From the Week

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey friends! Happy Friday 🙂 I am SO glad the week is over and we now have a couple of days to spend with Tyler home…makes it so much more enjoyable. Not that hanging out with Wes during the week isn’t a buttload of fun, but you know what I mean. Nothing super exciting happened for us this week and I am totally ok with that! We were able to get outside a lot before of the warmer temps, and that’s really all that matters. Backing it up…

Monday: My little crawler was up to no good and trying to go up the step into the rest of the house (our living room is lowered). We still need to buy a baby gate this weekend for the top of the stairs, so I have been on high alert baby-movement duty.

All of his antics have really been wiping him out, and most of his naps this week have been prompted by his exhaustion. AKA: This mama didn’t have to calm a baby down to sleep AT ALL this whole week. That’s like….a miracle.

Before Wes was born, Tyler’s mom had sent us some clothes that his Grandmother had knit. They were all much larger than newborn size, so I tucked them away in the closet. And then in true mom fashion, I forgot about them. I tried to pull out a couple more pieces (he wore the bloomers here in some Easter pics) and this was the best I got. (After chasing around a naked crawler for a while).

Tuesday: Every morning after breakfast, Wes rides around the house in his car. Normally, I’d take him out for a walk but the early spring mornings are still too cool for my liking so I usually wait until later in the day.

After lunch, we did head out and walked to the post office so I could mail my US taxes (I’m so cool I get to do taxes TWICE!). Rather than heading straight home, we walked up to the library where I found a couple of books to read next. We stopped by on Monday to return some of Wes’s books, but I didn’t find anything I wanted in my quick lap around the shelves.

It was so sunny out that we continued on a walk around the neighborhood and stopped to check out the swings before heading back to the house.

Tyler made burgers for dinner and we paired it with some leftover potato salad I made on Easter. YUM

And then an evening car ride.

Wednesday: It’s a good day when I can do a few loads of laundry, make myself coffee and breakfast and then EAT said breakfast before Wes wakes up. I was even tempted to try to head downstairs and do my workout before he got up, but that was pushing it.

We had our usual FaceTime with my mom and dad before I headed downstairs (with Wes in tow) to workout. Now I know why I wait until he naps to fit in my workout- it’s no fun trying to plank with a baby crawling on you. Or always trying to untie your shoes! He was pretty good and was mostly distracted by some snacks and the dogs, though.

(PS: I am generally left staring at the ceiling of various rooms in my parents house when we FaceTime with them..)

I swear I change my kid’s clothes. We just so happened to get a lot of pictures with this particular set of jammies on!

We had a quick chicken dinner.

Thursday: I was actually able to complete my workout for the day before Wes got up, so that immediately put me in a good mood. Especially since I was a bit grumpy from having such a terrible sleep. I hate nights that I just lay in bed with my eyes closed….and nothing happens. The worst! Once Wes got up, we watched his favorite show (Jimmy Fallon. With Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy being a close second and third) and he is completely in a trance when watching the monologue.

Wes took a long midday nap and we headed off to the mall afterwards to basically just get out of the house and pick up some stuff for dinner. And of course, Wes came out winning since I managed to buy him a couple of Old Navy shirts as well. That kid, I tell ya. Gets all of my money.

Dinner was a favorite hodge podge bowl of gnocchi + broccoli + mushrooms + chicken sausage + marinara. Hits the spot every time. And Wes has some pasta with marinara which he loved…and made him very dirty. Bath time for that boy!

Ugh, and the kiddo started pulling himself up to his feet! I was able to catch a few videos of it and it totally looks like he’s twerking. If he ever reads this 20 years from now, it’ll be like “um, mom…..what is ‘twerking’?’ haha, oof.

And that brings us to Friday. YAY!

I’m so glad to be finishing up my last week of Beta T25 because that means next week I start the brand new 22 Minute Hard Corps program! It’s done by Tony Horton, the same guy who does all the P90X videos. I am super excited about it and hope the results are just as great as the programs I’ve completed in the past (I totally know they will be).

PS: If you’re interested in trying out any of the programs, shoot me an email and I’d love to help you out 😉 jennifer(dot)L(dot)Linton(at)gmail(dot)com.

From the Week

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy Friday, everyone! Tyler has the day off because of Easter (already?!!) so we’ll be doing some familyish things 🙂 This past week seems a blur- lots of ups and downs, ins and outs. Backtracking..

Monday: Wes slept in longer than I anticipated, so I started the day by baking a cake! More specifically, a cereal bowl cake. Of course if I placed the photo of mine next to the one from the site I followed it from, then it would look like a total Pinterest fail. The good news? It still tasted fantastic. (even if it was loaded with way too much shortening and butter for my liking and I have been bloaty as hell all week from eating it!)

