Welcome to our first official "Tasty Tuesday"! 

As part of our new family health journey, Wes and I decided to pick at least one new recipe each week, with the hopes to build a decent list of some new favorite healthy family recipes. Poor Wes, as the chef in the family, he has to please all four of us at the same time, which is not an easy thing to do! So we figured, that if we try something new each week and find more healthy meals that work for all of us, it would be like striking GOLD, so why not share!

With our busy schedules, Sunday's usually end up being the best day for us to try something new, so we figured that we should be able to get our act together enough to post about it by Tuesday. Ergo, Tasty Tuesday! Mostly because that's when we go grocery shopping, plan our meals and have more time to spend in the kitchen if we need it. This first recipe though is definitely one of our favorites and takes very little time to make.

Walnut-Crusted Chicken Breasts

Walnuts add a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids to bread crumbs, which keeps the chicken really moist and yummy! Plus, you can convince your kids that these are like chicken fingers or chicken nuggets. If your kids are like ours, and you call it "Walnut-Crusted Chicken" they won't touch it. But if you call it "Nutty Chicken Fingers", it's a different story.  Also, if you bake or roast the chicken, you get a pretty crispy crust without adding extra fat. If you don't have day-old bread, you can just lightly toast some fresh bread to use instead, or Panko bread crumbs (which is what we do most of the time).

What You'll Need

• 2 slices day-old whole-wheat bread/or Panko bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 large egg white
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves (6 - 8 ounces each)
• 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
• Lemon slices, for serving

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a food processor, combine bread, walnuts, Parmesan cheese and 1/4 teaspoon salt; then season with pepper. Transfer that into a shallow bowl.

Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel (this just helps the coating to stick better). Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Dip each chicken breast into the egg white to coat it completely, and let the excess drip off before coating it in the crumb mixture. (We usually press it on to make it stick).

The original recipe said to heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the chicken until lightly browned on one side, then flip and transfer skillet to the oven. We tried that and it works but to be honest, with two full time jobs and two kids we are all about streamlining the process! So we usually just bake the chicken. Serve with lemon slices if you are trying to be fancy-smancy. Enjoy!

I have to say though, that my favorite part of this meal is that you can use the leftovers for a great salad for lunch the next day!

Big Boy's Room Makeover

As we slowly get settled into the new house, we are turning our attention to at least starting some of the "smaller" projects. Like most parents out there, that means we are making sure the kids are settled and happy first. The easiest room to tackle is probably going to be Jack's room because it already comes complete with chair rail molding and crown molding. Granted the walls need some serious patching before painting, but outside of giving everything a nice fresh coat of paint (including doors) and adding some new door hardware, we have most of what The Squishy needs for his big boy room makeover.

In the old house, his room was probably one of my favorite rooms that we updated. I still would have loved to paint his ceiling and have added some crown molding, but even without that, his room was light and bright and clean and incorporated a lot of nautical items from my family (the life-jacket, the fishing rods hanging over his dresser, the small wooden oar, etc). And frankly, I think it turned out pretty good even though I incorporated some pretty cheap updates (his valences were cut and made from one navy curtain, I made the pictures in PowerPoint, etc).

As you can see on our home projects page, here's what The Squishy's room looks like as of today (there are more pictures on the other page). It's definitely a bit darker then his previous room and even a bit smaller, but big enough to still fit his double bed, dresser and his shelves (which you can't see in the picture below).

Since I loved his old room so much, I really want to stick with the navy blue/orange nautical theme. I think its perfect for a little boy, but also gives him something that he can grow into. Plus, my family pretty much grew up on the water, so it always reminds me of when I was little. I'm planning on using a lot of the same decor too, like his "Work Like A Captain" and "Play Like a Pirate" pictures, his life-jacket, etc.

I had been eying up this Pottery Barn Kids curtains literally since we found out we were having a boy, but I could never really justify the cost. I finally decided though to bite the bullet after three years of stalking them online and figured since we have so many other things that we are reusing, I'd be saving a bunch of money elsewhere. So you don't even know how excited I am to have those babies sitting in the dining room just waiting to be hung.

Since we are pretty big fans of Sherwin Williams paint, and more specifically, their sales that they have all the time, we are heading there this weekend to hit up their big anniversary sale and score some serious paint since this house pretty much needs it on every single surface. We had just missed a sale a few weeks ago but this one was going to be even better, so it sped up the process a bit of us deciding on what to paint.

I think we have narrowed it down to keeping things simple and clean for The Squishy, so we are thinking about just brightening up his room with some crisp white paint. We used Behr's "Frost" pretty much everywhere in our old house, so we are trying to find something similar to that. I've always loved pictures of the wood-planked walls so I'm debating on whether to try something like that in his room as well (but probably a little later down the line). To see how things would all work out, I (very poorly) created a little Inspiration Board for his new big boy room makeover. What do you think?

