21 Day Fix and My 100 Healthy School Lunch Challenge

For more on the 100 Healthy Lunch Challenge, see 100 Days 100 Healthy Lunches

Today I got my portion control containers in the mail to start 21 Day Fix. I’m in the middle (scratch that, first 2 weeks of) Morning Meltdown 100, and I really don’t want to wait until it’s over to start all things 21 Day Fix, so I think I’m going to start Sunday, August 11, so it coincides with my son’s first week of school, as we begin his 100 day healthy lunch challenge. He won’t be using portion control containers, of course, and neither will my 2 year old daughter, who stays at home 3 days a week with Dad, but I am going to try to create meals similar enough to each other I’m not making 3 separate lunches. 

I have a plan to grill some chicken for dinner Tuesday, and use the leftovers for salad. My son likes salad as long as 1.) there’s chicken in it and 2.) it has ranch. Ranch isn’t on my menu, but I’ll include in his and my daughter’s lunches, just a little less than they’d probably like. Sometimes it turns into ranch with salad. We’re a work in progress here. 

I’ve also got broccoli and cauliflower chopped up to go for all three of us, some carrots and hummus. This will be day one lunch. For Thursday and Friday, I plan on using the rest of the chicken for quesadillas the kids Thursday and mixed in with a corn salad Friday, and more for my greens salad, because I can eat the same lunch three days in a row. I’ve got some hummus to throw into their lunch to dip veggies, and some grapes and berries.  I send my son with a huge water bottle they are allowed in class, but suspect he will also order milk with his lunch.  

This is my plan, and Tuesday I’ve got another small grocery pickup for some essentials and anything I need to add or adjust for. I will be posting pictures daily of the finished products, but wanted to get a plan laid out prior to, as the first week always brings enough craziness of it’s own!

Now & Then ...Now

Now & Then

90s kids rejoice, Now & Then is now on Netflix! Of course, I had to give it a rewatch. It was my birthday, and I’d had a full day with family and activities and my 2 year old was asleep, my 7 year old still wired. Typically he falls asleep right after her, but he wanted to watch a movie, and in the waning days of summer vacation I decided to let him stay up a bit later, even though I fully expected him to fall asleep before Devon Sawa kisses Christina Ricci. 

I haven’t seen this movie in many many many years, but I remembered the iconic scene where they stole the boys clothes while they were skinny dipping and Chrissy wolfing down a Twinkie while her friends painted the garage, along with the general coming of aging premise of the movie. I had completely forgot about Crazy Pete or the mystery behind Dear Johnny, two things my son latched onto as he watched it like a mystery movie.  

I probably watched this movie a million times in 1995-1996 timeframe. I had completely forgotten the mystery central to the movie because at the time, I guess there was another piece I latched onto. My mother passed away that same year the movie was released, and last night as I watched Christina Ricci destroy Cloris Leachman’s mirror, and make copies of the news article with her mother’s death in it, eyes brimming with angry tears, I realized this was the piece of the movie that drew me in.

I was a tomboy, playing basketball every day of the summer between bike rides with my two best girlfriends that lived down the street, traipsing all over town long before cell phones were a thing, dropping by home to “check in” every so often, crushing on boys and spending lazy afternoons in the swimming pool between it all.  Christina Ricci was me-although I never had to worry about taping my boobs down (24 years later and that’s still not a problem). The free spirited girl with a bubbling well of anger and sadness mixed with pre-pubescent curiosity-wasn’t it all of us, really?

I didn’t remember the movie being set in 1970, though I’m sure I realized it then.  Watching now, in 2019, aside from the clothes (Nancy Sinatra look-alikes)and the soundtrack (knock three times... that scene! Oh how I loved that scene!) this movie could have been us, in 1995 cruising the streets of our neighborhood, being chased or chasing down the neighbor boys all the while figuring out our own “stuff.”

The end of the movie, Demi Moore talks about how the treehouse was to bring them more independence but how it actually made them more independent from each other. This part holds true, especially because, unlike the foursome in the movie, my “gang” grew apart after that summer, and are distances away from each other now, with Facebook Happy Birthday messages and “likes” on our kids pictures our current contact. 

Now, the world has changed and I don’t know this movie would have the same real-life connection with today’s girls, who are always connected but it’s a lot more virtual, FaceTime replacing a bike ride over to a friend’s house and treehouses a thing of the past. Then again, maybe it will, as girls will always be curious about boys, families will always have turmoil, and friends when you were 12 will never be like any other.

Ramble's Ramblings on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

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Argh, matey, there be spoilers dead ahead. Read at yarrrr own risk.........

I went to the movies for the first time in a LONG TIME this past weekend. I mean like the Avengers, the first one, long time (Kids. All I can say, kids.) My son's birthday coincided with the release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Jurassic World is what started the dinosaur obsession that lasted years. Years and years and years. While we've since moved on to Pokemon, we still spend a lot of time playing about dinosaurs and talking about them, while just not quite as much as Charmander and gang.

