Brighter Days Are Coming

Better Homes and Gardens

With this focus on staying home, we’ve been slowly tweaking rooms, decor, systems, and the yard. My domain is the inside, and Thomas works on the outside! Since he hasn’t been going to the gym every afternoon, our yard has never looked better! We have fresh mulch and some new plants. (There was literally a mountain of mulch in our driveway a few weeks ago!) Someone told me it was a little too early for basil, so I hope she survives.

Workouts

While we haven’t been going to the gym, we have been working out! I have a set of two 15 lbs weights and a 30 lb kettlebell. Weight lifting is never my top choice of workout, but I am determined not to atrophy while we’re home! Chris on You Tube has been leading me through. I know there are SO many workout videos online, but I keep going back to recorded versions of my favorite classes because 1) they’re what I know 2) they’re the most fun and 3) I know they are HARD.

Clean Sweat 2.0

Remember when I was on maternity leave and wrote about clean sweat? After one-too-many days recently where I felt super grimy by noon, I’ve been taking a shower and putting on a little makeup followed by my workout clothes first thing in the morning. That way I’m ready to workout whenever I feel like it, but if that opportunity doesn’t come until 4:30pm, I spend most of my day feeling clean and somewhat put together. Does that make sense?

Fake It Till You Make It

Do you think a brand new pencil sharpener is helping Mazen get motivated to do his school work!? At least his pencils are primed and ready. I turned into my dad because I also bought us one of these.

The Next Mozart?

Do you think Birch will be composing symphonies anytime soon? Nona dropped off this little piano she had in her attic for B and it’s keeping him quite busy. The built-in seat is a great addition!

A Vehicle For Chips

I was craving some salty chips and brainstormed the healthiest food I could pair with them for lunch. The answer: sardines!!!

Fish Sticks For Dinner

Speaking of fish, one of our favorite frozen dinners is baked fish filets from Whole Foods. I like to call them “fish sticks” because they remind me of the ones I used to eat when I was little! Served with beans and rice, sautéed veggies, and a homemade tarter sauce (mayo, relish, lemon juice).

Scone Swirl

Another great food combination: raspberry swirled Greek yogurt with leftover whole wheat chocolate chip scone.

Biscuit Heaven

We got some takeout Pie Chest biscuits from Plenty last week – total biscuit heaven, especially with the raspberry jam they sent with them. Paired with a lovely berry and goat cheese salad.

Smoothies, all the time

You’ll find this dude with a smoothie in his hand a lot of the time. He has entered the picky stage and his favorite ways to enjoy food include from our plates or blended. Spinach smoothies FTW!

Keyboard = Crazy

For the past few months I thought I was losing my mind. I’ve been a good typer since 6th grade keyboarding class, but my typos were out of control. There were periods every other word, and my S key was going insane and either double typing or sticking. Since one of my passwords has an S in it, every time I typed a password the form would fail and I was getting locked out. I finally realized that it wasn’t me – it was my laptop keyboard! I had to take it in for a repair which I am hoping Apple will cover since this is a known issue with my 2018 Air model. Hoping it comes back soon!

Brighter Days Are Coming

Launching TODAY is the brand new All Bright C Serum from Beautycounter!! This is the daytime friend of the fan favorite Overnight Resurfacing Peel, and it’s designed to brighten and even skin tone. Not only does it work to fade brown spots and hyperpigmentation, but it actually inhibits melanin synthesis to prevent dark spots from appearing. Vitamin C can degrade quickly in beauty products, and Beautycounter has been working for years to develop this combination of two forms of vitamin C in a super stable formulation that actually delivers results.

The serum has 10% vitamin C in two different forms:

1. The first form reduces the appearance of dark spots and boosts skin brightening. Plus stimulates collagen production.
2. The second form moisturizes skin while providing antioxidant benefits known to protect from damaging environmental stressors. Helps to improve the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
3. PLUS, it has Turmeric root extract and camu camu that add a triple boost of antioxidant defense.

Use it within any regimen in your treat step, with or without a basic serum. I started using it last week and love it already!

Have a great day friends!