This Weekend and the Weekly Chase…

It was another super productive weekend!

On Saturday all of this happened…

So basically a lot of fun time with little man. He refused to look at me when I was taking his picture. We went on our weekly trip to Target and Clay got cute new shoes. He also fought sleep. A lot.

Sunday was also pretty awesome…

I found a new whole wheat pancake recipe so I had chocolate chip pancakes and Clay had his with blackberries on top. Clearly he enjoyed his. A beautiful run, delicious water, and amazing BBQ pizza (yum!). And Clay decided to help me with the laundry which meant him clapping for me and climbing on the clothes basket.

So on to the Weekly Chase…

This month my challenge goal has been to focus on becoming a healthier person, inside and out.

Let’s recap last week:

Read three chapters in the nutrition book I picked up.
err.

Stick to my meal plan and make sure I’m drinking enough water!
Done! And done! I’ve been putting lemon, strawberries, and spearmint from Bennie in a pitcher with water and it is delicious!

Work on my 20 mile goal!
Done! I ran three times this past week! I finally hit 50 miles for the year!

Me time AND Clay time.
Done! I got to enjoy a bubble bath and spend some time just playing with Clay. Both were amazing!

On the agenda for this week:

Read nutrition book.

Work on a rough meal plan for May.

Run at least 3 times.

Me time and Clay time.

I really need to focus on relaxing more! It’s just so hard when there’s always so much to do!

Good luck this week!

Love,
Jess

This Weekend and the Weekly Chase

I was super productive this weekend and I’m not really sure where it came from but I’m grateful!

On Saturday I actually planned out meals for the next two weeks:

Then went to Target with my little helper and attempted to shop for the next two weeks:

And on Sunday I made these:

Dark chocolate Guinness cookies…recipe coming soon!

So this weekend was pretty awesome.

Now on to the chase!

The challenge goal this month was to pick an area of your life that you wanted to grow in and work on it. This month I decided to work on being healthier person- inside and out! All of my goals this month have been related to that and pretty similar each week. Let’s see how I did!

Read the books on nutrition when I pick them up.
I just picked up the books yesterday but I read the intro to one last night!

Work on a shopping list & go this weekend.
I want to go through the recipes I want to make and go shopping this weekend for food to last til the end of the month. Obviously I’ll still have to make weekly trips for produce but I’m hoping this helps!
Done! The only things I’ll have to buy each with are smoothie supplies!

Work on my 20 mile goal.
I ran three times…unfortunately they were all in the 3/4-1 1/2 mile range; but I still did it!

Me time
Done! I took a bubble bath one night and spent some time reading this week- just reading! Not reading at swim lessons or reading while pumping!

This week I’m going to stick to the same(ish) goals:

Read three chapters in the nutrition book I picked up.

Stick to my meal plan and make sure I’m drinking enough water!

Work on my 20 mile goal!

Me time AND Clay time.

Have a great week and good luck to my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess

Weekly Chase

This is what my Sunday afternoon was like. It was glorious. I got amazing photos of the kiddo.

On to the chase!

The challenge this month is to focus on growing in some way. I’m going to focus on growing healthier. In order to better focus on this, all of my weekly chase goals will be related to this!

Here’s a recap of last week:

Go to the library and find books to read on nutrition.
Done! I had to put in a request for the two I wanted so hopefully I can pick them up soon!

Make Clay and I loose food plans for the month.
I’ve picked out five recipes for the rest of the month that I want to make. My plan is to sit down each Saturday and plan out the next week’s meals using a couple of the recipes. I’m hoping I can get four meals out of each, make Clay a few meals to freeze, and then just freeze what’s leftover (if any!). I’m trying to find more “Clay friendly” meals. At this point I’m willing to throw anything in the food processor, but there are still a few things off limits for Clay baby.

Run 20 miles this month.
I ran 4 in the past week Erk.

Take some time to myself everyday.
I did get to spend some time last week with Liz catching up on our favorite shows but some days it just didn’t happen.

This week my goals are pretty similar:

Read the books on nutrition when I pick them up.

Work on a shopping list & go this weekend.
I want to go through the recipes I want to make and go shopping this weekend for food to last til the end of the month. Obviously I’ll still have to make weekly trips for produce but I’m hoping this helps!

Work on my 20 mile goal.

Me time

Short and simple. Hopefully easy peasy!

Good luck to all of my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess

Weekly Chase

I promise I’m still here! The past couple of weeks have been crazy. We traveled to Tennessee this past weekend for Easter and it was such a nice break!

how adorable is that kid??

Gosh, I could spend all day posting photos of him but I’ll hold back (you really should go chek out my Facebook or Instagram page).

