One of my four year old's favorite things to eat is the chicken and hummus box at Starbucks.  I'm glad because it's healthy, but it is a tad expensive if you are eating it every day.  

So, I came up with my own version, and she loves it!  I get a bit of hummus, some carrots, tomatoes and some pre-cooked grilled chicken strips and call it a day.  She LOVES vanilla yogurt, so I add that and a chocolate almond milk.  She begs for this meal every day for school lunch, and it's so easy and quick.  

I'm pretty sure she eats the healthiest out of all of us!  Anyway, hummus is a great snack or lunch, and it's great for kids since kids love to dip food in stuff!  

I'm always looking for more ideas, though, so what's your favorite healthy snack or lunch that you feed your kids?

My husband and I finished the first week of P90X3 (X3) this week.  We only did 5 days because we had baseball stuff pretty much all day on Saturday.  We may work out today, but I don't know.  

Anyway, I really like it so far.  I really liked P90X when I did it, as well as Jillian Michaels Body Revolution.  You can read my review comparing the two here.  Now that I'm not working and don't have access to extensive equipment (and I don't want to buy more weights), P90X doesn't make sense for me.  But, I still recommend it if you have the time and equipment.    

X3 is great because it's 30 minutes, and Tony keeps time so it doesn't go over.  Although, the workouts are pretty intense so I've had to spend a few minutes just cooling down and/or doing some extra stretches before I get ready.  I find it hard to jump in the shower and get ready immediately after a hard workout anyway.  But, I also have the luxury of being able to wait - I can clean up the kitchen, take the dog for a quick walk, start laundry, etc. on most days before I need to make myself presentable.  

The workouts are intense and fast moving.  They work multiple muscle groups at the same time which ups the cardio.  Jillian Michaels' workouts are also based on the same idea, which is great because it means you can get a great workout in less time while still working your whole body.  

So far, there is less straight up muscle building (lifting weights), but I don't really miss it.  It does have some pull-ups, and we have a pull up bar.  My husband used the pull-up bar (hung in a doorway) and I did the modifier with the band.  I just don't care about pull-ups for me, though I would like tone shoulders.  Much of the exercises use body weight or light weights (you can use a band), and it's effective.  We've been sore this week, although I admit not nearly as sore as when I did P90X.  I'm OK with that though!

Tony is still same old Tony - total nerd with silly jokes, but I like his style.  Jillian Michaels is really in to being motivating while she is talking, which I appreciate, but I think I like Tony's style a little better.  With that being said, though, I would still do JM's workouts again.  They are also very good.  

So, overall, X3 has been great this week.  The workouts are challenging and offer modifiers and challenges, and have left us sweaty and tired at the end of the 30 minutes.  For both of us, 30 minutes is doable, and in my opinion it's the perfect time for a home workout.  I can easily do it while the kids are home if I need to.  

Also, it is doable if you haven't worked out before.  It's been a long time since the husband has done anything like this, and while I think it took his body a little by surprise on day 1, he's able to do the workouts.  If you feel like you're out of shape, you can do the modifiers and take a few extra breaks and you'll be catching up in no time. 

My one negative so far is that I didn't think the X3 yoga was that great.  It's hard to get a great yoga session done in 30 minutes.  I much prefer the yoga from the original P90X, and if we have time I may do that on occasion.  But, if you don't have the time for a longer yoga session, it's OK.  The workout is good (I was sweaty), it's just not as good as a yoga workout could be, especially after such intense workouts earlier in the week.  But, Tony is sticking to the 30 minutes promise which is great.  Most P90X workouts were about 60 minutes, plus the 15 min. ab-ripper, and the yoga was about 90 minutes.  You will get results with that for sure, but it's a huge time commitment, especially if you have kids, a job, etc.  

So far, I highly recommend X3.  I'll continue to give updates.  

