Photography Challenge Week 5

Doesn't go with the assignment, but I LOVE this shot...makes me smile.

Hi friends!  I hope you had a great week.  We stay busy here at the Griffith household, even when we really don't have much going on.  This week I've been thinking so much about expectations.  I had very finite expectations of what I thought motherhood would be like, what my kids would be like and how we'd all behave as a family.  Well I've been a mother for almost 3 years now and I've realized that being that rigid in my expectations only sets me up for disappointment.  We've taken a few hits in the medical department.  Rylie has had 2 surgeries and Rowan had one at just 3 months old...I did not expect that.  Rylie is SO smart and unique in her own way, but she doesn't say much...I didn't expect that.  Having two little kids isn't twice as hard as having one, it's 10x harder....I didn't expect that.  I think I'm still learning to adjust my expectations and enjoy the wonderful and surprisingly beautiful parts of motherhood.  My children are SUCH tiny blessings to our family, unique and beautiful just the way God made them.  I can't wait to see all the many ways that they continue to surprise me and teach me more about life.  

With that I leave you with my two shots this week for my photography assignment.  This week it's to take a shot from a high angle.  I captured my babes in a rare moment of quiet playtime together.  

They put the color inside of my world.

It's hard to put into words the joy that this boy brings into our lives.

I'm linking up with the other bloggers doing the photography challenge HERE. Check them out and let me know you favorite ones!  Have a great weekend ya'll!

Photography Challenge Week 4

Hi friends!  How has your week been? We're still getting used to our new school-time schedule here.  Rylie is loving school much more.  Both drop off and pick ups this week have been full of smiles and good reports.  I'm still doing the Weight Watchers thing and I am losing weight!  Yay!  WW isn't something I'll do forever, but it's definitely helped me remember what proper portions look like, strive to get my fruit and veggies in and  I still love meetings.  Which leads me to this week's photo assignment: Dinner!

This week I cooked several Weight Watcher's friendly dinners and this was one of them, Pizza Puffs.  I got the recipe from Loser for Life.  Pizza Puffs are delicious dipped in marinara sauce with a big side salad.  It's a great way to get the taste of pizza without all the fat.  I'm thinking of making mini muffin sizes to put in Rylie's lunchbox next week. The original recipe can be found HERE.

I love to do all my prep for recipes before I even get started mixing! 

Delicious and healthy!

Ok, I'm linking up to the photography assignment HERE.  Click on over to get more ideas for dinner!  Have a great weekend friends.

Photography Challenge Weeks 2 & 3

Hi friends!  I'm back to the Photography Challenge this week with my submissions for the second and third assignments.  I combined this one to save time.  Don't you like how I'm cool like that ;)

This week I happened to capture both in these shots of Rylie on her first day of preschool for 2011.  When she smiles it makes ME smile, and the colors happened to be beautiful and bold!  My Mama got this beautiful handmade dress downtown at the Market Days from a vendor.  I wish that I could sew because I'd make a million of these little dresses!

My girl loves to smell flowers!  

As for school, it went ok.  I left her smiling and arrived to pick her up to her smiling but was informed that there were a fair amount of tears today.  She hasn't been to school in over 2 months, so I expected a report like this, but still never fun to hear.  I hope that Friday goes better, heaven knows she couldn't have looked cuter  =)  Any tips for making the transition back to school easier?

Linking up to this week's challenge HERE!  It's never too late to join the photography challenge with me!

What Motivates YOU?

Hi friends! I hope ya'll are having a good week.  We're winding down our summer routine here at the Griffith household because in less than a week Rylie will be back in school for the year.  Yes she's 2, but she goes to such a great preschool 2 days a week.  It's good though because on Wednesday's and Friday's I'll get 4 hours alone with my little man Rowan!  So, onto talking about our health!

The sunrise sky on my way out of the gym this morning!

This is definitely a perk of early workouts!

This week I've been doing some thinking on what motivates me.  I came up with the three main ways that I stay motivated to be healthy, workout and eat well.  I hope you'll give your thoughts on my motivators and share YOUR motivators.