Afterwards, I made my To Do list for the day. And almost immediately, one of them was crossed off: quitting my job.

I was scheduled to return to work on April 17th but submitted my resignation letter making it final! I could make this a really long story, but to cut it down: I had been in talks with HR about possibly working part time and/or from home…blah blah blah…since I was the best performer in my position that my head boss had seen in 16 years it might be an option…blah blah blah….a quick (and less than friendly) phonecall later, I was told no.

That’s all I needed to really solidify my decision to stay home, so I quickly typed up the letter and POOF I’m a SAHM. I’m still looking for part-time work, but I’m finding that to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I know everything will work out in the end, but it’s still giving me lots of wishy-washy feelings. And lots of sleepless nights.

Back on the happy track..

We got a package delivered that happened to be some goodies I won for Wes. Yay!

Later in the afternoon, we headed out to Chestermere to pick up a Bob stroller. We already have one, but this one is a bit newer and was a steal! Now if only I can sell our existing, it’ll be a wash.

The trip there and back took longer than expected and Wes turned into a Grump McDump in the car. Once we were home, a bottle and lots of snacks did the trick. And by the time dinner came around, I was able to enjoy chicken fajitas while Wes was a happy baby in the tub.

Tuesday: Wes is getting a lot more mobile and loves to hoist himself up on the couches. Especially when Reggie is napping. So far, Reggie doesn’t seem to mind, but I don’t trust that beagle at all! I make sure to be close by whenever Wes tried to get playful. And we’re also very interested in taking all the workout videos off the shelf.

We bundled up and headed out for our inaugural ride in the new (to us) Bob. So nice! Wes loves sitting more upright, so it was a pleasant walk.

Eats for the day included cake (duh) and BBQ pulled pork quesadillas for dinner. Wes is slowly starting to love squishing bananas rather than eating them. Good thing for us: he’ll actually eat the then squished banana.

I wish I remember more from Tuesday. But……nope.

Wednesday: I always wait for Wes to go down for his morning nap before diving into my workout for the day, but I’m thinking that might have to change. He’s been protesting naps which has been keeping us in the house longer than I’d like to be. And then I don’t get my workouts done until later in the day when he finally does go down. Maybe *that’s* why I’ve been in a funk all week? I’d like to think so. I’m going to change up the ‘schedule’ next week and see if that helps!

Once the nap was had and lunch was eaten, we got dressed and ran a couple of errands before heading down the street to the park. PS: Apparently our community is getting rid of this one park and replacing it with a sport court. (Yes, it’s as dumb as it sounds). I got pretty ticked when I heard about it, so I wrote a VERY opinionated letter to the board. Fingers crossed the park stays as is! I remember living across the street from a park growing up and I would go there every evening after dinner with my parents. I want to be able to do the same with Wes!

Poor boy was crawling up into his bin of toys the night before and fell face first into the TV console. I am DYING over the gash on his lip and have been putting cream on it in hopes it’ll heal ASAP.

Once Tyler got home, I ran out real quick to drop resumes off at some local businesses. I got quickly rejected so THAT was a huge kick in the face.

We had leftover pork for dinner. Nothing fancy!

Thursday: I wish I could say Thursday started off nice, but it didn’t. I didn’t sleep a wink the night before and was in the worst fog. I think it’s the combination of my hormones levelling out + anxiety from quitting my job (aka no more money coming from me) + feeling dejected from applying to other part time opportunities. Grrr.

The good news is that after a good cry and a quick soak in the tub, I was able to take Wes out for a nice long walk. I knew the fresh air and stretching my legs would help me get a different perspective. And it did.

Until the babe decided to fight his nap again. Then I felt let down again. (Maybe it’s too much one on one time with Wes and I need more adult interaction? Probably. But that requires pants. Too hard.)

Once he passed out, I got my workout done and BOOM the better mood returned!

He’s so sweet I can’t even stand it.

The nap didn’t last long, and fortunately for me, neither did the rest of the afternoon. We headed out to get an Easter outfit for him, came home for tacos, then he was out! I took the evening to enjoy a LONG bath.

And just like that, the week is over.

From the Week

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy Friday, guys! It’s weird, because all week felt like either a Thursday or Friday, and now here we are and it somehow feels like the beginning of the week. It’s been a relatively low key week over on our end. I sort of love these weeks because it’s a lot more one on one time with Wes. Backing it up…

Monday: I made a batch of these Baked Breakfast Cookies on Sunday night in hopes of enjoying them for a couple of breakfasts throughout the week. So I had a couple on Monday morning, and….eh. I wasn’t super impressed by them at all. But it didn’t hurt to try, and I already had all the ingredients on hand.

