But the angel said to them “Do no be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:10-11
Merry Christmas
Love, Jon and Candice
Merry Christmas Eve!!
This morning I slept in and then headed out for a quick walk/jog around the neighborhood. It felt good to get my blood flowing.
Afterward, I enjoyed a bowl of cereal and soy milk. I wanted to add banana, but the bowl was really shallow, and there simply wasn’t enough room!
Kashi Go Lean Crunch mixed with Shredded Wheat n Bran
For lunch I had an Amy’s bean and rice burrito plus a few of Jonathan’s curly fries. Today I’ve popped a few too many chocolate covered almonds in my mouth. They taste so good going down – I love those things. Every year Jon’s grammy has chocolate covered almonds and chocolate covered cashews…and every year I eat one too many:) It’s become my yearly tradition. haha. When I have been eating super clean I find that even the smallest bit of junk food makes me stomach feel edgy. Sometimes it’s just worth it though. sometimes.
Hopefully I’ll be able to settle it for dinner tonight! The family is getting fried fish from a local restaurant that everyone loves, so I’ll be baking some sweet potato rounds and some broccoli. That should do the trick:)
We’re getting ready to head to a candlelight Christmas Eve service, and I’m so looking forward to it. I haven’t been to one in a few years, but I really love them. I’m hoping for lots of hymns and Christmas songs ’cause I haven’t had enough of those this year. And also looking forward to a little down time spent focusing on my Savior. Definitely hasn’t been enough of that!
Before I go, here’s the gingerbread recipe I promised. If you’re looking for an ultra soft, perfectly spiced gingerbread that is just right for cookie cuttering, then look no further!
Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
recipe found here
Ingredients
Directions
Decorate with colored icing or enjoy plain with a hot cup of tea – a perfect Christmas treat:)
Merry Christmas Eve everyone!!
What are you doing to celebrate this Christmas eve?
Hello!
Well, we’re finally in south Texas!
On Tuesday we left home and headed to my hometown to see my grandma and grandpa. We went and grabbed some dinner with them and then ended the night at their house opening gifts together! It was such a great time spending the evening with them – it’s not everyday we get them all to ourselves;)
It was also a perfect example of how sometimes there are sacrifices involved when eating vegetarian/vegan. There are a lot of ways to plan ahead and avoid less than ideal food situations, but sometimes there’s just not much you can do. The restaurant we went to was mexican, and I wasn’t too worried about it because usually mexican restaurants have options – I usually go for black bean tacos (just ask them to sub out beans for meat) or veggie fajitas. But this particular restaurant didn’t have black beans and their refriend beans and rice were not vegetarian. They did have fajitas, but they were twelve dollars and I just couldn’t bear to spend that much. So I went with the guacamole and ate it with a flour tortilla and some chips. I wasn’t there for the food anyway:)
Anyway, the next morning we got up fairly early and hit the road, heading south.
After a long, but fun day of driving, we finally arrived in south Texas around ten o’clock. We started out at about nine thirty in the morning and ended up in Dallas around one o’clock where we stopped at the mall to make some exchanges and grab some lunch.
For Christmas my mom gave me running shorts from Lululemon (insert excited squeal:), but after trying them on I decided I needed a different size. I have to admit it was so hard to go in the store and not want to buy ten other things, but thankfully I resisted. I did get my shorts exchanged though, and I can’t wait to wear them – they’re my first pair of running shorts from there, and I’ll definitely do a review over them soon!
For lunch I grabbed a salad from one of those salad places I love so much. Sadly, this particular one just did not measure up – they didn’t chop up everything in the salad before putting it into the bowl, so there were giant leaves of lettuce, giant nuts, giant artichoke hearts (I broke them up into pieces myself) etc. I was a bit disappointed, but o’well. The rosemary roll that came with it pretty much made up for it though – it was delicious!
After lunch and shopping we got back on the road for the last five hours of our trip. Here is a little hello from the road that I tried to post yesterday, but due to the remote country roads of south Texas, it didn’t quite work out like I planned:)
As you can hear we jammed out to the husband’s new Sarah Bareilles CD, which we both happen to love, and the trip went by fairly quickly.
First things first this morning, I headed out for a quick speed walk, just to get my blood flowing a little bit. I have to be really careful when we’re visiting family for an extended period of time. If I don’t make a point to get some exercise and eat well I end up not enjoying our time here quite as much and I go home feeling less than stellar. So, after my walk, I showered and headed to the store to get some healthy food to have around.
Just the basics…you know:) Later we stopped by the store again and I grabbed a sweet potato, some broccoli and squash and a couple of Amy’s frozen burritos. This is a meat/seafood eating family, so I always need something on hand for meals. I really wish I had grabbed a couple cans of Amy’s soup from the health food store before leaving town. It really like it a lot better than the frozen foods, but I can’t find them here, so I’ll make due! I usually plan ahead so much more, but I just completely ran out of time this year.
Anyway, today has been a fun first day – we’ve gotten to see a lot of family and just enjoy spending time hanging out. Unfortunately my MIL is really sick and we ended up in the emergency room with her for a little while this afternoon. She seems to be feeling a little better tonight, and I’m praying she wakes up feeling better tomorrow.
For dinner tonight we stopped by the best little restaurant – Geo Burrito – have you heard of it? It’s basically kind of like Chipotle or Qdoba, but I think it’s even better. Any mexican restaurant that offers brown rice and vegetarian refriend beans is a win in my book:)
I ordered a bowl with brown rice, refried beans, black beans, corn, lettuce, pico, salsa and guacamole
I seriously wish we could get this place in Oklahoma. The guy who works at Chipotle told me the other day that they’ll be getting brown rice soon. I haven’t seen it yet, though, so I’m not holding my breath:)
Anyway, before I go I wanted show you guys the cookie cutters I used for the sugar cookies and gingerbread men since several readers have asked about them. I bought the set of at William Sonoma, and even though I debated about the purchase for a half hour in the store that night, I definitely have not regretted buying them. I love using them, and it has been so fun to personalize cookies for Christmas gifts!
They are super easy to use and even easier to clean.
As you can see, the set comes with premade phrases as well as all the letters in the alphabet plus extras of the most common letters. You simply slide the letters you want to use into the grooves and then use it like you would any other cookie cutter – it’s that simple!
