"Insanely" busy

Where or where has the time gone? This is a question I ask myself almost on a daily basis! It seems like there is never enough time in the day to accomplish all the things I need/want to!

My last post was about volleyball, so that is where I will pick up!

I am now co-coaching a club volleyball team. It started up in January and goes til May. We practice every Monday evening and Saturday mornings-if we don't have a tournament. Our tournaments are usually on Saturdays, however, some are on Sundays. They are ALL day events which makes for a very tiring day-but its definitely worth it and a lot of fun! The relationships I'm building with the girls is so special to me-I love them all and the different personalities they bring to the team.

Another thing that started in January was Insanity! haha no I did not go insane-although sometimes I felt like it! Insanity is a compilation of workout DVD's! It is a 60 day program that is super intense-hence the name Insanity! haha and let me tell you what...it was INSANE! The first 2 weeks were pure hell...I seriously thought I couldn't do one more day! BUT...I pushed through it! There are 2 phases to the program. The first month is all about getting your endurance up!! Then you have a week of core balance which is such a welcome break from the crazy intense workout! However, its kind of a tease! haha I say this because its light work compared to the first month. So once the 2nd month starts its a RUDE awakening! The 2nd month is MAX everything! Max cardio, Max plyo, Max interval circuit...you get the point! All of this to say I am HAPPY and PROUD to say I completed the 60 day challenge!!!!!

While doing this program I started posting my daily workouts on Instagram for accountability purpose. In doing this I found several other people who were doing the same workout! There is a whole community of "Insane" people on Instagram so it definitely helped keep me accountable. Another thing that helped was following different fitness people on Facebook and Instagram. A couple in particular combined weight lifting along with their cardio. Insanity is strictly cardio and "self" weight. So for the last 2 weeks of Insanity I added in weight lifting. I did/do Arms/Back on MWF and then Legs/booty on TT! I could tell a difference in my Insanity workouts once I added weight lifting. My pushups got stronger and my squats weren't super unbearable. Also in addition to lifting weights I most DEFINITELY cleaned up my eating habits! Lean meat such as chicken and salmon, and then a fresh veggie along with a sweet potato! I also incorporated protein shakes into my daily food intake!

Needless to say...I have drastically changed my way of living. I have been so amazed not only by my body transformation, but also by the way I feel! Working out and eating clean is no longer a chore to me, but rather a lifestyle! I don't sleep well if I don't work out-(Sundays are rest days with Insanity, but after about the 3rd Sunday I couldn't rest, I had to do something active!) I also feel like my immune system is much stronger because of my lifestyle change. Studies have shown that those who have an active lifestyle have stronger immune systems than those who don't...I'll definitely take that, who wouldn't? :) Not only do I feel great, but its also setting a great example to my child. He knows when mommy puts on her tennies that she's going to workout! haha its pretty cute, he even comes over ever so often and "does" the workout with me! :) I love being able to set that "active" lifestyle example for him.

I will leave you with my transformation photo. It is a collage of Day1, Day 30, and Day 60! My only regret is that I wish I would have incorporated eating cleaner and weight lifting right from Day1 instead of waiting til day 30! Oh well...better late than never! :)

Knee pads and shorts

Hopefully I can get through this blog without bawling like a baby...haha but luckily for you, you cannot see me if/when I do! :)

Okay so many of you know I was offered the amazing responsibility/privilege to coach freshmen volleyball! We are in our 2nd or 3rd week, cannot remember...and things are going great! What I love about the freshmen level is that they are still forming their habits and finding out what works for them...as well as learning learning learning! It truly brings me such joy to see the look on their face when they actually get it! :) So fun!

I have 11 girls on my team and one of them is a foreign exchange student from China-who always comes to practice in her school clothes. Before I go into my main point, I need to preface this by telling you more about her background. The exchange students must complete a summer course before school starts. The school has 30+ exchange students this year and every single one of them accepted Christ during that summer program-let the waterworks begin! It touches my heart so much because all of these kids had NEVER even heard the word JESUS before coming to CCS! How incredibly sad is that?! Can you imagine not hearing the word JESUS until you were 15?? I still cannot get over that...

