Just When You Want to Konmari Your Kids Toys

Hi, guys! Happy Saturday! I hope your weekend if off to a wonderful start!

Our Quinn and Mumma day yesterday was pretty busy in the morning, but very low-key in the afternoon, which ended up being the perfect way to end our week – and start Mal’s school vacation! Quinn will go to school a few days, but we’re also planning some family adventures as well!

My morning started bright and early at 5:15 AM with Mal “pushing me into the bed.” Ok, well, there’s a story… a few months ago, I asked him to wake me up when his alarm went off, so I could go to an early morning workout at Iron Way. I’m not usually a heavy sleeper, but, apparently, that morning, Mal had some trouble waking me up. I must have had a strange dream or something because when I woke up, I was like, “what the F are you doing?” – totally forgetting that I had asked him to wake me up. Once I was actually awake, we had a good laugh about it, so now it’s a running joke on mornings when I get up for the gym. Anyway…

After the gym, I drank my celery juice (post coming soon), made an iced coffee protein shake with OWYN, and then ate a couple of rice cakes with Teddie peanut butter and banana slices on top.

Quinn and I hangout and dillydallied for the rest of the morning. At one point, he came out of his playroom wearing a set of plastic beads from Halloween. I actually made a joke to a former nutrition client that just when you want to Konmari your kids’ toys (aka purge), they decide its their favorite and play with it again. I literally mentioned this exact set of beads to her and, 48 hours later, he’s wearing them! Ha!

After a low-key morning, we headed to the dentist for Quinn’s 6-month check-up. He sat for his first-ever x-rays and was awesome during his cleaning, so the dentist said he could pick out THREE toys from her closet.

Quinn was psyched!

After the dentist, we headed straight to Goldfish for swim lessons. Quinn continues to make progress and swam even further in the pool by himself!

Back at home, I whipped up a random bowl of goodies for lunch. Even though I meal prepped this week, we didn’t have much in the fridge, so I improvised.

The end result was actually quite delicious and macro-balanced! 🙂

After lunch, Quinn and I took a trip to Trader Joe’s for some groceries. (Seriously, our food situation was pretty pathetic.) On the drive home, he looked really tired, but insisted that he didn’t need a nap.

Quinn had begged me all morning about playing “Plants Versus Zombies,” so I said he could play while we had some quiet time together. When he went to play it, our iPad was out of battery. I told him I would charge it and bring it to him when it was ready. Not even five two minutes later, he was fast asleep on the couch. Our busy morning totally exhausted him!

Question of the Day

What do you do with all of the random junky toys that your kids own? 

P.S. Local readers: Are you looking for something to do with your kids this February break? There are lots of FREE activities happening at the Derby Street Shops!

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Valentine’s Day With My Boys

I hope you guys had a LOVELY Valentine’s Day! I spent mine with my boys, and it was so, so, so nice!

The day started bright and early with hugs, kisses, and presents! 🙂

Quinn got a really cool Ninja Turtle from Mumma, Dada, and Murphy!

And Mal got a sweet sweatshirt!

After that, Mal left for school, and Quinn and I got ourselves ready for the day. His “Valentine’s Day outfit” was from Cat & Jack (from Target), and I’m obsessed with the pants. This pair of pants has reinforced knees, which are KEY when it comes to a child who adores “knee slides.” The pants also have a real drawstring waist, which is perfect for skinny kids, AND, rumor has it, that Target will replace the pants for up to a year if they rip or wear out (as long as you have the receipt or they were purchased on your Red Card). Oh, and they were only $9!! Ummm, amazing!

A short while later, we were ready for school – complete with Black Panther Valentine’s Day cards.

I dropped Quinn of at school and then got right to work. It was a rest day for me. I committed to a 3-day per week membership at Iron Way, so my body was sore and tired after some tough workouts.

