{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life 

Every Thursday Like Mother Like Daughter ~

{pretty}

I have been dreaming of returning to my hometown and visit with my friends, family and the beach. The hot humid Florida days are what my childhood was made of and although I am enjoying the gorgeous weather in Colorado, I have become nostalgic while I reminisce about the gorgeous white sand, the emerald green salt water, the warm strokes of the breeze across my face. Plans are still in the work but we will see if this short family vacation can come true this month.

{happy}

June is probably one of the happiest month's of our year! within the last two weeks we celebrate Father's Day, our Wedding Anniversary, Little Man's Birthday and finally my husband's birthday right before we start preparations for the upcoming school year. This year we had a pie fight outside my cousin's home and enjoyed watching Finding Dory as a family to celebrate the guy's birthdays!

{funny}

We purchased an annual pass to the zoo and Goalie is forever wanting to pose with the animal statues. He thinks that they "come alive" when we aren't looking. I love the imagination and innocence of my children. Here is a picture go Goalie with the giraffe statue. He was quite upset I didn't get the giraffe's face in the picture with him! My husband was unable to come with us on this particular trip and he got a nice laugh seeing Goalie's statue pictures.

{real}

This tall glass of deliciousness is made from a Creamy Oolong Tea mixture I made with ice cubes, bananas, spices and almond milk! I drank it with my breakfast. I have been doing some research on oolong tea and matcha green tea and the REAL health benefits. I encourage you to replace that afternoon cup of coffee with a nice tea like this and see how much better you feel. The thing i love about both of these options is that I can drink these teas hot or cold or make it into a smoothie to enjoy anytime. 

I hope that everyone's summer is going well! It's about that time to start planning back to school readiness and fall time bucket lists!

God Bless!

Challenges, Excuses and Goals

It's been about a month since I was consistently blogging and I have had so many different thoughts in my head that I want to share. The most important thought is about life: where I am, where I want to be and what I want to accomplish. I have realized that over the past month I have allowed "challenges" to throw me off the path that I want to travel because it was easier to go around life's obstacles instead of tackling them head on. I have done this several times this past month and now that I am searching for a way back onto the path I want in life, I see that all those obstacles I was attempting to avoid only allowed me to get completely lost. I am always the first one to tell someone that if "God has brought you to it, he will bring you through it" and I feel like such a hypocrite thinking about how I have been hiding from things that I have no control over instead of taking that saying to heart and know that God is standing with me and I do not need to be afraid.

I am a wife to an amazing husband. 

I am the mother to two beautiful boys. 

I am a daughter to self sacrificing parents.

I am a dedicated friend to anyone who befriends me.

I am all of these things and so much more but I still want to be more and do more!

I want to be inspirational. I want to be inspirational to my husband because he is an inspiration to me. He is still chasing his dreams and showing our children that is the way to live your life. My husband has met every goal and ambition he has ever set for himself and I am so blessed that he is the example my boys have to show them how to be successful. I want to be that same inspiration to my children, yet the other night I played awake thinking about how I am not where I wanted to be and why is that? Then I thought of all the "challenges" that have kept me from my goals...

I am too old.

I don't have enough time.

I don't have enough money.

I am not good enough.

Then I stopped myself. These are not Challenges! Theses are excuses! Why am I too old to accomplish more? I am only 29... when did that become too old to make accomplishments? Why can't I make time? I need to be a better example to my children so they know how to create time for what is important. Why does money have to be a factor? There are so many ways to save money and create money if it is necessary. It could take time but if I was meant to do more God will find a way. Why am I not good enough? Who am I to judge myself when I know I was created to do great things?We need to stop making excuses for ourselves and embrace whatever comes at us. There is always a way.

As I came to these realizations about making excuses, I also realized that I actually like challenges! That is why I challenge myself to eating vegan for a week and the present clean eating challenge I am participating. I am also starting a reading and a few other challenges. Challenges should be an interchangeable word with GOAL. All of these things I have "challenged" myself and others to are just GOALS that I want to achieve. This is how I should view all the challenges in my life. No more excuses, just action and plans.

To accomplish the Challenges I participate and create planning is ALWAYS key! As I look back on the excuses I have been making for myself, I know that I never made a plan to succeed and that is where I will make big changes. Here are the steps I followed when starting my Clean Eating Challenge.

1. Accept the Challenge:

Clean Eating Challenge

2. Make a Plan:

Create Meal Plan and Schedule Grocery Shopping

3. Prepare

Prep Meals and Schedule Exercise Regiment and Place Challenge Reminders

4. Follow your Plan

Do not Create Excuses! Do not Deviate!

5. Succeed!

Complete the Challenge

These are simple steps and I have used them many times. I just need to be aware that these five simple steps can be utilized in any situation moving forward.

I recently came across a great quote on a Catholic Meme that said;
"How cool is it that the same God that created mountains and oceans and galaxies looked at you and thought the world needed one of you too."

What an amazingly true concept! We were made in his image and that is a fact that should be remembered frequently.