During our coaches meeting, we were all challenged to "be bold for Christ". Growing up in a Christian home and going to a Christian school and constantly being around Christians-don't get me wrong I am in NO WAY complaining or making light of this fact...I just realized that I somewhat took for granted what "being bold for Christ" really meant! I really started pondering what I could do for my girls to show them "boldness". I had been opening and closing practice in prayer, but added devotions to the beginning of practice. Devotions on Tuesday talked about having a "Christ-like attitude" on and off the court. This to me was PERFECT. I told my girls that we are the ONLY christian school in our league! What a responsibility we have to show those schools Christ. Whether it be the way we respond to a call, good or bad, or even the way we respond when we win/lose! We should always keep in mind our attitude is more important than winning! The Christ-like attitude also meant how we treat each other! (my exchange student wasn't there during this particular devotion) I told my girls how she had recently accepted Christ and that as her teammates and sisters in Christ they needed to step it up and include her and show her what being a Christian really means. I left that practice, as I do every practice, praying that what I said in those 10-15 min devotions would have an impact on my girls.

I showed up to practice today and as I'm sitting there getting my devotional out and chatting with the girls, my exchange student walked up to me with the biggest smile on her face! This was pretty shocking to me because she is VERY quiet and very reserved. I looked at her and instantly smiled...I said "hey you're wearing knee pads and spanx"!!! Still with that big beautiful smile on her face she said "yeah my teammates took me to the store and bought these for me" (ok, I can finally see the keys).I wish you all could have seen her during practice-she was smiling and high-fiving left and right!  I cannot even tell you how PROUD I am of my girls!!! If that is not showing Christ then I don't know what is!!!

I am so excited to see what else God has in store for my girls this season. :)

Headbands

Ok another wonderful Pinterest find!!! haha I made Oatmeal cookies tonight and finished off the oats and was about to throw away the container when I remembered a crafty thing I saw on Pinterest! Its SO easy to make and takes like 10 minutes tops!

1. Strip the container of the wrapping so you are left with just the cardboard. I had already spray painted the lid before I thought to take a picture so oops! :)

2. Take a sponge brush and cover a section of the oat container in mod podge-my favorite crafting item.  Once you have a good section covered, place whatever paper you have decided to use on top of the glue section. I used tissue paper just because its thinner and molds easier to the round container vs. a thick paper. 

3. Once you have your container completely covered in one layer of the paper, reapply a second coat of mod podge and paper if necessary. I applied two coats of both just because the tissue paper is thin and the second layer allowed me to cover up little sections the first layer missed. The thing I like most about using the tissue paper is that it gets a "crinkle affect" that I really prefer over a smooth surface! 

4. Let it dry COMPLETELY. Tissue paper is super thin so it will move and rip very easily if you put the headbands on too quickly...learned that the hard way! But...the good thing about mod podge is that you can just apply layer after layer and it just adds character the more you add! :) 

The finished project! :) 

Open

As part of Wesley's bed time routine, we read him two books. The first book is an alphabet book and then he gets to pick the second book. The past few weeks he has been getting really good at saying all the letters-even Q-thats my favorite one he says! :)

Well yesterday he was watching Super Why and they needed to spell the word Open. There was a map on the screen that had symbols next to each letter and the characters of the show only had the symbols. Well as they pulled up each symbol/letter they would say "what letter is this?" for each of the four symbols Wesley said O.P.E.N!!!! I'm sitting there watching him say each of the letters and I seriously got tears in my eyes!!!

I guess its true what they say, you are your child's first teacher! So proud of you Bub!!!!

Night Life

The past couple of nights Wesley and I have had so much fun! He is very easily amused-just like his mommy-so it makes me job very easy! :)

I was getting a couple of things are Target when I came across these glow sticks for $1! I saw this thing on Pinterest where a lady put them in the bathtub so I thought I might try that. She obviously did NOT get her glow sticks in the Target $1 section because that idea totally sucked! haha But we did improvise and Wesley LOVED them...even more so when James came in the bathroom and they had a "light saber" fight! haha

These glow sticks were great for that night, but didn't make it past that night. Am I just imagining this thought from when I was younger...didn't we used to put them in the freezer and they would hold there "glow" longer??? I swear I can remember getting the glow headbands at like the Civic on 4th of July and coming home and putting them in the freezer. If indeed that is true...I guess I got what I paid for because after that one night they were toast!!

