Organization: routine

This year, one of my goals was to institute cleaning routines soothe house basically takes care of itself with very little effort on my part.

My first routine was to institute my Cleaning Power Hour, so far this has been extremely effective and it only takes about 45 minutes to get through the whole routine, so not even a full hour! That routine hits all the high points people notice when visiting your house and the things that bother me the most when they don't get cleaned regularly enough!

Today I am introducing to you my morning and evening routines. 

Let's talk about the mornings first. I love mornings but wouldn't say I am a morning person. My brain is super foggy when I'm trying to wake up so having a routine is sort of like my caffeine. It gently gets my brain functioning and I get to start the day off checking stuff off a list and we all know how satisfying that can be! 

I have all my tasks listed in the order in which I will do them. 

The first seems silly: brush my teeth and get dressed. But, when instituting the routine I really wanted it to be authentic and give me a full guideline to follow. I have on here specifically to get dressed in workout clothes so that way once everyone is gone for the day I can immediately start my workout-No Excuses!

Unload dishwasher-start the day with an empty dishwasher, this way as you cook during the day you can throw everything in there and the sink stays empty!

Start coffee-I do this after unloading the dishwasher so it finishes percolating just as I am ready to sit down to breakfast.

Get lunches in lunch bags-when I cook dinner I prep/pre-pack lunches for my husband & daughter. I just take these & either toss them in the lunch bag or warm it up, put it in a thermos & then it goes in the lunch bag.

Make breakfast-it is the most important meal of the day, don't skip it! It's also a great way to spend some much needed time with the kiddos before the school day starts. This can be an essential time for communication and teaching them about proper nutrition.

Clean up breakfast-if you do it as soon as the dishes are empty of food it's easy and your kitchen is ready for the next meal! It keeps the counters & sink clear, plus it takes just a minute or two. Plus, if you have kids and work it right you can train them to take their dishes straight to the sink to rinse & GPS traight in the dishwasher! 

(Now, you may be wondering my it says my routine is 3pm. I am writing this while in the UK and I am 8 hours ahead of my normal time zone, so normally my reminder goes off at 7am. This whole routine only takes about 15-20 min to complete in total.)

This is my evening routine. It's short and sweet, but gets the whole house ready for the next day!

Load and start dishwasher-I clean as I cook, but there are always those few dishes at the end that still have to go in, I do this and immediately start the washer. 

Wipe down counters & table-I use my cleaning wipe & give all my granite a good wipe down & get the table ready for breakfast.

Sweep kitchen floor-just for maintenance. This take about 40 seconds to do and keeps the kitchen looking in tip top shape.

Make coffee-this is when I grind my beans & get the whole thing fixed up and ready to press start in the morning during your routine. 

Basic pick up around the house-walk from room to room putting away anything out of place & clearing off cluttered surfaces. Good time for the kiddos to pick up their rooms & bathrooms. 

This evening routine at first took 40 min because there was always so much out of place, but now it takes approximately 15-20 min. Fast and it helps make me happy when I wake up!

I love using my reminders app for this because I have a ringing renminder to do these chores. It's hard to ignore and these few steps help make my days so much easier! Plus, they help to give me a home I'm proud of and am not worried if someone drops by without calling first.

Do you have routines like this? If so, what is on your routine list? 

If you don't have routines are you going to implement some now? What will be on your lists?

Menu Plan Monday #38 +being away from the child

Happy Monday y'all!

So, I know today many people aren't happy about waking up to, but I am waking up in England!

Crazy right?! This is my first time in Europe and I am enjoying every second of it and already can't wait to come back!

As excited as we are to be here it sadly has taken us away from our not-so-little-one for a few days. These times can be so heart-wrenching! I love her to pieces and hate to miss any time with her, but I do think in the long run it is good for all of us. About once a year we spend a week a part. The teenager usually goes to sleep away camp and to stay with family and the husband and I get some alone time. It gives the teenager time to bond with her grandparents, aunts/uncles, and cousins and to learn to sort of be on her own. It gives my husband and I, who never really had that alone time couples have in the beginning since we had her so young, time to focus on each other. In the beginning I think we are all excited to get away from one another since we spend so much time together, but by the end we are all ready for it to be over and to be back together!

