Life in 9 suitcases

On my personal Facebook page last year I shared our journey of leaving North America but I didn't share a lot of it here. Not sure why, we were just so busy I didn't really have the time to dedicate to writing the appropriate posts, I guess. So, I figure with our one year anniversary two days ago, I will share this with you now.

After we decided on where we should live and learning what our budget would be we knew this would be unlike any other move as now we had two choices: take our stuff or leave our stuff. 

Our friends who moved to Ireland a few months prior to us leaving sold everything. They said it was too expensive to ship and just wasn't worth the hassle. But, I figured I'd look into it anyway and agreed-for 10 year old furniture-the cost to get this stuff overseas was not even close to what I would describe as worth it. Plus, we were faced with the panic of 'what if we get it all there and it doesn't fit'...so we decided our best course of action was to sell just about everything.

But, before we could start selling, we had to decide what we were keeping. So, we looked at the costs associated with checking luggage and over weight fees and felt we could afford 6 large suitcases and 3 carry-on bags. This meant we would pay $150 extra for our luggage, but if it contained basically our entire lives it was worth it, plus it was less than the some 10,000+\- dollars a shipping container would have cost. 

About two months before we left Canada we started selling items. We started with items that weren't must haves or big items that would sell for the most money and we put a pick up date on them if it was stuff like beds or couches.

During this time I did take a 2 week vacation to Hawaii..which was wonderful, yet stressful. When we got home I had exactly one month before our fly out date. My days were spent on Craigslist and Amazon listing anything and everything that could be sold. In the last week I priced stuff to ridiculously low amounts, on the day before we were supposed to leave I was literally giving stuff away. I have pretty much my entire kitchen to a young girl who was moving in to her first apartment.

I did have 4 boxes 2 very large wardrobe type boxes and two regular medium size boxes that I packed with all our snowboarding gear and memory items and mailed that to my mother. I put some stuff in there for her and she still hasn't opened it. Maybe after this post she will {haha}. 

I will say deducting our lives down to 9 suitcases and four boxes made me feel lighter. Today, one year later I am careful about what I buy wanting to make sure I am surrounded by possessions I truly appreciate and that bring me joy.

Sure we sometimes miss the mindless shopping and buying because we want it in that moment, but know being conscious consumers during this time has only helped to serve our minds better and has let us focus on sharing memories instead of possessions.

Giving up everything for a dream was the best decision we ever made as a family and definitely don't regret it, it has been the most enriching experience for every single one of us. 

Moving Menu Plan Monday +this week's workouts!

Boy, this last week has been crazy! Seriously we have completely emptied our house, sold all of our belongings except for clothes and shoes, shipped memory items off to my mother and doled a few things out to other relatives that probably didn't want the crap but I need them to hang on to it, so they were voluntold. Thanks guys!

Org Junkie

So, today for Menu Plan Monday I am doing something a little different. We are eating out everyday until we get to Amsterdam, but before this I continued to cook just about everyday using up the items in my pantry, so I am going to highlight those meals today:

Breakfasts:

• Egg Sandwiches and half a smoothie or protein shake
• Oatmeal with miscellaneous leftovers in it: nuts, dried fruit, regular fruit, milk, cream, instant coffee
• Smoothies
• Protein Shakes
• Cereal
• Granola
• Omelettes, bacon, toast
• Protein pancakes (1 cup canned pumpkin or sweet potato puree and 2 eggs, fry up & serve with nut butter)

Lunches:

• Leftovers
• Tuna salad with crackers or lettuce wraps
• Chicken salad with crackers or lettuce wraps
• Omelettes and toast
• Grilled cheese and chips or soup
• Salad

Dinners:

• Leftovers shmorgas board
• Baked potato bar (with regular & sweet potatoes nom)
• Chicken breasts with cheese and sugar snap peas
• Taco Salad
• Burgers with potato skins
• Spaghetti and salad
• Soup and grilled cheese or meatballs

These just about covered us the last two weeks we've been in Vancouver. Now that we are eating out though we had to figure out a way to not spend a ton while eating out. We are eating out just about every single meal now so that gets expensive.

Tip for eating out when moving

• Breakfasts: buy oatmeal in heat & serve cups & eat with plastic cutlery
• For coffee bring reusable mugs, all coffee shops & 7-11's I've ever been to give a discount for using your own cup.
• Lunches: look for things like tuna salad kits, easy mac, premade salads in their own containers
• Snacks: I like to have on hand things like nature valley bars, yogurt in individual containers, and string cheese. Those seem to do the trick and are pretty healthy.
• When going to a restaurant look for coupons or use sites like Groupon, Living Social, and Restaurant.com
• Places to look for coupons are in local papers, in the mail (I got some great ones for starbucks the other day lol I'm not a huge fan, but to save $ I will give in to the man for a bit :P), Entertainment book, online, facebook, twitter, foursquare
• Look for kids eat free nights, buy1, get1 nights, loyalty card deals, etc.
• Split your meal with someone at the table so you aren't taking home leftovers

Random tip: Moving can be difficult, make this time an adventure. I know with a 14 year old some days she is excited other days we are the worst parents in the world lol So, we use this time to divert any "sad" feelings. So, we each got to pick one meal we had to have before we left and then we picked a couple places we had really been wanting to try but hadn't gotten to yet.  

