Summer Yum OLS Dinner

Farm pick up was today. The fruit share starts next week and we can't wait! For dinner, we had our head of lettuce with Ani Phyo's Kreamy Curry Dressing (yum!), a raw carrot and raisin salad (double yum!) and sliced cucumbers. So simple, no cooking, and delicious. The carrots this week were both purple and orange. Ted ate most of the purple ones, but I managed to snag a few for the salad. Kale, chard, more green onions, turnips, green beans and zucchini rounded out the share.

Day 1 of eating raw

I learned an important lesson today. Don't eat (a significant amount of) fat in meals next to each other. The result is lethargy and feeling too full. After pudding dinner last night (2 avacodos, 2 bananas and carob powder), I felt satisfied all night, not needing to nibble at all. In the morning I didn't feel hungry, but I was excited to try the Scramble. It was really really good. Seriously. Yum. But...it was also pretty heavy with all the nuts and seeds. I had a slow, slogging run, came home, showered, and took a nap. I couldn't understand why I felt so heavy until re-reading some tips from other raw foodies. A #1 tip is to have the main fat meal for lunch or dinner and to make sure to eat lightly around it. (there can be up to 30g of fat in one avacado, and a 1/2 cup of almonds contains 20!) So, the avocado for dinner and nuts & seeds for breakfast was too much too close together. I also was short on sugar, so I had a banana and felt better. I ate lightly the rest of the day (a smoothie around 1:30, another banana and some carrots about 5 and a sprouted corn tortilla with an avocado at 7.) A good day. I was certainly NOT hungry at all all day long and after my initial inertia, I had lots of energy today. Tomorrow I'm going to try her Coconut Breakfast Cakes with bananas and have my nut fix later in the day. So far, so good!

yum yum yummy!

I am really enjoying my first tentative steps into raw foods. Everything tastes delicious! I did overeat the pudding tonight (there's a reason it says it serves 4!!) but in general, I am amazed at how easy and fast it is to prepare these meals. Tomorrow for breakfast I'm going to have the beautiful Scramble you see above, from Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen cookbook (have I mentioned how much I love the Boulder library system? It has everything!) The kids liked the pudding too, which is a plus!

Today I had my followup with the dermatologist and everything looks good. I'm to massage the bump on my nose 3x/day with vasaline and see him again in October for possible laser therapy to remove the bump. I'm pretty confident I can squoosh it down myself. Did you know stitches that dissolve into your skin are made of cat gut? Seriously! Anyway, my body rejected those and is pushing them back up through my nose, so I'm to examine it for stray guts (iew iew iew!) and pull them with a tweezers if I see any (he found 2 today. I was wondering what those pokey things were!)

Weekend Fun

We had a fun day at the pool today. I had Wendy's kids for the morning and all 5 kids played great at the pool. They are all (mine anyway) fried now, but it was fun. Wendy has a new fancy underwater camera that she tried out. Cool!

Saturday we went to the Science Museum and the boys had Ninja Night in the evening. We took Mae to Tandoori Grill and she did great. She loved the papadam and rice...not so keen on the kobli naan! She is so great at restaurants.

I'm going on a one-week diet to boost my immune system (and perhaps drop a few pounds too!) I'll report back next Sunday night!

Like the new blog header? Thanks Wendy!!!!

goings-on

Well, it was a tough week. Once my deer fly bite healed, I thought I was in the clear. After my run on Wednesday, I got stung by a bee. My left hand swelled up and it HURT for about a day, then itched for 2 days. I'm hoping tomorrow is better. Oy!!!

Tonight was monumental. Sam biked to Wahoo's. That's just over 4 miles round trip. He was sooooo chicken on our very downhill street leading to the path (our neighbor Jeff is a saint and stayed with him the whole way), but once he was on the path he got right into it and got braver and braver the farther he went. He biked the entire way home, downhills and all. Rock ON, Sam!!

Ted had another fabulous week at RMDC. He got the spirit award again today, for being a great dodgeball player and for getting his very first bullseye at Archery! Woo hoo! One more week to go. What a great camp. 4 stars from Ted and me!!

Sam and Mae had a pretty calm week at the J. No permanent ink on their hands or mysterious disappearing clothing. Mae is in love with Jeanne (her teacher in the Fall, so that's handy) and Sam really digs Dan, one of his camp teachers and a pre-K teacher in the Fall. There is something to be said for a little boy having a male role model. Very cool.

I am busy planning Mae and Sam's ( 0 waste!) birthday parties. Mae's is fast approaching! She wants a Pikachu cake (?) and Sam wants a soccer ball cake with a Power Ranger sticking out of it. I have weird kiddos. Mae's will be at the park and Sam's at an indoor pool with his 5 buddies (plus their siblings). Should be fun. Now that Sam can ride a 2 wheeler, I can totally believe he's 5. Funny how that sealed the deal for me. I think he grew 2 inches this week, just from confidence alone.

Yummy Local Salad

Tonight's dinner was a CSA salad. CSA lettuce & beets, special Dream Share CSA fava beans, local Boulder tofu and pomegranate dressing. Mmmm. It was so hot today plus we walked/biked to get some local Boulder beer so we were extra hot when we returned.

