots of testing to do on my kiddos, Christmas shopping, my niecey pooh's FIRST birthday, my sister Stephanie's birthday, our class Christmas party, and that's all that's coming to me now, but I know there is more!
Just making that list stresses me out. So I need to be taking things one at a time.

And you know how it goes, when you have lots to do and no time to waste that's when something comes along that throws off all of your plans! Something like a **snow day**

I got to experience my first snow day as a teacher on Friday. It was a mixture of emotions. The little kid in me wanted to jump for joy and play out side for hours, while the teacher in me kept thinking 'well this stinks, I like having those bad weather days to be off in the spring'. However Jason did get to stay home with me. And if we had a bad weather day in the spring then I would home alone. So having him home suited me just fine.

Family walk in the ice

 The snow day also meant that our Worlds Best Field Trip would be postponed. This would be our 2nd Annual Trip to Build-A-Bear! Yes, you read that right, our field trip is to Build-A-Bear! I can't even tell you how much fun it is. We go to an amazing high end mall where Christmas decor and activities are set up everywhere. It's a whole day of Christmas magic and the teachers love it just as much as the kids. When we do get to go I'll be sure to share some more details. It's just awesome! 

The snow day also threw some kinks in our plans as far as getting to go to Ms. Anna Banana's first Birthday party! I guess I should clarify first that we didn't really get 'snow' on our snow day. We got ice. 4 big fat inches of it. And then you add to it the fact that we are in Texas, where this happens maybe once in every 5 years and you can see how this made for a big problem. We didn't get to make it for the party. However I did  get this super cute picture of my sweet girl!

And now it's Sunday and the roads are still just as icy, the temps are still in the 20s and I'm really starting to wonder if we'll be able to have school tomorrow. 

I know one little puppy who wouldn't mind if I had to stay home again for another day. 

Hope you're staying warm and enjoying your Sunday!  Only 22 days till Christmas!

Thanksgiving Break 2013

Well hello there strangers! It feels like forever since I have put up a post! Time really goes fast when you're having fun.

Since we last met Thanksgiving has come and gone and let me tell you mine was sooo nice!

We went home to be with family in Oklahoma for a few days over the break and had a great time! We ate things that are terrible for you, spent some time spoiling my pup, and did plenty of shopping! Oh yeah and we walked...a lot!  Georgia always gets a little more energy while we are out of town so in order to not drive everyone completely crazy the little lady and I spent about 2 hours a day walking. This was on top of our regular play time, etc. my goal was to wear her out, and I think it worked! She did so good the whole time! And I think the exercise helped me not gain 100lbs while I ate anything and everything that weekend! 

I did also take advantage of some of the Black Friday sales with my sister Stephanie. We love Black Friday and have been doing it for years! We really could care less about the shopping as much as we just love the excuse to spend some time with family and friends doing what we do best! 

We went out about 10:00pm Thursday night and shopped until 3am. Then we went back to sleep and spent Friday watching Christmas movies, cleaning up from Thursday's get togethers, and... oh yeah walking. Later that night we met up with the fam at an adorable little Italian restaurant to celebrate my sister Courtney's birthday! The food was awesome and we had a great time! 

This year I had two really great finds from the Black Friday sales. One being some new running shoes! Thanks to the mark downs I scored these bad boys that were originally $120 for $45! Insane right? These are my first pair of Brooks running shoes, and let me tell you I'm sold. They are comfortable. I have really enjoyed my runs in them since.I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for them again when I'm ready for the next pair.

I couldn't wait to break them in!

I also scored Georgia a new doggie pillow that she couldn't love more. It's an XL dog bed with a slipcover that I snagged from pet smart for $15! She has definitely grown to like it.

On our way back home Jason and I stopped at his parents farm to walk around some more (I'm telling you I think I walked a marathon that week) and try to get a good family photo of us with the little stinker to use for our Christmas card. Unfortunately we were unable to get a good one of us all looking at the camera. I never thought about how difficult it could be to photograph a puppy with a tripod. I'm in desperate need of a remote control for my camera. Remind me to add that to my Christmas list.

But we had a good time walking around and taking in our last bit of vacation before heading back to work on Monday. 

See what I mean...they're all just...awkward.

I hope your Thanksgiving was just as wonderful! 

Here's a sneak peak at our Christmas card. 

I just went with one of the awkward pics that we got since I had waited until the last minute to get them done and was running out of options. Even though you can't see Georgia's face I think it will work. There is always next year right? 

