{"id":63288,"date":"2022-12-20T07:25:18","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T12:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/?p=63288"},"modified":"2022-12-20T07:25:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T12:25:21","slug":"the-last-of-the-hustle-bustle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ahealthysliceoflife.com\/the-last-of-the-hustle-bustle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last of the Hustle & Bustle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello my friend; how are you today? Whether bustling with joy or feeling the pressure, join me in a giant collective deep inhale… hold it<\/em>… and exhale. Feels better doesn’t it? I won’t go on the tangent of deep breathing for health reasons and how we all usually are shallow breathers. Here’s a quick overview<\/a>. But I’ve been reminding myself often over the last few days to take some deep breaths- at the traffic light, before I eat, when I wake up, etc. It helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I do feel a little stress of making sure all I want to have done is on my list and that I’m checking them off, I mostly feel excited. I’m proud of the way I planned for Christmas this year, as it definitely has not always been like this in years past. I promised myself I would start early this year on planning and prepping and it really paid off. It makes me want to consider for being more thoughtful and intentional about 2023 plans and prep, but I’m not ready to jump to new year thinking yet. There’s Christmas to celebrate, first! And we’ve been busy bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s back up to the weekend. Friday we partook in one of our favorite Christmas tradition- family team shopping! We’ve done this for years and one of the nights we look forward to the most. This year Kaitlyn and I were paired up. We parked at Birkdale Village, an outdoor mall with all kinds of shops and festive decorations. Each team took a set budget and had 1.5 hours to shop for the other team. We ended the evening with the kids’ request- dinner at Bonefish Grill so we could have a family drawing contest on their paper tablecloths. Huge success of an evening!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saturday was bustling. Kaitlyn had a TKD tournament and both girls had their first basketball games. I LOVE watching them play basketball. It’s fast-paced and exciting. Plus, the coach is cute. David is coaching both \ud83d\ude09<\/em> We met friends at Hoptown for dinner (Cantina 1511 delivers there) and crashed hard into bed that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I planned for Sunday to be my make-ahead meal prep day and whew, was it ever! I started with sourdough waffles<\/a> (a fabulous recipe to make the night before, let ferment overnight, and cook in the morning). Then I aimed to make 9 dishes and worked from 10:00 until 5:30 straight (while running back and forth to watch the World Cup Final- what a match!). Ultimately I knocked out 8 of the 9 I planned on and felt pretty good about that. My deep freezer is now full to the brim with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n