New Girl in Half Training!

I've been bitten by the running bug, oh yes, it's true. My original bite happened last year in Hawaii and lead to me completing the 8 mile Great Aloha Run.

It was so exhilarating to see the finish after my longest run to date.

I spent so much time getting psyched up for countless 5K and 10K races, because it had honestly become one of my favorite social activities. Every time I completed a race I felt a beautiful sense of accomplishment. I would think "I just did this, what can I do next?" 

How fantastic is it that we can feel accomplished together? There must be a saying about the "couple that runs together"...

Well now I've been bitten by an even bigger running bug, the half marathon bug. It all came about after I decided to sign up for a trio of 5Ks in March. Husband said "why not? we get a cool clover medal!"

Ok, I give him credit, that is pretty darn cool.

Last night he finally convinced me to run my first half marathon. I will be running the Surftown half in Westerly, RI in September. How can you beat beautiful beach views and then free admission to the Fall Festival? This is also the week before my vow renewal, so extra cool that I will have finished my first half just before. So I've decided I'm all in! Time to get my base runs in and begin training. 

Yay for new running shoes!

What is your favorite part about training for a big run? Least favorite? 

Real Talk: Job Hunting and Resume Writing

Do you ever feel like you're a perpetual teenager and you still look up to parents/older relatives as adults? I feel that way sometimes, and then I remind myself "Hey, you're a mom and wife. You take care of adult business on the daily, you've earned this title".

I think one of the biggest things that has held me back from owning it is my lack of career. It's been almost a year since I graduated and I have yet to step into a job in my field. This is something I feel like I always come back to in my blog writing. I just have this certain feeling of inadequacy because I have yet to have a real full time job. 

Last night, my friend Amanda and I got to chatting over wine and the conversation veered toward my career based insecurities. I know the biggest thing that's been holding me back is my lack of resume and cover letter writing skills. I had a few people offer me help post graduation in this area, and I've kind of just been too chicken to do so. I explained to Amanda that I was embarrassed by my resume, to put it simply. She reassured me that no one has a fantastic resume to start but we could work it out together. Her empathy toward my situation really made me feel so much better!

So now, one of my main goals is to have a job by year end. I think that's realistic based on what Amanda and other friends have said about the job hunt. I really thought it was my level of inexperience and just my junk resume. I now know that at least one of those things is untrue.

What is the best advice you've been given about job hunting?

Princess Evie Bear: Fun, Crafts, and Potty Training

In less than 2 months Evie will be 3 years old, I can hardly believe it. She has become such an individual within the last year. Her favorite color is pink and she loves a good princess dress.

Her favorite song is "Roar" by Katy Perry because she loves the part where it goes "roar-or-or-orrrr!"
Being the mommy to such a personality filled little girl has it's ups and downs. The ups as of recently have been being able to enjoy certain holidays and activities with E.

We had crazy amounts of fun putting sprinkles all over cupcakes for Daddy. She really focuses when she's doing something creative, and that makes me so happy.

Now we're finally battling the potty! I've been blogging about hoping that she would start, and she did, but it has been a bumpy start. We tried to put her in big girl underwear and she just peed in them and didn't care. Her pullups are a different story, because she has to throw them away when she soils them, and you can tell it bugs her. 

She started out really well as you can tell from her potty chart.

Now we're just dealing with the defiant toddler attitude. It makes me wonder if she's really ready, but it seems kind of silly to give up now. 

Regardless of that, I'm still enjoying getting to know this awesome little person. :)

-Lindsey

Getting my sh@# together: Happiness Project Update

The Happiness Project has been a pretty successful thing for me. I've made it a point to keep the guidelines pretty loose, it seems to make little sense to stress over something that's supposed to do the opposite.
My healthy lifestyle changes have really set a positive vibe to my days. I've made it a point to workout every other day for the  last couple of weeks. I've also kicked my really bad soda habit, I've become a junky for lemon water. As my friend Jen says "Well, you'll never get scurvy!" :)
In all of these efforts I've managed to up my energy levels and lose 3 lbs! I know, it doesn't sound like a lot, but it is a healthy weight loss for a two week period of time.

Blogilates has become a staple in my day to day routine. All I've needed for these workouts was a yoga mat, a set of hand weights, and a bottle of water. The daily workout calendar sets you up with FREE workout videos that add up to about an hour of pilates. They are really awesome strength type workouts. I always feel amazing when I've finished.

I'm also making strides in my career related stuff. I've gotten back into my element with art and I'm going to start teaching painting parties with Art In Disguise next month.

I've also decided to start work on a new series of art. Thanks to Mommaste's Monday Mantra for reminding me that I can make this happen. 

What types of things keep you motivated? Still feeling like you're living the new year to it's fullest advantage?

-Lindsey

Evie's Craft Week #1

This is our first week of doing a regular craft with Evie. Since her daddy is away and will be returning right before Valentine's day we decided on a gift for him. We got on Pinterest and found lots of fun ways to use finger paints to make V-day themed gifts.

First Evie got to do some free painting. She loves talking about different colors. After she painted a little bit she asked me to wipe her hands. Regardless of how messy she gets Evie is always asking to have her hands wiped off.

This told me the next thing that we planned to do would be pretty entertaining. I covered her hands and feet in red paint. Evie went into fits of giggles over her crazy mama painting her toes and fingers.

Once she was finished she was so ready to get cleaned up!

Which is why we chose to do this activity right before bubble bath time!

This was the finished product! A sweet Valentine to give to Daddy. :)

Check back next week to see what kind of fun craft Evie and I decide to do together. We're planning to try to do one every Sunday! 

-Lindsey and Evie

Wheat Bread 101 or How I Wasted Tons of Active Yeast and Wheat Flour

I spent no less than 3 days trying to bake the perfect loaf of wheat bread this week. I'm talking fluffy sandwich wheat, not dense brick loaf. I made four attempts before deciding that my last loaf was edible and not too offensive.
Here are the things I learned about baking wheat bread:
1.How to use yeast-Um, so this wasn't brand new to me, but I definitely used YouTube to look up a video on how to proof yeast.

Very informative, and I managed to not murder more than one packet of yeast.

2.No one uses just wheat flour in their bread-This is where the density of the bread can really go one way or the other. I thought I was being super healthy and awesome only using wheat flour. Yeah, if you want a heavy old doorstop that totally works.

The reason that this doesn't work out so well is that the bread needs the gluten found in the regular white flour to get that rise and fluff. Before you go all gung ho gluten free speech on me, don't. I don't have any gluten sensitivities and I don't feel the need to exclude it from my diet. That's why my new best friend is this stuff.

Vital wheat gluten is there to help give the bread more of the sandwich soft bread texture. It definitely helped with the density issue.

3.My awesome husband told me that a good bread dough should be sticky. Meaning, if it's dry and flaky like my batch #3 then it's back to the drawing board. 

While I did deem loaf #4 acceptable I'm not confident in it enough to share a recipe, but I'm gonna work on it! In my next attempt I'm going to substitute one cup of the wheat flour for a different type of flour. Do you have any suggestions for a different type? The recipe suggested potato flour but that is not sold in my regular grocery store.

Let me know any bread baking tips you have!

-Lindsey