It seems that they are all sold out online, but I’m sure they still have them in the stores. There is also a set that is not Christmas related that could be used year round! I may have to splurge on those as well:)
Halley mentioned that she spotted them the other day and bought them as a last minute Chrismtas gift for her mom – what a great idea!
And while we’re on the subject of the cookies, I’ll be posting the recipe for the delicious vegan gingerbread cookie recipe tomorrow – you have to make them if you like gingerbread at all. They are soft and chewy with just the perfect amount of gingerbread flavor – perfect for Christmas afternoon with a cup of hot tea:)
Only two days left until Christmas – hope you are all enjoying every moment!
By the way, don’t forget to stop by Ecolissa and use the 20% discount offered to ChiaSeedMe readers! Use code “vegan20″ to get your discount.
note: I am not being compensated in any way by William Sonoma – I simply love them and wanted to share!
Happy Christmas week!
I got up yesterday feeling like Christmas was already over, and I had to remind myself that there is still almost a week of fun still to go:)
On Sunday we went to my mom and step-dad’s. Saturday night I had done so much baking and cooking…I was worn out by the time we got there! We still had such a great time though. There really is nothing like going home for the holidays, you know?
My mom had already cooked a full Christmas dinner on Saturday for the other side of their family, and she worked so hard to cook one for us as well.
And especially once I added the dishes I brought, there definitely was not a lack of food. It was great!
vegan broccoli casserole – I liked it, but no one else did. I’d call that a successful failure I suppose:)
vegan garlic knots that were amazing (in my humble opinion of course:)
vegan pumpkin brownie pie - I made this at Thanksgiving, but this time I made it in pie form and loved it just as much!!
and gingerbread cookies! I made one for each person with a little hint on it:)
haha
and my plate at dinner – I couldn’t resist a little bit of mom’s mashed potatoes. Other than that I filled my plate with all vegan delicious food, and I honestly didn’t miss a thing- vegan broccoli casserole, pumpkin seed salad, vegan garlic bread, and quinoa pilaf.
I’ll be posting recipes and more pics of everything I made in the coming week!
It wasn’t just about the food though of course. We had a great time just hanging out, listening to music, and of course opening gifts!
Olive and her Christmas present from her Aunt Cristen:)
I’m so thankful to have been able to enjoy another Christmas with my family – now we still have 2 more to go as we head down to south Texas this week! This morning I am running around like a crazy person trying to get Christmas cards mailed out, Outbox client gifts finished up, gifts taken to my tutoring students (I made them gingerbread cookies as well:), laundry done and everything packed! It will indeed be a miracle if we make it out of here by our estimated leave time of 3pm, but we’re sure as heck going to try!
Tonight we’re headed to my Grandpa and Grandma’s to see them for a little bit and give them their gifts. It is always sad for me when I’m not at my Grandma’s house on Christmas, but I am also really looking forward to seeing our McCoy side grandma’s. We’re spending the night at my mom’s tonight and then heading out Wednesday morning!
I’ll see you guys tomorrow!
Hope you’re all having a great week!
p.s. Sorry if this post seems a little……high strung. That’s kind of me right now:)
Boy, last night was crazy.
One of my students, Bomi, asked me the other day what is one of my bad habits. I should really call her right now and update my answer.
One of my worst habits is procrastination. For some crazy reason I didn’t even get started on finding recipes for dishes to take to Christmas until about 5pm yesterday evening. The same thing happens every time – when I finally started researching, I got really excited and ended up with a list of 5 different dishes that I wanted to make.
Needless to say I had a hay-day in the kitchen until the early hours of the morning.
There was a lot of this.
And by 2 am my kitchen looked like this.
And I had done some cleaning up at that point! Scary.
Honestly, I had so much fun – the husband and I downloaded some new upbeat Christmas songs, and I was jamming away while my garlic bread rose and little gingerbread men came to life (dishes and recipes coming soon!). The only way it could have been any better is if it had been 2 pm instead of 2 am. But you can’t win ‘em all, right?
I finally stumbled into bed at about 3 am, and mere seconds after my head hit my pillow, I knew I was in for a rough time. I just could not fall asleep! I was so wired up and my mind was racing with everything I needed to do still and with thoughts about the future. I get real deep when I’m delirious.
I tossed and turned all night long, not really falling asleep at all until about 5:30 am and then waking up again at 7. Finally at 7:30 I hit the point where there was no going back to sleep. It was all over.
So, I laid there in bed and again my mind started racing. The lack of sleep was hindering any chance I had at rational thinking, and I started fretting over things that are going on in my life right now. I began to analyze everything, creating “what if” scenarios in my head and then scolding myself for letting my mind run wild.
It was then that I turned to the one person I know is always there. I started praying. I started praying for joy. I asked God to give me a peace in my heart because He is in control of my past, my present and my future. He has a specific plan for me and He will work out that plan, regardless of how much I try to interfere and make it my own. I asked him to embed that truth in my heart and to help me live by it every second of the day. To help me give up my plans and my anxieties and hand it all over to him. And just trust.
And suddenly, my heart was filled with relief. It was as if I had taken a peacefulness pill, and the medicine was slowly spreading throughout my body reaching from the crown of my head all the way down to my toes.
And I felt His peace. And His joy.
And then I felt the husband’s steady breath on my shoulder. And I felt Olive’s warm and furry little body curled up on my other side. And I felt the coziness of my warm house and my bed.
And I was filled with thankfulness.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Rom 15:13
I have spent the last 30 minutes waiting for the announcement of the winner of Project Food Blog. I honestly cannot imagine being one of the finalists right now – my stomach is so nervous and I didn’t make it past challenge 3!
In fact, it also caused me to make lunch twice. I was so distracted I left my corn tortilla chips in the oven for way too long and they ended up looking like this:
In went another batch – good thing they only take 10 minutes to bake!
Much better.
I finished off the last of the chili for lunch, and it made me sad. Definitely going to be cooking up another batch soon! The husband is begging for it. Not even kidding:)
Yesterday was full to the brim of Christmas shenanigans! I have to be honest, there are some things going on right now that are causing me to struggle with remaining joyful each day. You know when there is something in your life that you just wish was different. In other words, you have plans that don’t exactly match up with God’s plans. Well, that’s kind of where I’m at right now. The biggest thing I’m doing to try and maintain a joyful spirit and focus on all of the blessings in my life is praying for gratefulness, perspective, trust and patience every single day. Nothing calms my fears like spending time with Him.