Let’s recap the chase from two weeks ago:

The March challenge goal was TO MAKE IT HAPPEN! Last month I focused on finishing up decorating and organizing my apartment.

Food
…look up baby food meat meals and make a shopping list of ingredients and plan my meals through Easter break.
Err. I kinda did that. We made it anyway. Haha.

Clay
Work on his room and getting the apartment baby proofed. He’s gonna be crawling soon! Yikes!
Not done at all.

Me
Take a nap and work on my blog!
50%. I napped. It’s a very distant memory now…

Fitness
Run three times (I’ve already missed one so I’m playing catch up) and do 4 planks.
Fail. I’ve ran once in the past two weeks. No excuses.

Work
Complete all my projects on my to do list this week!
Done!

Others
Send love to someone EVERYDAY this week. Text, card, phone call, present, anything to show I love them!
I did send out Easter cards with a picture of my sweet baby though 🙂

Home
*CHALLENGE GOAL*
Finish getting my room organized and the last few frames hung.
85% there. I’ve done all I can do without making trips to Lowes and Ikea so hopefully I’ll be done soon!

This week:

The challenge this month is to focus on growing in some way. I’m going to focus on growing healthier. In order to better focus on this, all of my weekly chase goals will be related to this!

Go to the library and find books to read on nutrition.
I have a fairly good grasp on healthy eating from working at the gym (and common sense), but I would really like to understand the whys instead of just knowing the whats.

Make Clay and I loose food plans for the month.
It’s getting way more difficult to plan out his meals (I planned the entire month of March in under 30 minutes) now that Clay has ventured past fruits and veggies. We have eggs and meats and yogurt and so many choices.

Run 20 miles this month.
I must do this!

Take some time to myself everyday.
Even if it’s just fifteen minutes it will be good for me to have some stress free time!

Hopefully I’ll do better this week!!

Good luck to all of my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess

Weekly Chase

I meant to do this yesterday but a really good book and sleep prevailed…

Let’s recap last week:

The March challenge goal is TO MAKE IT HAPPEN! This month I am going to focus on finishing up decorating and organizing my apartment.

Home
challenge goal
Dressers
I finished one before I ran out of paint, but it was the larger one so I got tons of clothes put away!

Clay
Read him at least one book a day.
Erk… We did get some good snuggle time in though!

Me
Bubble bath 🙂
done!

Fitness
Run 3 times this week and stretch!
I ran, but no stretching 😦

Work
Make the kids berry salsa.
This didn’t happen but we did attempt healthy mozzarella sticks yesterday. I say attempt because it turns out that the bread crumbs had grown bugs (ewwwwwww) so Zoe decided she was going to make her own breadcrumbs… Haha. At least we had fun!

Food
Make at least three new foods for Clay and one new meal for me.
Done! Corn, raspberries, blackberries, and a taco bowl!

Others
Surprise someone with something this week! I’m not sure what yet but I’ll know when the time comes!
Done! I left Mike a Guinness from Clay and me for St. Paddy’s Day!

This week I will…

Food
…look up baby food meat meals and make a shopping list of ingredients and plan my meals through Easter break.

Clay
Work on his room and getting the apartment baby proofed. He’s gonna be crawling soon! Yikes!

Me
Take a nap and work on my blog!

Fitness
Run three times (I’ve already missed one so I’m playing catch up) and do 4 planks.

Work
Complete all my projects on my to do list this week!

Others
Send love to someone EVERYDAY this week. Text, card, phone call, present, anything to show I love them!

Home
*CHALLENGE GOAL*
Finish getting my room organized and the last few frames hung.

I’ve got this, right???

Good luck to all of my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess

Weekly Chase

Okay, you’re Monday is better now, right?

There have definitely been moments of overwhelming frustration during this past week but I’m pretty happy with everything that I accomplished!

Let’s recap last week:

The March challenge goal is TO MAKE IT HAPPEN! This month I am going to focus on finishing up decorating and organizing my apartment.

Home
*challenge goal*
This week I’m going to focus on getting all of my frames hung and on getting at least one of my dressers painted.
I got several pictures hung and I’m halfway done with both dressers so that counts, right?

Clay
Finish organizing Clay’s closet and make sure I’m giving him plenty of cuddle time!
I didn’t get around to his closet but we definitely cuddled lots!

Me
Make sure I’m getting rest! Sometimes I just need to learn to leave the mess and go to bed.
I did this, but then I felt guilty But in other news, I bought myself pretty flowers!

Fitness
Run 3 times this week.
Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! I did it! And as my reward I get to buy a song off ITunes 🙂 I even ran 3.75 miles straight! Without stopping!

