Princess Darcy

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

Darcy is 3 and 9 months and in love with all things Princess.

She wants to dress as them, twirl as them, be like them and over and over and over, watch them!

We are big big BIG on Disney in this house so I'll never say 'no' to a Disney film or five and are counting down the days to our next big Disney trip!

Something I think about a lot though are the implications of reinforcing the idea that being a princess is something to aspire to to little girls. She is only small and so to her, what I say is gospel and whilst her mind is so impressionable, it leaves quite an imprint. 

Whilst a lot of the early princesses were depicted as pretty with sweet singing voices but very much the damsel in distress waiting to be rescued, I have enjoyed that in the last decade or so, princesses have had a lot more about them. 

When I tell Darcy she is like a princess I tell her she is smart and brave and strong and kind. I want her to grow up valuing her mind and her ability to think and plan and solve or to love and give and care. I think it will be wonderful if she has long blonde hair and a beautiful voice for singing to woodland creatures and bluebirds that land on your fingers but I know it will be even better to have that alongside the aforementioned qualities. 

I allow and encourage Darcy to dress up and dance and pretend to be a princess, but as I do, I remind her how that being a princess means more than just a perfect face and swirling dress.

Next time you see a little lady and tell her she is a princess, remind her exactly what that means. She'll thank you for it one day. 

Toodlepip!

xx

Planning Ahead For A Healthy Week

Good day ladies and gents! It's Monday... boooooo. Can anyone tell me how in the world Monday came around so fast? My weekend seemed to have gone by in a blur. Oh well, its here so we better make the most of it. Go hard or go home!

The best way for me to make sure I go hard is planning out my week. I try to plan out everything down to the finest detail, whether its doing laundry or writing a blog post. That way, hopefully, nothing gets missed and I ensure I give first place to the more important things.

I normally start my planning with determining what's on the menu for the week.

On Saturday night or Sunday morning, depending upon my schedule, I plan out all the meals and snacks for the week ahead. I used to use cookbooks and occasionally the internet for planning, but since Pinterest has taken over my life I use it almost exclusively. However, I will pull out my cookbooks for recipes that I've already tried.

The overall process takes about an hour to an hour and half. The longest part of the process being coming up with the dinners for the week. Since I do the majority of the cooking and we have different eating habits I try to simplify our menus as much as possible. During the week we enjoy the same meal for breakfast and snacks. For instance I know that I have a smoothie every morning for breakfast and my first snack will be fruit with trail mix. When it comes to lunch time, I also repeat the same meal for my lunch.

You maybe wondering at this point, "Well Iesha, don't you get bored having the same thing everyday?" Here's how I combat boredom: 1. My smoothies don't not have the same fruits in them everyday. 2. The fruit I use for my snacks vary greatly. 3. I change the ingredients in my lunch salad and the dressings I use every few days. Also, personally having a simple menu helps me to stay on track, I never wonder what I'm going to eat. It helps me say no to outside temptations as well.

However, Mr. UC gets bored easily and will not eat his lunch if he repeated too often. So for him, I have a list of 10 meals to choose from and he will "enjoy" three of them twice during the week. Now dinner time is where we both get to have some fun and have our palates tantalized. I love cooking and I "cook" for one of us each night of the week. When Mr. UC is having leftovers I make a raw dinner for myself and when I am having leftovers I make dinner for him.

Now that the meal plan is complete, I can compile my shopping list. I shop every Sunday for most if not all of our food. Occasionally, I will make another trip for fresh veggies during the week.

After I complete our meal plan I move on to planning my workout for the week.

On a day to day basis, I keep track of my health in my smaller planner that I carry with me.

I have a copy of my workout plan.

I also keep a written record of what I eat each day. Its easy to snack and lose track of how many little bites you have. This way if I get tempted I hold myself accountable by writing each little bite down. It also serves as a way to track how food affects my body. If one day my joints are particularly sore I can go back in my food log and pinpoint what may be the cause. I created this page with a water tracker, I have the hardest time drinking enough water during the day now I can mark off each cup I have.

Next I use my 2015 planner and fill in my appointments for the week and we're all set to go hard!

Here are the printables I use to organize my meals and workout for the week. Hopefully you'll find them useful as well.

{click here to download 8.5x11}

{click here to download 5.5x8.5}

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{click here to download 5.5x8.5}

{click here to download 8.5x11}

{click here to download 5.5x8.5}

 {click here to download 8.5x11}

{click here to download 5.5x8.5}

Till next time...

Motivational Monday || Head Space

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

Woohoooo another Monday and another chance to try hard, work hard and reach your goals and targets. What's not to be excited about here? I jest, I know not everyone is a Monday person haha.

