Wow, tomorrow is August? Where did the time go? Oh wait, it’s summer and I’ve been crazy busy beyond belief. Between going out of town twice in July, my husband’s band Kousefly playing a ton and it being the busiest time at work, I come home each day completely exhausted. My house shows it as I can not muster the thought of cleaning. My currently unemployed husband does a great job at vacuuming but when it comes to picking up after himself and Benjamin, well, let’s just say I spend a few minutes each evening wiping the kitchen down and putting away toys.

So how is life with a toddler? It’s official, he’s walking –he is no longer a baby. It took 13.5 months but he’s doing it and has even mastered walking with shoes. He definitely is more aware of things as of late. When I say “give mama a kiss,” most of the time he will come over and kiss me with a closed mouth. It is rather sweet and heartwarming. Since he was tiny, I have always showered him with kisses all over his face. The other day as I laid on the ground with him rough housing, he returned the favor, showering me with kissing and making a “mwah, mwah, mwah” noise. It brought tears to my eyes.

I’m worried about his speech. About a week ago I decided that Mr. Binky would only make appearance during naps and bed time. He doesn’t seem to be missing it. He babbling more but since learning to walk, he’s forgotten how to sign so we’re back to square one. Sometimes when he is really hungry and I don’t quite get what he’s upset about he’ll burst out “nanana” which means he wants food. Otherwise he’ll say mama, dada and sometimes mimic the sound of “kitty cat.”

Benjamin has become quite picky at dinner time. He hates vegetables unless covered in cheese or sauce. He eats tons of cheese, fruit but turns his nose up at meat. I swear he drinks 2 gallons of whole milk a week. I hope this is all normal and a phase.
My health has been in question lately. It seems I have high blood pressure. I’ve known this since giving birth but I started feeling a ton of anxiety lately so off to the doctor I went. I’ve been running lately but my left ankle would swell up and I went back to walking. Then I started back up running and twisted my ankle so my office visit consisted of talk of my blood pressure, my twisted ankle and my weight. The verdict: don’t run for at least 10 days to let my ankle heal, wear a pedometer and start getting in 10,000 steps five days a week and eat better. I need to get my blood pressure down by the end of October or face the fact I’m going on medicine. My focus when walking has been “getting healthy for my family.” It doesn’t help lunch seems to be catered everyday where I work and I’ve been baking nice treats as well. BUT I need to get healthy for my family and gosh darn it, if I want to have another child, I need to get that weight down too.

OK, enough babbling. There’s your update.

CSA Week 3 meal plan

Another exciting CSA week! We ate the cherries right up! Here are the items we'll have for dinner this week with our basket of goodies!

Steak, baked chili potatoes (csa), grilled summer squash (csa) and greek salad (various csa goodies)

Lentils and swiss chard risotto

Chicken with fennel (fennel, carrots from CSA)

We have spinach and romaine to go along with each meal along with fresh basil, we'll make caprese salads too!

Unfortunately, our parsley died right away so we'll be making lemon orzo pasta this week instead of last. So far, that is the only thing we've wasted.

Next week brings the following veggies:

Bunched Spinach
Baby Romaine
Cucumber
Broccoli
Walla Walla onion
green beans
Cilantro
Red gold new potatoes
Fennel
Cherry Tomatoes

I see homemade salsa in our future...

CSA Week 2 meal plan

CSA Week 2
Originally uploaded by fiveforefun

photo courtesy of Jen Floyd, who gets the same CSA as we do!

Here are the meals I came up with from stuff in my CSA:

Marinated Chops (in vidalia onion dressing) with corn and zucchini
salad
Pasta with Kale and mixed greens

Grilled Chicken with Sesame broccoli

Lemon parsley orzo with caprese salad

I still have potatoes to make but maybe I will grill them with the
chicken. This will be my first time trying kale. I'm so excited!