Binkies and Briefcases

Last week Dr. V gave me strict instructions to start meal planning, which was great advice.

Unfortunately, I crashed and burned in the meal planning department.

We are moving in 18 days and most of our stuff is in storage. Admittedly, this was probably not the best time to commit to something big like this 4 week challenge, but I just couldn’t say no to the opportunity to work with Green Giant AND a famous tv personality like Dr. V! 

I do now realize that it would have been super helpful if I had access to my slow cookers because they would have been perfect for meal planning weeks like this. I am kicking myself because it would be easy to throw recipes like my Chicken Corn Soup in the crock-pot, substituting with Green Giant frozen corn, and know that dinner is ready and waiting for us, no matter how crazy the rest of the schedule gets.

But I’m still chugging along and trying to make small changes. I have been drinking more water, per Dr. V’s advice and I am trying to cook more at home. Last night we had fish, brown rice, and a pack of the Great Giant Steamers mixed vegetables for dinner.

Here is what Dr. V had to say to me this week.

I like the idea of recreating restaurant meals at home. I’ve been meaning for a while to try recreating a Chipotle burrito bowl and this sounds like the perfect excuse.

This week’s challenge theme is Abundance.

It is true that, for the same amount of calories, you can eat much more in terms of quantity when you are making healthy choices. Check out this chart that shows the difference. It’s pretty crazy how much more you can put in your belly when you are making healthy decisions. These are just a few examples. Click here to see the full chart.

I am going to keep the abundance theme in mind and apply it when packing the kids’ lunches  this week.

Thank you to Green Giant for sponsoring this post. All opinions (and meal planning failures) are my own.

Believe it or not, even though our whole lives seem to revolve around building the house right now, occasionally Eddie and I  also get out to do other stuff.

Like work.

My favorite part of my job? It’s toss up between being able to sit at home and work with my kids next to me, staying in sweat pants 90% of the time, and building fabulous relationships with other women and moms with whom I have so much in common. Also, every once in a while I get to dress up and pretend to be famous.  

Last night I had the amazing opportunity to be one of the featured authors at a book signing at Kismet Consignment in Downingtown, PA with Meredith from The Mom of the Year and Ellen and Erin from Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms.

Lest you think my life is this glamorous all of the time, I should tell you that the day started with me catching Penny’s vomit in my bare hands in an effort to save the rented carpet in our apartment. Also, just before the signing, I showed up in this red dress at kindergarten pick-up, where Abby announced she had to poop and I had to hike around the entire campus carrying a sick baby and dragging a preschooler with a potty emergency around to every door until someone would let us in the school so she could use the bathroom. Fun times with bodily functions all around. Plus, I got very lost on the way to Downingtown. Like, “I need to stop at the fire station and have them give me entirely new directions” kind of lost. 

Who wears tight, revealing red dresses with plunging necklines and stands next to men in firefighter uniforms in the middle of the day? Escorts and authors, that’s who.

But I digress. Back to our signing…

Meredith worked so hard to put this event together. She arranged the location, the food, the swag, the decorations, the advertising, and she ordered all of the books. All the rest of us did was show up. Meredith even fed us dinner at her house before we headed off to the signing. Huge props to Meredith, because this event was hoppin’. A TON of people showed up, even though the fire department actually closed the road because the high school down the street was having their Homecoming parade. 

That didn’t stop anyone. People told us they parked across the street, stepped over the barriers, and walked to the book signing anyway.

We had our very own Avon lady giving out free lipstick swag  to attendees.

We scattered around pictures of ourselves recreating the cover of the book. 

Meredith had a poster-sized version of our book cover made for photo ops. Here I am standing next to it with her, my best bloggy buddy. She’s just so pretty and classy and tall all the time.

Kismet is an adorable store! The owners were very gracious hosts. It didn’t hurt that the merchandise is pretty amazing as well. All of the other authors bought clothes and jewelry while we were there. 

I, on the other hand, was busy admiring the furniture, which was also for sale. I want to marry this piece and take it home with me to live forever.

And what’s a Ladies’ Night Out without wine, cheese, fruit, chocolate, and CUPCAKES? Cocina Cupcakes donated all of the cupcakes for our event. I had the chocolate chip cookie dough and it was ah-mazing. Like, for real. You can tell by the fact that my dress leaves little to the imagination that I am no stranger to cupcakes, and I can promise you that these were simply the best cupcakes ever.

What’s better than eating raw cookie dough? Cookie dough and cake together in a way that doesn’t involve any risk of salmonella,  that’s what. I’m telling you, you need these cupcakes in your life.

It was so fun to meet Ellen and Erin! We’ve been online friends for a while, but this was the first time we got to meet in real life.

Our pens stayed busy all night. Pretty much everyone who was there had come to see this fabulous lady.

Meredith’s sister and dad came to support her too.

And we got some autographs of our own. We used this mirror as a guest book and our attendees signed it with lipstick.

Thank you so much to those of you who came out to support us last night! We had a ton of fun and it was awesome to be able to meet some of you!