Weekend | - Part 2

I think you all deserve some applause and a pat on the back for getting through my Office obsession day yesterday! Not only did I post about the finale (which was incredible by the way!) but I was frantically tweeting all night long. So thank you for sticking with me if you still follow me on Twitter! I am surprised I didn’t wake up to 0 followers this morning I just felt the need to express all my conflicting emotions!

Consider your #healthyhelp for the week complete.

Before I get to all the lovely people making a difference this week, I wanted to just comment on how helping others really, truly does make you feel good. That is obviously an important component of why I started this whole movement to begin with, but even I can lose sight of the day to day importance to ‘doing for others’…luckily I have my daily “healthy help” and all of you to remind me of how necessary it is! A few things I did this week really reinforced it all for me and I can’t tell you how fulfilling it is to see how your small actions can brighten someones day and make them happy. Earlier this week on my mom and I’s day off, we went to my great uncle’s house to do some landscaping and clean up for him so he wouldn’t have to pay and service to come and do it for him (they quoted him 700 dollars for only one day of work!). We ended up spending the whole morning there getting the work done and catching up with my uncle who lives alone and can’t do a lot on his own anymore. I can’t tell you how sincerely grateful he was when we finished. He gave me a huge hug and just kept on repeating how appreciative he was of our time and effort.

Stuff like that gives me a high for days.

But enough about me…let’s get to all you! You healthy helpin’ rockstars!

A recipient of some #healthyhelp:

Nori: I publicly recognized two of my coworkers for being fantastic, positive, patient, and helpful.

Kalee: I brought a co-worker a healthy lunch as a surprise because she has been really stressed this week.

Emily: When I was hiking on Monday afternoon I randomly came across some car keys on the trail. I was hesitant to pick them up in case someone came back for them but I saw a girl with 2 dogs waaay ahead of me and had a feeling they were hers (no idea why!) So, I grabbed them and jogged to meet her. They actually were her keys and she was SO thankful that she didn’t get to the end and have to hike back to find them!

Ellyn: Been doing the dishes every night for my parents.

Tori: I helped a neighbor carry in her groceries.

Jess W: I sent a friend an encouraging email!

Tiff: I helped the hubby with his marketing homework.

Tayla Anne: Since being back home I’ve been helping my Mom with chores and things around the house which really helps her out!

Madison: Brought in papers to my dad’s work that he forgot at home.

Miss Polkadot: I played with the children of some of my parents’ friends when they were around so the “grown-ups” [which I'd technically belong to, too, but sometimes I'm a child at heart] could have an undisturbed conversation.

Carleigh: I went for a run with my boyfriend as part of his training plan

Sarah S: Today I picked up some extra groceries at the store for a friend who is sick.

Kaylin: I’ve been helping my mom train for our 2 mile charity jog/run we have coming up by walking with her each and every evening and encouraging her to increase her distance

Great job ladies and gents!

#HealthyHelp from around the world…

Man serves breakfast-with a side of respect-to the homeless

US Navy ship to set sail on humanitarian mission

World celebrates day against homophobia

Disabled student helps others with disabilities

Teens break Amazing Race record and donate proceeds to charity

Indian communities fight violence against women

Hope this gets your weekend started on a positive note!

Enjoy your days wherever you are and make the most out of the choices you make

Kaila

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Todays’s Healthy Help: Washed towels for my mom and went to the store for her.

Never too early to start Lending a {Healthy} Hand for next weeks round-up! Tell me what you’ve done to help someone else lately!

PS: Remember to enter my DOUBLE giveaway! Two winners will be announced on Sunday!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend and was able to spend some time with loved ones whether you were celebrating Mother’s day or not! My weekend was a mix of relaxation after school ended, preparation for my Philippines trip (started packing! woo!), and celebrating my wonderful Mom (check out yesterday’s post for a little ode to Moms everywhere)! Here are some pics from the weekend…

With all the rain we got (even HAIL at some points!), my veggie garden really started to flourish!

[the plants are even bigger now...this picture was from Friday!]

Even though it was Moms weekend, my parents surprised with some flowers and a card congratulating me for getting through my first year of college….so nice of them.

