Current Favorite Costco Buys

I finally stopped buying everything at Costco - it's been so busy that I was buying as much as I could there to save myself time, and energy, and make life easier on myself. Baby Chewie finally follows directions and doesn't run away in stores which means that I can now run several errands at a time and go to stores other than Costco and Target. WOOT!!!

This means I have to change my shopping habits again, which is just fine with me and probably cheaper in the long run - because now I can shop at Trader Joe's and Fresh Thyme. I do enjoy the convenience of being able to "shop" in my cupboards but eating the same things over and over gets really old and boring - so new shopping habits, new healthy snacks, etc...

Orgain Protein - I make chocolate protein shakes for breakfast every morning, mixed in with flax seed - below. They have both vanilla and chocolate, I think I like the chocolate the best. It also hides spinach really well. HA!

Way better than raisins or craisins. Super delish! I mix these with granola and stick it in a reusable pouch with a yogurt cup for The Monkey's school lunch. I add a container of fruit too so she can make her own fruit parfait for school lunch.

Everyone needs to poop. So flax seeds it is! After two babies my insides are not the same anymore and flax definitely helps. Yikes, that's a lot of information! This is also a great ingredient for energy bites - it pairs well with peanut butter, oats, and chocolate chips.

The kids absolute favorite breakfast is pancakes. I buy this mix in bulk - I use one cup of organic almond milk (because Costco sells organic almond milk in bulk!). I use a cookie scoop to measure out small pancakes and then I make about 8 pancakes total - save the leftovers in the fridge for the next few mornings. You can pop them in the toaster so they're nice and crispy and ready for maple syrup! YUM!

I can't wait to see what I can find at Costco next!

Caught Chewie Sleeping

Baby Chewie has not consistently napped since well over a year ago. I caught him napping while I was working out last week. I heard him talking to himself and then...nothing. 

Turned around and I almost shit my pants. 

His eyes were closed.

And it was daytime.

So I got to finish my workout and do laundry in peace and quiet. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. And yes, that is an apple in his hand.

Denim Is Making a Comeback

My mom wore denim shirts in the 80's. I guess I can do it too!

Actually, this shirt is tencel and it's from Velvet Heart, one of my favorite brands. Super comfy, and easy to wear - easy to wash too! I just hope that some day soon I won't have to layer my winter coat over it. HA!

Winter Is Never Ending

I really hope all this slush and snow melts soon! I'm ready to NOT wear winter boots for awhile. Saturday is the Minnesota United home opener. Go Loons!

(It's a loon, not a snowman)

Reusable Straws

Bimmer is on a zero-straw usage kick right now (which I am totally on board with!). Because there's just too much plastic in this world. This is one super easy way to be nice to the Earth!

Here's a link to Amazon (no, I don't make money on this link) to a double pack. I love this because I can keep two in my bag for the two kids. They're super easy to clean too.

Pizza Waffles

Easiest kid dinner ever. 

Pizza Waffles

Crescent Roll dough (I make a ton of these to send with lunch the next day, so I use 3 cans)
Mini Pepperonis
Cheese, whatever kind you like, shredded
And whatever other toppings you like
Pizza sauce (make it yourself OR take the easy way out and buy it!)

Unroll the crescent roll dough. See how 2 crescent rolls together make rectangles? You need 2 rectangles per waffle. Each can of crescent dough makes 2 waffles. Separate the rectangles and flatten them out a little - but not so much you start tearing the dough.

Heat up your waffle maker. Making these works best in the waffle irons that just set on the dough, not the ones that have to click together because pizza waffles are super thick. We have a Flip Waffle Maker so the waffle irons just set on the dough and you flip it over, the irons do not connect together. We ruined a different waffle maker when making these because the irons clicked together. Bad news bears.

Put a small handful of cheese on a rectangle. Put your pizza toppings over the cheese. Add another layer of cheese and then finally, another rectangle of dough.

Yes, this shit looks tiny but whatever. You really do get full on one fucking pizza waffle and if you want to be healthy...serve a side salad.

Onto the hot waffle maker, put the pizza waffle and close the waffle maker.

I set my timer for 5 minutes for each waffle. You may have to do a minute less or a minute more. Check on the waffle at 4 minutes.

Repeat until you have enough pizza waffles.

Serve with pizza sauce.

So Much Snow!

End of February

Middle of March

It's April!

Can we get some green grass around here???

I am so ready for the last of the ice hills to melt, the last snow piles to go away and April showers to wash away all the crap on the roads and bring out the green grass and May flowers.

44 inches of snow in February to basically a really dry March has made Minnesota look like fall again - without the smell of falling leaves and and crunching around leaf piles. So it's still gray and dreary. We've had a few sunny days but I'm still going strong on taking my Vitamin D.

