Love Is....

 ....gosh, it's a million things, isn't it?  

It's lazy Sundays, everyone quietly doing their own thing, but still enjoying being together in the same space.

It's vacation!  Big or small, planned or spontaneous, getting away and enjoying a change of scenery is a treasure.  

It's time apart, testing the old "absence makes the heart grow fonder" adage.  And time apart leads to reunions, equally sweet.

Love is family and friends and friends who are family.  It's sitting quietly with someone who's hurting, praying that you can provide them with exactly what they need in that moment.  It's the weight of the trust you've earned to sit with their pain.

Love is a loud backyard full of kiddos and parents, picking up popsicle sticks and soggy towels after an impromptu pool party.  It's sharing pizza in the garage, trading snacks, books and advice and it's getting super excited when all the kids--not just yours--become proficient bike riders!

Love is fancy dinners at a restaurant or even in the dining room with the good china.  And love is eating a random hodgepodge of leftovers in the family room, on the floor while you watch hockey.

It's fighting and making up, talking and listening.  It's celebrating successes, even ones that aren't yours.  It's the unshakable notion that someone always has your back and the comfort that comes from knowing it's entirely mutual.

Love is crying with someone, laughing with someone, carrying secrets and cherishing truth.  It's taking your car to fill up the tank when you're simply too tired to do it yourself.  Love is filling the tub with warm water and Epsom salts, turning the lights down low and encouraging your daughter to please relax and let her worries melt away.

Love is staying up way too late on a "school night" to watch a movie, grabbing whatever moments you can grab as a couple.  Love is Christmas movies in the "off season" and ice cream in the winter.  It's cranking up the best song and singing and dancing until you're breathless.

It's baking and cooking and sharing the food.  It's a full house, rooms filled with laughter and guests who feel like they're at home.  It's having "a thing" that you only share with that one person; like finding "hidden" hearts or seeing the moon in the daytime.  It's a look that speaks volumes, a song lyric that just fits and love is showing up.

Love is hearing and listening, agreeing and arguing, it's respect, compassion and forgiveness.  Love is grace and joy, and sometimes hurt and sorrow.

Love is past, present and future all swirled together like a kaleidoscope you can't stop spinning.  Love is simple moments and grand gestures, it's loud and it's quiet.  Love takes your breath away and gives you strength immeasurable.

It's sharing goals and dreams and following your own.  It's incredibly common, yet exceptionally rare.  Love is prefect and imperfect, flawed and fabulous.  It's a promise and a privilege.

Valentine's Day may be a Hallmark holiday, may be too cheesy to bear. But if it does nothing but offer a moment to ponder what words come after "Love is..." that, in itself, is a gift as lovely as any chocolate, rose or piece of jewelry.  

xo,
Amy

   

Don't Pitch Those Bananas

You know the thing about fresh fruit?  Either you buy it and no one eats it or you're at the store 3-4 times a week to restock.  We're that way with bananas.  We'll blow through a bunch, hurry up and buy more only to watch them turn brown and mushy!  There seems to be no in between.

Fortunately, like darn near everyone during the pandemic, we're never short on recipes for banana bread.  I still don't totally get how or why that became a thing, but I'm not exactly arguing either.  Any excuse to use my new oven and make a mess in the kitchen---I'm in!  

Found this gem at Practically Homemade (Banana Crumb Cake Recipe | Practically Homemade) and it quickly became our go to version.  This is decidedly more cake than bread and definitely one of the many culprits of the "pants are too tight these days" saga that we lived for months. 

With today being Valentine's Day, an impending winter storm and a few perfectly "ruined" bananas on my counter, it seemed like a perfect moment to make this.

The kitchen, I have to tell you, smelled incredible while this was in the oven.  At least twice, the girls came in to see if it was ready---the smell was that enticing.

We quickly shared half with our neighbors (see earlier comment about pants being too tight...considering there's progress on that front, giving this away was a better choice than eating it all ourselves....though seriously tempting!) and popped the other half in the fridge.  

It's so delicious, warmed up just a smidgen in the microwave and enjoyed with a mug of tea.  I feel like I should give the other half away before I lose all willpower!

Hope you enjoy this yummy treat as well!

xo,
Amy

What You'll Need:

Batter

• 1/2 cup butter {softened}
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 ripe bananas {mashed} or about 1 1/4 cups
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Crumb Mixture

• 1/2 cup butter {softened}
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon

What You'll Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.

