The food, family and fun that made my week

Hi, my friends! I hope you’ve been having a good week and are gearing up for a relaxing weekend. I’m excited to say that Dave has a long weekend off of work for President’s Day, and that means less diaper changing and less baby duty for me! And I mean that in the nicest way possible, because I love Brady to death, and I definitely love being his mommy …. but like … it’s pretty awesome to have an extra set of hands around. You feel me?

That being said, before we jump into this week’s selection of favorites, I wanted to say something about the school shooting in Florida that happened on Valentine’s Day: It’s awful, it’s so sad, it’s completely heart-breaking for that community, and I won’t get political, but I will say that I fear for the world that my little Brady is growing up to be in. The addiction to technology, the violence, it’s just — it’s very scary stuff. I don’t know what to suggest that we all do at this point, other than to be kind to each other at all costs, look out for each other and get active in our communities to fight for the things we believe in. 

And now for an extremely awkward transition, shall we lighten the mood?

Tasty snacking with a NatureBox delivery (and a giveaway)

Snacks are my jam. I love regular meals, but I also love snacks. (Okay, I love food, we know this.) And when it comes to snacks, I’m not a salty chips kinda gal, instead, I like heartier snacks, like trail mix, nuts and bars with some substance, crunch and maybe even some protein. Well, as expected, I was super excited when the folks at NatureBox asked me if I wanted a free membership to their site and a credit for my first order to try out some snacks in a shipment (in a box, get it?). Yes, please. I used the $50 credit to get a box of sooo, sooo, sooo many good things, and here’s just a portion of it … 

So what is NatureBox? Well, NatureBox is a wholesale snack membership site, and basically, you pay $5 for the membership each month, then you get to order healthy snacks at a super-low price, and you get that $5 monthly membership fee put toward your order each time. It’s pretty simple.

I spent a lot of time on the site and ended up selecting almond butter, dark chocolate nom noms, blueberry almond quinoa bites, strawberry whole wheat figgy bars, oatmeal cups, coconut cashews (Dave’s favorite!), Nakd bars and more, all for $50, which is a lot less than you would pay in the store — 40 percent less, according to the NatureBox folks. (By the way, you can also buy products under the NatureBox label at Target and other grocers, in case the name sounds familiar to you.)

Anywho, I’ve had so much fun sampling all of the snacks, and I think my favorite items are the dark chocolate nom noms and the Nakd bars, although the strawberry whole wheat figgy bars are a close third — they are like healthier and more delicious Fig Newtons. Like yum. I also loved the oatmeal, which I had for breakfast three times this week, with my addition of a banana and some more pumpkin seeds.

None of the products on the NatureBox site have added sugar or artificial coloring, so you can be sure you’re getting quality stuff. New snacks are added each month, and there are more than 100 items listed. Overall, a pretty cool set-up. By the way, right now on the NatureBox site (<—my referral link), you can get a free $20 box of snacks if you sign up.

GIVEAWAY ALERT: Now here’s the good part, I’m going to be giving away a free lifetime membership, as well as a $50 credit for an order to one lucky winner on Instagram today. Head over there to check out the giveaway and enter!

*Thanks to NatureBox for providing a free membership and complimentary order to me, as well as the same for my giveaway.

Celebrating Rudy’s third birthday

I can’t miss a chance to share a picture of Rudy, our little maltipoo, who turned three on the day before Valentine’s Day this week. Rudy is such a good big brother, and is the softest and sweetest puppy around — who truly brightens our lives each and every day! (Yes, I still call him a puppy, because he acts like one.)

On his birthday, after Dave got home, I took Rudy out for a solo trip to the pet store, and we picked out two special treats for him — although the car ride and alone time with me were probably gifts enough. 

By the way, the day after Rudy’s birthday, he went to the groomer to get cleaned up, and boy, he is looking fly!

Rudy doesn’t get a lot of screen time now that Brady is around, but he’s still very much present and engaged in our daily activities and is a huge part of our family, although quite small in stature. Shout-out to all my fellow dog parents out there! How much do you love your pup?

Special Valentine’s Day treats 

Truth be told, Dave and I spent most of the evening on Valentine’s Day taking turns trying to rock sweet Brady and get him to sleep — the usual around our house when night falls. However, we did get take-out sushi (which we normally don’t get during the week, so that was somewhat special), and we also exchanged little gifts.

The day started off great, because I woke up to a beautiful spread from Dave with a few of my favorite things like kombucha and mini cakes from Nothing Bundt Cake, as well as some cute wine glasses, which I had actually seen a couple weeks before when we were out shopping together. And of course, the cakes were my two favorite flavors: red velvet and carrot cake, featuring the most delicious cream cheese frosting! For real though, Nothing Bundt Cake makes a good cake.

To make the day even better, our kitchen was already full of a dozen roses, which my friends at Whole Foods sent to me a few days earlier, and I had a giant Valentine card from my mom too — so it was a sea of red and festivity. Yay!

Quick trip down memory lane: Do you guys remember making and sharing Valentine’s Day cards in school? That was the best! I loved writing them out and receiving them. We should really bring that back. Anywho, we didn’t exactly get to do anything celebratory for the holiday, but it was still a good one!

Other favorites from around the web …

• FITNESS: Core work! Who loves to work their core? So you guys probably know by now that sit-ups are not the most effective way to work your core. Planks and plank variations that involve more muscle groups are superior. I totally agree with this article’s list of the three most effective ab exercises. Give them a try! You’ll see CXWORX mentioned in there too, and it’s a program I do at least once a week lately and am totally feeling results from it.
• FOOD: Apparently Ben & Jerry’s has a new low-calorie ice cream, and I need to get my hands on it. Have any of you tried it? Tell me more!
• MOTIVATION: Did you see this one from earlier in the week about how to get the motivation to work out at home? It was a reader request!
• POSITIVITY: Need to practice some self-love? Try reciting these positive mantras while breathing deep and see how you feel.
• RECIPES: The title of this article is funny, and there are four tasty sounding healthy recipes in it.
• BEAUTY: This is what I’ve been getting on my nails since December, and it’s SO much better than gel, because it doesn’t require the UV lights for setting the polish. I keep meaning to mention it on the blog, and now here I have. Bring it up at your local nail shop and see if they can do it!

And before we go, here are some recent Brady pics … he’s LOVING this new frog chair I bought him this week, and he always loves posing for the camera …

Thanks for stopping by the blog today, my friends! Please, be good out there!

This weekend, I’ll be teaching Bootybarre, getting my hair done (ohhhhh soooo needed), doing some house stuff and soaking up time with my three boys. 

I’ll see you back here soon and over on Instagram until then!

Fun favorites over on A Lady Goes West today ... Click To Tweet

Questions of the day

What are you up to this weekend?

What’s something good you’ve tasted, watched or read lately?