The Start of Summer Break

This first week of summer break has felt a bit like a liminal space—technically, we’re on break, but with Piper away at basketball camp from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, it hasn’t fully felt like summer. 

However, it does help that we decorated for the occasion! This is a little tradition I started for the last day of school each year and the kids love it!

Today is Piper’s last day of camp! Even though summer vacation officially started last Thursday, I don’t think it will truly begin for us until she’s home full-time again, which starts tonight!

Life has slowed down a bit lately, and I’ve been using the time to catch up on all the things that piled up during the busier months. 

One of the big things on my list has been getting the garden in order. It’s been a slow start, but everything is growing! I still need to get the squash planted, but aside from that, I’m feeling pretty caught up. 

The baby chicks we brought home in February are officially teenagers now—and ready to be introduced to the rest of the flock. If you’ve never done that before, let me just say: it’s not always a smooth process. 

We’ve started with short, supervised introductions in the backyard—what I like to call a “soft introduction”—since there’s plenty of space for everyone to spread out. The real test will be when we move them all into the same coop. I’m praying that goes smoothly!

Inside My Fridge + Grocery Haul

It’s the first Monday of summer break, and the house feels a little different. My oldest daughter, Piper, is off at an all-day basketball camp. My youngest, Laney, is at home with me. 

Laney has been my right-hand girl today! This morning we planted the last of our tomato starts, preserved garlic scapes, and picked flowers to put in vases around our home.

After that, she came along to help me pick up groceries. Now that the groceries are unpacked and the fridge has been freshly restocked (and reorganized, sort of), I thought it would be fun to do something a little different: show you exactly what we bought for the week, and what’s in my fridge.

This was a spontaneous decision and so the fridge isn’t deep cleaned or sparkling by any means, and that’s okay. I also didn’t plan a grocery haul with the thought of sharing it in mind so this is going to be as authentic and real as it gets today!

I don’t usually pick up groceries on Monday but, we had a weekend full of fun that kept me pretty busy! I picked up the groceries we needed for the rest of the week ahead, which will supply my dinner meal plan for the week!

Monday: Zuppa Toscana

Tuesday: OTE

Wednesday: Burgers + Corn

Thursday: Egg Roll Bowl

Friday: Chicken Sausage Stir Fry

Since Piper will be at basketball camp the next few days, I made sure to stock up on Gatorade. We also like to have Coke Zero and Spindrift sparkling waters on hand in general each week.

I will say the butter is not usually kept in the fridge but since I made garlic scape butter, I thought it would be best to refrigerate it.

As for the two mysterious looking jars on the top shelf, those would be our bacon grease supply that we use for cooking and a sourdough starter that I keep as a backup just in case my starter dies.

Everything else seems pretty self explanatory. I hope you enjoyed this little peek into what we eat and how we spent our first summer Monday!

Hello June!

Hello, June! It sure doesn’t feel like it’s June. If I were to step outside I’d say it’s the end of April. It’s been a rainy and cold few weeks here. I’m sure the nice weather will eventually come!

To sum up the last month, May got busy and I stopped taking care of myself again. That’s a habit I’m hoping to break, but the only way to do that is to keep working on it. Since it’s a new month, and our season is changing from the school year to summer break, I am going to start working on myself again.

A new routine will begin for us as my kids wrap up the school year and I’m looking forward to it more than I believe I ever have before. Summer break is going to be great!

I plan to sit and think about my goals for the month at some point today, and will be sharing them with you soon. For now, I’ll just share my dinner plans for the week. I try to come up with a meal plan every weekend for the week ahead. I will grocery shop for the whole week later today.

Sunday: Turkey Roll-Ups

Monday: Zuppa

Tuesday: Chicken Sausage + Veg + Potatoes

Wednesday: Egg Roll Bowl

Thursday: Burgers + Corn

Friday: Out to Eat (OTE)

Thanks for being here! I’ll check in again, soon!

Hello and Goodbye

Hello, and goodbye to the 2025 Spring Book Fair! We did it!

I feel like my brain is a lot more clearer and I am ready to refocus on my health goals. There is still plenty going on around here as we plant up our entire garden in the next two weeks, and say goodbye to the school year with various events including my youngest’s preschool graduation.

I am hoping to gain more mental clarity and focus this week by waking up earlier, again. I started sleeping in until the last possible minute these past couple of weeks because my days were exhausting. I would crash immediately when hitting the bed, and sleep in until my kids woke up. That was definitely contributing to my mental fog. I went to bed running, and woke up running, and not in the good-for-you, “workout” kind of way.