The second thing I do is just stay busy with everything that’s going on right now…focusing on living in the moment (as I tell my yoga students every Wednesday). Yesterday was definitely busy and it warmed my spirit to focus on such fun aspects of the holiday season: giving gifts and sending Christmas cards!
The husband and I sent gifts to all of our business clients. The peppermint bark is probably not vegan…but neither are any of our clients. ha. And while I still try to only make and buy vegan food, even when buying for others, the packaging was designed just so that I could not say no to the husband’s pleading eyes. What can I say? He’s a sucker for classy packaging…and I’m a sucker for him.
And now for our personal card
My parents-in-law gave me the bird stamp for Christmas, and I’m pretty much in love with it. I just want to stamp everything I own.
We put hours and hours of time into these cards! I kid. We really pulled them together rather quickly, especially compared to cards we’ve done in the past. Like two years ago when I handmade each and every card. They were cute. But it will be a long time before I commit to that again:)
Anyway, plans for this weekend include finishing up our Christmas shopping and then going to my hometown for Christmas on Sunday. I’m still trying to decide what to make to take for Christmas dinner. I’m wanting to make some kind of salad – like a grain or pasta salad…and then definitely a dessert! Must decide soon!
And now for some exciting news!
Ecolissa is offering all ChiaSeedMe readers 20% off anything in her shop!
“Ecolissa carries only fashionable eco friendly and vegan woman’s clothing and accessories. [They] specialize in dresses and easy to wear separates.”
[source]
Not only does Ecolissa carry dresses and tops, there is also a plethora of cute accessories available as well. I’ve had my eye on a couple of items – and I love knowing that they’re eco and animal friendly!
Here are some items I love:
I’ve wanted a scarf like this since it got cold, and I think this one is adorable. And so cozy looking:)
To receive the discount just type in the code “vegan20″ when you check out. The offer is good through the end of the month!
Now go get your shop on:) There are some awesome gift ideas as well!
Happy Friday everyone!
Any good suggestion of what I should make to take to Christmas dinner? I need ideas!
Yesterday I played hostess for Jonathan’s team-members from work – they all came over during lunch for their annual Christmas party. I love hosting people at our house, and it doesn’t really happen that often for some reason. Maybe that’s why I like it?
Anyway, I spent about 5 hours Monday night making the infamous sugar cookies that had actually begun to feel like a thorn in my side. I wasted so many batches of cookies, and in the end I went with a tried and true recipe that was posted on Jenna’s blog a couple weeks ago. The funny thing is that it’s almost exactly the same as another recipe I had found on a different blog awhile back (Jenna adapted it from there) – I guess it was meant to be!
Once I found said recipe, I thought it would be smooth sailing the rest of the way. That is until 9:30 pm, when I realized that I was 1/2 cup short of Earth Balance. Nooooo! It’s unbelievable how many trips I made a across town in order to finally accumulate all the ingredients necessary for these cookies. The thought of making one more almost killed me. Besides that I didn’t think our main grocery store in town carried it, and the health food stores were all closed. Sigh.
So I called Food Pyramid, crossed my fingers while I waited on hold about 3 different times, and then begged the guy on the other end to “puh-lease tell me they had Earth Balance.” Praise the Lord, they had it!
So by the time I got home, I already had invested an hour in cookie making, and there wasn’t even any dough mixed up yet! It was about 15 minutes after that that I realized these cookies have to chill in the fridge for an hour before being rolled out. It was just not my night.
Finally, with a lot of time and even more hard manual labor (rolling out that dough is a challenge!) I finally came out with a decent sugar cookie at about 1:30 am. The only part left at that point was the decorating.
Let’s just say I am a very amateur decorator. As in, I’ve never done it before. It’s funny how this little fact didn’t really cross my mind until 1:30 am Monday night, when I began mixing up the icing. Honestly, the icing part came out looking pretty bad, but the cookies tasted great and by the time I got them all tied up in their little bags, the icing wasn’t that noticeable. Next time I might would try a different recipe….this one was a little bit thin and soft…but after a little fridge time it hardened up enough and ended up being okay.
Vegan Holiday Sugar Cookies
originally and only slightly adapted by Jenna from here. I also made a couple slight changes.
Ingredients
Directions
For the icing (recipe found here):
Mix powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Next, beat in (by hand is okay) corn syrup and almond extract until icing is glossy and smooth. Divide icing between bowls and add drops of food coloring until desired color is reached.
After cookies are decorated, place them on a cooling rack and put them in the fridge until icing hardens.
For the main meal, I made vegan chili (yes, again), but I used a different recipe than I have used in the past.
This was hands down the best vegan chili I’ve ever made or tasted. I put a little more time and effort into it, and it showed. I don’t know what everyone at the party thought, but the husband and I are seriously loving it. If you need to make a vegan chili, don’t hesitate to try this one – it’s fantastic
The World’s Best Vegan Chili
adapted from this recipe
The cookies and chili weren’t the only thing that ended up being a success, the party was pretty fun too!
Let’s be honest though. In the midst of my hosting duties, I really spent a lot of time holding this pretty baby, Sophie. She’s my husband’s boss’ baby girl, and she is an absolute doll. I really wanted to just keep her…but unfortunately it didn’t work out:(
All in all we had a great time. I was so happy that the cookies finally were a success. I’ve put so much time and energy into them, and it felt so good to see the finished product. Now I just need to make a couple more batches…
This week has been crazy so far and is only getting crazier! I’m trying to finish up last minute Christmas shopping this week because we’re having Christmas with my family on Sunday. Then next week it will be off to south Texas to see Jon’s extended family! It’s sad that this season has to pass by so quickly – I can’t believe it’s already almost here!
What is one thing you’re hoping to get for Christmas this year or the one thing you’re most excited about giving? I know it’s not about the gifts, but it’s still fun to give…and receive!
Well, I have to say that McCoy family Christmas weekend was an epic success.
We started the weekend off strong on Friday night when my mother-in-law announced that there would be intermittent BINGO going on all weekend – with prizes to boot! At random moments one of my parents-in-law would make the call “it’s BINGO time!” at which point we’d all gather round for a chance to win.
This is my mother-in-law completely in her element – bingo by her side
and a grab bag of prizes just within reach:) love it!
Saturday morning we got up first thing and got to cookin’! It has become a yearly tradition for us to make meals for older folks in the church and then take them with us as we go caroling from house to house.