2. Combine softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until well combined.  I used a hand mixer but you can mix it by hand or with a stand mixer.  Add mashed bananas, eggs, vanilla and sour cream, mix to combine. 

3. Add flour, baking powder, salt and stir until just combined {don't over mix}.  Pour into the bottom of the greased 9x13 pan.

4. In a small bowl combine all of the crumb mixture ingredients.  Work the mixture together into small crumbs using a fork.  Don't over work the mixture or you will get a paste and it will change the texture of the bread.  Sprinkle the crumbs in an even and thick layer over the top of the banana bread batter.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs or is clean.  Serve warm or cool and cover.  Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or pop it in the fridge.

Notes

•  Cake makes 12 large pieces of crumb cake.
• Make ahead and freeze for up to 3 months.
• Add 1/4 cup of chopped pecans to the crumb mixture for added taste and texture.

Making the Grade

It's been almost a week since January closed out.  A week post-No Senduary and Whole 30.  Almost a week to reflect and consider what grade we earned during the month.  I'm going to go with a solid A-.

Let's start with W30 and first acknowledge that we did it.  We freakin' did it!  We successfully completed another round of Whole 30 and we're actually still at it.  Where we were really strict--no grains, no alcohol, no dairy, no legumes.  Where we gave ourselves a little grace--I still had my Shakeology most days, mixed with water, acceptable fruit, some almond butter, spinach and ice.  We did enjoy white potatoes--one of those in/out good/bad, yes/no foods.  We didn't eat them daily, and we prepared them in W30-compliant ways.  We used scant amounts of flour here and there for recipes, but big picture--it wasn't an all-the-time thing.

I'm sitting here on February 6 having not consumed a single drop of alcohol since New Year's Eve.  Still no dairy---though to be honest, I learned that was a trigger food for me the last round of W30, so it's not a huge victory to be dairy free 6 days later.  I have had some sugar.  Miraculously, I've not eaten a single morsel of the chocolate that's in this house (including a newfound Mocha Chocolate Kit Kat that smells amazing!), but I did indulge (okay, over-indulge) in some gummy candies.  I got a case of "eat until it's gone-itis" and kept going back to the bag until it was empty.  Oye.  Not my finest moment(s) for sure.

Outside of that and a heavy hand in a bag of Buffalo Pretzel Twists (!!), we've maintained the W30 meal planning this week as well.  Our menu is made for next week and it's W30, too.  At this point, it feels pretty routine and we're not making ourselves crazy about it.

Add to all that a combined 22lb weight loss between the two of us so sticking with it seems really reasonable.  I mean, we've got goals we're working towards, and if this is helping, why stop?  I've said it before, and I'll say it again; it's a mindset.  We don't focus on the deprivation.  We don't focus on what's missing or what we can't have/do.  We look at the options we have, make the most of them and focus on the "finish line."

As for No Spenduary, ehhh.  Definitely didn't do as well with that aspect.  We did have a couple spends that didn't fall into the "gas/bills/groceries" buckets.  The good news is, since we're the ones making the rules (kind of like my post every Monday rule), we can call a do-over and go Spendless a couple days in February.  Or March for that matter.  Whatever.  I've actually considered having at least 2 No Spend Weekends a month for the rest of the year.   

Same as with W30, it's a mindset.  It's being thoughtful and deliberate about both the purchase(s) and the motivation behind it.  My purchases came late in the month and were 100% driven by going a little stir crazy, feeling stressed out and looking for a little retail therapy.  That said, I didn't go bonkers, buying for the sake of buying.  I grabbed a couple things we needed (but totally could have waited until February).  And I let myself off the hook, because guilt didn't need to be added to the equation.

Quick Tips:

1.  Have a plan--be prepared and consider challenges you may face so you don't react to them impulsively
2.  Have a partner--it's much easier and more fun to have a buddy along for the ride.  Plus it's built-in accountability!
3.  Have a goal--know WHY you're doing this and keep that front of mind through the month.  How are you measuring your success?  Use that as a barometer for the choices you make.
4.  Have faith--results won't come overnight, keep your WHY in mind and carry on!
5.  Have fun--this isn't meant to be drudgery or torture.  It's about growth and challenging ourselves to shine.

So it's a wrap.  An A- for our effort and results and a huge sense of pride for being disciplined.  Looking forward to what this month will bring and what we will bring to it! 

xo,
Amy