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Linking up with Kristen today. I started to write a few posts this week, and just didn’t know what to say. It didn’t feel right. Like many of you, my heart is hurting at the state of our country. I don’t understand why in 2020 we are still fighting the same battles we always have. Be kind to others. Why is that so hard?? I am not a political person, and I rarely ever bring these types of things up. I like to keep my space mostly light and happy. So many are sharing great resources and information on their sites and social media. I have learned a few things, and have been understanding different perspectives for sure. I am raising my daughter to be kind to everyone, and I hope that when she is older, the world looks different.

Reading: All Stirred Up by Brianne Moore. I am only about 35% into the book. I am not sure how I feel about it yet. The last few books I have read, I have not been able to put down and am finished in a day or two. This one I have been working on for a week. It may also be the times. I have been on social media a lot reading, learning.

Watching: We caught up on the latest season of Blacklist. I am not sure how I feel about the season finale. I understand they were in the middle of filming when the pandemic started, and I appreciate they did something to tie things up. It was also…weird? Anyone else?

Purchasing: One of my friends opened an online boutique called Holly Harper. Morgan used to live in Birmingham, and was a blogger for awhile. She now lives in Florida with her adorable family and is doing something I have always wanted to do! This isn’t sponsored, just a shout out to a bad ass woman doing her thing. I purchased the CUTEST dress that came in just a few days after I ordered. I am obsessed.

Everything she has on her site is reasonably priced, and you can DM her on Instagram to ask about sizing questions. She usually has a few new pieces up each week. I will be wearing this dress alllll summer long.

Working: I started the Chloe Ting challenge this week. She is kicking my ASS!!!! I love that she has several free workout programs on her site. Let me tell you, I am only 4 days in and I am already seeing results in my ab area. The workout moves don’t look hard, but there are so many moves and barely any rest times. I struggle towards the end of each of the videos and am drenched in sweat when I am finished. I can’t wait to see where I am at the end of the 14 days. I highly recommend. Below is the workout you start with every morning, then you add which ever others she tells you. Usually abs, and then lower body, upper body, more abs, all of them, a few of them, etc.

Eating: I have been eating some carbs for breakfast and lunch, and trying to still eat keto/low carb snacks and dinner. It has been helping me maintain my weight loss for sure, but the Chloe Ting challenge will hopefully help push the scale down some more. I made sticky meatballs and cheese steak casserole so far this week. For lunches I am having my usual spinach salad with a side of the Mediterranean quinoa salad in the first photo below. Delicious!

I have just spent my last month in my new norm. Working from home while trying to school and entertain Zoe. On the weekends we have been doing a lot of time outside with her slip n slide, water table, bike and walks. She spends her days changing into different princesses and is really into “doing her make up” and playing with barbies and baby dolls. Chris and I started ordering take out food two weeks ago to be delivered at our house. We still haven’t been anywhere.

We are waiting another two weeks or so since there has been so much activity lately to see what happens, then we might start venturing out. We have some dance makeup classes available in July that I would really like for Zoe to attend. I think seeing some of her friends would be good for her emotionally. She misses them and speaks about them every day. We had a zoom meeting for work this week, and were told this is our new norm for the unforeseeable future. I honestly really enjoy working from home. It has been great for me and I hope we stay this way long term. Or at least a few days a week anyways.

Happy Friday! Another week spent at home. Did anyone else have a really hard time keeping up with what day it was this week??? With the holiday Monday, it has really thrown me for a loop. We had a lot of rain this week, so we have been cooped up inside a little more than we have this entire time we have been home. Zoe has asked pretty much every day when she can go on her slip and slide again. This weekend is looking more promising, at least.

How many of you plan to keep your summer travel plans with everything going on? Just curious. We always go to the beach in July, and I figured this year we probably wouldn’t….but it is still up in the air. It is hard to know the right thing to do.

Favorite Recipe: I made this spicy thai chicken recipe with asian slaw the other day, and it was so delicious! Low carb friendly, and pretty quick to come together.

Favorite Purchase: I ordered a bunch of popsicle molds for Zoe to create some fun cold treats for the summer. This kid lives for a popsicle, so she is really excited about them. We tried out the unicorn ones first with this funfetti pudding pop recipe. Super simple, and she loved it. She is really excited about the ring pop style that we plan to try out this weekend with a fruit recipe. I think these are going to work great for her because they are smaller. She couldn’t finish this entire unicorn pop.

I love having regular molds (I am going to make a coffee popsicle for Chris and I to try out!) but also fun shapes! These monster ones are so cute and on my list!

I also scooped up this Hempz Pineapple & Honey Melon lotion on my last Ulta order. It smells absolutely incredible!!!! It is the perfect amount of moisture without feeling too heavy or greasy for summer. I am in love. And so is Zoe, she keeps stealing it.

Favorite Workout: This cardio workout had me sweating. It was all standing, I hate having to drop down to the floor for cardio. I added on a 10 minute arm workout after and it was perfect.

Favorite Funnies:

I absolutely love a good acai bowl. It is like having dessert as a meal! We have several places in Birmingham that specialize in acai and other power fruit bowls and they are wonderful! But you know what else they are? Filled with sugar. Fruit is already sweet, and when you are trying to watch what you eat…you don’t need a bunch of hidden sugar in an otherwise healthy meal.

