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Joy, Simplicity and What Matters Most

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March 14, 2017

Coffee Break: Dinnertime, Toddlers, + Grace


Hey Mamas,

It’s dinner time. Your littles are STARRRRRVING (or so they’re squealing). You set down your carefully prepared wholesome, yummy meal – with everything cut into the perfect bite-size pieces – perfectly arranged on their cute little partitioned plates… and what do they do next…

Eat it all! Happily! “Mommy, you’re the best! Thank you for preparing such a great dinner for me!”

No.

They TOSS THE PLATE. You know what I’m talking about. They toss the plate. They flip the dang thing up into the air like its some kind of Olympic sport. If you’re me – one of them starts this (we won’t name names CAROLINE) and the other(s) erupt into laughter and follow suit. Luckily Brady’s grown out of this, but Tyler thinks its awesome and hysterical.

This sends my blood pressure through the roof. Namely because a) food costs money and now its all over my maybe-clean-floor, b) because I just took the time to cook all of it and c) I actually need you to eat food to stay healthy.

For a while I continued the fight. I even bought these super expensive placemat/plate things for them to use. (They work great on our slick kitchen counters, but not on our wooden kitchen table).

Finally, I gave up. I decided that this is a stage we’re just going to have to work through. Now, when I can tell the plate-flipping mood is in the air, I move dinner to the kitchen rug.

You got it… the kitchen rug. See, we have a large kitchen rug in our kitchen, just behind the sink. When I can tell dinnertime isn’t going to go well, the twins and I sit on the rug and they eat dinner (when this happens, I just wait until they go to bed to actually eat my dinner – often with Bryan and Brady). We say the blessing, then I hold one plate full of food, with their little fork, and they sit in front of me like little birds. I feed them one bite at a time. Here’s the thing. I always dreamed of dinners around my kitchen table with all five of us happily discussing our day and enjoying our meals. But this isn’t the season for that. It will be one day (and somedays I get something similar to this to happen). But for right now, my main goal is to make sure they actually eat food (healthy food, even!). For whatever reason, sitting on the rug works. And they kind of think it’s fun! Brady even joins in on the fun with his own plate sometimes.

Grace, not perfection. I gave up the perfect (dinnertime at the table with two toddlers) for the good (dinnertime on a rug where everyone actually goes to bed with full tummies). Carry on, mamas.

 

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March 1, 2017

Coffee Break: Repeat Meals

Happy March!! How is it March anyway. Also, WHY is meal planning so daunting. I’m newly thirty-four (as of yesterday!) and I think I’ve finally figured out the answer: We try and reinvent the wheel too often. Love to try new recipes? Awesome! Try one a week! Two a month! But a new recipe every day of the week? Ugh – not unless you’re a super chef. Ahem, I am not one of them. I learned, coming out of a really rough year (too much going on, too much stress, not enough brain space and too few healthy habits) that fueling your body (and feeding your family) is important – and not just to be sure you’re not hungry or check a box during the day. Let’s focus on breakfast and lunch for this particular post. How many of you skip breakfast because you just can’t find something that meets all your criteria: quick, easy, healthy, filling? That used to be me. Same for lunch a lot of times (shameful, I know – I was a meal skipper for a long time – NOT ANYMORE).

I’ve learned that if I’m going to really nourish my body well (and not stress out about it), I can’t reinvent the wheel every day. I need to find what I like, what works for me, and stick to it. So, for me, I have to eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every weekday. I switch it up once I get tired of something, but having the simplest meals of the day on repeat helps a lot. Weekends are another story, but for weekdays I eat the very same thing most mornings and most lunchtimes (I jot them down in my Simplified Planner!)

Breakfast: Simple Greek Yogurt Parfait – Chobani Greek Yogurt (vanilla) with fresh berries (chop a bunch on Sundays and keep them all week long). Peel the top off the yogurt, throw a handful of berries in, add a scoop of chia seeds if you’re feeling fancy, and viola. Protien, vitamin c, all the good stuff.

Lunch: Fancy Avocado Toast with Eggs – My mom encouraged me to add some protein (eggs) to this meal and it was a good, filling idea. Pepperidge Farm 15 grain bread (toasted in my Breville smart oven – seriously this thing is my favorite kitchen gadget. I heat / cook almost everything in it) plus half an avocado and two scrambled eggs (cooked in the microwave in my little egg cooker). Add some berries on the side and sometimes a tomato with salt and pepper if I’m extra hungry.

I keep these around for snacks (almond packs, cheese sticks, fresh clementines, dark chocolate), but I’m not a real big snacker until post-kiddo bedtime when I want to eat ALL THE GOLDFISH. I digress. Hop over to Instagram and tell me about your habitual meals! I’d love to know for next week! All month long we’ll be talking about simplifying meal planning here on the blog and on social media!

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February 22, 2017

Coffee Break: Make a Skin Care Checklist

Do you have a drawer of skin-care stuff (creams, moisturizers, serums, tools, etc)? You know you do. I used to. Maybe you purchased each one (and I bet some were expensive) with high hopes of turning your fine lines, blemishes, or uneven skin tone around. And you’re probably not using any of them anymore, right? Do you look in that drawer and just see wasted dollar bills? Ugh. I know the feeling. For years I did the same thing. And then I realized that there was still a bunch of hope left in that drawer. I got rid of the products that didn’t feel or smell right (or fit my needs anymore) and kept the ones I still had a lot of hope in (most of mine are Rodan + Fields). And I decided to invest my time in them. Often we purchase beauty products hoping for quick fixes – only to find ourselves disappointed because they don’t work after one or two uses.

