Hello friends! Just popping in to write a scatterbrained post!
I hope you are all looking forward to a wonderful weekend, we are definitely looking forward to spending some time together as a family! If you are popping in from Healthy Heddleston, Welcome! I just wrote a recap about my experience with Best Body Bootcamp (done at home without a lot of focus on cardio). BBB was a fantastic way for me to get in some solid workouts without having to go to the gym! Getting in a workout while the baby is napping makes me feel so ENERGIZED the rest of the day!
I thought I’d follow-up on my “Defeated” post. I’m really glad to say that things have been going much better around the Cooper household. One of the biggest things that has helped me feel less stressed and overwhelmed is prayer. We have a lot of friends and family praying with us, and I know the peace that I feel on some days is the hand of God resting upon my shoulder. I’m still struggling with finding a daily quiet time to read my Bible, but praying more does help me to feel more connected to Him.
(I think I’ve used this picture in 3 posts. No shame)
I’ve also switched to drinking decaf coffee. I was drinking half-caf before, but around 11am I would get this annoying BUZZ. I *thought* switching to decaf would be hard but I didn’t notice ANY “withdraw” symptoms! I’ve also been trying to eat more balanced meals.
If I skimp on one of the main macronutrients (carbs, protein, fat), I find myself with a STRONG craving for junky foods. We don’t buy junk foods, but I can seriously pack away the dark chocolate or the peanut butter like the world was ending. I KNOW that breastfeeding takes extra calories, so I’m trying to be more mindful about getting in some solid nutrition at meal and snacks so that the sugar-hungry Holly-monster doesn’t come to visit around 3pm. I could eat that Kale Salad every day!
Let’s see… what else is going on… Oh! I read this post from Michelle at Crazy Running Legs about Breastfeeding and Pumping. This sweet mama is writing about how he won’t be able to get a breast pump covered by Insurance (unless the baby is premature or has a difficult time breastfeeding). Anyways, Michelle hits some good points about how limiting the reimbursement/distribution of pumps puts a LOT of stress on women! It’s a good read, and I totally think that women should be supported in ANY way they choose to feed their infants!
Made by milk (and some bananas & sweet potatoes)
Anyways, just wanted to pop in and say HAPPY WEEKEND!
Hey Friends! I found this fun survey on Chelsey, Tina and Janetha’s blog and I thought it was a fun little “getting to know you” survey! We hope you’re all having a wonderful Sunday!
-Holly, Daniel, Silas and Mowgli
1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday?
Not working! Sleeping in (till 8), having a SLOW morning with coffee and breakfast and taking time to recharge from the previous week with the husband! A nap is not required but welcome, and getting in a workout is always nice too! Ending the day with a home-cooked meal, nothing better!
2) List your top three favorite TV shows.
Modern Family
Parenthood
Grey’s Anatomy
3) Would you rather be in pictures or take them?
Both. I like having my picture taken, but I also like taking them!
4) Why do you blog?
I like that I have a whole website dedicated to what we’ve done over the past few years! It’s a mini-memory lane for me! I also enjoy blogging because it helps me to stay connected with people that I don’t see very often!
9) Which three material possessions would you struggle to live without?
A jacket
Socks
My Wedding Rings (they mean a lot to me)
10) What’s your favorite drink?
COFFEE. Or anything bubbly (sparkling water with a splash of juice? Yes)
11) Do you enjoy cooking?
Have you seen our UPDATED Recipe page? Check it out!
12) Do you have children?
Nope!
13) What are your favorite hobbies?
Running, Cooking, Playing with the Dog, Talking to people, Photography, Blogging, Thinking about cleaning the house (Ha!), Exercising. Pretty much anything you see on the blog. And feeding Kale to the dog while snapping a photo.
14) Would you consider yourself to be shy or outgoing?
Pretty outgoing. I need alone time sometimes though!
15) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?
I’m really bad with my time management.
16) Who is your favorite actor/actress?
I have a hard time remembering actors/actresses. I guess I’d say Jude Law and Rachel McAdams.
17) What’s the coolest thing you’ve done this week?
We saw Tin-Tin in 3D! And then we tried a “dive” restaurant (It’s located about half a block away from some of the strip clubs here in Lexington)- but it had FANTASTIC Thai food! Jasmine Thai Restaurant on Winchester Rd, check it out. The Tom Ka Kai was great!
(click on picture for source)
18) Do you live near your family or far from them?
Near! Our families live about an hour away (in Louisville). My dad and sister live out in Cali, and my other sister is in North Carolina for college!
19) List three of your talents.
Photography (working on it)
Personable
I speak clearly (don’t really know if it’s a “talent” but maybe it will get me somewhere someday!)