This year we made bean soup, corn bread and banana bread. The phrase “how many McCoys does it take to _____” was thrown out a lot throughout the morning:)
Another important event on Saturday was the celebration of my MIL’s birthday! So so thankful for her:)
the original mccoy family:)
After a couple hours of visiting and caroling, we headed back to the house to get dinner ready. I am the only vegetarian in the family, so many times I will either just eat the sides that are made or I’ll roast up a batch of veggies. I went with the latter this weekend, and even threw in some potatoes and edamame. Protein, check! Carbs, check! Veggies, check, check!
I coated them with a mix of olive oil and random seasonings. Unfortunately I went a little heavy on the red pepper, but other than that they were pretty good!
While we enjoyed dinner, little Miss Olive enjoyed chewing on her new favorite toy given to her by her grandparents:)
And then it was time for gifts. My mother-in-law completely goes over the top with the gifts – she and my father-in-law do so much for us. It’s seriously outrageous. We had a great time – I love getting to watch people open gifts…so fun. And opening some myself wasn’t bad either I suppose:)
Unfortunately my mother-in-law had a bit of hard time this weekend because on Thursday night she was rooting around in her closet for something and a five pound dumbbell fell and landed on two of her toes. I felt so bad for her…I think she was in more pain than she would let on…but of course it didn’t stop her from serving all of us all weekend. It’s just who she is:) I hope I can be as sweet and selfless as she is when I have children someday.
All in all it was a great Christmas with the family. It’s kind of nice to have one Christmas done, but still have almost two weeks of Christmas fun to go…I like it!
Merry Christmas from us! Jon, Candice and Olive
Olive refused to look at the camera. I think she was a little bitter about the sweater.
Hope you all had a great weekend!
Stay tuned tomorrow for round three of the perfect vegan sugar cookie + a discount offered from one of the coolest online boutique stores around!
Happy Friday!!
I’m so excited that it’s the weekend finally. Like I mentioned earlier this week - we are having Christmas with the husband’s side of our family. We’re heading out tonight and staying until Sunday. There will be food. There will be caroling. Enough said.
I had lots to do today to get ready, so I started off this morning with an energizing juice. I used more veggies this time than I ever have before, and I have to admit I was a little nervous for my first sip.
(don’t worry, the cucumber isn’t bad – the red spots are from the beet:)
The more veggies you use, the worse the color gets – this one had parsley, swiss chard, 1/2 a beet, 1/2 cucumber, 2 carrots, small piece of ginger and 1.5 granny smith apples. Honestly…it wasn’t good or bad. It was kind of a neutral taste, which I’ll totally get on board for because this thing was packed with vitamins and nutrients!
As soon as I guzzled it down, I headed out the door to PiYo. I came “this close” to not having any students show up today. I guess it’s just that time of year where everybody is busy and it’s cold outside so people don’t want to get out. Anyway, at about five after, 2 girls, whom I had never seen before in my life, walked in. Praise the Lord! It was kind of fun leading a class of two new people as opposed to my new regulars. I felt like I was kind of looking at my class through a fresh lens.
Anyway, after PiYo I met with HeyKyoung for tutoring and then I headed home to get some baking done!
For lunch I decided to break open this bag of dry soup that I randomly picked up at the store one day. It’s Bob’s Red Mill brand, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. I added 1 cup of soup mix to 2 cups of water and 2 cups of organic vegetable stock.
I also tossed in:
I let it simmer for about an hour while I got busy on some cookies! And just as I was finishing up my last batch, it was piping hot and ready to go! I also dug out some leftover cornbread from earlier this week and spread some Earth Balance on it. Yum!
I highly recommend this soup for a quick and healthy meal. Even though it had to simmer for an hour, it took all of 5 minutes to throw it all in the pot…plus, you can make a big batch and have it for leftovers too! It was tasty:) I love soup in the winter.
Now back to those cookies.
I knew I wanted to make the classic Super Charge Me Cookies – they’re a no brainer because they’re vegan, healthy, energizing, delicious…and they have chocolate! What more do we need to say? Oh, also every non-vegan who has ever tried them has given them two thumbs up. Especially the husband. They’re his favorite:)
Besides the SCM’s I wanted to make a new and slightly different recipe as well. So, I cracked open my trusty old copy of Eat Drink and Be Vegan where I found a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies. Perfect!
By the time I subbed in dried cranberries for the raisins and added just a sprinkling of vegan chocolate chips, they weren’t exactly oatmeal raisin anymore, but I think they were even better!
Dare I say I like these just as well – maybe even better – than Super Charge Me’s? gasp.
They are good. Really good. I can’t wait to see what the husband thinks.
Now that I’ve got all my baking done I’m off to get packed, do some last minute Outbox work and load up the car before we leave. We finally got all our wrapping finished up, and I just have to tie on a few last minute bows (the best part).
By the way, I’m still on a vegan sugar cookie mission, but I’m waiting on our health food store to get in vegan cream cheese. Oh, the joys of living in a small town. I’m hoping to have my first batch done by Tuesday. I’ll keep you posted:)
Have a great weekend everyone! And thanks for reading ChiaSeedMe:)
What is your favorite tradition that your family does during the holiday season?
Happy Birthday to the best sister in the world…
taken 3 years ago in Thailand: my sister and I on her birthday with two of our favorite Thai friends, P’Dew and P’Nong
Love you!
Also, happy 2 year vegetarian birthday to me!
Getting better all the time:)
(go here if you’re interested in hearing more about why I eat the way I do)
This morning I got up and went to work in the kitchen right away. I decided a few weeks ago to make decorated (vegan) sugar cookies as a sort of Christmas gift for friends and coworkers. And after finding some really cute cookie cutters at Williams Sonoma the other day, I’m even more excited about it! But first things first – I have to perfect the vegan sugar cookie and icing, which I fear will not be an easy task. But I will do it or die trying:)
So, round one started late last night as I made my first batch of dough, placing it gently in the fridge to sit overnight and saying a prayer before turning out the kitchen light and heading to bed.
The second my eyes popped open this morning, I was so anxious to get in there and start rolling out my first batch!
Everything was going so well as I floured the counter-top, pressed out my dough and started rolling.
Once it was all flattened out smooth, I pulled out my new cookie cutters and pressed them, one-by-one into the dough. So far so good.
