As you might have gathered, we tend to be overscheduled on the weekends. Between birthday parties, visiting family, trips to Disney and more, it’s rare that we have a weekend that isn’t filled to the brim with activities.

When we realized we had nothing on the agenda this weekend other than E’s weekly 30-minute piano lesson on Saturday morning, we rejoiced. Couple that with some perfect outdoor weather and we knew it was time for some major spring cleaning around the house.

The weekend kicked off with a nice quiet night in on Friday for Family Movie Night. This week’s selection was Wall-E. Can you believe neither E nor I had seen it before? For some reason, DadJovi had. I’m 99.9 percent sure this means he has a secret second family stashed away somewhere.

On Saturday, we all slept in. I slept until 8:30 and E got up around 9:15. I don’t know how I raised a late sleeper but I thank God every weekend that I did. It’s the best trait she inherited from me. If I was home alone and nothing I had to get up for, I could easily sleep until 11 every day. I adore sleep.

While DadJovi took E. to piano, I hit the gym for the final workout of Week 6 of Best Body Bootcamp. It was pyramid supersets. That means you start with more reps in set 1 and as you work toward set 4, you add heavier weights but drop reps. I even reached a new strength milestone for myself — I was bench-pressing 30 pounds. That may not seem like much but before #BBB, I struggled to bench 15 pound bars. Now I’ve graduated to bars with actual weights on them. Throw in some cable crosses and concentrated curls, and by the end of the workout, I was feeling pretty badass — and my arms were shaking. That will become important later in the story.

After the gym, I made a quick trip to one of our favorite shops in Central Florida — Petty’s Meat Market in Longwood. Petty’s is a good old-fashioned butcher shop, with a lot of great extras, such as awesome prepared sides, delicious desserts, gourmet sauces and condiments on the shelves and free booze as you shop! I skipped the booze but made up for my lack of lunch in free samples. I also picked up some great cuts of meat for the weekend. We don’t eat a ton of meat anymore but when we do, I want it to be good. So I got some ground beef and turkey to make this meatloaf, applewood smoked bacon for Sunday morning breakfast and pork loin roast for yet another Skinnytaste recipe (more on that below).

When I got back from shopping, it was time to get to work. We rented a pressure-washer for the weekend to try and help our woefully past-its-prime siding look fresh and clean again. And since we had it, we had a few other projects in mine. Several years ago, DadJovi bought me a set of Adirondack chairs for some holiday or anniversary. I originally treated them with teak oil and that held up for a couple years. But lately, thanks to Florida’s near-constant humidity, they’ve fallen into bad shape.

Since I was going to take the trouble to pressure-wash them, I thought I’d give them a complete facelift. I spent some time stalking Pinterest but didn’t find any inspired ideas. It did give me an idea for a color, though.

And, just like magic, my dingy old Adirondacks went from trash to treasure.

 

If only the same could be said for our yard. Please come back Florida rains!

I pressure-washed the chairs on Saturday, then let them dry overnight. The nice guys at our local Ace helped me pick out some sandpaper to smooth out the rough spots and some cans of spraypaint that were primer and paint in one. I then sprayed some clear sealant on them, so hopefully the red color sticks around on the chairs longer than it did in my hair.

And in between pressure-washing the two chairs, I also pinch hit for DadJovi on the back deck since his arms were killing him from the sides of the house.

Remember those shaking arms from earlier in the day? Yeah, they got worse. Between the gym, the pressure-washing, the sanding and the painting, I feel like I had Mr. Miyagi here yelling at me all weekend to “paint the fence” or  to “wax on, wax off.”

And now my arms are like dead limbs on either side of my body. There really needs to be a DIY projects entry on Daily Mile.

E. also wanted in on the DIYing action. She and DadJovi were mad that I wouldn’t paint the chairs Duke blue, so I said she could paint her old plastic chair that color.

And yes, I gave my 5-year-old a can of spraypaint. When she becomes a world-famous graffiti artist, I hope she’ll remember this momentous day.

In between all the projects, there was also a lot of cooking.

We had the meatloaf on Saturday night, eating in front of a cozy fire thanks to our brief cold snap.

And after Michelle posted her rave reviews about protein pancakes the other day, I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I did some Google sleuthing and settled upon this recipe from Everyday Belle. Four ingredients? I’m in!

Look how pretty.

E. is somewhat of a pancake connoisseur and she declared these “the best pancakes I’ve ever had Mommy. In my entire life.” You heard it hear first — in her long 5 years of life, these were the best. I gotta say, they were pretty awesome. DadJovi went on and on about how great they were, too. The applewood smoked bacon helped.

But wait, there was more food!

For dinner, I made Skinnytaste’s Slow Cooked Sweet Barbacoa Pork. Any recipe that includes Coke Zero and brown sugar has my interest. Throw in her version of Chipotle’s Cilantro Lime Rice and I’m all in.

It was even better than I thought it’d be.

Holy hell. I may never eat another Chipotle burrito bowl again. OK, fine, that’s too bold of a statement. But it will always now be a close second to this dish.

I promise, I’m almost done with this weekend wrap-up but I’ve got one more small tale for you.

So, I can’t remember if I’ve blogged this or not (and I’m too lazy to search my own blog) but over the last few months, I’ve been losing a lot of hair. A lot. My primary care physician said it could be my thyroid and she had me get my levels checked. They were definitely down significantly from the last time I had it checked (or do they go up? I forget). And they were right at the threshold for when you start getting treatment. But she said to hold off a bit and to get my thyroid rechecked. I was supposed to do it in December and I just haven’t gotten around to it.

Meanwhile, my hair keeps falling out.

I ran up to Hair Cuttery today to get a quick trim and as the stylist was complimenting my abundance of hair, I casually mentioned that it’s a good thing I have a lot of it since I’ve been losing so much lately. About 15 minutes later, as she was blow-drying my hair, she suddenly stopped and said, “I think I know why you’re losing your hair. It looks like you have alopecia areata.”

Come again?

She turned off the blowdryer and help up a mirror to the back of my head, and sure enough, buried under my normal layers of hair is a pretty big bald spot, about the size of a silver dollar.

Thankfully, it’s a spot always covered by my hair but it certainly is concerning. She suggested I go to a dermatologist as soon as I can because she says it can get a lot worse if left untreated.

Of course, I immediately fast-forwarded in my brain to needing a Locks of Love wig. And then I started worrying, “Should I start keeping all that hair falling out for my own wig?”

I actually already have a dermatologist appointment scheduled for early March, so even though I’m sure she means well, I’m going to try and not freak out until then about a hair stylist’s diagnosis.

She is a good stylist though. See how pretty she made my hair.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some hair loss Googling to do.

What’s the best recipe you’ve made lately? Any DIY projects you’re proud of? And does anyone have any experience with alopecia?