But the reality is, most beauty products (especially when it comes to skin care) require habitual use – over and over and over again for longterm success and results. So how did I find my absolute favorite skincare products? I committed to using them every day (sometimes twice a day) for three months. 90 days is a long time and typically long enough to see if something is really worth it. I’m not the best at remembering things (in fact, now that I have three small children, my brain just plain doesn’t remember anything). I have to write everything down. So, I wrote my beauty routine down and taped it to my bathroom mirror. And, as silly as that sounds, it works!

  • AM: (this takes about 4 minutes or so because of the mask)
    • R+F Redefine Daily Cleansing Mask – let it dry while picking up the bathroom
    • R+F Redefine Pore Minimizing Toner
    • R+F Redefine AM Moisturizer w/ SPF
    • MAC Makeup primer (let face dry while I do my hair), then makeup if I’m wearing any that day
  • PM:
    • Neutrogena eye makeup remover – best I’ve found for my eyeliner
    • Cetaphil gentle cleanser – It’s great, but I’m considering switching to a Beautycounter cleanser
    • Sometimes here I’ll use my favorite Beautycounter charcoal mask
    • R+F Redefine Daily Cleansing Mask
    • R+F Redefine Pore Minimizing Toner
    • R+F Redefine Overnight Restorative Cream
    • R+F Redefine Eye Cream
    • R+F Redefine Night Renewing Serum
    • Aveda Hand Cream

I know, I know it sounds like a lot. But I keep all this in one drawer and each routine takes maybe four minutes. And that’s only because the cleansing mask needs to sit a few minutes. I’ve also made it a goal to drink more water, as I know this’ll help my skin. I keep track of my water intake on an app that sends me reminders throughout the day (the MyWater app). Again, I can’t remember anything – including drinking water – so I love the reminder function. That’s it! Write down your beauty routine and invest your time in products to see if they actually work for you. Nothing in life is a quick fix. Literally. Toss all those extra / old / outdated / unwanted products out and keep only what you absolutely love or are trying. Hop over to IG and FB – I’d love to hear what ONE beauty product is your ABSOLUTE favorite – I may give it a try!

xo,

Emily

PS: This isn’t a sponsored post, I just really really love R+F and Beautycounter. They’ve both worked well for me. If you are interested in any of the R+F products above, my dear friend Leah sells them here and my friend Madison sells Beautycounter here.

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February 15, 2017

Coffee Break: Love your body, lady

We’re embarking on a year-long journey to dig deep into the twelve areas of life we women struggle with and care about the absolute most. And we’re starting out with “style” during the month of February. That means fashion, beauty, hair, etc. Don’t let this topic sound fluffy next to the topic of loving your body. Loving your body (as it is, right now in this very second) has everything to do with your fashion, beauty, and hair routines.

Do you ever feel guilty or weird about investing so much time and energy into “style” – be it fashion, beauty, hair, makeup, whatever. I’ve started realizing over the last few months how silly those feelings are – and how important these things are to me. Top of my “style” priorities lately are 1) culling my closet, and 2) developing a great skin-care routine, and 3) taking better care of my body so that I can improve my stress levels, health, etc. But, for us all, a key struggle area is loving our bodies and feeling comfortable in our skin.

When I first sat down to write this post, I started thinking about my post-babies body. I wrote a few lines and started to remember my hoping-for-babies / pre-babies body. What a sweet, tender memory. My body was thinner, toner, and less marked then. But it was bruised from shots, aching with want, and painfully tense with hope. The extra softness I carry reminds me that God has written new-found (often hard-to-dig-up) patience on the walls of my heart — in the form of soft words, sweet hugs, and gentle conversations with my kids. The marks on my stomach remind me of the way God marked through the “plan” I had for my life, my journey into motherhood, and rewrote an even more beautiful story. Beautiful in a way I would have never described as beautiful beforehand. And the new muscles in my arms – rather than in my abs where I’d love to have them – remind me not just of the healthy children I lift everyday but of the strength He gave me while I trudged through the hardest season of my life.

Ooof. Saying those things “out loud” makes me rethink what kinds of clothes I want in my closet (why waste so much time thumbing through clothes that don’t make me feel great), what I’m really trying to “fix” with my makeup (I’m almost 34! Laugh lines are INEVITABLE!), and how much guilt (huh?) I give myself for never, ever wearing my hair down during the week. I kinda decided to toss all those dumb feelings out the window a few months ago. Are you hoping for that day that you can fit into *those jeans again*? Boo. Give those jeans away. Buy a pair of jeans that fit you. That fit your pre or post-baby(ies) body. If you’re like me and you just want to be comfortable and polished, invest in some high-quality (Target’s are great) tees that don’t hug you in all the wrong places. Purge your closet of these crazy things. I did this a few weeks ago and – two years into being a mom of three – I was floored at how many articles of clothing I was hanging onto just in case. I give that a big eye-roll emoji at this point. I want to feel great in my clothes, not be reminded all day of that number on the scale the morning I got married. I want to feel confident in my choices, not overwhelmed by the sheer volume of clothes in my closet. And God’s written a new story on my heart about these “superficial” (not at all) topics the last few months. If I feel my best when my makeup is done, my hair’s up in a messy bun, and I’m wearing my favorite skinny jeans with my favorite tee and my favorite simple jewelry, then that’s me. That’s what you’re going to get. And, don’t you dare apologize for taking time out of your day to get a manicure or take care of yourself. If a gel manicure (my absolute favorite gel color) makes you feel a little more pulled together and makes you hold your head a little higher, get it girl. No one can make self-care a priority but you. Embrace yourself. Take care of yourself. And your well will be filled even more for the people you love.

xo,

Emily

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