Once Wes was up and had his breakfast, I bundled him up and we walked down to the grocery store. I love doing some grocery shopping on weekday mornings, but I do NOT love the female cashiers that want to grab my son’s hands and give him germs on weekday mornings. There’s an etiquette for that, people! after some play and lunch, we bundled up again and walked down the street to the swings. Wes loved it per usual but the wind picked up and we headed home shortly after.

For dinner, I made a super quick and easy chicken fried rice. I’m pretty impressed with the turnout considering I made the entire dish while holding Wes! (Tyler was downstairs working out and Wes decided he didn’t want to sit in his high chair any more. Pff) I recommend making fried rice from scratch rather than ordering takeout any day!

And my latest purchase arrived in the mail: 22 Minute Hard Corps! I am so excited to get started on this, but I just have to get through a couple more weeks of T25 Beta first.

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Tuesday: I attempted to take photos of Wes for his 11 month birthday. The kid is a speedy little guy!

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After the whole ‘ordeal’ I gave him a bath (with a new aromatherapy oil I received) and he napped for almost 3 hours! We were afraid this would totally screw us come bedtime, but it didn’t! WINNING.

I intended on making loaded baked potatoes for our dinner, but I opted to chop up my sweet potato and eat it deconstructed instead. Delicious choice.

Wednesday: I tried to make pancakes for breakfast, but only had one egg left. FAIL. I whipped up a batch of avocado protein pancakes and they tastes SO GOOD but the consistency is still a bit off. I’m hoping to play around with this a bit more because avocado and pancakes? Yes please.

The big outing for the day was a trip to Superstore. I really only needed to get a veggie to include with dinner, but we ended up browsing the store for over an hour. Wes loves being in the cart and the store is so dang big that we didn’t look too crazy going up and down every aisle. Plus, the ladies love him 😉

His face is so funny in that pic!

Dinner was some tortellini and zucchini. Boring, but it hit the spot.

Thursday: I broke my 39 day anti-coffee streak. THANK GOD I DID. I initially gave it up because I was having a bit too much and was having a hard time sleeping. Now, I’m drinking it again because I’m still no longer sleeping AND I was a huge unhappy beast. Coffee saves relationships people.

I also reintroduced my favorite Shakeology into my daily routine. Coffee + Shakeology + Fizzy water = the best triple threat ever.

I feel better already. PHEW.

We dressed in green and played with some random green things around the house to celebrate St. Patty’s day. AND GUESS WHO DECIDED TO START CRAWLING?! I have a few videos on my phone of it, but they’re super long and probably 100% boring to anyone besides me and Tyler.

I met up with my friend Jen once Tyler got home. She moved to Vancouver a while back and I hadn’t seen her in forever! We went to an Irish pub (duh) but there was a wait for a table and we ended up sitting outside with drinks for TWO HOURS before deciding to relocate for dinner. It was an early evening and timing worked in my favor because I caught a train/bus home without having a single minute to wait for either!

And here we are at Friday! Forecast for this family? Lots of together time. And a Costco trip, obviously.

From the Week

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Woohoo for Friday! Forecast for this weekend: chores and sleep. Sleep sleep sleep. Some stuff that happened this week:

Monday: We started off the day nice and early with a stroll to the library. Gotta love nice weather that allows for us to get some fresh air! We picked a little corner and got some books and just hung out for a while. There were some other kiddos there too, but they sounded a bit destructive otherwise I would have had Wes try to mingle.

We left a while later with a ton of new books to enjoy at home. I even checked one out for myself!

Then I got a huge surprise in the mail. Tyler ordered me a professional light tent set! I am entirely too excited to use this (and it’s WAY better than the light box I constructed myself. I know a few of you were asking how I made it, but it was so crappy that you’re now spared the instructions. haha).

I already have it set up on a table in the basement and it’s just waiting for its first victim! 🙂

The weather was all too sunny, so I decided to take Wes for another stroll around the neighborhood. This time in the wagon! He just sat there pretty content and checking everything out.

We had leftovers for dinner and spent the remainder of the evening just hanging out. This guy is really starting to enjoy his bath time and gets super giggly throwing all of this toys out of his basket over and over again.

Tuesday: I checked the monitor before getting out of bed to get Wes and he was sitting up! Oh man, he’s just minutes away from crawling and I am just not ready for that yet!

