The Tuesday Before Thanksgiving

Hey friends!! It feels like it’s been a minute since we had the chance to catch up. How are you? How is your week going so far? Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving? We will be staying home and my father-in-law will be joining us. It will be the most low-key Thanksgiving we’ve had in a long time but I think many of you out there are likely in a similar boat. We’re still planning to enjoy a spread of our Thanksgiving favorites and plan to do a walking family 5k Turkey Trot in the morning to make things feel a little special!

Though Thanksgiving is top of mind at the moment, I wanted to shift gears a bit and share another day-in-the-life post with you guys today. Keep on reading if you’d like a little peek into what our day looked like yesterday!

Morning

After opting out of workouts for a few days, I was back at it Tuesday morning.

Workouts have been all over the place over here lately. They’re not exactly consistent but I’m giving myself a ton of grace during this postpartum season. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t majorly miss Burn Boot Camp and gym childcare as that made it a lot easier to keep my workouts consistent. (Yes, many gyms here are open but I’m not comfortable going with the kids and a baby at the moment.) For me, my mid-morning workouts served not only as exercise for my body but they also functioned as a break from mom life, so it’s safe to say I miss them for a myriad of reasons. Like everyone out there right now, I’m doing what I can and also know I’m lucky to have a garage gym I can use when I get a decent night’s sleep and have the energy to work out before the boys are up for the day.

Thankfully, the postpartum workout plan I’m following from @trainerpaige is really manageable and only calls for three days of 25-30 minutes of strength training a week. On the off days, I walk for 30-45 minutes which is really easy for me to do since Rhett loves the baby carrier and Chase and Ryder are always up for a walk/bike ride/Power Wheels Jeep drive around our neighborhood.

As for yesterday’s workout, it was a strength workout so I completed supersets of full-body exercises for 30 minutes and called it a day. I grabbed a quick shower before tagging back in on kid-duty so Ryan could head upstairs to work from our bedroom for the day.

Chase and Rhett were the first two kids up for the day and Chase eased Rhett into the day with a little concert using the boys’ musical piano mat while I sipped my coffee and assembled preschool lunches.

We also managed to read a couple of Christmas books before Ryder was up and the boys decided they wanted to play astronauts in Chase’s pop-up rocket ship tent for a bit. Even Rhett got in on the fun!

(Side note: I highly recommend this pop-up tent for any holiday gifting you might be doing for little ones this year. I got it for Chase for his birthday and the boys think it’s the coolest and use it for all kinds of imagination games. We’ve also gifted the pink princess castle pop-up tent to Chase’s BFF for her birthday and she loved it, too!)

As the boys played, I quickly inhaled some mason jar chia pudding I prepped the night before for breakfast.

This batch included chia seeds, oats, raw shredded zucchini, flax seeds, cocoa powder, almond milk and a splash of maple syrup.

I eventually got breakfast in the boys’ bellies as well and then Rhett was clearly in need of a nap after so much brother playtime. Of course he passed out in my arms five minutes before we had to head out the door for preschool but thankfully Ryan was able to bring his laptop downstairs and hang with him while he snoozed and the big boys and I headed out.

I made it back home just as Rhett was waking up, so I nursed him and then we hung out on the floor together for a little bit of tummy time!

He’s starting to smile more and more and I just love it!!!

Rhett seemed content to kick and look around on the floor for a bit, so I ate a chocolate chip sweet potato muffin topped with almond butter and knocked out some emails until he was ready for another nap. Blog work continued while he slept and I also took some time to assemble a few small teacher gifts and thanks you cards for the boys’ teachers for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving break begins for their preschool tomorrow and I feel so much for teachers right now. I think I speak for parents everywhere when I say how grateful we are for all of the extra effort teachers are pouring into our children these days.

When Rhett was once again awake, I figured both he and Sadie would enjoy some fresh air and sunshine, so we went for a short walk around our neighborhood before we had to head home for preschool pickup.

Afternoon 

Once I had everyone settled back at home, Chase and Ryder spent some time playing with Play-Doh while I nursed Rhett and assembled afternoon snack plates before Ryder’s nap. By the time I got Ryder settled, Rhett was ready for a nap as well and so I lucked out with two kiddos napping at the same time which is no small feat around here.

I finally had a moment to assemble a real lunch around 2 p.m. and heated up a Daily Harvest cauliflower pesto bowl. I added leftover chopped chicken thighs and roasted sweet potato to the bowl to give it a little more staying power and loved every bite!  (Just FYI, my affiliate link + the code pbfingers will get you $25 off your first box if you’d like to give Daily Harvest goodies a try!)

Plus a peppermint crunch Yasso bar and a small bowl of oatmeal 30 minutes later because I am always hungry these days (thank you, nursing).

I’m so psyched the peppermint flavor Yasso bars are back in stores right now! They’re my favorite Yasso flavor (I love the little white chocolate and cookie pieces) and only available during the holidays so I always stock up when I see them available again.

The rest of the afternoon passed by in a blur of reading with Chase, working while he listened to a podcast and painted with watercolors, bouncing Rhett as he fought his nap like a champ and some meal planning for Thanksgiving. On Monday morning, I made the last-minute decision to order a turkey and gravy from a local restaurant and I’m already so glad we did. It feels good to support a local restaurant and I like knowing one part of our Thanksgiving feast is all done.

As for the rest of our menu, here is what we have planned:

• Turkey
• Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
• Stuffing
• Glazed Carrots
• Peas
• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Cornbread
• Pineapple Soufflé
• Pumpkin Pie

My plan is to make the pumpkin pie and cornbread today as well as prep the sweet potatoes, carrots and stuffing ingredients. This might be easier said than done with all of the boys home with me but since they love to “help” in the kitchen, I’m hoping we’ll be able to make it a fun-ish activity!

Once Ryan was done with work for the day, we did our usual evening routine and played with the boys, tackled bath time with all three kiddos, fed everyone dinner and read some stories before bed.

Dinner looked like a random hash I made with spaghetti squash, mashed chickpeas, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese and some spices.

It was inspired by a vegetarian Blue Apron meal I made last week and loved so much that I wanted to recreate it. I topped it with tzatziki sauce and a rendition of Brittany’s Greek Salad which was very flavorful and refreshing.

Once we had all of the boys in bed, Ryan and I chatted for a bit before reading. I made it through three pages The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory before my eyes would no longer stay open. I am really enjoying that novel but I’ve been so tired in the evening that I’m not making much headway on it lately. I’ll finish it one day!

Plans for today look like a play date at a local playground with my friend Lauren and her kiddos and then I need to make it to the grocery store for Thanksgiving ingredients. I hope to see you guys around here on Friday but until then enjoy your week and Happy Thanksgiving!!!