So, I guess what I am trying to say is as precious as these days are with our young children if you want to get away, don't feel guilty there are a lot of benefits! This time around our daughter is staying with two of her friends who have two very different parents. One set of parents is about our age and as easy going as us, if not a little more easy going. The other set is an older set of parents who adopted their child and they are pretty easy going and enjoy giving the kids their independence!

I feel like these times away from us as few as they are have such a lasting impression and really help her to find out who she is as we aren't there to help her make decisions and aren't easily contacted at the drop of a hat!

Anyway...enough about my ramblings...let's get to what you are here for...

Tue

Org Junkie

This is yet another weird week for us. We are out of town at the beginning of the week and have to go out of town for a cheerleading competition at the end of the week!

Breakfasts: cereal with banana, shakeology

Lunches: Shakeology, sandwiches (pb&j & turkey on whole wheat) with salad/grapes

Dinner: 

Monday: Out of town, something around London-fish and chips most likely if I haven't had it yet ;)

Tuesday: Pick up from the grill at the market or order in pizza & salad from an organic local place

Wednesday: Broccoli/Cauliflower/Spaghetti squash cheese bake with salad

Thursday: Burrito cups: mexican flavored chicken breasts, black beans, cauli-rice, tomatoes, onion, and lettuce layered in a cup

Friday: Eat on the road to cheer compeition

Saturday: Celebrate V-day by checking out an awesome restaurant in Tacoma after the cheer competition with my honey

Sunday: Get a meal from the market or order in something from a local place.

It is proving to be a seriously busy week but I think we can handle it! February will be gone before I know it!

Family Favorites Friday #3

This is another classic. My mom made it since I was a kid, but many people don't know what I am talking about when I say what it is: Magic Cookie Bars.

Many people call them 7 layers bars, but not sure why because the recipe I use only has 5 ingredients, or layers, plus they are practically gone the instant they are cool enough to cut, so we will stick with "magic".

This particular recipe my mom always used was found on the inside label of Eagle Brand Sweet and Condensed Milk. I tweak it because, well, my family is picky. So...here is the recipe:

Magic Cookie Bars

-1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs

-1/2 cup of butter, melted

-10-14 oz (about 300ml) can of sweet & condensed milk

-package of semi-sweet chocolate chips

-a little shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a 9X13 pan measure out the graham cracker crumbs.

2. Melt the butter. Pour over crumbs and mix together. Once combined use your hands to press the crust into the bottom of the pan.

3. Open the sweet and condensed milk and pour evenly over the crust. Try and get it as even as possible because once it is on there you can not really move it, but it does sort of naturally spread and settle so however you pour it so long as you cover most of the crust it will be fine.

4. Evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top.

5. Evenly sprinkle some shredded coconut over the top. We have someone in our house who isn't a coconut fan so I just sprinkle it over half.

See half with coconut, half without! Pretty darn simple!

Here they are baked! Not the best picture in the world, but they sure are heavenly!

What is a favorite recipe you and your family love?

What I Ate Wednesday +my weekly review of X3!

Wow, hump day already!!! Hard to believe we are already halfway through this week!

This past week was a delicious one!! I will let the photos speak for themselves...

A lovely mocha from my favorite coffee shop in town...Blenz! They always do the cutest latte art! This was  a treat from my hubby after we had a little daytime date.

Breakfast hash with over easy egg

Sole with breakfast hash

Dates with peanut butter and coconut manna

Korean BBQ....yum!

I call this leftover soup...it's quite literally all leftovers. It's a carrot-cauliflower soup I made  and I threw in some leftover peas, leftover corn, and leftover fish.

From Moderne Burger...So tasty.

Another tasty bit from Moderne. Make sure to read about our experience there!

Relaxing morning with my Shakeology and working on coming up with some new projects!

Noodle-less Mongolian BBQ.