Ella and I hung out on Saturday while my parents took my Uncle to dinner…

She also helped me prep THESE:

Those would be the pre-baked version of the HOMEMADE POPTARTS I made for my mom for Mother’s day breakfast! Before I share the recipe (it makes exactly two pop tarts!), let me tell you the story behind these babies!

My mom always comments on how she loved pop-tarts as a kid but she never buys them anymore because they discontinued her favorite flavor. She’s a fan of simplicity and used to eat only the unfrosted cherry variety. But Kellog’s stopped producing that kind (seriously I think every kind is froster now!), so she hasn’t had them in years. I decided to get a little gourmet and make her a homemade one for Mother’s Day!

I found a few different recipes online, changed them a bit so I didn’t end up having to make a whole tray full of pop-tarts and came out with something that turned out great! I even was able to give one to my dad! Granted I think these are more like toaster strudle rather than pop-tarts, but they were pretty close. And FUN to make!

Perfect for Two Pop-Tarts

1/2 cup flour
1/2 stick butter, cold
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp water
1 egg
3 tbsp jam ( I used cherry obviously!)
1 tsp corn starch
powdered sugar for sprinkling

In a food processor, combine flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Next slice butter into 5 pieces and pulse with the flour until little balls of dough are formed. Stream in the water and pulse for a few more seconds. Remove dough mixture from processor and form a dough ball with your hands. (You may need to wet your hands a bit to form the ball)

Roll out dough (1/8 inch) on a flour coated sheet of wax paper. Make the dough into the best rectangle that you can and cut away the sides using a pizza cutter to form straight edges. Then cut the rectangle into 4 equally sized smaller rectangles.Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350. In a small bowl beat one egg. In another small bowl combine jam and cornstarch. Remove dough from the refrigerator. Spread two of the rectangles with the egg mixture. On those same two rectangles, place half the jam mixture on each. Don’t spread it out too much…just a little in the middle. Place the other two dough pieces on the jam filled halves and press down the edges.

Using a fork press down the edges of the pop-tarts. Using a toothpick poke a few rows of holes on the top of the pop-tarts.

Place the pop-tarts on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top.

Serve warm from the oven with a dusting of powdered sugar.

After a lovely breakfast (made by yours truly)….

[a wheat grass shot (my mom's been wanting to try one!, yogurt with honey granola and nuts, the homemade pop-tart, and a sliced banana]

We attempted to take Ella for a walk, but it started to rain! So we headed back home to open presents…

[pretty card from my sister]

[homemade card from me...photoshop skills being put to good use!]

[got my mom two tickets to a local comedy club for a night out with my dad!]

[also got her the NEW Clean Eating book....SO MANY DELICIOUS RECIPES!]

My Dad went BIG!

A diamond necklace with my Mom’s initial! (it’s my initial too so I guess I should borrow it every now and again…ya know, just to get his money’s worth! )

Later in the day we met up with my Grandma!

And I finally admitted to myself that I think I’m allergic to caffeine…at least that’s the diagnoses my Mom gave me.

I don’t drink coffee often but every once in a while I get a hankering (where did that come from?) for a cup o’ joe. But every time I drink it, I get an immediate headache, foggy feeling, shakiness, and heart palpitations. It’s so weird! I almost can’t explain the out of body feeling I get! Guess I’ll have to stick to decaf for my occasional coffee drinking.

All in all it was a great weekend! Gotta love family, fun, and good food!

Before I go, let me announce the winner of my Krono Bar giveaway! Thank you to all who entered!

Congrats Laura! Email me your info and I’ll get your bars to you ASAP!

Oh and before I forget, EMAIL ME (proulxkr@roadrunner.com) if you’d be interesting in guest posting while I’m away in the Philippines! I’ll definitely be posting but it won’t be as frequent so I thought I’d give some other bloggers (or readers!) the opportunity to hang out here!

Kaila

Subscribe on the side. Follow me on Twitter. Ask me on Formspring . Follow me on Pinterest. Like me on Facebook.Follow me on Instagram.

Todays’s Healthy Help: Cleaned up the kitchen since my mom wasn’t feeling well!

Never too early to start Lending a {Healthy} Hand for this weeks round-up! Tell me what you’ve done to help someone else lately!