AND I’m really good at giving Silas belly rubs
20) What is your greatest attribute?
I keep hearing I’m pretty personable. Sometimes I ramble on when I meet someone new, but what you see is what you get, so that’s gotta count for something! (Although, if I am hungry, you will get the hungry-angry or HANGRY version of Holly- I’m not able to hide that “bad” side of myself very well)
P.S. If you don’t know enough about me yet, you can click on over to the NEW About Me page and read even more! Yippee!
It’s the end of the week! Well… almost. I’ve got software training at work this afternoon, and Daniel and I are volunteering at this years’ Jesus Prom! Then I work Saturday morning, but as of 1:30pm on Saturday afternoon- the weekend will begin! I made a mile long to-do list this afternoon, and it will be great to check some things off over the weekend!
I really, really want to be a more consistent blogger, but some weeks I’ve just got to realize that writing a post just isn’t going to happen! Fortunately, I’ve snapped a lot of great photos this week, and that always makes blogging easier for me! For today’s post, we’re going to do 5 on Friday! Here are 5 things that have happened this week.
1. Fitness Fridays! I’ve totally been slacking on making an actual Fitness Friday post, so here’s a quick recap of workouts this week!
Sunday- Daniel did his very first interval workout! He did 8×400 (actually 0.27miles) at a super speedy pace (he was aiming for 6:30, but the boy ran right at 6:18 pace!) My tummy was WEIRD, so I got to be coach
Monday- Daniel inspired me, so I set out to do a speed workout of my own- I made it 7x400m, on that last 400m repeat I felt like I was going to puke, so I called it a day at 7. I was pretty proud- I did 1:44/1:45 for almost every single interval (except for the last one- 1:50). 6:30 pace? I’ll take it!
Tuesday- Early morning run with the Striders. Gretchen and I split off from the group and ended up covering about 7 miles!
Wednesday- THIS WORKOUT posted by the lovely Tina over at Faith, Fitness, Fun. I misunderstood the workout- so I did both parts (supposed to be done on separate days). I guess that’s a good “oops?”. 10 reps of each exercise in each circuit.
Making The Cut Circuit One (Push Focus)
Making The Cut Circuit Two (Pull Focus)
Thursday- REST DAY! Took a nice stroll with the pup and biked to class. Thought about running early with the Striders, but my bed was too warm
Friday- TBA
Saturday- TBA
That ended up being WAY longer than I thought, so here are the rest of the “5 on Friday”!
2. We grew catnip in our garden (<—check out that old garden post!)Mowgli found the catnip in the garden a few weeks ago after Daniel cleared out the brush.Mowgli also found the catnip that I was trying to dry.
Mowgli has catnip issues.
3. I’ve got an enchilada recipe coming your way, here’s a preview:
4. Perks of living in a house owned by your grandparents? Random gifts left at your door:
5. Daniel brought our electric heater down from the attic. That man knows what his cold intolerant wife needs! (throwback picture!)Happy Friday Everyone!
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had a great weekend at the Cooper house.
Daniel took Silas to the dog park on Friday, Silas got muddy, and Daniel gave him a bath. What a great husband! On Saturday, Daniel and I went to Kentucky Fit Club with the lovely Ashley. We did Insanity: Pure Cardio. I was pretty mad that ShaunT didn’t let us stretch our calves, at all. Considering most of the moves were done on the balls of our feet, I thought it was RUDE that we didn’t get adequate stretching!
After showering and grabbing lunch, I headed to the grocery. Does anyone want to read about meal-planning? We stick to a pretty tight budget ($50-60 per week), so meal planning is an ESSENTIAL part to each week. Here’s what we’re having this week:
Vegetarian Enchiladas (loosely based off of this recipe)
Frittata of some type (probably broccoli-cheese)
2 Do-it-Yourself Dinners
Leftovers
I make other things throughout the week (roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli soup, broiled tofu, rice, etc.), but I always try to cook at least 2 new recipes each week so that we don’t get too bored.
Anyways, back to our weekend fun. I had a special blog-related “assignment”, and that post will be coming later this week! Here’s a sneak peek:
Daniel and I also had a date night complete with Kroger sushi!
We also went out to see Crazy, Stupid Love at the $1 theater. AND we got Orange Leaf afterwards, YUM.
Sunday was filled with church, life group, photo editing, belly rubs (for Silas), and delicious food!
I also forgot to mention, we got a DISHWASHER last weekend from our neighbors! I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am to not have to stand at the sink for 20 minutes each night (or for an hour on the weekends because we put off doing the dishes…)
1. It’s finally November. This means I can start listening to “instrumental” Christmas music. It also means that I can wear my Christmas socks without feeling ashamed.