Now were on to the best time of the year y'all!! It's Christmas!!!

out of routine

Post Number 10!

To be honest when I wrote my first blog post I thought 'hmm...I wonder how many posts I can write before I give up or forget that I even have a blog' lol. But today is my tenth post! I still think it's fun, and haven't forgotten about it yet!
But that's got me thinking about what I should try to improve on. Most good bloggers include lots of pictures, so that's something I'm going to try to get better at. But if you have any suggestions please share!

This week I have been at the reading recovery conference in Dallas and out of the classroom. I cannot even begin to tell you how encouraging it is to get out of the daily routine and gather with colleagues to discuss teaching and how to do it better. I hope that this is a conference I get to attend for years to come! But I also can't wait to get back to the school and quickly implement all that I'm learning!

The thing about being out of my typical routine for these two days is I don't have my packed lunch and snacks to fall back on. But I do enjoy allowing more time in the morning for a real breakfast and more than 10-15mimutes to scarf down my lunch :)

On Monday I made a strong attempt to eat as many veggies as I could for lunch. I stopped in Genghis Grill on my lunch break and was so excited to fill my bowl with as many different colors of vegetables as possible. But after waiting for 30 minutes for my food they came to my table an said that they somehow "lost my food". I was left with 15 minutes to get back to the conference and somehow find a quick lunch. The only option for fast food on the way was In and Out Burger. So I stopped and enjoyed the not so healthy lunch and called it good. What's a girl to do. I tried to be healthy, and it just didn't work out. 

Dinner Monday night did turn out to be a success though! I ended up making roasted chicken sausage and green beans. Then my portion of dinner went into half of a roasted acorn squash and Jason's went with roasted red potatoes.

A great and healthy fall meal ...mmm...

Today has also been successful so far! For breakfast I had enough time to make two eggs with spinach and all 3 colors of bell peppers. This was joined by a banana and my usual coffee. I failed on snapping a picture. I'm learning.

Then in the mid morning I stopped for a protein bar and bottled water. 

For Lunch I stopped at my all time love: Subway

I jut can't get enough of their chopped salads! So good! 

I even had some time to let Georgia girl run out some energy at the dog park in between the rain storms we've been getting.  

She loves making new friends! 

But sometimes doesn't understand what to do when they run with the ball

She was ready for a nice nap after our little outing! And I enjoy the extra snuggles

For dinner Jason has been asking for meatloaf. I have a few different meatloaf recipes stored away and I think I'll be making the BBQ style meatloaf. I'm also planning on making roasted beets for the first time. I have not been able to find a way to make beets where I want to eat them regularly. So let's hope that roasting them turns out well.  Then its time to get my workout on with another workout from The Nike Training Club. Let's hope the rain gives me another break so I can get a short run in for my cardio. If not I 'll be looking to my trusty elliptical to help me get the job done.

Hope y'all are enjoying the start of your week! 

Question: What would you like to see added to the blog? More pictures, more frequent posting? Be honest! I know I have more than just Jason reading this blog. Google tells me I have lots of regular viewers! I need more of you guys to talk to me and let me know what you like :)

Staying healthy...there's an app for that...

Well sorry for the delay in my posting folks! I was having some techno difficulties (that possibly could have been due to a user error). Do you ever struggle to keep up with technology? I definitely have a hard time when it comes to computers. It is not one of my strong points that's for sure. 

One way I do love to use technology is with tracking my health! There are so many apps, websites and blogs that are wonderful for helping us stay healthy. I'm planning on taking full advantage of these techno services to help me meet my goals over the next two months. (If  I'm being completely honest I didn't do very well at all at sticking to my goals through October. But so far 3 days in and November is going great! Haha)

Georgia thinks workouts are for the birds 

So here is the technology that I'm loving for both exercise and nutrition.

 •Active- my new found love for this app will definitely help me keep up with my holiday ACTivities like I had planned. I got on the other day and saw they had online 5Ks! Have you guys heard of those?! They are so cool! You register just like you normally would for a race and then are given a time period in which you complete your run! I love the idea of being able to still be a part of something and yet not have to stick to a specific place and time. Of course they have more traditional race listings as well.

•my fitness pal- this app has been around for a while and I'm sure most of you are familiar with it by now. But I love that it gives you the opportunity to track your food, water, exercise, and weight. It's a great place to store everything you would want to track. 