Ted's been really enjoying RMDC. He got the Spirit Award last Monday and this Monday, which means he was very into all the sports and was a good listener, etc. I'm so glad he's liking it so much.

Mae and Sam (aka Mr. Biker) are getting very sandy and dirty at JCC Camp and having lots of fun. They've been biking alot too. Mae is really something on that trike.

Today we spent the morning at the pool with Randi, my 'mother's helper' on Tuesdays this summer. LOVE her! She entertained Mae so I could play with Sam or chat with Lisa, her mom. Good times. This should be a good week. I've been running about 3 miles on MWF and it feels good and relaxing. Very therapeutic. I've been contemplating doing a raw food diet for a month or so. It's supposed to be very cancer-fighting, not to mention invigorating. We'll see. I like the idea of it as a short term "boost the body's immune system" thing, but I know I couldn't do it full time. I'll let you know!

HOT

It reached 103 today. We spent the morning back at Eldorado while Sam rocked and rolled on his bike. He can totally start and turn now without any problem. He still needs to work on braking rather than putting his feet down, but he'll get there. I went to my rehearsal at Temple Sinai in Denver (12-5:30...that's a LOT of singing) so at least I was in the AC. Paul braved it til he couldn't stand it anymore and took the kids to McD's to play and cool off. When I got home we all went down to the cul-de-sac to bike with Oliver and Elise, who just returned from their Chicago vacation. Sam won't bike into the cul-de-sac, saying it's "too bumpy" but did do 'the big hill' twice and didn't crash! (I can't even remember how many times Ted crashed on that hill. I think the different personalities are so apparent in this simple biking example!!) We are so proud of Sam.
The boys are bunked now and I found an old-school desk (like the ones we had in elementary school, remember?) for $7 at the thrift store. Paul cleaned it up and it's in the boys' bedroom. Ted is very serious about using it when he has homework in 1st grade. Ah..remember when homework was exciting? I'll bet that doesn't last all that long!
Tomorrow begins another nice week of scheduled camp time, unscheduled pool time, and lots of simple yet local meals. Should be a nice week, and we're supposedly going to get a break in the heat too. I hope so! We're melting!

Sam rocks!

Sam can ride a two-wheeler! It's official. We took the training wheels off (again...we had taken them off last August) on Thursday and we practiced on Thursday and Friday for a little bit, with me holding his shirt. I noticed that I wasn't doing very much at all and that he seemed to have really good balance. Today he told me to let go and I did and off he went! He can turn and start (that took Ted forever to figure out!) but hasn't mastered braking yet. He is so proud of himself!!! Way to go, big boy!!
His real test will be if he can bike to Wahoo's, or to the park. I think he'll have to work on braking in the cul-de-sac before we try one of those rides, but he is well on his way! Hooray!!

OW!!

Yesterday, Thursday, we had a very local day. We biked Ted to camp, then biked home, played a bit, took early naps, and then biked to the pool (where camp was). Then we biked to camp and collected Ted and biked back home. Well. On the bike ride home in the morning, I was bit (twice) by a deer fly. I've seen these pesky buggers around but have always swatted them away in time. On the bike, though, I was too slow. The bite on my right calf is pretty swollen, as is my typical reaction to any bug bite, but the bite on my right thigh is really something. I contemplated going into Urgent Care today (my doctor's nurse's suggestion), but decided to hold out until Saturday morning and try to get in with our doctor. It's very swollen, painful to put weight on, very red and hot to the touch. I don't have a fever, so I think it's going to be OK, but I'd like to check it out. I feel kind of woozy. Not bad enough to mess up my day. Ole and I ran our 3 mile run this morning and we went to services tonight. I put Sam and Mae in childcare after Kiddish and Ted did great. He is really into being Jewish right now. The guest speaker tonight was Rabbi Bronstein's father! He gave an interesting talk about the Torah portion tonight, all about sexual misconduct. I think that went over Ted's head although he was very into the Pinchas stabbing the couple part of the story. Anyway, I'll update tomorrow!

off to Taiwan!

Angelina is getting a brother! Like Amber, Angelina is the 2nd of our group of 11 girls to have a little brother from Taiwan. So cool. I can't wait to meet him in person.

We had a lovely local meal tonight of CSA kale & garlic, local tofu (that I had marinated and baked earlier in the week) and rice (oops, guess that's not local but we're using up all the stores before buying more.) Actually, I have a mellow "live simply so that others may simply live" plan for the next week. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to make a big pot of CSA beans and rice that will be the main meal and we'll just have whatever greens/salad etc that is already in the fridge from today's pickup. We received a lovely share today! Purple baby carrots (the kids love these), fava beans, kale, new garlic, green onions, zucchini, beets and turnips. I don't think I'll put up any of these this week. The turnips will turn into that delicious salad I learned about back in January and turnip fries. The zucchini will be made into more bread and the rest shredded and frozen. The beets, with their greens, will make an excellent side to go with the beans and rice, as will the fava beans. Mmm.

busy busy

Ted loved RMDC. Archery was his favorite. How cool is that?! Sam and Mae were happy to be back at the JCC. Heather brought them home for me and I got TONS done!

