A Friday "Cheer Up" Post

I’ve been in a hard-core slump this week for some reason, and I’ve totally felt like that limp wind-up doll from that Pristiq commercial. I was even sitting at my desk yesterday bent forward, head on my wristrest, looking just like that doll {I was stretching my back, not imitating the doll.}.

From Google Image Search

Basically, I’m just having a hard time getting my heart to catch up with my head. I know I have SO much to be happy and thankful for, but the sadness in my heart is often paralyzing, and then I feel like a schmuck for having a wonderful life but still feeling sad when there are so many others dealing with things that are so much worse. I’m sure it will shake off and pass soon, but for now this is what I live with.

It’s also been such a heavy, sad and confusing newsweek - my heart and thoughts go out to everyone affected in every which way and in every place this week. What a reminder that life is so fragile and precious; nothing is guaranteed – not our safety, not our freedom {scary thought!}.

From Pinterest

 In light of this, and because it’s Friday and the “end is in sight” for this week, I’ve composed a list of things that make me happy:

1.       Hearing my husband and son play together while I cook and/or clean up dinner.

2.       Making dinners that my boys actually like {a rarity in our house – a cook, I am not!}.

3.       Warm, perfect spring days filled with bright green leaves, fresh-cut-grass smell, and endless Carolina-blue skies and sunshine.  It’s hard to be down with such perfection surrounding you!

4.     Admiring my cleaned-out flower beds and the flowers that Valentino and I planted together last weekend.

5.       The intense happiness and excitement Valentino gets from taking packages to the Post Office. I’m currently selling a lot of stuff on ebay, which means we make weekly trips – he loves every second of it {probably because right now, his favorite thing to do is play “delivery man”}.

6.       Iced coffee! I’m going to make Pioneer Woman’s recipe this weekend. I made it last year {or the year before?} and I think I remember it turning out decent… I’m going to give it a whirl again, to save some $ and time in the mornings.

7.       Super sore muscles. I’ve been getting out there more – running, lifting, and doing workouts in our “gym” {aka: garage}. My hamstrings and hips are still worked over from a killer leg workout I did on Wednesday night (thanks Fitnessista! )… I’ve also cut out the nighttime snacking and I’ve been super conscientious about what I eat. A few pounds down, many more to go! By the way, I will be treating myself to a hair chop-off once I reach a certain goal. I’m really over having this super-long hair and I desperately want my hair {okay, and BODY!} to look like this:

Pinterest via johannarogersrff.blogspot.com

 

8.       Valentino’s Rainbow Tea – the preschool is putting on a little “show” for us today {the kids will be singing songs about springtime and the colors of the rainbow, then they are serving rainbow-themed refreshments afterwards}. Valentino has a small speaking part, and he is totally geeked about it. He and I assembled rainbow fruit skewers {strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, green grapes, blueberries, red grapes} to share with the kids and their parents.

"Mom, we're like real chefs putting these together for people to eat!"
{Idea via Pinterest - OF COURSE!}

 

Side note: If you’ve seen “This is 40,” do you have the urge to say “fruits” like the Indian doctor all the time, too? I pretty much can’t say “fruit” without wanting to say it his way… I’m a nut.

9.       Lunchtime walks {minus the silkworms}. Bright, refreshing moments for me during long, seemingly never-ending days.

 

Here's to a restorative, happy, and relaxing weekend! Please take your time, Monday.

A colorful cake to celebrate half a decade

Only two more days until my one and only child turns five. I can't believe it.

We had some early festivities with the neighbor boys today to kick off his big day:

Inspired by Pinterest... super easy!

I love to make the cake for Valentino's birthday, and I'm always trying to make it special somehow. This cake was a hit visually {even though at first, Valentino asked me "why is there an 'S' on my cake?"} and everyone agreed it tasted great to boot.

Inspired by an image I've seen floating around on Pinterest {I hadn't even read nor pinned it myself}, I simply baked a 2 rounds w/boxed cake mix {Betty Crocker's chocolate fudge mix} but subsituted 1% milk for the water the directions called for. Then I frosted the cake as usual {with Betty Crocker's chocolate frosting}. Next, I sketched a "5" on parchment paper {although I think maybe wax paper might've been a better choice...} and cut it out. I set the cutout on the cake then went to town with Wilton's rainbow non-pareils. Removing the parchment paper was tedious, as it stuck really bad to the frosting {of course}. I ended up using a toothpick to coax it free. After it was removed, I smoothed out the frosting inside the 5 - and there you have it! Pretty fool-proof. 

