We're Back!!!

When I realized I was the only one in the family who was sticking to our Sunday Blogging project, I decided to bring mine to a screeching halt as well. It's not so fun blogging alone. 

But now we're back and let's see if we can beat our previous Sunday Blogging streak, which didn't last too long, so it should be a breeze to beat but we're heading into the big holiday season and the start of some home renovations  so who knows how distracted we'll all become as the fun begins.  

I enjoy crafting run-on sentences. 

Girls on the Run: No Nonsense Nelly

Girls on the Run Lesson 4 about Positive Self-Talk came out of nowhere. We needed a decorated No Nonsense Nelly box for the Warm Up.

I reviewed the day's lesson that afternoon and had only a couple hours or less to come up with a decorated No Nonsense Nelly box.

Once I found an appropriate box, an old dog biscuit container, I was able to quickly find supplies we had in our home craft closet to create Nelly. She was much easier to make than I expected. Here's a pic of her. She even had a curly tail!

No Nonsense Nelly

It's all in the eyebrows!

What a shame to let her go to waste, so at the end of our following lesson, I brought back Nelly, changed her name to Nelly Nelly Fortune Telly and filled with lots of silly fortunes, some that I found online and some I created, and shared them with the girls. Nelly was then handed off to a GOTR participant to take home for a makeover and a refill of more fun surprises!

We are looking forward to meeting the new and improved Nelly!

Here are a few of the fortunes that were printed onto white paper and cut like fortune cookie fortunes:

You are fantastic inside and out.

Your smile is like the beautiful warm sunshine.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.                       

Express yourself and don’t hold back.              

How to be wise: Listen with your ears and not your mouth.

Your dearest wish will come true.

Your smile brings happiness to everyone you meet.

Soon, you will be a day older.

True wisdom is found in happiness.

Good things take time.

If you don’t give anything, you won’t get anything.

Two small jumps are sometimes better than one big leap.

A pleasant experience is ahead; don’t pass it by.

If you have a dream, it is probably time to go to bed.

Everything is awesome; everything is cool when you’re part of a team.

If everyone is a worm, you are a glow worm.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.

Today is the tomorrow we waited for yesterday.

You love peace.

Being happy is not always being perfect.

Be true to your teeth or your teeth will be false to you.

Sunday funday

I started my day sweating at hot yoga. There were 5 other RunBuds there. It was the first time for Gloria and her first words were, "it's hot in here". It was kinda obvious and to that, I had no response!

The weather was sunny and warmish (hi 60's-70) and the family headed to the mall with our bikes in the cars.  We had a quick lunch at CPK then hit the trail from the mall to check out the new i40 bridge. It was a beauty of a day on the trail. Lots of people were out and I think most were out enjoying the new part of the trail.  they did a good job with that end of the trail near the mall. We only rode about 2 miles. The funny part was when we rode past a girl walking a piglet! No leash, it was just bopping behind her. White with black spots.

The Bestest Vegan Coconut Banana Bread Muffins

Here's a recipe I tried today for by far, THE BEST Vegan Coconut Muffins and Vegan Coconut Bread.
The muffins will work perfectly when the kids want a snack and I'm feeling too lazy to get up off my chair to slice and plate banana bread ;)


Ingredients

WET:
1 cup coconut oil in liquified form
4 large ripe bananas
1 cup organic coconut nectar sugar
1/4 cup organic cane sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 egg substitute of choice (flax/water or Energ)

DRY:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

OPTIONAL ADD-INS:
1/4 c pecan pieces
3/4 c chocolate chips
1/2 c shredded unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven 375 and grease either 2 loaf pans or muffin tins.
In large bowl, combine WET ingredients and beat until creamy.

Add flour, baking powder and salt, beat at low speed for a minute until the batter is creamy. Fold in any optional ingredients. Pour into prepared pans.

Check muffins in 35 minutes and loaf pans in 40 minutes with toothpick.

Week 3 of Family Blogging Challenge

It's crazy how quickly 3 weeks fly by!
The kids had 2 1/2 snow days last week. Their Headmaster's snow closing announcement video http://youtube/HhtqjdUi0nw had over 4 million views! It was featured on lots of TV shows and we even happened to see it on a random show in the middle of the day Saturday!
Tomorrow, we get back to the old routine, and that will be nice, although the 4 1/2 day vaca was fun.

This morning, I went to my 2nd hot yoga class and sweat my face off.  Tyler very quickly beat me in a TrivialPursuit a few minutes ago. I have been lazy and eating everything not nailed down for he past 5 days! See you next week!

A Week of Firsts

This week was a great workout week for me!
Monday I ran with my RunBuds about 3 miles, I think.

Thursday I tried Zumba for the first time and really didn't like it. I nearly walked out a few seconds into it, but forced myself to stay a few seconds longer. Then my friend, Angie showed up so I felt I was forced to stay the entire HOUR of torture. I was laughing the entire time because I felt so ridiculous.
I learned that I'm neither coordinated, graceful, nor flexible.   But for some reason, I promised Angie I'd do Zumba with her again.

After Zumba, we walked 2 miles on the treadmill.

