PB Cookies and a 5k

How on earth did I cook before Pinterest?! I had a crazy craving for peanut butter last week - and found this recipe on Pinterest that did the trick. I originally had this great vision of sharing them with Kasey's family (who were in town for the weekend), but I have to be honest and tell you that the two of us have already eaten half of the batch. Whoops.

Dear Kathie Cooks, 

How did your PB Cookies (above) turn out so perfectly perfect? Mine were odd sizes and very bloppy. (Way to unattractive to post!) AND I burnt my fingers in the process. I have so much to learn!!

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BIG announcement: Kasey competed in his first ever 5k race on Saturday. Da-Da-Da-Da! We got up way to early for a weekday and walked in the Chief Wapello Days 5k. It was a double challenge for me: convincing Kasey to finish 3.2 miles with me in 90 degree heat AND getting him to set foot in the city of Wapello. 

We didn't win any awards - but we felt much better about our pancake breakfast afterward!

BBQ Pork

I was crazy excited about my new running shoes this morning - so getting out of bed for a morning workout was painless! For some reason, the yellow made me feel fast. That, and being able to run in sub-90s temps made for a great workout!

With great workouts comes great... FOOD! I knew that tonight had to be something good. Kase is headed off to camp this week and next (he's coaching basketball camp, but it's funnier if I picture him with a rolled-up sleeping bag) so I wanted to make a good country-style dinner for us. Enter Pinterest!

I used an easy-peasy 3-Ingredient BBQ Pork recipe. Special love to my Crockpot (Lord knows it did more work than I did!). It all went pretty smoothly (except the last-minute run to the grocery store for extra BBQ and to curb my grape craving). And if anyone can tell me a non-challenging way to shred hot, hot pork, I'm all ears!

It couldn't have turned out better -- BBQ pork sandwiches, fresh Iowa sweetcorn, and grapes on the deck! Tonight, this girl is lovin' the country!!

YUM-O!

And then I moved to the country.

I have been living in the country (small-town adjacent) with a boy for a month now. Woah! -- that is a lot of change that happened in one little sentence! It has been a good time - and I've had to do a few new, out-of-the-comfort-zone things: Norwex cleaning, twice the laundry, potting plants, and cooking-for-two.

Don't get me wrong - the area outside of my comfort zone is an area I hate. In the past month: I've killed Petunias (after being told that you can't kill Petunias), we've eaten more than our fair share of peanut butter sandwiches, and our home to-do list is still miles long.

I'm ready to take you all on the journey -- for many reasons I'm ready to commit to blogging. I am going to try and do it all (ha!). It's been a crazy month... but at least it comes with a good view!

Back to Basics...

I have decided to get back to the basics... the past few weeks I have been super grouchy (BF even called me out on in this weekend), and there is no excuse. I have been taking it out on my kiddos, my coworkers, and my friends. Unacceptable.

This weekend I had an epiphany -- HungryRunnerGirl style. I haven't had time made time to read her posts in for-ever. My blog reader was up to 50+ entries for her blog alone. And I was missing it… not only was I missing out on her amazing new announcement, but I also noticed that she (and my other blogger-friends) were still doing all the things that I missed doing. A ton. They were still running, cooking healthy food, and writing.

I’m not about to start making excuses… but here are a few things that have been part of my reality the past few weeks:

1. I have not been allowed to exercise the fast and easy way because of an injury – no 30-day Shred or running outside. I am only able to do the elliptical or swim at the gym. All of this meant that I avoided working out all together. I still did a little at the physical therapist – but my gym misses me.

2. My schedule has been really busy with things I normally don’t do. I applied to, interviewed for, and accepted a new teaching job in the fall. All in a matter of 18 days. (Yikes!) I had forgotten how much work applying for jobs was. It’s a job in itself! Everything else fell to the way-side.

3. I haven’t been eating as healthily as I did last year at this time – we didn’t do a ‘Wellness Challenge’ at school this year, and I epically failed at keeping myself motivated. I miss vegetables. And not feeling crappy.

4. I haven’t been writing. No explanation here, I just haven’t done it. I know my two readers out there don’t miss me! (Two is being way generous.) But it’s something I’ve missed.

