Hi! I hope you guys enjoyed your long weekend and also spent some time reflecting on the bravery and selflessness of our fallen servicemen and women. My message to my yoga classes over the weekend was about finding your dharma and using it to be of service. Your dharma is all about discovering your unique gifts and learning how to harness them to positively impact the world around you. I hesitate to say that it’s about “finding your life’s purpose” because that can feel a little overwhelming but that’s essentially what it is.
My dharma is empowering people (especially women) around their strength so that they can take ownership of their health, happiness and life in general. My friend Dorie’s dharma is being the best listener and always making people feel seen, heard and supported. My friend Rodney’s dharma is in using the power of yoga assists to help people feel safe and grounded in their bodies. Tanner’s dharma is always bringing a sense of humor and ease to the table and the ability to model how to not take everything so seriously. My friend Gail’s dharma is fighting for animal rights through her involvement in the Beagle Freedom Project. My friend Kristi’s dharma is helping young girls to discover healthy and active lifestyles through coaching middle school track.
I could go on and on but hopefully these examples help you get started. If you’re open to share, I’d LOVE to hear what your dharma is. <3
About the long weekend…I went to edit photos from it and realized that over 50% of my photos had dogs in them. #sorrynotsorry #youvebeenwarned
My weekend kicked off early. I subbed out my Friday 9:30 a.m. class to get some work done and to soak up the gorgeous weather. I took the girls for a four-mile walk. Later that day I ran 3.5 miles and ended up getting almost 20,000 steps in. I was proud of myself. 😉
We both taught a ton last week so Friday night was all about relaxing. We ordered La Shish Kabob from Postmates. Our Postmate was SUPER fast and our food arrived in under 30 minutes. We had lamb, rice, falafel, salad, babaganoush, hummus and pita.
(If you’re new to Postmates use code EZ8IN and you’ll get $100 in delivery fee credits to use for your first 7 days!!!)
The highlight of my Saturday was getting my hair cut and colored. I hadn’t had a cut in over 5 months!
On Saturday night we went over to a friend’s house for sushi, cocktails, conversation and pool time.
Yogi friends! 🙂
Virginia brought her cockapoo puppy Stella and we dunked her in the pool for the first time. She ran around like a crazy after getting wet (like dogs always do) and decided that Tanner’s white shorts were the best place to roll around and dry herself out. She leapt on his lap out of nowhere and we were all cracking up.
After she got dry she made herself at home on my lap and I was totally okay with that. 🙂
The evening ended with a cupcake. I had classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. You can never go wrong with that combo.
I spent a couple of hours on Sunday morning at the studio working with a teacher I’m mentoring and then made the trek down to Charlotte’s newest Whole Foods Market at Waverly to do my weekly shopping. It was a little out of the way for me but I had coupons for the grand opening and it’s hard to resist a new grocery store!
Since we were out late on Saturday, we stayed in on Sunday night and hung out outside and grilled. This photo is a great depiction of life around here. Sullie wants to cuddle and Zoey is like, “Look at this ball. Isn’t it awesome? Want to throw it?”
Dinner was so, so good! I highly recommend this recipe for tahini-marinated grilled chicken thighs with cucumber tomato salad from Cooking Light! The only modification I made to the recipe was to add a little balsamic to my tomato cucumber salad. I served it all over some of the leftover rice from La Shish Kabob.
On Memorial Day I taught hot yoga, took half of Tanner’s class and then taught Y2 Strength before meeting up with Virginia to take the girls swimming at the lake. Here they are all suited up!
I ended up ordering the Outward Hound life jackets. They were highly-rated and reasonably priced. Based on the size chart, it seemed the girls were solidly in the large range but I wish I’d have gotten XL. The large fit but they were a little tight getting the underside piece to velcro in place. Both girls were total champs about the jackets and didn’t seem to mind them at all.
Swimmers! I have to tell you that little Stella was not a fan. Virginia got in the water with her and she was not on board. She was a great swimmer when she actually did swim but would not do it on her own volition.
When she got out of the water she hid between my legs!
Sullie Phelps. 😉
My crazy ball girl.
I’m sharing this video to show you how much Sullie loves the water (and because I know my mom and grandmother will love to watch it…haha!). She kept dipping her head under and it was so cute. There’s also some funny footage of Stella swimming.
Once we got home Tanner and I tag teamed some food for a cookout we were attending. I made deviled eggs and my lemon feta potato salad.
The cookout was just six of us and the perfect low-key way to end the long weekend. We ate out on my friend’s screened-in porch and while we sat chatting some nice evening storms rolled through.
We capped off the evening with key lime pie!
Let’s talk about Dharma…do you know what your Dharma is?
What did you do for Memorial Day?
Best cookout food you ate over the weekend?