•map my run- another app that has been around for a while to help log all your nutritional needs. I mostly use this app for running because I like the maps and GPS system with it that help track my exercise. But you could also use it for tracking nutrition and water intake as well. 

•nike training club- this app is awesome when it comes to wanting a killer workout with minimal planning on your part! You have several options to choose from as far as what type of workout you want to do. Then the app will give you the exercises, show proper form and videos if needed on how to do them, as well as a timer to help you keep up! I HIGHLY recommend this one! And it's free! How could you go wrong? 

•the 7 minute workout- you may or may not have heard about the 7 minute workout. If you're interested in reading more about what the New York Times had to say about this bad boy then you can read on here.

It's always handy to have a quick and painful workout stored away in your pocket. And this app is the perfect way! 

•the workout mama- as mentioned before I love this amazing woman for making boot camp available online! It was so easy to stick to since I was able to do the workouts on my time schedule and at home. And with the community Facebook page I still felt encouraged daily to keep up the workouts or to try something to really push myself. 

Question of the week: Do you have an app or website that is motivating you to live healthy? Please share!!!

Responsibilities

Our lives are filled with more and more responsibilities as we get older. We take on bills, careers, build families, and somewhere in all of that we are still responsible of taking care of ourselves. It can be very overwhelming at times and so much so that we forget the importance of some of the things we are called to do. 

I've noticed that through becoming a teacher I have really had to become more organized with my responsibilities than ever before. If not some things simply won't get done. But God has also been there to quickly remind me of tasks He has given me when I start to let them go. For me one of the easiest things to let go is prayer. It's probably the stupidest thing to stop doing, but somehow gets left out when my to do list gets to be too much. 

Last year as it was my first year as a teacher God reminded me that I need to make praying for God's strength and wisdoms a HUGE responsibility! I was constantly in new situations and felt a lot of pressure to be perfect. I had to really trust that God would begin to teach through me and remind me that none of this is about me. 

So far this year I have felt God gently nudging me to pray more for my students. These are kids that have been placed in my care not by the administration of the school, or as a chance, but by God! These are kids that live in this same fallen world we all do and heart aches at an early age! These are kids who just like everyone else need to feel safe and loved throughout the day! That's my responsibility when they are with me. 

As I began to focus my prayers more towards my students and their specific lives I have also noticed God opening my eyes to more oportunities to show them an example of grace. Today I read them You Are Special by Max Lucado and at the end of the book SEVERAL students started conversing with each other about how when God loves them, what other people think doesn't matter (funny how that later ended up being the theme of my devotional story this evening) I couldn't help but tear up a bit and smile. I might be limited in what I can say to my students regarding my faith but I can show them love and grace and continue to pray that God will meet their every need. 

God has blessed me with a huge responsibility to care for these precious babies. Today I am so thankful I have a job that allows me the opportunity for such responsibilities. 

The War With Holiday Weight

Well fall is finally here and with it comes cravings. Foods that I have not given much thought over the last few months suddenly clog my mind. So I've decided, I need a plan! If I don't want to undo in 3 months what took 10 months to get then I'll need to walk cautiously into the holiday season. 

I've decided on 5 goals for myself that I want to pray about and with the Lords help will conquer over the next few months. 

Goal 1: drink more water. 

           I have had a huge issue with not drinking enough water lately. And this is nothing new. Usually at this time of year I start wanting only a hot cup of something.  Coffee, cocoa, tea... Anything but what my body really needs. I've got to hydrate myself so my body can function properly. (I think I can, I think I can)

Goal 2: run my butt off. 

            Lately my "running" (if you can even call it that) has been pathetic. I've hit a bump in the road and am slowing Jason down more and more each morning. I want to be able to encourage/push him the way he pushes me! 

***side note*** I love all things photography. So when I heard about this picture idea on Pinterest to take pictures of your running shoes in different places thoughout the year I was all in! I'm excited to get some more pictures taken before Dec 31st. 

Goal 3: make healthy the tradition. 

            I'm still learning the secrets to cooking. And I really like the idea of starting to bring more and more food to the holiday gatherings. This year I think I'll sign up for some healthy side dishes instead of the desserts. Then I'll be helping myself out in more ways than one. 

Goal 4: join in on the ACTIVities. 

            I would love to participate in things like turkey trots and Santa runs this year! My cousin has been telling me about a 5k in OKC that has you run at night through a lit up street of Christmas lights for years. This might just be the year I join him. 