The next step was when I began to sense a slight problem. The cookies wouldn’t come up off my counter-top. As soon as a slid the spatula under them and began to lift, they started breaking apart apart. It was like they were too wet…even with a floured surface.
Now I haven’t made sugar cookies in over 10 years, so I really couldn’t remember exactly what the consistency is supposed to be…but I’m pretty sure they’re not supposed to tear into pieces before they even get to the cookie sheet. But, by-and-by I managed to transfer them over with only a few casualties and some broken limbs:( I placed them in the oven and hoped for the best.
14 minutes later I pulled them out, eager for a taste test.
note: they are brown as opposed to white because I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for all-purpose.
In the end, they turned out just okay – the taste was pretty much spot on. But the texture was not right. After taste testing a small bite, I found myself wanting more – so that’s encouraging, but they definitely aren’t gift worthy. So, back to the drawing board I will go, with high hopes for better luck on round two.
I didn’t have much more time to bake this morning as I had to rush off to my tutoring appointment. I usually come home during lunch before going back for my afternoon students, but today I decided to camp out in the OSU library and get some work done.
It’s kind of hard to see, but the other day they decorated the front of the building for Christmas – it’s so festive and pretty! Makes me happy just to look at it.
I brought my current favorite lunch along for the ride as well, with a honeycrisp apple on the side.
This is the fastest lunch ever created – and it’s tasty too! I used a whole wheat lavash wrap, spreading a layer of hummus down the middle and then sprinkling on some chia seeds and about one and a half tablespoons of nutritional yeast. And last, I topped it with a helping of spinach leaves and broccoli slaw.
The chia seeds and nutritional yeast offer just the right amount of protein with a couple of grams thrown in by the hummus as well. Did you now that nutritional yeast has vitamin B12 in it? Vitamin B12 is usually only found in animal products, so for vegans it’s important to make sure to get it either through foods like nutritional yeast or take a supplement. I do both!
Now I’m off to get ready to teach my yoga class. Tonight the husband and I will begin wrapping gifts…only 2 nights left before we go see family!
Hope you’re all having a great week!
What is your favorite go-to lunch?
It was a sad moment this morning when I discovered this
No more grass:( I’m still deciding which breaks my heart more – the picture above or paying twenty five big ones to restock. hmmm. I’ll have to think about that one. And I’ll have a few days to figure it out since I can only get more in the city, which won’t be until Friday.
I was able to scrape the cannister enough to have one last grass-filled green smoothie.
It’s seriously cold in these parts today – there’s even a chance of snow flurries later on. A girl can only hope!
I do have to admit that green monsters are getting less enticing day by bitter cold day. I have to bundle up tight to be able to enjoy it. It’s so worth every little chill bump, though. I really love mixing up my breakfasts and trying new things, but nothing makes me feel as awake and energized as one of these.
In other news, unfortunately I do not have any baby pics to show you today. We didn’t stay at our friends’ house for long before we had to rush off to have dinner with the Korean couple that I tutor. I didn’t even get to hold her, which I was kind of bummed about…but maybe next time:) It was still fun to get to see her and catch up with our friends for a few minutes – we hadn’t talked to them since they had her, so we got to hear the short version of her birth story and all about how parenting is treating them so far. They were so happy; it was sweet:)
I spent the last part of the afternoon making a crock-pot full of vegetarian chili and some homemade cornbread muffins to take to them. It smelled so good in my kitchen all afternoon – it was all I could do not to snag a bowl!
Vegetarian Chili
Ingredients
Directions
This was a very basic recipe, similar to soups/chilies I’ve made before. That’s what’s so grand about it though…it’s so easy to make and it warms you from the inside out.
And you can’t have chili on a cold night without cornbread muffins. I found this vegan version here, and I didn’t change much about it, just a few minor tweaks. It was pretty good, but next time I think I would tweak it some more….maybe add a bit more sweetener, like some agave or something? I’d also like to try using part spelt/whole wheat flour.
While this muffin was a tad bland on it’s own, it was delicious with Earth Balance spread on it. I didn’t eat any chili since we were taking it to our friends, but I’m sure this would also be awesome crumbled on top of the chili.
Vegan Corn Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Dinner with our Korean friends was great last night, too! I look at all of my tutoring students as great friends, and sometimes it seems weird to me that only a matter of months ago, I had never met them! Today is my first day to meet with my new 4th grade Korean student. I don’t get to hang out with kids very often anymore, so I’m really looking forward to it.
I’m off to plan my yoga and PiYo class and then meet up with my friend Grace for lunch. We’re going to my favorite sandwich place today…I can already taste that heavenly bread….mmmmm.
Hope you all have a fantastic day!
What is your favorite splurge item that it kills you to spend the money on, but you just can’t bring yourself to not buy it?
Hi!
How was your weekend? Mine was pretty great – it’s really hard to not have a good weekend during this time of year methinks. I know it’s not the happiest time of year for everyone out there, which makes me so sad. This year I’m really trying to be thankful in every moment. One of the best moments was Saturday night, when the husband and I cruised around OKC looking at Christmas lights. There’s an area of town where the houses are huge and breathtaking, and every year it seems they have a competition to see who can put up the most extravagant lights!
The husband and I spent much of Saturday out and about, finishing up our Christmas shopping for the McCoy side of our family. We do a small Christmas with this side a couple of weeks early, and it’s this weekend. I can’t believe it’s almost already here! I’m so excited – and I’m even more excited now that we got our shopping done…nothing like waiting ’till the last minute. We actually still have to pick up one more thing this week, but otherwise the next few days will be about wrapping, baking and packing. I’m looking very forward to two of these.
While we were shopping, we got distracted for a little bit in the Teavana store. Have you been to one? I’m loving tea more and more everyday lately, and I’ve been eying several different loose leaf teapots for awhile now. I finally splurged and got one! I’m feeling a tinge bad about spending money on myself right before Christmas, but I’m happy that I’ll have my favorite loose leaf tea to drink throughout the holidays! In my defense I probably wouldn’t have bought it for myself had the husband not insisted…but that’s neither here nor there I suppose. I do have a pretty sweet husband though:) just sayin.
So yesterday, I drank tea. And a lot of it.
Here’s she is! Well, most of her anyway. This is what she looks like all ready to be filled with water and popped in the microwave.
After removing her from the microwave – she now has the tea sieve (not sure if that’s what you call it?) back in
prepare one teaspoon of tea
and dump it in
now we wait
and wait
and wait
and now the best part – we pour!
