The 4th

Good Morning Good Morning! Another hot and humid summer day! Yesterday was a fantastic day spent celebrating Independence day with the family at the beach! I have been feeling a little under the weather, but driving out to the lake and relaxing while Gideon played was perfect! 

 [Headed down to the water]

[Chris hanging out with the kids]

 [Gideon had a lot of fun]

After coming home for naps and some dinner we headed out again to watch fireworks

[It was super hot and buggy out, but Gideon thought the fireworks were pretty cool]

Also, we have slowly been getting in the kitchen with Gideon more. Here we are making chicken enchiladas as a family. They were excellent and G had a lot of fun helping us fill them with chicken and corn :)

Foodie Pan Pal

This month I participated in The Food Penpal program - I had a lot of fun not only receiving my package, but also putting one together :) Here's the goods I received from Cheryl. Everything was delicious!

[The caramel corn was the first thing to go - what family doesn't love caramel corn

It was very tasty!]

 [I loved the card too!]

[Kikiwee checking out the goods]

I had never tried Mojo bars before, but I really liked them! I love how easy it is to throw a bar in my purse when I'm heading out the door incase I get hungry. Snapea crisps have been a favorite of mine for awhile and definitely are great for a salty food craving. And everyone has enjoyed having some granola in the morning. It's so fun getting one of these in the mail!

If you're interested you can see what I sent my penpal - Lindsay too!

If you are interested in joining, heres a little information:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
- Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

To-do lists and food tracking

So my goal was to start making and finishing a to-do list everyday as well as track my food with pictures. 

[To-do list at the beginning of the day]

[Breakfast: Tall glass of ice water, 6 strawberries,

 english muffin with Blueberry jam and 3 canadian bacon]

[Snack: Sweet strawberry soup and hot black coffee]

[Lunch: I made toast with hazelnut butter for my son, who was not a fan, so I ended up eating it - I thought the hazelnut butter was excellent]

 [Afternoon Snack: Pita chips and Laughing Cow cheese wedge]

 [Dinner: Turkey meatloaf, broccoli, and Brussel sprouts]

[Gideon even ate his broccoli!!]

[Snack: homemade oatmeal butterscotch coconut cookies that Gideon helped make :)]

Overall, I would say today was pretty good. I only finished 50% of my to-do list... but it's a start right? I still spent too much time on the computer however. I really want to cut back on that. I think from now on I will set a timer every time I get on for 30 minutes. Also, my calories for the day came to 1701.

Fun in the HOT sun

Here in Michigan it's been in the 90's - so perfect for swimming at my parents house! Gideon absolutely loves it! We swam for about 2 hours this morning, then came home and crashed for a nap. 

With his Cousins

Today I ordered a new scale from Amazon. I'm actually pretty excited to get it so I can start tracking my weight. I made a few goals for myself. First, I'm only allowing myself to spend an hour on the computer a day. It's insane how much time I can waste on on the internet! Second, to start making to-do lists! 

Tonight was pizza and movie night. We watched 'Bob the builder' for Gideon... he's three and the options were slim... so thats what we ended up with - lol

...you mean I have to write in this now?

Argh! Yes, I suck at blogging. I think I put some weird expectation on how it needs to be super amazing. But really, I made this for me...

I remember when I was younger, maybe my early teens, and I would see my older cousins who were in their 20's and think 'wow, they are so grown up and cool and "together"...' but now that I'm here, 26, I feel so NOT grown up. I wonder if I'm the only weirdo out there like this? I guess I thought life would be so cool as a grown up. Shows how naive I was about paying bills, and keeping a house clean, and having to think about saving for retirement... and a million other things I was utterly clueless about.

Lately I've been listening to 'Our God' by Chris Tomlin on repeat. I feel so uplifted by it, and lately it seems as if Jesus is sitting there with me, taking the weight of the world off my shoulders... I don't know how to explain it.

Oh! also, Fathers Day was this weekend :) Gideon and I made Chris Breakfast in bed, it was fun and Gideon thought it was pretty cool, too!

Finals are DONE!

I am so excited to say that the end of the semester has finally come! Chris and I finished yesterday and now have a glorious 4 months off! Our first order of business is getting our house clean! It has definitely slipped these past few weeks. Now that we are homework and exam free we will actually have some free time to get caught up.

Also, I am excited that it is the first month of Foodie Penpals! I can't wait to go out this weekend and find some fun things to send to my First Penpal. It's so nice to have something fun to think about, not Anatomy and Physiology II... like the past 10 weeks.

AND. I am so excited to announce that Chris and I are signed up for the October 6th Color Run :) We will be going to Cincinnati for the event, which will be fun since we have family there.

Oh, and since this is only my 2nd post on this blog I should probably reference a few people...

Chris is my husband of 4 1/2 years with our son, Gideon, who is 3 1/2 :) Chris and I are currently attending school together with hopes of getting into the PTA (Physical Therapy Assistant) program.

The beginning

Hello. Welcome to my 4th... possibly 5th blog? I have a very poor track record with these things.. so I am hoping this one sticks!

I decided to start this new blog because I want to document a new journey I am going to start. As I was sorting through the mail today I found this:

It's only 16 pages, but all the articles are great and actually really relevant to 3 things I have been thinking about lately:

1. Get Gideon outside more
2. Make healthy family meals together
3. Loss weight (me, not him)

I want to be a good example for him, and I want him to grow up knowing how to properly nourish himself and be healthy. I do not want him to have to struggle with his weight and healthy eating like I have for so long. He's only 3 1/2, but he loves being mommy's helper in the kitchen.. and it's never too soon to get him interested in healthy eating, right?

So with this blog I will chronicle our kitchen adventures, our outdoor adventures, and hopefully my weight loss adventure!