monday thoughts.

1. Current obsession right now: The Walking Dead. Thank you, Zach Buehl. Now I dream of being chased all night by zombies.

2. Anyone for slow-cooked, shredded pork? So good. I made these Cuban Pulled Pork Sandwiches - great for a weekend and to use multiple ways.

3. Have you read the iPhone contract written by a mother to her 13-year-old son? It's awesome. I've printed it out and put it in my FUTURE NON-EXISTANT CHILDREN file. Because my kids will be asking for iPhones when they are like, 5. Or maybe 4.

4. Speaking of kids, my adorable nephew is 2 months old today! Time flies. Rumor has it that he is growing out of his favorite onesie from his favorite aunt. Time to go shopping! [Reed, don't tell Uncle Tim].

5. Louie did a lot of this....this weekend. And by this I mean sleeping. And some playing. But mostly sleeping.

6. Running season is upon us - it's pre-training training time. Where you get back into being able to follow a training plan. I kicked out 5 miles outside this Saturday and while the wind was brutal, it felt good to breathe fresh [cold] air. My schedule for the year (subject to change):

• 4/27/13: Crazylegs Classic 8K
• 5/19/13: Cellcom Half Marathon in Green Bay
• 6/15/13: Rock'n'Sole Half Marathon in Milwaukee
• 8/17/13: Madison Mini-Marathon in Madison (half)
• 10/13/13: Bank of America Chicago Marathon
• 11/10/13: Madison Marathon (half)

I also have some friends running the Brewers half marathon in September, so depending on how marathon training is going, I may join them.

I've decided to go for one quality marathon this year, and then run some half marathons and try and PR.  And well, these things cost money, and considering that Chicago is going to cost me $175+ to run, I think I'll just stick to that.

7. My training plan for the first half is a mix of Hal Higdon's plans to create a 16 week plan (instead of 12 weeks). My goal for this half is to get faster - sub 2:00 half here I come.

If you are interested, you can download this Half Marathon Training here.

8. I'm trying this "meal planning" thing out to a) save money b) stop wasting food and c) claim my sanity when it comes to decisions on what to make for dinner. I found this handy meal planner sheet from The Sisters Cafe - you can download here. As my co-worker Susan aptly put it, "It's BLEEPING difficult to make dinner for 7 days straight."

All of my recipes this week come from skinnytaste.com - an awesome blog with healthy and yummy recipes - yes, it's possible.

Monday: Crockpot Picadillo

Tuesday: Leftovers: Tacos with Picadillo

Wednesday: Spicy Black Bean Burgers

Thursday: Spaghetti with Sauteed Chicken and Grape Tomatoes

Friday: OUT!

9.  Being the list maker - checking things off is weirdly amazing - this new app I'm using is awesome. Wunderlist allows you to make lots of different lists - to do, movies to watch, shows to see, a wishlist - you know, the important things. One I'm adding is Restaurants to Try - how many times do you see a new restaurant, tell yourself you want to try it, and then when Friday rolls around, you can't think of any restaurants to try? Enter new app to solve all my problems.

10. And lastly, we watched some strange movies this weekend that we probably would have never given a chance, but thanks to HBO and some channel changing, we watched Big Miracle - you can laugh, but I thought this movie was AWESOME. Lots of warm and fuzzies and big gray whales. And Real Steel - ok now you can really laugh - I caught the last half of it, and it was a better use of time than watching Twilight. Dad and son warm fuzzies, and some fighting robots.

Have a great week! It's going to be chilly here in Wisconsin - like highs in the low 20s. Ooooffta.

 

Comments

[Irene smith]

I like the sound of the list app Mel - show me when I visit :). Oh boy your training schedule looks daunting - don't overdo it :( proud of you :)))

[Lili]

Cute post! I love meal planning and printable grocery lists. They help keep meals on track during the week! :)

[Melissa]

Thanks Mum :)

@Lili, I'm finding grocery shopping and cooking so less daunting :)

[Kristen]

I am doing 3 of the races you are doing! Can't wait :)

[Melissa]

Awesome, Kristen! Which ones are you doing?