I’m obsessed with this little teapot, so expect to see a lot of it! The coolest part is that you can steep the same tea leaves up to 3 times within a 24 hour period – when you consider that, the price isn’t bad at all!
Aside from drinking tea, upon my dear husband’s initiation, we also cleaned out our long overdue fridge. The kind of clean out where you remove every last thing, take out the shelves and scrub. It wasn’t pretty. I think it’s one of the worst jobs, but also one of the most rewarding. Afterwards, I finally went to the store and stocked up on food for this week – I got lots of stuff for juicing (organic carrots, tomatoes, beets, kale, apples, cucumbers, bell pepper) as well as ingredients for Vegetarian chili and homemade vegan cornbread. But not just for us.
Tonight we’ll be stopping by our friends’ house to take them chili and cornbread. They just had a baby last week, and I can’t wait to get my hands on that baby girl (Carissa, if you read this, don’t be freaked out:). I debated for about 5 seconds over whether to take them a vegetarian meal, since they are not vegetarian. But one thought about having to handle beef, and the decision was made. I decided on chili because I think it’s a vegetarian meal that many meat eaters will love. You can bulk it up with lots of beans, veggies, and spices, and they won’t miss a thing!
I’ll be back tonight with recipes for chili and cornbread – and hopefully some irresistible baby pics!
Are you more of a tea drinker or a coffee drinker?
How would you feel if someone brought you a meal that was vegetarian (if you’re not)? Would that bother you?
Random fact on this lovely Friday: somebody found my blog by searching the phrase “chia seed in my eye.”
I kinda like that, lol:) Not going to find any advice here, though!
I mentioned the other day that Jon and I decorated for Christmas on Sunday. I love decorating for Christmas! Last year during this time I hadn’t even started ChiaSeedMe yet. I was kind of in a transition between blogs. I had been writing at Brand New Sidewalk about random life happenings for about a year, but with the craziness also known as my first year of teaching, I just didn’t have the time or energy to put into it!
So, I started a tumbler, thinking it would be a good way to keep blogging, but with shorter, less-time consuming entries. I really liked tumbler, and sometimes I think I’d like to keep blogging there (in addition to CSM), but so far it hasn’t happened. My tumbler was geared a little more toward healthy living, but I really made the jump when I started ChiaSeedMe.
So in the spirit of decorating for Christmas here are some of last year’s decorations.
And this year.
Oops! That’s not a decoration. That would be my breakfast. A random juicing of carrots, apple, a lime, small piece of ginger and a few handfuls of spinach (aka – everything that I could scavenge from my oh so empty fridge). Plus half a leftover Cliff bar.
Let’s try this again.
And of course Christmas at our house wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for my Grandpa’s peanut brittle. He spends hours making it every year, and it’s the best peanut brittle there ever was.
The husband and I will be spending the whole weekend Christmas shopping! I’m so excited.
What are you most excited about this weekend?
Happy Friday!
Hi!
This morning Jon and I hit the gym a little late, so I did a really quick interval run. Sometimes it’s hard for me to get the motivation to kill it on the treadmill, but when I do it’s nice because I get done so much faster and I feel so good! Unfortunately I didn’t have time for weights or ab work, but later I did spend some time running through my PiYo class for this week.
I also spent some time catching up on some of my favorite blogs over breakfast!
1/3 cup oats, handful of frozen blackberries, 1 tbsp chia seeds cooked in 3/4 cup water for 2 minutes. Add a couple spoonfuls of soy yogurt and another sprinkle of chias (just for fun:) = best oatmeal ever. creamy. thick. delish.
I hate when I get behind and I feel like I don’t know what’s going on with everyone. This morning was like catching up with friends…I love all my blog friends:)
One thing I’ve been having a hard time with lately, though, is time. No matter how bad I want to catch up and comment on everybody’s blogs, I just don’t have enough time. I can sit for an hour at some point in the day, reading and commenting, and still feel like I’ve only gotten through about half, which for me is about 15 or so. I just feel like I don’t have much more time than that to give to it, especially by the time I post on my own.
I feel like I see so many bloggers who comment on tons of blogs, and I just don’t see how they have time to do it. Is there a secret that I don’t know about? I use google reader, but by the time I click out of it to comment, I’m not sure how much time it really saves. What gives?
I’m hoping I’ll get some tips from some of you on how to read and comment on more blogs in less time!
Moving on.
For lunch today I made one of my favorite meals, but in about 1/4 of the time it took me to make it last time!
Cheesy “noodles” and brussel sprouts
Instead of cooking the spaghetti squash in the oven, I poked holes in it with a fork and put it in the microwave for about 12 minutes. When I took it out, it was just the right amount of softness and I sliced it open with ease. In less than 2 minutes, I had cleaned out the seeds and then scraped out the “spaghetti” strands into a bowl.
this is what it looks like after being cooked and cut in half
and after separating out the strands
While preparing the squash, I placed a bowl of halved brussel sprouts in the microwave with just a little bit of water for about 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Next, I mixed together 1 tbsp nutritional yeast, 2 tbsp hummus and about 1.5 tbsp water. I whisked it until it had a smooth consistency. Last, I combined about a cup of spaghetti squash and 1/2 cup of brussel spouts before pouring the sauce over top and mixing it all up.
I added a dash of black pepper and ground red pepper for some kick!
Delicious! This is one of my favorite meals. The credit does not go to me though – I think I originally saw this idea on Heather’s blog, and I think Gena actually came up with the sauce idea. I know some of you may think it sounds like a crazy idea for a recipe…when I took this to work for lunch last year, my coworkers thought I had lost my mind. Try it before you knock it though. It honestly tastes like a big bowl of creamy, cheesy pasta! Added bonus: it took me less than 15 minutes to make, and it heats up well too if you’re looking for lunch to take to work.
I know some people have a problem with using microwaves. Honestly, I haven’t done enough research to voice an opinion, but I try to choose my battles. And right now, that’s one I’m going to choose not to worry about. If I had more time, I would just cook the squash in the oven, but on days like today I’d rather have microwaved spaghetti squash than none at all!
I’m off to meet a new tutoring student. This is my first student who is not an adult – he’s a fourth grader! I’m not used to this, so I’m crossing my fingers it’ll go well. Hope you all are having a great day!