I don't know about you but I'm an over thinker. I am constantly busy thinking about people or things or events or conversations or arguments or projects or trips - it's EXHAUSTING!!

Last year I poured myself into everything. Every single thing. I feel like I gave so much to so much that I never had any left. I'm not talking financially but emotionally. Sometimes it's worthwhile taking stock and holding back a little bit, reassessing where all your energies are going and re-distributing.

Last week a couple of things happened which really made me think. I wondered if I have made the right choices with people or projects and poured my time and love into the right things. I felt frustrated and wound up. I think I might not be describing it well but that's because I am still a bit confused and het up myself. I haven't ironed it all out in my head yet but when I do, I'll try and explain it better. 

Until that point, and who knows how long it will take, I have come to a decision. 

I am going to give myself and my love and my time and my energies to only the people and projects I think are worthy. Worthiness can come in multifaceted manners but mostly, if you are kind to me, care about me and are a good egg yourself, you're in! Pretty simple! Bonus points if we can laugh, sing and adventure together too! Project-wise, I've already chosen what things I will be working on for the first half of the year so that's an easier choice.

Life is short and energy is precious. Don't waste it on the people who do not appreciate or reciprocate. There is no need to continuously work at something that doesn't work. Sometimes the best thing you can do is stop, smile and leave it.

I'm not suggesting you be a massive d*ckhead to everyone you don't quite like or feel hard done by, just that if you want or need to, walk away from it. Still be gracious and kind and pleasant (all energy neutral emotions) but no need to go full blast at things or people that don't deserve it. 

I hope you all have wonderful weeks full of peace, motivation and happiness! I have posts today, Wednesday and Friday. 

Toodlepip!

xx

2015 Fashion Wants

Aloha Sprinkerinos,

Did anyone ever tell  you, 'I wants don't get' when you were little? I heard it a lot and think the jist is, 'don't be a spoilt brat and be happy with what you have'. Cool. 

I think it's good to want things and to visualise what you are working towards, plus, I like thinking about happy things like this and like even more to make a list, so this post, you guessed it, is a list!

With the turn of the new year I have been thinking about little updates I want to make to my wardrobe and mentally making a checklist of things I'd like to try more of or try for the first time this year. 

Are you ready? Let's go. 

In 2015 I want ::

Flower crowns & headbands

Wooden bangles with golden details

Maxi skirts that float like there is always a breeze

Bright jackets to wrap round me with big buttons and deep pockets

Cobalt blue heels (with uber tanned legs)

Rose gold anything

Big slouchy brown bags for all my Mama junk

Full skirts with cute prints and petticoats

Sweet cardigans with scalloped edging

Pearls on everything

Hints of leopard print

Denim shorts with rose gold studs on the pockets

Dresses with big bows at the back and sweet details at the front

A bikini that works miracles

A floppy hat that compliments the bikini

Giant tortoiseshell sunglasses

Black patent mary jane shoes

Oooeeeee a wishlist to lust after. 

I would love to leave more lists lying around here in 2015. Do you have any requests or suggestions? Also, what are you wishlisting for this year? It doesn't hurt to dream!!

Toodlepip!

xx

Quick Low-Cost Organizing Project

Over the weekend I cleared out our front closet. As you enter the condo, this closet is just beyond the front door to the left. We weren't using it as a coat closet because it had been turned into a storage closet with the addition of a third shelf and the hanging rod being removed. (I still can not figure out why it was turned into anything other than a coat closet, it's the perfect place for one.) Anyway for the past year and a half we had been using it as a catch all space for whatever items there were not having a home. There were air mattresses, lunch boxes, wine glasses, shot glasses, extra pillows, curtains, the vacuum and apparently a big red bucket. Basically, you name it and it was probably in there. This weekend however, the time had finally come for it to be converted back to its intended purpose, a coat closet. 

(At least the shelves were neat.)

I started by completely emptying out the closet and purging items we no longer wanted or found to be useful to us. Then I went to Home Depot and had a wooden dowel cut to size, added it to the closet along with our coats, snow gear, and a few other things and ta-dah!

Nothing fancy here. It was purely function over form, even though I did add some washi tape to the front of the shelves for a little bit of interest. 

To the upper shelves, I added back our lunch boxes and organized our snow gear in plastic bins with $1 bin tags from Target. The wooden basket holds some of my workout gear, such as, gloves and a jump rope. 

At the bottom of the closet I have our briefcases and a vintage two gallon crock that holds our umbrellas. The crock is sitting on a vintage step stool used when I need to reach the top shelf.

Sooo... that's all folks, a quick project that costs a total of $5.36 and it was extremely easy to complete.

 

Till next time...