Well summer is in full swing at our house! Holy moly. Somehow, I thought once summer started I’d have a little more time to get things done.
Ha ha ha ha ha!
It’s been crazy!!! I do think (and hope!) things will calm down once the newness of summer calms down. The kids have had a lot of fun playing with a bazillion friends, running around everywhere, sleeping in a tent in the backyard, roasting anything and everything on the fire pit and playing with water everywhere!
My backyard looks like a war zone.
Exhibit A….
They’ve had a lot of fun playing and sleeping in this tent this past week. BUT, I think it’s time for it to go buh bye.
Exhibit B…
The kids have also had a blast playing in our fancy pool!
It’s been lovely. Oh, and that “other tent” you see….well ya, it’s apparently “drying out” since it got wet. Oy.
It’s been a little bit insane. Ya know, when I just had a couple small children, my house was always clean and orderly. The kids were clean, toys were all cleaned up, everything had a place, we had regular meals, went to bed at structured bedtimes and I had a pretty good hold on things.
It was great.
Well, now that I have six kiddos kickin’ around here ranging in age from 1-17….I’m pretty much a nutzo lady! It’s fun (mostly) and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, but I’ve just had to accept the fact that my house is not going to be clean…ever, it’s a daily battle to get the kids to put away toys, clothes, socks, shoes, papers, snacks, the milk, wrappers…you name it, bedtime is anything but structured, I’m happy if we all have dinner together at least a couple times a week and we pretty much live in constant chaos.
I had to give up my desire to have a clean, orderly, “everything has a place” house years ago. It’s a little sad and the perfectionist side of me wants to pull my hair out, BUT I’m okay with it for now. I know this time of life is temporary and very fleeting. I know one day I will look back on these days as the “good ol’ days,” and will miss having all the kids around and the craziness it brings. So….I’ve learned to embrace the crazy and just go with the flow!
We did go on a fun, rather strange, quick family trip over Memorial Day. It was so fun! Our oldest son had to work quite a bit over the weekend, so we didn’t have a ton of time. We decided to drive about 45 minutes south to beautiful Provo, Utah. Ha!
We got a great deal on a nice hotel on Priceline. We were able to find a small suite that accommodated our family too. Score. We went out to dinner and then swam at the hotel pool. We had the pool all to ourselves for a long time. The kids were in heaven!
It was so nice! The next day we decided to go on a quick hike (or so we thought!) up Y Mountain.
Yes, we hiked up to the Y on that mountain (it stands for BYU!) It was fun to hike up to “The Y,” but MAN, it was a wicked tough hike!!! It’s only 1.2 miles each way, but those miles are straight up (or straight down, depending on which way you’re going!!!) It was also quite hot (about 80 degrees) and we were in a hurry to get my son back to work on time.
So ya, it wasn’t the most enjoyable hike we’d ever been on. A couple of my kiddos had complete meltdowns and my very competitive 12 year old son was fuming the whole time because his older brother kept going ahead of him on the trail. There were a few times when my two biggest boys were full-on running down the trail trying to push each other out of the way so each one could be in front.
Ya, it was great fun and super mature.
I took this pic as we were getting ready to head up the trail…
Everyone is so happy, cheerful, non-sweaty, non-competitive and non-meltdowny! Ha ha.
I took this pic as we were sitting on the Y…
Everyone is pretending to be happy and cheerful! The baby was completely conked out and it was so sunny that I couldn’t tell my cute little 6 year old’s face wasn’t even in the picture. 🙁
I’m glad we went on that hike, but I’m thinkin’ we’ll need to do it again when it’s less hot and we’re not in such a hurry. We seriously got to the Y, took a couple pics and said, “Come on kids, we gotta go!!!”
Overall, it was a very fun trip! There’s something about getting away from home for a bit and sleeping somewhere else that is so much fun, rejuvenating and relaxing.
Oh, and my body was SO SORE for days after this hike. It worked muscles I didn’t even know I had. I was happy ’bout that!
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Well, my healthy living has been interesting lately. Ya know, I went almost 2 months without sugary treats recently and it was great. Since that time, I’ve been eating really well on the weekdays, but have struggled on the weekends!
My body has not liked the whiplash effect! It’s been fascinating. I’ve always known that sugar isn’t good for anyone, but recently I’ve noticed a more marked and obvious effect on my body. I don’t know if it’s because I went without it for so long, but my body just doesn’t do well with sugar anymore!
It’s sad, but it’s also a good thing. I noticed that on the days I consumed sugary things, I had headaches, felt jittery, bloated way up and couldn’t sleep as well at night. It wasn’t just a little bit either….it was very obvious to me! It took me a few times to realize that the sugar was the culprit, but now I KNOW it was.
Freaky.
Ya know, sugar is in so many things and I haven’t noticed any ill effects on my body when I eat fruit and other things that contain some sugar. It’s just when I eat a lot of the refined sugar stuff.
Sooooo, for now I’m just not touching it. It’s sad, but necessary. I’m hoping in the long-term I can just learn to cut it out of my life for the most part. I think I’ll just learn to have healthy treats on occasion and call it good. Speaking of…I have several healthy treat recipes that I’ve been working on that I need to get on here! I’ll do that soon.
I’ve also made a couple yummy dinners that I thought I’d share.