We hope to get painting shortly and actually have a couple days off of work coming up so we are hoping to knock out The Squishy's and Emma's painting in the next couple of weeks. We will keep you updated on our progress!

Beachbody Coaching: My Why (It's Not What You Think)

I have to say that it didn't take long after signing up as an Independent Beachbody Coach to hear about all of the "whys" from the other coaches. What the surprising thing was, was that I didn't (and still haven't) heard one person talk about money being their "why". Sure, it's a perk that comes along with being a coach, but only if you want it to be and only if you decide to put the work in to try to help others.

What surprised me about most of the "whys" from other Beachbody Coaches was that the majority of them revolved around their hopes and dreams for their family. There was no doubt in my or Wes's mind that this was a good place for us, because a lot of those "whys" that we heard, we could have written ourselves. They were about wanting to spend more time with their family. They were about people wanting to choose a life of design. They were about people not wanting to live a life of complacency, just going through the motions. Wishing away the Monday through Friday work week, to spend a whopping two days out of seven with their family, in between using those two days to get ready for the next Monday through Friday work week.

We were already starting to focus on a new journey for our family because you can't go through something like we went through over the past year and NOT come out with a different view of life. We could have easily just joined with a free coach to help us too, but after truly thinking about our "why", it was like the choice was made for us. I admit, I was completely skeptical, just like most people probably are when they hear about the opportunity of becoming a coach. Part of me didn't even want to entertain the idea because A) I'm busy enough B) how could I help others if I wasn't a health or fitness expert myself and C) I was afraid to admit my "why".

I had a lot of "whys" running through my mind, but there was just something that wasn't sitting right. Almost like an itch that I couldn't scratch. There were so many reasons that I wanted to do this, that didn't have anything to do with money. I wanted to hold myself accountable for sticking with my health and fitness goals for a change. I wanted to make this a transformation for our whole family. I wanted to set a better example for Emma and Jack. I wanted to learn how to help other cancer survivors who were struggling with where to start after treatment. All of those things were 100% true, and still are. But it just felt like something was missing. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

One of the things my coach said to me when I was talking to her about my why, was this...

"They say that "your why" is supposed to make you cry."

And it sure did.

I fully know this sounds crazy to most of you. And especially for our family members that read this blog, probably seems like its out of no where, but just stick with me for a second.

I remembered coming across this post one day, that I couldn't even finish reading. It was called "The Important Thing About Yelling", by Rachel Macy Stafford. I couldn't finish reading it because it just hit too close to home. I chalked it up to the fact that I was going through cancer treatment and that it was okay for me to get frustrated more easily than others. So at the time, I closed the post and went on about my business. But even though I didn't read the whole post, I remembered it, it struck a cord, so I ultimately ended up going back.

If you haven't seen it yourself, the post talks about Rachel "in the midst of her highly distracted life" and how she became a yeller. It wasn't often, but when it happened, she said it was extreme. And it wasn't even about anything big. It was the normal mishaps and typical kid issues and attitudes that irritated her to the point of losing control. Just like what was happening to me.

It wasn't an easy pill to swallow. And for a long time, I avoided trying to even think about it. It was when I started to notice the look on Emma's face after she made an innocent mistake, or spilled some milk. She was afraid of Mommy's reaction. That was a hard thing to watch. Just like Rachel did, I realized that was not the mother that I wanted my kids to grow up with.

After a lot of soul searching and self reflecting, I realized that it all stemmed from just being spread too thin. I was overloaded by to do lists, my inability to say no, my constant need to try chase perfection as a working mom. In the little free time that I had, I was focusing on things that weren't truly important or benefiting my family, like what the Kardashian's posted on Instagram that day, or trying to catch up with some reality TV show.

It was like finally, everything seemed to fit together. Everything I learned about myself, and what I wanted out of life after surviving breast cancer. The goals I had for myself. The things I needed to change about myself to become the mother that I wanted to be. The things I wanted for my family.

Then I thought, well crap. If I become a Beachbody Coach, isn't that just adding to my to do list? Isn't that going to make it worse? Nope. It helped. 1,000 times over. It helped.

It helped me focus on what is TRULY important in life. And guess what. It's not what the Kardashian's posted on Instagram. It helped me to realize that I need to slow down. It was something that Wes and I could focus on together, for our family. The personal development that comes along with being a coach has been invaluable. I don't claim to have all the answers, and I probably never will. I don't yet know exactly where this new journey will lead us, but it feels so incredibly good to be so focused on something healthy for our family.

