Okay, on to eating today. Breakfast.

Plain yogurt, ½ banana, pomegranate arils, muesli, peanut butter

Leftover Lunch.

spanakopita

Another green apple in a pink sweater

½ cup cottage cheese

And for dinner, I’m about to go out to The Saucy Noodle with some friends – but I’m currently making Meeker a big skillet of sausages with potatoes and hot peppers so he doesn’t starve when he gets home from work. I like being a wifey.

In the baby world…

My mother-in-law dropped off a bag of baby goodies for us today (as well as some stylish maternity outfits for me!)…they are too adorable. I can’t believe that we’re going to have a Baby Cake small enough to fit into these adorable little things in 6 months.

4:30 Wake up early…ugh, I hate working out, I don’t want to do it.

4:45 Just get out of bed, you’ll be glad you did

5:00 chug water, eat some grapes

5:30 head out the door for a run

6:30 I LOVE EXERCISE!!

6:35 Shower

7:00 Inhale breakfast

Shreddes wheat, corn flakes, coconut, carob chips, cinnamon, milk

7:40 – 11:20 Work (see also: teach/entertain/act/nurture/encourage/first aid/discipline/hug/laugh/tie shoes/clean/scribe/read)

11:20 – 11:45 Recess Duty

11:45 Inhale lunch

Corn, garbanzo beans, edamame, cottage cheese

Carrots, coconut butter, cinnamon, walnuts, tortilla – carrot cake inspired

12:10 – 3:45 Work (see also: teach/entertain/act/nurture/encourage/first aid/discipline/hug/laugh/tie shoes/clean/scribe/read)

3:45 – 4:15 Grade and Organize

4:15 – 5:00 Grocery Shopping

5:00 – 5:30 Bake a batch of these delicious gluten free cookies for a friend’s birthday

5:30 – 6:00 Shower/Dress

6:00 – 8:00 Monthly dinner with friends from Jr. High

salmon and spinach salad

8:00 – 8:45 Drive back to the suburbs

8:45 – Present Uh, I’m exhausted, I want sleep.

How many different hats do you wear during the day?
Sometimes I feel like my life is a giant juggling act. I know everyone experiences this, but today just seemed like a whirlwind. Not bad by any means. Just busy!

In the 3^rd grade world…

Apparently, my frazzled attitude today was evident in my appearance. My hair in this drawing says it all.

My day went quickly, which is always a good thing. It started  with a fantastic speedy workout as the sun was rising. I ran 100yd sprints in the wee morning hours, leaving me energized and enthusiastic about the day. I re-fueled with a green(ish) monster.

1 banana, ½ cup POM juice, 1 cup frozen spinach, ½ tsp. chia seeds, 2 cups water

During lunchtime, I had recess duty in 25mph winds. It was pretty miserable. I got a group of kiddos to exercise with me to stay warm – we skipped, hopped, ran, and grape-vined across the playground for 20minutes – we started calling ourselves the Terrific Tuesday Exercisers. Unfortunately, when I had my 10 minutes to actually eat lunch – my stomach was churning and revolting, so I ate a measly little snack instead.

½ cup cottage cheese, 2 celery ribs, ranch seasoning

My stomach started feeling better around 2pm, whereupon I had tea and a delicious bar.

I guess I’m on a carrot cake kick this week. This bar was so good! For dinner, I had leftover chili with some polenta that a co-worker gave me today (thanks Beth!)

I cooked the polenta in 3 cups chicken broth and 1 cup milk. So stinkin’ yummy – I am way excited that there are leftovers.

In the 3^rd grade world…

Today, my kiddos started obsessively playing a game that they call Cheese Touch. It’s basically an on-going game of tag. If someone has the cheese touch, he or she must pass the touch on to another student be poking the victim. However, the cheese touch doesn’t transfer if the recipient’s fingers are crossed. Thus, I had a classroom full of finger-crossed kids running around poking each other all day. Also worth mentioning, my ex-chinese student calls this game The Plague.

Did you play any weird games as a kid?

5:00am - Sliced apple

6:30am – green monster

½ avocado, ¾ cup frozen spinach, 2 strawberries, 1 cup rice milk

7:10 – Eggy/bagel sandwich with avocado

I’m always ravenous in the morning, especially when I work out. So my three-course breakfast barely filled my rumbling belly. But I had a very nice morning getting things checked off of my to-do list and before I knew it, it was 11:30.

Sweet potato with cottage cheese/hummus. Third time I’ve had this lunch. Yum-diddy.

