It is what it is

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Our Taste of Blue Apron

I was fortunate enough to win a free trial of Blue Apron through a drawing at work. I have been wanting to try these meals for awhile, but I never wanted to pull the trigger on the cost.

I am not being compensated for this review; I just thought I would share our experience with these meals.

Here are my pros:

  • They perfectly portion all the ingredients. So there is no measurement or buying too much of something (like a whole bunch of celery when you only need one stalk).
  • No shopping is required. When you have a toddler, this is awesome. They just deliver it right to your door.
  • The instruction cards are really easy to follow. I like to follow recipes, and they make it super easy to do so. I also like that I can keep these to use again.
  • We were able to try recipes that we never would have thought to try. It was the first time I have ever used a shallot…In a house of two picky eaters, it was nice to break out of our norm.
  • They use really fresh ingredients, which makes me super happy. We need to do better staying away from processed food, so these made that easy to do.
  • Tom and I cooked together. Usually we divide and conquer with one dealing with George and the other dealing with the food. We were still able to give George attention, but help each other out in the kitchen thanks to the clear instructions. It was nice to do this together.
  • THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS. It was the best fish we both have ever had. Tom admitted that even though there was some spices added, it wasn’t too much for him to handle, which is awesome. Normally I can’t add even pepper to our meals. There was not a meal that we didn’t like.

My cons:

  • They lied on the prep time. I think that is for more experienced chefs than me. Most of the recipes said that the prep time was 15 minutes. It took us much longer than that to cut and dice everything. I guess I was expecting some of these things to already be done for me too. So it probably took us almost twice as long to get to the finished product.
  • I really only felt like we could do these meals on the weekend because of the length of time to complete it. We try to keep our meals during the week to under 15 minutes (prep and cooking all included). We have some standard meals that we have down to a science, and Blue Apron definitely does not fit that bill. I may feel differently if our kids were older and could join in on the cooking process more. I just don’t want to spend all of George’s awake hours in front of the stove at night.
  • Speaking of the bill, I am still not sure that it is worth doing all the time. Plus looking at some of the meals, they just would not fly in our house. We just happen to have a week where there was nothing spicy or way out of our comfort zone food wise. I know you can halt or skip weeks so that is helpful, but still.
  • With Tom’s schedule, we will have to be selective on when we could order it. I need him to be here when we do these meals otherwise the time and effort is not worth it. I need the help, and I like that we are all trying it together.

All in all, it is something that Tom and I really enjoyed. We think we may do it a couple times a year to change up our routine. I am glad I won the chance to try it out!

Here are snapshots of our meals:

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  • Za’atar-Spiced Chicken with Pink Lemon Pan Sauce & Pearl Couscous-
    This had a high citrus flavor. The couscous was the best couscous I have ever had. It was big a fluffy. And it was the first time since being pregnant that I could stomach Brussels sprouts. (This baby girl does NOT like vegetables.) The instructions really helped me make the perfect chicken too.

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  • Spaghetti Bolognese with Butter Lettuce Salad & Creamy Italian Dressing-I really liked the pork aspect of this. I never considered ground pork an option. And we liked the mix of carrots in there too. We didn’t actually make the salad though because the dressing was made from a cheese that I wasn’t quite sure I could have, and neither of us like radishes. I have never made a spaghetti sauce that didn’t come from a jar (thanks Ragu), and it was much easier than I thought.
 

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  • Seared Catfish with Udon Noodles, Mushrooms & Carrots-This was our favorite meal for sure. It was so easy to cook the fish, and it was so so so good. I love these type of noodles, so I was really excited to see this meal on here. Then the mushrooms were just an extra bonus. There was not a single complaint about this meal. So worth the time! We will definitely make this again.

This was a fun culinary experience. Like I said, we will probably do this once or twice a year to change things up.

Have you tried Blue Apron or one of the other meal deliveries? What was your opinion of the meals, the prep time, in general?