1. Friends and Family

Two of my biggest motivators, Jason and Amy!

This one is SO important.  Jason is my biggest fan and helps me so much.  He makes sure I get to the gym 3 mornings a week, he's on board with anything healthy I want to cook, he agrees not to buy junky food and bring it in the house.  He pushes me when I need pushing and holds me up when I want to stop.  My sister is also a huge help.  Amy is my workout buddy.  We may not always workout together, but we're always asking about workouts and comparing.  Maybe it's twin competition?  Then there are my friends on Twitter who give me virtual pats on the back and high fives for busting my booty at the gym too.  Every little bit helps!  If you don't have a good support system in this area, create one!  Amy and I just joined Weight Watchers meetings this week to kick up our efforts and I had so much fun at the meeting.  It only took 40 minutes out of my day and I felt inspired, motivated and hopeful.  Who is your support system?

2. Blogs!

(source)

My Google Reader is full of healthy living blogs and I read them at any chance I get.  I have far too many to list them all but a few of my favorites are Healthy Tipping Point, Kath Eats Real Food, The Fitnessista, Carrots n Cake and Food Fitness Fashion.  All of these gals have such a healthy and real perspective on food and fitness.  I love reading the blogs to get ideas, feel motivated, set a new fitness goal or even identify with their struggles.  Check them out and I bet you'll feel motivate too.  Do you read any healthy blogs?  If so, what are they?

3. Inspiration Board

Inspiration Board on my fridge.

This is a new one to me and I just made this last week.  I've started going on Pinterest and printing motivational quotes and putting them on the fridge (or wherever I can find).  Jason really loves when I do this.  They aren't meant to guilt you into making a healthy choice or make you feel bad (so that's why I have no pictures of Jillian Michaels abs on there), they're meant to inspire and lift you up.  Try hanging up some inspiration and see if it helps.

Another motivational message on our fridge!

Now I'm off to get us ready to meet Rylie's teacher for this school year.  I finally found my camera battery charger too, so stay tuned for my (late) contribution to this week's photography challenge.  Better late than never, right?  Have a great Friday!

Challenges

Blah.  That's been my opinion on almost everything lately.  Parenting two small kids, blah.  Working out like mad and not losing a SINGLE pound, blah.  Crazy hot weather in the deep south, blah.  The biggest problem with feeling blah about everything is that it affects my little family, and that' NO good.  Yes, yes, I'm supposedly the "eternal optimist Mama" but lately I've been nothing like it and it's time for a change.  My hope is that by just putting it out there I'll be ready to change it. I feel blah about life even though life is pretty darn great right now.  Ahhh.  Just saying it makes me feel better.  Now it's time to flip my attitude.  Any suggestions on how??  The first step I'm taking is to start something new and go back to something I love, taking pictures.  I'm participating in a 20-Week Photography Challenge over at A Step in the Journey .

Week 1: Self Portrait

A little goofy but here it is.  I have misplaced my good camera battery, but will find it by next week for a better quality pic.

I think this sounds like SO much fun and I hope you'll join in!  If you decide to do week one you an link up HERE with everyone else participating.  When I take pictures I feel like ME (not the red-headed monster I can turn into sometimes).  What makes YOU feel like YOU?  

Health, Fitness and BBQ Chicken Pizza

Cutest. Picture. Ever.

Hi friends!  How was your weekend?  Ours flew by (as usual).  Sometimes I feel like all we do is clean this house.  It never looks like we do, but we do.  I heard someone once compare cleaning your house while you have kids to shoveling snow during a blizzard.  SO true.  Who is with me?

In my last post I mentioned writing a few healthy living post.  I love all things health and wellness related.  I'm no fitness model but I do love reading and learning about every aspect of healthy living.  Its hard when you have 2 small kids at home to not want to eat all of their goldfish crackers or put your feet up while they nap instead of spending time on the treadmill.  I have really enjoyed making an effort to workout lately though.  I do RPM (spin) class Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 6am and I LOVE it.  It's so intense but the music is fun and I feel so accomplished by 7am.  I also run 2 non-RPM days a week.  Despite working out 5 days a week and drinking tons of water I'm still not losing weight. I feel slimmer and more toned, but the scale isn't budging so I've returned to sparkpeople.com  Sparkpeople is a great website that helps you track what you're eating (and much more) for FREE.  I have a phone app too (also free) and it's SO simple to add up what I'm eating.  The only thing I can figure is that I just need to reign in the goldfish and weekends full of cupcakes and pies (I'm not kidding).  What do you do, besides working out, that helps you melt the pounds off?  I'm up for trying it!

