An Unexpected Break

Just popping in real quick to say that school is starting back up now and summer break ended in an unexpected way.

Our youngest took a tumble while playing and sustained a nursemaid elbow and buckle fracture in her wrist this past weekend. She is so strong. It’s been a few days and she’s still in the wrapped splint and sling she got from the ER. She likely won’t be casted until after 7 days to make sure all the swelling is down, according to our children’s hospital. It’s been a hectic end of summer break, and I wish she could be seen earlier. We’re taking good care of her in the meantime!

The Weight of Goodbye

Happy Thursday! The weight of getting ready to say “goodbye” to summer break has been heavy on my heart all week, as you can likely tell from my recent posts.

I just love our slow summer mornings together, and the ability to go with the flow of wherever the days adventures take us. We’ve been blessed with an incredible summer, which is why it must be so hard to let it go.

This morning, my 4 and 10 year old daughters helped me make chocolate chip zucchini muffins — a sign of Autumn nearing. 

The morning was cool and crisp, but still warm enough to be outside in a tshirt and shorts. I know this because my girls let the chickens out this morning and were running around the yard with them in such clothing.

I’m not sure where this day of adventure will take us. My youngest asked to go to the zoo one last time, and my oldest wants to go to the amusement park. Either way, the day will end with my oldest daughter’s annual vision appointment, and back-to-school night to meet her new teacher. 

This will be Piper’s last year in elementary school and my heart is heavy knowing we have that “goodbye” coming up sooner than I can imagine. At the same time, I know we will be ready when the time comes.

Summer is Beautiful

I’m experiencing some end-of-summer blues so, I’ll be sharing a random assortment of pictures taken in the past couple of weeks to try and keep the memories.

This week we went to a local sunflower field and were captivated by the beauty!

 

School clothes shopping was so fun this year! Piper and I went out to lunch together and spent all afternoon shopping around.

Beach night with friends, on such a beautiful summer evening!

My first sunflower of the season!

A random find at a playground.

Harvest goodies from the garden, and our best garlic haul ever!

I’ll forever be nostalgic for hanging sheets on the line.

My early morning garden buddy, with the sound of crickets and chickens in the background.

The last color sheet for the library summer reading program!

Another beautiful garden haul.

Summer is beautiful, and we’re going to miss it!

What I Ate on a Summer Monday

Hello, and happy Tuesday! My oldest daughter starts school in about a week and I am feeling a little emotional about it. I don’t want summer to end! Thankfully it’s not over yet.

Yesterday I took a picture of everything I ate to help keep myself accountable. Here’s a peak into what I ate on a summer Monday.

On Sunday, we made a garden quiche for breakfast. It included a bunch of eggs from our backyard chickens, bell peppers and tomatoes from our garden, cheese and crumble sausage from a local shop. 

I had leftovers for breakfast on Monday.

Mid-morning, the girls and I ventured out for coffee and timbits.

Since my husband was working nearby, we met him out for lunch. I got shrimp sushi in a coconut roll.

For dinner, we made some brown rice and grilled pineapple and chicken kabobs.

For dessert, I had a premier protein chocolate shake.

It all came out to around 1,690 calories for the day which is great!

Summer Wind-Down

Happy Friday! This week, I did my new arm routine twice, I went for a walk every day, and ate with my nutritional range most of the time! 

I saw a loss of 2 pounds on the scale which brings me down to 232.2lbs for the week. I am almost back down to 230, which was my weight prior to entering summer break. 

I’m happy that I maintained my weight within a 5lb range this summer. I would have preferred to lose weight, sure, but I also wasn’t focused on it actively enough to justify seeing a loss. We had a really full and fun summer break!

Yesterday, we went to the zoo! We have zoo passes and went about 4 or 5 times this summer. 

Every time we’d go to the zoo this summer, my girls asked for Bubble Tea but we had other plans for a treat that day. Well yesterday we packed a lunch and made Bubble Tea the treat of the day which really made the girls excited!

This weekend we are planning on going to the amusement park which is a weekly summer staple, and we also want to get a beach day in while the weather is still nice! Summer is winding down and we’re planning on savoring every last bit of it together!

A Summertime Wednesday

Happy Thursday! Today I’m sharing a peak into our yesterday, featuring all the food that I ate (for accountability) and all of the things that we did (for fun).

Breakfast was a hot cup of coffee and toast with (1) egg and 1/2 leftover chicken sausage link.

After breakfast, I took the girls to story time at the library. Summer reading packets were due! This made me feel like summer is officially winding down. We love participating in the summer reading programs at various local libraries in our area. 

This also felt a little bit like the end of an era for us at this particular library, even though I know it’s not completely the end. Laney will be doing PreK during story times this school year and so this is likely our last story time until next summer. Story time traditionally has been a staple activity for my little kids and I to do together all throughout the years. I’m sad that it won’t be a part of this school year now that both kids will be in school during that time, but I am glad to still have the summers for now!

