A Day in the Lifestyle – April

Good morning and welcome to another beautiful day in our life. We are trying to keep things as fun and comfy as possible, while also being mindful of the current circumstances and staying home.

Morning Routine: Started off the morning with a two-mile run followed by yoga practice. I am encouraging the girls to join me in my daily yoga practice, but so far, they just take unflattering snap chat videos of me and send them to friends. Meh. For those of you trying to get into running, I highly recommend the 5k runner app. You can get apps from Fitness22 on both iPhone and Android phones. I used these apps to prepare for my first 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon.

Breakfast: Breakfast is actually my favorite meal of the day. I’ve always been a morning person and I love sitting around the breakfast table with my family, enjoying a meal, starting the day off on the right foot. With working from home now, I don’t always have time to make a big breakfast, but I am loving that we start everyday (not just weekends) eating breakfast together. This week, I’ve made bread pudding, sheet pan blueberry pancakes, and sausage gravy and biscuits.

Tea: The Tea Smith had a closeout sale on all their fall and winter seasonal teas, so I stocked up. I am so tempted to dig in to these, but I’m making myself wait! So, today, I am still sipping on my Peach Paradise Black Tea. So good.

Shopping: Before things got to the point where going to the store felt like going into enemy territory on a supply run (i.e. over a month ago), I grabbed some super cute Easter decor from TJ Maxx. I was able to get the house somewhat decorated for Easter and will get started on baskets soon.

Lunch: I’ve been trying to focus on making small basic lunches given the current circumstances. Our family is very blessed that we continue to have two incomes, but I still feel it’s important to be mindful and resourceful. Today, we had grilled cheese and tomato soup. My lifelong friend owns a Take & Bake Kitchen, and her menu recently featured Cheese Frenchees. I LOVE Cheese Frenchees, so I’m planning those for lunch soon!

Snack: I previously mentioned that I was in the process of making Amish Friendship Bread. The starter takes 10 days to fully develop, so I was able to finally bake the bread this week. It was so good! I know ten days is a long time to wait, but if you’d like to see why it’s worth the wait, I strongly recommend that you pop over to Tastes of Lizzy T and try it out!

Dan and I were supposed to go miniature golfing for our monthly date night, but that isn’t going to quite work out, so we decided we would switch some months around and have a picnic instead. But….it was windy and we weren’t that hungry, so we just took our bread and wine outside.

Project: Staying home means that I’m using things up more quickly. Things like my spring candles. I usually buy three candles every season and they usually last the whole season, but I guess not this time. I had some from the Sugar Shack that I was really excited about, but they are already gone! So, I decided to make a quick simmer pot.

I threw a few sprigs of thyme, about a teaspoon each of mint and vanilla extracts, and a couple of sliced limes into a small sauce pan. I then filled the sauce pan with water and allowed it to simmer on the stove all day. It turned out perfectly and my house smelled like spring!

Supper: I made a chicken and rice dish. Just an old Midwest small town staple. I mixed a cup of instant rice, two cups of water, and a can each of cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups. (I don’t use a lot of instant rice, but I do try to keep some on hand for things like this.) Pour this in the bottom of a greased 9×13″ pan. Layer chicken on top. I usually use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but you can use drumsticks, thighs, a whole cut up chicken, whatever. I recommend removing the skin first, though. Then, sprinkle a packet of onion soup on top, cover with foil and cook for a couple hours at 350* F. For a quick side, I made a stirfry of carrots, celery, onions and garlic. I also roasted some sweet potatoes with brown sugar. I’m just trying to make sure we are still enjoying fresh veggies and that none of them are going bad.

Family Time: I don’t typically watch a lot of TV. Dan likes to watch sports, the kids will watch movies or stream series on Netflix, but overall, we don’t watch a lot of TV. In fact, I’d say our TV is only on two or three days a week. The fact that the kids can stream Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus on their phones probably has something to do with this. But this week, well, Dan and I may have decided to watch a little more TV than we usually do. The one show I do watch is The First 48 on A&E. It’s the only show I watch regularly and I’ve been watching it for a decade. We have almost 200 episodes on DVR, so I’ve been indulging a little. We also watched The Outsiders as a family one evening. The kids and I love this book and movie, and Dan had never seen it, so we made a movie night of it. And finally, although it pains me to admit, yes, we watched Tiger King. Not only did we watch it, we liked it.

Evening Routine: One thing about staying home more – there is a lot more time to read. This week, I finished The Handmaids Tale and its sequel, The Testaments. I enjoyed both of them. Definitely five stars. I have since started Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, which I am enjoying, as well.

And that’s all I have for today. In closing, I’ll just leave you with these wise words from an American Legend:

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