Morning Circuit

There's a new me in town, a new me who wakes up early and works out!! Between my work schedule and wanting to spend time with my family after work it finally hit me that I'd have to wake up early. And guess what?! I don't hate it. Waking up earlier to go to work is one thing, but to go run, I'm not minding it at all. I don't have my run looming over my head all day and I'm not worried it's going to be too hot.

 

This morning's workout consisted of a little circuit. Not much to it but no brain function needed for early in the morning. Conveniently my road (little dirt road - I am in Vermont remember?) is 0.1 miles down and back. Down below is what I did 3 times for a trial run. I'm sure I will add more exercises as well for variety this was just a starting point.

What time of day do you like to work out?

Have you ever tried early morning?

 

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Summer Saturdays

Summer Saturdays in Vermont usually go a bit like this for our family: I go for a run when we wake up, breakfast somewhere, a trip downtown for the farmers market & other random errands. Today was no exception, I started off with a 4 mile run before it go too hot out. I'm terrible at running in the heat, so the earlier the better for me. I was rewarded with this lovely sight halfway through my run.

I wanted to keep going but we had business to take care of and I am definitely needing some new shoes. I have been running with Brooks Adrenalines since I got fitted for running shoes but I am thinking of switching it this time. Not sure what I'm going to look at yet, I'll see what is recommended.
After my run we had our Saturday morning breakfast, today was an egg sandwich from a little restaurant in town. Their secret (that's not so secret because it's on the menu) is maple syrup on it. Really brings out all the flavors in the sandwich.
Then it was onto all of our fun stuff until a little two year old of mine decided to throw a tantrum at the farmers market. She was overtired and perked up once she saw our friend and her new baby. Thankfully that got M out of her funk (for the most part).

She carried the basket of goodies while we walked around for awhile. It's so impressive to see how big this farmers market has gotten. When we first moved up here 5(!!!!!) years ago it was about 7 booths. Now there are at least 30 on any given weekend selling all sorts of goodies! Here's our haul:

On our dinner menu tonight is pesto & mozzarella paninis with cucumbers and raspberries on the side. Last week when we had the pesto M wouldn't let me wipe her off with a towel after dinner, she licked the pesto off her arms.. It's that good!

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Friday Favorites #1

Hey blog world - it's been a long time, but I'm here to kick off my return with some of my favorite things!

themasonbarcompany these lids from the mason bar company are awesome. I can drink my iced coffee without worrying about any of my outdoor friends getting in and my iced coffee spilling!

These sunglasses from sunskis - the lenses on these are amazing, I don't squint at all wearing them and the polarized lenses really brighten everything up. A dark thunderstorm doesn't look so bad with these sunnies!

This milk from Kimball Brook Farm in Vermont. We normally buy Stonyfield whole milk, but you can tell the milk from Kimball Brook Farm is from happy cows. It is so fresh and creamy you might mistake it for half & half!

 

 

 

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Thai Peanut Chicken Salad

I found two recipes on Pinterest the other day that I wanted to combine to make my mason jar salads for the week! One had the chicken marinade I wanted and the other had the sauce and dressing recipe I wanted.

To start, I marinaded 1.25 lbs of thin sliced chicken breast in extra virgin olive oil, rice vinegar, sugar, lime juice, garlic and cilantro for 5 hours.

While the chicken was doing its thing, I made the peanut dressing. Since I was putting this into mason jars and not eating it right away, I didn't want my lettuce getting all soggy so I combined recipes for the dressing and sauce.

I whisked together 1/4cup freshly ground peanut butter from my local health food store, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce and 2 tbsp soy sauce. I wanted my dressing a little tart, if you would like it sweeter, add a little honey.

Once the chicken was done marinating I cooked it on a grill pan, it only took a few minutes on each side. After allowing it to cool I chopped it into bite size chunks.

Then I layered my mason jars, sauce on bottom, chicken, carrots and cabbage. Now when I go to eat all I have to do is dump out my jar onto my lettuce! No lunch prep for the rest of the week!

 

 

 

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21 months

My little munchkin, this past month I realized you really aren't a baby anymore. You still crawl every once in awhile and it's only when we have run so many circles around the house that you're exhausted. You are so polite, saying please and thank you for everything. I love it! And you love to help around the house..unloading the dishwasher, moving clothes from the washer to the dryer and helping with sock matching, picking up "goobage", cleaning the floors with the swiffer, making sure the table is clean after you eat and best of all, you are able to help mommy bake. You like putting everything in the mixer and sneaking a few chocolate chips if we are baking with them. You have your own little kitchen now and you have started making meals for your stuffed animals. You can go down the stairs on your belly, and you've become quite the little daredevil.. Standing on your stool and jumping onto the couch!

 

You are still a great eater, brocci is a favorite, along with the beans, cheese and yogurt. Weekend specialties of bagels and pancakes are always a treat.

