Five on Friday: Vegetarian Recipes And A Practice Day Back To Work

Since I’ll be heading back to work for 6-7 weeks starting in late March, we are soaking in the last few weeks of “normal” before we adjust to a new routine with both of us working for a while.  Thankfully we’ve had lots of sweet time together these past two weeks!

1) A Practice Day Back To Work

Like I just mentioned, I’m heading back to work to teach a friend of mine’s middle school German classes while she’s on maternity leave.  It’s at the same buildings in the same district where I used to teach and I’m excited to be back at my old stomping grounds.  I had my shadow day with the teacher I’m subbing for to talk about lesson plans and all that good stuff and it made me both nervous and excited to get back into the routine of working.  It was kind of a whirlwind getting Caleb and myself ready for the day and I definitely missed him.  I’m curious how I’ll like this short stretch back to work but I know it’s already giving me so much respect for you working mamas!

I sure was glad to snuggle this kiddo when I got home!

2) Vegetarian Recipes

I mentioned last week that we were starting to reduce some of the meat and dairy in our diet and I had a lot of fun researching and pinning some vegetarian recipes. Two favorites from the last week or two were these cauliflower steaks (although Jordan said calling them steaks is a bit unfair) with a mushroom gravy and this yummy lentil-mushroom ragu with soybean pasta.  I like playing around with new foods and recipes and it’s fun to know that we are eating healthy food that’s good for our bodies in so many ways!

3) Mark Of The Lion

I’ve really been loving reading novels again lately, and this week I’ve jumped into the Mark Of The Lion series by Francine Rivers.  Redeeming Love (also by Rivers) is one of my favorite books and I was excited to jump into another book with characters of faith.  This one took me a bit to get into because it takes place in first-century Rome and I haven’t done historical fiction in a while, but now I’m really hooked and can’t wait to keep reading.  Now if only my old thrift store copies didn’t have cheesy 80s covers so I could read them in public without being embarrassed…

Just ignore my battle wound from chopping onions earlier that day…

4) A Basketball Game

The high school where Jordan teaches went to sectionals for basketball this week and we had fun taking Caleb to the game.  He was a little overwhelmed by all the loud noises and people in the arena but it was fun for him to see some of Jordan’s students (and my former students).  And of course we enjoyed some Chick Fil-A after because we can’t be vegetarian all the time, right?

5) Spring Has Sprung?

We’ve loved soaking in our unseasonably warm weather these last few weeks and spent some time this past weekend outside raking the yard and dreaming about what to do with our newly-fenced in yard.  Jordan is doing an awesome job figuring out how to move forward with turning our mud-pit backyard into a grassy, beautiful space and I’m excited to see how it will transform over the next few years.  Caleb loved sitting in the yard watching us and watching cars go by as the sun set and I can’t wait for him to be able to play in the backyard too!

Enjoy your weekends, my friends!