While life is still busy, I feel like I have a little more room to breathe. I have decided to step down from my role as PTO secretary after this school year is finished, which is a role I have been in since 2022. This is my oldest daughter’s last year in elementary school and so I want to shed whatever is reasonable from my plate so that I can be more present for it. This is one of those things I will be releasing.

This was an easy decision once I had the time to think and pray about it. I am still going to volunteer with the PTO, but not in such a time-consuming capacity next school year. I thought it would be bittersweet to give that role up, but it isn’t. It feels like good timing as we have a whole new group of parents ready to run!

Hanging in There

We’re almost through book fair week, which drains me in a special but worthwhile kind of way.

I haven’t been taking care of myself very well. I have been eating without much regard and I am bummed that I put myself on the back burner again. I wish I had the strength to focus on my well being first, and then tackle all the things. It’s not what I tend to do when things get overwhelming, though. My default is to take care of all the things first and then take care of myself if there’s time, and spoiler alert, there hasn’t been any extra time.

Self awareness is half of the battle. Once things slow down, which will happen eventually, I can re-establish my health goals. Until then, I’m hanging in there.

Date Night at the Book Fair

It’s Friday and tonight I will be setting up the book fair at my daughter’s school! 

This will be my 6th book fair as the Scholastic Chairperson for our school! As stressful as it can be at times, it is such a privilege to be involved in this way! I also can’t say that I do it alone.

My husband and I love setting the book fair up together! We make it fun and consider it a date night. I usually get to the school early to start, then after Nick’s mom gets to our house to watch the girls, he picks up Mexican food and meets me at the school for dinner.

Last time we set up, he surprised me with a Bluetooth speaker and played music while we ate dinner on book fair boxes. This is the kind of stuff that makes my life so rich! These little moments are truly the big moments. God is so good!

It’s time to make another book fair happen!

What I Ate on a Snacky Monday

On Monday, I took a photo of everything I ate. It was a snacky and busy day. You’ll see what I mean…

Breakfast:

Snack:

Lunch:

Snacks:

Dinner:

Snack:

I couldn’t tell you the nutrition because I didn’t log it all, and I don’t really have the time to calculate it now. But I wanted to show you what a snacky day of intuitive eating looks like! I remember wanting snack after snack on Monday. Probably because I was so busy, but as you can see, I wasn’t too busy to sit down and watch Bubble Guppies with my youngest. 

I love this little life.

Planting Time is Here

Happy Wednesday! This week has been a whirlwind, just as much of the month is anticipated to be for us. I am going to try to keep up with blogging but I may miss the occasional day, just as I did yesterday.

Free time is not really a thing this month, but if it were a thing, it would be taken up by getting all of our seeds in the ground.

Most years I have my garden planned out in February. Not this year. It’s planting time and I still don’t have a plan, but I do know what has worked in the past. I’m just popping seeds in day by day and keeping track of where I planted what by taking photos. It’ll all come together!

On top of getting seeds in the ground, I also did a massive up-pot of all my tomato plants. I’m talking 120 tomato plants! 

We don’t keep them all, but we do keep a bunch. I’ll probably keep closer to 40 tomato plants for ourselves, and will sell or give away the rest. 

We have been canning diced tomatoes for years and it’s so rewarding to grow it all from seed. I mostly use the canned to tomatoes in soups, which are next level amazing!

The trick this week has been to get some seeds in the ground between the hours of rain we have been getting. I’m not complaining though, this is exactly the type of weather we need right now.

Since a lot of my focus has gone to planting season (and wrapping up the school year with PTO, Book Fair, field trips, Spring concerts, etc. etc. etc.) my eating has been more intuitive this week. I am not sure that I’ll see a loss on the scale but I am sure that intuitive eating will maintain my current weight loss, which is a win in itself.

Keeping Balance on Date Night

On Friday I decided to take photos of everything I consumed to show how I balanced out the day, knowing that I was going to be eating out for dinner.

I didn’t eat breakfast until I was hungry, which ended up being closer to lunch. Even then, I only had a protein shake because I wasn’t ready to eat.

For lunch, I made myself a burrito out of a 60 calorie wellness wrap and leftover taco meat. 

In the afternoon, I grabbed an apple and a sparkling water.

For dinner, my husband and I went to a pizza shop called Nights and Weekends in Ashtabula, Ohio. It was so good!

My evening dessert was a latte, as is customary for when we are in Ashtabula for date night. They have the best little coffee shop on the Habor. We also share a chocolate bar.

I was totally satisfied and made sure to drink a gallon of water throughout my day, as well!

Date night was so nice! After going out to dinner, we went down to the lake and watched the sunset. 

I am so glad that we live so close to the lake, and take these moments to enjoy it!

