Movin' it with Michelle

Monday Motivation, and stuff…

July 15, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

I didn’t get my run in, Sunday. Nope…although I had planned on a quick short run of 3 miles, my body protested and instead I found myself stripping off my scrubs Sunday at 3 p.m. and pouring myself into the freshly washed sheets that embraced me lovingly with their freshly perfumed scent after just coming out of the dryer. I set my alarm for 4:30, smiled sheepishly at my running shoes, and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was OUT.

Yup...this was totally ME. — Yup…this was totally ME.

Work this weekend…well, was work. I am so far out of my comfort zone trying to manage an ENTIRE laboratory vs. just my section so by Sunday afternoon my brain was fried. Between nasty phone calls from angry customers, and trying to troubleshoot problems in which I didn’t even understand the process, I needed a NAP. Hmmm…this seems to becoming a pattern on my blog lately, no? LOL

I admit, I don’t get enough sleep…my “free time” in the evening starts at around 8-9 p.m. and with that, I mean time to get cleaning, laundry, meals prepped and chores done that I’ve let pile up far too long…But I wouldn’t trade a single second for the world. Although I’d love if someone went grocery shopping for me, since I forgot to squeeze that in today…

Sunday night, I was blessed to spend the evening with friends, celebrating one of my running friends birthday. It took my break away, the love that can be felt in a room full of people who primarily run together. We don’t work together, we don’t have kids in the same schools or sports, we don’t go out very often outside of lacing up in the wee hours of the morning to run or race. But get a group like this together on any given night, let alone a birthday and you will feel the connection and bond for miles. These friends have stuck with you in the toughest of miles, they have laughed with you on long runs when your delirious mode sets in full force, and they have helped keep you motivated to KEEP MOVIN’ FORWARD.

Some of my amazing running friends...<3 — Some of my amazing running friends…<3

Last night, I caught this GREAT shot of the super moon…and it was retweeted by the Kane County Chronicle! YAY ME! I love capturing awesome moments with my camera.

Today, I was able to reconnect with my sister that I haven’t seen since May. She and I, along with my kids, and hers minus 1 met for lunch today. IT WAS GREAT. Man I miss those little people (although most of them tower over me already, lol), and her SO much. We’ve agreed this will become a habit!!! It was great to chat, eat good food, and just let the kids be silly. Maybe too silly for a restaurant, but hey, they don’t see each other very often, LOL. She has always been such a huge inspiration to me, and I need to make more time for her and her amazing family.

A shout out to my sister...who didn't leave my side for 26.2 miles in 2012, and in life. LOVE. But who is that random dude to our left? LOL — A shout out to my sister…who didn’t leave my side for 26.2 miles in 2012, and in life. LOVE. But who is that random dude to our left? LOL

I should’ve come home and cleaned…but instead I watched “Hook” with my daughters after running to Target for new swimsuits for our mini-vacation to Michigan in 2 weeks. My first “Mom” suit, and I think it’s pretty cute!

Does it make me old to really think this suit is amazing?

I did make this amazing crab salad for dinner. Super easy, and pretty healthy. I also made my own take on dressing using blue cheese yogurt dressing, to which I added crumbled bacon, chives, and garlic to make it complete! DELISH!

This took literally 15 minutes to make! And my kids loved it!

I’ve been pretty lax in my training this summer, and I have to admit despite missing the mileage of a full marathon training schedule, it has been great just having fun with my running. The winter of 2015 will bring full marathon training and I know my legs will thank me for relaxing this summer/fall.

At the end of the day, I find myself beyond thankful that I have remained pretty healthy despite my right knee acting up from time to time. I think resting last winter and running only casually helped, and I will repeat this “resting” process as my knees have nearly 30 years of mileage on them.

Do you allow yourself time to rest?

Thanks for all the amazing support…y’all rock!

❤ Michelle

Friday, training

Five things, Friday

July 12, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

This week has been a little crazy. I am working 6 days this week, which always puts me off course in trying to get everything done around the house.

