Well I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and a wonderful Mother’s Day!
I had a beautiful, yet busy Mother’s Day. In the morning, I went to church with my little family and then afterward I zoomed up to my mom’s house to go to church with her. My siblings (the four of us who live in Utah) decided to surprise my mom and go to church with her, however plans changed and I ended up going to visit my dad with my mom and my brother instead.
My poor little dad has had a rough few days. He has Alzheimer’s Disease and we moved him into “a home” a couple of months ago. It’s so so hard to see him going downhill….almost surreal. I don’t think he recognizes me anymore, but the funny thing is he never forgets my dog! My mom said something like, “This is Melanie” and he didn’t really respond to that, but then my brother said, “Melanie is Jimmer’s (my dog) mom” and my dad very enthusiastically said, “Oh Jimmer!”
I think that’s so funny and so strange all at the same time! My dad loves my little doggie so much. It’s adorable.
Well, I hardly took any pictures on Mother’s Day, but I’ll share this one I took when I visited my dad a few weeks ago…
I love my dad AND I love my mom! I love Mother’s Day and I’m so grateful for my mother and my wonderful mother-in-law. I feel so lucky to have so many incredible people in my life. <3
The only picture I took on Mother’s day was this one…
Kev gave me those beautiful flowers and I love them so much. I think he got them at Costco. I must say that Costco has the prettiest flowers and the best prices around. Love them!
I also got me some new gym shoes in the name of Mother’s Day. I was in dire need of some and I found these cute ones at Nordstrom Rack.
Nordstrom Rack is one of my very favorite stores! I always look there first whenever I buy athletic shoes. They have so many great deals. Sadly, I’m also in need of some new running shoes. Dang it…$$$. I’m a lot more selective when I buy running shoes though, so I’m going to do a bit more research before I buy some.
Oh, I also got a lot of darling homemade cards and things from the kids that they made at school and church. I love them all so much, but the cutest thing ever was when my 2 year old gave me the flowers he made in his class at church. He was soooooo excited to give them to me he could hardly stand it. He came running up to me, gave me a big hug and said, “These flowers for you!” It melted my heart.
I tried to take a picture with him and the flowers yesterday, but the struggle was real…
He wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to take a very good picture. I love that kiddo so much.
Well, I went on a Costco run last week and majorly loaded up. I thought I’d share a pic of a lot of the staples I buy all the time (top pic) and some of the not so healthy things I bought on this trip too (bottom pic)….
Can I just say how much I loooooove Costco??? I love that they have so many high quality, healthy, organic, simple ingredient foods at such great prices. Love, love, love!
All of those things in that top picture are staples around our house. The things in that bottom picture aren’t necessarily things I buy all the time, but I do buy things similar to them quite often.
Oh, and these freaking cookies call my name every time I walk down that aisle!
Auuughhhh! Have you guys ever had Otis Spunkmeyer cookies? They are dang good, I tell ya. I never ever buy them though because I know I could not be held responsible around them. Oh, and hey, I just noticed the sign says they are “all natural!” That means they are healthy then, right?? Hee hee.
Anyway, I get asked all the time about how I get my kids to eat well, what healthy meals I fix around our house, how I accommodate picky eaters, what I put in my kids lunches, etc. etc. etc.
Here’s the deal…..I try to fix healthy meals for our family regularly, however, there are some nights (usually on the weekends) where we rely on “frozen crap” from Costco. Is it ideal? No. But, I like to call it survival.
In a perfect world, my kiddos would eat well balanced, home cooked meals full of fruits and vegetables at every meal. But seriously, if that were our reality we would either have to hire a personal chef or they would have a mom that would be freaking nuts. I’m very, very grateful to have convenience foods stocked in my freezer. It saves my sanity big time. I especially love it on the nights when Kev and I want to go on a date and we need something quick and easy to feed the kids. It’s great.
My philosophy has always been to lead and teach by example. I talk about health and fitness all the time with my kids. They know the importance of filling our bodies full of good, clean, real food, drinking plenty of water, getting adequate sleep, exercising our bodies and just taking care of our bodies in general.