Food
Make a meal plan.
Well, I decided to have some version of a taco bowl the week so I’ll count it as a loose meal plan.

Others
Distribute brownies and mail cards.
Check! I took part of the brownies (recipe here!) to Clay’s daycare teachers with thank you notes and part of them went to friends! I also got my cards mailed on Friday!

This week

I’m going to (hopefully) keep it pretty simple this week…

Home
challenge goal
Finish dressers and get my clothes put away! Finally!

Clay
Read him at least one book a day.

Me
Bubble bath 🙂

Fitness
Run 3 times this week and stretch!

Work
Make the kids berry salsa.

Food
Make at least three new foods for Clay and one new meal for me.

Others
Surprise someone with something this week! I’m not sure what yet but I’ll know when the time comes!

Good luck to all of my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess

Weekly Chase

Another Monday… This past week was CRAZY! I took Clay to the doctor for a cough on Wednesday and found out he had RSV AND an ear infection (his first one). We had no clue…he wasn’t tugging at his ear, no fever, no fussiness. All I can say is I have been blessed with a kid who is still happy even when he’s sick.

My mom and aunt came to visit this past weekend so things were a bit hectic but they helped me get SO much done! Plus, I don’t think I changed a single diaper on Saturday 🙂

Let’s recap last week:

Clay
Finish going through Clay’s closet and spend more time cuddling.
Done! Thanks to my Aunt Doris and mom Clay’s closet is 95% done. All I have to do is hang the clothes in my OCD manner and it will be done! And I got to spend some time cuddling with my baby although my mom and aunt pretty much monopolized him this weekend…

Me
Buy myself flowers.
Eek…this week.

Work
Make Z&Z a special snack.
So the planned snacks didn’t happen but I did make Salted Caramel Brownies (look for the recipe on Wednesday) yesterday and bring them each one today 🙂

Home
Get closet/office usable
80% done! Again, thanks to my Aunt and mom! I’m so excited about this room now that I can actually use it!

Fitness
Register for the Thunder Road Half in November. And focus on getting up to running 5k without stopping.
Done and done! I registered on Wednesday for the Half (eeeeeeeeeeeeek) and accidentally ran 5k on Wednesday without stopping! Haha. Liz and I went for a run on Wednesday and she thought that the path we were taking looped around…well, it didn’t so we turned around when we got to the dead end (which was at the top of a monster hill) and our run ended up being 3.1 miles! Woot!

Food
Make new foods for Clay
So…I didn’t do this but it’s on the agenda for tomorrow. Plus I bought 4 new foods!

Others
It’s a secret 🙂
Done! I made my mom and aunt “Thanks for Visiting” bags (I think this may be a tradition for guests…). In a sweet Target canvas bag I put: favorite snacks, a framed picture of Clay, and a new water cup.

On to this week…

The March challenge goal is TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

This month I am going to focus on finishing up decorating and organizing my apartment. We moved in at the beginning of December so it’s WAY past time that this gets done.

Home
*challenge goal*
This week I’m going to focus on getting all of my frames hung and on getting at least one of my dressers painted.

Clay
Finish organizing Clay’s closet and make sure I’m giving him plenty of cuddle time!

Me
Make sure I’m getting rest! Sometimes I just need to learn to leave the mess and go to bed.

Fitness
Run 3 times this week. I feel like things are always coming up and causing me to miss my run. So while this is a goal, I’m also not going to beat myself up if I don’t do it. Babies get sick, weather is crappy sometimes, and work schedules change.

Food
Right now I have a ton of leftovers from my family’s visit, but when they are gone I want to sit down and make a loose meal plan for the month that includes two new recipes.

Others
I know that the February challenge is over but I still want to try to continue to do something for others each week. This week I’m distributing the mouth watering Salted Caramel Brownies I made plus I have a couple of cards to mail!

Good luck to all of my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess

Weekly Chase

Recap of last week:

1. Run, run, run & add workouts!
One run The weather this weekend was yucky and I didn’t want to drag Clay out in it.

2. Get our morning routine to under two hours.
I somehow got ready in under two hours but I still want our mornings to have more organization.

3. Water!
Err…I drank a lot but didn’t record it…

4. Get caught up on laundry and not let it get out of control.
Does it count if I got caught up last night? I think so!

5. Complete the Flat Stanley I got and mail it back.
Done! I can’t wait to write a post about this!

6. Do something nice for someone.
So I attempted to make Clay’s daycare teachers cookies, but I burnt them. So I ate them all myself. Sigh. BUT I did still take them cute notepads and Valentine’s from Clay. AND I mailed out several cards on Saturday!

