Rainy Day Boxes for Kids Classrooms

By request...a few of my momma friends who have kids just entering school wanted some ideas for ⛈rainy day boxes. 

Here are my tips:

✅when you buy shoes over the summer or during the year I always save the sturdiest shoe box I purchase shoes in....

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Best lunch container for kids!

Back by popular demand...here is my favorite 🍴lunch containers for my kids. 

They are available on Amazon and they are the brand EasyLunchBoxes. These containers have a tight fitting lid and they fit in most lunch boxes.

Transformation Tuesday

6 years ago, my husband bought a program called P90X 💪🏻from my sister Shawna Penney new Beachbody business.

At the time, I was a mom to 3 kids (Baby #4 was was still a dream) and had never even seen an informercial for P90X.

Every morning Shawn Novak would relentlessly wake up at 5:00 am and do his hour long workouts. I couldn't fathom doing this, as I was still being woken multiple times a night feeding number 3. 

Doesn't he look amazing? He has been able to maintain his P90X results over these last 6 years with various Beachbody programs but that program is what got those amazing abs and love for fitness.

As Shawn is preparing to complete another HUGE goal of running 👣his first (and probably only) Chicago Marathon he will enhance his training with doing another round to support his wife as I embark on my goal of doing this program (ps Happy Wedding 💍Anniversary today!!!!)

Recipe: the MOST AMAZING pancakes

Pancake lovers!

Sharing a recipe I stumbled up (quite literally as Tyler dumped an entire smoothie on his head, the floor, everywhere!!!!!).

They were delicious and kids gobbled them up!!!

Banana Pancakes - Once Upon a Chef

TESTED & PERFECTED RECIPE - Fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside, & delicately flavored with bananas, these are phenomenal banana pancakes.

WWW.ONCEUPONACHEF.COM

My P90X Team...introducing these rockstars

I wanted to introduce you to the P90X 💪🏻team. 

This group of 👪 individuals...moms, dads, executives, nurses...busy people people just like YOU have all committed to doing a 90 Day Beachbody program P90X.

Our results will all greatly vary, all of us have different fitness backgrounds and goals. Our common area is we want to try to improve our flexibility, fitness and make some changes to our health while having FUN!

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P90X Fit Test

My journey with P90X 💪🏻begins TODAY (well technically Monday) with the fit test. 

What surprised me was how much flexibility, endurance and strength I lost by taking it easy this summer with my workout.

Before you begin a program (as painful as it is to see that tangible reminder) take your before pics (I'm keeping these a surprise till the end) and measurements so you can see what you 👏🏻ACCOMPLISHED!!

My 90 Day Challenge - NO JUNK

$3.48 is what it takes to continually sabotage my 🍩GOALS. How small of a price to pay for something so large!!

Not even talking physical goals but my desire to feel healthier? Have you ever noticed how sluggish you feel after you pound sugar? I made the decision to get rid of the junk (and yes, I may have eaten my way through the stuff sitting in the house).

I am committed to my no junk challenge (no working out...all you do is share what you eat)! Let me know if you would like to join my 21 day 🍒free group to help you stay accountable!! This is going to be a fantastic combination with my P90X group which begins this morning!!!

P90X - early morning workout

Creeping so quietly down the stairs to not wake up anyone for my early morning workout...best part is the children were all nestled all snug in their 💤💤 beds....UNTIL I finished 👏🏻👏🏻.

Even better was the exact moment I finished this little guy popped his head in the workout room and said BOO👻

Organization Tip: Lunch Box Notes

Organization school tip for today! Who doesn't want a smooth start to the school 🍎year? 

I pre-write my kids notes so I can just grab it and put it in the lunchbox. Big time saver!!!

Week 1 of P90X wrapped up

My P90X team & I just wrapped up week 1 of our 90 Day Challenge!! 

I need some extra motivation for a marvelous (and busy) Monday, so my favorite organization TIP to give yourself a jumpstart for the next day is to layout your workout clothes so your prepared in morning. How often do you go to workout only to find your missing a critical item (yup that means getting all that laundry done)!!!

Some highlights from the week:

✅ challengers are surprised are quickly the 45-60 minute workouts go daily.

✅workouts are 6 days a week with 1 rest day. Abs are worked 3 times a week. 

✅The workouts range in difficulty and there is always a modification if a move is too challenging at first.

✅ you will feel AMAZING & super proud of what you accomplished!!!

Keep it up team!! Let's start a fantastic week 2!!!