I’ve been loooooving my veggie spiralizer thing that I bought on Amazon recently! It was only $8 and I love it so much! I’ve been making zucchini noodles and it makes it so easy! It takes about a minute to spiralize the zucchini and then I just stir fry it on the stove for a couple minutes in a tiny bit of olive oil and season it with salt and pepper. Super duper simple.
I made spaghetti for the kids this week and I made zucchini noodles for Kev and I….
I topped the zucchini noodles with marinara, ground turkey (cooked with onions) and some nutritional yeast. We also had salad on the side. It was a great meal!
I know I’ll be making zucchini noodles all the time now!
I also made this recipe for Asparagus & Chicken Stir Fry last week…
I really enjoy watching all the food/recipe videos on Facebook! This one looked like a good one, so I gave it a try! It turned out pretty good! The only change I made was to sub red wine vinegar for the dry sherry. I don’t know if that’s a good substitution, but I did it anyway! Ha.
I forgot to take pictures of my plate, but I did take this pic…
It seriously does not look appetizing and looks nowhere as good as the video, but it was tasty! I think next time I’ll add a bunch of different vegetables instead of just asparagus. Oh, and we served it on top of quinoa.
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Well, I’m happy to say that I’ve been back at the gym again!!!! Wahoo! I’ve seriously missed it. I haven’t been to any of my classes yet, but I’ve just been enjoying working out in the weight room. I was kind of getting sick of working out from home and I felt like I needed some motivation….so I started this plan…
I bought this on Jessie Hilgenberg’s website. She has several programs to choose from; a couple muscle building ones, this bikini body one, a home workout one and a pregnancy one.
It’s full of a ton of great information! She is a macro counting girl, but quite frankly the nutrition part of her program is a little complicated and overwhelming. In addition to counting macros, she also has you keep track of fiber, sugar and has you adjust and time your macros each day depending on the workout.
Although I think it would yield great results, I’m just keeping it simple for now and just counting plain ol’ macros. I think just counting macros is hard enough! I am following her workout plan though and I love it! It’s exactly the motivation I needed.
I’ve been doing it for about a week and a half now. The workouts are great, but some of them are quite long. It obviously includes a lot of weight training; this first month, I’m doing straight sets, next month super sets and the last month drop sets. However, I just decided today that I’m going to start doing super sets (maybe some drop sets too) the rest of the time. Straight sets just take toooooo long! I’d rather work during my rest time and cut my entire exercise time down. I’m a super duper busy mom, not a gym rat. Ha!
I’ve really liked this exercise program. I’ve been doing a lot of moves I’m familiar with, but several that are new to me! Like this reverse pec deck…
And this low cable seated triceps extension (I call it cable skull crushers)…
It’s been fun to learn some new moves and work my body in new ways! I’ll keep y’all posted on my progress.
I also thought I’d mention that Oxygen magazine is doing another challenge this year!
I did it last year and really enjoyed it. I learned a ton. I was tempted to sign up again this year, but decided to do this Jessie Hilgenberg program instead. I thought I’d share it with all y’all in case any of you want to do it! The challenge officially starts next week, June 15th!
I love stuff like this! I sometimes get sick of my typical workout routine and it’s fun to change it up sometimes.
Well, I gotta wrap this up! My crazy summer life with a zillion kiddos is calling. Ha ha. I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far!!! xoxo
6 kids at home for summer break, I know you are crazy busy, but it sounds like you all are having fun and you are still getting your workouts in.
Thanks Abby!! We are so crazy, but it is kind of fun….most of the time. 🙂 I’ve been loving my new workouts!
I have never heard of Jessie Hilgenberg. The exercises look challenging, especially that lying tricep extension.
Your Memorial Day weekend looked fun. Great memories!
I’d never heard of her either, but I really have enjoyed her program. I’m always much more motivated when I follow programs that other people create!!
YOU will only have a little more free time to get things done IF… IFFFFFF you send your kids to camp! ha! THAT is what my parents did 😉
Ha ha ha, no joke! My oldest is going on a Humanitarian trip for a few weeks next month and my 2 other older kids go to different camps for a week here and there, but that’s it!! It does help to have even just one child gone for a week. I miss them, but enjoy the extra peace and quiet. 🙂
LOL, I could just picture all of you on your hike ! What an adventure. At least you got a decent picture out of it. When something like that would happen to us, my kids would pout and not smile for the camera !
So nice that you can find time to get away with everyone’s busy schedule.
I fully agree with you about sugar. As soon as I cut it out, I sleep so deeply, it is amazing. And I sleep well to begin with !
Ha ha, yes our hike was definitely an adventure! ha ha!!
It’s interesting, I’ve had a little bit of sugar this week and I can totally tell!!! I really do so much better when I just cut it out, but it always seems to creep back in because I just love it so much. It’s time for me to kick it out of my life again!!
The hiking story cracked me up. I’m the one around here who is always trying to organize people for fun, summer activities – bike rides, day hikes, whatever. There is always a meltdown (or four) and someone stomping around, and then at some point I throw my hands up and declare everyone impossible!
And you have three times as many kids!
I love how the baby is on Kev’s back, all “I give up.” That’s really the way to be 🙂
Bwhahaha, the baby sacked out on Kev’s back IS probably how all of us were feeling!! Ha ha. I wish we could have all been strapped in a backpack. That would be nice. Ha ha! I really think the life of a mother is just constant chaos, whether hiking or not. 🙂