In the late afternoon, I met Mal for drinks and an early bird dinner at Scarlet Oak Tavern. We exchanged cards and then got down to business with cocktails! 🙂

We started with the chips and onion dip, which, apparently, is a “secret” menu item. Every time I share them on Instagram Stories, I get questions about them. They’re not on the menu anymore, so, if you visit, just ask. The chips are seriously some of the best I’ve ever eaten!

For my entree, I order the salmon, which was served over sautéed onions and pureed turnip. Delish!

After our happy hour dinner, we picked up Quinn from school. He had THE BEST time at his Valentine’s Day party. When I asked him about his day, including what he ate for lunch, he replied: “ALL SUGAR!!” Haha!

P.S. I’m finally getting my act together over here and organized my nutrition offerings on the website! 🙂

P.P.S. For those of you not on Instagram (or who don’t check regularly), I added a widget to the top of the blog that shares my Stories in real time. Check it out and follow along! 🙂

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Weekly Link Love—Edition 16

Research of the Week

Stimulating the vagus nerve helps PTSD.

Exercise has a stronger effect on cognitive function in older men than older women (who already had better function at baseline).

Estrogen controls type 2 diabetes.

Small teams of scientists disrupt ideas, larger teams develop ideas.

AIs are great at colluding.

If you have a family history of obesity, eat fish. Habitual intake of fatty fish limits genetically-associated weight gain.

Activated charcoal may protect your microbiome from antibiotics.

Mice who took nicotinamide riboside while nursing had smarter offspring.

To reduce liver fat, reduce ferritin. Neither red meat nor fiber have any effect.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 311: Drew Manning: Host Elle Russ chats with Drew Manning, best-selling author of Fit2Fat2Fit.

Episode 312: Keto: William Shewfelt: Power Ranger and Carnivore Shredder: Host Brad Kearns chats with William Shewfelt, who plays a Power Ranger on TV and a carnivore at meal-time.

Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.

Media, Schmedia

The FDA recommends approval of club drug ketamine for treating depression.

Are insects disappearing?

Interesting Blog Posts

Maybe insects aren’t quite disappearing.

The Israeli paradox.

Social Notes

I gave a talk on metabolic flexibility and the Keto Reset at Natural Grocers in Colorado late last year. Here’s the video.

I’ve been playing around on Twitter lately. It’s fun. Go follow me.

Everything Else

Exercise may not be the best way to lose weight in general, but it’s great against visceral fat.

Don’t lick your chickens, like the kid in the photo.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

I’d watch this episode of Scooby Doo: Where the man dressed as a spooky stick of butter says, “And I would have induced autophagy too if it weren’t for you meddling trans-fatty acids!”

I’m not surprised: R0undup linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

I am surprised: “This suggests that the majority of the lean mass lost with dieting may be the fat-free component of adipose tissue.”

Article I’m pondering: Should we play God, actually?

This is a powerful story: The first C-section.

Question I’m Asking

Read that Israeli Paradox post up above. What other paradoxes can you name?

Recipe Corner

• Magic short ribs in the Instant Pot.
• Pumpkin soup is legit.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Feb 10 – Feb 16)

• The Definitive Guide to Chocolate – Guide to brown gold.
• Primal Reflection Point: How Are You Playing?– Well, how are you?

Comment of the Week

“By the way, Mark, the title image for all of the Weekly Link Love posts kinda looks like you’re listening to some Fats Domino–in the middle of “doin’ the Twist!” Right?? ”

– Beatles’ “Twist and Shout,” actually!

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Updates In KERFhood

Yesterday I walked downtown to the new Petite MarieBette. The space is gorgeous, and the baked goods just as yummy as ever. I have loved the Rose Hill Drive location for a long time, but parking can be such a pain over there, so I am thrilled to be able to walk! I had their Valentine’s Day hot chocolate – filled with berries and passionfruit mixed with a rich chocolate! And those marshamallows – gaaaaah.

And I brought a kale salad home for lunch which I topped with Plenty Mexican chicken salad.