Afternoon snack was an incredible treat from…you’ll never believe it…TONA! Even though her daughter is no longer in my class (or at my school), it hasn’t stopped her from spoiling me with yummies. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Tona!!

Yes, I want gluten-free carrot cake. This was hands-down the best carrot cake I’ve ever had. This took her FIVE HOURS to make, and let me tell you, it tasted like 5 hours of work. It was perfection.

I got home, went for a nice un-winding walk, and discovered this guy on my front porch.

I won this box of POM from dear Katie’s giveaway a few weeks ago – and I am THRILLED to put these little POM babies to good use. Any suggestions??!

After stashing my drinks in the fridge, I hunkered down for a bowl of chili.

Ground bison, black beans, corn, tomatoes – in the crock pot all day.

In the 3^rd grade world…

A few days ago, I had my kiddos write a paragraph responding to the prompt: What is something weird or funny that adults do? I got some fantastic, hilarious, creative responses, many of them worth sharing. One particularly insightful student wrote a paragraph that really made me laugh:

Adults can talk really funny and weird. To begin, they use their tone to make you want to do stuff. Their tone is nice, but serious. It also sounds demanding. It almost always works! Next, adults talk about weird adult stuff, like politics. They talk about presidents and the economy. Why do they care about the election? Last, they baby talk to you. This is freaky. It is also extremely weird. It is embarrassing, too. Sometimes it can be funny though. Certainly, even though adults talk weird, most of them are very kind. They give you candy. Adults are very, very nice.

I started early with this apple at about 5am…

But this shiny little friend was playing a joke on me…it was mushy and icky. So, I gave it to Punky after our morning walk

I wore her out this morning, and she curled up and fell fast asleep after her fruity breakfast. Then I made something fruity for myself.

Mango, ½ banana, frozen spinach, frozen strawberries, protein powder, water

I also had ½ ww bagel with peanut butter while I was teaching my math class about pie charts. Later on during lunch…

An absolutely fantastic sweet potato with a mix of hummus and cottage cheese in the middle. Ahhhhh, this was so good!! I might have the exact same thing for lunch tomorrow.

Unfortunately, my afternoon snack was less thrilling.

EEeeew, that blueberry Z Bar was so gross!! (Or as The BFG would say…uckyslush) The behind honey ww pretzels were great, but I’ve been burping up that nasty bar all afternoon. No bueno. I’ll stick to the chocolate kiddie clif bars.

After school, I went for a quick hill workout. I ran about a mile warm-up, sprinted up a hill 8 times (jogged down), and then home again. I felt great, BUT the wind was insane.

25mph winds in your face make running up a hill very difficult. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…I really dislike spring.

Another down side of that Z Bar (or at least that’s what I’m blaming it on…) is it gave me a very upset tummy. When I eat fruit + grains together, my stomach revolts in a major way. I think I’ll hold off on dinner for a while. Meeker will just have to scrounge, which makes me feel bad, considering he bought me these beautiful flowers after my hissy fit on Tuesday.

He’s a keeper.

In the 3^rd grade world…

Penguin boy raced up to me this morning to tell me that the whole “Mumbo Story” was a giant April Fool’s joke.

Personally, I think he just came up with the elaborate lie (which I fully appreciate), and then lucked out with April Fool’s day being a few days later. It’s very convenient that the only day in which it’s acceptable to lie to your teacher happened to be a few days later. But for some reason, I just don’t think that was his plan when he first introduced me to his Antarctic pet at the beginning of the week.

Your thoughts?

Oats in a very empty almond butter jar. I’m not even sure there was any almond butter in there – I cleaned that sucker out pretty well with a spoon earlier this week.

These oats were pure mush. I cooked ½ cup of oats in THREE cups of water for about 40 minutes (on low) while I got ready for work – the result…major volume. I also added a little plain yogurt to make them creamy and wonderful – then topped it all with a handful of Quaker oat squares. I sat down to eat this, and then realized I need to leave for work, so I screwed the cap on, and ate it at my desk instead.

The lighting is waaaay better at my school, anyways.

I drank a ton of water today (mostly because I didn’t pack enough food), and then for lunch, I had a measly few bites of soup (literally, like 5 bites) – it is a tiny Tupperware.

This deliciousness was left over from last night. It contained: ground turkey, zucchini, sweet potato, onion, garlic.

I also had some new applesauce (from a giveaway I won!)

…mixed with ½ cup of cottage cheese.

Ooh man, you MUST try this applesauce AND this combination. Holy moly, both incredible things.