Now, to work all this delicious food off I had to work hard. This last week I was mostly in the transition week of P90X3, and I just entered into block 2! I had to change from doing the Classic Version to the Lean Version because the classic was too pull up heavy and I still have an injury I am recovery from. So, here is my week in workouts:

Wednesday Accelerator (super fun, but way more work than I thought it would be lol)

Thursday: Pilates X (super core work, I forgot how hard Pilates was)

Friday: CVX (this is one of my favorites!)

Saturday: X3 Yoga...originally wasn't feeling well, but after having some shakeology and I nap I dug in and got it done, was a fantastic workout and I felt amazing afterward!

Sunday: Rest day

Monday: Accelerator

Tuesday: The Warrior

Up on deck today: X3 Yoga....this is my absolute favorite!

What did you do to work your body this past week?!

Now, I know a bunch of y'all are stopping by from What I Ate Wednesday...make sure to say HI! These are my most viewed days usually so I'd love to get to know you all! :) Click over on the right and find me on FB and stuff so we can chat! :)

Sally Hansen Voxbox #CSMTKO

Happy Tuesday y'all! Hope your day is going well! I am so excited to bring you this post! About two weeks ago or so I received a Voxbox from Influenster. This is the second Voxbox I've had the honor of receiving. I say honor, and that may seem silly, but to be chosen out of thousands of Influensters to receive these full size products to try and then review is amazing! I am so grateful for these opportunities.

This Voxbox happens to be super special because doing my nails is one thing that makes me feel super girly and pretty. Each time I have gone out with my nails done in one of these polishes I have gotten so many compliments on my manicure. I think it because you are only having to use one product on your nails that you have the opportunity to make a very clean manicure.

Here are the three bottles I received: 

Now, these tiny little bottles pack a big punch. With just one bottle you get 7 great benefits:

• Base Coat
• Strengthener
• Growth Treatment
• Color
• Top Coat
• Chip Resistant
• Gel Shine Finish

On a normal manicure I need to use a base coat, two to three coats of polish, plus my top coat. This makes for a very long manicure when you look at all the drying time involved. With these my drying time was no more than 15 minutes. Let me explain more about each color.

This is the "Pat on the Black". It only took one coat to cover my nails which meant I was completely done with my manicure in about 8 minutes.

Isn't is pretty? Not as harsh as black, but great for the winter! When I took the polish off my nails weren't very stained either. My nail beds were a bit darker than normal but I just took a bit of baking soda and scrubbed over them and they shined right up!

Next is probably my favorite color with spring coming up:

This is Jaded. It is the lightest of the three shades I got, it also has the longest drying time of 15 minutes to be fully dry. It took three coats to get this color to significantly cover my nails. I love it, and it is totally worth it, but just be advised it takes a lot of coats. When you take this one off there is no reside left, however, it comes off quite nicely.

The final color is probably the best red I've ever owned...

"Red My Lips". It is more of a blue based red I believe and is an absolutely amazing shade. It took just two coats to cover my nails. I could have gotten away with one, but had a few spots I wanted covered more and I had time to let them dry. The drying time on this was just 10 minutes.

All-in-all I loved the polishes and am quite pleased. I've done 5 different manicures with them each lasting a full 4 days before any chipping occurs. If I remember to put gloves on when doing housework I did get my last mani to last 6 days with no chipping! Hard to find that in a nail polish!

Come on over and check out my Knockout Beauty Board on Pinterest!

Do you like darker or lighter colors when polishing your nails or does it depend on the season?

For me it depends on the season. I love darks in the fall and winter and lighter colors in the spring and summer!

Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary of Influenster.

Menu Plan Monday #37 +a lesson on patience

My teenager has had three, count them three cheerleading competitions this year. In one they came in 2nd place, but it was out of two...so essentially last.

The next competition they came in fifth...out of fifth. I was really upset for my daughter because she was trying quite hard. She was very upset.

