Last week I was pretty harsh on 2020. but I have to say… it hasn’t been ALL bad.
I hate to admit it out loud but personally, I have really enjoyed the past 2 months. Besides the obvious fact that there is a pandemic going on outside the safety of my 4 walls, I really can’t complain. We have been given this beautiful pause on life. Absolutely everything has slowed down or come to a complete stop. Everything is quiet. My mind is quiet. I am able to see things so clearly now that I have had the time to do so.
Don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not complaining about my “real life” and in some ways, I can’t wait to get back to it… Well, to a point. With this pause has come to realization of what is truly important in life. We have survived, quite well in fact, with only the essentials. Now, my grandparents would laugh at what we find essential nowadays but let’s not be too crazy 😜. I’ve also learned a lot about my family, my fears, and my husband.
As I have said before, we just moved into our newly built home 10 days before self isolation began. You wouldn’t know it now by the way we are so comfortable under our new roof. We are so fortunate that we didn’t have to deal with breaks in construction and or a stall in the completion of our dream home!
That is definitely one of the things I am grateful for but there are so many others! I thought about the past few weeks and made a list of pros and cons. On the cons side I have my Sister and possibly my Brother’s summer trips out here are on hold, I haven’t seen my girlfriends in months, the dance recital that the girls have worked so hard on is indefinitely postponed, and as I’ve talked about before I miss my Dad and Ninja’s parents a lot. Yeah those are big things but there were some pretty important items in the pro column too!
1. Working out! This is kind of a double edge sword 😂 Usually, I am out and about and moving and stepping a lot. My average count for a typical day is between 12,000 and 22,000 steps. Lately I am excited if I get 6000 😳. Because I’m not moving as much and because buying a whole new wardrobe 2 sizes bigger isn’t exactly “essential” 😜 I have decided to jump on my Sis’s Beachbody bandwagon. My Sis is a Beachbody goddess! She has been going strong for God I don’t know 600 days or something 😂 I always try to keep up with her when she’s visiting but let’s be honest, I’m lazy. 😂 Ninja has always wanted to do a Beachbody program as well but it’s very difficult to find 30 to 60 minutes a day to dedicate to kicking your own ass. Over this quiet time we have both found the space and time needed to get into a regular program and we are loving it! OK love maybe too strong of a word but I am really enjoying the challenge, the camaraderie with my Sis, and the feeling of accomplishment when I finish an ass kicking barre blend class. I am hoping, no I WILL maintain this routine of giving myself the space to feel good about myself when real life begins again.
2. Dinners. We have been eating really well lately. Since I started back at work these last 2 years and since the Girls have started 11 to 16 classes of dance a week, I noticed that my cooking from scratch lifestyle took a backseat to, what can I throw in the oven that’s quick and easy? Having to meal plan for longer stretches of time has really allowed me to use those recipes I’ve been pinning but couldn’t find the time to be able to make. We have baked, we have made refried beans from scratch and even made our very own enchilada sauce! We have made hamburger buns, margaritas with fresh mangoes, cookies, brownies and a ton more! I have 40 blog drafts already to go with new and exciting recipes that we have tried in the past few weeks! I forgot how much I love cooking. I forgot how gratifying it is to feed your family healthy colourful food that they love. When the rat race resumes, I will make a more conscious effort to maintain our healthy eating way of life and keep up with this homemade eating lifestyle.
