Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A Recipe or Two

I've been trying to work on my goal of making more wholesome food for my family. I like the idea of eating clean and real food. Thanks to Pinterest I've come across some great recipes that I've put to the test lately so thought I'd share. I'll just link to the original sources so you know where these gems came from.

Chicken Parmesan Bake

I like chicken but I hate cooking it. I love dishes that I can just throw in the oven and be done with it and this one was great. The only part I didn't love were the garlic croutons. I found that layer to be a bit too thick and might just stick with breadcrumbs next time (Arja, I need your version!) but definitely a keeper.


This one was yummy, super healthy and a great way to get vegetables into my boys. Quinoa is all the rage these days as it's like a grain but contains protein. You can't go wrong. I didn't add the olives in this one as I'm not sure how it would have gone over with the boys, but next time I think I will to add some flavour.




This one has been by far my favourite in the last few months because it goes great as a side with pretty much anything. The two of us could easily down a pan of them and all things considered, they are pretty healthy. I'm sure they'll be part of many a BBQ this coming season.



The delicious finished product!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

A Day of Success

My boys' awesome babysitter offered me a free day to myself which I happily took. Usually on days like this I will sleep in, maybe plan lunch with a friend, buy a few treats and see what else I feel up to. Not today. After feeling like I've been lacking motivation (see yesterday's blog post) I knew what today was going to be about... working hard! Life is largely made up of a bunch of choices. I can either wallow in not feeling great about myself or I can do something to change it. So instead of feeling entitled to a relaxing day to myself (my boys nap 3 hours a day and are in bed at 7pm...I get enough down time), which in other circumstances might have been a good thing, I decided I would take the gift of time given to me and make some choices I'd feel good about. I made a task list in my gmail of 15 things to do. By the end of the night I will have accomplished 12, maybe 13 of them. I honestly can't remember the last time I did that.

Life is not about how much you do but I needed to have a day of working hard and quite literally, getting off my butt. I can talk about wanting to be a certain kind of person but ultimately it's the choices I make that determine whether or not I do. I like this sign I saw to day on Pinterest. Definite truth to that.

Photo via

I'm not going to lie. I am exhausted. The only breaks I took were a couple foot soakings (I have an infected toe...not fun!) But I will go to bed knowing that I made good choices. It really can be that simple. Now the trick is keeping the momentum going, but for now I'll celebrate my day of success. Where's the ice cream? (P.S. I think I might just add blogging to my to-do list so I can check one more thing off ;)


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Living My Best Life

Wow. That sounds like a line from Oprah. I don’t feel like I’ve been living my best life lately. Actually rarely if ever would I say I’m at my best (who does?), but recently I’ve just been feeling very unsatisfied in many areas of my life. I’m a bit of a roller coaster lately. I do love my life and am very grateful for so many wonderful people and experiences. Just the other day I was on a bit of a high but how quickly it can change. I think the one big thing I’m lacking in my life these days is motivation. I feel unmotivated and often downright lazy. In the grand scheme of things I’ve had a very easy life. This is hard to admit but I think I feel a sense of entitlement for things to be easy for me and when they’re not I have a hard time putting in the work to make things work. This isn’t true for all areas of my life, but definitely for some.

I do think discipline is a big part of it. Putting in the hard work, regardless of motivation or how I feel and hopefully through that eventually transforming into the kind of person who wants to do those things. There are so many areas of my life this applies to but one that I’ve been thinking about lately (that admittedly doesn’t have much depth, but is a reality) is that I’ve never loved cooking. I secretly have a desire to make wholesome, home-made meals for my family. I believe in it, but I suck at it. I actually think I could enjoy cooking and obviously my family needs to eat, I just have a hard time getting off my butt and putting the effort in to be less than mediocre because it’s not something that comes naturally to me. When I do it feels great, but it’s usually short-lived. If I wait around to get the motivation I could be waiting forever. Where does motivation come from? And where can I get some?

I don’t think the opposite of laziness is busyness. I have no desire to be a busy person. I think that’s an issue in our society. We take on too much, running from one place to another, enrolling our kids in every program under the sun. We have the most convenient lives of any society and yet the least amount of time for each other. It irks me when people complain about being busy when it’s often just about the choices they are making. I do know some people thrive on being busy and can be relational in the midst of it. Partly I think I just strive for perfection and feel unsatisfied if I’m not there. I can forgive myself for having a cluttered house and celebrate the things I am doing well. But I can also strive to be better and be happy with the effort I am putting into life. That’s where I need to get to. Remember this jingle. “Don’t just think about it, do it, do it, do it”....



Is that the answer? Think less and get off my butt? Probably! If you’ve conquered lack of motivation please let me know how the heck you did it! End of my random blabbering....for now! :)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Giddy

An amazing gym was just built pretty close to our house. It's gigantic and has everything (almost!) you could possibly want in it. It is very family friendly which is why we decided to join. Our boys can take swimming lessons there, do programs and be taken care of if we want to workout. There's several basketball courts, an indoor turf, huge rock wall, indoor and outdoor pools and the usual gym stuff. The grand opening was last night and I felt like a kid in a candy store walking around and as Joel will attest, I came home giddy. I know our family will be spending a lot of time there.

Today after work I did my first yoga class. It was a slow flow class and the instructor encouraged us to keep our eyes closed as much as possible which was very interesting. I'm not great at yoga and definitely not flexible so I'm often comparing myself to others while doing it. This was great to just be in my own space and not worry about anyone else. Tomorrow I plan to go do some laps after work and on Saturday we're taking the boys swimming. Next week I have some Zumba, Pilates and Aquafit lined up. I've been doing my best to workout in my basement when possible, using DVDs and my hand weights but I confess I haven't been great at it lately. I'm excited to get back to the fun equipment and focus on getting in shape again. And with childcare, I really have no more excuses!