In just a few short hours, Andrew and I will be on our way to North Carolina with a few van-fulls of teenagers. It’s spring retreat weekend for the youth group, and I am SO excited! We are going to the beautiful Camp Willow Run on Lake Gaston, where I was a camp counselor during my summers in college. CWR has a special place in my heart, and I am thankful for a job that takes me back there every year.
This morning I slept in as long as I could (7:15, then tossed and turned until 8… oh the joys of getting old 😉 ) in anticipation of the craziness that will be the next 48 hours. In previous years, I’ve arrived home Sunday feeling like I was hit by a bus due to all the running around we’d done. Here’s a quick flashback to last year:
Capture the flag in an excellent wooded arena (this photo doesn’t quite capture the intensity of the game, but it is always hardcore!)
Games I created for the sole purpose of making myself laugh 😉
High ropes course
Silly team-building activities
Throw in some good food, canoeing, a sunset over the lake, and great Bible studies, and it makes for a pretty epic weekend! This year we are doing the climbing wall and giant swing rather than the high ropes course; I can’t wait!
This week has been super busy in preparing for the weekend, so our dinners have been simple and easy, and workouts have been a bit shorter and lower-intensity as well: Short weight-lifting session Monday (like, 20 minutes in the living room with the TV on,) walk on Tuesday, yoga Wednesday, 30-minute easy run Thursday. I wrote about our easy Monday/Tuesday dinner here, and our Wednesday/Thursday dinner was this:
Baked chicken breasts (cut into smaller pieces to cook faster) marinated in Balsamic vinaigrette, leftover quinoa, roasted beets, and beet greens. I started to make a marinade for the chicken and then thought, “Nope. Not happening. Balsamic vinaigrette will taste great.” I told Andrew it was a secret family recipe. 😉
I’ve said this before, but when in doubt about cooking a vegetable, slice it, toss it with olive oil, add salt and pepper, and throw it in the oven at 400 degrees. Roasted beets? Two thumbs up from this girl. Andrew handled the greens, and they were pretty tasty too. Both the chicken and the beets were done in about 20 minutes. Can’t beet that (pun-intended…bahaha :-D)
Now I’m off to finish a few last-minute details for the retreat. I hope to give a quick post at some point during the weekend, but if not, I will be back Monday. Please pray with us for safe travel and no injuries, big or small!
What are your plans for the weekend? Any quick and easy dinner ideas for busy weeks?
A Two Storey Home 
Hope you have a wonderful time – sounds like a lot of fun! No real plans this weekend, which I am happy about – we’ll just go with the flow!
Thanks! Sometimes weekends with no definite plans are the best. Hope it was a good one!
Ooh have fun, I can imagine it being a very rewarding thing to do every year! Baked chicken with (steamed) veg tends to be my go-to aswell for easy meals, plus it’s very healthy 😉 Have a great weekend!
Thanks! Baked chicken and steamed veggies are great. I love that eating healthy doesn’t have to mean cooking anything elaborate!