Since the glow sticks were so fun for him, tonight I decided to go with the flash lights! haha this kid LOVES to be scared and its so freakin fun! I gave him a flashlight and I had one myself. I told him he had to come find mommy's light. I then would run down the hallway and into a bedroom and put the light up under my chin. As soon as he would come in that room with his light I would jump at him and say raaawwwrrr haha he laughs every time and says "Gotch You"!!! haha makes me laugh just typing this. 

So thankful for this time I have to spend with Wesley. He is truly growing up so fast! I know I will look back someday at these times and think gosh where did the time go? So I am definitely soaking it up and taking LOTS of pictures! :)

"Hey good lookin...whatcha got cookin"

Several times during the month I get in what my husband refers to as, "a baking mood". <--to which he does NOT complain! I don't know what it is about baking/cooking for me...I find it fun and challenging! I love trying new recipes, sometimes they aren't as good as they seem they might be. However, lately they've all been a huge hit!

I'm not sure when I heard about this website, Pinterest, but I am EVER thankful for it. If you are not a member you are truly missing out. Several of the recipes I've been trying lately have come from it.

For example...
Today I made my husband avocado eggs. Here is the recipe: Avocado Eggs Since I am allergic to eggs I wasn't able to try them...but my husband said they were "exceptionally tasty" And SO easy to make!

Another huge hit are Pina Colada Cupcakes! I made them for my bday girls night and being that I cannot have eggs the recipe is PERFECT for me because it does not call for eggs. The girls couldn't even tell a difference! :)

My most recent (just took it out of the oven to cool) recipe is a double layer Chocolate Cake! My husband is a chocolate freak and would eat it everyday! I think what I like most about this cake is that its from scratch! No box cake needed! These types of recipes are the most fun for me-challenging-but fun! I say challenging because with most recipes it calls for some type of dairy or eggs! Well since I cannot eat that, I have to tweak the recipe or add substitutes so I can have it!

All of this to say...if you like to cook/bake as much as I do...JOIN Pinterest!!! All of the above recipes are from the website. Its chalk full of them...as well as cool DIY projects, outfit ideas, hilarious quotes, and SO much more!!! If you need help figuring it out or want me to send you an invite, let me know!!

Toodles!

Overdue is an understatement

I entitled this post "Overdue is an understatement", however, it has a twofold meaning.

The first is obvious...I have not blogged in months! :-/ I was using our old iMac and it was just that, old. It finally decided it had had enough and stopped working. RIP first iMac we purchased together. haha So needless to say, my blogging got put on hold when my computer died. Since James works in our office, I didn't have access to our main iMac for blogging during the day and when the evening came around family time trumped my blogging time! :) Well I now have a hand-me-down gateway for the time being until we can afford my replacement! I am reminded daily how grateful I am for Apple...nothing compares once you've gone Mac you don't go back! :)

The second is not so obvious, but has taken two years of praying and having faith: James finally got promoted to Manager! :) He still gets to work from home but is no longer on the phone with customers-thank goodness! Try telling a toddler to be quiet all day! :) He has about 17 advisers under him and works M-F! This has been a long time coming and we are SO thankful for Gods blessings and provision.

I am enjoying my time with Wesley during the day. Choosing to stay home with him has been one of the best decisions I've made. I cannot imagine not being with him during the day. We are in the process of potty training. I am so proud of him and how well he is doing. The accidents are few and far between and he holds it during nap time as well. I have gone on a couple of errands with him and he has done SO good....no accidents outside of the house so far...knock on wood! :)

The smell of coppertone and maui babe has filled our bathroom once again...how I've missed that smell! :) Wesley and I are enjoying our swim days, he is such a fish when it comes to the water..just like his mama! :) Seems like everyone and their mother is asking me these days, "So, when is Wesley going to get a sibling?" Gosh, the questions never end! You get married then its "when are you having kids" you finally have a kid and then its "when are you having another?" haha but to answer the ever present question...not for awhile.  It is weird though; when I pictured myself having kids I pictured no more than 2 years between. Just goes to show you how your mindset changes as you get older. I am so content right now being a family of 3! Don't get me wrong, I do want to have another kid (I can just hear my mother in my head, "but you do want another right?"), but just not yet! I'm not ready to share my attention with another child...and I don't think Wesley is either! :)

Well I guess thats enough update for now...and now that I have my hand-me-down hopefully there won't be 4 months in between my next blog post! :)