Ten Things Tuesday

1.  Last Sunday night, after everyone had left from Mila's party and we had pretty much put the house back together, I grabbed myself a plate of birthday leftovers, a big glass of Grape Crush and sat down on the couch feeling like a brand new woman.  Cruz and Mila's birthdays are the bookends of a whirlwind of holiday madness.  From that fun UNI Panther football party to start October up to this past week, our home has been filled with people, we've wrapped what feels like a thousand gifts, received daily deliveries from our good friends at Amazon, prepped food and cleaned up food, and had weekly lists that involved random party or holiday planning.  So when Martin Luther King Jr. day rolls around, I always feel like my slow winter season can finally get started.  I think I love late January and February more than many for that reason - it's a few weeks of slow, home, and simple before we all start to get excited for spring.  

2.  In order to stay on top of my 40 Before 40 bucket list, we officially became a blue box recycling family in January and I'm mildly obsessed with it.  I downsized our enormous garbage container, studied the list of what I can and can't recycle, and finally started to use our dual garbage containers for their correct purpose.  Not only that, but I started using reusable grocery bags and produce bags and have loved getting rid of annoying plastic bags.  It's been pretty eye opening to see how much less garbage we have each week and I'm energized to take more small steps toward less waste and greater efficiency!

3. Another thing I'm proud of this month is that I signed up to ride 2,020 miles in 2020 at my favorite spin studio, Joywheel.  This means I need to ride 39.5 miles a week, which averages to about four rides for me.  My accountability coach emailed me shortly after I signed up and gave me my grand total for 2019 - 1,167 miles.  So in order to hit my goal, I have to pretty much double my time at Joywheel.  I'm three weeks in and am five miles over where I need to be, and most importantly, already feeling stronger and faster.  This hip little place and the inspiring teachers that work there has been such a wonderful blessing to my overall wellness.  I've never been a gym person but sure look forward to my rides here - even at 5:15 in the morning.  And the fact that RAGBRAI is coming through our town this July is super fun motivation to train for what I'm sure will be some big summer fun.

4. Speaking of challenges, I read ten great books last year and have big plans to at least double that by the end of this year.  Either we've hit a new stride in our family that's allowing for more reading or I've just rearranged my life (and put my phone down enough) to carve more time for it, but I'm trying to find 30 minutes a day to read.  Our book club has been such a fun way to inspire more fiction reading and we've read some pretty wonderful books so far.  Last month, we met at Jill's to talk about The Giver of Stars which probably takes the cake for my favorite book read in '19.  I made some homemade cherry moonshine and brought 12 little mason jars to toast and pay homage to the book and the beautiful characters in it.  And we may have stayed up on a Thursday until midnight!

5. I know I'm late to the party, but I am LOVING my Goodreads app!  I can follow some of my favorite bookworms, keep track of my reading challenge for 2020, receive book recommendations based on the books I'm reading, and create lists such as books I want to read in the future.  Mom, if you read this, you would LOVE Goodreads! ;)

6. Okay, I suppose there may be one reader out there wondering how my 365-day wardrobe challenge is going.  Not counting pajamas and my favorite hoodies, I can honestly say I have not reworn a single top in my closet for three months.  And have probably gotten rid of a solid third of the things I've worn.  My goal is to be ruthless and to try and cut my wardrobe in half by the end of the year.  The kids, Beau, and a few other friends have stayed in on the fun and helped me decide what to keep and what to lose.  The other day I was talking to a colleague and before I walked away she said, "by the way, that is a definite keeper." :)  I've clearly saved money, my mind already feels clearer when I see less in my closet, and it's been fun to be creative about forming new outfits or saving favorites for special occasions.  

7. The other day I made the kids pancakes for breakfast, only to discover we were out of pancake syrup.  So instead of getting thrown off by this little event, we turned it into a party.  A party that involved chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and a little Lizzo.  The kids were pretty cranky about heading back to school after a four-day weekend, but by the time we had danced to Truth Hurts a few times, they were nothing but smiles.  