Sleeping is fantastic -7:30-7 and then a 2 hour afternoon nap.

You love playing outside, and I'm really glad for that. You watch a few elmo videos on YouTube and animal shows on tv, but you would rather read books, play with your toys or go outside. The other day when we had 2 inches of ice on the ground you were so upset I wouldn't let you come outside with me and Bella. You got your snow pants and boots already but unfortunately it was too dangerous. Hopefully we will get some more snow so we can play outside & sled!

 

Weight 23 lbs

Height 32 inches

Teeth 16

Potty training - not yet, starting to show more interest in using the potty.. Even sat on it without your diaper last weekend

Clothes 18 months

Favorite toys - books, kitchen stuff

 

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Super belated 18 months

18 months - SUPER BELATED

Height:

Weight: 21lbs

Teeth: 12 (front four top and bottom, and first 4 molars)

Words: all done, ant, cado (avocado), baby, ball, manama (banana), bath, bean, bee, be (bella), bike, blanky, book, boot, bowl, buh (bunny), bus, butt (button), bye bye, car, cat, cacker (cracker), cake (pancake), chair, cheese, chip, come, corn, cow, dada, daddy, dark, diap (diaper), dog, done, down, duck, ear, eat, egg, ahmo (elmo), empty, eye, flip, flower, gamma (grandma), garage, hat, jacket, jamma (pajamas), jeans, jump, yight (lifght), mama, meat, mel (melon), kayla (michaela), milk, mommy, mahster (monster), more, ma (mouth), night night, nuh (nose), side (outside), towel (owl), pants, passa (pasta), pe (pen), pee pee, phone, pizza, plate, please, poop, pop, pretty, punkin (pumpkin), puppy, shool (school), sheep, shoe, sit, sleep, snack, sock, soup, poon (spoon), spot, tent, tank you (thank you), tickle, toe, try (toy), truck, tub, two, up, walk, wa (water), indow (window), itch (witch), yogut (yogurt), zzzziiii (zip)

Phrases - Eat cheese (more of a demand at the time of occurrence), I'm done, Sit Down, Keen up (clean up), Ov you (love you)

Poot - combination of poop and toot

Signs: Eat, More, Done

Sounds: Woof, ooh ooh (monkey), meowwwww, hoo hoo (towel/owl), moo

Sleep: 2 hour nap and 11-12 hours overnight

Eats: Pretty much anything! But bagels & pancakes are weekend specialties

Toys: Books & Blocks

You are the best little munchkin, you love life and everything makes you so happy. It's such a joy to see how happy things make you, especially when you can do something yourself. You think you are so strong and try to carry things to help around the house.

You love waiting outside for daddy to come home from work and squeal with delight when he comes into the driveway.

I love when you call out for me when you need a hug. On one particularly difficult night you came into bed with us to snuggle and hopefully fall back asleep. But before you could settle down you had to do this:

M: Bun?

Mommy: Bunny is here.

M: Mahster?

Mommy: Monster is here.

M: Blankey?

Mommy: Blankey is here.

M: Bella?

M: Bella?

Mommy: Bella is sleeping.

M: Daddy?

Mommy: Daddy is sleeping.

And you fell right asleep after your 3am roll call. It was a pretty funny 3am moment.

 

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15 months

This is a bit early for a 15 month update, but I figured I would start typing now since I've skipped a couple of months!

Since you turned one you have become quite the little person, you have such a kind, sweet personality. You find joy in the littlest things (unplugging things, taking things out of the recycling and giving Bella her treats). You are quite the little helper also, every day you get my ice pack for me to bring to work and you hand me diapers when I go to stuff them. You love to give mama, dada and Bella kisses and hugs.

You are a little shy with people at first, but it only takes a few seconds to warm up to people and start giving a little smile and a wave. You were such a joy to watch during music class, you know a few of the songs and the movements to go along with them. This month you also started half days at daycare. We found a place that we love and you are very comfortable at. You learned your daycare provider's name very quickly and get excited when I tell you that's where we are going.

Watching you play with your toys is getting really fun now, you have a purpose to what you are doing when you play. You also really love your books, you bring books over to me and dada all the time to read to you, but you will also sit by yourself and flip through the pages telling yourself a great story!

 

You love going through our wallets and taking all the goodies out, walking around with purses and bags on your arm, your shoes and necklace. In the last month you have really started playing with your stuffed animals and dolls. You walk around snuggling them and giving them hugs and kisses.

 

Words: Done, More, Up, Dog, Shoe, Sock, Mama, Dada, Down, Chee (cheese) and I'm sure there are a few more I can't think of right now.

Signs: Eat, More, Done

Sounds: Woof, ooh ooh (monkey)

Sleep: 2 hour morning nap, 45-60 min late afternoon nap, 10 hours overnight.

Eats: Anything, right now smoothies are a big hit and you are getting a little pickier.

Toys: Blocks, Farm house, Stuffed animals and dolls, Books

 

 

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