Amidst the busyness of the last few days, there have been some really sweet highlights.
Yesterday I received a mysterious box in the mail. I always get so excited when an unexpected package comes, but usually I open it to find junk mail of some sort. But not this time. I opened the box, peered inside and saw this:
and this
My mom, step-dad and sister bought me this cute little scarf and mailed it to me as a surprise. How sweet is that? It totally brightened my entire day and made me feel so loved and happy. I have the best family:)
Another highlight came today when I finished a project that I’ve been working on. My friend, JJ, facebooked me about a week ago and asked me if I could make a couple of tag blankets for some friends of hers who are having a baby shower this week. I made a tag blanket for JJ’s baby right before he was born, and she says he takes it everywhere with him, so she thought it would be a great gift for her friends!
I of course happily obliged, but unfortunately my sewing machine was not quite as willing. Yesterday took all the patience I could muster as my machine jammed over and over and over. Finally, after about 4 hours of working, I finished them up!
tag blanket numero one
and numero two
If you’re wondering what a tag blanket is, allow me to explain. It’s a small, soft blanket for babies that has loops of ribbon coming off of it – it’s great for cuddling, pulling, chewing and just all around good fun:)
Anyway, regardless of my frustration with the sewing machine, you really can’t beat an afternoon of sewing while jamming out to Christmas music and sipping a hot latte on a frigid winter day. Can I get an amen?
Another thing you can’t beat?
baked apples with cinnamon and a splash of agave
and spinach lavash wraps with hummus, chia seeds and veggies. with a side of ceramic birds:)
So, I mentioned yesterday that I would be back to talk about getting back in a healthy groove after veering from it for awhile. The last couple of weeks or so I have just gotten a little lazy with eating clean. Between the stresses and busyness of the everyday and the extra craziness of the holidays, I’ve been eating a few too many chips and cookies, and not nearly enough veggies.
I definitely have my ups and downs when it comes to living healthy. I go through phases where it seems I just get on a roll of eating too much junk and not making it to the gym. And once I start slacking, it can be sooo hard to get back on track.
But no one can be perfect all the time, and the important thing for me is to focus on the fact that I do always get back on track. Instead of beating myself up and regretting what I’ve done, I am so much more successful overall when I just dust off my behind and jump right back in the game. Dwelling on what I’ve done in the past only serves to drag me farther down, killing any remnants of mojo I have left and leaving me feeling discouraged and sad.
Over the last couple of days, I’ve really stepped it up and gotten back on track with food and exercise. Tonight I was thinking through a few things I’ve done to help, so I thought I’d share them with you!
These are just a few of the things I did – nothing groundbreaking, but yet these never fail to help me get back on course when I seem to have strayed far away.
I’d love to hear any ideas you have for getting back on track after being in a rut. What do you do when this happens to you?!
Hope you’ve all had a great Wednesday! Onward!
Hello!
This week has been so crazy! Since we’ve been back home from visiting family for Thanksgiving, we’ve been so busy. I haven’t even had a chance to recap our Thanksgiving weekend…better late than never, though. Right?
I ended up making three different dishes to take to my family’s dinner. I’m blessed to have grandparents who are healthy eaters, so there were several great options on the table. I was really excited about cooking up some new recipes I’d been wanting to try, so I decided to take a few things anyway!
First up, I made this Maple Spiced Quinoa dish that Angela had posted awhile back.
This dish was delicious! Unfortunately the picture doesn’t do it justice. All I had to put it in was my mom’s Tupperware bowl, but i promise it tasted worlds better than it looks. The only negative was that I kind of wished I had made a savory quinoa dish for dinner, rather than sweet. This almost could have been eaten as a dessert!
I also made Angela’s healthy Sweet Potato Casserole. Let’s just go ahead and get something out on the table – I totally had an Angela inspired Thanksgiving dinner! Why not, right? Her recipes almost always amaze me, and I didn’t really have time to come up with something on my own. Plus, I had been drooling over these recipes since she posted them several weeks ago. What better time to try them out than on Thanksgiving?!
I totally scored big with this casserole…especially when it came to my baby cousin, Caroline. She was a big fan:)
This casserole was competing big time too because my aunt brought a delicious sweet potato casserole. I think it competed well, though it may not have won out in the end:( Except with Caroline that is.
For dessert I made Pumpkin Brownie cupcakes. Now these were a hit!
Every bit as delicious as they look and sound. How can you beat the combination of brownie + pumpkin + cupcake?! Seriously? I was so happy that everyone enjoyed these, and the recipe has already been sent out to the family. I could actually really use one of these about right now…
To top it all off, I made up a quick batch of Super Charge Me Cookies from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. They were awesome, as always.
My plate: vegetarian, mostly vegan and 100% delicious!
After lunch, we spent the rest of the day playing games and just hanging out. I love holidays at my grandparent’s house – it’s so nice to just spend time together. It doesn’t happen nearly enough.
And don’t forget family picture time!
And all the grandkids…starting at 1 year and going all the way up to 30!
My sweet grandma on her birthday. Her actual birthday is today, but we celebrated it with her on Thursday evening after all the Thanksgiving festivities. Happy Birthday Grandma!
The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, hanging out with my mom, step-dad and sister, decorating our Christmas tree and then celebrating yet another birthday.
We had a surprise party for my sister’s 30th, and I was in charge of lying to her all morning, getting her out of the house and then getting her back to the house in time for the party. I don’t think she likes to be surprised very much, and she didn’t make it easy on me. I think she ended up being about 1/3 surprised. Fun was still had by all though:)
We came back home on Saturday just in time to get ready for the Bedlam game. The husband and I had to work in the suites taking pictures. It was definitely the most fun game all year – even though we ended up losing in the end.
On Sunday we spent the day catching up on work and the house, and then we decorated for Christmas! One of my favorite activities of the season! Pictures will be soon to come:)
That’s all for now! I’m so glad to finally be caught up on everything…now it’s time to get caught up on all of your lovely blogs:) Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are having a great start to the week. How crazy that it’s already almost December!
I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about getting back and staying on track during this chaotic season – it’s not easy, but it’s so worth it!
Only one day left until Thanksgiving – I can hardly believe it! I am so looking forward to spending time with family over the next few days. We’ll be leaving tomorrow afternoon, heading to my hometown for all kinds of fun. I’m so thankful that I have a home and family to spend time with. In fact, I have two!
