What’s Up Wednesday {Oct. 30, 2019}

I can’t believe it is almost November… my daughter’s birthday month and Thanksgiving! And, tomorrow is Halloween! What are your plans for Halloween? We will probably go out to dinner and then the kids will trick or treat for a bit.

Today I’m joining Shay from Mix & Match Mama and Sheaffer for their What’s Up Wednesday!

What We’re Eating This Week

I get freebies in the mail from Influenster from time to time and recently they sent me their Pioneer Woman Pasta Sauce. Yum! When Friday comes around, I am just ready for a quick and easy dinner solution… Ain’t got time for anything else, because I’d rather be spending my time with my family! Well, Pioneer Woman Rustic Bolognese Pasta Sauce has come to the rescue… it is a rich and meaty pasta sauce with delicious bites of beef and pork in a tangy tomato sauce. I cooked it with these adorable pumpkin pasta noodles, topped with some bruschetta and parmesan cheese and fall shaped tortilla chips on the side. DEE-lish!

What I’m Reminiscing About

Halloween is so different these days! The kids still both trick or treat (my son probably won’t for too much longer), but gone are the days when *I* got to pick out their costumes! I think my favorite costume year was when BOTH kids were birds! Nathan was an Angry Bird and Autumn was a precious little baby owl. Her costume was from Pottery Barn Kids and oh, do I remember drooling over their baby and kid costumes every year. Yep, no more! The kids had a half day last week and we went to Walgreens to load up on movie snacks and watched a couple of Halloween movies at home. What is your favorite Halloween movie?

What I’m Loving

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What We’ve Been Up To

A big one around here is that Nathan got braces!! I was so glad I did it on a 4 day weekend where they had 2 bonus days off of school. He was in a lot of pain for the first two days and could only eat food that was really soft. He kept telling me all he wanted was chicken nuggets, but he couldn’t eat them. Poor boy!! He is doing much better now. We did have to make a trip back to the orthodontist to get two wires in the very back trimmed down, but otherwise it’s been going ok.

What I’m Dreading

I’m dreading the winter and sickness, hopefully this will be a good winter for us with little to no snow/ice or illness! I really wished I lived somewhere warmer!

What I’m Working On

Every year, I try to take on 1-3 cleaning/organizing projects and right now I’m working on the unfinished basement (I worked on cleaning up the finished part of the basement last year). It is a mess and I’m to the point where I just want to donate/trash most of it! Plus, we’re talking about moving this spring or summer, so I figure the less we have to pack up and move, the better. Which, BTW… I’ve been in this house since the year 2000! I’ve broken the unfinished basement into 7 areas’ and I hope to knock out an area in 1-2 days… and finish all of it up before Christmas break! Does anyone else go to Goodwill so often that they know you when you arrive? Uhh, yeah… that is me. The kids are at an age now where the toys/clothes are transitioning out and I’m just ready for them to be gone (except, I’ll be keeping some treasured items, such as Autumn’s American Girls dolls, etc.)

What I’m Excited About

When I worked on a campaign with Dietz & Watson last fall, we got to go to the Dierbergs cooking school for a couple of cooking classes that featured their products. I’ve been wanting to go back there for a date night with Brian, but when I started looking at their class offerings I landed up booking a class for ALL of us (it is for 5th-8th graders and their parents, which is perfect!) where we make some fun holiday appetizers and then I booked an afternoon tea time for Brian and I. I LOVE tea time, so I’m really looking forward to it!

What I’m Watching/Reading

I really enjoyed The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren… especially since we just went to Maui this summer and that is where most of the book is at. I wish I had read this while we were in Maui, because it is a nice light read… would be the perfect summer/pool/beach read. It was cute, romantic and the characters (well, all except for one!) were likable. It’s basically about twin sisters and one of them (Ami) recently marries, but then the entire wedding party gets sick and she can’t go on this honeymoon that she ‘won’. She lets her twin sister go in her place with her husband’s brother. On this ‘un’honeymoon they don’t get along… until… they do. 🙂 I’ll leave it at that.

What I’m Listening To

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I haven’t started this yet, but I plan to listen to it on Audible in my car. I found out about The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal book from Vivian Gill, one of the coaches at FASTer Way. She did a Facebook Live and mentioned this book in it and I really liked the concept and idea of it and decided to put it on my to read list.

The book talks about how stress is always thought of as something BAD and harmful for you mentally and physically. But, Kelly McGonigal talks about how you can look at stress outside the box, in a different conventional way. Instead of seeing stress as a way your body is reacting to something in a bad way, you can look at stress as a GOOD thing… it helps you to focus, gives us energy to tackle new goals, etc.

For instance, have you ever heard of white coat syndrome? It can give you high blood pressure at a doctor appointment, whereas at home your blood pressure is fine. As soon as you get in the doctor’s office, you start to worry or get anxious… but, what if you told yourself how wonderful is it that you’re taking care of yourself, taking time to get in for this appointment and won’t it be great to see the results of all of the hard work you’ve put into eating healthy, exercising, etc. Just changing your mind’s PERSPECTIVE on the situation, can turn the stress into something GOOD and not bad. Kelly McGonigal talks about how stress isn’t harmful to our body if we look at it as something positive and not negative… that the harmful effects of stress won’t harm us if we see it as something natural and good.

What I’m Wearing

Recently, I went to an outdoor wedding and I decided to style this brown dress with white polka dots for the fall. On the left you’ll see how I styled it for the summer. I added a mustard cardi, the new bag I got from my Fall Box of Style and a pair of booties. I decided to knot the dress to show a little more leg, since it was a midi length.

What I’m Doing This Weekend

Every month, the FASTer Way to Fat Loss does a monthly challenge. Last month, in October they did a 21 Day Sugar Cleanse, which helped me in SO many ways. Now, in November they’re challenging everyone to do a 5K (3.1 miles) turkey trot/run on Thanksgiving day! I’m so excited and this weekend I’ll be starting the 5 week training for it. The race I am planning to run is at the Six Flags amusement park outside St. Louis. Runners get to run through the amusement park, passing rides and “behind the scenes” areas normally closed to the public. It’ll be fun, I think! Ha! I haven’t done a race in a couple of years… so, we’ll see if I can even run 3.1 miles anymore. I typically run 6-7 miles a week still, but never over 1.5 miles at a time. I’m planning to run it for pleasure, not for any specific time goal.

What I’m Looking Forward to Next Month

Autumn has a birthday in November and we are planning to have a sleepover with the girls in her class. It’ll be fun to have a girls night and I’m looking forward to spending time with her and her friends and planning some fun activities to do! She is getting to be so grown up… time needs to slow down!

What Else Is New

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