Disclaimer - I do make a small amount of money from Amazon from products purchased on my blog.  I only put products on that I have personally used and would recommend to friends and family.  Thanks!

Some days just suck.  That's all there is to it.  No matter what you do, how hard you try they just don't work out.  My day sucked today.
  
The whole thing started off pretty well.  I got the kids off, got showered and ready and got a nice chili going in the crock pot - all before 8:30am!  I thought that was pretty successful.  But that's where the goodness ended.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful until after school, which is when the shit always undoubtedly hits the fan.  They got home and immediately ravaged the kitchen, which is no big deal, but sometimes I'm just not in the mood to have peanut butter smeared all over the counters and to have them arguing with me about why they can't eat every sugary thing in the house.  But, we managed adecent snack and homework time ok.  

My husband is out of town, and all three kids have something at the same time on Tuesdays.  So, I got everyone ready and loaded up into the car realizing that they'd only had a snack and wouldn't be home until well after our normal dinner time.  So, I scrounged a snack for the girls and hoped the peanut butter would keep my son full for baseball practice.  

I dropped my youngest daughter at her singing class.  Then headed to drop my son off at baseball and while driving away I had a fleeting thought that I didn't check which field he needed to go to.  I figured he would just find his team.  After that, I head home to get my other daughter and her friend, and drop them off at dance.  I had about an hour before I had to go make the rounds to pick people up so I thought I might get my toes painted quickly somewhere.  In the middle of that thought the phone range and it was my friend saying her husband was at the baseball fields with my son and his team must have canceled practice.  

I was sure I had just received a notice that practice was ON, so I checked and sure enough I dropped him at the wrong field!  And of course the field he was supposed to be at was on the other side of town (our town isn't big, but driving through it during rush hour sucks).  So, I went straight from dance to pick him up to drive back and drop him off one hour late for practice.  I then ran a short errand and went back to pick him up, but practice went late making me late to pick up my 4 year old.  So, I called a friend to pick up the 4 year old (she was already there).  

Things were OK for a few minutes after we got home, but then my daughter slipped on the stairs giving herself a huge purple knot on my shin.  We did baths (because they STUNK!!) and then I realized I never really fed them dinner.  So, I made them eat a few bites of my chili (which was really good, but they were all cranky by then probably because they were starving) and decided it was just best if they went to bed.  

So, I get in my youngest daughter's bathroom to brush teeth and see the bathtub is full of some very strange winged ant-like bugs.  WHAT?!?  Right now?  What. the. hell.  So, I kill them all and get that taken care of only to have my daughter now terrified that the bugs are going to come and get her.  She finally went to sleep after crying for awhile.  Oh, and the dog desperately needs a walk.  

The house is a mess and I have a ton to do, so I sat down to write a blog instead.  A beer would be really nice right now, but of course my fridge contains nothing but capri sun.  Oh well.  Tomorrow's another day.  

I finally had the stitches taken out of my finger last Friday.  The stitches were holding a little piece of what looked like tin foil on my nail bed.  It was inserted under my cuticle to ensure that the cuticle did not heal to the nail bed because if that happens the nail will not grow back!  The stitches were really bothersome, so I was glad to have them taken out, but now my nail bed is super sensitive!  The slightest touch or bump on my finger is rather painful, so I have to do everything 9-fingered or one-handed while being very careful.  I didn't realize how much my hands do and bump into things.  Patience is not my strong point, so this is very challenging.  I just want to get back to doing everything normally!

The nurse said I just had to wear a band-aid and hopefully the nail would start growing back in 4-8 weeks. I was more than a little disappointed when she said that - I mean 1-2 more months!?!  Yikes!  It looks pretty weird, feels pretty crappy and I'm just really hoping I get my nail back.  I never truly appreciated how important our fingernails really are and how much we rely on them to do things.  

Anyway, I'm feeling better, and I've been sewing, though with great caution!  Scroll down for a picture of the tin foil thing on my nailbed.