For lunch, I warmed up leftover homemade vegetable fried rice and chicken sausage.

In the afternoon, our daughters went with my mother-in-law while Nick and I attended a meeting. We had some time after the meeting to hang out and we decided to go to the ice cream shop for a treat! We got a large to share, and I only had about 1/4 of it. I mostly enjoyed eating the large pieces of Reese cups in the mix!

For dinner, we had open faced cheeseburgers and green beans.

After dinner, my husband took Piper to her basketball practice and sat in to watch while I hung out with Laney at home. I worked for an hour from the couch, while Laney snuggled up to me and watched a movie. Then, we ended the night at the playground!

For my evening snack, I had some tortilla chips and salsa (not pictured).

I’d say my calorie intake was around 1,500 calories for the day which is decent. It was a great day!

Pressing On

Yesterday, I posted the new arm routine that I will be incorporating into my weeks ahead. I mentioned that I also want to go for a walk as often as possible. On top of working out, or even more importantly, I am trying to keep my meals in check this week as well!

Monday’s dinner was so good. The salmon was so filling I didn’t even finish my beans and potatoes. On Tuesday, I had dinner at a work meeting. I had a hard and soft taco and the dessert plate was pretty amazing.

I’m still hanging on to some of my symptoms from this flu I went down with late last week. The headache, sensitivity to light, sinus pressure and coughing is just lingering on. I can’t wait to be feeling better and not feel like I’m dragging an additional weight with me everywhere I go. Even still, I am pressing on.

Beginner Arm Routine

I want to start doing some free-weight routines to strengthen my muscles and help tone as I lose weight. Here’s the arm routine I began yesterday. Right now I am going to aim to do this routine Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.

 

Beginner Arm Routine — 2 sets of 10 reps each 

 1. Bicep Curls (8 lb) 

 2. Lateral Raises (5 lb) 

 3. Overhead Press (5 lb) 

 4. Hammer Curls (8 lb) 

 5. Tricep Kickbacks (5 lb) 

 6. Front Raises (5 lb) 

 7. Overhead Tricep Extensions (5 lb) 

Rest: 30–60 seconds between exercises if needed. 

Pace: Lift for 2 seconds, lower for 3 seconds for more muscle engagement.

I didn’t come up with this routine, I searched for a beginner routine and this is one of the options that came up for me and I figured it was a good place to start.

On top of the arm routine, I want to walk as often as possible. I don’t want high intensity workouts, at least not in this season. I want to start small and work up to more so I don’t burn out.

I did this routine yesterday and I am only slightly sore today. I think that’s a good sign that it was the right place to begin!

Sickness Took Me Down

As you might have guessed, I did in fact go down with whatever sickness took down my husband early last week. It’s no fun being sick in the summer time but it also isn’t the worst thing.

This weekend we went to the beach so the kids could play and I fell asleep laying on my husband in the sand. It’s funny to think of this moment as one of my favorite moments of the summer considering how sick I was at the time.

I believe it was the absolute demand for slowing down that I most enjoyed. I was so low energy that I had to slow down, I had to be present and I didn’t have the capacity to do much else other than lay down and breath while watching the waves and my girls play in the sand.

I may have overdone it later on this weekend, trying to keep up with our plans instead of staying back and resting, but with summer winding down it’s hard to stay back. I want to take full advantage of the time we have left while the weather is nice! I also want to start feeling better soon.

My Cousins Wedding + Our Weekend Away

This past weekend, my husband and I went out of town for my cousins wedding. We had the best time together!

My husband and I usually go out of town for an overnight at least once every summer before school begins for the kids. It’s nice to get the time away, just the two of us.

We left for our trip around noon on Saturday. We found an awesome place to eat lunch along the way! 

In the town where we had stopped, there was a car show going on. This made my husband very happy!

We checked into our hotel around 3:30pm. We got ready for the wedding, and stopped at a beautiful coffee shop on the way.

The wedding started at 6pm, at a stunning venue in downtown Pittsburgh, called The Museum Lab.

It was so special to watch my younger cousin, share her speech about her sister on her wedding day. Life is sweet in these moments.

After dinner, we walked down to the reception area. The groom and his family are all musicians and so his family played the music for their first dance and for most of the evening.

It was a beautiful and love-filled night, and my husband and I were blessed to be able to share it. We enjoyed making this trip a special time for the two of us while also getting to celebrate my cousin‘s marriage.

The next day, was a fun adventure as we made our way back home. We stopped at a cozy coffee shop for our road trip fuel and stopped at an antique shop for fun!

While at the antique shop, we found a table for $10 that I’d like to refinish as a plant table in the garden or possibly for my greenhouse that will be built someday.

We also found some doors that we’d like to refinish. Two for the front and rear entry of our home, and one white one that we’d like to fix up for that “someday” greenhouse I’ve been dreaming of for so long.

This weekend was great and I’m glad we have the memories!