INSANITY // Week 5 Plan & Progress Report

Well, it is officially time to try and get back in a routine over at our house. My mom flew out Saturday morning; we were all very sad to see her go. What a blessing she is! She comes right in and takes over helping with everything that needs to be done. She was an extra special encouragement this time as she helped guide, encourage, and reassure me on learning how to take care of my little man and his diabetes. 

Today starts my second month of INSANITY. I honestly can't believe it. The first month flew by, and I am sure this month will too because...

Yes, that's right, we will be moving in a couple weeks! When we moved here 2 1/2 years ago, our intentions were to buy right away, but life kind of threw us some curve balls with my third pregnancy and looking for houses was put on the back burner. My Hunter and I have been going out with our realtor for the past 6 months looking at house after house. I thought we would never find one, because after owning once before, we now had a better idea of what works and doesn't work for us. But two Fridays ago, we pulled into the driveway of this house, and I instantly knew it was for us! My Hunter fell in love too! Needless to say, between homeschooling and packing... and then unpacking and settling in, this second month of INSANITY will probably slip by. 

Okay, so I did get a chance to lay down Friday evening with my girls during our family movie night and plan out our menu for the week. Here is a peek at what we will be having for supper each night. 

Monday - Black Bean Soup with Cheese Muffins

Tuesday - Pumpkin Pasta

Wednesday - Toasted Almond Chicken Salad Sandwich

Thursday - Vegetarian Stew {My meat-lovin' man will love this one when he finds out. ;) }

Friday - Pizza {Whole-Wheat crust! We found that kept Little Man's numbers lower than the week before when we had white crust.}

Saturday - Chili with Cornbread 

Sunday - Crockpot Chicken Greek Chicken Soup

What does my week look like with working out? 

Today will be tough I am sure. I have done two fits tests so far, and that is a workout in itself. I will be pushing to beat the numbers I had from Fit Test 2, you can bet that. Now that I am on month two, Shaun T is upping the game and adding in Max Interval Circuits too. I'm up for the challenge though! ;)

Challenge yourself this week! Whether in your workouts, fighting to get one more rep or with your job, there is always something to improve.

And, if you are up for a whole new challenge, consider joining my next challenge group where we will be detoxing from Halloween and working towards having more energy as we move into the holidays.

I am linking up with Katie today, because it was such a marvelous weekend with us finding our new home. Stop by and check out some of the other fun blogs.

Have a great Monday, friends!

Oh Mondays... How I Heart You!

If you don't know this about me already, you will soon learn that I *love* Mondays! I know, I know... may seem weird. The weekend is over and while I hate to see My Hunter head off to work, I love the fact that Mondays are a fresh start, a clean slate, a set of new goals I have for the week. :-)

So what are my top goals for the week? I want to stick to the meal plan I created. I am really been slacking on my good eating habits for the past few weeks, and I can see it is affecting me in all areas. I am tired, grumpy... I don't know how anyone in my house wants to be around me! Gotta get serious and start tracking again... printed off my tally sheets and am ready to do this.

My other big goal is to go through my youngest daughter's closet to swap out her clothes. Get the small ones out and put some summer ones in.

I think I almost cried on Saturday when I did that in my baby boy's room. Bye, bye 18 month clothes. :'(

I am excited about today too because the sitter is coming over to spend the afternoon with the kiddos. If you would have told me 10 years ago that someday I would consider going to a doctor's appointment a vacation, I would have laughed! BUT, now being a mom to three, it truly is, haha!

And, yes, I am hoping to sneak to Target before heading back home. ;)

Questions for you:

• Do you love Mondays?
• What is one thing you are looking forward to today?

Thanks to Katie for hosting the link-up today! Love the MIMM posts each week!

Marvelous in My Monday // Easter

Hi all! How was your Easter weekend? I honestly wasn't going to post today, because I have so much going on in my brain as I am trying to prepare and organize for the Women's Conference we are putting on this weekend. But I decided I would share a couple pictures from our weekend. Enjoy! :-)

Friday morning "bunny bottom" breakfast.

The colors in the sky! Wow! Friday evening's view from my deck!

Mmm! May have snuck a few of these before filling Easter baskets. ;)

I could just live in yoga pants! Seriously.

Flowers from a friend! Totally brighten the house!

I have more pictures from my phone that I wanted to post, {We colored eggs, went on an egg hunt, had some friends over for a big Easter dinner, and just enjoyed being together to celebrate that He is risen!} but for some reason iPhoto is acting goofy on me right now. I am taking that as my sign to get off of here and go get some more work for this conference done. 

Hope you all had an amazing Easter! Would love to hear your favorite highlight from your weekend.

Thanks for the link-up, Katie!

Marvelous in My Monday

Hello Monday! You just sneak up so fast sometimes! I do love you though. ;)

We had such a nice weekend over here, and I think that is why I am feeling Monday just kind of got here so quickly. Guess I wasn't ready for the fun to end.

Maybe sharing some of the highlights with all of you will take me back and satisfy me before I start in on this week.

Thursday night the kids and I went out to eat with some friends of ours. This restaurant was pretty fun. The atmosphere was perfect for the baby. He was able to run around and not bother anyone else.

Everything on the menu had really weird names. When I ordered the girls their "camel toes" they gave me a look like they were not going to eat "camel toes"! {It was just the insides of bread topped with turkey and cheese.}

Check out how these sandwiches are shaped too. I had to ask them to cut mine in half. I wasn't sure how else I would be able to eat it without making a total fool of myself.

