I know I keep saying this, but seriously, how is it the middle of July already?? This summer is just flying by. We are very excited today to celebrate Abram’s baptism. What a special day!! And we are blessed to share it with all of our family.

Last week I was busy prepping for today. I think I got it all done 😛  At least I hope so. Rebecca had her first dentist appointment…and did great! It helps that we are good friends with the hygienist 🙂  Abram had his 2 month check up and passed with flying colors. He’s in the 75th% for weight (14 lbs. 7 oz.) and 50th% for height (22 3/4 in.). He’s growing well 🙂  He’s also sleeping well. Friday night he slept from 9:30 pm to 4 am!! I couldn’t believe it…it actually scared me 😛  Rebecca never slept that long until she was about a year old. It’s nice to feel a little more rested 🙂  In the kitchen aside from all of the party food I made fermented veggies, sauerkraut, a couple batches of kefir, pesto and froze another gallon of cherries.

This week is going to be fairly busy. And HOT!! It’s supposed to be 90’s all week. And we don’t have AC. So that means…no oven. Which is challenging. I think Justin will have to put the little pool back up so we can sit out there all week. Today is Abram’s baptism, and we’re having all of our family over after church. That will pretty much fill up today. Tomorrow is Meijer and we finally get to meet our new niece, Esther. My BIL and SIL are in MI and are having a baby shower Monday evening (it sure will be nice not to have to cook and to be able to relax the day after hosting a party :). Tuesday is farmer’s market. Wednesday we need to pick up our tart cherries from the orchard. And it’s co-op pick up. We don’t have any other set plans this week. But we have a lot of potentials. We might go to the beach. We might go on a farm tour on Saturday (the farm we get our beef from). I might go shopping…if time allows…to get a swimming suit…if I’ll need it this week. Our anniversary is next week, and we had talked about possibly doing something to celebrate that this weekend. Or maybe we’ll just feel like taking it easy and staying home. Who knows. Lots of maybes. With it being so hot there is a chance I’ll try to take the kids to some air conditioned places too…children’s museum, library, etc. We’ll just have to see how the week goes. Our meal plans are a little uncertain right now too because of the weather and not knowing for sure what we’re doing. And depending on our leftover status from today. I’m sure I’ll be doing some updating throughout the week.

A few health updates from last week. I think I’ve lost the battle with dairy 🙁  I tried smoothies again…and again had stomach problems (still do this morning :(. So I think that is on the way out for me. Maybe next month it will be a firm goal. For now I’ll do my best to avoid it for the most part. And then after I’ve been dairy free for a little while I can try to reintroduce it very slowly before I do GAPS intro. I’m also thinking about starting taking my vitamins again. I think Abram is stealing all of my vitamins 😛  I’m back to having random bruises all over. And my skin is looking worse. So I think I’m lacking somewhere. I just hope they don’t bother my tummy. I also stopped taking the Betaine HCI. Hard to know if in only a few weeks I got my stomach acid levels up to where they need to be or not, but I was having quite a bit of stomach pain. It could have been related to the dairy. But it wasn’t something I’m used to feeling/not my normal stomach upset. So I stopped the pills. And haven’t had the pain since. This is all still a big learning experience. I seem to learn something new every day. On the bright side, cutting out dairy and gassy veggies, etc. has seemed to really help Abram. I don’t notice any reflux anymore. And he only rarely has a tummy ache…usually seems to happen when I eat dairy. That’s good motivation for me to not give in to cravings. It doesn’t just impact me. I’ve also been doing pretty well with bedtime snack. Eating things like olives, pesto, meat, crispy nuts. More nutrient dense, non-sweet foods. I did do some smoothie experimenting last week and came up with some really good ones. Now that I can’t have the kefir I’m going to have to do more experimenting to see if I can make a decent smoothie without it. Smoothies sure are nice for lunch when I’m trying to play with Rebecca and feed Abram or he’s sleeping in my arms. So easy to just have something to drink. Plus I add lots of nourishing stuff and it’s all blended. Easier to digest.

I still haven’t started the baby probiotic. Hopefully this week!

