1. Writing today from a coffee shop near Ethan’s (new) high school….
It was my day to drive to the 7:30 a.m. strength and conditioning class. So Ethan and I were up and out the door by ~6:50 to pick up his friend and drive across town. This whole thing (the distance/drive) is going to be an ADJUSTMENT for our family, so I guess we’d might as well dive in and get used to it.
I’d greatly prefer just driving both ways like one day per week and then just stay nearby and do some work or something. That’s much more efficient.
But with the work schedules of the others, etc., it turns out one dad is able to drive “to” M-W since he works on that side of town…but then there’s no one to drive home. So we’ve had to divvy up the pickups at 9 am most days. This week I had to pick up Monday and drive both ways Thursday. Not too bad, I guess. With an almost 30 minute drive though each way, it does eat up a good chunk of time- plus add in a little more time to distribute kids to their respective homes. Ha. Fortunately 3 of them live like 2 streets over from us and only one is more of an outlier.
Anyway, it’s a beautiful day and I opted to leave my car at the HS parking lot and walk down the street ~5 minutes to a coffee shop.
2. I made this really yummy chicken, sweet potato and broccoli sheet pan yesterday.
I had some chicken out and broccoli and sweet potato to use up, so I googled “chicken, broccoli and sweet potato sheet pan recipes” and made the first one that popped up. Haha. I just wanted something quick and easy that I could throw in while I worked during the afternoon. This was SO GOOD!!! Super basic and I probably didn’t even need a recipe, but I liked the tips for which seasoning to use. This calls for a Cajun seasoning and lemon juice on the chicken which was a major hit for all 3 of us.
The boys ate this up and they both extra loved the smaller diced up sweet potatoes drizzled in a little butter (it said olive oil but we did a little butter ;) ) and salt and pepper.
I had 2.5 lbs of chicken and between the 3 of us it was ALL gone by the end of the day. They both complained, “Why didn’t you make more chicken?!” I was like, It was 2 1/2 lbs!!!
3. Summer reading is being enforced.
I’ve noticed a decrease in how much the boys read lately. Not just lately, I mean these past like, 6 months or more. I actually recall dropping off on reading constantly around their age, too, myself when I was a teen. I know I read ALL THE TIME when I was in that maybe 7-12 year old range, and then…. not quite so much. One of my co-workers said it was the same for her (now college aged) son.
I suppose it’s normal as they get into other things and become full-fledged teenagers. And of course…. phones…. But deep down I know they do both still enjoy reading. I think they just need a little nudge to remember that they do sometimes. Once they get into a really great book, I can see how they still become engrossed in them.
Planning a library run tomorrow to browse books in person, since although they have Kindles now, I know there’s something about standing and reading the back of a book and picking out some that have cool covers, etc.
4. Fitness + Consistency
I am VERY HAPPY with my consistency in the gym these last few weeks. Ever since I did my little “priorities planning” exercise, I have been really making a point to not skip workouts. I have sometimes skipped long walks and I have skipped reading and I have skipped blogging some days. But since I decided that my workouts were going to be one of my big rocks, it has been easier to decide what stays and what goes. It’s rather freeing!!
I also saw this yesterday and thought it was a good reminder, for anyone who might need it:
Sohee Carpenter (formerly Sohee Lee before she got married recently), and known as SoheeFit online, is an amazing resource. Her focus is health, wellness and strength training in a very “positive” and balanced way. She also promotes intuitive eating and no extremes.
But about the consistency thing, I was thinking, as I walked home from the gym the other day…. I can’t stop. I mean, yes, I can skip a day here and there. But on the whole, if you want to stay fit and healthy, you really have to keep going. I had this momentary thought of: well, I’ve been doing well here for a few weeks, so I could probably ease up a little. And then I was like, what?! NO.
Unfortunately/fortunately, depending on how you look at it, it’s a lifelong thing. I suppose it would be nice if you could eat well and work out to a certain point where you are comfortable with your overall health and how your body looks and then say, ok, we’ll stop… here. Like you’re decorating your living room or something. LOL.
But I think it falls into the category along with washing your hair and brushing your teeth. And wiping your kitchen counter. It just can never end. 😄
(Side note- I am still (slowly) reading Peter Attia’s Outlive and am just really getting into the part where he talks about how exercise is KING in terms of longevity. He really dives into the specifics of why this is and what types of exercise are most important (seems like… all! So far he has talked about endurance, increasing VO2 Max, LOTS of talk (and some crazy interesting statistics) about the crucial importance of strength training and how having good muscle mass dramatically increases your odds of living longer (woohoo!) and also the role of stability/ flexibility.) I will maybe do a whole post on some takeaways eventually!)
5. A laugh
And finally, a silly meme that made me chuckle, especially as we are finally emerging (sort of) from the whole end of “May-hem” (as people like to lovingly call the month of May):
Well, that’s a lot of random topics!! I hope you’re having a good day. It’s a beautiful sunny Thursday over here in my world. 😊🌞
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for emojis!! I think people either love them or hate them, but I am Team Emoji. They just express things so well in a text sometimes that words just… can’t! I personally love the one-raised-eye-brow emoji when something is suspicious (🤨) and am I huge fan of the “weary face” 😩. You also can never go wrong with the “laughing with tears” face. 😂 Do you have a favorite emoji??