We met up with Alison and her kiddos at the zoo. Just my luck Wes fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got there. And of course he woke up when I tried to transfer him into the Bob. There was no one at the zoo and we whizzed through almost the entire park in about an hour before heading home. Then, Wes fell asleep AGAIN five minutes before we got home. Same thing happened and he woke up when I took him out.

I attempted getting him down for a nap a couple of times before he FINALLY fell asleep around 2pm. He slept for 2 hours, but he was so out of whack that he woke up SUPER grumpy and stayed that way until bed time. Boo.

The only thing keeping him somewhat entertained was trying to pull himself up on the step. Or maybe he was doing a yoga pose? Who knows. Babies are weird.

The grump took a lot of my time and energy that dinner was easy peasy: chicken, cous cous, and spicy roasted potatoes.

Wednesday: After a yummy pancake breakfast, Wes and I walked to Safeway for a grocery run then browsed around a few other stores in the shopping center before heading home. The early morning air + an exciting WesOnWheels session tuckered him out for a good, long nap!

I seriously love taking advantage of this crazy good weather, so we headed over to a different shopping center after lunch and walked around for a bit. (Picking up a few necessities, of course. Dang it, even going for walks causes me to spend money!) Before heading home, I ran the car through the car wash and Wes was amazed.

Oh- and we had a delicious dinner! I made Crockpot Minestrone Soup (+ added chicken). I also made a cake. The cake is already gone. Never leave me home alone with a cake. Full disclosure: Tyler did help eat it.

It’s funny that the day after Wes has a ‘grump day’ he tends to be extremely happy. Case in point:

All smiles the whole day! His lack of afternoon naps lately have caused him to zone out pretty early which has been a pretty nice treat for me and Tyler.

Thursday: No morning outing for us. It was entirely too windy to go for a walk, so we played with EVERY toy in the house and hopped from room to room to keep it interesting. After lunch, I tried to take some photos of Wes with Layla (wearing some of his latest goodies from our Wee Nation box) but it was a HUGE no go. Mr Grump did not want to wear his hat. Or sit still. I was seriously considering a glass of wine at that point.

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Even his non smiley photos are adorable!

We got out of the house and went to the dollar store, Walmart (strictly to stockpile on Easter candy before it sells out), and Michaels. I just realized that I’ve been on the same tank of gas for 3 weeks now. Woohoo!

When we got home, Wes pulled out his personalized plank (A gift from his aunt, uncle and cousin for Christmas) and was mesmerized by it for almost 2 hours. Seriously, a piece of wood is that interesting.

We had naked dinner (Ok, just Wes. Tyler and I kept our clothes on) and bedtime came early once again.

Workouts from the week: Week 1 of Beta from Focus T25 and a 45 minute walk the the doggies each night.

Phew, I am exhausted! But I am so happy with the amount of out-of-the-house time Wes and I had this week. Here’s to hoping the weekend is just as nice!

PS: *Shoutout to all you readers that never comment* I’d love to hear from ya! That said, I dare you to comment below! You can tell me a joke or something random from your week or a new recipe you’ve come across that you think I should try!

From the Week

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

TGIF for reals. I love Fridays so much. Just a few random things to share from the week..

Eats: We had some pretty decent dinners this week. Turkey meatballs, bbq pulled chicken sandwiches, roasted pork loin, and shepherds pie. Not too shabby. Plus, it allowed me to use a lot of the stuff we already had on hand. The more I can stretch a dollar..

I threw some spinach in my protein pancakes on Wednesday and it didn’t disappoint. I can’t wait to have them again!

I also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies and have been secretly waiting for ‘dessert time’ every day because…chocolate chip cookies.

Another one of my Sticky9 orders came in the mail and I was really excited to go through them. The quality isn’t 100% super on the photos themselves, but the little square cards are so cute and they make for great decorations. Wes loves seeing them up around the house and giggles when he notices any photo that he’s in.

I picked up a forward facing carrier off kijiji for $5 and Wes JUST fits in it, but we wanted to see if having him in a carrier that faces out might help free our hands and allow him to look around. Because it’s a bit too snug, I’ll only be using it around the house. He seemed to really love it! But pulling him out of it is a task in itself 🙂

We also walked over to the library to pick up some new books. I had to take a picture of the one Wes loves best in case I ever need to buy it or something. I’ll miss his giggles each time I get to the last page.

Since the weather has been so nice, just about all of our errands this week have been on foot! I love getting Wes out in the fresh air.

Other than that, we’ve been just hanging around and being silly together. His naps have been all over the place, but I’ve managed to squeeze in my workouts each day + take the dogs on nice walks once Tyler gets home (loving that the walks are during the tail end of daylight, too!).