• baked Raisin Bran muffins (these are sooo good)
• blanched & froze last week's CSA greens (7 servings worth)
• pressed, marinated & baked the tofu for tonight's Tofu Lettuce Wraps and Thursday's meal
• did the grocery shopping
• washed, line dried and folded 3 loads of laundry
• took a 3 mile run with Ole and showered (!!!)
• unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher
  
• prepped Ted's bag for tomorrow and made his lunch
• made little snack bentos for the kids to eat in the car on the way to TKD
• planned meals for the week

I just had to put it all down because it was a good day to have after quite a few weeks of what felt like NO alone time, translating into no time to get things done. When I have the time to keep the house running smoothly, I magically have the energy/patience/time to spend more time with the kids. We talked, we read books, we snuggled. I love the structure these 3 weeks will have.

And for the record, the Tofu Lettuce Wraps were our local meal of the week thus far. CSA lettuce, CSA zucchini, CSA onion & garlic, backyard garden mint and local tofu.

Doug & Lisa's Re-Wedding + swimming!

This morning was so lovely. Doug and Lisa re-married, under the chuppuh, after 14 years of being married. It was so beautiful and sweet and touching and FUN! The kids were amazingly well-behaved. We biked there (it was at a local park) and after getting home I took the boys to Apex to swim with Rach and Eliot. Sam had a blast and went down both slides, for the first time ever. This was also my first time with Ted being 6. LOVE it! He can go down both slides by himself. Ahh...
This was a terrific, fun, family-oriented day. And we even got the house cleaned up and FINALLY caught up with the laundry!
Ted is all ready for his first day of Rocky Mountain Day Camp tomorrow. He is psyched. Sam and Mae are excited to go back to JCC camp too. I'm excited to run with Ole tomorrow! Hooray!
(Not Doug and Lisa in the pic, just a stock photo, but I love the image of the chuppuh. I hope to get pics from Cathy soon! It was so lovely!)

10 years

My thought was, where did all our hair go?!? Happy 10 Years, dude. These are the salad days, eh?
July 11, 1998

Fun Day

This pic is worth clicking on. I love action shots. Today at chavurah we got a kickball game going, kids vs adults. It was way fun! Paul is heading for 3rd in this shot, while Ted is playing 1st. Ted got to pitch for a while too. This ranks up there as one of the most fun chavurah yet! After nap, we biked to Wahoo's and then spent the afternoon playing out front. Good times.

3rd Tooth!

Newsflash! Ted lost his 3rd tooth today. He was at his friend Omri's house and it fell out while he was playing Legos. What a fun age.

102 and keepin' cool!

Here's a cute pic Paul took on their roadtrip home. Apparently the boys thought it would be a good idea to fill their shirts with sand and then dump the sand elsewhere. Because, what else are you supposed to do at a rest stop? Cutie.
Yesterday and today the high hit 102. It was hot outside, but quite comfortable inside. We kept the windows open, the curtains and blinds closed, and the ceiling fan on. We did spend an hour at Burger King playing on the indoor play structure because we had an hour to kill after picking up Ted and before our CSA pickup. That was a nice cool thing to do. So, so far so good!

Summer Vacation '08

Mae and I arrived home (at 9:45pm!) on Tuesday night and the boys are due in a few hours. Our vacation was great. The boys loved being with their cousins, who seemed to have grown up a LOT since my last visit 2 years ago!! Matthew is 15 years old. I nannied for him when he was 18 months! Crazy!! As usual, the boys were completely entertained by the cousins, leaving a 4-day streak of boredom when they all left between visits. Mae and I took off for Chicago to visit G'ma and G'pa Kessie for a few days and had a lovely, relaxing time. I did a lot of reading, napping and snuggling with the kids this vacation. It's great to be back though, and I'm sure the kids will enjoy the relative structure of summer camp next week. TONS of pics on moeltini.

Surprise! a quick trip into Chicago

No pictures today, but a quick update on our fun vacation. The boys endured a downpour while camping in Nebraska (precisely why I don't camp!) but survived and spent the Iowa night at Dennis' house. The boys loved that and can't wait to go back to play with all the fun toys and see the dogs. They came to collect Mae and me from the airport (Mae was awesome on the plane. No fussing at all.) Arriving in Davenport, we met up with a slew of Moellers all there for Jean's party. Mae ran wild with all her cousins and had a blast. The boys were similarly entertained. The trip back to Dubuque was a letdown without their cousins and they are eagerly awaiting their return on Thursday afternoon. Without anything essential to do, Mae and I decided to make a quick trip into Chicago to see my parents. Jayne kindly lent us her rental car and off we went! We had a delicious sushi meal last night and spent today at the Children's Museum. Mae's favorite was the grocery shopping area, hands down. So far, it's been a great vacation. This weekend should be fun with the 4th and all the Moellers returning to entertain my kids! Mae and I head back to Colorado on Tuesday.
Have a safe and happy 4th!