Saturday || What I do, eat, and create

On an average weekday, I find it hard to find and spend time on my projects and hobbies.

I do my school until it's done, and then I find myself mentally exhausted and at a complete loss for motivation. I go through the week thinking, "I'll get this project done on the weekend." or, "I'll start working on bettering my photography skills when Saturday comes along."

While those statements may sound like a great plan, more often than not it never goes that way. Saturday will come along, I'll mop the kitchen floor and complete my various other weekend chores, and I'll find myself void of motivation STILL. Why does this happen to me?? Honestly, I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm still working on making plans and STICKING TO THEM. I want to be at a point where Monday will come along and hear about how many things I ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED over the weekend.

Well, last Saturday was my first endeavor to put my goals into action. During the week I thought of things that I'd like to do and things that I don't normally fit into my daily routine. These things included art projects, exploring different recipes, and spending time doing things thoroughly and well. I stress that last point because so often we get caught up in hurrying projects (or school, maybe??) just so that we can say we GOT IT DONE. Well, what about quality? Did you just get it checked off of your list, or did you really conquer the project? Quality, not quantity. I'm trying to get that into my brain. It doesn't matter how many things you get accomplished in a day if you are only doing them at your half-best. These are things that have been on my mind, so I thought I'd share them with you. 

So, back to what I accomplished on Saturday. I set a plan and made sure that I had an eventful day while still keeping it stress-free and fun. I believe the key to a good day is to start it off right. After getting up at 7:00, I immediately got some water into my system to help my body wake up and started off my day with a quick sweat session. I decided on a kettlebell workout for that particular day because it was a little too cold for my liking to run outside. As soon as my workout was done, I headed for a cold shower (if you want to know why cold showers are actually good for you, you can read about it here). By the time my shower was done I was about ready for some food (!!), so I started prepping my breakfast. To go for something a little out of the norm, I decided to make a yummy, filling omelet, with sauteed mushrooms and onions, green olives, and a little bit of cheddar. 

Oh man, it hit the spot.

After that delicious breakfast, I got ready to do my routine Saturday chores, which include mopping the kitchen. By the time I finished all of the less-fun activities of the day, it was lunchtime. For lunch, I had a left-over baked sweet potato from the night before, along with some baby greens and tuna topped with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. SERIOUSLY, THOUGH. THAT SWEET POTATO *my heart*

After lunch, I got to some of the things that I'd been wanting to do for a while, starting with making a sugar scrub. 

I love sugar scrubs so much. They are a perfect exfoliator and they make your skin feel AMAZING. Plus, they're super easy to make!! It's a win-win. I went ahead and made a coffee sugar scrub because that's one of my favorites. You can check out my sister-in-law's post on sugar scrubs here, for a more in-depth post about them. Also, an FYI for you - that recipe in the picture above wasn't used for the particular scrub I made - I had that recipe as a reference to make my own, because being the weird creature that I am, I never follow recipes without tweaking them in some way. Heh. 

Also, if my hands appear red in these photos, that's cuz THEY ARE RED. These pics depict reality because my hands are super cold ALL THE TIME. Thus, the redness. Another random fact about me. ^.^

Next thing on my list was ENERGY BITES. It had been so long since I'd made these little balls of goodness - that make great, quick, yummy snacks - they were long overdue. And as before, I didn't really follow a recipe. I've collected various recipes for energy balls in my recipe folder, so I looked to them for "inspiration". "Inspiration", meaning, I had like zero of the right ingredients and the right amounts of those ingredients. But I made my own version anyway CUZ I WAS DETERMINED. Like, YASSSS. And hey, a little bit of peanut butter, chia seeds, oatmeal, ground flaxseed, cacao nibs, monkfruit sweetener, and shredded coconut later, I got these SUPER YUMMY AWESOME LITTLE BALLS OF ENERGY packed with good-for-you ingredients, the perfect snack for a busy person. I'm in loveeee. 

As soon as I was done making those protein PB balls, I decided to make some skinny chocolate for the weekend. I went off of the basic THM* skinny chocolate recipe which includes 3 basic ingredients: coconut oil, cocoa powder, and a sweetener**. I added the slightest amount of chocolate PB powder because it makes it a little less straight-cocoa-powdery. You get me? There are so many healthy chocolate variations out there on the internet, so whatever floats your boat.

*Trim Healthy Mama - AND NO GUYS I'M NOT ON TRIM HEALTHY MAMA. Haha, I DO like to use some of their healthy recipes, though. Obvi.

**I went with a combination of Erythritol and Stevia for the sweetener. If you follow or know of THM, you'll know it as the Super Sweet Blend.

Like I stated in my previous post, art has been my thing lately. I love spending every spare minute with my watercolors and my hand-lettering mediums. I spent Saturday making some more ATC's, as well as working on other various art projects.

I love creating mini-galaxies and constellations. I find them fascinating and fun to paint.

I love this Psalm - it's one of my favorites. Bible Journaling is another thing I've been trying to get into more. I try my hardest to let go of perfectionism and JUST DO IT, even though I'm scared I'll mess it up.

When it comes down to it, I'm not a pro at any of my hobbies. I love what I do, and that's good enough for me. As I keep working on my food creativity and hand-lettering skills, I find that when I don't pressure myself to create something perfect, it turns out beautiful anyway. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

SO. What do your Saturdays look like? Do you like laid back, chill weekends, or are you more of a get-as-much-done-as-possible sort of person?? Do you enjoy hand-lettering? What's your favorite form of art? Let's chat in the comments!

Sincerely,