Also, planning something other than eating for holiday get togethers. We use to go bowling every thanksgiving with my cousins. I would take a family outing of active fun over gifts and a stuffed belly any day!

Goal 5: start the planning for Jan 1. 

            This last year was the first time I ever completed my resolution. (Getting to a healthy/comfortable weight) 

I need to start praying, planning, and getting in the mind set for a new fitness goal in 2014! I think I might have 2 real resolutions this year. One being health related and the other being faith related. We'll see what God leads me to. 

Question: 

What will you be doing to stay healthy through the holidays?

 I would love to know what ideas you came up with!

What I'm Reading

Truth be told, I've never considered myself to be much of a reader. I always wanted to be able to get lost in a book but when I tried I've always came up bored.

I'm not really sure why this is. And it's definitely a well kept secret to all of my little students who think Mrs. G just LOVES good books. But...in reality...not really. 

Getting me to read non-fiction however is a completely different story. I have found myself getting obsessed with blogs lately and really love it when I have a question that I can research an answer for. I know I'm weird, but there is something about reading articles and other peoples comments that I find fascinating! So in case you're also enjoying a love affair with blog reading and are looking for some new good ones, here ya go! This is the list of blogs I love to read. 

She Reads Truth - a wonderful daily Bible study for women! Could it get any better? 

Abducted By Books - for those of you that do like a good fiction read! My sister Courtney is a lover of all novels and gives some great reviews. So when you're in the market for a new book to read check out her Blog! 

Peanut Butter Fingers

The Workout Mama

Undressed Skeleton 

 All 3 are great blogs for tips on health, recipes, and workout ideas! I love that they usually post often so there is always something to read. 

The Chronicles of Ruthie Hart - daily happenings of a sweet Texan lady who loves to serve The Lord! 

The First Grade Parade - for all my teacher friends. This teacher could not be cuter. 

Those are just a few. If you would like more let me know! These are just the blogs that update on a regular basis. 

Happy Bloggin! 

That's Life

You know how it goes, you've been on a healthy eating plan for a while and feeling great, then life happens. It's your birthday, someone bakes you cookies, or you eat at someone's home and the dinner menu doesn't quite fit your new habits. Yep, I've been there. 

Two weekends ago Jason and I decided on a cheat day. We had both been dreaming about pizza and decided to make a day of it and have a pizza date! I'm not gonna lie, it was awesome! And we both ate more than we should have. 

Over the last week I had plenty of extra stress, busy work days, and somehow made it to school several days in a row without my healthy snacks and lunches. Let me tell ya the week was set up to fail from the start. To top it all off we went home for the weekend to spend some time with our families where they served mostly things we should not have had. Let's face it. It's football season in the south! What do you expect? 

That's life folks. It happens. It can be difficult to say no when thrown into a world of situations you didn't plan for. 

One thing that I try to do after having several cheat days in a row is to convince myself I'm excited to eat healthy again! This is usually done by switching up my recipes to try new things, or braking out some oldies that I haven't had in a while. If I can get excited about a healthy meal that has been planned then I'm less likely to desire the chocolate as I walk by the candy dish. 

Today, was another day full of stress which made it perfect to play some mind games on myself. 

I had part of the day off which allowed me to spend some additional time eating breakfast. It was awesome if I do say so myself 

Breakfast consisted of two eggs, some green pepper, and spinach. Yummo 

I also had a honey and nut bar with my coffee. 

Lunch was on the go and at a time when I didn't feel like eating. So I just grabbed an apple and green grapes to go with almond butter. 

Have you guys tried this? Oh my I could eat the whole jar! I actually bought this out of weakness. It's pretty dangerous to keep in the house. I crave it when I know it's in the pantry. 

Dinner was a quick and easy go to staple. Salsa verde chicken salad. 

Couldn't be easier. Just add chicken and a jar of salsa verde to the crockpot. 6 hours later put it over a salad mix of your choice and done. We have also done this with regular salsa and adding taco seasoning or ranch dressing mix. These are also very good, but Jason and I both decided the flavor of the salsa verde was the winner in our home. 

So that was me tricking myself to get back into the groove of things. Hopefully the rest of the week will go as smoothly! 

I have some new recipes that looked fall inspired to me that I can't wait to try pinned on my Pinterest board. I'll be sure to post if they're winners! 

Question of the week:

What do you do to stay healthy when life happens?