Get Moving

It's been a while since I've done a Workout Wednesday post, so here it goes. How many of you made a New Year's resolution to get out and exercise more? Are you still on your plan or have you strayed? We all need a little motivation now and then. Let's be honest, some of us need motivation every single day. If you struggle exercising, try something different. If you are tired of Pilates, try yoga. Mix it up and don't do the same thing every day or even every week.

Running is my thing.

Some days I choose to go to the gym and spin or work out on an elliptical. For me, the hardest part is physically making myself not sleep in that extra hour or deciding that I have to eat a meal as soon as I get home from work. Splash some cold water in your face, grab a granola bar and get moving, ladies. 

Speaking of water, are you drinking enough water? I was more than thrilled when I was told last week after a facial that my dry skin is only on the surface and that my skin is hydrated. I guzzle water all the time. I saw this idea on Pinterest and think it is a great way to make sure you are drinking enough water. 

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Find cute workout clothing. If that's what it takes to get you motivated, do it. Go to Target and get something bright orange or teal. Stop by the Nike store and get some new kicks. Since the big move, I have fallen head over heels in love with Lululemon workout gear. When I went in on Saturday I realized it might be a tad bit bad when the girls ask if I had ordered the running crops that hadn't come in on their Thursday shipment. Or is that a good thing?? Maybe a bit of both. All of you southerners are enjoying warm weather, but the snow is still falling here. My picks of the week are the Layer Me Long Sleeve Shirt and the Wunder Under Pant. The shirt is medium thickness, between the Swiftly Tech Long Sleeve and Runder Under Long Sleeve. And the pants...well, just go try them on. They are my favorites. 

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Make your workout fun! You don't have to kill yourself to exercise. Find a friend and go for a hike or break out your old tennis racket. It is amazing how much better you will feel after you get out and move. 

Do you have any tips or favorite workout clothes? Please share! Happy Wednesday, lovelies!

Wildlife

Before Bryan and I moved, I could count on one hand the number of times I had seen a moose in the wild. With the mountains covered with snow, the moose have come down much lower to find food. Now I can't even keep track with how many of these creatures I have seen in the past week. One morning when I let Ivy out, she starting barking like crazy and a baby moose popped his head out of the alcove beyond our back deck. Scared the living daylights out of me! 

On Valentine's Day, this guy went through our yard, into the neighbor's yard, and proceeded to much on a bush. Bryan saw it as he was leaving for work and called to tell me to run outside. I threw on my down coat over my polka dot pajamas and grabbed my camera. So cool. I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing a moose walking past my car or on my font yard. 

I hope you all are having a good day. It's good to be back in the blog world!

{Healthy} Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Back a few weeks ago when all of you normal people were baking red velvet cupcakes and heart shaped cookies, I was being strange and baking pumpkin chocolate chip bread. You all know how I go nuts over pumpkins in the fall, and I couldn't satisfy my craving for something chocolatey and pumpkin. I could have gotten in my car and driven about two miles to a local bread company, but I had the morning off work and decided to try and come up with a healthy version myself. Not until I had devoured a muffin that I had posted on Instagram, did I realize that others might want the recipe. Click went the camera for this one picture.

Is this truly healthy? I don't know, especially when you stuff your face since it is so delish. I substituted the oil with unsweetened applesauce and the pudding with Greek yogurt. That makes it much more healthy in my mind.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread / Muffins

Ingredients: 
2 cups sugar (next time I'm going to try honey or agave)
2 cups canned pumpkin
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup Greek vanilla yogurt
4 large egg whites
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice (I guessed with both of these spices and adjusted)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray

Directions: 
Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
Spoon batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

*I halved this recipe and it made 6 muffins and one loaf. The muffins didn't take as long to cook--I started checking after 30 min.

Quick Recap

Hello, my sweets! I did not completely fall off of a cliff, I managed to hang on and I'm now back on my feet. After Thanksgiving my schedule went from busy to absolutely nuts. I started a new job, which I love, but was still working at the boutique, as well. I went from not working and being a content house wife, to having two jobs, working 7 days a week and never seeing my husband. Long story short, I'm working for a restaurant group pretty much full-time and I've cut my hours at the boutique to only one afternoon/evening a week. This has been my first "normal" week in months. I have missed all of you tremendously! 

Bryan and I spent our first Thanksgiving and Christmas away from our families. Thankfully, we have made some wonderful friends here, and we were able to share the holidays with them. Here are a few pics from Christmas... 

Bryan and I have loved settling down in Park City. I sometimes have to pinch myself to make sure we are really living in such a beautiful place. Hopefully now that my routine has slowed down a bit, I'll be able to get back into blogging regularly.

{Any tips on blogging from an iPad? My computer screen crashed and this is what I'm working with for now. Can I not go in and write a post in safari? Do I have to use the blogger app? I'm not a fan...}

Christmas Verse

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It is at last the week of Christmas! I hope all of your days are merry and bright, full of joy, peace and thanksgiving as we celebrate Christ the Lord.

 

Christmas Verse

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Are you starting to get a little bit more excited about Christmas? I can hardly believe it is just over a week away. Let us not get caught up in the hustle and bustle of buying last-minute gifts and forget the real meaning of this special holiday, the birth of Jesus. Enjoy this wonderful Sunday, friends!



12 Beers of Christmas Advent

The past few weeks I've been trying to figure out something fun to do for Bryan this holiday season. I thought about doing 12 Dates of Christmas or some type of homemade chocolate advent calendar for each day of December. Then, I came up with the best solution yet: 12 Beers of Christmas Advent.

 

With advent calendars, you normally open up a gift each day of December. And we all know that in the song the 12 Days of Christmas you end up with 24 gifts at the end.  I made up my own rules to form a 12 Beers of Christmas Advent.

 

I went to the liquor store and picked out twelve different beers. Some were Bryan's favorites and some he hadn't tried before. Ideally I would have loved to have gotten just holiday ales or winter lagers, but there wasn't a huge selection of those.

 

 

Next, all you need is Christmas paper and a hot glue gun. I have gobs and gobs of Christmas stickers, paper and embellishments all in storage, so I made a quick run to Michael's and purchased a 12x12 stack of Christmas paper. {The paper had a sheet with the dates of December!} With my handy Cutter Bee I quickly and easily cut strips of paper to wrap around the beer so that each night the brand and type would be a surprise. I tried a couple of different ways trying to get the paper to stay on the bottles and figure out that using a hot glue gun was the best.

 

 

To semi-disguise the bottle caps I used a snowflake punch with some of the paper and adhered them to the top with 3D pop dots.

 

 

Time is precious to me right now, so I didn't have a lot of time to put a lot of effort into this. I think I spent about an hour and a half total. It is a little something extra special for my hubby to enjoy each day this season so that he knows how much I love him.

 

 

And it is nice to have a festive and happy fridge full of beers to enjoy.

 

 

Do you have an advent calendar that you are opening each day this month? Or are you doing any form of gift giving for the 12 days of Christmas? If so, please share!