🙁

Shaun got in biking accident last night.  He’s okay!  But he’s got a bunch of strawberries (and not the kind you want to eat) ALL OVER his body.  He was THANKFULLY wearing a helmet-as he always does-and will need a new helmet.  The most interesting thing though is his finger.  Check this out!

This picture doesn’t even do it justice.  It’s blue and purple and swollen :(  Poor guy.  If it doesn’t get better, he will be going to the doctor.

Feel better honey!

Everyone-WEAR YOUR HELMET!!!

I haven’t been sleeping well :(  On Sunday night I only got about 2.5 hours of sleep and it was all I could do yesterday to get through work, hence no post!

I got about 6 hours last night but I’m still pretty beat.  I know that if I do a warming socks treatment, I sleep like a baby so I’m going to do that tonight.

Lu turned 18 months old yesterday 🙁 and 🙂 at the same time.  Here’s the big year and a half girly rocking her skinny jeans.

I love that girl.

Foodwise, everything is going really great.  I made some killer granola bars this weekend but need to get some good pictures before I post the recipe.  This one doesn’t cut it.

SO YUMMY!

With that I have to go try and stay awake and get some work done!

Question: What helps you sleep?

On Monday, I said I would post more pictures of Lu at swimming and at the beach.  Then work picked up and that didn’t happen. For the curious, here they are (with some bonus pictures!).

Here’s a first, I looked at these pictures and didn’t cringe.  I don’t look too bad-YAY!

At the beach (I LOVE the next 4 pictures):

My two favorite people in the whole wide world:

And a good-ish picture of her St. Patty’s Day outfit for Amber:

I saw my doctor yesterday and had some acupuncture. I expressed concern that other than the initial drop (once things got, *ahem* moving) that I hadn’t seen any change in my weight.  She’s confident that once we start dealing with my thyroid issues that I’ll see improvement.  She doesn’t want to start treatment of that until I’m down with my antibiotics though which is about 4 weeks from now.

As part of my antibiotic regimen I am taking the Allisyn supplement.  It is:

…an excellent broad-spectrum antimicrobial preparation of garlic and cinnamon extracts, specifically formulated to safely and naturally act against undesirable bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa.

When I first put it in my mouth I think “mmm cinnamon” and then when I go to swallow it I think “ick garlic”  the two DO NOT go together.  After taking it I burp garlic. YUCK.  I am trying to have faith though.  It’s not as bad as the Candicin.  That stuff is NASTY.  It’s peppery tasting or something.  I rotate the Allisyn, Candicin, and Berberis Formula (doesn’t really have a taste) weekly.  That’ll be done in 4 weeks-YIPPEE 🙂

In food news, last night I made some broccoli beef (topped with ground sesame seeds):

I took pictures to post a recipe BUT it wasn’t quite right.  I need to work on it a bit before I present it to the masses ;).

This morning I made a PURPLE monster that had:

-1 cup unsweetened rice milk
-2 HUGE handfuls of spinach
-1/2 a banana (shh don’t tell)
-1 cup frozen blueberries
-1 TBSP raw almond butter
-2 TBSP ground sunflower seeds

I neglected to get a picture but it was good, not great, but good.  In the future I think I could eliminate the nanner and add a little honey.  I’m also on the lookout for some gluten free, sweetener (including sugar) free, super processed free protein powder.  I have a feeling that plain egg white powder may be my only option.  We shall see.

And with that, it’s time for Friday!

This is where you’re supposed to see cute pictures of Lu in her green outfit.  Instead I have these:

It seems Daddy needs a little tutorial on using Mommy’s camera. 😉 I AM NOT complaining though.  My wonderful husband let me sleep in today while he got up and got Lu ready and took her to daycare.  I’m finally not feeling bone tired BUT Daylight Savings hit me HARD this year.  I’ve had a really hard time getting to bed and subsequently waking up.  It’s worth it though-I love it being lighter later!  This morning I could not get out of bed and so my husband was my savior.  Love that man!

I was able to have a leisurely morning before coming to work.  I don’t have to be in at a set time but Shaun does thus our normal rushed mornings.  Shaun does IT for his entire organization and most things need to be done while no one is there.  He works with a bunch of night owls who get into work around 10 am but don’t leave until 10 pm or sometimes later.  His most productive time is from 7:30-10 am and so we rush in the morning to get out of the house by 7:20 (or thereabouts).

I made myself some oatmeal this morning.  I wanted to make it green but didn’t have any dye and didn’t really want to put spinach in it.  I actually thought for a good 30 seconds about the spinach idea. I decided my placemat would have to do.

This was DELICIOUS.  Oh my, so good!  I do miss my banana but my new special ingredients almost make up for it.  What are these special ingredients you ask?

Vietnamese Cinnamon:

And Madagascar vanilla with NO added sugar or sweetener (turns out this is hard to find):

Tonight, I think I had leftovers planned but I’m feeling very inspired to do something with cabbage.  I made stuffed peppers last night (recipe to follow):

And those are a bit too close to stuffed cabbage so I’ll have to get creative.  Too bad I don’t like corned beef!

I did make GREEN curry on Monday night:

But sadly I ate all the leftovers for lunch yesterday.

And finally, Lu must be reading my blog.  Yesterday I mentioned that if Lu asks for something to eat and it won’t hurt her, I give it to her.  Even if I KNOW she’s going to hate it.  Well, last night I was chopping mushrooms and she was BEGGING for one.  I know that she normally hates cooked mushrooms and I’m not a fan of raw but I gave it to her anyway.  She loved it.

And ate it all.

What cabbage-y thing should I make for dinner tonight?

