Recently and Thinking Out Loud #18

It's a little late but Happy New Year! I hope you had a terrific time ringing in the New Year with friends, family, or whoever you celebrated with🎉 The last few months of 2016 were incredibly busy and stressful so I'm hoping 2017 will be better. I haven't had time to do anything so I'm going to combine this post to make it a thinking out loud and recently and I'm hoping next week I can get some new recipes up. I'll try not to drone on too long so let's go!

1. First things first thank you so much for all the comments, messages, emails, etc. with support and prayers for my dad. He spent the week following Christmas in the ICU at the hospital but is now home and doing better. It's been an incredibly stressful few months for all of us so I'm hoping that that was the last of the hospital visits for a very long time. 

2. The week after Christmas was also stressful because I had committed to babysitting a month prior and I couldn't cancel on the mom two days beforehand. I spent three very long days babysitting and afterward would run up to the hospital to spend time with my dad and then turn around and do it all again the next day. By the end of the week I was exhausted but I was able to keep the kids entertained with building forts, playing with legos and playdoh, we took a trip to the library and the movies, and even baked some brownies. Kids are HARD work and while I never want kids of my own I enjoyed how unfiltered the kids were. They said exactly what they thought because they were too young to know any different, it made for some interesting comments😂

3. One of the days I babysat I took the kiddos to a trampoline park and holy smokes those things are so dangerous! I've been to a SkyZone before and felt very safe because only one person could jump per square, everyone was separated by age, and they were very strict about enforcing the rules. This park was totally different and it was chaos! Kids and adults were jumping together, everyone was running all over, and basically there were no rules. I thought I was going to have a hernia making sure the kids were safe. I was fairly relieved when they tuckered out before their jump time was over because I was able to get them out of the mayhem in one piece and I felt my blood pressure drop significantly. 

4. On one of our excursions I took the kids to the library and they each picked out a number of books. The youngest picked a booked that had all sorts of animals kissing and it was cute. She informed me that kissing was gross and boys had cooties😂 I had to suppress my laughter. I'm guessing in 10 or so years her opinion will change- much to her parents dismay.

5. Friday morning I had to be over to watch the kids by 6:30am so that left me with little time for anything. I still managed to get a six mile run in before heading out the door to babysit. Luckily I had a Bob's Red Mill oatmeal cup leftover from traveling over the summer so I packed it with some cut up fruit to have once I got to the house. The to go cups are seriously the easiest thing ever because all you have to do is add hot water and let it sit for a few minutes. I heated water up in the microwave, let the oats sit, and breakfast was ready in under 5 minutes. It was also the first meal I was able to eat without getting up every minute because one of the kids needed somethings because the kids weren't up yet.

6. The kids didn't get up until well after 9!! I guess they were really tired from the trampoline park and going to the movies the day before. I had almost three hours of quiet, but luckily I had brought the new Nicholas Sparks book my parents had gotten me for Christmas. I had taken it to the hospital but I never got a chance to start it because there was too much going on to get a chance to just sit and read. I got a good chunk of the book done by the time the kids did get up. Maybe it's just me but I always get so emotionally involved in his books, which anyone who knows me finds hilarious because I cannot stand romantic movies or anything like that. But give me a Nicholas Sparks book and I cannot put it down. Strange I know, but it's a fantastic book and I highly recommend it!

7. Over the weekend I finished the book, basically I couldn't put it down and I stayed up WAY too late reading😁 I really, really liked it and it's probably one of my favorites by Nicholas Sparks but I think his writing has changed since he got divorced. Maybe I'm overthinking everything but his style of writing and his characters have definitely changed in the last 5 years. It's not a bad thing, in fact I think his last two books are fantastic but it's noticeably different from his early stuff like The Notebook. 

8. Meal prep was the only reason I survived last week and I got a decent amount of questions about what I had. I had turkey zucchini meatballs, roasted brussels sprouts and tomatoes, bean and quinoa noodles (allergen friendly), cut up broccoli and cauliflower, with hummus and ketchup on the side. It was easy, quick, and kept me full while watching the kids.

9. Lastly I'm super pumped because I got new running shoes for Christmas (thanks mom and dad!) and they're in my favorite color- blue! But I'm also super pumped because I've been lengthening out my runs and they're feeling good! I'm hoping it stays this way so I can do some road races this year. Also I got a new squat PR so I was pretty excited about that! 

I'll end on things on a happy note today. Sorry for the post being so long, but I feel like we haven't gotten to chat in so long with everything happening. I miss you guys! Have a terrific Thursday and I hope your 2017 is off to a terrific start🎉

What did you do for New Years Eve? Did you stay up and watch the ball drop?
Any suggestions for entertaining kids that will keep them occupied for a LONG time?