Well hello my friends!

I’ve been a little AWOL the past couple weeks. I’ve actually been busy with a lot of things, but most importantly I’ve been busy helping my daughter to get ready to leave on a mission for our church.

She’s wanted to go on a mission for a few years now. I’m so proud of her for preparing and I’m so happy she is finally able to go! She was supposed to leave March 18th, but because of Covid-19 she wasn’t able to go then. I thought she might have to wait several months before leaving, but I was so happy and surprised when they told her she could leave May 20th.

So, she left on Wednesday to Portland, Oregon and she will be there until October 2021. 🙁 {Enter giant hyterical sobs here!}

Ya know, I always knew it would be hard to have my kids leave me, but I wan’t prepared for how hard this was!

She is my first child to “leave the nest” and man, it’s been so hard on this momma heart. I actually did okay during the months we were getting her ready to leave. I was proud of myself (and surprised) for keepin’ it together and for remaining emotionally stable. Ha ha.

However, actually watching her leave and sending her off at the airport was brutal. 🙁

Here’s our family the night before she left….

And here we are saying goodbye and sending her off. She’s been like a second mother to these little boys, so they were so sad to see her leave!

Because of Covid-19, Kev and I were the only ones allowed to go to the airport with her. Kev helped her into the airport with her luggage. I snapped this pic as they were walking away…

Oh my goodness, that was so hard. When we got home, the house felt so lonely and empty. It was so so strange.

She’d left some of her shoes out and several other things around the house and it hurt me to see them!

As I picked up her things and put them into the boxes she’d packed in the basement, I saw so many of the other things she’d packed away. I saw all of her old pictures from when she took dance when she was little. She looked so tiny and yet it didn’t seem like it was that long ago!

Throughout the day I saw her life and childhood flash before my eyes many times. It really does seem like she was a little girl in pigtails not too long ago.

It really is so hard to let her grow up and move on to the next stage, but I know it’s so good for her! I know that even though I’d love to keep all of my babies with me forever, that’s not how it’s supposed to be. One of the main purposes of life is to raise them, teach them, love them and then help them to move on and make a life for themselves.

Sniff, sniff.

I know serving a mission will be so good for her and she will learn so much! I’m trying to remember that and focus on that!

Well, I could go on and on and on and I could blubber and cry all day long, but I think that’s all I will say about that for now. It’s certainly been occupying a lot of my time and thoughts the past couple weeks!

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Well, about health and fitness! I’ve been doing this Oxygen Magazine challenge for a couple weeks now. It’s great and I’ve been learning so much!

I really love doing challenges because it just helps me to step up my healthy living game, stay motivated and learn new things. It’s great.

The workouts have been very similar to how I’ve been working out for years. I’ve actually been surprised because the workouts have been almost identical to the workouts I’ve been doing on my Happy Being Healthy Facebook page and the workouts I’ve been doing with my friends in my neighborhood.

We basically alternate between strength training workouts and HIIT workouts. Strength training and HIIT are my absolute favorite ways to workout and IMO, they are the most efficient and effective!

I’ve also just been trying to eat better, eat more “real” food, eat less sugar and just eat less in general. I’ve been doing pretty well, although I enjoyed some yummy treats and sugar a few times before my daughter left!

I’m happy to say I’m down a few pounds and I feel great. Sadly, with this whole quarantine thing going on, I haven’t been as consistent with my sleep schedule though. I seem to keep staying up too late and just not getting enough sleep.

I’ve been tired!

Now that my daughter is gone though, I’m determined to get back on a good sleep schedule!

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I also just want to quickly say that I had a wonderful Mother’s Day! My family took very good care of me. I hardly took any pictures though. Sometimes I just want to enjoy the day and not worry about taking pictures. Although, later I usually wish I would’ve taken more pictures!

I snapped this pic of my beautiful breakfast in bed…

Kev is such a great omelet maker, so he helped my 12 year old son to make this for me! It was almost too beautiful to eat! They also made me some warm lemon water with a slice of lemon on the side.

So sweet!

Kev also made a yummy dinner later on, but I didn’t take a single picture!!! He smoked some brisket and we had some mashed potatoes, corn and bread. It was so good.

Kev also smoked some beef jerky afterward and I did think to take a picture of that!

It was fabulous!

Lately Kev’s been smoking different things on Sundays and it’s been a lot of fun. This past Sunday we let our daughter choose the dinner since it was her last Sunday. 🙁

She wanted homemade Macaroni and Cheese, broccoli and asparagus and homemade biscuits. Kev decided to throw the mac and cheese and veggies on the smoker and they turned out wonderful!

The vegetables were especially incredible! They were so so so good. It’s my new favorite way to have them! I just prepared them like my Roasted Vegetables recipe, but Kev cooked them in the smoker (same temperature and time as my recipe.) I also used this recipe for my Mac and Cheese. They are both yummy!

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I also thought I’d mention that I’ve been enjoying going on short runs lately. I used to be a more legit runner, but the past year or so I’ve just enjoyed running more for the joy of running!

I’ve been keeping my runs to five miles or under and I haven’t really been keeping track of speed. I just run however fast my body feels like running! I always check my distance and speed after my runs, but I don’t really check it while I’m running. It’s been great.

My speed is usually somewhere in the 9-10 minute mile pace, FYI.

I snapped this pic last week on one of my runs…

This isn’t too far from my home and it’s one of my favorite places to run! Our city used to be a big farming community. Over the past 10-20 years it’s transitioned out of the farming stuff and more into just a regular city.

I love where I live and I love that there are still big open farming fields here and there.

I went on a run a couple nights ago and I brought my puppy along with me!

I love my dog, but he isn’t the best runner. Ha ha. Sometimes he runs fast, sometimes he decides he just wants to walk and sometimes he just sits down and decides not to run at all!

It’s okay though, since I was just running for the fun of it, I just went with the flow. It was a very slow run, but it still felt great!

I love my puppy and I love running this time of year! Running is so so good for my physical health AND my mental health.

I’m always so happy and surprised how much it helps me to sort out my thoughts, improve my mood and just be happy! I’m lovin’ these shorter, easier runs.

Well folks, that pretty much sums up my life these past couple weeks!

I also want to say that I’m still doing Live workouts on my Happy Being Healthy Facebook page every Friday at 9:00 AM Mountain Time. I used to do them on Tuesdays as well, but now I’m just going to do them on Fridays. I’d love you to join me!

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! xoxo