Pyramid from 2nd Compeititon

But, she stayed positive. She worked hard, she encouraged her teammates even when she was getting some negative text messages this past week like, "ready to lose Sunday?" Despite this she worked on her balance, she was moved to point for a portion of the routine, she stretched daily, and worked on not saying anything negative...even after practices that were hard she would tell me it was one of the best practices she'd ever been to. Well, Sunday comes and the negativity of her teammates seemed it increase despite them being excited to perform. She went in with a fierce attitude and practiced hard before going out on to the floor in the performance centre. She kept a huge smile on her face, she picked a judge and did what all good cheerleaders do...smiled her biggest smile and showed as much personality as humanly possible. My little ham even gave a cute little wink at the judges! So, these girls performed their hearts out, hit just about every stunt as far as I could see, moved their little booties during their tumbling passes, and danced their little hearts out at the end. This resulted in them competing against the exact same five teams from the last competition and them going from last place to first place! I couldn't be more proud of these little ladies and their ability to pull together and work hard.

Here is my little ham loving her medal. She even took it to school to show a couple of her teachers that know about her cheering.

So, life throws us lemons many times throughout our lives. We can either get hit in the head with them or make it a goal to become a better catcher and learn to juggle. I think my kiddo's positive attitude despite not having the best start to the season is an amazing trait! I hope it is one she never loses!

Anyway, enough about  my bragging...here's the menu for the week.

It's short and sweet, we are out of the country at the end of the week so I will have tons of food to post about when we get back at some point next week. May be early in the week, may be late in the week will just have to see how the trip goes and if we can squeeze anymore time out of our little trip!

I chose to use this banner this week for the Org Junkie Link-up because we are having a serious cold snap up here in BC! We have been super lucky and temps have been around 40 Fahrenheit, but now it is only in the 20's Fahrenheit! But, I have some seriously healthy meals designed around this weather that also uses up our leftovers before we head out at the end of the week!

Menu Board Tutorial

If you haven't made one of these...do it! It is the best ever and when I use it...I always stick to my menu!

Breakfast: Shakeology, eggs and veggies, cream of wheat

Lunch: Shakeology, leftovers

Dinner:

Monday: pork chops, brown rice/cauli-rice, peas

Tuesday: Chicken fried rice using the leftover rice/cauli-rice, peas, carrots

Wednesday: Chicken and cheese omelettes with bacon and any leftovers from the previous night and veggies

Thursday: Chicken and cheese quesadillas with leftover veggies (most likely carrots....hope we don't turn orange! haha ;))

Friday: Will eat a late lunch/early dinner at the airport after check-in....most of the decent looking places are prior to security so it won't be anything too exciting, classic pub fare no doubt...how to keep that healthy will be a fun challenge! ;)

Saturday: Somewhere fun and exciting in our destination city

Sunday: Again will no doubt be somewhere fun and exciting in our destination city...cannot wait to try some traditional local fare! 

What all does everyone have planned for this week?

Me, I am heading to the doctor, then off to buy a new planner, then the rest of my week will be filled with cleaning, stocking my Etsy store, working out, and packing for our trip! 

New Restaurant Friday: Moderne Burger, Vancouver, BC

For our New Restaurant "Friday", which seems to be occurring more and more on Saturday these days was at a place called Moderne Burger, in Kitsilano area of Vancouver, BC. My 14 year old actually found this place when browsing Bored In Vancouver! This was her first time choosing our restaurant for New Restaurant Friday and it was a total success, she was so proud of herself!

When you see it from the street it is all lit up with a neon sign out front, at night hard to miss. When you walk in it is a classic diner experience. Mint coloured booths, a counter with stools lining the food prep area, and a lots of cute pin-up style diner art.

Everyone was super nice from the minute we walked in to the restaurant. Our waitress even gave us a tip since we were all getting shakes, burgers, and fries for my daughter & I to just split the fries. Glad we took her up on the tip because it was a lot of food. I still have half a shake in the freezer and half a burger in the fridge!

Here are some photos from our meal:

Amazing chocolate shake!

Strawberry shake the husband enjoyed!

My platter...the kiddo had already taken about half the fries! o_O Unreal, right?!

Regular steakburger with two types of cheese. The beautiful part about Moderne is there are no additives to their beef and everything is made fresh in house!

Bacon cheeseburger & fries. 

We cleaned house! It was so tasty!

Moderne is a place we will go back to time and again. Affordable food, good for the whole family. Can't wait until our next visit.