Now, my workouts for this week....this is a devilish routine. Muahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have started an event on Facebook, if you would like to join in come like me on Facebook and send me a message so I can "invite" you. I made it a private event so we don't get any creepers in there ;)

In any case this is the play list I put together:

Burpees & squats, burpees & squats....

Basically each day for 5 days we will be doing one squat challenge video & one burpee challenge video. Each video is between 8-10 min long, so 16-20 min workout each day or you can do it in addition to your current workout. Then, on the 6th day we will do a couple of stretching videos geared toward stretching the specific muscles used in burpees and squats. Then, on the 7th day we will take all the videos & do them all together...it is going to be a KILLER workout! 

So, get your stuff together and email me on facebook so I can get you into the challenge! 

So, that is my week...what are you up to in the week ahead? Any cool workouts I should add to my schedule for next month?

Huge Announcement!

Hi everyone! So, as you may have noticed over the last couple of weeks my blogging has been very intermittent. I am just sort of blogging as I can. Well, I have some wonderful, wonderful posts coming up for you all because I have some really big news!

As you all know from my introduction, my family moves...and we move a lot! Well, after two years in the same spot we got a bit of wanderlust and decided it was time for the husband to move on to a new project....well, watch below to find out where that new project is taking us:



I love bringing our travels to the blog and now I am really looking forward to chronicling our adventure of uprooting our family, selling all our belongings, and starting over in a new country, on a completely different continent!

Have you ever done something crazy like this before? Have you done it with kids?

Water & Workouts

Water is defined as:

Noun A colorless, transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid that forms the seas, lakes, rivers, and rain and is the basis of the fluids of...

Verb Pour or sprinkle water over (a plant or an area of ground), typically in order to encourage plant growth.

Water is essential for our body to function correctly. Approximately 60% of our body is comprised of water. Years ago I switched from drinking sugary sweetened drinks to all water. I literally don't drink anything but water anymore (well, ok I do have the occasional wine or martini, but for my everyday drinking it's all water!).

So, here lately though I have been getting a bit bored with drinking water. I drink a lot of it everyday at minimum 64 oz (on my rest day) to up to 120 oz. Needless to say after a few years of this one gets a bit tired. So, after browsing Pinterest I saw that people were making aqua fresca. Many of these though were sweetened with honey or agave, which if you are going to have a sweetened drink those would be my first two sweeteners to use! But, I am trying to watch how much sugar I consume so I wondered why I couldn't just put fruit in & let it steep. In '08 when my family & I resided with my parents for a bit my mom made some water to help with digestion that she found in a magazine so I just adopted the same concept. Here are a few of my faves:

The one on the left is 8 oz water, a mint green tea bag, a handful of frozen strawberries, and one half of a sliced lemon. I let it sit over night & then squeeze the tea bag out when I am ready to drink & then I use a fork to muddle the lemon & strawberries. After I drink it throughout the day I just refill the cup! I do discard the fruit at the end of the day/

The one on the right is what I love to call "sunshine" water. It's so yellow and happy isn't it?! It's just 8 oz of water, one half of a lemon and a handful of frozen peaches. When I am ready to drink I muddle this as well & just keep refilling throughout the day! I do discard the fruit at the end of the day. :)

This is the water my mom used to make. The original recipe calls for mint & to peel the cucumber but I am too lazy to peel the cucumber & I didn't have any mint so those two things didn't happen. I prefer it this way so this is the recipe I"ll give. One whole lemon, one small cucumber (or half of an English Cucumber which is what I used), and one teaspoon of grated fresh ginger. I drank an entire pitcher of this yesterday. It is very refreshing. I refilled the pitcher last night & just added a bit more ginger. I only reuse the same fruits in this one 3 times. :)

Some other fun things I've been eating lately:

From the top left: Bacon & veggie saute with half a sweet potato,  oatmeal from our local grocery cafe (it's amazing), homemade granola, fruit, and yogurt parfait, veggie tacos with homemade shells, and hubby's fave dinner steak, cheese fries, and corn! Totally decadent but so worth it ;)

The final thing I want to talk about are my workouts. Last week was my last week of month one of Insanity. This program is so amazing. Seriously, if you want something to whip you into shape fast  & make you crave fruits, veggies, and healthy proteins this is it! So, Sunday I started my recover week. I had to make up for our cheerleading carpool so I had to take the kids on Sunday to cheer practice & it's three hours so I spent an hour & half doing a great 80 min walking workout where every 5 minutes you stopped & did some sort of full body exercise. I then came home & participated in a weekend tabata challenge. I was so sore on Monday, talk about a way to start your "rest" week! It's very much been an active rest. Monday I did Insanity Core Cardio & Balance DVD. Then yesterday I did the P90X X-Stretch DVD along with a nice long walk along the sea wall to the part with my daughter & some serious swinging. I woke up feeling like a new woman this morning! Then, I was back to Core Cardio & Balance today. Thursday (tomorrow) will be Core Cardio & Balance along with X-Stretch. Friday will be just Core Cardio & Balance. Saturday will be just X-Stretch, then Sunday I will walk up to our local Lulu Lemon & participate in their free Sunday morning yoga. If you have a Lulu Lemon near you look into this it's an amazing way to start your Sunday and get in touch with your community. My 13 year old even loves to go with me! ;)

What have your food & workout's looked like this week? Are you eating delicious things that make you feel good?

P.S Linking up at: