My Inner Shakti

finding strength in everyday things

Weekend Recap – Food, Fun, and Whines

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I haven’t done a ‘weekend recap’ type post in a while. Mostly because I have no energy to sit down on a Sunday night and recount everything we did. This weekend I committed to blogging a little bit every night so that my Sunday night, all I need to do is put the finishing touches on this bad boy and hit schedule.

Still didn’t get my s*** together enough to post on Monday morning. As K would say, ‘ay, ay, ay!’

Anyways, let’s dive right in…

Friday

Friday was a lot of fun. The morning started the way most Friday’s do. I got up, made breakfast, got Kaiden ready, got ready myself, and went to Trader Joe’s. After coming home and putting all my groceries away, I put some lentils on the stove for the falafels my sister and I planned to make for lunch. I also made a batch of these blender muffins…sooo good! I then headed to the gym for a 30 minute HIIT class. #sohard!

My sister was over 30 minutes after I got home from the gym, which gave me some time to shower and relax. After she got here, we started making lunch. She tackled the actual falafels (for the sandwiches), while I got the veggies ready for roasting and made the sauce.

When we finally sat down to eat (my BIL was also over at this point), I was in heaven. This was such a satisfying and delicious meal. The falafels themselves were so flavorful, and the sauce is perfection – so creamy, a little tangy, and just finger licking good! A must make recipe IMO!

After lunch, we headed to our annual optometry appointments. No change in my prescription…phew!

After we got home, I made Chocolate Covered Katie’s Deep Dish Brownie Pie. You guys. Make this. It’s so good. You can’t taste the black beans…I promise!

Then it was time to pick Kaiden up from school. When we got home, he was so excited to play with his masa, masi, and dada. We ended the night just the two of us since my sister and BIL went home, and Vishnu went to his program’s holiday party.

And that was Friday in a nutshell!

Saturday

Looking back, Saturday started off a little weird with K, but I just assumed it was something that would pass and that we should just roll with our plans. Vishnu even called it out as we were getting ready. Like, “K doesn’t seem like himself. He’s extra whiny.” I figured we should keep with our plans and he would adjust like he usually does.

I was wrong. We went to the library to return books, play and pick out some new ones. About 30 minutes in, Kaiden started acting a little too rowdy. We reminded him where we were (the library…shhhh!) and what would happen if he continued acting the way he was (re: we would leave). Guess what…we ended up leaving with a screaming toddler in tow.

He ended up calming down in the car a bit, so we headed to his haircut appointment. The library must not be his thing because he was a gem for the duration of his haircut.

We got home, gave K a bath, ate lunch, and then napped…all of us!

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening playing, dancing, and hanging out. Once Kaiden was down for the night, Vishnu and I finished the last two episodes of The Americans. If you need/want a new show to watch, make it this one (it’s on Amazon Prime). SO GOOD!

One note – make this Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup if you own an Instant Pot. It tastes like Thanksgiving in a bowl!

Sunday

Sunday started with soccer (K still loving it) and a trip to Costco (also still loving Costco).

And again, when K napped, mama napped. I was tired!

Our afternoon/evening was filled with books, music, a little TV, and some dinnertime fun with salads!

Overall, it was a fun weekend with little bits of whines and cries! Man, toddler emotions are just…so tiring! And I can only imagine how K feels…haha!

Oh well. It’s a new week. Let’s make it a good one!

Weekend Rehash – LDW: One Good Thing a Day

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Labor Day weekend 2019 is done and done! And it was a good one. Lots of family time, lots of friend time, lots of delicious food, and lots of fun.

But you guys know me. I like to keep it real. While the weekend was a great one, there were some tantrums and early wake ups. But that’s normal and expected when you live with a 2 year-old! 🙂

With that, let’s dive right in…

FRIDAY

On Friday night, I got ready and headed to Beatnik on the River to meet up some of my favorite Chicago Instagram mamas. It’s always interesting meeting people for the first time, especially when you’ve connected online. You know so much about them already! In fact, I actually knew two of the girls from previous play dates/meet ups.

Anyways, we had a lot of fun chatting on Beatnik’s riverfront patio. The drinks were awesome and the space wasn’t too crowded.

We then headed to Rooh for dinner. You guys, if you live in Chicago or are visiting, this place should definitely be on your list. The food was fantastic. In my own personal words, the food can be described as Indian with a twist. Think Tandoori Mushrooms on Upma Polenta. So so delicious.

I got home around 12:30, went to bed a little before 1, and K was up at 5:20. Fun times all around!

SATURDAY

Despite the early wake up cry, Saturday was a good day.

The highlight was dinner at RPM with friends (their son goes to school with K). It was there first time and my tenth, and I was so happy to introduce them to my favorite Chicago restaurant. I, of course, ordered the eggplant parm (to share). It’s seriously the best!

Kaiden and their little guy stayed at their place and were watched by one of their former teachers (one of K’s favorites). They had such a good time! K and R were giggling like crazy when we got back. About what? Who knows!

SUNDAY

Vishnu worked a 12 hour shift on Sunday, so it was mostly just me and K all day.

Until my sister came over that is!

We had a blast with Aekta Masi – playing and dancing and laughing! It was a nice little break for mama too. Always appreciate the extra helping hands!

MONDAY

We were all home on Monday, so that was a nice pace of change!

If K was writing this post, he’d say Monday was great because he got to go to the park twice!

I thought it was fun because of my fantasy football draft! It’s held on Labor Day every year, and there’s always such good food and decor because my friend Thea is a huge football fan, and she wants to make the draft as fun as possible for all of us! It was so fun catching up with friends too. That’s probably my most favorite part…aside from the delicious food!

And that’s a wrap on Labor Day weekend 2019! I hope you guys had a great one as well. 🙂

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Weekend Rehash – Home Sweet Atlanta!

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As I’m typing this post, I’m sitting at my parents house with my laptop in my lap and my feet propped up. It feels good to be home!

Is it just me or do you guys also feel a little more dependent when you go home? Like I run the show in some ways in Chicago, but when I’m home, I ask my mom for her opinion about every little decision.

Anyways, we’ve had a great start to our visit. Lots of outdoor play and delicious food.

Let’s backtrack a little and rehash the weekend!

FRIDAY

I know I sound like a broken record, but Friday started off in the usual way. As soon as Vishnu and Kaiden left for school and work, I headed down to our apartment gym for a quick workout. I then made my way to Trader Joe’s and Target.

As soon as I put everything away, I got a message from my sister giving me the green light to pick her up at Carmax. There’s a bit of a backstory to all of this…instead of retyping it all here, I’m going to direct you to today’s post on Instagram. So many emotions!

And here’s to my sister and BIL buying their first car together!

I quickly got my act together upon getting home and made food for the week for Vishnu – lasagna, My Heart Beet’s Butter Chicken, and rice. All set for the week!

I also packed on and off throughout the day. As I was putting things in our bag, I thought about unpacking and audibly groaned. Ugh!

The rest of the day/night followed the usual flow – playtime, dinner, bath time, reading/getting K to calm down, bed time, and a little downtime with Vishnu.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning started at 6 am because we wanted to be out the door and on our way to the airport at 7:45. Thankfully, we managed to do just that.

I plan to share my tips and tricks for travelling with a two year old (when toddlers get their own seats) in a separate blog post, but let’s just say our <2 hour flight had plenty of ups and downs. The downs mostly revolved around the fact that K wanted to sit in my lap vs. in his own seat. Not great when the seat belt sign is on.

Anyways, we eventually made it out of the plane, on the train, up the elevator and to my parents who were happily waiting for us. Then came the one hour drive home. Haha!

By the time we got home, I was so tired. I fell asleep on the living room floor! My mom woke me up in time for my pedicure appointment. #muchneeded

The rest of the evening included badminton in the backyard and Zheel’s delicious Spinach Dhokla that my mom and ba whipped up. A must try recipe if you’re a dhokla fan (and even if you’re not!).

SUNDAY

Kaiden was up and ready to go at 7:30 (YAY!!!). We played and hung out on the shaded part of my parent’s patio until my in-laws arrived. They came to spend the day with Kaiden.

Sunday can be summed up in one word – FUN and lots of it. With all four of his grandparents present (plus his great grandparents), Kaiden was getting spoiled from all sides. He danced, played, ran around, kicked balls, took a 1.5 hour nap…rinse and repeat!

Here’s to an even better week ahead! Happy Monday. 🙂

Weekend Rehash – Family Time

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What an awesome weekend! Like I mentioned in Friday’s post, Niel and Neelam, my BIL and his girlfriend, visited, and we had a blast.

Let’s start from the beginning…

FRIDAY

Friday started off with the usual routine – drop K off at school, work out, Trader Joe’s run.

But then for 1.5 hours, I deviated from the norm and met up a blog reader and new friend, Mira. We met up for a coffee and probably could’ve chatted for another hour. We talked about everything from new motherhood to mom guilt to making mom friends to everything in between. It was such a refreshing meet-up because we were on the same wave length about so much. I’m so happy we made the time to meet. Here’s to next time and more authentic friendships.

I spent the rest of my afternoon cleaning and prepping dinner (lasagna!). Vishnu got home a little earlier than normal, so we hung out before it was time to get Kaiden and before N&N arrived.

The rest of the evening was spent eating, playing, and talking. Even I went to bed a lot later than usual!

SATURDAY

Saturday morning started with made from scratch pancakes (sharing the recipe soon).

We then got ready and headed to the post office to submit an application for K’s passport. He’s doing some international travel later this year!

After finishing up there, we got some coffee, walked around the River Walk, and then headed to Sienna Tavern for brunch (so yum!).

Kaiden fell asleep on the walk home for like five minutes which obviously means he didn’t have to nap at all the rest of the day. Grrrr…

It all worked out because we rented a boat for the afternoon with Niel, Neelam, my sister and my BIL, so while K was tired, he still rallied. If you’re ever in Chicago, I highly recommend renting a pontoon boat and heading out on the river. And guess who captained our boat?! ME! My sister took over towards the end because my back hurt, but it was a ton of fun!

We planned on playing some games after K went to bed, but our Door Dash order never showed after 1.5 hours, so the evening went a little south in terms of that. Still a fun day overall!

SUNDAY

Vishnu and N&N took Kaiden to the park in the morning so I could clean, cook, and have some alone time.

Luckily, Kaiden took a 2.5 hour nap which means the rest of us did as well. This mama was tired!

We then scratched our afternoon plans to visit the beach and headed out to get some gelato instead. Perfect idea on a hot Chicago day!

And now we start a new week with new adventures! Happy Monday, y’all.

Weekend Rehash – Messed Up Naps

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This was a good weekend for our little fam!  I think we did a decent job balancing outside the house activities and indoor play.  Also, Vishnu didn’t work this weekend, so in my mind, that’s always a win!

Anyways, let’s get to it!

FRIDAY

Friday started off as it usually does – dropped K off at school, worked out, made a Trader Joe’s run, unpacked groceries, and ate lunch. 

After lunch, I decided to make a ‘quick’ trip down to Michigan Avenue to return some stuff at Uniqlo and Nordstrom.  You guys, something you should know about me is that I can’t stand slow walkers.  It drives me bonkers.  The only thing that trumps that is people with poor sidewalk etiquette.  And boy did my pet peeves get tested on Friday.  I probably looked like a mad woman weaving in and out of all the pedestrian traffic.  I was so winded that I decided to treat myself to a little froyo on my way home! 

Half eaten but had to get that pic!

I then came home promptly fell asleep for 2 hours.  This was not part of my Friday plan!  But I guess I needed it…? 

Anyways, I woke up and scrapped my meal prep plans and just made Lindsay’s Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Oat Bars.  SO GOOD!  Vishnu liked them too, as did K.  But I probably liked them the most, given that I ate the most.  I love it when I make things ‘for K’ but end up eating them. 

The rest of the evening was good!  Vishnu and I recently started a show called the Americans, and we are hooked!  I think we watched a couple of episodes before calling it a night.

SATURDAY

If you saw my Instagram post from yesterday, you know that our Saturday was a little wonky.  K woke up on the wrong side of the bed.  But we persisted anyways.  I went to a Cycling class at the gym, and then we headed to a new-to-us lunch place called Egg-o-Holic.  The food was great and really inventive.  However, my child only ate the chips that came with his sandwich.  Oy vey!

We then headed home in time for nap time.  K slept for 1.25 hours before waking up.  So much like last weekend, I went in to rock him a bit but ended up falling asleep with him on the bed.  We slept until 4!

This would’ve been ok (ish), except we had a play date planned with my friend Mownika at 3:30.  I quickly messaged M and told her about our situation.  Honestly, I almost cancelled altogether.  But then I rallied the troops, and we headed out around 4:45.  We stayed at Mownika’s place for about 2 hours.  It’s safe to say everyone had fun – adults included!

Two little monkeys!

Even though it was a little past Kaiden’s bedtime, he didn’t fight us too much.  Of course, once he was down, we watched the Americans!

SUNDAY

Our grand plan for Sunday was to take Kaiden to the Shedd Aquarium.  We thought he’d love looking at all the fish!  Turns out a 2-year-old can only look at so many fish before getting bored.  About 15 minutes in, Vishnu looked at me and said, “We’re losing him!”  Thankfully, he came alive again when we encountered an interactive submarine play station. 

We attempted lunch time at the museum, but that only worked well for me and Vishnu.  Kaiden wanted to goof around and play!

We eventually headed home, fed Kaiden lunch 2.0 and attempted to put him down for a nap.  I know he was exhausted, but he didn’t sleep a wink.  Instead, he rolled around his crib screaming every vocab word he knows!  It was super cute but frustrating at the same time!

I then gave the whole ‘let’s sleep in the bed’ thing a chance, but even that was a no go!  He just laughed and laughed, while I closed my eyes pretending to sleep.

I then said forget it and just let him play.  This did mean that bedtime was earlier than usual at 7 pm.  He fell right asleep and stayed that way for 11 hours.  Thank goodness!

And of course, once he went down to sleep, Vishnu and I continued on with the Americans!

That was our weekend in a long nutshell.  I hope you had an enjoyable one as well!

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Weekend Rehash – A Few Fun Things

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I try not to live for weekends, but sometimes it’s hard when that’s the only real time you have to break out of your routine and do fun things. Especially when you have a two year old who lives for fun!

With that being said, while it was a good week around here, our weekend was even better. Nothing crazy but definitely fun!

FRIDAY

The first half of my day was pretty much standard and routine – Trader Joe’s, work out, meal prep, laundry, cleaning etc.

Around 4 pm, I got a text from my sister asking if we wanted to go to their place for dinner. Vishnu was down, so I picked Kaiden up a little early and headed to my sister’s place.

We had tacos and brownie cookies! Kaiden was sad to leave his masa and masi (uncle and aunt) but pretty much passed out as soon as we got home!

My sister makes a delicious avocado/tomato/garlic salad – the perfect taco topping!

SATURDAY

Vishnu worked a 24 hour shift from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, so it was just me and K. Overall, it was a good day.

The play date with his daycare bestie ended up being at the Children’s Museum, so I invited my friend Pankti so K could see his other bestie, Arjun, too! The boys had so much fun. A small glimpse into what it would be like to have triplets…#nothanks!

Kaiden ran around from 9-11:30, so his nap ended up being a little longer than expected…by about an hour to be exact. He slept in his crib from 1-2, and then woke up and wouldn’t stop crying, so I rocked him until he pointed to the bed in his room. We both laid down and about 2 hours later…we woke up. Oops!

This threw the rest of the day off a little with food and bedtime, but we made it work. I guess he just needed the rest…

After K finally went down, I showered, cleaned up, and settled in for some Big Bang Theory reruns.

Crazy night!

SUNDAY

Sunday started with a post-breakfast park visit. Vishnu came home around 7:30, and because he needed to sleep, I decided to get K out of the house. Also, the weather was radically different (in a good way) from the day before, so I thought we should make use of it while we can!

The park was the emptiest I’ve seen it to date. So perfect! K got to ride his favorite green swing and go down his favorite big slide without having to wait for others to finish.

We made a quick Starbucks run before heading home, as it looked like it was about to downpour at any minute.

The rest of the day was spent playing and trying to stay quiet while Vishnu napped. We probably weren’t as successful as he would have liked but I tried!

Once Vishnu was up, I tried to do a Barre3 workout in our living room. A fun fail on so many levels! V and K wanted to join me for some of the moves (our living room in small). Also, when I was doing squats, K thought it would be fun to crawl under my legs and sometimes just stay there (not fun!). And finally, about half way through, Kaiden decided to turn off the computer connected to our TV, which shut down my workout. I threw in my towel and went to take a shower!

My sister and Adarsh came over around dinnertime and stayed to watch the BLL season finale! I’ll share more of my thoughts in this Friday’s High 5 post!

And that was our weekend in a nutshell. 🙂

Weekend Rehash – Beautifully Simple

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I love simple weekends. Ones where we have a few things scheduled but not too much that it feels overwhelming. This was definitely one of those weekends. It was beautifully simple!

FRIDAY

You guys know my usual Friday routine. This one was no different…just a little toned down.

I worked out after dropping K off at daycare, I then made a quick Trader Joe’s Trip. After putting everything away and cleaning up a bit, I headed to my sister’s place for a fun afternoon sister-sister date! We went to a new cafe in her neighborhood and then sat on her couch and talked for two hours. I love my sissy!

I came home and made Ministry of Curry’s Chana Saag and then went and got my little boo!

He was in a great mood after school, so we played and danced until dinnertime. I let him go after it with a cup of Greek yogurt and khichdi, which he did as evidenced by his yogurt face!

Vishnu had a work dinner, so I just relaxed on the couch and a glass of wine. Perfecto! Also, should add that I was asleep on the couch by 9:00 pm. Ha!

SATURDAY

Saturday started off with a cycling class at the gym. So sweaty, so fun!

I then got ready to head out to our friend Ashley’s birthday brunch. Because the timing of this overlapped with K’s nap time, Vishnu and I decided to divide and conquer. I would go to brunch, and he would hang out with the gang afterwards (drinks, etc.).

This worked well, although I wish Vishnu could’ve made it to brunch. This is what happens when you only have one babysitter in rotation. Need to work on that!

The rest of the day was fun and uneventful. I was pretty tired though, so I fell asleep on the couch at 7:45. Vishnu claims I was snoring, but there’s no proof so I don’t believe him!

SUNDAY

Sunday was a really fun day because we got up, got ready, and headed out to the museum campus area near the lake. While it was incredibly hot out, we loved walking along Lake Michigan, around Millennium Park, and down Michigan Avenue.

Kaiden even got to kick his soccer ball around!

The rest of the day followed suit. K took a 2 hour (to the tee) nap, I took an hour nap, and we hung out and chilled at home. Our night ended with episode 6 of Big Little Lies

*This is not to say we didn’t have moments of frustration during the weekend because trust me we did. But I’m choosing to focus on the good because overall it was a really good weekend!

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