Powering through

Friday morning started in a whirlwind, with the girls and I getting ready and making sure we had everything for Emily's preschool Easter party, and Will getting ready to go to the History Bee that the paper hosts every year.  I usually enjoy being a proctor for that, but with Emily's party today I just had to opt out this time.  There will be other years...

Will whipped up a tasty bowl of raisin banana oats (which I sprinkled with chias) and some eggs for breakfast.

We made it to Emily's party only slightly late, and despite my allergies making it extremely difficult for me to keep up with all those kids, we all had a good time.

I enjoyed watching Emily eat, even though I wasn't super-pleased about all of the offerings.  I'd say 80% of the other kids picked at their plates a bit, maybe eating one or two things, and then threw the rest of their food away.  Emily sat in that chair and methodically, one thing at a time, worked her way through the entire plate except for the lollipop and the gumdrops, which she said she didn't like (but which she was very careful to ingest all remaining frosting from before throwing them away).  The other kids all finished, got up, played for a bit, and some even headed home and Emily was still there, still eating.  It gives me comfort, because I have heard so many mothers complain that when their kids eat lunch at school they just scarf their dessert and then run out to recess, which is SO bad for their little growing bodies and brains that are trying to learn things all day.  I am worried already about Emily not being able to have morning or afternoon snacks at school, but at least it seems she will take the time to eat a good lunch even when all of her friends are running around playing already.  She may seem picky to ME when I'm throwing away all of her leftover meals, but when compared to other kids her age I guess she's a pretty good eater.

After the party was over I turned both girls over to Gemmy, then headed out for some mommy time!  Which for me meant going to Trader Joes and Whole Foods.  I was feeling pretty cruddy, and OH do I wish that I didn't have to make a special day trip to shop at either of these places, but it was fun nonetheless.  I prefer to hit Trader Joes first since their prices are lower and their inventory more variable, but I was starving for lunch, so Whole Foods had to be first.  I tried to focus a bit more on the delightfully prepared veggies in my salad this time vs. the delicious tofu concoctions, although there were still small samples of a couple of them in there hiding under the kale.

Oh yeah

I accidentally stole some lady's cart as I was shopping at Whole Foods (she had a flat of champagne mangoes too) which is a big deal in Montgomery County because if you lose your reusable bags you have to pay for paper ones.  Luckily she wasn't TOO mad, and I was able to locate mine afterward as well.  Then I had a shamefully excessive trip to Trader Joes where I had to leave with 2 carts to hold all my stuff, but what can I say, my children INHALE dried fruit and yogurt and TJ's has the best prices on those and many other staples for us so I can't help but go nuts every time I walk into one.  I don't get to go very frequently (probably a good thing), and even less frequently do I get to go without kids!

I made it home JUUUUST before rush hour got bad, and I snacked on 6 garlic-stuffed olives and 2 oz of beef jerky on the way home.  I was still hungry (not enough protein in my salad?) so I snacked on some seaweed, a pear, and TJ's dried oranges.  They were actually really good!

I don't know why these old placemats are still out laying around...I don't really like them

 Once I tossed all of my goodies into the fridge/freezer/pantry I changed and ran back out to the gym to workout with Will, Brad and Kim.  The only problem was that Will had forgotten his gym bag, and even though I had told him I'd bring it with me I forgot too :-(  He had to borrow shorts from Ken and workout barefoot.  How many people do you know who would workout barefoot if they forgot their gym stuff?  And how many gyms would let them?  Luckily we did most of our working out on the field which is fake grass and crushed up tires so it didn't really matter that he had no shoes.  People probably just thought he was taking the whole barefoot craze to the next level.

I got a chance to flip tires for the first time, and I actually managed to get the 350 lb tire up as far as my stomach!  I needed help from Kim to get it the rest of the way over though.  I SO didn't feel like working out what with my annoying sickness symptoms, but I'm glad I did.

After our functional strength training we met up at Cafe NOLA for dinner.

I had: 

Brekenridge Agave Wheat beer

1/2 kale tomato avocado feta tamari sesame salad

1/2 duck with apricot preserves and oyster mushroom, 1/2 Will's "duck salad" which was the exact same thing just with less duck and bigger sprouts

Triple berry ginger agave mojito-ish drink that wasn't very strong or good :-(

 I was DYING to go see Hunger Games after dinner, but by then Will had me convinced that we were suffering not from allergies (which we could just power through) but from Emily's sickness (in which case we would benefit from getting extra rest) so we just headed home and made plans to see the movie the next morning.  Which is this morning.  And there aren't any showings until 12:20, which is after I'm supposed to pick up the girls :-(  Crap.  Hunger Games will have to wait.  Probably until it comes out on DVD.

 I finished the night with a piece of Theo 70% dark chocolate with almond and dried cherry.

Then we went to bed at 9:30 and stayed there until 8AM.  It was nice, but unfortunately still not enough because we both woke up feeling like death.  Definitely a sickness and not just allergies then.

I'm trying to delay picking up the girls from my parents house for as long as possible because Will is leaving today to go up to the farm for an overnight guys-only paintball event so the longer I can rest up and prepare for my stint as a sick single mother, the better.  I really hope there's a new My Little Pony episode available today.