P90X 💪🏻total synergistic

🍎Marvelous Monday!!🍎

Here is a move from P90X 💪🏻total synergistic. 

My form still isn't perfect but this move is better than last week. Progress but not perfection! You can do it! Never give up!

-0:31

Organization tip: How to make your kid's lunch boxes STANDOUT

When your making your back to school 🍎lunches here is a tip so your child can easily find their lunchbox. (Because we all know that most young girls 💖 Justice!!).

Take a photo or a luggage tag/something identifiable and secure with a zip tie. 

My #3 child loves elephants so I'm laminating an elephant tag for her). This makes it so easy for them to grab when there are a bunch of similar lunch boxes.

20s - Reality meets FITNESS

Television is so boring right now. I have just the thing for you.

For my customers with Beachbody On Demand there is a fun reality show (think Real World meets fitness enthusiasts).

Group of fit 20 year olds who are striving to be the next celebrity trainer.

And best part is you can watch for FREE on Beachbody Demand. New episodes every Monday.

Now excuse me while I go watch episode 2!

Share or tag a friend or coach who has on demand so they learn about the show!

P90X ~ It's time for me!

It's time to pull out an oldie but a goodie. My hubby started his love for Beachbody at home workouts with the program P90X. I think I was pregnant or in between babies when he purchased so many years ago so it has never dawned on me to attempt this intense program. Honesty, I probably rolled my eyes when he purchased the DVDS from my sister as I didn't know what Beachbody was. And with our growing family I believed (incorrectly) that he was just wasting money.

Fast forward to NOW! With three children in school full day and my baby 4 years old it is time to take back my health and life and commit to an intense 90 day program that can really challenge me. 

So, here it goes. Start date is 8/8/16. I took before photos in my workout clothes and for a more realistic before in my bathing suit. Shows all the flaws but hopefully there will be some definition and toning in 90 Days. Here we go!!!

Nope, you don't always finish a program you start

If you saw my post about 22 minute Hard Corps and were curious on my results WELL....I didn't finish. I didn't even start. My plan was to try all the workouts and then start the program. But summer happened. And 4 kids happened. And tantrums and LIFE.

For what I DIDN'T do, I DID sample the workouts! They are fun, quick and have appropriate modifications for all levels.

I'll probably give this a try in the future.

NOW...on to what I have going on next...stay tuned.

22 Hard Corps

22 minutes per day...no warm up...does this appeal to you? It didn't appeal to me at first but I am intrigued and ordered it. Don't worry...you will get updates from me on what I honestly think.

Healthier Tator Tot Casserole

AMAZING RECIPE ALERT!!!

I have had tator tot casserole in the past and while yummy I didn't like the condensed soup that was in it. So I decided to play around with my own version. It was so good that we literally did not have own single bite left. 

This fed 6 people (2 adults and 4 kids)

• 1 pound organic ground beef
•  1/2 cup Italian breadcrumb seasoning
• himalayan pink salt
• garlic powder
• ketchup
• black pepper
• cheddar cheese
• 1/2 bag tator tots

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

2. Put the tator tats in a single layer on a baking sheet to start cooking 

3. Brown the ground beef on the stove...while it is browning mix in the seasonings

4. Using a 9 x 9 glass baking dish put the ground beef in after cooked

5. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top

6. Take tator tots out of the oven and sprinkle on top

Put back into the oven to finish cooking the tator tots and melt the cheese.

ENJOY! Let me know how you like it.

Project: Ladies Closet

Yes, I do LOVE a closet project!!

This was a fun project for me because it was a closet that was a blank slate. The only true problem with the closet was that it had too many clothes (what lady doesn't??) and no system in which to organize the clothing. 

Here is what I did to make it more functional:

• Go through her clothes to see which clothes could be donated (I know it is so hard to part with your items but if you haven't worn it in a year or don't feel great in it you should consider donating it to someone else who could love it!)
• Take everything out and vacuum it...starting with a fresh clean slate makes it easy to visualize the space
• Purchase SlimLine Hangers (I recommend all my clients get the 35 pack from Costco...Costco don't every discontinue these as they are a fantastic deal!)
• Re-hang all the clothing that passed the test on these new hangers that fit much better in the closet

• Purchase and put up a double hanging 
• rod for the shirts and pants to hang on the bottom rack
• Sort clothes and put in appropriate bins on the top of the closet...some examples of clothing we put on the top were workout clothes, bathing suits, cover ups, warm weather clothes...

