Digging Deep

Good morning all!

I feel the need to start this morning with a pep talk focused specifically on me, for me.  Not that I’m am completely miserable, but with all of the craziness in my life, I need to remember to ‘dig deep’ and find MY happiness.  I have been putting a lot of other things ahead of my own happiness, and the cracks in the facade are starting to show.

I have had many sleepless nights in recent weeks, where I spend hours pondering what direction I want my life to go in, for myself, and my family.  I feel somewhat stuck in a rut.  Even with breaking into exercise, starting a blog, signing on to lots of school volunteer responsibilities, shuttling my kids everywhere, and reading(A LOT), it’s not enough, and I need to figure out where to go from here.  Do I want to go back to school?  Do I want to find a job?  Do I have the drive and focus to run my own business?  I don’t know, but I suppose it’s time to find out.  I am not gonna lie, these ideas are terrifying, and just the thought of trying something so new causes my anxiety level to shoot through the roof.  But, I’m going to spend some much needed time focusing on me, and trying to find my true passion- as cheesy as that may sound- and go for it.

With that said, I probably won’t be blogging as much.  You’ve probably already noticed a slowdown as it is.  There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done.  However, I’m not abandoning my favorite, bizarre, online diary… I will try my best to keep it up and running, I just won’t be posting quite so often.  And I certainly am not stopping physical running.  I’ve found a true admiration and love for the sport, and I plan on continuing down that healthy path, literally 😉  In fact, I will be signing up for my first 5k this week!  I’ll keep you posted.

Alright, enough of the serious- let’s get to the fun!

Workout:  After devouring half of a banana and a cup of coffee, I threw on my running gear and drove over to a nearby park.  I wanted to do a longer run this morning (at least 2 miles) and the park is the perfect place for that.

I ended up with a 1.93 mile run in 24:07 minutes with an avg pace of 12:30.  Not great, not quite 2 miles, but after taking so long to jump back into a hearty run, it felt really good.

Breakfast:  When I made it back to the house, I finished the other half of my banana, and heated up a batch of pumpkin spice oatmeal.  It was actually CHILLY here in Houston (around 60 degrees this morning), so a warm batch of oats hit the spot.

Yeah, that picture barely made it.  I was starving.

I have a lot on the agenda today, including cake making, and shopping this evening with a certain bride-to-be.  It’s going to be another busy one!

Have a great Thursday!

Amy

Out of Towners

Good morning!

Just a quick post to tell you all about my fun weekend…

My sweet grandparents from St. Louis came into town for a visit at the beginning of last week, and I got to spend some quality time chatting the day away on Saturday and Monday.  Monday was Columbus Day, so the girls were out of school, which thankfully gave us an extra day of visiting before my grandparents had to pack up and head back home.

I am hoping we’ll be able to make a trip up there next summer, I miss them so much!

Sunday was a day I spent with just my girls.  The weather was wet and dreary, so we headed out to the mall to stretch our legs and get out of the house.  We started with a stop at Panera Bread for lunch-

I know it doesn’t look like much, but the bread bowl with bistro french onion soup= awesome.  Mer’s autumn squash soup was also delicious, but a bit more of a dessert than a meal.  Colette ordered the chicken noodle, which was literally gone 2 minutes after we sat down.  Yum-my!

We hopped over to Dillards and walked around the home department, oohing and ahhhing over the Christmas decor and fun gifts.  I loved the Mudpie engraved cheese and butter gift sets.   They would make the cutest house warming gifts!

Not to mention, the basket they were in, was too cute.

I also loved all of the blue and white cottage style dishware.  So pretty.

All in all, it was a fun weekend with the family.  Next weekend will be even busier, but I’ll leave it at that for now.  OK, I’ll give you a hint, there will be wedding bells… 😉

Workout:  As for this morning, I started off the day with a Shred workout, (level 1) courtesy of Jillian Michaels.  I wanted something fast and full body, and that certainly did the trick.  I upped my hand weights to 5 lbs this time, and boy was I struggling on the arm workout.  Ouch!

Breakfast:  After that I served myself some over easy eggs and a slice of caramel apple bread.  If you haven’t tried this seasonal bread(I bought it at Target), you are missing out on some serious awesomeness.  Sooo good.

Source

Alright, that about wraps it up for this girl.  I have some major grocery shopping to do.

Question:

• What did you do over the holiday weekend?

Have a great Tuesday!

Amy