So here are my “five things”…

1. Taking the time to unplug more, has given me a lot more time to read, write, cook, and get stuff done around the house. Today was my only day off, so I cleaned the garage, finished staining my deck, and repainted my fire pit. Note to self, use the right color paint. I accidentally bought WHITE heat resilient paint, so as soon as I started spraying I thought OH CRAP. A second trip to the home depot saved the day. It is now a pretty black.

2. The hubby and I have stayed on point with our half marathon training. We were both visibly tired tonight when get got home from work, and while we stood on our driveway I said, “I don’t want to run.” This rarely happens. But I just wasn’t feeling it. It was humid, and getting ready to rain and I simply was feeling like a lazy thug. We ran anyway, and finished at a decent pace of around 9:45. We normally do our long runs at a 9:30 pace, but I needed to slow down, and heck, that’s ok sometimes too.

3. I have truly been enjoying taking my youngest to dance class at the park district. She really enjoys it, and although I am still having a hard time getting her to focus during class-I see how happy she is and that makes it all worth while.

I can't help but to sing this song on the way to her class, LOL — I can’t help but to sing this song on the way to her class, LOL

4. Note to self: do NOT eat this for lunch on the day of a longer run. Yeah…my stomach nearly killed me the entire 10k.

photo credit to JM — photo credit to Jersey Mikes

5. I rarely wish days away, but I can tell you I am already dreading the next two days of work. I am not doing my regular job as a Histology Lab supervisor, as a few of the lab supervisors have to rotate through weekends being in charge of the ENTIRE lab. Yikes…I hate not knowing the answers to people’s questions…Is it Sunday afternoon yet?

Yup, this will be me. Pray for minimal crisis control this weekend, PLEASE! LOL

What are you training for? Do you ever have to step out of your comfort zone at work and do additional duties? If so, how to you cope?

Have a great weekend, gang!

goals

Real life adventure…

July 11, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

I’ve taken a step back from the electronic world so to speak somewhat. I have decided that I need to regroup, and refocus on my passions.

Yesterday my hubby and I went out for our 4 mile training run. I briefed him that this run would be at a steady pace, and that he simply needed to stick with me. We are in week 8 of an 18 week training plan while juggle working weekends, life, kids, and disintegrating windows coming off of our sum pump failing. So last night after our appointment with Pella window dudes, we laced up and ran.

My dailymile recap went a little like this:

Great training/fartlek run with Brian. I can’t decide between my favorite moment for this run:
Jumping in the puddles, flying with my arms spread open yelling WHEEEEE, or Brian asking me to sneak off in to the woods, or kicking his butt while barreling up the hills at a 9:06 pace…
Splits were 9:30, 9:27, 9:12, and 8:51.
BOOYAH

We completed our 4 mile run at a 9:15 pace, and held strong with negative splits. But the best part of it all? Spending the evening celebrating with a glass of wine, and talking. I am blessed to be married to my best friend, the man I can share everything with…after talking about our friend’s pregnancy, we revisited the miscarriage we encountered just shortly before the conception of our baby Sophia in 2005. And I cried. I wiped the tears away remembering how hard it was to lose a child. But I was blessed by a gift from God to have been blessed with a second child after doctors telling me to NOT try again in 2006.

I continue to wipe away the tears after reading the book, “One Lavender Ribbon” written by Heather Burch. This book was about a women in her late 20’s that was recently divorced. She picked up her life, moved to Florida and decided to restore a Victorian home. While doing so, she found letters written in the WWII time frame, and sought out the Veteran that the letters were addressed to…in turn she found family, love, and hope.

My night was complete after taking my youngest to her dance class. Her passion is music and dance, and for years I couldn’t find a class that adhered to the working Mother schedule. Yet for the last 4 weeks I have been able to come home from work, get her ready, and take her to class.

And so, and the end of the crazy busy day, I realize how very blessed I am. I work. I train. I am a Mom. I am a wife. I am a friend. And it’s all just plain awesome.

dedication

Movin’ forward with flexibility

July 9, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

I posted the question on my Facebook fan page today, as to whether or not people are flexible with their workouts. As I was driving home from work tonight, my husband texted saying he was running late with meetings therefore our scheduled run would have to be postponed. I could’ve freaked out and ran without him, but I am so excited that he is embracing running that I opted to move our scheduled run from today, to tomorrow.