Obviously as a parent of a five year old and a three year old there are going to be frustrating days. I will never claim to be Mary Sunshine every single day. But I have made the CHOICE to become more aware of my reactions and get those non-value added things out of my life. And you know what? It's working. I can see the change in Emma. I can see the change in myself. Like Rachel says, "The important thing is ... life is too short to get upset over spilled cereal and misplaced shoes."

So if you ever run into a Beachbody Coach. Don't assume they are in it for the money. Don't assume its a get rich quick scheme. Ask them what their "why" is, and I think you'll be surprised.

For me, my why is my family. My why is learning how to TRULY focus on what is important in life. My why is learning how to slow life down, before I wake up one day and Emma and Jack are in college, and I regret yelling at them over spilled milk every day. My why is putting my story out there, no matter how vulnerable it makes me, or how scared I am of people's reactions. My why is sharing my journey as a cancer survivor, to hopefully help others who also feel like they got dropped off a cliff after treatment. My why is learning how to teach my kids to make good decisions for their body's.

If this sounds familiar to you, and you are interested in joining our team, or even if you just are looking to start writing a new story for you or your family, don't hesitate. Take it from Rachel, no matter what happened yesterday, today is a new day.

Old Home Summer Tour!

We are officially moved out! Everything went as smooth as can be on settlement day so on Friday, June 27th, Emma's 5th Birthday, we officially became new home owners!

Because the house was as clean as can be for pictures for going on the market, I thought I would post them here as a house tour of our old home. So here we go!

I always thought out home was pretty cute. It definitely needed a new coat of paint on the shutters but we left that up to the new home owners. We didn't do anything big to the front outside of adding the stones around the garden, maybe making a wreath or two and spray painting the mailbox to give it a little freshening up.

Coming in the front door, there was the dining room on the right, playroom on the left and a long hallway back towards the kitchen. We ended up getting new flooring this winter, and added the board and batten in the hallway a few years ago. I still LOVED it and we used the hooks all the time for all the kids stuff. We usually had a bench right below the hooks that housed all the kids shoes and hats and gloves, etc, which worked great! We painted all of the trim and doors a bright white (Frost by Behr) and replaced all the super sweet gold door handles with some more modern ones through the entire house.

Here's the kids playroom, basically in the best shape that it ever could be in. It was NEVER like this pre-market believe me. Here we painted a few times, made some DIY artwork for the kids after we changed if from a playroom (originally had it as a living room) but didn't really make any major changes to this room.

We added the door casings a little while back. I never did get around to hanging anything above the bench on the left. Oh well!

The dining room was one of the first things we repainted when our style started to change. This was one color that I still loved the day we moved out. We added crown molding, painted the ceiling, added door casings, and a new chandelier.

Behind the playroom was our little family room, which worked out great. In here, we added the ceiling fan, painted a few times, had some curtains made (by my mom) and added molding and a mantle to the fireplace.

The family room then connected to the eat in kitchen, which was probably one of our favorite places. I had big plans to paint the cabinets white, and add molding to the top, but seemed like a lot of work to turn around and sell. My mom made us some valences, we added hardware to the cabinets, installed new flooring, painted and updated the kitchen faucet.

Upstairs was three bedrooms and two full baths. Our master bedroom was always the last to get updated and was probably the worst looking room in the house (update wise). My mother in law flew in and painted this baby in a day which made a world of difference. We added the ceiling fan and that was about it!

In the master bath, we painted, removed the builders standard light above the sink and added two new lights and mirrors, added tiles behind the mirrors (thanks to my MIL again on that one) and painted the cabinets and ceiling.

We also added a small line of the same tile around our tub.

After we redid Emma's room when she got her big girl room, I always loved the color combination but I think never really did "finish" her room. I would have loved to have added crown molding, paint her ceiling, add new curtains and some more fun decor, but overall, loved her room. We did all the painting and added the molding as one of the very first DIY projects.

Jack's room was one of my favorite places in the house. I have loved the stripes since the day he got them but truly loved the orange and blue decor we added for staging. The rug used to be in our playroom but matched perfectly (probably wrong size though). The life vest was from my Dad's garage along with one of his oars. The pictures were a DIY PowerPoint addition and my mom added the orange stripe to his bed-skirt. On the other side of the wall that you can't see, are Jack's great-grandfather and great-grandmother's fishing rods hanging over his dresser.

The kids bathroom was another one that we pretty much didn't touch until we went on the market. We really didn't do anything in here outside of paint the ceiling and the walls white just to clean things up.

So there you have it! More to come on what our new house looks like now that we are all moved in!