I received an email a few weeks back from Foodbuzz with the opportunity to visit Frog Hollow Farms at their 1st Annual Blossom festival.  I didn’t hesitate for one second before jumping at the opportunity.  Most of my stone fruit and pears come from Frog Hollow and I couldn’t wait to take a tour of the farm. 

The folks at Frog Hollow were awesome!  Even before I got there.  I asked them via twitter if I could bring Lucy (after seeing a kid option available on the website for buying tickets) and they enthusiastically said “YES!”  I invited Auntie Laina along with us as I knew she would enjoy it more than Shaun who would prefer to go mountain bike riding.

The day started with some Fava Bean Bruschetta:

Which they grilled over a wood fire:

And I couldn’t enjoy but Elaina said was great!

Shortly after we arrived, the tour started.  We saw tractors:

And the packing shed:

Nectarine blossoms (I think-I had a hard time hearing Farmer Al-I had to stay back because of the toddler on my back):

There was an wrecked car:

With an AWSOME bumper sticker:

More blossoms:

Asian Pear blossoms!

They actually hand prune these puppies.  Every third blossom gets snipped in order for better fruit.

Farmer Al gave us a history lesson-he started on just 10 acres about 25 years ago.

I LOVED his overalls.

He also told us about pheromone cards that they put on the trees:

They let out the scent of a female bug (sorry I don’t remember which one but I do know that it eats branches) and then males get so confused they don’t mate.  Even conventional farmers use this method!  He also told us that while there is fruit on the trees they broadcast the sound of a gun shooting every 10 minutes to keep the birds away.  Crazy cool things that they do at an organic farm!

Lu snacked:

As we headed back for lunch, I caught Elaina looking very motherly:

(She’s going to kill me for posting that).

Then it was time for lunch. OH.MY.GOD.  It was AMAZING.

The plate for Lu and me:

Clockwise starting with the leafy salad: Little Gem & Chicory Salad with FHF Dried Fruit Vinaigrette, Asparagus-Fennel-Blood Orange Salad, Long Cooked Winter Greens with Spring Onions, Spring Garlic Braised Lamb with Artichoke, and End of Winter Vegetable & Lentil Stew.

That lamb was the best lamb I have ever tasted.  It was delish!  I went back for seconds on the lamb and asparagus.  Lu LOVED the asparagus.

She’s never had it because Daddy really doesn’t like it-he claims that he can smell it on me (like emanating from my skin) when I eat it.  I believe him too because I will have eaten just a quarter of a spear and he’ll know.  I may have to make him suffer though.  I love it and so does Lu! Lu, in fact LOVED all the food (well except the salad-she tried it but spit it out).  The lemonade was a HUGE hit too.  She was a very happy girl.

The day ended with a talk about Bees from Dr. Gordon W Frankie, Alan Hawkins, and crew but we didn’t get to hear much of it since it was already WAY past Lu’s naptime (and I didn’t want her to meltdown) and Elaina had a soccer game.  What I did hear of the talk was pretty fascinating!

It was a sold out crowd and for good reason!

The day was AWESOME!  We did end it by getting stuck in the mud but were saved by the guys from the farm.

Thank you AGAIN Frog Hollow Farms and Foodbuzz-we had SUCH A BLAST!!!

Buy local and organic!

Lucy had her first swim lesson of the season (not counting her bonus swim lesson in Boise):

We went to the (windy) beach:

And I went to Frog Hollow Farm’s 1st Annual Blossom Festival:

Much, much, MUCH more on all of this (especially the festival) later today.  I’ve got to earn a living first. 

I WISH I could just blog all day 😉

I have the best life.

Last night I cooked up some Amaranth for dinner.  I haven’t had it in YEARS but I do remember really liking it.  I took some pictures to show y’all what it looks like since most people have never had it.

It’s very nutty tasting to me and has a crunch-ier texture than most grains.  I made it with some chicken stock and then topped it with a little butter/olive oil mix.  ‘Twas delicious. I have to warn you though that it does come out looking very much like it went IN-so don’t be shocked. 😉

Lu LOVED it and ate a good 2 cups of it. I tried to get a picture of her amaranth covered self but it’s so small that you can’t really see it.

Last night Shaun had to work late so I was in bed by 8:30 and fast asleep by 9.  We didn’t set the alarm and we both woke up around 7:15.  It felt glorious!

The sun is shining today and I took the opportunity to wear my flippies.

One of my co-workers gave me shit for my shoe attire but I told him that I didn’t care.  It was flip flop weather!  And hey, I have co-workers who wear their bike shorts all day with NO shoes so I think my flippies are A-OK.

What’s appropriate attire where you work?

Me to my doctor:

Hi My Doctor,

Ever since I started the new program I have been extremely tired.  At first I attributed it to the head cold that I had but 3+ weeks later I don’t think I can attribute it to that.  I used to get up every morning at 5:30 to go work out and now I can’t get out of bed.  I’ve been making sure to get between 7-8 hours of sleep and I’m still extremely tired.

My hypothesis is that my body is busy healing itself but I have no clue.  I know it’s not good to NOT exercise so I have been trying to get out for walks and things but my early morning exercise is not happening.  Is this normal?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Chelsea

My doctor back to me:

Hi Chelsea-

Sometimes that does happen when the body is needing more time of rest to help repair. Try getting a little more sleep if possible for the next week and see how you feel. More like 8.5 – 9 hours. I will also take a look at your chart and see if anything else comes to mind.

Your Doctor

This exhaustion meets or even exceeds what I felt in my first trimester-that’s saying A LOT.  BOO.

To end this post on a positive note.  My Mom sent me this:

I’m excited! Now excuse me while I go take a nap.