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Hi friends! It has been a snow and ice-filled week over here… the kids were off school on Tuesday for a snow day, and there was a 2 hour delay on Wednesday. The kids loved playing in the snow!
We’ve also unfortunately had some sickness rolling through the house lately – last week Wes was sick for a day, then Matt was sick on Monday/Tuesday, and then Riese was home sick on Wednesday! Oof. So much laundry… (it involved vomiting – the worst).
Here’s hoping I don’t come down with it… after being sick basically all fall I’ve been really prioritizing sleep so far in 2024 (in case you missed it, check out my 2024 Word of the Year post, which is related to that!), and know that will only help me. Fingers crossed!
Prioritizing sleep has meant not doing my twice per week 6am hot power yoga classes anymore, which is a huge bummer as I love them but I was noticing they were REALLY leaving me feeling depleted the rest of the day. So… taking it as a cue to slow down and embrace a lower-key lunchtime class when my work schedule allows instead.
I’ve had some good runs lately, though (pre-snow and ice, that is) – I typically run once or twice a week right after dropping the kids off at school which is really nice because then I don’t need to run early/in the dark (I know I’m super lucky my work flexibility allows this!).
I’m keeping the runs short (2-3 miles) and easy pace-wise and that feels good right now! I have two mom friends from school I run with most weeks so that’s fun to have the company, but I’ve done some solo runs lately, too.
Anyway! Thankfully everyone was healthy last Saturday, though, because we had a really exciting adventure: Matt and I took Riese to see Frozen Live at the Kennedy Center! Riese LOVED it and we both really enjoyed it, too. Wes was very displeased to stay home with a babysitter (it was over his nap time, and also there’s no way he would have stayed still/not tried to run off mid-performance).
It was a pretty day on Saturday so we took in the views of the Potomac River and Georgetown from the Kennedy Center outdoor area post-show! Riese loved her big girl adventure with us in the city.
Matt and I have had some fun adventures on our own lately, too. For Christmas, instead of giving each other gifts, we each planned out one month of weekly date nights. Matt planned January dates and I took February, and we’ve had some fun dates so far! (We had to miss our date last week when Wes was sick, but thankfully we didn’t have anything big planned that night that couldn’t easily be rescheduled.)
Earlier this month one of our dates was to play racquetball at the local community center before dinner, which was SO much fun. It’s such a ridiculous and fast paced game with the ball bouncing all over the place it was hard to not laugh the whole time! It was really nice way to do something playful and silly together, especially since so often our interactions are related to planning/logistics around kid stuff, which is not playful or silly at all… 😉
This week, our date night was going to see a Beatles tribute band at the Birchmere theater! The band was awesome and we had a lot of fun, although we were the youngest ones there by about 30 years. 😉
Hot tip for fellow parents: have your kids ever watched Beat Bugs? It’s really cute, and every episode is created around a Beatles song! It’s gotten Riese into Beatles music which is a vast improvement from her typical music choices… (My Little Pony, etc.)
Anyway! Matt and I have some really fun date nights planned in the coming weeks… I’ll report back with our favorites after the fact.
And now, on to the food! With people in the house being sick on and off, we’ve been eating a lot of soup lately. Pictured below was a variation on chicken pozole soup to which I added chickpeas – it was quite yummy. The kids didn’t eat it, but Matt and I liked it. Riese is really into Italian wedding soup or tomato soup, so she had a lot of that this week (store bought).
I’ve been craving my old fave White Chicken Chili Soup lately (it’s made with hummus to make it creamy, which is a great addition to soup)… might make that this weekend!
I’ve also been loving roasted veggies on salads, like squash and brussels sprouts. Mmmm.
Below was a massaged kale salad topped with barley, the roasted veggies pictured above, and my super easy baked salmon with lemon. Plus this homemade lemon vinaigrette made with apple cider vinegar instead of balsamic vinegar.
Another thing I made a big batch of recently was an orzo salad. I threw in tomato, raw diced zucchini, olives, microgreens, and chicken and again tossed it in a variation of my lemon vinaigrette. It was yummy and super simple!
The kids didn’t eat it of course but in anticipation of that I had set aside some of the orzo which they either enjoyed plain (Wes) or topped with grated parmesan (Riese).
And that’s all I have for you today. Have a wonderful weekend, friends! .
p.s. Before I go, I wanted to mention that if you’re a fan of email newsletters, I’d love if you signed up for mine! I have two options – a weekly digest email that goes out on Fridays and shares links to my blog posts from the week, plus a daily option that goes out on days I publish a new post with a notification and link to read. There’s a sign up form below, titled “join the list”.
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