1. Writing today from a coffee shop near Ethan’s (new) high school….
It was my day to drive to the 7:30 a.m. strength and conditioning class. So Ethan and I were up and out the door by ~6:50 to pick up his friend and drive across town. This whole thing (the distance/drive) is going to be an ADJUSTMENT for our family, so I guess we’d might as well dive in and get used to it.
I’d greatly prefer just driving both ways like one day per week and then just stay nearby and do some work or something. That’s much more efficient.
But with the work schedules of the others, etc., it turns out one dad is able to drive “to” M-W since he works on that side of town…but then there’s no one to drive home. So we’ve had to divvy up the pickups at 9 am most days. This week I had to pick up Monday and drive both ways Thursday. Not too bad, I guess. With an almost 30 minute drive though each way, it does eat up a good chunk of time- plus add in a little more time to distribute kids to their respective homes. Ha. Fortunately 3 of them live like 2 streets over from us and only one is more of an outlier.
Anyway, it’s a beautiful day and I opted to leave my car at the HS parking lot and walk down the street ~5 minutes to a coffee shop.
2. I made this really yummy chicken, sweet potato and broccoli sheet pan yesterday.
I had some chicken out and broccoli and sweet potato to use up, so I googled “chicken, broccoli and sweet potato sheet pan recipes” and made the first one that popped up. Haha. I just wanted something quick and easy that I could throw in while I worked during the afternoon. This was SO GOOD!!! Super basic and I probably didn’t even need a recipe, but I liked the tips for which seasoning to use. This calls for a Cajun seasoning and lemon juice on the chicken which was a major hit for all 3 of us.
The boys ate this up and they both extra loved the smaller diced up sweet potatoes drizzled in a little butter (it said olive oil but we did a little butter 😉 ) and salt and pepper.
I had 2.5 lbs of chicken and between the 3 of us it was ALL gone by the end of the day. They both complained, “Why didn’t you make more chicken?!” I was like, It was 2 1/2 lbs!!!
3. Summer reading is being enforced.
I’ve noticed a decrease in how much the boys read lately. Not just lately, I mean these past like, 6 months or more. I actually recall dropping off on reading constantly around their age, too, myself when I was a teen. I know I read ALL THE TIME when I was in that maybe 7-12 year old range, and then…. not quite so much. One of my co-workers said it was the same for her (now college aged) son.
I suppose it’s normal as they get into other things and become full-fledged teenagers. And of course…. phones…. But deep down I know they do both still enjoy reading. I think they just need a little nudge to remember that they do sometimes. Once they get into a really great book, I can see how they still become engrossed in them.
Planning a library run tomorrow to browse books in person, since although they have Kindles now, I know there’s something about standing and reading the back of a book and picking out some that have cool covers, etc.
4. Fitness + Consistency
I am VERY HAPPY with my consistency in the gym these last few weeks. Ever since I did my little “priorities planning” exercise, I have been really making a point to not skip workouts. I have sometimes skipped long walks and I have skipped reading and I have skipped blogging some days. But since I decided that my workouts were going to be one of my big rocks, it has been easier to decide what stays and what goes. It’s rather freeing!!
I also saw this yesterday and thought it was a good reminder, for anyone who might need it:
Sohee Carpenter (formerly Sohee Lee before she got married recently), and known as SoheeFit online, is an amazing resource. Her focus is health, wellness and strength training in a very “positive” and balanced way. She also promotes intuitive eating and no extremes.
But about the consistency thing, I was thinking, as I walked home from the gym the other day…. I can’t stop. I mean, yes, I can skip a day here and there. But on the whole, if you want to stay fit and healthy, you really have to keep going. I had this momentary thought of: well, I’ve been doing well here for a few weeks, so I could probably ease up a little. And then I was like, what?! NO.
Unfortunately/fortunately, depending on how you look at it, it’s a lifelong thing. I suppose it would be nice if you could eat well and work out to a certain point where you are comfortable with your overall health and how your body looks and then say, ok, we’ll stop… here. Like you’re decorating your living room or something. LOL.
But I think it falls into the category along with washing your hair and brushing your teeth. And wiping your kitchen counter. It just can never end. 😄
(Side note- I am still (slowly) reading Peter Attia’s Outlive and am just really getting into the part where he talks about how exercise is KING in terms of longevity. He really dives into the specifics of why this is and what types of exercise are most important (seems like… all! So far he has talked about endurance, increasing VO2 Max, LOTS of talk (and some crazy interesting statistics) about the crucial importance of strength training and how having good muscle mass dramatically increases your odds of living longer (woohoo!) and also the role of stability/ flexibility.) I will maybe do a whole post on some takeaways eventually!)