Something I’m really feeling so thankful for this year is that I have my grandparents to go home to. My grandma and grandpa will cook Thanksgiving dinner at their house on Thursday, just like they have every single year since before I can remember. And I feel so blessed to be able to spend time with them.
This morning when I got up, I really was not feeling a workout at all. I just felt like I had zero energy…but I decided that if I just made myself go, I’d get more energized once I got there. Works every time.
Until today.
I felt completely drained the entire time, and it was all I could do to keep myself going from machine to machine. I ended up putting in about 40 minutes on the treadmill – a combination of walking, speed walking, jogging, running and pretty much everything in between. It wasn’t super intense, but I was moving!!
Unlike most days, I ate some breakfast before I went because I was starving from the second I woke up. I knew that oatmeal was in the cards, and in the end I decided to keep it simple. I love putting tons of different toppings on my oats, but sometimes it’s nice to just get back to the basics.
I cooked 1/2 cup of oatmeal in 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk for about 2 minutes. Actually, I cooked it for 1 minute and 50 seconds, and then the oatmeal overflowed out of the bowl and all over my microwave. oops! I seriously hate it when that happens!
Anyway, after getting everything cleaned up, I just stirred in about 1 tbsp of pumpkin butter and then put a little dollop on top. It was so simple tasting…and delicious!
I spent the rest of today doing laundry and working on preparing the photos I took for a family last weekend. Here is a little glimpse of two of the cutest little baby boys ever:)
Tomorrow is going to be a busy one, trying to get ready to go! I think I know what I’m taking as far as food, but I still need to work out a few more details before I share. Other than that I just have to pack, tutor and get some Outbox work done. And then we’ll be off! yay!
What are your plans for the holiday? What special dishes are you making?
Good morning!
I can hardly believe it is already Thanksgiving week. The holiday season is officially here! My grandma and I were just talking (through facebook by the way…I have a really tech savvy Grandma:) about how fast this year has gone by. It seems like just last month we were having Christmas dinner together as a family. Time is definitely going by faster and faster the older I get.
Anyway, I got up this morning and headed to the gym for a quick interval workout. Today is going to be really busy, so I knew I had to make it quick! Sometimes it’s nice to just have a more intense, shorter workout and be done than to drag it out. It really just depends on the day for me, I guess. I ended with some full and side planks before racing back home and throwing together a juice. We are seriously low on groceries right now, so I had two measly ingredients this morning.
I would have liked to have had some greens in there, but you can’t win ‘em all I suppose. And this tasted delicious! So sweet:)
This weekend was so busy with going to Tulsa on Friday and on Sunday and having a mini photoshoot sandwiched in between on Saturday. We had such a great time with everything though!
The race was so fun and as expected it made me sad that we weren’t running and it made me want to run a race soon! Everything went off without a hitch, and all of Jon’s work looked fantastic. I know you may be sick of seeing it all, but here are some pictures from the actual race. Unfortunately it was overcast and super windy, so the pictures aren’t that pretty, but I think the husband’s amazing talent made up for it;)
not a pretty picture, but I thought these little details were so cute
please excuse the nest on my head – it was thanks to the 30 mile an hour wind
the husband got interviewed by Channel 6 news in Tulsa. I told him to drop a plug for Outbox, but he didn’t. He was cute anyway:)
I unexpectedly saw two friends at the race, which was so exciting! The first was my friend, Julie, from my teaching days, who ran the 5k.
And the second was my friend Katie from high school. It was so fun to see both of these girls because I hadn’t seen either one of them in forever! Katie ran the half marathon and PR’d – I was so excited for her! I think she ran it in 1:52 – go Katie! She blew my half marathon time out of the water by 17 minutes!
After about 4 hours at the race, we headed out, stopping at Starbuck’s for a little coffee before doing some Christmas shopping!
I love this little Starbucks – it was the quaintest I’ve seen since the one in Old Town where I met Emily. I told the husband that I could have sat there forever. It was that quaint:)
Don’t you just love the word “quaint”? I do. And I love quaint things.
It was a great day, and we were so happy that everything went over with the race so well.
I have to say, though, there was a 27 year old man that collapsed during the half marathon, and he died shortly after. So so sad. I cannot even imagine being his family. So, we’re definitely saying a prayer for him and those who knew him:(
I’ll see you all later – hope you have a great Monday.
Hi!
It has been quite the crazy weekend around here. Wednesday night I started feeling less than stellar, and by Thursday morning I had a full-on sore throat and achy body. It was not fun. It lasted well into this morning, but I think I’m finally starting to feel better as of this afternoon.
Needless to say my eats have been pretty boring as I’ve resorted to whatever required the least energy to put together. Fortunately I had made a giant pot of taco soup on Tuesday night, so I’ve been eating that pretty much every other meal.
Sprinkle in a couple of Amy’s dinners and lots of hummus – hummus quesadilla, hummus on toast, hummus wrap…and on and on.
I must say I am beginning to seriously crave veggies in a bad way. Must go to the grocery store tomorrow.
Anyway, despite being sick last night still, we headed to Tulsa for the Tulsa Route 66 Marathon race expo. The logo and all of the signage was designed by the husband, and we were super excited to see how everything looked and take some pictures for our website!
I have to say, I am so so proud of him. Outside of his 9-5, he put in over 60 hours for this race last month, and he had 4 other clients to keep up with as well. He has worked so hard – so many late nights, so little sleep, but he is so dedicated. He never stops until everything is just right, and I admire his passion and persistence so much!
Here is a glimpse of the expo.
So proud:) It’s one thing to see the results of all his hard work on the computer screen, but to see it on welcome signs, t-shirts, bags, and even displayed on the floor was just so overwhelming!
We got back from Tulsa late Friday night and ended up sleeping in really late this morning. By the time we got up we had just enough time to clean the house top to bottom before heading out for my 2nd ever photo shoot. I still need to get the photos uploaded and sorted through, but I’ll be posting some asap! They’re pretty cute methinks:)
Anyway, I’m off to bed now – we have to head to Tulsa bright and early tomorrow morning to be there for the start of the race. I hope to get some great pictures of the runners and the husband’s work, but also just enjoy the race atmosphere. I’m already feeling really sad that we aren’t running, but I’m trying to just focus on the excitement of what we are doing! Which is basically the whole reason why we aren’t running….so there you have it.
Hope you’re all having a great weekend!
my latest tweets.