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All Our Eggs In One Basket

Here is a summary of our Easter weekend.

Egg hunts, candy, constantly humming “Christ is Risen,” sugar comas, digging in dirt piles, family, and trying to talk a 2.5 year old off his sucker/fruit snack addiction.

It was really a great weekend celebrating the miracle that is the Resurrection with our family. AND Tom was off all weekend, which is the icing on the bunny shaped cookie.

Here are some of the snapshots of our weekend.

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At first, Mr. Man wanted to open each one as we picked them up.

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This was George’s Easter treats from us. Cars was the theme. He loves Mater, so when I saw this Mater pillow on Amazon, I knew he had to have it. All the books were cars related, and he got a set of matchbox cars to increase his collection.

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One of my favorite things about moving back to MO is to watch our kids grow up together. Cousins are so much fun! And George loves his “Aba.”

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George was spying on the terrain where the eggs were going, and also on the birdies on Papa’s porch.

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The kids with Grama!

The weather was soooo nice this weekend. We played outside in the dirt a lot. He loves HIS dirt. He says goodbye to it every morning. He also has to do the same to the sitter’s garden dirt everyday before we leave her house. It is really cute, but it also has caused some major meltdowns when he can’t play in it whenever he wants. (Which is why we started saying goodbye so there could be some closure if there wasn’t time to play.)

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I always will cherish holidays we get to all be together. It doesn’t always happen with Tom’s job, so we will take what we can get!

It’s really fun to watch George experience the holiday. He talked about the eggs all weekend. Watching his little brain take everything in makes my day!

Also I just realized this is the last big holiday we will celebrate with just George. What the what?

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Book Review and Give Away: A Fragile Hope

When your life’s work revolves around repairing other people’s marriages, what happens when your own marriage begins to fall apart? Find out what happens to Josiah Chamberlain in Cynthia Ruchti’s new book, A Fragile Hope. Feeling betrayed, confused, and ill-equipped for a crisis this crippling, he reexamines everything he knows about the fragility of hope and the strength of his faith and love. Love seems to have failed him. Will what’s left of his faith fail him, too? Or will it be the one thing that holds him together and sears through the impenetrable wall that separates them?

Celebrate the release of A Fragile Hope by entering to win Cynthia’s Sign of Hope Giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive:

Enter today by clicking the icon below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on May 3. The winner will be announced May 4 on the Litfuse blog.

I received this book for my honest review.
Honestly, it was a 3/5 for me. It was good, but not amazing.
Here is my one con:
  • It took me about 10 chapters to get invested. It should never take me that long to get into a book. This is the only reason why I didn’t love the book. It just was extremely repetitive. We get it he was lost in despair and uncertainty. I think having that rough start gave me a weird overcast for the rest of the book.
Here are my praises:
  • While the first part seemed to drag on, ultimately there was an element of wanting to see improvement for the characters that kept me coming back.
  • This book was relateable. I liked how it showed the inner-thoughts of doubt and betrayal. I think we have all been there when our faith has been shook to the core. This story approached very real humanness and how we can overcome to forgive. I also love the fact that his job is to fix marriages and offer sage advice as a counselor, but he failed to notice how much his own marriage needed help. I think this goes to show that it is hard to hold a mirror up to our own issues and deal with them. She did a great job discussing this aspect of faith and healing.
  • The author was very intentional about the details of the book. For example, the quotes at the beginning of every chapter come from one of the characters print shop. It was nice little touches here and there that I though added a little fun to the book.
  • Ultimately, the message is really powerful. Everything in our life will not be perfect no matter how orderly we try to make it. Things will get messy and possibly shake us to our core. God will never leave you, we just have to be willing to lean in on him.

So it may have taken me awhile to get into the book, but it kept me engaged. The end result was worth it! I love reading stories that talk about real emotions and problems that are all around us, but also with the foundation of our relationship with God.

