Category: Motivational Monday

Motivational Monday

Quotable Quotes

Lori Martin

Every now and then I see a quote online and it just hits me. Does that ever happen to you? I see it, I read it, and I can just feel it in my core. Something resonates with me and either where I’m at now, somewhere I’ve been, or even somewhere I hope to be – and I have to screen shot that quote.

Today my post is about one of those “quotable quotes” as I like to call them! According to my phone picture library, I saved this one on January 14, 2025 – and now I share it with you.

It’s never too late. You can change your routine, your interests, your career, your focus, your circle. You can change. Don’t stay stuck. Do better.

Sigh – just read that again and sit with it for a minute.

How many times have we each told ourselves that it was “too late” for something? I know I have, many times. But this hits me – staying stuck is a choice. If I stay stuck in life, it’s my choice. Choosing a different path is doing better for myself.

At some point in the Fall of 2024 I decided to stop staying stuck and try to do better with my physical and mental health. I’ve been eating clean, planning our meals, and exercising. I feel better – so much better. I changed my focus. It’s not there EVERY day (especially at 0600) when I workout, but I try to remember that I GET to workout that morning. I don’t HAVE to – I GET to. That’s a big focus shift for me, especially that early in the morning!

Read the quote again – what aspects of YOUR routine, interests, career, focus, or circle aren’t SERVING YOU right now? It’s hard to think of things – and especially people – in that way (for me anyway), but sometimes that’s where we end up – with people or things that don’t serve ourselves. I don’t think January 1 is the ONLY time we can make meaningful change in our lives. If you have something (or someone) in your life that leaves you feeling more stuck than fulfilled, think about the changes you can make to turn that around…

Are you exhausted every day … maybe change your routine so that you can wind down earlier in the evening and get to sleep earlier.

Do you find yourself not enjoying hobbies you used to … perhaps it’s time to explore a new hobby or interest.

Is your job a slog – leaving you feeling unfulfilled and negative … make a list of things you DO enjoy and start spending a few hours a week researching what career opportunities line up with those things.

Do you find yourself focused on the negative … every night before you go to sleep, write down 5 things that were GOOD from that day. Read those 5 things again when you wake up and set the intention for your new day. Maybe you have a HORRIBLE day and wonder WHAT could you possibly write down that is GOOD for that day. Change your focus. You have things to be thankful for. Your health, warm clothes, the meal you ate, the bed you sleep in. Strip it down to basics if you have to, but trust me – those are things to be thankful for and they are SO GOOD. On our worst day we are still so much better off than many.

And finally, your circle – is there someone in your circle that brings you down instead of lift you up … take some time to consider why this is the case and what steps you can do to mitigate that reaction. If nothing else, less interaction with the person might be warranted. Maybe they don’t realize they do it. Just take some time to consider the situation, the severity of that interaction on YOUR peace, and make some changes.

Whatever it is – don’t stay stuck. Do better for yourself. YOU deserve it. I hope this post and today’s quotable quote resonates with you a bit and you are motivated on this beautiful Monday to go out there and do better. Make it a great week!

Meal Planning, Motivational Monday

Monday, Monday….

Lori Martin

As I said HERE, Monday’s blog posts are going to be based on the theme of Motivational Monday! Here’s something that I hope motivates you!

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail – Benjamin Franklin

Meal planning is a HUGE help for me. Planning helps me eat good, nutritious food, it helps me not stress out about what to cook for dinner, and it helps save money. Now that we’re an empty nest household of two, meal planning has become a little challenging.

Cooking for 4 people meant SOME leftovers, but not many. Adjusting to cook for 2 people has been a struggle for me…especially when making soup. I CANNOT make a small pot of soup – can anyone relate? I found a great product that has helped with those huge pots of soup and so much more!

SOUPer Cubes

Here’s my method. I make two soups on Sunday. I like to call that “two soup Sunday”. Initially I was doing one, but found it’s pretty much just as easy to make two, so why not!

Beef Stew

We keep some out to eat that week and then the rest goes into my SOUPer Cubes. I mostly use the one and two cup cubes. I put a piece of tape on the cube to identify the contents with the month and year. Then into the freezer they go.

Initially when I bought the SOUPer Cubes and started using them, I would take the frozen servings and put them in a Ziplock bag for storage. Recently I have upped my food prep game – introducing, the Dash vacuum sealer! The gray sealer is showing a 10% off coupon, but hurry as it expires on 1/13/25!

Once I have several containers frozen, I set up the Dash and get to work!

First I cut the bag and double seal the bottom.

Two seals has to be better than one, right?

Next, load the bag –

Vacuum and seal – and you’re done! Put the label (from the SOUPer Cube lid) onto the sealed bag and move on to the next one.

I like to freeze the soups in both the 1 and 2 cup cubes so that I have a variety of sizes. Once you’ve vacuum sealed all the cube containers and put the label tape back on, you have a nice variety of options!

Ready for the freezer!

I recently got some containers for the freezer to keep similar items together.

Now when we need soup, we have a lot of options and they’re easy to find!

Easy as that! Here’s a list of the options inside the “Soups” bin right now – what should I add next?

For anyone who is interested, the recipes for the two soups shown can be found on Pinterest. Click the link in the list above for the post I followed the recipe from! I try to keep my Pinterest boards fairly organized so that I can find favorites again. I use my “Pinned and Done” board to keep track of items that were a hit.

I hope this post has motivated you to give meal planning a try. The SOUPer Cubes have proven to be really helpful and very functional. They clean up easily and are possibly one of my favorite kitchen gadgets. The vacuum sealer is one of those “I guess I’m at that age” things, but I do find it really satisfying to have those neat little packages of soup “at the ready”. I can put those on our meal plan for days that life is busy or substitute them out for a day when I don’t feel like cooking.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments about meal planning, soups, or freezing. Or, let me know if you have a favorite soup recipe that I need to add to Two Soup Sunday prep!