So what do you do when you have a night free from running? ~~Take a nap~~ Cook dinner and housework, of course, finished with some much needed strength training.

I really wanted a nap...just sayin'... — I really wanted a nap…just sayin’…

Tonight I made homemade crab cakes with spinach and cornflake ‘crumbs’ to keep them gluten free. Although I don’t have Celiac disease, I have noticed limiting my gluten has helped my Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I served them with red beans that I soaked and sautéed for HOURS along with cauliflower and shitake mushroom yummy goodness. Yup, overall delish! (I only had one tiny piece of bread, lol, I am weak).

After dinner while my husband mowed our ginormous yard, I thought hmmm…maybe I should run. Maybe…but the yummy food stuffs had settled nicely in the bottom of my stomach, so I opted to clean windows, and do my strength work out which consisted of:

3 sets of bicep curls

3 sets of shoulder presses

3 sets of squats-25 each

50 sit ups

50 push ups

tacking on a 2 mile walk today for good measure

Tomorrow the ‘window guy’ will come and assess our windows…I am nervous after having just spending a pretty penny on 2 sum pumps, but the condensation is getting so terrible that it needs to be addressed. Oh, and after this lovely appointment my hubby and I have some miles to tackle.

The ultimate point of this post is, are you flexible with your work outs when life stuff gets in the way?

dedication, food, goals

Part 2; the Obligatory like and social dismay

July 8, 2014July 8, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

I don’t have a lot of free time. Who does? I try to spend this time with my family, running, cooking, writing, taking pictures etc. But in the last few months I have found myself forgetting a lot of the above listed items and getting sucked in to social media, liking, posting, commenting, and crunching the numbers I had once hoped to get behind my fan page. And in doing so, I found myself reeling back in to a time where I thought too much about all the STUFFS that didn’t matter. And I found myself feeling empty, and sad for lack of better terms. For those that administer a Facebook fan page you have seen the demise of most pages who refuse to pay to boost their posts. I just can’t bring myself to pay to try and motivate, inspire, and help others get through tough times/depression at this point in my life. Should something so selfless and inspiring come at a cost? Apparently so in FB land…With a page of nearly 9500 followers, I am told less than a dozen see my posts, and even fewer comment, like, or engage. Why? Because I don’t pay…in the land of SOCIAL media, I have found my page to be less than just that…

But I keep it going…I have worked so hard on this silly little page (to some) that reaps me only the benefit of knowing I may touch ONE life every day. And I remember back to a time when I couldn’t wrap my brain around getting through a single day without crying or feeling sad, so if just ONE of my posts makes someone smile, inspires someone to go out for a run, or motivates someone to keep movin’ forward I am satisfied.

I have also learned that I need to focus my energy where it counts. I have spent too much time worrying about how to get my FB page moving forward, that I myself nearly stopped dead in my tracks.

So I have embraced half marathon training with my husband. We just finished week 7 of training and I am so proud to say he finished his 7 miler (a PR in distance for him) yesterday.
I have dusted off my camera and starting taking pictures again.
I have been regularly texting/calling my friends and family as best time allows.
I have revisited my goal of writing a cook book and have been working hard and transcribing my creations for compilation someday in the future.
(I did make amazing stuffed portabella mushrooms and a potato/leek mash, but that post will have to follow later).

Why am I writing this down? Accountability, reassurance, venting, or who knows?

I just know it’s time for more change…time to unplug more, spend time doing things I love more, and always, MOVE FORWARD…more.

food

4th of July festivities and foods

July 6, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

Well, despite our basement partially flooding on Thursday and having to fork out more money than I care to admit I have to say-this weekend has been awesome so far.
I started the weekend with a 4th of July eve 4 miler…it went fairly well, and despite still having some breathing problems I was able to hold pace.