5. A laugh
And finally, a silly meme that made me chuckle, especially as we are finally emerging (sort of) from the whole end of “May-hem” (as people like to lovingly call the month of May):
Well, that’s a lot of random topics!! I hope you’re having a good day. It’s a beautiful sunny Thursday over here in my world. 😊🌞
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for emojis!! I think people either love them or hate them, but I am Team Emoji. They just express things so well in a text sometimes that words just… can’t! I personally love the one-raised-eye-brow emoji when something is suspicious (🤨) and am I huge fan of the “weary face” 😩. You also can never go wrong with the “laughing with tears” face. 😂 Do you have a favorite emoji??
GRATEFUL KAE 
I also love emojis — the cry-laugh is my go-to, although I the smile with the sweat drop (whew!) and the raised-eyebrow-with-the-monocle (hmmm) a lot, too.
Your new summer schedule sounds good, if complicated with all the pick ups and drop offs. I love that you are encouraging the kids to read — it does seem like there is a drop-off around high school among people I know, too. Social priorities, plus maybe the uptick in required (and sometimes boring) reading for classes? I feel like if the only books I read were Billy Budd and Heart of Darkness, I might reject reading too.
Love what you have to say about exercise being just like brushing your teeth or wiping down the counters. Such a great analogy!
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Yes, sometimes Asher especially during the school year will say, I already read a lot at school today!! And then might not seem as interested in reading more at home at night. It makes me sad though because they used to literally always have their noses in a book and I never had to “push” them to read or anything.
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I love the idea of kids having a strength and conditioning class, but that is a long drive! It sounds like you’ll make the most of it; quality time with kids and maybe even checking out some fun coffee shops.
I am set to make a sheet pan supper FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. I know people do this all the time, but I never roast everything (like I’ll roast broccoli or potatoes, but never broccoli and potatoes and meat). We’ll see how it goes (it’s gonna be bell pepper – which my daughter will hate – asparagus, potatoes, and sausage).
That meme is hilarious. I am going to send it to all my friends this instant #Truth!
I actually shivered reading about your cold office. Ugh. You know how I feel about the cold…
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Let us know how your sheet pan turned out! I actually am not sure I had ever made one either, though I know Suzanne is Queen of sheet pan dinners! haha. I really like the concept, though!! It was quite easy/quick to put together and a nice, balanced meal. The roasted broccoli was delicious! And the sweet potato bits literally tasted like a treat- I kept walking by as it was cooling and grabbing a couple and popping them in my mouth, haha!
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I rarely use emojis outside of a thumbs up, a smiley face, or a winky face. I honestly can’t think of a single time I’ve ever used another one. LOL. I’m clearly not very creative in my communication. I NEVER use GIFs and actually find them super annoying because whenever I get one, I never know what they’re supposed to mean. Ha!
I’m super stressed out by the idea of 30-minute drives multiple times a day! I don’t think I could cope with that. I get so antsy if I’m in the car longer than ten minutes. You seem much more cool about it than I could ever be!
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Well, I’m not sure if I’m “cool” about it exactly, but, currently the carpool situation helps a lot. It may get a lot more dicey soon because a couple of the kids we carpool with have older siblings who are about to get their license. They’ll be able to drive with their own sibling + 1 other in the car, so the moms seemed to say we could continue carpooling but the 16 year olds would drive.. um…….. no? You know this area I assume… I-90 interstate/ Madison 12/18 beltline, at 16, brand new driver?? I can’t even with that thought. If I have to drive him myself every day I will, but I already told them I am NOT comfortable with him riding with those teen drivers right away. That’s not a drive for beginners!! So I am pretty stressed thinking about how it will all pan out if our carpool options dissolve. Although we do know some other people too who live nearby that are going there too so we may be able to branch out- I just don’t actually “know” the other families well yet. May be time to get friendly!! LOL!
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very glad to hear you are enjoying peter’s book. it’s quite mind blowing right and he delivers the message in a simple and convincing way. I’m all sold.
I think exercise, reading, eating well, all come to enjoying in the process to make it sustainable. if we do it for the sake of long term health benefits alone while not enjoying it in the moment, we are likely to abandon it eventually. I know that we still need to brush teeth, wash hands, and there’s no enjoying about it… but they take few minutes, instead of hours per week. for reading/exercise that is time consuming, really need to like them eventually. Sofia wrote an essay why everyone should exercise (without telling me before hand) for school, I will post it in the blog 😉 what a 10 years old think about exercise.
