#making some halloween ones for tuesday eek!

[justmeemissb]

Tuesday 27th October

10. 30 pm

Late post tonight, blimey I'd forgotten the hecticness of having all the kids here daytime during the week. My youngest kiddies are settled in bed and I'm chilling with a small glass of wine left over from the weekend. It has been raining here for most of today so very much an indoor day - this morning at home, cuddles with my youngest two, many cups of tea and a few house chores, and Sainsburys shopping this afternoon. I'm really pleased I've managed to get quite a few clothes and school items for all the kids today, plus a pumpkin for Halloween (I left it until the day before last year and couldn't get one). I usually make a pumpkin pie on Halloween too - very easy to make (cooking pumpkin, sugar, cream or evaporated milk, treacle, eggs, sweet pastry case) something my Mum always made, it's become a bit of a family tradition for us.

We've all been out for dinner at McDonald's this evening, we always have at least one family fast food outing in the holidays. It's the first time we've eaten in at a McDonald's for a long while although we've had a few drive through takeaways recently. The restaurant we went to today is out of the main town so not quite as busy as some, it's pretty new (2016) and quite a spacious design so it's easy to socially distance and the staff bring the food to the tables so once you've ordered you can stay seated. We all had the burger meal deals and McFlurries, eek I've got to be good with the calories for the rest of the week.

An hour or so before bed so I'm going to catch up on the news, see if I can find anything interesting on the tv, maybe read. I hope you've had a really good evening.

❤️❤️❤️

[lotsofdogs]

Tuesday Happenings

Today’s blog post is a recap of our Tuesday with a focus on food and fitness! Thank you to The Laughing Cow® for sponsoring this post!

Hello, hello, my wonderful friends! How are you guys doing? All is well over here. I feel like this week is absolutely flying by and I think that’s due to the fact there’s some vacation anticipation going on in our house right now. (I’ll share more about that soon!) I just wanted to pop in this morning and share a little bit about our Tuesday with you!

Morning

My morning began with a hot mug of coffee and a little quiet time with my devotional before I meandered into our home office to get cracking on a blog post I have due for an upcoming brand partnership. I’m trying my best to “work first, check email second” – one of my happiness habits goals! – and it’s definitely making me more productive. Win!

I worked for an hour or so until my stomach told me to stop and make myself something to eat. Since I was on a bit of a roll with work, I didn’t want to spend too much time on breakfast and whipped up a smoothie with chocolate protein powder, cocoa powder, cashew milk, peanut butter, MCT oil, chia seeds, frozen cauliflower, frozen kale and frozen banana.

Apparently I was in the mood to throw a bazillion things into my smoothie but it did a fantastic job of keeping me satisfied up until lunchtime when I typically would need a snack two hours or so after breakfast. Maybe I need to hop back on the smoothie train for a bit!?

I said goodbye to Ryan as I sipped my smoothie and worked up until Chase began making noises in his room. Once he was up and changed, it was time for him to dig into his breakfast. After a brief hiatus, Chase’s beloved whole wheat pumpkin muffins made a comeback last week and I reheated a frozen one in the microwave for 20 seconds to bring it back to life for him. And then it was off to the gym!

I got Chase situated in childcare before rushing into the group exercise room of my gym and grabbing a spot for the mid-morning Strength Training Together class. The last time I took this class, I arrived three minutes before it started and it was totally slammed and I wasn’t able to claim a bench. I came a little earlier and had better luck and enjoyed the 50-minute total body workout.

I picked Chase up after a little bit of stretching and we colored in the gym lobby for a bit before heading home.

Afternoon

Since Chase’s interest in cooking is still going strong, I’m fully embracing it and set him up on his kitchen helper stand to “assist” me with dinner prep. I chopped veggies and Chase added them to the crock pot along with some spices, pork, tomato paste and broth.

And yes, he did all of this while wearing a race medal from the 5K I completed with my family in the Outer Banks earlier this year. He found it in a basket in my office and in case you were wondering if I was wearing one, too, the answer would be yes. Saying no definitely wasn’t worth a toddler meltdown, so we dinner prepped in our race day bling.

Eventually it was time for Chase’s nap and once he was settled I went into overdrive mode and photographed two recipes before beginning this blog post. Lunch yesterday ended up being a hodgepodge of the recipes I made which always seems to happen when I take food photos around here. 

(I ordered some new food photo backdrops from Ink&Elm on Etsy and LOVE them!!! Great quality and tons of selections.)

Naptime flew by as it always seems to do and once Chase was awake, we read his new Halloween book in his room, ate a snack and hung out at home as we waited for a woman to stop by to meet Sadie. I put a call out on a local Facebook group asking for pet sitter recommendations since Ryan and I both experience major dog guilt whenever we have to board Sadie. I think pet sitting will be ten times better for her and the woman we met yesterday seemed wonderful and great with Sadie, too! I think she’ll be in good hands when we leave for our upcoming weekend away.

Chase and I filled the remainder of the afternoon with odds and ends around the house that included a combination of playing, chores and my best attempt at making chores seem like playing which occupied us for quite a while until Ryan arrived home!

Evening

Ryan recently transitioned into a new position within his company and its meant longer hours which is totally expected but these days when he’s able to get home before 6 p.m., it feels like a treat! Since the weather this week called for summer temperatures and sunshine, I crossed my fingers and hoped we might be able to make it out on the boat if he was able to get off work at a decent time. When he texted me a little before 6 p.m. and said he’d be home soon, I quickly changed Chase and myself into our bathing suits and packed a little cooler full of boat snacks to tide us over until dinner.

I packed a few packages of The Laughing Cow Cheese Dippers, some pretzels, carrot sticks and fresh berries for us to enjoy while we cruised around Lake Norman. The Laughing Cow recently sent me their new Creamy White Cheddar Cheese Dippers snacks to try as part of our ongoing partnership (I create content for their social pages throughout the year) and they are so good! Chase calls them his “Dip Dip” (he calls out for them whenever he spots them in the fridge) and the crunch of the whole grain breadsticks pairs perfectly with the cold and creamy white cheddar cheese. (I also love the Creamy Swiss Cheese Dippers with the tomato and herb breadsticks.) A great grab-and-go snack!

We actually didn’t end up doing any swimming last night (well, Sadie did!) but it felt so nice to be on the water and enjoy a little bit of peaceful calm with my family at the end of the day.

Once we docked our boat and drove back home, Ryan gave Chase his bath and changed him into his pajamas while I assembled dinner. On the menu for Tuesday night was Al Pastor Bowls so thankfully it was an easy dinner to put together since the crockpot did most of the work.

Once Chase was settled in bed, Ryan and I decided to call it an early night as well and climbed into bed to chat and read a bit before we eventually fell asleep. You guys, I am SO STRESSED OUT by All the Missing Girls! I know I asked you for suspenseful book recommendations but I am on edge the entire time I’m reading this one. Eek!

And that was our Tuesday in a nutshell! I hope you guys are having a great week so far!

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