Friday we got together with my amazing friend Carolyn and her family for the 4th of July festivities. They have included us in their family tradition for the last 3 years, and I feel so blessed to have them in my life. We met up at her folks house to gather for the parade. I missed it last year due to work, so found myself extra excited to spend the entire day with such amazing people.

After the parade, we dispersed and took a much needed nap.
We had primo seats for the fireworks, and I was able to catch a few really good shots. Here’s one:

Today should’ve been ‘chore’ day as my house looks like a tornado hit it…I finally finished washing all the towels used to soak up the water for Thursday’s flood, but the rest of the housework is lacking. I asked my husband what he wanted to do today this morning, and he said, “Let’s go on a picnic!” Deal. I was IN. My oldest daughter was at a friend’s BBQ party, so we gathered our youngest, a cooler, our picnic basket and a bunch of yummy food and headed north on the Fox River.

I finished up the day by making this amazing zucchini, squash, and potato soup.

Here’s what you’ll need:
2 yellow squash, peeled and cubed
2 zucchini, peeled and cubed
2 red potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 white onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 pats of unsalted butter
2 tablespoons of avocado oil
2-3 cups of unsalted vegetable stock
Seasonings to taste:
Kosher salt
Coarse ground black pepper
Turmeric
Cayenne pepper
Smoked paprika
Tarragon
Basil
Thyme
Dill
Parsley for garnish

Heat a large sauce/soup pot on medium heat and add in one pat of butter and the avocado oil. Next, add your garlic and onions and sauté for 3-4 minutes until lightly translucent. Add in the rest of your veggies and seasonings, and cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the veggies are soft. Next, add in your veggie stock, and simmer for another 5 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender (see pic) or in your food processor.

Taste your soup for desired seasoning, and add your second pat of butter. Stir well, and serve! My hubby asked for seconds! 🙂

What is your favorite way to spend the 4th of July?

Do you enjoy soup? What are your favorite kinds?

Have a great day, and thanks for reading!

❤ Michelle

moving forward, Uncategorized

The obligatory like

July 3, 2014July 4, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

Part 1.

I caveat this post, with the fact it has nothing to do with food, or fitness-at least the physical type…

I will however say, it has a lot to do with moving forward, or ‘keep movin’ forward as my mantra states.

First point: Social media doesn’t always make you socially connected with people. Can I get an amen? It hit me recently that while scrolling through news feeds and ‘liking’ people’s posts, I still felt very removed from many people’s lives.

I have been doing a little ‘soul searching’ journey if you will over the last several weeks. More so, because I saw myself spiraling back in a bit of a negative funk that I did NOT want to revisit.
While on my bike ride last weekend, I decided to open my mind up a bit, and try and figure out what my deal was lately…
Guess what…I realized that despite who I wanted to blame, it was MY fault for allowing others creep up on my joy like thieves in the night…Time for some “Talk to the hand” action again. Right?

So lately on this journey of moving forward, I decided I would put forth more effort in things I found tugging at my heart. One, is being so close, yet still so far apart from my family. Realizing you can’t just pick up the pieces after being gone for 20 years I knew I needed to try harder. I miss them dearly, so I picked up the phone…

I reached out to my sister first, and we’ve decided to run Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth Minnesota next summer. She has ran the race previously, but since this race is in our hometown I thought HOW COOL would it be to run it TOGETHER!!!! She agreed, and we signed up on opening day-July 1st.
With that, I WON a shirt and a goodie bag for sign up on opening day. HOW. COOL. IS. THAT. LOL…ok, maybe not that cool but having not won many things in the past, this girl was stoked.

Secondly, I called my parents last night…often times a month can go by without us catching up as life gets busy, and time is easily lost track of in the midst of careers, travel, life, kids, training, household disasters, etc…LOL.