I hesitate to call this a recipe, because it really is a dump in the blender and go kind of thing. And you can make this based on what you have on hand or what you are feeling like for that day. I never actually measure anything out either, just a little of this and a little of that. It always turns out perfect, and I basically eat this every weekday morning.

When I was keto, I made this just using the acai packet and a handful of frozen strawberries. I added collagen protein powder to it, sometimes topped with unsweetened coconut flakes and stayed in my carb range for the day. Now that I have added more carbs back into my diet, I like to throw in some banana, berries and top with coconut flakes and peanut butter. It is so delicious!

I always use unsweetened acai from Sambazon. I find these in the frozen fruit section at Target or Publix. It is really the only brand I see anywhere.

What You Need

1 packet unsweetened acai

5-6 frozen strawberries (a big handful, depending on the size you could need more)

1/2 cup original unsweetened almond milk

1-2 tbsp chia seeds

1-2 tbsp flax seed

Optional toppings….

1/2 banana, sliced

blueberries, raspberries, blackberries

unsweetened coconut flakes

almond butter or peanut butter (if you are trying to get an instagram worthy shot, you can heat this up to make a pretty spread. I just dump mine in because I don’t like extra dishes)

What You Do

Put the acai, frozen strawberries, chia seeds, flax seed and almond milk in the blender. Blend for the consistency you are looking for. Pour in a bowl, top with sliced bananas, blueberries, unsweetened coconut flakes and almond butter. Enjoy!

Even though I am not having to go to the office right now, it is still nice to have an extra day to not worry about work. And worry, I didn’t. Mainly because the time I did set aside to catch up on some stuff this weekend, our system was down for maintenance and I was like…well there is my sign to take a break too!

This weekend was an exciting one, because we ordered take out food for the first time during quarantine! We loved it so much we did it twice in one day! We had burgers from a nearby BBQ joint for lunch, and our favorite Mexican for dinner. Zoe was beside herself and said that it was delicious a million times. Delicious is her new favorite word. Everything is delicious. I also made a keto friendly flatbread pizza this weekend.

And I may or may not have polished off this delicious bottle of moonshine. Chris and I took turns playing songs and enjoying an adult beverage Friday evening after Zoe went to bed. Definitely one of our favorite things to do to unwind. It was wonderful.

We also went for two car rides around town. Zoe was so excited, she passed out on the second one. We really lowered the bar for standard of fun, haven’t we? We all get dressed and I do my makeup for the car rides. Exciting stuff! Speaking of exciting, look how long Zoe’s hair is getting!!!

She has been living her princess costumes all day every day. Whatever keeps them happy! Her pool has a hole or leak or something, and I tried to order a replacement but had a hard time tracking one down like we wanted, so I ordered her this water slide instead. It comes with water balloons that I plan to whip out next weekend. She had SO much fun on this and spent two hours with it.

We also spent a lot of time out on our deck. I cannot express how thankful I am for all of this outdoor space. Especially the deck with the covered area and fan, because it is already hot and humid AF here.

I got some organizing and purging done. Cleaned out the closet in my office, and trying to decide what I want to do with all the space in there. We have a lot of craft supplies and such and I feel like I could get a shelving unit in there and really get it all organized and utilize the space better! I also shifted things around in our upstairs linen closet, and got some stuff up in the attic. I still really want to paint our dining room. The paint job in there was done really well, but I hate the color. When we moved in, I decided I was going to wait and see if it grew on me, but it has done the opposite. I hate it even more now. Decisions decisions.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I know I really enjoyed the downtime. I have our grocery order placed this morning, a list of things for work and around the house I want to do this week…and ready to tackle it all!

Happy Friday, friends!!! Each and every week that passes seems to leave me astounded that time is going by both so quickly and slowly at the same time. We have pretty much spent as much of 2020 at home in quarantine as we did out in the world before this happened. I had to cancel Zoe’s summer dance session this week, so that was hard. I know she is just ready to see her friends. We celebrated one of her friends birthday’s this week sending presents and having a Facetime. That perked her up until it was time to get off the phone. Then she was sad and said that she just misses everyone. Me too, girl.

Favorite Video/Song: I feel so seen right now. Mom or not, watch it. This is hilarious, and incredibly accurate.

Favorite Purchase: I think I have shared before, but just in case….the Aveeno Foot Mask is amazing!!!!This is my third or forth one, and every time I do it I wonder why I don’t do this at least weekly. My feet have never felt softer or more amazing than after I use this. You only have to do it for 10 minutes, I usually leave it on for 20 because why not. I just sit at my desk and work. I think for the price, you can’t beat it.

Favorite Recipe: We have been trying out some new recipes this week. Chris really liked this keto friendly chicken parmesan. Chicken parm isn’t my favorite meal ever, but I have to admit….it was pretty good! I definitely had a clean plate, and usually I only take a couple bites when I have made other recipes in the past. It was quite easy to put together, but it did dirty a lot of dishes. I did broil it at the end for 3 minutes to get that crispy cheese look and taste.

Favorite Workout: I wanted to cry about 5 minutes into this one. Nothing has ever burned my thighs as much as this workout right here. The moves are so simple, yet OMG!!!! I hated every second of this one, and yet, I plan to put it in regular rotation.

Favorite Funnies: