Baby's Got Back

Do you sit a lot at work or are consistently bending over to pick up the baby or the kids toys? These 5 exercise today are definitely for you! Here are 5 different great back exercises you can do from the connivence from your own home to help strengthen a muscle that probably gets neglected most.

Superman:



Lay flat on your stomach with your arms and legs stretched out. Lift your legs and arms at the same time really focusing on contracting the back muscles. Hold for 2-5 seconds then release. Repeat 12 times, take a break and then do 1 more set of 12 repetitions.

Dumbbell Row:



Grab an 8 or 10 pound weight to do this exercise. Get a squat position and lean forward. Keep a straight arm to begin the exercise and then row the weight up to chest level. Repeat 10-12 times, twice in a workout.


Plank:



This is a great exercise that will strengthen your back and your abs at the same time. Hold plank for 30 seconds, 3 different times. So a total hold of a 90 secs. Take a 15 second break between each set. Make sure to keep a flat back, butt down, and pull your abs in.

Y- Raise:



This is a great exercise to do from home because all you need is a workout ball. Lie facedown on the workout ball so your back is flat and your chest is off the ball.To start your arms should hang straight down from your ball. Then bring your arms up to a 30 degree angle (or Y shape) contract the back muscles and hold for 2-5 seconds in that position. Then bring your arms back to the starting position. Do this exercise 15 times, twice, with a 30 second break between each sets.

Deadlift:



Grab some 10-12 pound dumbbells. Start in a squat position with your weights at the floor. Grab the weights with your palms flat on the weights. Without letting your back round stand up with the dumbbells. Then lower the weights back to the floor. Do this exercise 15 times, take a break, then do one more set of 15 repetitions.

The great thing about these exercises is that they don't take too much time to do. You get a great workout in a short amount of time!

Have a great weekend!

Facebook

I don't know if you have noticed, but we have finally joined facebook! Slowly we are figuring this whole blog thing out. Who knows, maybe someday we will join Twitter... maybe :) Feel free to like our facebook page. We would love to have you follow along!

German Pancakes

This recipes comes from my childhood. I can remember eating this super easy recipe a lot. The best part about it is that it only has 4 ingredients. Have too many eggs and milk about to expire? This recipe is for you. 

German Pancakes

1 cup milk

1 cup flour

6 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350°. Place butter in a 9x13 pan and put in oven. Let the butter melt while you mixing the rest of the ingredients. In a blender, combine the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Pour over the melted butter. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve with syrup and powered sugar for extra yumminess.

Travel Log

We’re back! Can I just say that I love taking the week off from blogging. When we take the week off it usually means that we are together! And this past week, we were! We all got together in Breckenridge, CO and played and ate and ate some more. We even got some sewing in, which we will share with you later. I love getting together with my sisters.

Since this past week involved traveling, I thought it would be appropriate to share a recent creation of mine that honors travel. This is a creation that both my husband and I really enjoy. Plus, it was super easy to create.

My husband and I enjoy traveling. We have been a few places in the three years that we have been married. We still have a lot more of the world to explore, but we have plenty of time to do so. Everywhere we go we pick up a magnet. Now this is just a collection of the places that my husband and I have been together. We have both traveled quite a bit more than this prior to knowing each other, but these magnets and this project just document our adventures together.

In addition to the fridge magnets, I wanted to create something else to document our travels together. I started with a corkboard sheet and a world stencil that I had cut out with my cricut.

I put my stencil in place and then stamped my bleached sand colored paint over the cork board on the stencil.

Next I took some chalkboard paint to the inside of a frame.

Then I painted the outside of the frame the same color as the map.

Then I added dots to the locations of our adventures.

Then I listed our travel dates on the chalk board(and wished that I had better handwriting.)

I love this little reminder of my husband and I‘s adventures together.

Handling Stress 101

Following this six simple steps can help you manage the stress in your life a little better.

1. Try to change how you perceive specific stress-inducing events

For example, the next time a person in another car does something foolish, try not to percieve him or her as the enemy who is out to run you off the road, but as a friend who has simply made driving a mistake.

2. Try to understand and deal with your anger

Acknowledge your anger to yourself. Learn to differentiate between levels of anger. Try to diagnose the threat that is causing you to be angry, it may result of a difference in values or in style and be no real threat to you at all. Finally, try letting go of anger through forgiveness and by try letting go of anger through forgiveness and by try letting go of anger through forgiveness and by canceling the charges against the other person.

3. Take time to relax or meditate

Try to manage your time more effectively so that you don't court stress through disorganized scheduling.

4. Expand your social support system

Contact and try to establish relationships with new individuals or groups who may be able to give you emotional support.

5. Regular exercise is an ingredient in reducing stress

Considerable evidence indicates that individuals who regularly exercise have lower arousal to stress than individuals who are less fit. Exercise aids in balancing and stabilizing the consequences of emotional stress. Allows you to handle stress effectively.

6. Good nutrition is vital

Eat regular, well balanced meal. Try to eat a small amount every two hours. 3 meals and 2 snacks. Breakfast is essential.


When stress is handled properly you will be able to live a healthier and more positive life!

Have a great weekend!

Adding Some Music to Lunch

Friday I was in the mood to create something, but nothing on my long list of things that needed to get done were calling out to me. I wanted to create something fun. Then I came across this…

…an adorable boom box lunch box from the gap. After seeing this, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I had a little lunch box/cooler that I had received back in my teaching days. One year for teacher appreciation week, the parents took us on a “cruise” around the world. Everyday for lunch we got a different themed cuisine. For Americas day, we got hot dogs and hamburgers and they came in these fun lunch boxes. We also received matching water bottles. Now I stay at home with my little guy and no longer work for this school, but I still have the lunch sack that they gave me. So I went ahead and transformed it into something that my son can use.