                                       

This project took about 4 hours and about $200 in supplies. Wouldn't you say it is well worth it for a closet you can find your clothing and LOVE entering???

Spring time is the perfect time to call me to talk about working on your home space. Give me a call I would love to help you make your space picture perfect!!

 

How to save $$$$ with your Disney vacation

TRAVEL TIP: Every once in awhile, I run into an idea that is too good not to share. If you are planning a Disney cruise or vacation I wanted to share how you can save at least 5%!

Sam's Club offers packs of gift cards for a discount. For a $150 pack you can purchase it for $142.98. That is a savings of $7.02 on every $150. 

OR...Target has gift cards available online or at the store. But you need to use your REDCARD to get the 5% savings. 

On our upcoming cruise vacation I was able to say approximately $224.

BUT...let's say you want to save additional money?? Well, you need to look at your credit cards to figure out which would be the best to use for the purchase of the gift cards. I chose a card that offers 1% cash back (and it goes without saving that you need to have the money in the bank to pay off your statement when the bill comes:). That is another $47 that you can earn back.

Then you use the gift cards to pay for your vacation. In my case, I used Costco to book travel (there is an additional cost savings there). Costco will accept these gift cards as payment (they call Disney and process them with you on the line).

PS. You can convert your cards into a single card of $1,000. You just visit www.disneygiftcard.com to accomplish this!

Every little bit helps when planning a vacation! Hope you enjoy this Thursday Travel Tip!!!!

Project C: Children closets

Closet 1...Added in fabric striped bins from Target and organized the clothes by size. Also, made sure that all the clothes were on the same type of hanger (yes, I'm anal but it does produce a nice, uniform appearance).

Closet 2: A very large closet that can accommodate toys. Nothing purchased just organized the items in there.

Closet 3: fabric striped bins purchased from Target and an existing bookshelf moved into the closet. Bins are perfect for storing toys out of sight but still accessible for a child to play with and store.

Project B: Master closet

Project B was a master ladies closet. When she moved in she just had the movers put stuff in the closet and as you can see it is not the most productive to her lifestyle or to her beautiful clothes or shoes. 

BEFORE

In all fairness, her shoes were NOT sprawled on her closet floor. This happened when we were organizing her home office. We repurposed the shoe containers for her office supplies. 

First thing I did was take everything out of the closet...that's right...not one thing was left in there. 

What did I buy? The beautiful gray baskets (Container Store) and open front flap shoe containers. I like these because you don't have to unstack shoe containers to take your shoes out.

 AFTER

I had to laugh because I don't own a single pair of high heels anymore. Gone with the days of babes. Some of her heels were so tall that I had to put them upside down to get them to fit in the container. But doesn't that display so much nicer?

She had these wonderful slim line beige and black hangers. These are my absolute favorite hangers. I took all the clothes off the wire dry cleaner hangers, all the clothes out of the bags and organized them by season, color and article of clothing.

What's in the baskets? Not used handbags, little totes or special memory pieces.

Would you love a closet like this? Beautiful!

Project A: Home office organization

BEFORE

Project A is a person who just moved into their house. At the busiest time of the year...right after the holidays and has little children. When would she have time to get her house in functioning order? Maybe when her kids are out of the house and not making messes faster than she can keep up with them.

Kristina to the rescue!

The beauty of this project was that she already owned the containers that we used so it didn't cost her 1 cent. We just re-purposed and put new systems in place.

AFTER

 One happy girl! She is now ready to start her power hour as a 5 star Diamond Coach!

How to sear chicken...finally, the perfect trick!!

What happens when you have tried every method to get the most perfect chicken? Crockpot, oven, boil, grill...all great but what if your looking for the PERFECT finish. Do you give up? NO! You find a way that FINALLY produces the result you are desiring and I wish someone would have shared this secret with me years ago.

Here is how to get mouth watering, moist, crispy on the outside chicken! Perfect for any main dish or a salad. 

• Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a pan on medium high heat
• put chicken on the pan and let sit for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. I know it is tempting to peak and make sure it is cooking properly but I promise if you let it be it will cook right overtime.
• After 2-3 minutes flip to the other side and cook insides thoroughly 

When finished let sit for a few minutes and then serve as desired!

Enjoy!!

Sunday workouts?

Sunday workouts...not really a fan as I would prefer a rest day. But at least all my cheerleaders were helping me get through the workout👏🏻 more the merrier right?