3. Routine. I love routine. I didn’t love our routine that we were in though. Maybe I thought I did but now that I see our new routine, I see all the problems with our old routine. I love how we are not rushed anymore. I love how we can gauge each other’s moods and that is a major factor in our daily routine. I love that we work hard on our studies all morning and end home learning by lunchtime. I love that our afternoons are spent with our dance family. I love that I don’t have to fight with the girls every day to bath, I love that we don’t have to be up crazy early and shouting at the Girls to move it so we don’t start our day off with a late slip. I love that I don’t spend hours of my day in our minivan 🤣. I didn’t realize how much time I spent driving people around until we parked the van over 50 days ago and I haven’t thought about it since. I love that I don’t have to eat a takeout dinner in the van, scarf down dinner before my next meeting, or let my cup of coffee go cold while working on homework with the Girls. I love that our new routine gives each of us space to get everything we need to get done, done. Plus we have the added bonus of exercising and producing regular blog posts. Our new routine have even allowed us to podcast with friends around North America because our times are more flexible. I love how even though we’re in the house every day, our weekends actually feel like weekends now. Before, our weekends were spent cleaning, prepping for the week ahead, and fitting in everything we didn’t get done in the crazy 5 day work week. Now, we take off Friday because well, just because! On the weekend we do a weekly family dinner and a movie, we stay in our pyjamas (which we absolutely do not do on weekdays) and we have drinks and stay up late because we know we are able to sleep in the next day. We may not be getting out of the house but we are still adding socializing to our routine. In fact, over the past month we have had 4 zoom dates with friends and family! We all still go to bed at regular times and we all still wake up at our regular time but it’s OK because I don’t feel like I didn’t get any quiet time in between life and bed, you know what I mean?
Speaking of sleep that takes me to…
And finally…
As I said, Ninja and Dad resumed working this week. We are facing a whole new routine, a new way of life, and having to practice all new sets of social distancing. One aspect I am definitely looking forward to is expanding our family bubble. Dr. Bonnie Henry has said that we are looking towards the future and the future includes expanding our family bubble. Although we will maintain nobody coming into our home, which is very sad because I am so looking forward to having a housewarming party 😂, or going into anyone’s home, we are looking forward to opening our bubble to our parents and enjoying outdoor barbeques with them all soon!
Until then, although the world is going to Hell in a handbasket, I can safely say that this pause is exactly what I needed. I would argue that it it is exactly what the whole world needed. I am happy and I am grateful and finding the positives in times like this is crucial and I encourage each and everyone of you to make a list of all the things that you are grateful for and all the things that you may have taken for granted before but I’ve come to realize are so important. Sometimes waking up in a beautiful pink bedroom can change everything 💕.
Check out part 3 of Our Liner Notes 3 part series on U2! Featuring our RADBesty from Reasons Are Debatable and ME! HERE
Ninja and I were fortunate enough to be on 1 of our favourite podcasts last week, Deconstructing Dad Podcast! We talked for hours, literally 😂 Check it out as HERE as we talk about super light topics like: Home remodels, politics, homes schooling, self employment, USA vs Canada and 9/11.
Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? ep.169 Welcome to the ‘Fucher’ HERE Topics: tick checks, video date, art show, Mom’s f-bombs, biking, back to work, home schooling, CFL bailout, Stronger Together, Drake vs Trudeau and Making the Cut.
In celebration of Cinqo De Mayo yesterday, I am sharing a yummy Mexican inspired dish that we made a few weeks ago! Ninja was craving nachos but HBear was really hoping for enchiladas… so we combined the 2! At first I was putting it off because I didn’t have any enchilada sauce but I quickly realized that I had ALL the ingredients to make my own, so we did! It tasted even better than the enchilada sauce I get at the super market! Duh, of course it did! Once I made the sauce I mixed it with cooked ground beef and added all our favourite nacho toppings and VOILA! Enchilada Nachos!
Enchilada Sauce
2 tablespoons oil
1 onion
2 tablespoons flour
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup beef stock
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons paprika
salt
Get a medium sauce pot going over medium heat and add oil.
Chop onion and add it to the pot. Saute onion until softened.
Slowly pour in beef stock while stirring. Add can of tomato sauce and all remaining ingredients.
Stir well and bring the mixture to simmer. Let it simmer for a few minutes.
Transfer the content of the pot into a food processor and blend well until smooth.
Enchilada Nachos
1 lb ground beef
