Woo hoo for the weekend! Interestingly enough, I didn’t pine away for the weekend this past week and it ended up getting here much faster than it normally feels like it does. Funny how that happens, huh?

Last night, I got some time with two of my favorite ladies in the world.

 

My mom and my sister came up for us to have an early Mother’s Day celebration for my mom. We kept things very low-key, which is just what my mom wanted after a tiring week of work. Simple always sounds good to me, so I happily obliged.

We picked up some Subway subs for dinner because not having to cook makes all us ladies happy. Let’s just say, that none of us were made for the kitchen.

 

After our “five-star” dinner, we showered gifts on the guest of honor. First, my mom opened her special treats from Makenzie. A homemade card (which had to be on “Ariel paper”) and some simple Nutella brownies Makenzie helped me whip up.

 

Check those babies out, people! Only THREE ingredients! Nutella, flour, and eggs. And those three ingredients = rich decadence.

  

All for the momma. At least I know her loving nature will lead her to share. 😉

Finally, came time to pass along the gift my sister and I got her. We decided to give her a more notable present this year since it has presented so many challenges. We wanted to give her a special token of our appreciation, love, and admiration for her.

 

She loved it! And cried. Not surprising. Motherhood will make a person emotional. Believe me. I know full well how crazy emotions get as a mom.

To tone down the tears, we took a light-hearted approach for the remainder of the evening. We chilled and sat back to watch Dear John, since my mom had not seen it and always wanted to as a Nicholas Sparks fan. Hmmm….maybe that movie choice wasn’t the best to stop the tears. 😉

It certainly wasn’t the most extravagant of celebrations, but simple really is best sometimes. It allowed us to focus on what really mattered most – our time together. Now time for the FFF Features of the week? 

Featured Personal Post – My Ideal Day

Featured Moment: Fun Financial Seminar

Featured Meal: Grilled Chicken Salad

It didn’t appear on the blog this week, but it should have! Grilled chicken, romaine lettuce, goat cheese crumbles, cucumber, avocado, and tomato. Delish! And for the record – the black spot is some random thing that appears in all my pictures lately. I need to take care of that.

Featured Workout: Cardio + Weights Hodge Podge

This workout kept me going even when I didn’t have the initial desire/energy to work out.

Featured Cuteness: Baby B at the Zoo

His little face just screams “WHERE have you brought me? And WHY am I NOT in your arms right now?!” 

Featured Reading: New Blog & Recipe To Check Out

Katie @ Dashing Dish makes unbelievable creations, that are usually lighter versions of favorites. I want to dive in to these Lemon Drop Cupcakes sooooo badly!

image from Dashing Dish

I hope you all have a love-filled weekend!!

• What is one thing you always try to keep simple? Mine is cooking. It won’t happen if it isn’t simple. Even then, it sometimes doesn’t happen. 😉

On Monday night, Peter & I attended a financial seminar at our church.

Joe Sangl, the author of I Was Broke. Now I’m Not. came to visit and speak at our church. We weren’t sure if we planned to attend, but after hearing him speak during our Sunday worship service, we knew we had to go.

Plus, knowing our church provides great entertainment at these sorts of things and that we would have a night with some friends didn’t hurt the decision.

And a free dinner always helps. You know, since we can’t get one of these.

Money Tree! 

The church catered in Jason’s Deli sandwiches. I picked up the box with turkey sandwich on wheat bread.

It also came with some chips (which I didn’t eat – not a huge chips fan), a pickle (which I ate both mine and Peter’s), and a chocolate chip cookie (which you better believe I ate!).

 

Sure, it wasn’t the most extravagant meal, but it satisfied my tummy. We all know how important that is if I’m expected to pay any sort of attention.

Joe Sangl provided a lot of insight into different ways to help manage finances better. A lot were practices Peter and I already follow - like creating a budget and planning to save – but he also had some good reminders and things I have not thought about as seriously. He discussed creating a will, making certain to have life insurance, and the fact that saving just $100/month will net over $1,000,000 to use in retirement in 40 years with the average interest rate investments earn.

The night may sound boring but it actually was a lot of fun. Joe Sangl should pick up comedy on the side. He had our table cracking up quite a few times. Overall, he definitely engaged the audience and provided many useful tools and ideas. In fact, you can find all the tools on his website – budgeting spreadsheets already set up to do the math for you, calculators to determine the time to pay off certain debts, and “payoff spectaculars”…

…which as you see above are different pre-made files you can print off and determine how much each box is worth to achieve your saving goal. When you put that amount of $ towards whatever you are saving for, you get to color in a box. Pretty cool visual idea. And yes – one of the pictures is for a llama. Told you he had a sense of humor. I guess I appreciate it because its random, like mine. Now, I will stop sounding like a commercial for him. I just wanted to pass along the information to you all. I think it’s pretty cool how over the internet we can garner so many aids for so many things!

Just like my workout yesterday morning. It came straight from the internet. From Kristin’s blog, more specifically. I mentioned before that I’m now doing my Tuesday runs on the treadmill at the gym to better fit my schedule. I love that getting my run on the treadmill allows me to get my entire workout completed earlier in the day with child care, but I do not like the treadmill unless my run includes intervals to entertain me. I did Kristin’s 5-4-3-2-1 treadmill workout.

Minutes	Total Time	Speed
0-5	5	6.0
5-9	4	6.5
9-12	3	7.0
12-14	2	7.5
14-15	1	8.0

I completed two rounds of the 5-4-3-2-1 intervals (first time at 1.0 % incline and second time @ 2.5% incline) and then finished up my 4 miles at 6.5 to finish my run in just under 37 minutes. After the run, I hit the weights. The workout was killer.

Move	Bodypart	Reps
deadlift	hamstring/lower back	3x15
overhand barbell row	back	3x10-12
walking lunge	legs	3x12/leg
narrow lat pulldown	back	3x10
side lateral raises	shoulders	3x12
barbell bicep curl	biceps	3x8-10

My body sure feels that workout today! And it will even more so after I have some fun with Cathe and her IMAX 3 workout.

Speaking of which – I just realized that Cathe is hosting a fitness challenge at the Fitbloggin’ conference. I. Am. Stoked!!! Love her and I cannot wait to do a live workout with her. She rocks my world. I cannot believe its only a little over 2 weeks away. Eeee! Well, hope you all have a fantabulous Wednesday. Make it what you want it. You do have that power after all. 😉

• Are you a spender or a saver?
• Who would you LOVE to have the chance to workout with?

If you like money talk, Katie wrote a really unique piece on approaching budgeting (or “intentional spending as she calls it) like intuitive eating.