I’ve been wanting to do some kind of reward chart with Rebecca. And there are various approaches to take with it. But I think we finally figured out what we’re doing. We currently have one chart that is a daily task list. These are things she is expected to do. She doesn’t necessarily get a “reward” for doing them. But she does get to mark off each item as she completes them…which she seems to enjoy and is good motivation for her. It has things like brush your teeth, eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, take a nap, pick up toys, etc. She likes to see that everything is marked off at the end of the day. We’ve only done it 3 days so far, but she’s really getting into it. And already adding things to the list herself 🙂  The other thing we’re going to do we haven’t actually started yet. We want to teach her about money/about earning/saving. So at some point we’ll have a separate “chore” sheet…things that aren’t part of her daily routine, etc. Things she can do do to earn money. Maybe we’ll give her one chore each day or something. Justin and I haven’t figured out the details yet. Then she’ll have a bank and can put her money in. We’ll teach her about saving, spending and giving. I’ll update more on that when we figure out the details. But the idea is that she’ll be earning her money…not just getting an allowance for no reason.

On to the food. Like I said we’ll be getting tart cherries this week. I’d like to do some baking with them. Maybe a pie? At least a pie plate can fit in the toaster oven 🙂  I’m afraid food preservation is going to be in full swing this week. Blueberries and peaches are in season. I want to freeze lots of blueberries (my favorite fruit! And Rebecca loves them too…straight from the freezer). Not sure I’ll be canning any peaches again this year. I just don’t think I have time. But we’ll enjoy them fresh. And maybe I’ll have time to freeze some. The beans are starting in our garden. Justin picked a few yesterday. So that means freezing beans for weeks to come. I hope we have enough room in the freezer. I think I still have 3 or 4 gallons in there from last year! Our lettuce is about done. Some of it is getting bitter. At least one of the varieties. So not too many salads any more. I also bought lots of nuts last week. I need soak/dry them and make some almond butter and cashew butter. And our hot fudge is just about gone. So I want to make a new batch. I might experiment with that recipe too. We’ll see. I’m sure that will keep me plenty busy in the kitchen. On top of the food work I need to start think about vacation planning. We have a couple trips planned for August and that will be here before I know it. So I want to start planning meals, etc. I’ll have to bring a lot of food for myself so I don’t starve on our trips 😛

I think that’s enough for now. Hopefully all goes smoothly today with the baptism and party. And hopefully our house doesn’t get too hot 😛  At least I don’t have to cook anything today. Here’s what’s on the menu…for now.
———————
S (church, baptism/party)
  B – broth, avocado, egg (me), leftover quiche, strawberry bread (Justin)
  L – ham and chicken on buns w/ cheese, tomatoes, homemade mayo, mustard, homemade honey mustard; jello salad (MIL bringing this), layer salad (my mom bringing this), fruit salad, cucumber, peppers, carrots and cauliflower w/ ranch dip, chips w/ salsa, sunchips,  m+m’s (Rebecca’s pick), blueberry jubilee, cherry jubilee (using fresh fruit), pb chip brownies
  D – leftovers from lunch/salad/snacks or leftover quiche – whatever we feel like 🙂

M (Meijer, baby shower, soak nuts, soak beans, dry cashews)
  B – broth, avocado, quiche (me), hot cross buns, fruit (Justin)
  D – at shower (I’ll hope for the best…that there is something I can eat)

T (cook beans, prep soup, fm, dry almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, freeze blueberries, make dip, put away laundry)
  B – avocado, beans, olives, cucumber w/ pesto (me), hot cross bun, fruit (Justin)
  D – cp ham and bean soup, corn muffins

W (prep potatoes, cherry pick up, co-op pick up, make almond butter and cashew butter, freeze blueberries and cherries, make cherry pie)
  B – leftover soup (me), yogurt, granola, fresh fruit (Justin)
  D – salad (if lettuce ok, else misc./eggs) (me), “favorite casserole”, applesauce (Justin) cashew avocado chicken salad on buns/in tomatoes, roasted cauliflower, beans (first ones from the garden!)

Th (prep smoothie, prep dinner, make hot fudge, Children’s museum)
  B – kefir smoothie, oatmeal muffins (Justin), leftover soup (me)
  D – cold beet soup, hot ham and cheese, broccoli

F (clean, library, freeze beans beach?)
  B – leftover soup (me), oatmeal muffins, fresh fruit (Justin)
  D – picnic? else nachos w/ sauteed peppers and onions, fresh tomato, cheese, avocado, sour cream, salsa

S (laundry, GF farm tour?, shopping, anniversary celebration?, soak beans)
  B – beet soup w/ beef and avocado (me), pumpkin pancakes (Justin)
  D – scrambled eggs, homemade sausage, beans, toast