I just used some felt in a variety of blues, greys, black and white to create my own version of a boom box.

And since I had the matching water bottle, I figured why not do something with it as well. I created a headphones water bottle cozy. Take a turn around the water bottle cozy. I wrapped the headphone wire around the water bottle while giving it a 3D effect.

The cozy is held together with some black Velcro.

Not that my son is old enough to care what his lunch box looks like, or old enough to even know what a lunch box or a boom box is, but I plan on keeping this around for a while. For now we will take it with us to our picnics in the park. Hopefully someday he will think it is cool.

A Healthy Twist on Cooking Vegetables

Do you ever have a hard time getting your kiddos to eat their veggies? Today I wanted to post about great healthy variations on serving veggies. I also decided to post about adding veggies into dishes kids just might eat. These might even get your kids asking for seconds!


BALSAMIC ASPARAGUS

1 bunch fresh asparagus
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Fresh ground salt and pepper to taste


Wash asparagus. Cut off hard ends at bottom. Spread out on baking sheet (with small edges). Drizzle olive oil and vinegar over asparagus, and add a touch of ground salt and pepper. Bake in oven 350 degrees until tender (~10 minutes). My husband LOVES this and will eat a whole bunch himself if I don't make him share :)



TORTELLINI SOUP
9 oz frozen cheese tortellini (I used 12 oz, we like pasta)
2 cans 14 oz diced Italian tomatoes, undrained
1/2 frozen box chopped spinach, thawed
2-3 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 2 cups water
To taste: pepper, garlic salt, onion powder, rosemary, red pepper flakes


Combine all ingredients. Add more spinach if you prefer. Heat to boiling and simmer for 10 min until tortellini is soft. Serve with side of vegetables and French bread (with spray butter).

Highlight: Great leftovers. I like to add extra spinach to give myself an extra dose of iron, calcium, folate, potassium, copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc, niacin, omega 3 fatty acids, and vitamins C, E, K, B2, and B6. Sounds like a super food to me!



BREAKFAST BURRITO



Whole wheat tortilla
Scrambled eggs (2 egg whites, 1 yolk)
Low fat mozzarella cheese
Low fat turkey sausage or bacon
Fresh salsa
Green pepper, sliced
Romaine lettuce
Avocado, sliced
Fat free sour cream
Steak seasoning


Bon Appetite!

How to Celebrate a Golden Birthday!

Last week we celebrated my husbands “golden” birthday. Now I use parenthesis, because technically it wasn't his golden birthday. See my husbands birthday is on July 1. Now obviously my husband did not turn 1 this year. That would be awkward if our son was older than his father ;) For years my husband has talked about how bummed he was that he never got to celebrate his golden birthday. Even if he did celebrate his golden birthday, he still wouldn’t have remembered it because he was so young. So this year I took the liberty of honoring this golden day. He turned 31 this year, so we celebrated his birthday on the 30th and the 1st.

I don’t usually decorate for my husbands birthday, I think it is something that I appreciate more than he does, but this year I decided to go all out. And guess what, he loved it! I went to Michaels and purchased some gold glitter paper. I used my hand dandy Cricut to cut out all of the 31’s and the stars. The rest of his décor came from Party City.

Here was the table where he found his golden birthday crown that, yes, I made him wear, his birthday necklace- actually we all wore golden necklaces, golden goblets- that’s all he was allowed to drink out of for two days, and more golden treats. And I say more, because…

I had already dropped off a bunch of golden treats at his work earlier that day to let him know that we would be celebrating his golden birthday. I also made him take his lunch to work in a golden happy birthday lunch sack.

We even had golden cupcakes. Gold cupcake liners, gold candles, gold sprinkles, and gold gel frosting. I even went with a carrot cupcake, because it had more of a golden color.

Happy “Golden” Birthday!

Breezy Summer Skirt Tutorial

I shared with you a while back, my breezy summer skirt. Today, I thought that I would share the tutorial. It is super easy- less than 10 steps. No zippers, just elastic. Perfect for summer.

What will you need?

• Sheer fabric
• Solid fabric for the lining
• 3/4 inch elastic
• The regulars- thread and sewing machine

*I do not know the name of the fabric that I used. I do know that it is made exclusively for Joann's. That is where you will find it.

Step 1: Hem your fabrics.

Step 2: Sew your sheer fabric and your lining together. Only sew it together at the top of your skirt. Leave the bottom- the parts that you just hemmed- unattached.

Step 3: Pin in your pleats.

*I obviously botched my fabric while I was cutting it. But once I fold the fabric down to make the band for the skirt, you will never be able to tell. So don’t stress too much if your fabric is not cut perfectly.

Step 5: Sew in your pleats. You are going to measure 1 3/4 inch down from the top of your skirt. At that point, you will sew a line across the pleats.

* After this you may want to iron the pleats all the way down the rest of the skirt. This will give the pleats a more defined look.

Step 6: Fold down the top of the skirt 1 inch to create the band. Pin it. Sew the band shut along the bottom edge.

Step 7: Pull the elastic threw the band that you have just sewn.

Step 8: Sew the elastic in place.

Step 9: Fold your skirt in half while inside out. Make sure the two fabric edges are aligned. Sew up your skirt. Turn it inside out, and done!

Now you have a comfortable breezy summer skirt at a fraction of the price of the JCrew version. You can wear it will a belt and pair with a fun summer tee and flip flops(my fav option). Or dress it up with a fancy blouse and some heels. The possibilities are endless.

Let me know if you have any questions.