I LOVE These Things: Freezer Meal Cooking at Hy-Vee, Presenting My Story, & 5 Times

I wish I had something witty or amazing to say about my week, but honestly, peeps, it felt like I accomplished something amazing by just hanging on.

It was busy.

Too busy. I had a meeting or presentation every day this week (including today Saturday and tomorrow Sunday) along with all of the kiddos activities. In fact, on Thursday, I had to be at two different places at the exact same time TWICE! Do you know how impossible that is if you don’t have a Star Trek Beam-Me-Down-Scotty-Thing???

My house is a wreck to the point that I’m writing this post surrounded by dirty floors, unwashed laundry, four loads of washed and dried laundry in one clothes basket (I believe if I stuff four loads of laundry in one basket, then it is technically only one load, and I don’t have to feel guilty for not folding it), dog hair over all my carpets, and an office that looks like the school silent auction fairy exploded all over. (Did I mention I was the chair of our school’s 2nd biggest fundraiser and it’s next Friday?)

And I’m PMSing.

So while I want to hunker down with the kiddos leftover Easter candy and a marathon of the Godfather (yes, it’s marathon day on AMC), I will instead focus on things that brought me joy this week.

1. Presenting my “how I redefined myself at 40” story.

I was blessed (and also scared to death) to present my “how I redefined myself at 40” story to several mom’s groups this week.

I’ve shared a bit of that story in posts like the 20/20/20 Method and How Green Juices Changed My 40 Year Old Body. But there are several subjects I haven’t tackled on the blog yet because they are still too personal.

Being real with people while doing a presentation is a strange thing…either you are going to see lots of nodding of the heads because the people in the audience have or are experiencing what you have experienced OR you get strange stares that usually mean “What in the world is wrong with this woman?” I will admit to getting a little bit of both this week.

However, when I got done with the last presentation, a feeling came over me, that THIS STORY, this “how to redefine yourself in middle age” story needs to be talked about. There are so many women who are drowning in a lifestyle of too-busy-too-many-activities-keeping-up-with-the-neighbors-don’t-know-how-to-get-off-this-merry-go-round-not-sure-I-know-how-and-then-who-will-I-be-when-I-off-I’m-scared.

So, I’m making it a priority over the next 45 days to share my whole story with all of you. My whole messy, non-perfect, I’m-a-screwed-up-person story. And hope, that by keeping it real, it gives just one other mom the courage to get the hell off the merry-go-round and go swing on the swings for first time in a long while.

2. Freezer Meal Cooking Made Easy By Hy-Vee.

For the past six months, myself and my neighborhood girlfriends have been trying to get our poop-in-a-group and create a Freezer Meal Cooking Club.

We just had two problems…no one wanted to organize it and no one wanted to do the prep work. One thing we could agree on, however, was that drinking wine and beer while doing it was non-negotiable.

Enter my friend, Rachel, who found out about another option, a Hy-Vee hosted Freezer Meal Cooking, and booked a PARTY for us.

This my friends, was EPIC and in my opinion is how all Freezer Meal Cooking should be done.

Why?

They let us pick out the recipes we wanted to make (there were a gazillion to choose from).
They let us substitute items if we had a food allergy or intolerance.
They prepped EVERYTHING. There is no chopping, dicing, slicing, tenderizing, or anything. We show up and we assemble…that is it!
There is NO CLEAN UP, they do everything for you.
We can drink adult beverages while assembling. We place an order at the Market Grille Bar and it gets delivered to our party room.

It was $130 for 10 meals. And while some of you may think that is expensive, know that in our of ten meals, all of them had meat and used cuts like boneless skinless chicken breast, pork tenderloin, flank steak or arm roast.

While I can’t see doing this every month, I’m pretty sure I would do it at least once a quarter for the sheer convenience and social factor. However, we might have to plan the next one when they have 1/2 price wine bottle night.

Check your local Hy-Vee to see if they do this service…

3. Getting in 5 Workouts This Week.

This week was a BEAST, peeps. I was running 100 miles an hour at work and then 100 miles an hour at home. And I made some HARD decisions about which things had to be done and which things could slide.

(You might have noticed that posting was light this week on the blog because something had to give.)

But one thing I didn’t skip was working out. I got in my five workouts this week. I made sure I put ME first instead of laundry or picking up my office. And as I look back, this Saturday morning, I’m really glad I did.

And if you missed it, here are the new posts for the week from the blog.

Homemade Pizza Pockets Freezer Meal Recipe