So, this week and next (hello-spring-break!) I am going to work on getting back to all the things I loved doing this last spring and summer. I am going to make time for running, healthy eating (less fast-food), writing/reading, and – most importantly – reading blogs.

Workout Addict

Something has changed me -- I've become a workout addict.

Over the past 6 months I've been building to this... it's been a little rough at times, but I've made huge leaps (signed-up for a Y membership, ran a 5k) and I'm finally to the point where I need to be active everyday. My first two weeks of summer have really kicked my addiction into high gear. I wake up thinking about going to the gym and am tracking workouts on my google calendar (using my fav color, purple of course).

I feel like I can narrow my new addiction down to three basic causes: 1) Lately, I have chosen to surround myself by very active (and very happy) people. 2) Workout clothes are super cute and super comfy. 3) It's the summer... what else am I going to do with my extra time?

The best part of this new addiction is that it comes from a great place -- not a place of wanting to loose weight or look different -- it comes from a place of wanting to be happier, healthier, and more active... What a great place to be!

It's Complicated...

I remember a few years ago when the phrase "it's complicated" became a relationship option on facebook -- I remember giggling. A lot. It didn't seem to occur to me at the time that there was something other than 'single' or 'in a relationship' or that people would be willing to publicize it! But now that I'm living out in the big dating world, I've come to the decision that all twenty-something relationships are complicated. When I think of all my friends who are single or in dating relationships (let's leave out marriages for now -- mainly because I don't know the first thing about being married!) they all have some sort of issue in their relationships; not enough to end a connection, just enough to make things complicated.

Even right now amongst my close friends, there is a seemingly endless list of complications... But, he's five years younger than I am. But, she lives half-way across the country. But, he just doesn't do relationships. But, we work together. But, she has an ex-husband. But, he has a daughter. But, he doesn't always answer my calls. And (my personal fav) but, he's nothing I'm looking for in a relationship.

As single twenty-somethings (honestly -- closer to thirty-something), we have already lived... some of us more than others. It's hard to merge our baggage with another person's; what if it doesn't all fit? Complicated seems like something that's impossible to avoid. But, I haven't yet admitted defeat -- I'm not ready to accept that I will be "it's complicated" with someone. I am going to hold out for that perfect situation.

Newsies

One of my favorite grown-up discoveries is watching a movie or reading a book I lovedwhen I was younger and finding a brand new way to appreciate it. Over Spring Break, I had a chance to watch the musical The Newsies and fall in love all over again....

The Newsies is based on the newsboys strike of 1899 -- the newsboys wanted to gain respect of the newspapers they worked for and wanted lower paper costs. So, inspired by the recent trolly workers' strike, the boys decided to go on strike and gain support for their cause. At that time, the only way to spread information/news in New York was through the papers -- if it wasn't in the papers noone knew about it and it didn't happen. (Here comes my favorite part.) The most powerful men in New York were Pulitzer and Hearst -- owners of the World and the Journal -- who didn't want to spread word of the newsboys strike, and refused to publish it. The newsboys all but gave up, they were too small to fight alone and had no way to spread word and gain support. As all good Disney movies do, The Newsies has a happy ending -- the newsboys found a way to publish their own paper encouraging all child labor to join their cause. Cue big singing/dancing finale.

My recent love of this movie comes fron recognizing how opposite our students have it now -- around the turn of the 20th century, those with money and power determined what was news; now, barely a century later, the average person has the power to share the news. Anyone can have a blog, or social media account. CNN.com ranks it's online articles by reader popularity (not by publisher opinion). And just a few years ago on twitter, Ashton Kutcher (an Iowa boy) proved that one person can have more followers than the most popular news network in the world.

The possiblities are endless for our students -- they don't need to gain the permission of newspaper publishers to get out information about their cause. It's possible for them to spread the word and enlist help on their own. What a powerful concept. Social media is shaping their generation. Information has never been so readily available, and it has never been so easy for students to publish their own stories. However, (here comes the teacher twist) students need to be and deserve to be taught how to use this power responsibly.