Where’s the place to be on a cold, dreary day?
The beach of course!
We met up with our “Get These Kids Outside Or Bust” homeschooling group and today was a true test of our pledge to get outside even in the crummiest of weather.
It was cold. It was rainy. There was whining.
Ava happily played with her friends but Maxine clung to me like a marsupial and said “I want to go home” about 100x in my ear, throwing in the occassional “I’m hungry” despite having just eaten breakfast 30 minutes earlier.
I was off dark and early to the gym this morning. I was |this close| to driving there, when at the last minute I put my keys back and just ran there in the dark instead. It takes me 5 minutes to get there by car considering the time it takes to give the car a minute to warm up, park and walk into the building. Might as well just spend the 8 minutes running there and get my body warmed up instead.
Almost a month ago my sweet friend Cindy asked me if I might be interested in trying a recipe she created. I said “Sure!” and she sent the recipe to me, and that recipe has sat in my inbox all this time, patiently waiting for me to make good on my promise.
Well today is finally the day! Cranberry Orange Bites here we come!
I did a little tweaking of Cindy’s recipe, so check hers out for the original version.
Crust
1 C soaked, raw cashews
4-6 ripe large medjool dates (pitted)
1 Tbsp coconut oil
I’d like to give special thanks tonight to my neighbors, who put up their Christmas tree the day after Halloween. This has been cause for being repeatedly peppered with the “When are we going to put our tree up?” screech question every time we come home in the dark.
Uncle! Uncle! I’m crying uncle! OK! Let’s put the tree up already!
This is the earliest I’ve EVER put up a Christmas tree. I know a lot of people put them up the day after Thanksgiving, I’ve just never been one of those people. I’m afraid I’ll turn into the Incredible Hulk and start ripping down lights and tinsel around December 23rd if I put decorations up too early.
I have declared this Saturday
To be a day filled with treats!
Let’s get started with breakfast
and some yummy morning eats.
Enjoyed first thing
came Treat #1!
Fruit Cereal in peace
Well son of a gun!
A diced sweet banana and a peeled D’Anjour pear
Tossed in ground flax seed with such ease and such care
Topped with a tablespoon of shriveled grapes and pumpkin seeds
Add a half cup of unsweetened almond milk, that’s what this needs!
Post breakfast I was off
on a solo shopping trip
Treat #2 would be from Starbucks
for a hot beverage drip
After a roasted red pepper hummus sandwich and a side of carrot sticks with salsa for lunch this afternoon,
we were off with some friends to the local garden center for some holiday fun.
Lots of decorations to check out –
and painted plywood to stick our heads through.
We enjoyed a gigantic train display.
The adults appreciated the finer details of the model, like dirty old men and their posters.
First the first time in my entire life, I got up early on the day after Thanksgiving to hit up a Black Friday sale. An email from the running store I shop at had some offers that were just too good to pass up.
Well what do you know, I just so happen to be in the market for new running sneakers. Sale sneaks? A group run? Free food? I’ll be there!
The store was packed at 7:30 when I got there and after a half hour trying on sale shoes and elbowing my way through the crowd to the sales line, I got through checkout just in time to leave with the running pack at 8:00.
My green smoothie stuck with me most of the morning, but with about two hours until dinner time – I was getting hungry. I didn’t really want to eat anything, I wanted to be good and hungry for a feast! But I didn’t want to get to dinner feeling famished either.
What’s a girl to do?
Juice is always the answer!
Carrot apple ginger juice – the perfect thing to tide me over and leave me ready to eat by 2:30.
This year we brought along our favorite Thanksgiving book, The Thanksgiving Bowl by Virgina Kroll.
I’ve run Turkey Trot races on Thanksgiving morning before. They are a lot of fun and it’s such a great way to start the holiday off on a healthy kick! I considered doing one again, but in the interest of time I decided to do my own little Turkey Trot at home for free this year.
My girlfriend Sharon came out this morning to run this morning and doing it together made it seem more like an “event”!
We hit the streets in my neighborhood at about 8 this morning for a nice and chatty Thanksgiving morning run.
The girls were with Aunt Ellen today while I got some work done around the house. I managed to sneak in 45 minutes of Runner’s Yoga before I left to pick them up with plans to run some errands on the way home.
We were out longer than I expected. By the time we got back some of us were pretty cranky. Some of us were pretty hungry too. And some of us were all of the above.
I had nothing planned for dinner. What else is new. After a quick scan of the produce drawer I pulled out a green pepper, mushrooms, onions and tofu and got to work.
More Mama’s Weeds
