Hello, my friend! Welcome to the blog. And as always, thanks for clicking through to read today. What’s new with you? Are you having a good week?

This week has been an interesting one over here. Our kitchen countertop project was not quite completed last weekend, so we’ve been without a stove, garbage disposal, dishwasher and water filter, as well as with a very broken backsplash (we didn’t change our backsplash, so a lot of it was damaged during the countertop switch), which isn’t super ideal. The kitchen (and thus, life) felt a bit in disarray this week, and I didn’t realize how much I/we rely on our stove for so many of our meals too. I’m hoping things are finished today, and once it’s done, I’ll share pictures.

This week, I taught my regular five classes, and I’m subbing an extra barbell class tomorrow. Also, this afternoon/evening, Dave and I are going over to one of our neighborhood friends’ houses for an Adult Field Day event. It’s going to be several couples, and we’re going to play some outdoor games and have food and drinks. It should be fun, and I’ll report back.

Other than that, and my tennis clinic, we’ll be hanging low, because I’m out of town for the second part of next week in Vegas for the IDEA World Fitness Convention, so I have a lot to do to prepare.

Let’s get to the current faves of the week …

Current faves of the week

Fun

Midweek pool and dinner outing

Sometimes the summer afternoons seem really long around here. While most of our days fly by, I feel like, lately, I’m always wondering how to fill those two weekday afternoons when we’re not at the gym for me to teach a class or for Brady’s weekly swimming lesson. It’s too hot to play outside, so what do we do?

Brady asked if we could go to the pool on Tuesday, and I realized … why yes, we can. We’ve actually never gone to our neighborhood pool on a weekday as silly as that sounds. After Brady’s nap on Tuesday, when Dave was done with work, we went over to the pool to swim, go down the slide and hang. We even ran into a couple of friends, even though the pool was actually pretty empty.

We were in the pool for a little over an hour and then went to sit down for dinner at the outdoor restaurant there, and I had some tasty shrimp tacos. Brady thought it was so cool to eat his dinner at the pool, and I was happy we didn’t have to figure out what to eat at home with no stove available to us. Funny how I never thought to go to the pool during the week, right? Now I know.

Little things

Just a few items

It was a little bit of a struggle to come up with faves for the week, to be honest, but I do have some small stuff to share …

“Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II.” Dave found this behind-the-scenes documentary on Disney+ and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a six-episode series showing how the “Frozen II” movie was created, down to the animations, music, voiceovers and so much more. I had no idea how much work goes into an animated film and how many people play a part, and it took almost two years to create “Frozen II.” Fun fact: This is the number-one animated film of all time. And it’s a good one. We also watched a behind-the-scenes documentary of “Encanto” and “Moana,” and they were also interesting. 

New makeup and toiletry bags. With a couple upcoming trips, I was in the market for a new toiletry bag and matching makeup bag. I looked high and low (and I mean like everywhere), and I finally ended up buying a set from Target. They had a few patterns and styles, but this black and white one was my favorite. I ordered the matching makeup bag, the toiletry bag and the pencil case. As soon as they arrived, I transferred over my makeup, and I’ll be using all three of these bags next week. Three cheers for a good Target find.

My mom’s visit. My mom left on Sunday, after a little more than a week here, and we’ve been missing her. We love having her around and are always sad to see her go. Brady, especially, is constantly asking about Grammie. Even though it’s a super-long drive for her to come up to Charlotte from southwest Florida, it’s a whole lot better than a cross-country flight, like she had to do when we lived in California. And we’re hoping to have her back again soon, likely for Brady’s big 5th birthday bash in a couple months. Speaking of which, I need to choose a date for that and get to planning. 🙂 

Workouts

My workouts from last week

Here’s where I share a recap of my previous week of workouts. I share this to show you how I try to get diversity in my week, and how I always take a rest day (almost always). But remember, I do a little bit more than the average person, because I’m a group fitness instructor. 

Workouts from the week of 7/4

• Monday: Taught 1-hour barbell class, 9:45 a.m.
• Tuesday: Taught 1-hour barre class with light weights, 9:30 a.m.
• Wednesday: Taught 45-minute barre class with light weights, 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Taught 45-minute combo class with weights, 9:45 a.m.
• Friday: Taught 45-minute barbell class, 11:30 a.m.
• Saturday: Took 90-minute tennis lesson, 11 a.m.
• Sunday: 20-minute BODYFLOW via Les Mills+ at home (get your free 30-day trial to Les Mills+ here, and I bet you’ll love it), 10 a.m.

This past week of workouts was back to normal with no double days, five classes, tennis and a rest day featuring some light yoga for recovery via Les Mills+. It was a good week, and even though there’s always more I want to do fitness-wise, sometimes I need to be satisfied with this.

Deal of the week …

The BEST home gym equipment. You know I’m a huge fan of the Les Mills Smart Tech equipment for working out at home (and whenever I work out at home, I use my Les Mills Smartbar). Well, right now, Les Mills is offering 20 percent off extra weight plates, when you buy a Smartbar and weight set. Use the code PLATES20 at check-out. The other codes that work on Les Mills Smart Tech equipment are BETTER10, STRONGER10 and SMARTTECH5, but these can’t be combined. Head here to check out the Les Mills equipment. This offer is good through July 17.

Best read of the week …

Here’s a podcast episode I listened to a couple weeks ago that I wanted to share with you:

The power of one more. I loved listening to this episode of “The Goal Digger Podcast” featuring an interview with Ed Mylett, a business and motivational speaker/author. Mylett is real and raw in this episode and talks about how his dad’s battle with alcoholism provided him with a life lesson to always strive for “just one more day” to get through anything in life. I found this message so powerful. Find the episode here.

Quote of the week …

Here’s a thought I shared on Instagram that I wanted to share here too:

Blog archives of the week …

Let’s look back at two blog posts worth revisiting, including a recent one:

Healthy habits.  Health and fitness tips! I’m also including some crowdsourced healthy habits from you in this one … “Common habits shared by fit and healthy people.”

Lessons from teaching. If you’re an instructor or a class attendee, go back and read this one again. I just did … “What I’ve learned from teaching group fitness for 12 years.”

Thanks for coming by the blog today, my friend! Have a great weekend. And stay hydrated! 🙂 

Questions of the day for YOU …

How was your week?

What are you up to this weekend?

What’s your favorite podcast right now?