Hi friends – it has been quite a week since we spoke last Monday, huh? Like most everyone I spent the second half of last week glued to the news watching with horror the chaos that was unfolding a mere few miles away.
I don’t have anything insightful to share except that the stark difference between how the Black Lives Matter protestors were treated (aka a bazillion storm troopers in their face) vs. how the white insurgents were treated (able to walk into the Capitol with little resistance) was horrifying if, unfortunately, not all that surprising.
I know Biden’s inauguration in a little over a week will certainly not fix our country, but it’s at least a step in the right direction, and I’m looking forward to having a sane and rational leader for our country again.
Anyway – for those of you missing my sunrise run pictures, you’re in luck – I met up with my friend Sokphal early this morning for the first time since last March.
Between covid guidelines, hot summer, my first trimester with zero energy, etc., it hasn’t made sense for us to meet up, but I’m so glad we finally got it together for this morning. I’ve missed her and also this view!
Since running isn’t really feeling good for me any more these days at almost 21 weeks pregnant, we bundled up (and masked up – masks are way less annoying in winter than summer, right?! nice to keep my face warm!) and took a walk instead.
Man, I love these views. There’s nothing quite like a sunrise over water!
Sokphal passed a Starbucks on her way to meet me so she grabbed us drinks – hot green tea for me, thanks Sokphal! Since they always make it wayyyy too hot, it was perfect by the time we met up – hot but not burning my mouth! Nice to have it to keep my hands warm too.
Good to see you Sokphal, I’ve missed our sunrise meet ups!
As for the weekend, Matt and I spent it getting a lot of stuff done around the house! I did a thousand loads of laundry (it never stopssss) and organized and decluttered a ton, which always feels really good.
Meanwhile, Matt was working on a cool project: a little reading nook for Riese (and eventually baby #2!) in the playroom! Isn’t this cute?!
I wish I had gotten a before photo, but it was basically a mess – that window seat is built in, and it doesn’t open into storage or anything. Before it was basically just all sorts of arts and crafts in a big pile and books strewn all over the place in a mess.
Matt has been wanting to make this area into something cooler for awhile now, and I was super impressed he envisioned this, measured and ordered everything, and installed it all himself!
Here are Amazon affiliate links to everything in case you want to copy it. 🙂
- Sheer star curtains (only $17) and basic curtain rod (also $17)
- Floating shelves (set of 2 is $60, we have 2 on each side)
- Star twinkle lights (hanging from ceiling, $24)
- Fuzzy gray toddler reading chair ($70 and felt a little overpriced because it’s not the most amazing quality and took awhile to puff up, but Riese loves it and it’s the right size/fit for the space)
- Teal lumbar pillows (we want to get some bigger pillows for back support and in a different color, but these work for now)
- Teal seat cushion (small size) + wider size – a flat pillow that fit the whole space would’ve been best, but we didn’t want to pay for anything custom and we love the color of these so it works!
As for food highlights since we last checked in, my sous chef has been helping me make lots of Flour Free Breakfast Pancakes (her absolutely fave breakfast, which is unsurprising because she’s obsessed with bananas and basically wants to eat 500 bananas a day and nothing else – oh, toddlers)…
(Here’s a link to her hedgehog chef’s outfit, so cute)
And our favorite lunch as of late has been a mediterranean chicken pita situation. Leftover grilled chicken + tzatziki (for you locals, the Cava tzatziki is the best in my opinion – it’s at Whole Foods), bell pepper, pickles, tomato, feta, and arugula:
I also made us a batch of my Zesty Italian Pasta Salad with my Creamy Italian Dressing recipe (I followed the recipes but added raw broccoli, and I added the optional sausage – it was a pre-cooked Italian sausage) to eat on for lunches and it’s been nice to have it on hand!
And speaking of broccoli, I have a Broccoli Cauliflower Salad recipe coming at you on Wednesday, so stay tuned for that – it’s a yummy and easy one that makes a great side!
We’ve also been enjoying salmon tacos – just seared salmon, some slaw, guac, and hot sauce – it could have used some black beans but we were out.
We had some leftover so we made salmon + cheddar quesadillas the next day for lunch which were also yummy!
And we’ve been eating lots of eggs as usual! Avocado toast, of course:
And omelettes – this one was simple with just sharp cheddar + chopped baby spinach.
Dinners have mostly been Blue Aprons, as usual!
We had some nice sunshine this weekend so the only other thing I did over the weekend was meet my friend Jen for an afternoon walk date – wanted to take advantage of the weather and it was so nice to catch up with her, as always.
I hope you all are staying safe and healthy out there and that you have a nice week – I’ll see you back here on Wednesday and Friday with some new recipe inspiration!
I’m also going to start working on a pregnancy update post (I’ll be 21 weeks this week, and we actually have our 20 week sonogram today… any questions/topics you want me to cover in the post, let me know) as well as a 2021 “Word of the Year” post, so stay tuned for those later this month!