Friday was my first ever hot yoga class. That, I LOVED.  I am already hooked and can't wait to have that experience again. Last summer after a 5 mile race in humid June, a running buddy commented that I wasn't even sweating. I've thought about that a lot since then. I read online somewhere about someone who, like me, was not a big sweater. She claims her body had to learn to sweat by being exposed to saunas and hot tubs.  I really want to teach my body to sweat more too. The toxins need to flow out of me.

Saturday I ran 4 miles (approx 45 min) with RunBuds. They pushed me a bit faster than I was used to but I remembered Tony Horton's recent quote about constantly pushing yourself harder to improve your strength and endurance. So I pushed ahead, and sweated.
👇

One key aspect of the laws of life as perceived by Tony: Push yourself beyond what you think you can achieve when it comes to exercise and endurance.

“If you don’t focus on getting a little bit better at things, then eventually even people who exercise on a regular basis will see their range of motion decrease and their endurance decrease and their strength and muscle tone decrease,” cautions Tony.

Great Easy, Healthier Flourless Brownies

Last night we made these Almond Butter Brownies. They were SO simple and needed  no flour. I had serious doubts about the results because the recipe seemed to be missing several ingredients but nope, they were incredible.

The only changes for us were using chocolate chips rather than chunks and using a mix of sunflower butter and almond butter.  The texture is better (less crumbly) once they cool.

I'll rate this recipe a KEEPER.

 Food Babe’s Almond Butter Brownies

Print

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

30 mins

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Gluten Free

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1 cup almond butter
• 2 tbsp flaxseed + 3 tbsp water or 1 egg
• ½ tsp sea salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ cup of coconut palm sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ½ cup of “Enjoy Life” mega chocolate chunks

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease a small dish (8×8 or 8×6) thorougly or line bottom of dish with parchment paper (parchment is best)
3. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chunks until smooth
4. Fold in chocolate chunks and pour batter into pan
5. Bake brownies until golden dark brown – about 25 mins
6. Cool brownies for at least 10 mins before cutting

Notes

Please use all organic ingredients if possible It’s very important to use big chucks of chocolate They freeze nicely

Family Blogging Challenge!

Okay, so  9 1/2 year old TBone and I agreed our whole family should take up blogging. What a nice Sunday morning activity as we sit in pjs with our morning tea and pancakes.  He is proposing the idea to them as I type. As we predicted, CBug is resisting, but we'll work on her.
There, that's my first Sunday morning blog entry, see how easy?!

Illuminated Nightstand DIY

Simple DIY idea: a fiberglass planter turned upside down with a hole drilled through the back and a light fed through.
Posted by curbly.com.

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins

Holy Cow, doughnut muffins - muffins made to taste like your favorite doughnut warm from the oven! So glad the kids were there to stop me from eating ALL of these myself!


I was all set to make these babies, the Glazed Doughnut Muffins (aren't they just yummiful?)

but it was getting late so I decided to go with the Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins

because the recipe looked to be a bit less complicated.

We *never* get to eat donuts because C has an allergy to eggs. She's never had a donut so these muffins at least give her an idea how yummy cinnamon sugar donuts taste.

Ener-G egg replacer, Whole Wheat Flour (3/4 c), Organic Rice Milk and Earth Balance vegan butter were all perfectly fine substitutes; and you can use the healthy sweetener of our choice as a refined sugar substitute.I used mini muffin tins (to aid in portion control) and baked for about 14 minutes. They were in-credible! I highly recommend.  I can't wait to try the Glazed and will post results when I do!

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins

(Adapted from Muffin Mania)

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup oil (or melted butter)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk

For the coating:

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In another bowl whisk together oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Divide the batter among a 12-cup silicon muffin pans if you have them. Otherwise, divide batter into 12 thoroughly greased muffin cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Combine sugar and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. Shake muffins out immediately and while hot, dip in melted butter, then roll in sugar and cinnamon.

Itty Bitty Kitty Shoes

Would LOVE to have Mom & Daughter matching Hello Kitty Vans!

That Summer Glow

Stumbling upon the Solar Powered Fireflies in a jar led me to lots of  beautiful pics of glowy lights.
Some are DIY that I'd love to try myself. Here are just a few for your viewing pleasure.

My 7 year old son loves origami and has made a "water bomb". Here is a neat take on the water bomb. Simply insert stringed lights (sans water) into the water bombs!  Isn't that a beautiful glow? I can picture this hanging from the deck umbrella or inside our screened in porch on a warm summer night.

Click here for the tutorial.

I'm Very Pinterested!

So I joined Pinterest today and quickly became obsessed with pinning the objects of my desires.

My DIY board that represents projects I'd like to tackle someday is, so far, the board that holds the majority of the pics!  Hopefully within a year or so, my "Crap I've Made" board will  hold the majority!

Here's a new one I found today. Click here for the tutorial.

What happened to the good old days?

 Solar Powered Fireflies in a jar 

Wouldn't these be beautiful on summer evenings hanging under the tree? I can just picture my 5 year old daughter bringing this jar up to her room at nights as a night light.
But what happened? Isn't it sad that the firefly population has dwindled since we were kids? Or is it that we are so technologically advanced now that our kids can't imagine running outside barefoot after a long day of summer play to catch lightening bugs in a jar?
I hope its neither and that this is just the adorable magic lamp that the manufacturer says it is!
Find yours here.

Next post, I'll cover this awesome, cruelty free Butterfly in a Jar!

My First Post

What fun, my very first post!