Zoo Adventures and Cookies for Days
Hello there friends and welcome back to another, fresh week. There’s something I love about Mondays and although I miss the extra time with family, I do love the newness each Monday brings. I have some big goals this week (I want to get most of Christmas shopping done this week!) and I can’t wait to crank them out.
I hope you all had a refreshing weekend and as sit here, this Monday morning, listening to Christmas Shoes (this song always gets me!) I feel so refreshed and rejuvenated. I am so thankful for the weekends that leave me feeling this way.
Before I get on too long of a tangent, let’s start this weekend recap, sound good?
Saturday
While Landon slept in a little, Niah and I woke up early and had a slow breakfast together. I made him a buckwheat pancake, I sipped on some coffee and had devotions. After Landon woke up, I made a skillet of scrambled eggs + veggies and we enjoyed every bite. Often times, Saturdays are our project days and this Saturday was no different. As we had our breakfast, we talked over our to-do lists, and made an action plan on how to execute our lists.
Saturday went by in a blur of activity, ranging from cleaning the house, planning out Christmas gifts, and calling a client.
After an easy lunch of chicken salads, we decided to get festive and make Christmas cookies. I don’t know if this happens to you guys, but whenever Christmas time comes my dormant sweet tooth makes a powerful appearance. It is the strangest thing, but I really never craves cookies until Christmas time. And then, once the month of December comes around, I want ALL THE COOKIES. It must be a subconscious need or my body just craves the experience of eating cookies during the festive Christmas season. Either way, I’m rolling with it and enjoying the occasional cookie, because I’m all about that balanced life.
We decided to make chocolate chip cookies, from the Run Fast, Eat Slow cookbook (my new favorite cookbook!) and they turned out amazing! I used a new to me, flour (teff flour) and LOVED the flavor it added. They had an almost slightly salty flavor – sweet and salty? Yes please.
After we made cookies, Landon and Niah took a man trip to the hardware store, while I talked to a new client and finished up some coaching projects.
We spent our Saturday evening eating more chicken salads (because our lunch tasted so good) and eating Halo Top. Yes and yes.
Sunday
I had these amazing plans to run 10 miles Saturday morning, however, thanks to some interrupted sleep, I slept way past my intended wake up time. My ten mile run ended up turning into a two mile run. And although I was bummed to miss out on some mileage, I was thankful to just get moving and enjoy the fresh (freezing) air outside.
I was excited to see my pace around an 8 min/mile average (with the second mile below 8 min pace)! It’s been a while since I’ve been in the 7 min miles. Hitting those speeds makes me so happy!
After I got back home, I made a quick protein shake, while Landon took his turn to run. Benaiah loves our smoothies, so I made him his own little shake and we both enjoyed our smoothies together. He is at such a fun, interactive stage and watching little things bring such delight to his little self is so much fun.
We spent our morning at church and were blessed by an amazing sermon. You know those sermons that are exactly what you needed to hear? < That was yesterday’s sermon. Friday evening, we made plans to head to the zoo on Sunday afternoon. So, after church, we headed back home to grab a few things and shortly afterwards, headed to the zoo!
I don’t know if I’ve ever been the zoo so late in the year, but it was fun to experience walking around the zoo in the later hours. This zoo had a special light show, which was beautiful and light up the entire park! Our friends, Paul, Kimberly and Will (our tree farm friends!) met us at the park and we walked around for a couple hours together. I feel like it is these kind of moments that turn into beautiful memories. It was so fun watching the boys’ facial expressions as they looked at the light displays and animals.
My favorite? The monkeys. This gorilla was carrying her baby on her back, which of course, brought on all the mom feels.
After looking at animals for a while, we ate our packed dinners and the guys split some fries. Although it was freezing, our awesome company and the sheer experience of doing something new together, made it so worth it.
We left the zoo right around seven. Benaiah went down really well, once we got home, and Landon and I finished our weekend by watching a Charlie Brown Christmas with more cookies. It’s Christmas time.
I hope you all had a fun, restful weekend! Catch you all tomorrow.
Questions
- What was the best part of your weekend?
- Do you all like going to the zoo or no?
- What is your favorite Christmas cookie?