In the end, I am glad I picked up the phone vs. just liking status posts or pics on fb…sometimes you need to hear that person’s voice to really feel that social connection.
Is it me, or is social media making us LESS social?

to be continued…stay tuned for Part 2.

dedication, goals, moving forward, running

Weekend wrap up

June 30, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

Sometimes (often times) I find myself needed a weekend, well, FOR my weekend. This one was one of those weekends where we were on the GO all weekend. So this post will be mostly pics, filled with my little tid bits throughout the way…

Friday my husband had to go to a dress rehearsal for the wedding he was performing “Saber arch” detail in. So after dropping off my oldest at her BFF’s for a sleep over, I decided to embrace the moment and take my youngest out on a date. I asked her where she wanted to go to eat…SUSHI of course. We had such a nice time eating dinner, and walking the streets of Geneva window shopping and I treated her with well deserved ice cream.

We wrapped up our date with shopping for “Lucy” her American girl doll, and we found a beautiful hand made outfit.

We got home a bit late, and I was tired. I worked a few hours of overtime this week, and knew I had a long run scheduled for the morning. So I set my outfit out, fuel was ready, and I went to bed at 10 p.m.

Sadly, my husband came home late from his practice, and I wasn’t able to sleep…AT. ALL. I may have gotten two hours of sleep Friday night…MAYBE.
I got out of bed at 5:45 with baggy eyes and heavy legs. My long run was GOING. TO. SUCK. (and it did)
I met up with the Dick Pond run club gang, and we headed out promptly at 7 am. It was hot. It was humid. And all I wanted to do was go back to bed. But I ran. And thankfully Melissa stayed with me for the majority of the run. There were several walk/water/want to stab myself in the eye breaks. Here we are at mile 4, with a bug planted firmly underneath my eye. New make up scheme? I think…NOT.

Around the six mile mark, I sent Melissa on her way so she wouldn’t have to witness my epic fail of a long run. I couldn’t hold pace and the mental demons were winning. But I finished…8.18 treacherous miles logged.

And then. There was the food. Yes, I devoured this egg sammich like a mad women.

I wanted to nap when I got home…but we had a wedding to attend. Here are some highlights.

Today I was blessed to be able to take a NAP this morning…Morning you say? Yup, hubby got up at 6:30 for his long run and I got my youngest breakfast and settled. I may, or may not have napped until 10:30 a.m. I forced myself out of bed, showered, cleaned, and went to a dear friends housewarming/Mary Kay Party. I love my friends. Have I said that lately?

I came home to THIS dinner…Grilled steak, Egg plant, and quinoa…Can you say yum?

Yup...my hubby made this! — Yup…my hubby made this!

I finished the weekend with a 12.5 mile bike ride. I needed to find my happy place, which I can usually find during a long run…so I needed to feel the wind on my face, the sun on my back…and all that jazz…So I dusted off my bike, and hit the trails. My bike sucks, I’ll just say it, but it keeps me moving regardless. My pace was slow, but I felt great being outside as the sun started to set. I captured THIS awesome moment tonight….

And as I flew down the hill on my Walmart bike I realized…I can fly…I can run…I can ride. And as always, I keep movin’ forward.

❤ Michelle

dedication

The house I grew up in…

June 27, 2014 Movin' it with Michelle

I will admit when I joined the Air Force, a part of me was running away. Both mentally, and physically speaking…
I left the house I grew up in, in 1991 and haven’t been back for over 20 years. But the memories are still with me, and I have decided instead of focusing on the hard times, that I will revisit all that I loved about growing up in this old house…

This house is over 100 years old…
Favorite memories include…
-Our kitchen had a fire when I was a young child. My Dad and his friends rebuilt the kitchen, and with that came huge appliance boxes with which we made some pretty amazing forts.
-I learned to cook in this kitchen, between baking with my Mom, and creating amazing dishes with my Dad with only our palates as recipe guides.