7. Keep up with posting on a regular basis.
Yay! I did this! Check out my posts from last week!

8. Read to Clay everyday!
This is still pretty sporadic. We have a very loose bedtime routine because sometimes Mike puts him down and sometimes I do.

Overall I think I did fairly well. I at least did part of all of my goals!

This week:

Instead of being off the wall with my goals I’m going to focus on one goal from each “area” of my life.

Clay
Take Clay to yoga on Wednesday! I bought a package of classes a month ago and need to start using them!

Me
Take a bubble bath! I’ve decided this should be a weekly requirement for mommys!

Work
Get to work at 8 on Tuesday and Thursday so I can work short days Wednesday and Friday.

Home
Clean off my dining room table! It sets right as you walk in the door and has unfortunately become a dumping ground for mail, projects, etc.

Fitness
Run three times and do at least one Nike workout.

Food
Make Clay more baby food and breakfast burritos for me to freeze 🙂

Others
I have a few ideas for some things to do…I’ll let you know next week how they work!

Good luck to all of my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess

Weekly Chase

Recap of last week:

1. Get in at least three runs!
I went running on Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, AND Saturday! Bam! Plus I’m up to running 1.5 without stopping and I have my mile down to 12:13!

2. Bubble bath.
I actually took two. The first one was only fifteen minutes long before it was interrupted. The second was much longer and involved a glass of wine. Success!

3. Actually work on scrapbooks and organize photos.

4. Make Clay’s fruits this weekend.
Done. Well, sorta. I made applesauce and bananas. The will definitely be on the list again next weekend.

5. Make sure I’m drinking enough water.
I did fairly well with this but definitely feel as though there is room for improvement!

6. Think of ideas for spreading love this month.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh.

7. Stick to the schedule I made for this week!
I did really well, except for taking Clay to yoga. It’s only offered two days a week and it’s hard to work it in with everything else.

8. Make a list of post ideas for my blog and write some of them!
Done! Check out my other posts from last week!

…and this week I will:

1. Run, run, run & add workouts!
Now that I’ve got the running thing down I would like to add some workouts to my routine. Liz and I tried one of the Nike Training Club workouts before our run yesterday. Bad idea. I’ll add them to my non-running days. My goal is to lose 5 more pounds to get back to my prepregnancy weight before Clay’s 6 month birthday. I only have a little over 2 weeks! Eek!

2. Get our morning routine to under two hours.
No matter how much prep work I do the night before it still takes at least 2 1/2 hours for us to get out of the house after waking up. Even if it takes writing everything down in detail I have to improve on this!

3. Water!
I want to start keeping track of my water to make sure I’m getting enough!

4. Get caught up on laundry and not let it get out of control.
I have a 5 month old. Enough said. Hahaha.

5. Complete the Flat Stanley I got and mail it back.
I recently received a Flat Stanley in the mail and I need to get it sent back! I’ll be writing a blog post soon about this.

6. Do something nice for someone.
I’m REALLY struggling with this one…

7. Keep up with posting on a regular basis.
I did great with this last week and want to keep it up!

8. Read to Clay everyday!
I think it is SO important to foster a love of reading when kids are young and I hope that Clay enjoys reading as much as I do.

Wow. Eight goals again…sheesh!

As always, good luck to all of my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess

Weekly Chase

Recap of last week:

1. Rest
Sorta. I feel back to normal and I even ran a mile without stopping on Friday for the first time ever!

2. Take a bubble bath
This week!

3. Make skillet lasagna
Done! Check out my Food Friday post!

4. Spend at least an hour working on my maternity scrapbook for Clay and his baby book!
This week!

5. Decide which photos I want to print out to frame.
Halfway done! I even ordered the ones for the hallway already!

On to this week…

1. Get in at least three runs!
I am going to do this this week! The forecast looks good, the times have been planned, and I’m determined to go a quarter of a mile longer each time.

2. Bubble bath.
I can’t wait!

3. Actually work on scrapbooks and organize photos.

4. Make Clay’s fruits this weekend.
Now that I have a freezer full of veggies (that he loves!), I need to make some fruits and freeze them.

5. Make sure I’m drinking enough water.
My milk supply has plummeted and I’m fairly certain the culprit is not enough water. This is unacceptable and must be fixed.

6. Think of ideas for spreading love this month.
I’m at a loss for ideas…

7. Stick to the schedule I made for this week!
Including taking Clay to baby yoga! I’m so pumped!

8. Make a list of post ideas for my blog and write some of them!
I still haven’t blogged about my race in December!

I’ll stop now before I get too crazy.

As always, good luck to all of my fellow chasers!

Love,
Jess