We made it through the heat wave! Not that it isn’t still hot. But…we have A/C!!!!! We got a window unit for the main floor on Thursday. What a blessing. The house has been so much more comfortable ever since. We’re not sitting here sweating the entire day. Too bad we didn’t have it when we had a house full of guests last Sunday 😛  Oh well. From now on no more sweltering family gatherings here 🙂

Last week was very busy. But we did a lot of fun stuff. Abram’s baptism was very special and we loved having everyone here to share it with us. The party went well…and I think we’ve dealt with all of the leftovers now 🙂  We also enjoyed meeting our niece Esther and going to her baby shower. I finally did a little shopping for myself yesterday while Justin watched Abram. Still no luck finding a swimming suit, but at least I did get some clothes that I desperately needed. We also took a trip to the children’s museum and the library. Rebecca LOVES both. She was sad when we had to leave the museum. Maybe we’ll have to get a membership so we an go more often. And now we have 17 books from the library that have been keeping us very busy 🙂  Non stop reading the last 2 days. I think Rebecca could live in a library. She has been an avid reader since she was little. The other thing we started working on with her last week was math. And she seems to love it! Not surprising with 2 engineers for parents. She seems to be picking it up very quickly. We did addition and subtraction using her markers. We started out easy…1+1 = 2, etc. About the 3rd try I laid out 2 markers and 3 markers. She counts each group. Then I said 2 + 3 =…and without hesitation she said 5! She didn’t even count them. She especially loves subtraction. She likes to “take away” and put them behind my back.

In the kitchen I made pummus, cold beet soup, crispy cashews, walnuts, pecans, almonds and macadamia nuts, cashew butter, almond pecan butter, cherry pie, hot fudge and froze close to 10 lbs. of blueberries, 2 gallons of beans and 5 cups of tart cherries.

This week will be busy again. Today is church. We are going to do something different and walk across the street and go to the church right by us. Always fun to have a change of pace once in a while. Monday there is a MOPS playdate at a local splash pad. I haven’t decided if we’re going or not. Not sure how well I can watch Rebecca at a splashpad filled with kids while trying to keep Abram and myself dry. We’ll see. Tuesday is farmer’s market (and Meijer if we end up going to the playdate on Monday). Tuesday is also our 8 year anniversary! We don’t have any plans made yet for celebrating. We’re still trying to decide on a joint gift. Wednesday is Harvest Health, and Justin has worship team. Thursday we’re going to a picnic at our local park held by our financial advisor. Friday we’re going to a Whitecaps baseball game with Justin’s work. I hope I can manage 2 days in a row of questionable food. No plans for Saturday yet. Maybe another hunt for swimming suits? 😛  And I might try to squeeze in a trip to Target this week. We’ll see.

Kitchen work will depend on what produce we get and how hot it is. I’m really hoping to roast a chicken so I can make a big batch of chicken stock again. I have a nice chicken, and I got some chicken feet last week at the co-op. I’ll for sure be freezing more blueberries and hopefully baking with them. Maybe do some baking with peaches too. I’m thinking about making peach ice cream. I can’t believe I haven’t made ice cream yet this summer! Our beans are in full force so I’ll be freezing those all week. I also want to make sure I have plenty of healthy food on hand for meals and snacking. I’m trying to get more veggies in my diet. I’d like to saute some veggies to have for snacks. And make more cold, pureed soups for breakfasts. I’m starting to really enjoy those. And I love breakfasts and lunches that I can just grab out of the fridge. I want to make more pesto and hummus as well. And I think I’m going to keep up with my daily smoothies for lunch. I usually have both hands full with the kids at lunch time. So it’s great to just grab my lunch and take sips here and there when I have time. I have found that they work best prepped ahead and well chilled. So I make them when I have time earlier in the day or the day before and then lunch time isn’t crazy. And I think I’ll stick with cold soups and smoothies when we travel. They will be very easy to prep ahead, store and eat on our trip. No preparation or heating at meal times. Perfect.

Not much for health updates. Overall it was a pretty good week. I’m wondering if the last couple rough weeks were from dairy or if it was a round of die off. Always hard to tell. But at least I seem to have gotten through it. I did learn yesterday that I am right about needing to avoid peppers and onions…for myself for sure but even more for Abram. I ate them on Friday. He had such a tummy ache yesterday. Had to give him tummy drops several times. And a whole day with no poopy diapers…not normal for an EBF baby. Hopefully things work through today. Lots of fussiness yesterday. Sorry, Abram. Mommy’s mistake. Now we’re both paying for it…me doubly…bad tummy and a fussy baby 😛  Hopefully we both recover very soon. I’ll for sure be avoiding the meatloaf today.

That’s what’s on the agenda. Here’s what’s on the menu.
——————–
S (prep lunch, church, make pesto)
  B – ham and bean soup w/ avocado (me), granola w/ milk and sliced banana (Justin)
  L – cp meatloaf (w/ pureed sauteed peppers and onions), baked potato, peas (Jusitn), leftover sausage, peas, avocado (me)
  D – salmon cakes or pesto salmon, zucchini fries, beans, peach milkshakes

M (boil/peel eggs, MOPS? else Meijer)
  B – leftover salmon, pesto, zucchini fries (me), pumpkin pancakes (Justin)
  D – grilled burgers, beans, homemade french fries

T (FM, Anniversary, make stock, freeze blueberries, make blueberry buckle)
  B – hard boiled egg, toast (Justin), leftover salmon, pesto, cucumbers (me)
  D – roast chicken w/ carrots and beans, roasted rosemary potatoes

W (HH, WT, bake zucchini muffins, strain/freeze chx broth, make pureed veggie soup, make nut milk smoothies, strain kefir,  put away laundry, freeze blueberries, prep kefir smoothie)
  B – chx broth, cucumbers w/ pesto (me), blueberry buckle, banana (Justin)
  D – fresh pea soup, grilled cheese and grain free muffins

Th (make bluebery peach cobbler, freeze beans, prep nut milk smoothies, EJ Picnic and family photo)
  B – kefir smoothie, blueberry buckle (Justin), chicken broth, zucchini muffins w/ cashew butter (me)
  D – at picnic

F (clean, make ice cream, Whitecaps)
  B – pureed veggie soup, zucchini muffins w/ nut butter (me), hard boiled egg, toast, grapes (Justin)
  D – at game (bring cucumber slices and homemade popcorn w/ coconut oil and butter)

S (laundry, make pesto, feed sd, Target)
  B – veggie soup w/ avocado and chicken (me), granola w/ milk and banana, peach (Justin)
  D – pesto chicken omelet, beans, fruit