My Valentines

Sweet brothers. And Birch looks huge here! Also: those pants – that’s what he looks like everyday after coming home from the kindergarten playground. *eye roll*

Mr. Mazen did a wonderful job writing all of his classmates’ names on their valentines.

Update: Treadmill Has Been Purchased!

I did it! I spent a long time yesterday researching treadmills, and took all of your comments and messages into consideration and bought…..the NordicTrack C 990.

Selling points

• Under $1000 (barely!!)
• iFit compatible (I really wanted one with a little touch screen and I’m going to do a trial of iFit since I love using Aaptiv (which is audio only) so much.)
• FREE any-room delivery and assembly!! I will be sure to update you all how this goes. Yay for Amazon having this on sale for the day!

I almost went with the less expensive NordicTrack T 6.5 S after chatting with my friend Runnergirl on Instagram who has it and loves it, but I also spent a LOT of time on this site and she has the 990 as a Best Buy and her reasons it beats the 6.5 S were all very convincing to spend just a little bit more money.

I sure hope it’s awesome!

The Horizon one is going to go back on Craigslist as “free to anyone who will bring two strong people to haul it away.” It’s honestly still good for walking and slow jogging if you can get over the stops (when the incline decides to work) so if any locals want it for free – lemme know!

Update: Crib Naps

Mazen has been helping me out with Birch’s naps, which are now taking place in his crib!

I moved the monitor and white noise to the nursery for daytime naps. He doesn’t seem to notice that he’s not in the bassinet. I really can’t imagine when he’s going to sleep downstairs at night (I want him within arms reach forever – sob!) but I thought I should have him getting used to the crib. I wouldn’t want to have a one year old standing in his crib on night one and it not being a familiar space, ya know? At least when they day comes for him to do nights in his room, he’ll be familiar with his crib from naps.

Update: Cloud Cam As A Baby Monitor

Now that I’m using it in the nursery, I am really loving our Amazon Cloud Cam as a monitor. I keep a tab open on my computer when I’m working, the app on the iPad when I’m exercising or in the kitchen, and the Echo Spot on when I’m upstairs. I imagine when the day comes that B sleeps in his nursery all night I’ll use the Echo at night too. The only downside to this is I lose it as a clock, but that seems like a small loss. I have gotten out our Motorola video monitor several times and it’s just so annoying to have to carry around the parent unit in comparison to just logging into an app with my phone or on the computer while I work. I can let our babysitter use the iPad too. I really didn’t know how the Cloud Cam would do as a monitor, but I can say now that I like it a lot!

Mazen and I have started reading to B too. I think it’s adorable how he actually looks at the books already. It’s never too soon to start reading to your kids I suppose. We’re really liking the Merlin suit too. It has been a great transition out of the swaddle. I do hope to end up with sleep sacks in the next month or so, but I’m not quite ready to go through a few days of no naps to get there. Maybe one weekend soon when I have more hands on deck!

After a week of shorter stretches, Birch did a 10 hour stretch on Wednesday night!! WOO HOO!

Update: Pockets Are Amazing

After wearing leggings for so long, I’m in jeans half the time now. Do you know why that is awesome? POCKETS! The lack of pockets is the one major drawback to leggings, and I am finding myself thinking “Gosh these pockets are so convenient” when I wear my jeans!

Another update: I am losing all of my hair. It’s falling out worse than Gussie’s! I remember this happening with Mazen and having to have my shower drain snaked eventually, so I hope it doesn’t cause any drain problems in this house.

Update: KERF Design

You might notice a slight blog re-design in the next couple of days. I’m working to make KERF more user friendly for those of you who read both every day and sporadically. As it rolls out, I welcome your feedback as always (politely of course) and I can hopefully make some tweaks as necessary. The short of it is I’m aiming to have the three most recent posts at the top and the older posts underneath so there is a lot less scrolling and you can more easily see all the posts I’ve published in a week. Crossing fingers it all looks good in the end!

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