Tuesday is the boy's actual birthday, so Vic and I have taken the day off. We're headed to the North Carolina State Fair - something we haven't missed since we moved here in 2010. It's a pretty good time - the weather is usually perfect, the food is great, the rides are fun {though $$!}, and there's a BMX stunt show. Valentino has a great time, and Vic and I enjoy the people watching and atmosphere.

In other news, we had a fabulous weekend, even though of course, it's ending too soon. We explored two new-to-us places yesterday - Durant Road Nature Park and North Wake Landfill Park {not as weird as it sounds!} - and enjoyed the gorgeous weather {I even got a bit sunburned!}. I am not ready to go back to work, but knowing that I have Tuesday off keeps me going :o)

An Update and some "Sick-Day" Activities

Two-weeks since my last post? Oi. Sorry, but I've really had a case of the "don't really cares," especially when it came to this blog. Just been in a FUNK. I got hit hard with 2 weeks of PMS {WTF?!} that left me feeling physically blah - cramps, fatigue, bloat, and the blues included. Add to that the fact that I was just getting really into swimming laps at the pool and they decide to close it for TWO weeks for cleaning and maintenance {double WTF?! I want the pool back!}.

Last week, I only worked out once. One single, solitary time - a 40-minute spin class. The rest of the week, I was a bum. This seems to happen once every couple months - I need a break from it all to just be lazy and sleep a little more than usual {which I totally did last week}. Since yesterday, I've felt more energized, rested, and very "go-getter!" Perhaps I needed a lazy week to re-energize and get myself back in the right place? Last night I rode 10 miles on my bike and it felt GREAT. Had Valentino not woken up from 2:30-3:30am this morning, I had a 4-mile run planned {I obviously slept until 7:15 instead}... hopefully I'll be able to squeeze that run {or another workout} in this evening. Tomorrow morning will be spin, and we'll see what the rest of the week has in store. I sense an active long weekend in our future!

Valentino is sick right now - poor guy! I can usually tell when he's going to get sick because he gets really grumpy and acts "not himself." This was not the case this time - he was an angel all day Sunday, but then as I was putting him to bed, his nose started getting stuffy. At 11:30pm, he started screaming and bawling his eyes out {plus vomiting mucus} because he was so stuffed up that he couldn't sleep. I gave him some Mucinex, which seemed to help and let him fall back asleep. He woke up so pathetic on Monday morning that we just couldn't send him to school... so home we stayed. There was lots of TV watching, cuddling on the couch, and computer games played, but I also wanted to *do* something as to not totally rot his brain for the day.

I've been really wanting to do some activities/crafts from my Pinterest boards. Enter my inspiration from this pin, originally from a bird and a bean's blog:

White cardstock with a bike made out of painter's tape and a sick boy

 

{Notice all his sweeping aparatai to the right - the boy loves to clean!}.

Let 'em go wild with the watercolors - Valentino was very methodical with his paint application.
Remove the painter's tape once the paint has dried {to avoid smudges}.

The finished product, framed in our sad "gallery" wall.

The longest part of this project was creating the bike out of tape - that took way longer than I expected! It was worth it though, since we now have an interesting and personal piece of art for our walls :-)

Now, I'm not the type of mom who would ban her kid from the outdoors when they're sick - afterall, sunshine {Vitamin D!} can cure so much! It was a warm, sunny day yesterday, so I allowed Valentino to ride his bike for about 10 minutes {I didn't want him to overexert himself or get too tired}. He and I also did some side walk painting, a la Katie's post {and my pin}:

The recipe from Katie:

1/4 C corn starch

1/4 C water

4 drops food coloring

The product:

He loved it {and I found a great use for those Easter egg dying cups!}

Welcome Home message for Daddy {Valentino wrote the "HI!"}

Yeah, I know - I made staying at home sick a little too FUN. However, the thing he wanted to do most {play with his friends down the street} was OFF LIMITS. So trust me, it was not all that fun for him ;-)

May Day! May Day!