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Yes, I saw her essay in your post- SO CUTE!!! What a great thing you’ve taught her!!
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I love coffee shop working! My grievance with my town is nothing opens til 9. I’d love to work in a cafe/library on Fridays but I do the breakfast club drop off at 8 so I’d have to kill an hour. I could go for a long cycle ride but not ideal with my laptop in my pannier, etc.
I think encouraging boys to read is so so important for developing empathy, focus, etc. I like my kindle but nothing beats going to the bookshop or library.
I think a reading dinner with books and good snacks would be fun? We’re having nibbles + chess tomorrow, because my son has started wanting to learn but it’s too complicated for the hour we have between dinner and bedtime.
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Definitely the books and snacks is a great idea! I am finding now that they are not quite as intrinsically motivated to read as they used to be, finding ways to make it novel or more fun does help. Like I suggested Asher make some popcorn yesterday to eat while he sat and read. Or sometimes we’ll put on the fire pit outside and I’ll say let’s all grab books. etc. They also do like it if I ask them to each grab a book and pile in my big bed to read “together”, but separately. I miss the days when I always read to them!!!
My boys are pretty into chess. Ethan actually plays online all the time now with friends or I guess random people or the computer on this one website. I guess if he’s going to be on the computer I prefer he’s playing chess versus other mindless games!!
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Way to go on being so consistent with your workouts! You can see my apple watch data so you can see that I’m pretty active, but I’m only truly working out about 3 days/week and it’s pretty much all running. I hurt my upper arm this winter, I think when I was doing chest flies or something, and it still hurts so it kind of limits what I can do. I probably need to see a doctor but I don’t know what they could do for it. My retired colleague said – welcome to middle age, it takes a longer time for things to heal. I need to get my GP soon so will ask her about it and see what she says. But at least I’m getting lots of walks in/chasing my kids around/running. I figure that counts for something! I’d like to add one day of strength training in when I am in the office but work has been so busy that it’s tough to get way for 30-45 minutes. I’m glad it’s nice outside so I can get my 23 minutes of outdoor time in with Phil and the boys. It was pretty easy to fit a 25 minute walk in back in Jan/Feb – but since the banking crisis/my colleague retired, it has been so dang busy.
Good idea to focus on summer reading! Mine probably dropped off around that time, too. But I did not have access to a library in the summer – our town was so tiny that there wasn’t a public library. So unless I lobbied for my mom to buy a book, I didn’t have reading material around. Plus it was an hour drive to go to a store with books! My boys will have a very different set up since the library is about a mile from us. I hope they become lifelong readers!!
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I can never figure out what the emojis mean.
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I’m still trying to wrap my head around this 7:30 am high school strength class in the summer??? But I’m impressed that you’re all on board with it.
I would be very interested in a post about Outlive! I read a book a while ago
called Younger Next Year (but Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge) and it’s all about how exercise is absolutely crucial for healthy aging. The basic premise is, once you pass your 40s your body starts to decay- unless you fight against it with exercise. You are correct- we can’t stop!
Just a thought- has your son read Ender’s Game? I know I keep talking about this book, but my son loved it and says he wished he had read it when he was younger. I think 14 is a good age, if you think he would like sci fi.
I like emojis- the ones I use most are the angry face and the eye roll. Hmm, not sure what that says about me???
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I have to check on Ender’s Game – that sounds familiar. I think he may have!
And I know… the strength class is a little annoying… but it’s meant for any kids planning to do school sports next year, and since E is planning to do fall soccer, it seemed this was highly recommended for like pre-training/etc… plus being a new school, we thought it would be good for him to start meeting some people!!
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YES for emojis! And, congratulations on being consistent with your workouts #inspiration Also, stealing that meme. So, so true.
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Awesome work with the workouts. Yup, it’s a lifestyle, not a temporary project and the more we treat exercise as part of regular life, the less “chore-like” it will feel. 🙂 It’s ok to take breaks, but yeah, if the breaks become more frequent than the workouts, THEN it’s a problem.
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Holy moley, Kae. You’re driving THAT far to the strength class? That’s bonkers! (I recognized the mural/coffee shop and had an inkling where you were, and it seems… far from home, for sure.) And NO to the teenage drivers (read your response to Engie), particularly on the Beltline. That road scares the bejeezus out of me. Yikes. I can’t imagine being a teen driving on it!
I need to pull up your priority post and emulate your process. Right now, my time allocation to each activity does not reflect my priorities. Or values. Sigh.
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