Now I leave you with one of my favorite healthy recipes.  This is a recipe Amy and I adapted from a Cooking Light recipe years ago.  It's always a crowd pleaser and it's so much better for you than ordering Domino's.  I promise!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 small can tomato sauce
3/4 cup (or so) BBQ Sauce, I use Sweet Baby Ray's spicy flavor
salt, pepper, garlic powder
1-1.5 cups grilled, diced chicken breasts
cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 green onions, chopped
1 cup shredded cheese (we like Cabot's light cheese)
1 whole wheat pizza crust or fresh pizza dough (publix has them for less than $2)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Mix tomato sauce and bbq sauce in a small bowl.  Use whatever ratio you like.  We like more bbq sauce than tomato.  Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Top pizza crust with sauce, top with cheese, chicken, tomatoes and green onions.
Bake for 15-20 minutes (possibly longer if you're using dough instead of a ready made crust).
Enjoy!

Question of the day! What health food or fitness craze can you just NOT get into?  Mine is coconut water  I know it's supposed to be good and hydrating, but yuck!  I keep trying to like it and just do not.
Have a great day ya'll!

Long Overdue

Hi!  How has your summer been going?  Ours has been equal parts busy and lazy.  Rylie and I would love to be spending much more time outside but it's SO hot and the bugs are so bad around here.  To make up for it we've been going on play dates, painting and playing.  Around July 4th we had a jam packed schedule of parties to go to and last weekend it slowed down.  I hate to admit that I'm already longing for cool crisp air, fuzzy slippers and gingerbread lattes.  What can I say?  I'm cool weather girl (unless I'm at the beach).  I thought I'd catch you up on what we've been doing in pictures.  Thank the Lord for my iphone because it is the only reason that I take SO many pictures.

This is a typical day around here.  Breakfast with the kiddos and lots of time playing with these two.

This picture sums up another huge portion of my life lately.  Working out and trying to eat healthier.  My main focus has been working out 4-5 days a week doing either the 6am RPM class at the gym or running.  I can't tell you how good it feels to be back in the habit of working out again.  After working out consitently for over a month now, I actually feel SO much better and less stressed when I workout.  I haven't seen the scale move much but my body is definitely changing shape.  It's much harder for me to eat really well since most of my meals are shared with Rylie or eaten while I'm holding a little boy that grabs everything.  Any tips on getting more fresh foods around here (that are quick to prepare)??

I love summer nights when I can spend time with mi familia.  Sunday night we took the kids on a walk to the park near our house.  I was amazed because Rowan is so little but balances himself up so well in the wagon. Sadly our visit wasn't very long because the gnats were so bad...seriously...we've never had a bad gnat problem around here.  What gives summer?

I've also spent many summer mornings and a few evenings with these girls.  I can't tell you how blessed I feel to have friends like them in my life.  It's funny how you end up meeting some of your friends too. I met Kathlyn through her blog and twitter and I met Jessi because she used to work with Jason.  They're both great bloggers and Mama's and have been great friends to Amy and I.  Last night we went out to dinner and had to say goodbye to Kathlyn. Her sweet family is moving to Dothan, AL because of her husband's job (in the Army).  I'll miss the convenience of meeting her for a play date at the drop of a hat, but we're already starting to plan visits down there to see her.

Well, that sums up what we've been doing around here.  I really do hope to start blogging more.  I'm thinking about doing some healthy living blogs because I looooove all things health and fitness.  Would anyone be interested in those sorts of blogs?  I'm thinking favorite things lists, healthy recipes, workout pointers or anything else related fitness and health.  Have a great Tuesday ya'll.