I love May! Here in North Carolina, it signifies the beginning of summer - and, judging by the 90* temperatures due to start tomorrow, we're right on schedule! Our family loves summer and {almost} everything it brings - long, warm days, trips to the beach, bike rides, being outside, playing in the pool. We have a lot planned this summer, and the fact that Valentino is at such a fun age means this summer will be one of the best ever. By the end of the week, I hope to put together our "Summer To-do List" {I refuse to call it a "bucket" list - to me, that's what you do before you die, not what you do on a normal, day-to-day basis!}.

I'd love to make these {all found on pinterest}:

Source

Source

But in reality, our list will look like this {but handwritten}:

{This from the land of nod blog, but the link in pinterest didn't work}

I have a rough draft in progress, and I bought myself some Crayola markers, now I just need to get 'er done.

4.5 miles was on the dockett for last night's run, and I did 4 {~44mins}. It was sticky out and I was starving, so the effort was hard and sweaty - my running started out strong, but petered out at the end. Today calls for a 3 mile run or cross-training, and I plan on doing some cross-training by doing the ZWOW #1 workout - more on ZWOW in another post :-)

May GOALS:

1. Stick to my training plan. Like I said in my April wrap-up, I am sticking to the long run, and usually to the 2 shorter mid-week runs, but I'd like to adhere to almost entirely. So far this week, so good.

2. Lose at least 10 lbs. This is totally acheivable in one month, so I'm aiming low in hopes of blowing past that goal :-) I plan to keep up my running {see goal #1}, incorporate HIIT workouts {via ZWOW workouts!}, and stick to better eating/calorie counting.

3. Complete the Photo-a-day Challenge. I LOVE instagram, and I love this idea. I've started out the challenge a couple times, but then forgotten about it. I hope to keep it up this month, and post my daily photos here on the blog. {BTW, gramfeed is awesome for quickly and easily saving your instagram photos to your computer!}

Day one: peace

4. Plan a cookout at our house! I've wanted to do this since we moved in, and I think we're finally ready to host a gathering at our home. Yes, our house is small and not really set up for entertaining, but our yard is good-sized, so if it's mostly outside, we can handle it. I have lots of ideas for food and activities for the kiddos, and I'm really looking forward to putting it all together.

Friday LOVE!

TGIF.

Four things I'm loving about this week:

1. The return of busy-ness at work. Call me crazy, but I definitely prefer to be busy at work. To me, sitting at a desk in a cubicle all day with nothing but "busy work" to do is so mentally draining and discouraging. In the past two weeks, my workload has significantly increased to include the tasks I most enjoy, which in turn has made my days fly by!

2. Feeling better. See #1. Add in sunshine, work-out endorphins, and better eating and you get a better-feeling me. Hoping this upswing continues!

3. Planning a summer trip. I started getting really excited for our upcoming summer trip to Michigan and Buffalo. At the end of June, we'll be hitting the road for a week of traveling! We're going to spend about 4-5 days in MI with my family (whom we haven't seen since December 2009), then head east to the other side of Lake Erie (Buffalo, NY) to visit the area for the first time since Vic's mom passed in March 2010. Valentino is at such a fun age, so I know he's going to soak up everything we do, and I can't wait for him to meet some of his family, as well as see where his mommy and daddy grew up. This will be our first week-long trip since he was 2 years old (when we spent a week in VA Beach). Even though we're not doing anything extra-ordinary, I think it's going to be fun :)

4. Pinterest. Ah, pinterest. You inspire me so. I have so many ideas and inspirations for things I want to do in every aspect of my life (clothes, hair, exercise, cooking, decorating, creating). It's so fun! "It's not wasting time if you had fun doing it." <---- That's my motto for pinterest-ing. Vic is going over to a friend's house tonight, and I already have visions of putting Valentino to bed, putting on a chick flick, and pinterest-ing to my heart's content (so productive, right?!).

So now it's the weekend. We don't have any plans, but I'm sure we'll be doing something outside - it's going to be a gorgeous weekend here in NC! I'll be hopping on my bike later this afternoon for a nice ride, then tomorrow calls for a 6-mile run - is it crazy that I'm looking forward to it?!