Friday Meal Planning

Happy Friday! On Fridays I meal plan and schedule my grocery pick up for the week ahead. I figured I’d share my meal plan for the coming week while I’m working on it.

Saturday - Egg Roll Bowls

Sunday - Zuppa Toscana

Monday - Cabbage Roll Casserole

Tuesday - Tacos

Wednesday - Chicken + Stir Fry Vegetables

Thursday - Fish + Feta Pasta Bake

Friday - OTE

Tonight also happens to be date night, which is something that we’ve been missing since before our family vacation. We’re very much looking forward to going out tonight!

On date nights I don’t track what I eat but I also don’t use it as an excuse to go overboard. I’m saying this as a reminder for myself :)

It’s May and It’s Busy!

Happy Thursday! It’s May 1st! I can’t believe it!

I was able to get my vacation weight gain off just in time. I’m back down to 229.5lbs and I’m ready to shake some more weight off this month! My weight loss goal for May is 5-10 lbs. 

I like to do a range of a weight loss goal because I know this month is going to be busy! School is winding down for both of our young girls. We have field trips, Spring concerts, a preschool graduation, the last book fair of the year, and more!

On the home front, I have an entire garden to plan and plant. I have many plants started under grow lights that need up-potted and a tomato plant sale to start. A few years ago I started way too many tomatoes and so I decided to sell them for $2/each to my friends and family. It was a big success and so I’ve been doing it ever since!

My husband and I also want to redo the garage roof this month. It’s not the best timing because it is such a busy month but my mom is getting a dumpster (for her own Spring cleaning and downsizing) and we’re going to use that opportunity to get the roof done while she has it! We’ll also likely clean out the basement and garage while the dumpster is around. So, like I said, lots to do this month!

Since it’s so busy I know that in order to lose weight, I’ll need a plan. I’ll follow up with that soon!

It’s Been a Week

Hello! It’s been a week! We arrived home from Missouri a week ago today, and I have been sick pretty much since we got back. Needless to say, I never really got back into the swing of things as far as tracking nutrition, drinking all of my water, and focusing on my healthy living goals in general.

I did weigh myself the day after we got home from our vacation and I was up about 4 pounds, which was to be expected. I just weighed in this morning and I’m still up 2 pounds. That’s not bad considering that I didn’t do anything to try to lose weight this week since I’ve been sick with a chest and head cold. It is however far from my April goal of losing 5-10 pounds this month. 

To be fair, I did set my April weight-loss goal before I knew we would be traveling to Missouri to visit my sister for a week. Had I known, my goal for the month would have been to maintain my weight-loss from March. I still have a few days to lose the rest of my “vacation weight” before the end of the month and that’s the new goal.

It will definitely be a challenge this next month to focus on my goals, because I have so much to focus on. It’s the end of the school year (like, how?!) and so I am prepping for the BOGO Book Fair at the school. I have about 100 tomato plants that I need to up-pot in the basement under grow lights and an entire garden to plan.

My husband and I are also considering replacing the roof on our garage, and possibly starting a treehouse project for the girls. We have a lot we’re trying to focus on and when that tends to happen, the focus on my healthy living goals tend to take a back seat. I’m going to try to not let that happen, and blogging is a part of my accountability. I’ll write more soon!

We’re Home from Missouri

Happy Monday! We’re back from our Spring break road trip! We drove about 30 hours round trip to visit my sister’s family in Missouri. My sister and brother-in-law are currently serving in the Air Force and they live on base there. We haven’t taken this long of a road trip ever before, and I’m so glad we did it!

I wasn’t sure how our young daughters would do with that long of a road trip, but they did amazing! It went way better than we imagined. It’s a long drive but we kept the perspective that it was an adventure and that helped!

We are thanking God for safe travels and good health for our trip. We definitely saw prayers answered during this Easter weekend with our family!

It’s likely going to take me a few days to get back into the swing of things at home. I’ll update more as soon as I can get to it!

Recipe: Marry Me Chicken

Today I want to share one of our favorite meals, lately. It’s called “Marry Me Chicken”. We make this dish with whole wheat penne pasta. It’s so delicious and satisfying!

Here’s a the recipe we use, adapted slightly from this link.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided 

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 

Kosher salt 

Freshly ground black pepper 

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 

1 Tbsp. Dried thyme leaves 

1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes 

3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth 

1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes 

1/2 cup heavy cream 

1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan 

1 can of sliced mushrooms

Directions

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 375°. In a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Generously season diced chicken with salt and black pepper and cook, turning halfway through, until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a plate. 

Step 2 - In same skillet over medium heat, heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Stir in garlic, thyme, mushrooms, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in broth, tomatoes, cream, and Parmesan; season with salt. Bring to a simmer, then return chicken and any accumulated juices to skillet. 

