By Nicole

I have to confess.  Tonight I should be frantically cleaning, getting ready for tomorrow's shopping trip by emptying out the leftovers in the fridge, and drinking tea and water and Airborne to help my body recover from this ugly bug I have been fighting. Instead I am on the computer, eating chocolate chips out of the bag and drinking the rest of the white wine in the fridge out of my 2012 Tacoma Narrows Finishers glass.  I am pathetic. The upside to this is that I have cleaned one bottle out of the fridge, and I am being completely honest with all the elves4health that may read this. So far, I am a sad excuse for a healthy elf.  In my defense (and it is SO weak), I have been a single mom for a week and a half, and I have spent part of that time sick.  I've had to load firewood in the boiler, muck out our chicken coop, and fix holes that our pup digs.  All in the cold, dark, rainy weather.  All things my husband usually did before he abandoned me to c...

I'm glad I am not without peers who run.  I'm glad to call myself a roadrunner. I'm glad that I found this on the side of the road while running... Now it hangs in our garage.  A constant, bright reminder of the awesomeness of running. Tomorrow I hope I feel well enough to try and run... or do anything for that matter. Boo hoo.

Tonight's the night to meal plan! Today was Meatless Monday.  I sauteed onions, red peppers, and garlic, then added leftover rice, diced tomatoes, corn, black beans, and seasonings to make a quick and easy Mexican-style rice.  I added refried beans and some home canned tomatillo salsa as sides.  We also sprinkled feta on top. The kids had it all in taco shells, but I just ate mine plain.  It turned out pretty great! I added green onion for color and flavor! Tuesday will be ramen with edamame, peas, and corn (the kids have been begging for it).  I will probably opt for a nice big dinner salad... a healthier option! Wednesday is our night at the church.  We'll have the leftover rice mix with tortilla chips and a side of fruit. Thursday will be a salmon veggie casserole from the freezer and a salad.  Friday we have to go into town and shop.  My plan is to eat at Costco.  Yum and cheap!  I'll get the chicken caes...

If you've read this post  or this post  or this post # 44-45  then you know that I love going to garage sales and thrift stores. This weekend, I took advantage of my sister's Super Saver card... and we went to Goodwill, a random thrift store and Value Village.  With 50% off of most things, I got some SWEET deals! Here are just a few... I didn't "need" a colander, but this one is enameled and so pretty.  And for $2.99... couldn't beat it. I'm always stealing Jason's flannels to run outside and check on the chickens or fill the boiler, but I secretly want my own.  When I saw this Pendleton Knockabout, I couldn't resist.  I can't figure out what year it is, but is was $6.50.  How can you beat that price?  And it is in perfect condition! We've cleaned out a bunch of our coffee cups and tried to narrow them down to ones we really love.  When I saw these, I knew they would fit perfectly in our collection.  These mat...

As we are getting out of the car at yet another stop between our house and my sister's, Leilee says to Connor, "Hey!  You bumped me with your booty!" Being the ever vigilant grandmother, my mom asks, "Is that his pirate treasure he bumped you with?" "No," says Leilee, "it was his pirate butt!"  For the first time in a long time, I went in for a massage.  I love going... so relaxing and great for my abused muscles.  She has a soft table, warm stones for hands and feet, calming scents and sounds.  But today, I had a hard time just drifting because of the background music.   Some of you all might think that whale sounds are calming and wondrous.  But all I could think of was Dory in Finding Nemo .   Funny, yes.  Relaxing, not so much. I walked against the direction of the blue arrows on the floor in WalMart.  And I felt like a rebel.

For the first time in my life, I have ruined a phone.  Totally destroyed.  And all because I decided to be tough and run in the rain. I skipped an after church potluck to burn 600 calories rather than ingest at least that many.  It was pouring rain and freezing cold.  So cold that the rain stung my cheeks and took my breath away.   Yet, I was not about to be deterred.  I started my running playlist, hit the start activity button on Runkeeper and tucked my phone in the pocket of my casual vest turned running vest.  Needless to say, the vest is not, and never will be, waterproof.  The sogginess of my phone can attest to that. What a great 5-ish mile "long" run.  I kept a nice, easy 10:45 pace (almost dead on at every mile) and  slogged through the downpour.  My thrifted New Balance lightening dry jacket kept my arms dry, and my feet were warm in my socks, even though my Minimus shoes have absolutely zero resistance to water. ...

In March, we officially signed our kids up for a "real" 5k (definition of real: not in our area, actually paid for a bib number and t-shirt, and kids' times were clocked with an ankle thing). Since that traumatic experience, we have forced them to go on runs with us.... nothing too severe, just up and down the driveway... frequent walk breaks, not too fast.  We even bought them each a pair of official "running" shoes. Right before football season, I started having Connor go for one and two mile runs with me.  We actually got to enjoying it.  He likes to keep a slow and steady pace.  We get to chat, push ourselves up the huge hill, and feel pretty awesome when we get home.  Now that football is over, he has been asking to be able to run with me more often. And I am going to eat it up.  Not only do I love having that quality alone time with him, I also really want our kids to enjoy some kind of healthy, physical activity.  I don't care if they play...

It has been a while since I've done a Meal Plan Monday post.  We've managed to survive not having meals planned out on the calendar, but it got a little hectic... and we ended up buying pizza a few times. Boo. Tonight we had awesome tuna salad on fresh baked rolls with homemade pickled asparagus and end-of-garden pickles.  I was super lazy and made everyone use napkins instead of plates.  I thanked myself when I did dishes tonight. I made tuna a la my grandpa Emmett, with pickles, onions and celery... sans pepper since I strongly dislike pepper.  I added garlic powder, seasoning salt, chives and parsley.  I also used half mayo/half ranch because Jason doesn't like mayo.  Dinner was a hit.  The best part was that most of our dinner was home canned or home grown.  Those are my favorite dinners. Tuesday will be Sloppy Joes on the bread that flopped since I didn't know Jason turned off the oven after my first batch of rolls...

Tonight, I logged on with the plan to catch up on reading some of the blogs I follow, and I was unpleasantly surprised.  No....I am SO sad!  My reading list disappeared.  I was following so many wonderful blogs!  Now I am list-less. Please, please.... if you read my blog, and you know I read yours..., please follow me so I can find you again. I didn't bother with bookmarking.  I don't save my history for very long, and I have a horrible  "mom"-ory. Thank you!