-The hill we had in our front yard may have been terrible for mowing, but it was amazing for sliding down on metal saucers in the winter. Watch out for cars!
-We were surrounded by amazing elderly neighbors who taught me respect, love, and hard work.
-As kids, we bonded with all of the neighborhood kids within a six block radius playing “red light/green light” and “hide and go seek” until our Mom’s called for us at dark.
-I helped my Dad (or at least I thought I was helping) build the deck, redo the siding, and make improvements to this house we called home.
-My bedroom window (the top two windows pictured above) looked out on to Lake Superior. I used to stare out at the lake, daydreaming…I spent many hours in this room reading and losing myself in the literary world. One of these windows was struck by lightening when I was around the age of 12, shooting a lightening bold through the springs of my bed (while I slept), waking me abruptly as I shot straight up into bed. One of the insurance adjusters told my parents we should be in church thanking God that I was alive. I’ll never forget that, and have since faced my fears of thunderstorms full force.
-Every Christmas season we would take down all of our knick knacks and replace them with holiday decorations making our house look like a winter wonderland. This was always my favorite season despite the frigid temps in northern Minnesota.
-Holiday meals were always recognized and celebrated as a family. Always.
-Every day, my Mom would leave us notes to do certain chores on our wooden kitchen table that was housed snuggly in our kitchen…but on all holidays she left us love notes, candy, reminders that she loved us. This has remained one of my favorite memories.
-I spent hours in the back yard with my Dad digging for earthworms for fishing, and practicing our fly fishing form.
-We had a choke cherry tree in the back yard that I loved sneaking the sheer indulgence of a tart choke cherry after a long day at school.
-We also had fresh rhubarb and raspberries that I loved to pick, eat, and enjoy daily!
-We plugged the cars that sat outside due to not having a garage in every day during winter.
-The house was so old, that we didn’t have a shower, so I would spend hours in the bath tub listening to Barry Manilow and reading books…I had to force myself out of the tub when I found my toes so wrinkled I was afraid they’d stay that way.
-My Dad would spend hours in the basement working…I loved watching him work on his guns, wood carvings, and the like.
-Twins baseball became pretty huge in my house…so we would all curl up on the couch and chairs munching sunflower seeds and watching baseball.
-Shooting bottle rockets and BBQ’ing on our deck during the 4th was always an awesome day!

I remember…leaving this house when my parents sold it just a few months before I left for the Air Force. I remember saying goodbye…

But I hold these memories near and dear, and no matter what has happened in the past, I can say I am pretty darn blessed.

And while counting my blessings, I have to account for my current blessings of amazing friends, an awesome husband, and family that although may not all be near-are a constant in my life.

Do you still visit the house you grew up in? Do your parents still live there?

❤
Michelle

dedication, food, goals

Gosh has it really been a week?

June 25, 2014March 3, 2015 Movin' it with Michelle

Last week I logged 3 runs, and kept my eating on par…well, until the weekend where I chowed down on chicken wings while watching the World Cup soccer game…ooooooops…

I started my week strong with my hubby, running a very humid and hot 5k to get us moving. It was hard, admittedly. There were plenty of swear words and more sweat then we could even quantify, but we kept moving…

Back to work today, and let’s just say at 9 pm I have finally finished my work day. Talk about exhausted…who wants to lift weights for me?

BUT…I’ve missed cooking. With the hubby gone last week our meals here were pretty simple…

Yet the best part of tonight was creating a yummy and healthy dinner and in less than 30 minutes. Now…what to name this dish, LOL.

Braised chicken thighs

Here is what you’ll need:

4 chicken thighs, bone in, patted dry.
1 small white onion diced
1 pepper diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can of diced tomatoes, drained
2 teaspoons of capers, diced
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 cup of Sauvignon blanc (Fiddlehead cellar is my all time favorite)
Seasonings:
Pinch of Rosemary, sage, thyme, kosher salt, black pepper and roasted red pepper flakes

Here’s what you’ll do:
Season your chicken with salt and pepper and sear on both sides in a pan coated with extra virgin olive oil, until they are golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside. (Do NOT cook through). In the same pan, add your onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, tomato paste, capers, wine, and seasoning and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add back your chicken, coating them in the sauce, and cover. Let simmer for 15 minutes until cooked through.

Instead of serving over traditional pasta, I served over yellow zucchini noodles. What a hit!

How did I make these cool veggie noodles? My new favorite kitchen gadget!

Vegettie...don't laugh. — The Vegettie…don’t laugh.

Tonight’s work out? Arms…

Back at it with running tomorrow!

What is your favorite kitchen gadget?

❤ Michelle

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