Step 3 - Arrange chicken on a platter. Spoon sauce over. Transfer to oven. Bake chicken until cooked through 10 to 12 minutes. 

Serve with whole wheat penne pasta. 

Let me know if you try this recipe! We love it!

Baseline Habits

In case you missed the news, we are going to be traveling to visit my sister in Missouri soon! I haven’t yet had to plan for a long road trip with little kids. This is the first time we’ll all be driving for a full day of travel with our kids in the back seat. We are actually going to break the trip up, and sleep over at a hotel halfway to Missouri. This means we will be driving for basically two long 7+ hour days before we even get there.

We are all a little anxious and even more excited! My husband and I bought these seat organizers and we are stuffing them with lots of fun activities for the kids to do while we’re driving. 

In the seat organizers we packed a dry erase board with markers, notepads with pencils and gel pens, sticker books, activity pads with mazes and crossword puzzles, card games like Go Fish and Old Maid, travel bingo cards, coloring book with crayons and more! We are going to install the organizers with all the goodies inside the night before we leave so it will be a surprise for the kids when they get in. We can’t wait!

The planning for the trip has been both fun and exhausting. A lot of my focus has been on planning for the trip lately, and buying all the things we need for the trip. Since my focus has shifted to something out of the ordinary my healthy habits went to baseline habits.

I notice my baseline habits for eating and healthy living aren’t as good as when I’m more focused on creating better habits. At my baseline, I don’t plan ahead meals or track my nutrition, and I don’t drink nearly enough water.

That basically sums up this past weekend when my trip planning was in full swing. This, too, is temporary. I will be able to focus on myself more again, soon. Now that I’m aware of it I can also do my best to focus on myself in the little moments right now. Like today, I am going to try to focus on drinking more water and plan out my meals better. I can still be intentional with myself even when things get more chaotic than usual.

We are feeling very blessed to be planning for this upcoming trip! I am so excited to make memories with our all of our families together soon! I’ll keep you updated!

No Loss No Gain

No loss and no gain this week! I am sticking right around 229 lbs. That’s okay! I’m not sure how much weight I will actually lose this month because I have some news!

Our family will be traveling to visit my sister’s family at some point this month! We are all looking forward to this trip! I know that it will impact my weight-loss efforts because the trip alone involves a 26+ hour car ride round-trip, and meals will be eaten out for the majority of our trip.

Life doesn’t stop just because I’m trying to lose weight, and live healthier. Vacations happen and I’m going to be realistic. I will likely come back with some weight gain but it won’t be permanent. I’ll try and hope for the best but I’ll expect to gain or maintain weight during this upcoming trip.

We are happy to be able to make this trip while my sister’s family is living so close. Prior to living in the States, they were in Japan. We know they may go overseas again someday so we’re grateful to be able to visit them while we can!

Values and Principles

Happy Friday! This was a tricky week to navigate but I ended up doing pretty well overall with staying on track with my goals.

I’m still working my way through the book “The Mountain is You” and it’s brought a lot of good things to light. Yesterday when I was listening (on Audible) they were discussing principals and values. I am going to share some of mine.

I value my long-term physical health, so by principle I will make healthy eating choices 80% of the time; or in other terms, more often than not.

I value my mental health, so by principle I will check in with myself by journaling daily.

I value my spiritual health, so by principle I will pray and ready my Bible daily.

These are just a few examples. By identifying values and principles, it helps avoid being led by feelings when making choices. I mention this because I’m not always going to feel like making the most healthy food choices, but I will because it’s a principle that I do most of the time. I do this because I value my long-term physical health.

Doing this value/principle exercise was helpful because it reminds me of why I’m doing what I’m doing, and why I have set goals in the first place.

Full Day of Food - Wednesday 4/9

I kind of feel like I’ve been hanging by a thread this week. I’ve barely been keeping my eating within my calorie range. I haven’t been drinking all of the water I planned to each day. I have barely been able to wake up as early as I want in the mornings, and I haven’t been journaling each day. My walks have been few and far between, too. 

I realized all of this on Wednesday. So, in effort to help motivate me to stay on track I took a picture of everything I ate, I went for an afternoon walk, and I made sure to drink 120 oz of water. It’s not too late to turn this week around!

Breakfast: French Vanilla Cappuccino; Rye Toast; Ham Omelette (570 calories)

Lunch: Grilled Cheese and Coke Zero (220 calories)

Dinner: Life Group meal - salad, spaghetti and a plate of seconds (750 calories)

Exercise: 15 minutes of walking

Evening Snack: Premier Protein Shake (160 calories)

1700 total calories consumed, which is within my desired calorie range.