Day: February 21, 2019

Posted in Mom Life

Wake Up to Success in 4 Easy Steps

Posted on by 3toddlermom

I would never have considered myself a morning person. Nor a night owl. I’m good going to bed early and sleeping in late! Ha! But now that Sweet Love is over a year old and I’m finally sleeping through the night again (Praise Jesus!!) I’m finding that I am becoming a morning person.

Crazy as it is to say this, I LOVE getting up before the sun! Mainly because it means I have time alone. No kids. No noise. No phone. No rush. No dishes. No laundry. No sweeping. Just me and my glass of water, my Youtube workout, and my Bible.

I’ve worked out off and on all my life and have never gotten crazy over-weight but after Sweet Love was born I was up to the highest weight I had ever been at. I gained weight with each pregnancy and never really lost it all after having each baby. Which is probably typical, but dangerous because it only makes it harder to lose later. Anyway, I decided I had to do something about this weight gain. Especially because we plan to have at least one more kid and I can’t just keep putting on another 10 lbs each time we have a kid!

So I started eating less. Not necessarily a ton healthier, just less. And I started working out. It was slow at first. I just did a quick post-pregnancy DVD whenever I had time. (I wore loose fitting yoga pants all day anyway…might as well just work out!) But I started to get addicted to it. And now I work out for 20-30 minutes or do a 10-15 minute stretch every morning.

Back to the topic at hand – Waking Up to Success in 4 Easy Steps! I’ve read those blogs like 10 Things Every Mother Should Do Before 10:00 and 20 Things You’re Not Doing That You Should Be Before Your Kids Wake Up. While these tips are amazing, they usually just stress me out and make me feel like a horrible person! UGH! So I thought, let’s make it simple for people. 4 Steps is way easier than 10, right?!

So here they are:

  1. Wake Up At the Same Time Every Day  – This advice has always been hard for me to accept. I want a day off! Please let me sleep in! But I’m finding that if I get up at 5:30 consistently, without hitting the snooze button, I feel so much better come Monday morning. It’s not a struggle every week to get back into the routine. Plus, I’ve come to cherish my alone time in the mornings so much that getting up early is more exciting than it is drudgery.
  2. Drink a Full Glass of Water  –But I NEED my coffee!! Sure, I love coffee too and drink a couple mugs full before my kids wake up. But I always fill up a glass of water first. It helps re-hydrate me after going 7-8 hours without water and it motivates me to drink more water throughout the day.
  3. Work Out/Stretch  – I had always heard of those fairy tale women that worked out first thing in the morning and thought, that is them. This is me! But since I started doing it, I have absolutely loved it. I typically do MWF workout for 20-30 minutes. It’s really not that long but it has had a BIG impact on my waistline and energy level. Then Tuesday/Thursday and weekends I do a quick 10-15 minute stretch. It helps wake me up without having to think too hard.
  4. Spend Time with God –This is the most important part of my morning routine. I have a sweet devotional that I got from my father-in-law for Christmas that I do every morning. I’ve been reading through the Old Testament since last summer and have been loving having a plan for my reading. I’m not going fast by any means. I started last summer and I’m about half way through. Man, the Bible is so full of amazing stories and wisdom. If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend it.

If these 4 steps are overwhelming, start with ONE. This 4 step morning has taken me about a year to fully implement and I still don’t do it perfectly every morning. Sometimes Hubby and I stay up past 11:00 and I typically hit snooze a couple times the next day. Sometimes, Princess decides she wants to be wide awake at 6:00 am and Bible reading becomes a bit more difficult! I give myself all kinds of grace and you should give yourself grace too. 🙂 Look at this as a list of ways to make life easier rather than just another list of things to add to your already hectic schedule.

So raise your water glass as we toast to an amazing morning, leading to a fabulous day, setting the course for an outstanding life. Cheers!

Posted in Recipes

Nana’s Ever Tender Pot Roast

Posted on by 3toddlermom

Marrying my husband was a sweet deal! Getting his mom as a mother-in-law, made the deal that much sweeter. She’s a lovely woman of God and has taken me in like a daughter. In a world where so many women don’t get along with their mother-in-laws, I’m so grateful to have the healthy relationship that we do.


Besides having a giant, generous heart, she also makes the most amazing roast I’ve ever tasted.