Good read indeed.

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A Gal Getaway

I have read countless articles about the importance of friendships as you get older. I find now that I am settled in my career and have a family, it can be a lot harder to find time to cultivate those friendships. Between my job and family, my spare time is pretty rare. Plus being an introvert, I need my own downtime which I am pretty selfish about. I wrote about it here why this very thing is so darn difficult.

Even more so when your best friends do not live near you, which is the case for me.

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This is one of my all time favorite pictures of the three of us, circa 2006.

So in an effort to try to be better at being intentional about my own personal relationships, I reached out to two of my favorite people on Earth and suggested that we make a plan to get together for a weekend every year, just us. One for sure weekend out of 52 sounds manageable right?

Jeannette and Annette both live in KC, and it use to be easy to visit them when I went home to my parents. However, we hardly ever stay in KC for more than one night anymore because George is the worst travel companion, and we only live 2 hours away. This makes it more difficult to squeeze in time with them though since my time is already split between grandparents and parents.

Enter Ladies’ Weekend.

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We all have significant others, and two of us have kids, but this weekend we left all of them to their own devices. We were just the three of us again like most of our college days.

We hung out, stayed up way past my bedtime (but I didn’t fall asleep on the couch-which is a win), ate way too much food, and did some touristy things in KC that we had not done before. We played Heads Up for hours, and I haven’t laughed like that in a long time. We acted like kids while playing arcade basketball games, but also were full on adult when we made ourselves a fancy breakfast from scratch.

Our weekend revolved a lot around basketball. The NCAA tournament was winding down, so we watched a lot of great games. We also toured the College Basketball Experience, which is in downtown Kansas City. This was so much fun! I definitely want to go again but with my dad, who actually played basketball in college. He is also the reason I got into the sport in elementary school, and proceeded to cheer/coach me until high school.

There were shooting games (free-throw, three point, and dunking at various heights), a passing game (this was my favorite), and a video game similar to guitar hero but you were judged on your dribbling skills. There were several courts as well where pick up games were happening with elementary school kids up to adults. We didn’t get any video of our game playing. I learned that I cannot do a free throw pregnant, but I can still slam it down on pop a shot.

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They also have lots of interactive areas where you can compare yourself to college players. There is also several areas that were museum like with hall of fame information and a lot about coaches in the NCAA.

Our wingspan was not up to par with the collegiate player.

As someone who grew up watching college basketball with my dad and where pick up games were one of our favorite past-times as kids, this place was really awesome.

I hope that they continue to develop this experience and add more about the female aspect of the game. There were no displays on women’s basketball. It was still cool, but I think there is a lot of potential there to hit another audience.

We may have to go again once George is older because he is obsessed.

We also rode the street car, which was a first for all of us. Public transport is not the greatest in KC, so it was nice to see they are making an effort. We also went through the City Market, which is always a highlight for me. We walked around Crown Center leisurely, and we all satisfied our taste buds with chocolate or my personal hometown favorite of Topsy’s popcorn.

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We attempted to eat in the Jazz district, but it just wasn’t in the cards for us that night. Apparently things close down or we weren’t wearing the correct “upscale” attire to even enter in. We ended up at a dive bar claiming to have the best burgers in KC. They were good, but “best” was debatable.

As a mom, I do not get much time with friends period, but definitely get very limited time without a kid in tow. So this was so nice to just be with Annette and Jeannette without our kids or significant others. Even though we probably talked about them for most of the weekend.

I think as a mom, things like this have to be a priority at times. Some may think it as selfish as a parent to want that time away but I think our bodies/souls need it mentally and physically at times so we can be the best spouse/parent/friend that we can be. It was nice to invest quality time into these relationships, but it was also nice to be away from home for a little while.

I don’t see it as running away from my responsibilities, but as a way for me to make sure my responsibilities don’t run over me.

