Last day of July. Gearing up for a busy August. This week will be plenty busy preparing for a short vacation. And keeping up with our summer produce.

Last week was a full week as usual. In addition to our usual errands we made our first stop at Cone World for the summer. We went to a picnic on Thursday evening. Rebecca had a blast there on all of the bouncy equipment. And we got a free family photo taken courtesy of our financial advisor (we’ve never had a professional photo taken!). I can’t wait to see how it turned out. Then Friday we went to a Whitecaps baseball game. Two late nights in a row for the kids, but they did well and had fun. Yesterday Rebecca got to have some one-on-one time with Mommy going shopping and playing outside. We both really enjoyed that. I finally managed to find a swimming suit. I can’t say I LOVE it. But it will do. At least it looks age appropriate and fits decently. Someday I need to learn how to make my own swimming suit 😛  In the kitchen I made a couple batches of pesto, a big batch of chicken stock, pureed veggie soup, pea soup, blueberry buckle, zucchini muffins, blueberry peach cobbler, peach ice cream, froze 4 more gallons of blueberries and a few gallons of beans. I also made kefir and finally fed my sourdough. I have neglected that for a while…we’ll see if it’s still alive.

Not as many outings on our agenda this week. Today is church. Monday is Meijer (unless I decide to postpone it until later in the week). Tuesday is farmer’s market. Wednesday I might go to Harvest Health. We’ll see if I need to or not. I think that’s about it.

My main goal this week is prepping for our trip. I need to make my packing list and menu plan. And prep any food we’ll be taking with us. We’ll probably bring all of our breakfast and lunch food with us. Then go out for dinners. Of course there is the dreaded packing…the worst part of travel in my opinion. Especially when you have little kids. You have to pack for all of the what ifs. And I need to figure out our diaper situation. I know we don’t have enough cloth diapers to last the whole trip. I’ll still be busy in the kitchen as usual. We’ve got beans-a-plenty from our garden right now. I’m trying to keep up with freezing them. And wondering if our freezer is going to hold them all. Trying to think of how to be creative with beans in meals. I have considered starting to make baby food with some of the beans and freezing it for when Abram’s ready for solids. We’ll see. We’ve got some golden zucchini and beets from our garden that I need to use this week as well. I’ll likely just roast the beets for me to eat throughout the week. The other thing I want to do this week is some baking with sourdough. I have neglected my sourdough for weeks now. I finally fed it yesterday. I want to bake with it this week and see if it’s still ok.

Not much health news. Surprisingly even with 2 nights in a row out with not the best food I still did pretty well. Hopefully that continues. I did finally start Abram’s probiotic. But I only gave it to him a few times. It’s hard to remember. And I don’t always have time to deal with it…when he’s hungry, he’s hungry 😛  I need to get into a good routine and do it at the same time each day so I remember.

I’m trying to eat really well this week so I’m feeling good for vacation. And keeping up with my soup for breakfast and smoothie for lunch. Here’s what’s on the menu.
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S (prep dinner, church, make sd breakfast cookies, make mayo)
  B – pureed veggie soup w/ pesto and avocado (me), sd strawberry rhubarb muffins, fruit (Justin)
  L – sirloin steak and veggies in cp
  D – grilled brats (locally made), peas, fresh fruit, chocolate milkshakes

M (make veggie soup, Meijer)
  B – pureed veggie soup w/ pesto and avocado (me), sd breakfast cookie, yogurt (Justin)
  D – sloppy joes, beans, chips, applesauce

T (freeze beans, FM, soak lentils)
  B – pureed veggie soup w/ pesto and avocado (me), sd breakfast cookie, fruit (Justin)
  D – salmon cakes, zucchini fries, broccoli (J/R), beans (me), fruit

W (cook lentils, prep smoothies, Hop Scotch)
  B – pureed veggie soup w/ pesto and avocado (me), yogurt, fruit, granola parfait (Justin)
  D – TBD w/ lentils (oops…we don’t have any lentils) sweet and sour pork over rice (Justin), corn on the cob, leftover salmon cakes (me), cucumbers w/ pesto

Th (make sd peach muffins, feed sd, make kefir, put away laundry, make zucchini muffins)
  B – kefir smoothie, sd peach muffins (Justin), pureed veggie soup w/ avocado, salmon cake (me)
  D – sausage zucchini muffins, beans, corn on the cob

F (clean, library)
  B – leftover sausage zucchini muffins, pureed veggie soup (me), sd peach muffins, fruit (Justin)
  D – roast chx legs, potatoes, carrots, zucchini, beans, applesauce

S (clean, prep smoothie, freeze beans, bake zucchini bread, shopping?, laundry, pack)
  B – leftover sausage zucchini muffins, pureed veggie soup (me), blueberry banana smoothie, banana zucchini bread (Justin)
  D – poached or fried eggs, zucchini bread, beans