Menu Plan Monday: Clean Eating Challenge 6/27- 7/3

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I am so sorry I have been missing in action for awhile. This summer has been pretty crazy!

I think in honor of Menu Plan Monday we should have a Clean Eating Challenge! My friend Heather, who is super motivational, came up with the idea. She is also the one who started our Vegan for a Week Challenge not too long ago. I have to be honest. I have been FAILING with a lot of the things I wanted to accomplish this summer. These failures include (but are not limited to) keeping up with a healthy diet, exercise and keeping up with some educational activities for the boys. I think this Clean Eating Challenge will be a great way to get reorganized. I hope you decide to join me!

This challenge will only run Monday-Friday so here is my plan for the week. The recipes I used are included below.

Monday: 

Breakfast: Berry Banana Crockpot Oatmeal

Lunch: Three Bean Salad

Dinner: Leftover Chicken and Vegetable Quinoa (Sunday's Dinner)

Tuesday: Hubby's Birthday!

Breakfast: Leftover Berry Banana Crockpot Oatmeal

Lunch: Grilled Sausage with Three Bean Salad and Fresh fruit

Dinner: Ground Turkey with Lime and Black Bean Quinoa

Wednesday: 

Breakfast: Peanut Putter Banana Overnight Oats

Lunch: Avocado Tuna Salad Sandwich

Dinner: Ground Turkey Vegetable Stir fry and brown rice

Thursday:

Breakfast: Peanut Putter Banana Overnight Oats

Lunch: Avocado Tuna Salad Sandwich

Dinner: Hawaiian Chicken and Quinoa

Friday: 

Breakfast: Peanut Putter Banana Overnight Oats

Lunch: Garden Salad with Boiled eggs

Dinner: Spaghetti Squash with Marinara

**END OF CHALLENGE BUT I SUGGEST THAT YOU KEEP UP THE CLEAN EATING**

Saturday:

Breakfast: Biscuits with Turkey Sausage gravy

Lunch: Soup and sandwiches

Dinner: Leftover Surprise. 

Create something new from what is leftover from our dinner recipes

Sunday:

Breakfast: Protein Pancakes 

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Parmasean Chicken Pasta

Recipes:

Berry Banana Crockpot Oatmeal

2 cups oats

4 cups almond milk

2 cups fresh berries (I am using strawberries, blackberries and raspberries)

2 bananas sliced

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together inside a crockpot and set on low for 6-8 hours

Serve or place in container in refrigerator for up to a week.

Hawaiian Chicken and Quinoa

2 large chicken breast

2 cups pineapple 

1 large green pepper diced

1 large sweet onion diced

1/2 cup water or low sodium chicken broth

Add all ingredients except quinoa in the crockpot and cook on high 2-4 hours or low 6-8 hours. Remove chicken breast and shred, then return to the crockpot.

Cook quinoa (you can also use rice) separately and then serve Hawaiian Chicken on top. 

Ground Turkey with Lime and Black Bean Quinoa

1-1.5 lb of ground turkey

2 cups black beans

2 cups corn

1 large onion diced

1 cup diced tomato

1 cup green pepper diced

1 cup spinach

1 lime (squeezed for juice)

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp garlic 

pepper to taste

Brown ground turkey, drain and return to pan. Add onion, green pepper and all seasonings and sauté for 5-10 minutes. Combine the rest of the ingredients (including the juice from one lime) and let simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes. While browning the Ground turkey, prepare quinoa (according to instructions on package). After quinoa is prepared, add while turkey and vegetables are simmering and mix well. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Avocado Tuna Salad Sandwich

1 can tuna drained

1 avocado

1/4 cup red onion diced

1/4 cup green pepper diced

1/4 cup cucumber diced

1 lime (squeezed for juice)

pepper to taste

leaf lettuce

tomato sliced

wheat bread

Mash avocado to a creamy consistency and mix in tuna, onion, green pepper, cucumber and lime juice. Toast wheat bread and place leaf lettuce then avocado tuna mixture and top with 1-2 tomato slices. Sprinkle with pepper and top with second piece of toasted bread and Enjoy.

If you are interested in my Three Bean Salad or Peanut Butter Banana Overnight Oats recipes check out my Vegan for a Week post.  I changed it up bit and eliminated the apple and sweet seasonings and added diced yellow and red peppers with olive oil, lemon and Italian seasoning for this batch! Yummy!

I hope everyone is having an amazing summer thus far! I would love to hear about how you are celebrating the gorgeous weather with your families :)

***This is for the weekly linkup called Menu Plan Monday on I'm an Organizing Junkie and also for Let's Get Real Friday Party at Juggling Real Food and Real Life***

Colorado Rockies: Our First Baseball Game!

Through my youngest son's preschool program we were offered an amazing opportunity to purchase some Colorado Rockies baseball tickets for $5 a piece! We had to take advantage of the great offer and took the boys to their first professional baseball game. We all had a blast!