Don't force it...

Hey There!

Happy snowy Tuesday morning. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a nice start to the week. Things here have been pretty great.

Two of my favorite people got engaged!

I got my hair did! Sneak peek.. yes I went funky. More on that later :)

My boys. I made Toby wear his snow parka which he HATED!

Celebrated with newly engaged friends!

Cold weather = warm socks!  Note to self:  Just because you think you won't take your boots off, doesn't mean you shouldn't match your socks. You might take your boots off, and everyone might see your multicolored tootsies. oops!

Marilyn said it best.  Thanks, girlfriend.

After the weekend fun, my plan was to spend Sunday organizing my life and cooking delicious goodies to make my house smell good. Well, sometimes you wake up, and you are just not in the mood to follow your plan. You know what I mean? That was me on Sunday. I didn't sleep well, I woke up too early, and I ate a chicken salad sub from the deli at 11:30 the night before that was giving me a tummy ache. All of these factors contributed to me being kind of cranky pants all day. Despite my mood, I hit up the grocery store to pick up the ingredients I needed to make dinner, and when I arrived home, I just didn't have the cooking bug that I was hoping for. I wanted to practice yoga, but then again I really wanted to sit on the couch and catch up on my DVR. I needed to clean my apartment, but that thought sounded less than appealing. I was frankly kind of frustrated.  So what did I do? I watched my DVR and felt guilty about not cleaning.  Then I decided to clean a bit and did one of those half ass jobs that aren't even worth it because I had to do it again! I tried to cook dinner and burnt everything. The smoke detector went off and the noise drove Toby so  insane that he cried for a good 30 minutes after it stopped . In his defense, it did take me a while to get it to stop since I'm not tall enough to reach up and shut it off. There was a lot of  jumping around and swatting at the device with a towel. Thankfully, my efforts were eventually successful and the piercing screech  stopped. 

I thought maybe yoga would help my mood. While it did provide some relief, I was frustrated throughout the flow as I fell out of poses that are usually quite simple for me.It was one of those days. I was at a yoga workshop on Friday evening, and the instructor said that your yoga mat is like a mirror. What happens on your mat mirrors what is going on in your life. I think the beauty is that once you look in that mirror and are aware of your mental and physical state, you truly have the ability to shift your perspective. This is what I love about yoga. Even though I had a frustrated and frazzled practice on Sunday evening, I felt BETTER, more connected, and certainly more self aware when I finished. It forced me to look in the mirror and figure out what the heck was going on . What I learned from the situation was this: Playing the "should" game never ends well for me.  I began the day "shoulding" all over myself, if you will. I "should" cook, I "should" clean, I "should" practice yoga, I"should" blog,  I "should" have paid more attention to the veggies roasting in the oven that were slowly disintegrating into ashes.  Being Suzy Homemaker just wasn't in the cards for me, yet I tried to force it. Look, we all have things that we have to get done. Some things may be more time sensitive than others, and it's important to look at what really needs to get done and what can wait.  Your body will tell you what you need if you listen, and you will be a much happier person when your mind and your body are gellin'. I promise.

So, let's get back to those charred roasted veggies I made on Sunday night. No, this picture is not of my veggies as they would have looked slightly less vibrant.  Luckily, I like my veggies on the burnt side, so I was able to salvage a few edible ones from the wreckage. I made  my friend Jenn's  Best Roasted Veggies Ever.  I am a lover of roasted veggies, so this recipe caught my eye immediately. I tend to default to roasting carrots, parsnips, fennel, and onion, so  I loved that Jenn's recipe incorporated different veggies like butternut squash, cauliflower, brussels, and corn! I will be making these veggies again when I can give them the attention that they deserve:)

Along with the veggies, I roasted a chicken and made these  Easy Roasemary Garlic Parmesan biscuits . These yummy rolls were SO easy to make, and the fresh rosemary flavor brought back memories of these amazing rosemary rolls that my Dad used to make from scratch when I was little. I went the Bisquick route, but they were still tasty!

**Note** I used plain almond milk in these rolls, and I used extra oil instead of the butter called for in the recipe. Surprisingly, I forgot regular milk and butter while out shopping on Sunday (haha). FYI.. the biscuits came out great despite the substitutions!

There are learnings in everything. What did I learn? To let myself off the hook.  It's ok to put the dinner plans on the back burner, order takeout, and leave the cleaning for the next day. The world will still go on, and I will probably be much happier as a result.

Namaste, bitches!

Something to think about:

xo

Sarah