I was afraid he wouldn't enjoy the movie since he's not as into it as he was.  This was also his first movie in the theater.  We got there at the time the movie started, as I didn't want to have to wait too long through previews and him get impatient. 30 minutes later........ 30 MINUTES? when did previews start lasting 30 minutes??? He's looking at me, "Mom, is the movie ever going to start?" I keep reassuring him it will be around minute 21 I start looking around, pinching myself, wondering if I'm dreaming What if THIS is the new movie coming out, we are people trapped in an infinite movie preview loop, forced to figure our own way out? Not fair! We didn't even stop for popcorn!

Finally the movie gets going and YAY he's happy. The first few scenes we got some decent dinosaur action. Not necessarily by prior movies in the Jurassic series, but I figured they really had to build the story up since we're what, five movies into this franchise? Shortly after the few action scenes on the island, we started a lot of conversation.  There were scenes back at the Lockwood compound with the fossils and displays and those types of versions of dinosaurs that we, outside of the movieverse, are familiar with.  Not much excitement right?

I felt like the whole movie was like those inanimate fossils. There were a few scenes with the dinosaurs out and running and running and running from volcano, from the bounty hunter guys trying to chase them down for their Dark Noah's Ark thing they had going, and then the dinosaurs were pretty much locked up - the entire movie.  So... YEAH.  We saw this in 3D, and I had pumped my son up that this was going to make it even cooler. I thought for sure we'd see Blue jumping out from somewhere, or the TRex's tail would come lashing at the audience or...SOMETHING.

There was a nice long action sequence with the Blue and the new and improved creation of Dr. Wu. The IndoRaptor was cool. I really liked this dinosaur.  The way that Dr. Wu explained him, I was like this guy, this guy is going to do some damage.  With Indominus Rex in Jurassic World, we saw some buildup, we became somewhat acquainted with the dinosaur, how he operated, his cold blooded killing of other dinosaurs, etc. IndoRaptor held high hopes, but alas, we were EXPLAINED what he could be and tossed a couple bones what he could do.  Granted, he was just a prototype, they weren't done yet.  But that fight scene fell flat for me. The plot line with the granddaughter did, too. We are introduced, over and over to her. There's buildup to the picture of her mother. We get to it, we get to the admission, and then it's over. She releases the other dinosaurs to save them "Because they're like me", but... WHAT? Like I felt like this was kind of a big deal to skim over. Or will this be explored in future movies?

I felt like this was a filler episode-we are gearing up for another movie, setting the stage for the next great one, and this was just a layover movie.  The important part? My kid loved it, regardless. Cos there were dinosaurs. For me, that's all that matters, so when it comes out on Blu-Ray and he wants to get it, I'll inevitably watch it so many times I'll have every word memorized (My personal favorite-Don't...Move...A Muscle!") and that will be ok.



Besides, look at this lil guy, isn't he cute?








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Milton's Balls

Anyone catch The Talking Dead after tonight's The Walking Dead? How do we feel about Milton? Ballless nerd? Snapped arsonist? Mad scientist mastermind? Todd McFarlane's perogative on The Talking Dead seemed far fetched, but seriously, how badass would that be if Milton was really trying to figure the zombies out to manipulate them? (Insert maniacal laughter) it would obviously deviate from the comic, but that's nothing new there. Any opinions? What would you do with a horde of zombies under your control?

Ramble's Book Review: True Confessions by Rachel Gibson

On our typical Friday night date night, my fiancee and I went to dinner, Best Buy for a movie for him, and Barnes and Noble for a few new reads for me. With the belly continually bulging, I went for a few (more) books on pregnancy and new babies, but also had to cave to my desires of some good ole' fashioned escape fiction, after recently finishing a couple historical non-fiction finds. I opted for True Confessions for the same reason I opt for any other escape fiction: The cover was pretty in pinks and yellows, and when looking for a retreat, aesthetics sells.

I read the book in about a day and a half. I loved the premise, cliche as it was, a small town shaken up by the arrival of the big city's Hope Spencer, a writer cloaked in mystery, who keeps running into the small town's Sheriff, Dylan Taber, also cloaked in his own mystery. And thrown in the mix, the house she's rented was once home to the old Sheriff, who committed suicide inside the house under mysterious circumstances. The book had potential.

Now, let me clarify something. While I say I needed "escape fiction", I don't necessarily mean I'm a sucker for the "throbbing members" or "supple breasts" repeated over and over in romantic novels. I like a little bit of romance, but am more interested in the twists and turns the story takes. True Confessions had all the mystery, lies, and S&M secrets to lead one to think it was going that direction, but about halfway through the novel, I could see that was not the case. There was a lot of the above mentioned verbiage that had me rolling my eyes, and skimming the pages until it was over. I know this is a great appealing quality in a romance to some, but not this gal. I was really hoping to see how the story with the old Sheriff would develop, what her research would uncover, but it turned out to be a very shallow sub-story thrown in the mix. No development, much like the characters.


All in all, it was a quick, fun read, which I guess is what I was looking for, but still left me wanting a little something more. Until I can find that perfect escape novel, I'll return for now to my Dr. Oz book on parenting, hoping it leaves me with a better feeling than Gibson's novel.