And an orange!

Always so cheery!

Now I’m home, contemplating what to do for dinner and feeling a little lazy. Any suggestions? I may just snack while watching The Biggest Loser…just watching people on diets workout makes me hungry.

Highlights from the 3^rd grade world…

My kids are obsessed with red pens, and they are always smuggling them off of my desk. However, when I saw this, it totally made my day. Look closely, I’m wearing a shirt with my name on it!

Here are the highlights, in terms of food at least.

¼ cup cottage cheese, 1 sliced apple, a handful of toasted cashews and cinnamon

I also had a piece of toast to fill me up.

Lunch was a hodge podge

A salad dressed with hummus, leftover jambalaya and half a banana nut muffin that I swiped from the staff lounge.

Then around 4pm, I had a pretty substantial snack.

A tangelo, two fudge babies and a mini packet of sunbutter

After coming home, I really didn’t want to cook, so I threw together a salad…quick and tasty.

A Portobello garden burger, corn, black beans, salsa and a few chips. Perfect flavor combination.

I’m planning on another early morning spin class tomorrow, so I’m thinking a snack and an early bedtime are in order. Additionally, tomorrow is my last day of the week with kiddos! We have a teacher work day on Friday, so tomorrow is pretty much my last day of the week – and there are some fun activities planned in the third grade world.

What do you eat when you don’t feel like cooking?

I started my morning with a nice sunny run, followed by yoga for runners.

Then refueled with oats in a jar.

I added two egg whites while cooking to pump up the protein.

And coffee while I puzzled.

After a lot of laundry, cleaning up the backyard, and more puzzle time, I made lunch.

The heel of my homemade bread, scooped out, and filled with cottage cheese, spinach, chickpeas and ranch seasoning.

(That’s Meeker’s hand in the back, dutifully working while I chowed down)

Dessert was a hot cocoa baby

I actually managed to pull myself away from the puzzle (which, by the way, is a winter wonderland scene…a lot of white snow pieces) and ran some errands, cleaned the bathrooms, and then made a new recipe for dinner!

Plus a lovely side salad

Now, I’m gearing up for tomorrow. I’m so excited because I’m using my temporary gym pass and going to a 5:30 spin class in the morning! That means I not only have to pack lunch, but breakfast as well…I wonder how I’ll get my coffee…? I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Until then, there is a new loaf of bread in the bread maker, Jason Mraz
(who I absolutely l-o-v-e) is on TV, and I have spelling tests to grade.

Happy last few hours of the long weekend!

The first thing to go when work gets busy is my intake of protein. It is so much easier and (for me) more satisfying to eat fruit, bread and cookies. So this morning’s breakfast was my best effort at “comforting protein”…

Looks icky – but trust me and Emily, it was dang good.

Cottage cheese and pineapple? Nope. Scrambled eggs and cottage cheese? Yes.

Took about 3 seconds to make, and only a little longer to eat. It’s a win in my book.

***

In another news, this morning was my last run before my ½ marathon on Sunday. It was a little sad – and I stretched my 2 miles to 4 miles because I didn’t really want it to end. Plus it smelled like leaves outside and it was glorious. Hope you can stop and smell the leaves sometime today, it is so fall-like and earthy.

Since this post is pretty devoid of pictures, I will make it better with a picture of cute, snuggling kitties…

I’ll make this quick because I’m slowly turning into a zombie.

Lunch was awesome. So were snacks.

A mom in my class brings me a mocha every Wednesday – I appreciate it so much. She probably has no idea how much I look forward to that Kunjani deliciousness. Today was a white mocha, and I pretty much chugged it.

The Lara bar was my fave – peanut butter cookie. Ingredients: dates, peanuts, salt. How DO they do it?

In the cottage cheese container…

I am guessing there was ½ cup cottage cheese left. I added ½ cup garbanzo beans, ½ cup green beans, 4-5 black olives and some salt and pepper. It was heavenly.

Then around 2:30 (the kiddos were getting sweaty and stinky at PE) – I had 3 of the best cookies ever.

Wheat Germ Balls

It’ just now 8pm, and I am starting to feel some stomach growling, which doesn’t usually happen when I run in the evening. I didn’t expect to have dinner tonight…but it might just happen! Whohoo!

__

Funny story – I stapled my thumb to one of my student’s papers today. It was a complete and utter fiasco in the room. I got blood on his worksheet and he was freaking out, and the rest of the class was leaping on desks and chairs, trying to get a peek at the gore. Needless to say, we didn’t learn anything for the rest of the day…