8. I received both of Half Baked Harvest's cookbooks for Christmas and LOVE them.  So much so that I've been cheating on good ol' Magnolia (and all that butter)...

9. Mila has discovered a big affection for Elephant and Piggie books lately and it's been so fun to dig into that collection again.  They are perfect for new readers because they're actually enjoyable for parents, too!  Clever, witty, and hilarious, and Mila always nails the expression even when she can't quite figure out the words!

10. The other night, I didn't feel like cooking and we had a lot of finger food leftovers from Mila's birthday.  I made up a big charcuterie board and told the kids we were going to pretend we were food critics and try everything on the board before giving it a rating.  Our kids are NOT adventurous eaters, so I expected it to go as most of our well-intended meals go (down the toilet).  But to my surprise, we had so much fun and they tried every single thing.  This included pimiento cheese, blackberries, red pepper strips, green olives, prosciutto, and a pickle wrapped in salami.  We tried everything together, talked about what we liked and didn't like, and discussed that we don't have to love everything in order to eat it.  And while Cruz has yet to find a single vegetable he actually enjoys, we may have gotten him a little closer that night!

Random pictures from our January...
             

Mila's Art Party | Take 2

The Decorations | The last few years we've had a lot of pink popping out for Mila's birthday parties so it was way fun to play with all colors of the rainbow for this one.  I only decorated the dining area, transforming it into Mila's dance studio with a big balloon garland and this cute paint sample wrapping paper from Mr. Boddington's Studio.  The balloon garland may look difficult, but thanks to my brand new electric pump purchase I would have liked to turn the house into one big balloon garland.  Easy, fun, and truly transforms any space into a festive party!  

I added in some $4.99 daisies for a little January cheer, and turned the table into a creative space for all the littles.  I purchased most of this at Hobby Lobby - the little canvases and easels, the matching cups and 12x12 cardstock sheets as place mats, as well as the polka dot table runner and plates.  

The Food | The food was the most fun to plan for this party.  The spread included a Be A Sandwich Artist sandwich station, a Sloppy Slaw salad, Paint Chips, and Creative Juice.  Mila helped me make the cutest rice krispie paint brushes (bought store bought rice krispie treats which made this treat super easy), I added the rest of our candy melts to a popcorn mix to create a "paint splattered" munchie mix, and ordered the cutest paint palette cookies from Lynne's Special Occasion Cookies (find her on Facebook).  She is so talented and my mom actually thought her Christmas cookies were from William Sonoma!          

But I think the crowd favorite for the day was this rainbow platter of goodness!  I had a lot of fun going through the grocery store scoping out all the colorful additions and people pretty much congregated around this bad boy all afternoon.  

The Cake | I knew without a doubt I wanted to try my first rainbow layer cake and let me tell you, it looks much harder than it actually is!  I went the easy way, purchased two box mixes and three extra 8" cake pans to add to the three I already owned, and had fun picking out just the right gel food colors at Hobby Lobby.  The only challenge was this cake required a lot of frosting!  And next time, I probably would have substituted shortening for butter because my buttercream had just a hint of yellow. 

I may have geek'ed out a little when I cut into it and it looked like this!  "Almost" too pretty to eat!

The Fun | Instead of games this year I stuck to a simple craft at the table.  Thanks to our cute downtown store, Hatchling and Hens, I found a collection of simple ceramics for the kids (and Papa Curt) to paint.  The little rainbow trinket boxes were perfect for the party, and the big kids loved the baseball piggy banks.  I used acrylic paint which was cheap, easy to paint and reapply layers, and then bought a can of spray varnish to make them glossy and durable.  I also had little canvases for them to get creative in whatever way moved them.  They were so quiet while they painted and everyone commented that they're never like that when they get together!  I may need to get out the paints more often!

We sure had a great week celebrating our newly crowned six year old!