I also appreciate a partner who also saw the value in me spending time with my ladies, and happily had a boys’ weekend with George so I could get away. Tom knows that I don’t get a lot of me time and encouraged me to go especially since our world is going to get a little more hectic here with DC’s arrival soon. (He also cleaned the house before I got home too. He’s a keeper!)

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So the first year was a giant success. I already can’t wait to see what will be in the works in the years to come.

How do you make your friendships a priority? Do you have friends only trips?

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Baby 2: Thirty Weeks

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How far along: 30 weeks and 2 days (There is something about making it to 30 that is so comforting.)

Sex of Baby W: Little Lady

Weight gain: I have gained a total of 9 pounds. Tom and I agree that I am officially bigger straight out than I was with George at the END of his pregnancy. With George the weight was really all over from hip to hip, and my whole stomach held the weight. DC is just a basketball straight out. I can still feel my hip bones this time around. So different.

Size of Baby W: Platypus (minus the tail) or a large cabbage

Maternity clothes: All the time. I am really hoping that the weather starts warming up so I can wear dresses more regularly. The weather is all over the place lately. (But then again, I would have to shave more often…)

Baby items: I did buy some little baseball moccasins. I’m trying really hard not to go broke with all the cute stuff out there. Easter comparison: Target online the other day had only a half page for boys Easter outfits, and there were TWO WHOLE PAGES for girls. Boys want to look snazzy too, and not all in the same polo and mint green bow tie. But now that I have all these choices for DC, it is hard not to go hog wild on getting stuff for her. Anyway, I am going to try really hard to hold out on clothes until her room is completely ready. We don’t really need many other big baby items since we are using a lot of things from George’s baby time. I am still going back and forth on a double stroller option. Suggestions? I want it to fit with our Britax infant seat, which seems to be my dilemma.

Belly button in or out:  I thought it was going to come completely out, but it is still mostly flush with the rest of my belly.

Sleep: Sleeping has been pretty awful. My legs cramp up a lot at night because I am afraid that I’ll move and I will end up on my back. I can’t really ever get comfortable either because I hate sleeping on my left side. My shoulder has been really tight because of it. I can’t remember the last night where I slept soundly. It’s like I am constantly in that half sleep mode. I also have to pee at least once during the night, if not a couple times. I guess this is my body’s way of preparing me for the newborn phase again.

Best moment the past few weeks: I just spent the weekend with my best two gal pals for a ladies only weekend. I will write about it here in the next few days hopefully. It was so good for my soul to see these two!

Worst moment the past few weeks: The week where the Whitener house came down with every variation of stomach issues. George is just now starting to poop normal again. It has been an exhausting and disgusting time in our house.

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Miss anything: Sleeping. Deli sandwiches. Gyros full of feta.

Cravings: Taco Bell chicken quesadillas. Commercials are hard to watch because I pretty much want anything I see.

Movement: She moves the most at night, but she seems to be moving more throughout the day. She loves to sit right near my belly button, and she pushes so hard. I don’t remember this much pushing with George. The other day it looked like I had a cone-head coming out of my body.

Symptoms/how I am feeling: I have had a lot of discomfort when I am sleeping like I said. The morning sickness has reared its ugly head again. I had one really bad day, and then it has hit me a couple other times but not as horrendous. My gums are bleeding a lot when I brush my teeth. I am super clumsy right now. I was clumsy before, but it is really bad now with my lack of balance. On the plus side, I do not have acne like I did with George. I have had very few blemishes at all in fact. Maybe DC is providing me more with the “glow” than George did. I am starting to waddle a little more and more. I was told twice last week that I looked uncomfortable…both by individuals who have never had children before. I am actually feeling really great for the most part so it kind of bothered me when they said this. Chalk it up to hormones.

Looking forward to: This month in general. We have a lot of stuff going on this month with Easter, baseball games, end of the year celebrations, and our baby shower. It will be busy, but it should be enjoyable.

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Here is George at 30 weeks.