2. I love feet, particularly these 6 feet.
3. Daniel got a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. They may be the dorkiest looking shoes alive, but he can run… without knee pain!
4. I love the colors of fall. I don’t like the fact that after the next rain, the trees will be naked for 4-5 months.
5. I successfully baked something without: A. Killing someone, B. Burning Something or C. Altering a recipe. I made Vegan Pumpkin-Molasses Cookies from Peas and Thank You. (photo from Peas and Thank You)
6. I was a Bourbon Chase runner for Halloween.
7. Mowgli sat in the bathtub for a while on Sunday. He also “bathed” while he was in there. I guess he understands the purpose of a tub.
8. My husband has “those moves” like Michael.
9. I added a nifty DailyMile banner to our blog!
Look over to the Right —>
10. After Daniel cleaned out the garden, Mowgli finally found the catnip that we planted in the spring. Happy cat. We also have more tomatoes.
I’ve been seriously slacking in the blogging department lately. To be honest, Daniel and I are starting to get a little run down over doing THE. SAME. EXACT. THING. week in and week out. I’m struggling with a general lack of drive and motivation for anything outside of what’s already on my schedule. Hoping these “blahs” will go away after this weekend. I made a great to-do list with things I need to do (projects for school), and things I want to do (2 runs this weekend, find some new recipes for the week, etc).
So, before signing off, I thought I’d leave you with a collection of pictures from my cell phone! We still live in the “dark ages”- we have no internet on our phones, and we have pretty crappy cameras on our phones. Sorry to make you suffer with these low-quality photos!
This is the little boy I nanny for. He likes putting trash cans on his head. He is awesome.
This is our new kitchen faucet. Not fancy, but now we have hot water for the winter!
Daniel got rear-ended by a car a few weeks ago. The girl who hit him reluctantly gave him cash for the repair, and Daniel was OK. WATCH OUT FOR BIKERS AND RUNNERS!
This was me showing of my recently-dipped bling. Don’t’ worry, I was still in our driveway when I took this picture.
This was Silas at his recent Vet appointment. He looks a little bugged out…
This is our “new” kitchen table that we found on the side of the road. I love free stuff.
Here are the animals cuddling.
Silas with his now-demolished stuff-less squeaky toy.
Silas with a muddy face after a visit to the Dog park
Silas in the car, probably headed to the Dog park
Squash from the summer. I still have some in my freezer, but it’s nothing compared to FRESH zucchini!
Baby Silas This is when he was about 9 weeks old, his first day with us!
Daniel feeding Baby Mowgli the first day that we found him!
The Diamond Dash is a Scavenger (SCVNGR) hunt that runs all around downtown Lexington. The prize? A $19,000 diamond ring. Cha-ching! Daniel and I had a blast last year, so we decided to run again this year!
Throwback Picture from 2010!
This year was QUITE a bit colder than last year. I believe the high on Saturday was in the 40’s. Brr. I had to sport my Denison University XC gloves (DUXC!)
Pre-race! We huddled inside the Courthouse for some needed warmth!
Daniel, studying the map (I am extremely directionally challenged…)
Game Faces:
Creeper picture of a guy with the same jacket as Daniel
We raced all around downtown for about two hours! The SCVNGR system sent us a text message with a location, for example (this is an example, not a real question) “Visit the Lexington Public Library, your next clue will arrive shortly!” And then a second text came with the clue “Find the historic plaque out front, what was the profession of Mr. John Smith?” And then you would text back “Historian” or whatever the answer was. Then your next clue came! We were dying for a cup of hot coffee at the end of the race, and fortunately, the lovely ladies at Shelia Bayes Fine Jewelers had some for us!
We didn’t win, but a couple did, and they got engaged! How cute! I’ll try to remember to post any pictures that show up from the professional photographer that was there!
Anyone else remember the “breakfast beverage” called Five Alive? My parents never bought it, but I remember slurping down the juicy goodness at friends’ houses after a sleepover (or rather a talk-the-whole-night-over).
Cait from Beyond Bananas and Chelsey from Clean Eating Chelsey recently posted this “5 Things” survey, and I thought I’d share my 5’s with YOU!
Holly’s 5’s
Last 5 People I talked to on the phone (my personal phone, not @ work):
This is a fun survey that I copied from Tina over at Faith, Fitness, Fun! Feel free to re-do this survey in the comments section, or go ahead and post your answers on your own blog!
(I think I’ve used this picture in 3 posts. No shame)
Made by milk (and some bananas & sweet potatoes)
Mowgli found the catnip in the garden a few weeks ago after Daniel cleared out the brush.
Happy Friday Everyone!
This is when he was about 9 weeks old, his first day with us!