Chewie and I started some seeds - he totally mixed up pumpkins with tomatoes though. Ha! I'lll plant those jack o'lanterns in the front and cross my fingers that they actually grow. A few seedlings are coming up. I moved the tray to upstairs in a south facing window.

We brought out the bikes and scooters again. Thank goodness, because spring fever has hit and everyone NEEDS to be outside, running around and practicing their scooters and bike skills. We're headed to Colorado again this summer and that will be so much fun because now everyone can go mountain biking together. 

I'm going to see if I can scam Bimmer into bringing my road bike too - I now really want to throw myself down a mountain on my road bike and see how fast I can go. But first I have to ride up the mountain to enjoy the ride down. I think I've become more of a thrill-seeker as I've gotten older, having life insurance helps knowing that Bimmer can hire a nanny. I think. But I LOVE going fast on my road bike and I really enjoy the muscle burn when I'm done. It just feels good. 

This month I'm determined to exercise/workout every day. If I can't do 30 Days of Biking, then I CAN DO 30 days of working out to keep myself in shape. I went down two inches in my waist, my arms are way more toned, I feel better, I can keep up with the kids so much better, I don't get out of breath jogging after the kids on their scooters for a mile. I realized that I CAN do things if I put my mind to it. I can workout, I can feel better about myself, and I really like the high of working out. Why I didn't do this before sort of baffles me, but at the same time not. Doing push-ups is hard. Do tricep push-ups is even harder. Doing tricep kickbacks fucking burns. But those are things that I CAN do and I actually WANT to do them. And I will workout later today. I look forward to my workouts because that is my time for me!

So...happy April! Hopefully it rains soon to wash away all the crap!

Massive Toy Purge

I absolutely need to get rid of more shit. The kids are older, but at the same time, not really. They're done with the play kitchen. Wooden puzzles are out. Pretty sure the Megablocks are done too. I'm happily purging all the toys.

I've been posting stuff on Facebook groups for awhile now but it seems that a lot of other people are doing the same thanks to the new Marie Kondo show (which I have some serious problems with - there's a few episodes where the men blame their wives for the house being dirty. I mean really, they have two working hands and know where the freaking garbage is, they can pick up a dust rag). So next I'm going to haul everything to the ECFE consignment sale this spring. I'm going to sell and purge EVERYTHING. I might even need two car loads. but purging toys with kids is really hard - they find the garbage bags and SUDDENLY WHAT THEY HAVEN'T PLAYED WITH IN YEARS IS THEIR FAVORITE TOY. But it then gets tossed aside in an hour. UGH.

Last week I had a friend go through two large Ikea bags of stuff and I happily gave more than half of it away. I just can't  deal with all the stuff anymore. I feel like this sense of "too much stuff" happens nearing the end of winter, close to spring - it's the time when everyone needs a sense of renewal and lightness. The sunshine helps, but so does getting rid of everything.

So next I'm off to photograph and list everything that I can during one episode of Daniel Tiger. Wish me luck!

2019 Garden Goals

This year is going to be huge in the realm of our backyard.

The kids love to mountain bike.

I hate to mow the lawn.

So our plan is to have dirt delivered and turn the backyard into a pump track.

YEP. A PUMP TRACK.

I'm going to move a garden, possibly take out the little dining patio (or make it larger, I'm not sure what the track is going to look like yet), and then put in gardens in the turns and in the middle of the pump track.

Berm turns, here we come!

(Photo is not mine, taken from Google images as an example of a pump track)

Other than that hefty goal of getting large equipment into the backyard to build berm turns and rollers, I think my plan is to stick veggies in the flowers, put in a step-out line of bricks at the curb on the boulevard and re-mulch everything that I can to prevent dead flowers and veggies!

On my veggie/herb list this year:

Tomatoes - both cherry tomatoes AND heirloom tomatoes

Cucumbers

Peppers

Pumpkins

Butternut squash

Cilantro

Basil

Dill

Jalepenos

Brussel Sprouts

Lettuce as fill-in in the front garden beds

Lavender

Sage

Mint

Calendula

Chamomile

Broccoli - as fill-in in front garden beds

Banana peppers

I don't have much on my list for flowers - well, that is until there's a plant sale at the local garden center. Then it suddenly seems like I need everything! I'm leaving a lot of things open to change this year because if we do a pump track like we've planned, then I'm going to need to plan out where all the veggies are going and I might possibly need to move some perennials. 

At some point I would love to get rid of all the rock that's around this house. I've been dumping what I've been picking up along the back side of the garage - at some point I'm going to have to make a post on Nextdoor or Facebook to take some free rock. Eh, I'm not even sure if people want free rock anymore. 

So plants and plans may change, but I'm hoping to get a pump track this year!