I’m a little late with this post, but next week I’ll be back on track again. It just took me a little bit of time to get organized for the new session, but I think I’m good to go now. I’ll be working to get ahead in all of my classes this weekend so I have a lot less stress and a lot more time for my kids, working out, and keeping the house organized.

On to this some of my favorite things this week! Linking up with Katie and Heather.

Rainy days!

It started to rain about halfway into our run the other day, and the kids loved it. Luckily we were pretty close to home because the baby is a bit young to play in the rain, but big sister insisted on giving the boys her umbrella while we ran home — so generous! She loves watching out for her brothers. 🙂

She was super disappointed we couldn’t keep running, but it started to rain pretty hard. The four of us are running a 5k together next weekend, so hopefully we trained enough together for Kins to be able to comfortably make it. She can always sit on the front of the stroller if she needs a rest, but MAN does that thing get heavy when there’s three kids on it!

JUICE!

I have to admit that finals got me a bit off track with my healthy habits. I wasn’t sleeping enough, didn’t work out for 2 weeks, and was easily drinking a vat of diet soda every day to stay awake — not good! Not surprisingly, my stomach has been super upset and I’ve been having really bad heartburn, so this week we went crazy and prepped juice for the entire week. 

This was only the first half of what we made!!

I couldn’t get a picture of all the containers because of the way our freezer is shaped, but there’s enough for two juices per day for a week for both of us. A high energy juice in the morning (apple, orange, lemon, spinach, and cinnamon) and then a lower sugar juice for the afternoon (cactus leaf, beet, bell peppers, tomato, cucumber, apple, and assorted other veggies). We also each have a powdered green drink (on the right) that we’re trying to drink every day. The hubby is brave and drinks it with water, but I mix it into a smoothie most days — it is NOT tasty.

After only a few days I have more energy, my stomach is starting to feel better, and I haven’t had soda all week! Prepping like this is really the only way to go for me — it takes all the effort out of good choices!

Our dog’s patience

I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of our dogs. I know that’s a terrible thing to say but they’re super needy and they were my husband’s for years before we met, so they don’t love me much (especially compared to him). That being said, they deserve a lot of credit for what they let my kids get away with. Micah built a small tower of blocks on Spirit’s head the other night and she just laid there and didn’t complain at all! They’re also both super patient with the pinching and hitting that comes with the boys learning to pet and play with them, and I’m really grateful that I never have to worry about the boys being nipped. I definitely pet them and give them more treats since the boys became mobile (they really do deserve it), but I think they’re enjoying the extra attention so much that they don’t mind the occasional pinch. 🙂

Pizza buffets with real salad

Pizza buffets are not the healthiest option out there, but they are super cheap and make my kids super happy. We’ve made kind of a tradition that the kids get to have a treat after going to the doctor (especially if they need shots), and there is a cheap pizza buffet in the parking lot that has a really good salad bar AND kids eat free on Mondays! In my experience, most pizza places have iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and croutons, so the variety of veggies was really refreshing. They also had a ton of pasta, and the boys devoured an adult sized bowl together! By the time we were done Jonah had forgotten his shots and both boys had such full bellies that they slept the whole way home.

Hand me downs!

We have been lucky enough to have friends and family that passed on their hand me downs to us, and it has been an incredible blessing. Sometimes the littlest things mean so much to kids, but for a rapidly growing toddler it’s hard to spend a ton of money on clothes and shoes that will only be worn for a month or two, even if it’s got Elsa or Lightening McQueen on it. These slippers have been Micah’s favorite for a while now, ever since he saw Cars 2, but I don’t know that I’d have spent the money to buy them new. It’s actually one of the nicest things about spring cleaning, is that I can take the things we don’t use anymore and hand them down to someone else in need. Paying it forward feels really good!

What were some of the best things about this week?