Every Friday night our family does pizza and movie night. I decided to bail for a bit though and take our dog for a walk. It was still 70 degrees at 7 pm and she hadn't been on a good walk in a long time. She was over due. And, I sure didn't mind having some peace and quite for a bit. :-)

In fact, when I got home, I left again to run out to T.J. Maxx to find some new pants. Well, I didn't even make it over to the clothes section. I shopped in home decor, picking up a few new fun things for our place.

Something I totally needed! Ha!

Saturday morning, My Hunter and I got in a quick workout and then we went on a family date to the orchestra. It was geared for the kids perfectly. They told a fun story to go along with their songs and it was just the right length to avoid an embarrassing melt-down that I knew wasn't far away from the baby. After the performance, they had a "petting zoo" where the kids could test out the instruments. Pretty fun!

Orchestra Bound!

Saturday afternoon and evening we spent out at our friends. The guys went shed hunting, while Jenny and I had some girl talk and the kids played. Once the guys got home we all sat down to a wonderful home-cooked supper and enjoyed some great family time.

Sunday was spent mostly at church. My friend and I are preparing a women's conference that will be coming up at the end of this month. We had to announce it at each of the services and then spend time at the registration table talking with the other women. I am really looking forward to this conference! Definitely keeping me busy!

I did pick up some of these *amazing* lemon covered almonds while we were out. I plan to put these in some of the kids' Easter eggs. Somebody doesn't like the fact that he has to wait another week to have them. :-)

This week ahead is super busy for us. You would think with us not living near family that we wouldn't have many plans with it begin Easter week and all, but I think the only day we don't have something going on is Wednesday.

Hope you all have a marvelous Monday!

Thank you so much, Katie, for hosting this link-up!

Questions:
Do you ever go out shopping for something that you specifically need and then come home with everything but?

What was your favorite highlight from your weekend?

Do you have a busy week ahead with Easter?

MIMM with Protein Pancake Recipe!

Good morning, friends! How was your weekend? Ours was busy but a lot of fun!

It started off Friday with My Hunter surprising us by working from home all day. And while he actually did work the entire day, it was nice to just have him here.

Friday night before our family movie night started, he and I snuck in a quick Insanity workout. I love having him to workout with when he is here. We got in another workout together on Sunday afternoon in between everything else we had going on. Felt so good!

And we ended both Saturday and Sunday night at friends' houses to enjoy supper. Truly a marvelous weekend!

One thing I wanted to share with you this morning is this recipe that our Saturday morning started off with. These pancakes were definitely marvelous, healthy, super yummy and *very* filling!

Protein Packed & Gluten Free Pancake Recipe
{Makes 1 G.F. Pancake}

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• 1 medium, very ripe banana
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cinnamon to taste

Directions: 

1. Mash the banana up in a small bowl.
2. Add the two eggs and whisk together.
3. Add the flaxseed, vanilla extract and cinnamon and mix all together.
4. Pour the mixture in a greased 8-inch pan.
5. Let it sit for 10-minutes.
6. Flip and let sit for just another minute.

That's it! You are ready to enjoy a great breakfast. I topped mine with strawberries, but you could put any fruit on top. 

Comment below if you try them out.

Thanks Anne! So glad I came across this recipe, because it is one we will be eating again and again at our house.

And, thank you to Katie for hosting such a happy and encouraging weekly link-up. Always a joy to join in!

A Couple Green Recipes

How was your weekend? Ours was pretty marvelous! We had our normal Friday night movie night, a relaxing Saturday, and yesterday involved some meal prep on my part while My Hunter took the girls out to enjoy the gorgeous 60 degree weather we were having.

In honor of St. Pat's Day today, I thought I would share a couple of green recipes with all of you; both involve avocado.

The first one is our guacamole recipe. I didn't have it added in when I took this picture, but we threw in some of my mom's homemade salsa with and it makes it that much better! Try it!

Guacamole Dip
Ingredients:

2 ripe Avocados, peeled and pitted (I ended up using 5 avocados and just added more of everything else.)
Juice of 1 Lime
1/4 Cup minced Red Onion (Probably my favorite ingredient, and to think I was going to leave it out! I am famous for that, if I don't have something, I am kinda like, uh, oh well, it'll be fine w/o it! Drives MH NUTS!)
2 Tablespoons minced Cilantro 
1 small clove Garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt or 1/2 teaspoon Table Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1 Tablespoon minced Jalapeño 

Directions:

Halve the avocado and remove the pit. Remove the avocado from the skin by scooping it out with a spoon. Place the avocado in a bowl and mash it gently with a fork. Mix in the remaining ingredients.

Serve immediately. The recipe also says you can cover and chill for up to 3 hours, but I would just leave everything prepared and put it together in the last minute.

Makes 3-4 servings, but it will go so fast you should double it!. 

This second recipe is for all you egg salad lovers. Adding avocado to it not only has some health benefits, but it makes it that much tastier!

Avocado Egg Salad 

*adapted from Skinnytaste

Ingredients:

• 8 large hard-boiled eggs (You will use 4 whole and then 4 of the whites only.)
• 1 medium avocado
• 1 tbsp light mayo
• 1 tbsp Greek yogurt (You can use plain, and that's actually what her recipe called for, but we only had greek here, so I used it.)
• Celery 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dash of pepper (We love pepper, so I put more on.)

Directions:

1. Chop up your 4 eggs and 4 egg whites.
2. Cut your avocado into small pieces.
3. Slice up your celery stalks.
4. Combine all ingredients. Add more salt and pepper as needed. 

Serves: 6

Serving Size: 1/2 cup

Calories: ~155 

I would love to hear if you try these out! Hope your St. Patrick's Day is filled with luck and lots of Irish blessings! Have a marvelous Monday!

Thanks, Katie, for the link-up!