I find it hard to believe that I used to never workout with music. Now, I’m obsessed! Awhile ago, I transferred a bunch of music to our iPhone for me to use during my workouts. For the longest time I just let the songs play on shuffle. That got annoying really fast. How is it that with over 150 songs it seems the same 20 get played over and over again? I ended up always having to mess with my iPhone mid-run to get something new.

So, I took matters into my own hands. I went through and organized my music into a bunch of mini-playlists by genre. Things like “Upbeat Girly” (Katy-Perry-esque), “Old Rock” (Aerosmith-esque), “Glee” (it gets its own category), “Lady Gaga” (she does too), “Teeny Bopper” (Taylor-Swift-esque), “Christian” (Relient-K-esque), and more.

Then I added another playlist entitled “Mini Workout”. Before every workout, I clear out the songs from this playlist and then go through and add 1 or 2 songs to it from all my genre playlists. This helps me pick what I’m in the mood to listen to each workout and rotate out my music so I don’t get bored. Plus, I get a nice little mix of things every workout. My recent playlist featured the following songs I am currently obsessed with:

Katy Perry’s Firework

Seriously – obsessed with this one right now. It pumps me up!!!

David Crowder Band’s Like A Lion

I love inspirational songs like this to keep me going strong.

Aerosmith’s What It Takes

This is my favorite Aerosmith song for some reason. I heart Steven Tyler!

Kelly Clarkson’s Don’t Let Me Stop You

Can you tell I like girly music?

Glee’s version of Gives You Hell

I’m a total Gleek. I own it.

P!nk’s F***ing Perfect

Once again..can you tell I like girly music?

Question of the Evening – What songs are you currently obsessed with? How do you manage your workout playlists?

Catching up from the weekend? Check out these posts:

• Hard Core Spin Class + Old School Memories
• My Fantastic Run + FFF Features of the Week
• Self-Love Reflection of the Week – Desiring Perfection

Back to Monday already? Boo hiss on you Monday!Sorry. I’m a little cranky because baby B woke up FIVE times last night to eat. FIVE. Nursing cuddle time a time or two at night is cute…but 5 is plain exhausting. Add in a coughing little girl (who is also potty training) and a still fussy B…I have a long day ahead. I love them dearly, but sometimes mommyhood is hard and lends itself to a little griping. Enough of all that – let’s talk the weekend.

This weekend was great because it was one of those rare weekends without any set plans. Saturday, after my great workout and getting some groceries, we headed out as a family for a few errands. We had to make a return, pick up some baby stuff, and finally get me some new shoes to wear for non-running workouts. Then, we took a pit stop at Peter’s parents’ for a quick visit.

I love that we live close to both our families. It’s nice to see the kids interact regularly with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We only got to spend a little time there though because we wanted to head out for dinner. Peter has been eyeing this new BBQ place that opened up close by for weeks now. I’m not one to turn down BBQ either so we gave it a shot last night.

We visited ‘cue – a more upscale BBQ joint with live music and homemade eats.

I. Am. In. Love. This BBQ was phenomenal!!

I ordered a pulled pork sandwich on their fresh, homemade roll. The meal came with two sides so I ordered coleslaw to add to the sandwich and their special Bourbon sweet potato casserole for my other side.

The sweet potato had amazing flavor. The BBQ sauce had a perfect amount of twang. The roll. Ohhh…the roll. It made the sandwich. Basically…when can I go back?

Of course we had to finish out the night with something sweet. That’s how we do things. I had an un-pictured small butterfinger Blizzard. So, just another typical Saturday for us. Which reminds me – in my post from Friday where I discussed “cheat days” – I was in no way trying to condone having the mentality of limiting treats to one day a week. I simply hear too many people feel frustrated for having more lax eating on the weekend and wanted to share a reminder that many of us do so and it can still fit into balanced eating overall. Sorry for any confusion!

Question of the Day – How close do you prefer to live to your family? 30 minutes is perfect for us. We can easily get to each other but not be close enough for tons of random drop-ins.