They see me going to the gym and on runs regularly, making strange protein shake concoctions full of all kinds of crazy stuff, cutting out sugar and junk from my diet often and working hard. However, they also see me enjoying a burger and fries on occasion, making chocolate chip cookies and they are all very familiar with my love of yummy treats.
I’m glad they can see both sides of me because I think it’s a healthy balance. Life is hard and I think it’s important to cut yourself some slack sometimes….especially if you are a busy mom! I know so many moms are hard on themselves. I often remind myself to just love the crap outta my kids, teach them the things that are important and then just go with the flow…..or in other words, chill.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that as my older kids have gotten older, they’ve seemed to care more about their health and have taken more responsibility for it. I love it when I see them choosing to exercise or purposefully choosing to eat healthy foods. It’s awesome.
I thought I’d share an example of a typical meal around our house. I made this for dinner last night…
This is a quite simple and easy meal to make and everyone likes it. I just grilled up some chicken, roasted some veggies, cooked up some Pot Stickers (from Costco) and heated up some leftover brown rice.
Sometimes I like to prepare and marinate my chicken several hours beforehand, but I didn’t do that last night. I just kept it simple and brushed it with some BBQ sauce and sprinkled a little seasoned salt on there. It turned out awesome.
My favorite way to cook veggies is to sprinkle them with a little seasoned salt and Parmesan cheese and roast them. They are sooooo good!
I always cook Pot Stickers with this meal because the kids love them, they complement the meal well and it makes everyone happy. They are super easy to make too. I usually only eat one or two of them.
Oh, and I had the brown rice leftover from last week. I just added a tablespoon or so of water to it, covered it with a lid and heated it up in the microwave for a few minutes. It steamed the rice and made it taste like it was freshly made. I looooove it when I use up leftovers!
Anyway, that’s an example of a healthy meal that also accommodates the kids. Most of my kids gobble up the veggies no problem, but I have a couple picky eaters that struggle a bit. I encourage them to at least try one of each kind of vegetable. My baby refuses to eat most vegetables, dang it. He likes fruit, but will not eat veggies. It’s maddening, but I just keep offering them to him hoping he’ll comply one day.
Well, we will be running our Ragnar relay race in 2 1/2 weeks. I’m excited. I went out on my long run on Saturday and ended up going 10 miles. I averaged a 9:17 pace, which I was okay with. I’d sure love to get my average pace down in the 8’s, but I was afraid to push myself too much since I was going long.
I ran along a well traveled parkway near my house, but as I kept on running, I got further and further out into the boonies. I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, but it made for a fun adventure.
I actually felt great most of the time and the weather was perfect, but I probably should have stopped around 8 or 9 miles. That last mile or so was pretty brutal and my body has felt pretty beat up the past couple of days. Running is frustrating because you need to ramp up the miles so slowly. Sometimes I get overeager and just want to ruuuuuuun!!! I’ve had a few injuries in the past though, so I really don’t want to injure myself.
I’ll probably only run 9 miles this weekend in hopes that my body will like me a little more. My first leg of the relay race is over 10 miles so I really hope my body is used to running 10ish miles by then because I’ll also be running sleep deprived and mostly uphill. Yikes. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed ’til then.
When I got home I talked Kev into going over to Maverik (local convenience store) with me to get a drink. While I was there, I spotted a Lenny and Larry’s cookie and decided to give it a try…
It was gross folks. I’d seen these cookies all over Instagram and thought they looked interesting. They are high in protein and made from decent ingredients. I love the concept behind them, but it was just not yummy. I was so disappointed. I’ve been hearing that other flavors taste better though, so I may give a different one a try. We’ll see.
Well, I think that’s all I got tonight. I hope you are doing well and are happy and healthy! xoxo
So sorry to hear about your father.
Thanks so much Abby. It’s such an awful disease. 🙁
This is a very detailed and informative post, Melanie! Loved the flowers!
Thank you so much!! 🙂