Life is a Carnival


This weekend I took my favorite Pokémon trainer and 11th Doctor (from Dr. Who, of course) to my school carnival. I tried to be a deer and, while I think I really rocked my makeup, it was hard to tell if I was a squirrel, deer or lion. I suppose I’m a ‘squeerion’. He he he! Nonetheless, we had an excellent time helping kids make beaches in bottles, touring the local haunted hallway and running around like a kid is supposed to after eating too much sugar and having more freedom than usual. It was a great night! And I promise I wasn’t trying to be overly serious, I looked like a dog when I smiled! Too confusing!  Look:


Anyhow…

Today I was working away in my kitchen, making my evening meals for the week, considering why it is that I’ve been able to maintain my weight without really paying a lot of attention to it.  In fact, I’ve been avoiding weighing myself until I finally bit the bullet yesterday.  As I was peeling carrots and prepping broccoli and Brussels sprouts, as I was pressing steamed cauliflower and potatoes through the ricer, I started considering what I was doing at that very moment: I was preparing healthy (mostly) food for my family to eat for the week.  Because I’m preparing multiple meals at once, I don’t prepare intentional leftovers.  I make serving sizes so there’s not room for overeating.  It’s not intentional, it just kind of naturally happens as a time saver mid-prep of five meals.  I haven’t even been prepping the healthiest food- it’s all about moderation.  We’ve been eating broccoli cheese bakes and cheesy potatoes- just reasonable servings.  It’s been brilliant and, more than anything, a pound saver, too.  I have my evenings back as well as healthy meals for dinner.  Better than all of that, though, is I never have to answer the ‘What do you want for dinner?’ question that I hate answering more than any other, that one.

We also attended a funeral for my best friend’s dad this week.  It was really shocking, in a way, to see all of those photographs with the artifacts from my own childhood, right there.  It’s funny how you really curate and preserve your own family and home, but it took me by surprise to see all of the same photographs, furniture, and artifacts from someone else’s life and realize how much my life merged with theirs.  What a flashback and beautiful service.


{I made this for my Orca Running Ambassador bio pic and thought I’d share here, too. }

Cheers for a great week.  It’s parent teacher conferences for me with a celebration on Friday to kick off my birthday weekend.  I just happened to see that Ben Folds, whom I have adored for years, has come on tour with just his piano and will be playing the Mount Baker Theater in Bellingham this Friday.  I saw him once when he opened for John Mayer, whom I don’t enjoy, but I’ve been waiting for the just right opportunity to see him again- not at a college or in a big stadium again.  I wanted a pared down experience, small venure, small band, and this is perfect.  I know he swears like a sailor, but after Pitbull and Macklemore made the scene in our house I realized my kids have heard it before.  When considering leaving them in a nearby hotel or bringing them along, we decided to bring them along!  I’m SO EXCITED to finally see Ben with my whole family!!!