Growing up, I requested roast beef every year for my birthday. And it was yummy! But my mother-in-law makes it like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. It is, no joke, tender every single time she makes it. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It melts in my mouth and I typically eat so much that they have to roll me away from the dinner table. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

So are you ready for her secrets? If you like beef, you’re going to love this recipe!

Secret #1 Always use CHUCK ROAST. She typically gets hers at Sam’s Club. She’s tried different roasts from our freezer and they never turn out the same. Stick with a chuck roast.

Secret #2  Season and sear the meat before baking. It’s a simple step that locks in all the flavor and makes a huge difference in the end result. Searing is just the simple process of browning either side of the roast on the stove top. I usually do it in the same pot I use to put it in the oven.

Secret #3  Don’t skimp on the beef bouillon. I don’t know the science of it but the more bouillon, the more flavorful and tender. Yumm!

Ok, here’s the recipe.

Nana’s Ever Tender Pot Roast

Prep Time: 30 minCook Time: 3-4 hoursTotal Time: 3.5 – 4.5 hours

Ingredients:

  • 5lb Chuck Roast
  • 4 cups water
  • 6-8 beef bouillon cubes
  • 5-6 medium russet potatoes
  • 1lb bag baby carrots
  • beef seasonings (I use onion powder, garlic powder, Montreal Steak seasoning and salt and pepper)

Put It Together:

  1. Thaw roast. (I’ve tried this without thawing and it just doesn’t turn out as tender. It’s worth it to let a frozen roast thaw in the fridge a couple nights ahead of time.)
  2. Pre-heat oven to 350.
  3. Season, tenderize and sear roast. I sprinkle my seasoning all over one side, pound it with my meat tenderizer and then flip it and repeat. Then I put it in an 8 qt pot on the stove top and sear both sides.
  4. Add 1 cup water and 6-8 bouillon cubes.
  5. Cover with lid or tin foil and put in oven.
  6. Let cook for 2 hours. Peel and chop potatoes into chunks while roast is baking.
  7. Add potatoes and carrots to pot along with another 3 cups of water. Sometimes I’ll season my potatoes and carrots with salt and pepper at this point. Put lid back on and place back in the oven.
  8. Cook for another 1 – 1.5 hours allowing the roast, potatoes and carrots to become tender. Don’t be afraid to leave it in a little longer until the meat is tender.
  9. You’ll know it’s done when that beautiful hunk of meat tears apart effortlessly with a fork. Taste testing at this point is an absolute must. 🙂
  10. Serve with the remaining beef juice poured over top. My mother-in-law loves adding butter to her potatoes too. Yum!

Let me know how your roast turns out!

Posted in Budget

February Budget Challenge Day 21 – $33.75 Over Budget

Posted on by 3toddlermom

I splurged today! Okay Okay….I know. I’m out of money so how dare I splurge?!? Do you ever feel like – I already failed, might as well fail big time?! Ha! No, I’m totally trying not to have that attitude.

Anyway, since I missed my goal I had to make a new one! I’m attempting to keep our credit card bill under $1000 this month. Some bills get charged to the card. Hubby uses it for non-business related things. So $1000 budget is a pretty low amount for us right now. Last month when I only charged $280 to the card, our bill was still close to $800. Which is AMAZING for us!

So back to my splurge. My friend babysat Sweet Love for me this morning while I recorded a video at church. And I wanted to bless her back, plus I had a free coffee on my punch card! So I swung through our amazing local coffee shop to grab us some drinks. Her’s was literally only $3 and mine was free but I decided to get a couple muffins too! So total spent = $8. Not bad. I know I shouldn’t do it every day or even every week but I think the splurge was worth it today! 🙂

I also ran to Aldi Tuesday morning, mainly for diapers which are crazy inexpensive at Aldi!! Have you used them yet?! I’d HIGHLY recommend them. I bought 100 size 3 diapers for $10.99. That’s unheard of!

I ended up spending $23.76 on this trip. I went in with a list and stuck to it. Boom! I’m learning!!

BUT I was terrible at meal planning this week! Fortunately, it didn’t cause me to over spend. Yay! But I literally wrote TACOS and SLOPPY JOES on my meal plan calendar. That’s it! We had plenty of food for left overs yesterday. Wednesday is typically our left over day because the kids have “Grandma Day,” I volunteer in our church’s youth group and Hubby works late.

Now the dilemma…..what to make for dinner tonight and tomorrow?! Anyone up for left overs two nights in a row!? Haha!

7 days to go. $33.75 over budget.