I Need This Today

A Pessimist Learns to Swim

Swimming

Now, I know this video is horrible, but THE PESSIMIST IS SWIMMING! We have been waiting for this for so long. Because of our schedule we have been unable to get him into swim lessons. He swims every week with his summer camp but he wears a life vest all the time. This weekend we decided to go swimming and went and got him a new, bigger life vest since the one from last year no longer fit. We went swimming on Saturday and he wore it all day. Then, we went swimming on Sunday and as the day went on the vest started to chafe his underarms and cheeks were it was rubbing him. I had to take the vest off because I didn't want him to get blisters. He decided that he was just going to walk around the edges of the pool and use a swim board that was there. Everything is going fine for about 45 minutes. We have music going and everyone is having a great time. He tells me that he thinks we should all start dancing in the pool so we do. One minute he is standing there dancing and the next he is swimming around. He could not have been more proud of himself. I could not be more proud of him. I can't wait to go swimming again.

Gluten/Dairy Free

In other happenings, I am trying a gluten free diet for a month. I am on day 3. So far so good and not a lot of withdrawal issues like I had when I tried the paleo diet thing. I'm meant to eat lots of carbohydrates and potatoes and beans and things. I don't do well without them. I'm hoping that cutting out wheat and dairy (almost forgot) will help me get some more energy and function more like a normal human. Only time will tell but hopefully in the next couple of days things will get better.

 I do have a serious case of the foggy brain though now that I think about it. This morning I got up three times from the couch and walked into the other room and then forgot what I was there for! While I am like a zombie in the morning, I truly am never that bad. Is it wheat withdrawal or puppies keeping me up all night I guess I will never know.

Puppies!

 So we all know Rumble. This little guy over here to the left. This is a picture of him when he was just a little speck...now he weighs a whole, almost 5 pounds. So, yes, he is a little guy still but he is now 10 month old. Still a puppy and naughty as ever. He wants to play all the time...so we got him a friend. Originally we had wanted to get him a friend that was older than him and already house trained! That guy needs to get some lessons with someone with a little more experience. This obviously is not how the plan worked out. To the right you see Gunther. Gunther was sitting outside of Petsmart one fine Saturday two weeks ago. No one was really looking at him even though he was the only small dog there and we soon found out why. Gunther's got the mange. It's not contagious but it sure does sound horrible.  His hair is starting to grow back in nicely though. Look at though ears why don't ya. Gunther is a chihuahua mix. Mix with what I ask? Hopefully the vet will have some ideas when we take him in this weekend. He is the sweetest little dog maybe ever all he does is snuggle in with you every time you sit down on the couch. He is slightly bigger than Rumble and is only 16 weeks old. He will do quite a bit more growing. Rumble loves to play with him but is always grumpy that he is around. That is slowly changing though. As for the house training, oh boy do we have our hands full...full of paper towels! Or at least the first weekend they were now things are progressively getting better. Thank goodness because those cute little puppy eyes weren't going to work for very much longer.

One More 4th of July

I've got to post this picture just because I think it is so cool. I think my other picture from July 4th is cool too of course but this one is just busier.

Gardening Greatness!

This garden of ours is kicking some buns and taking some names. Here are some of the okra that we have harvested. These guys are great grilled with a little olive oil and spicy seasoning! More on the seasonings later. I think I will do a whole post just on my favorite Penzeys spice blends.

This next one is a picture of our string beans...which I don't quite understand. We are doing something wrong but I'm just not sure what it is. They are all yellow and the leaves look weird but they are producing flowers and I did find one bean in there. I'm hoping they are just getting ready to get started. In the back left corner of this picture you can also see our cucumbers. Those guys are going crazy and we pretty much have cucumbers coming out of our ears!

This one has our squash, zucchini, and pepper plants. The squash is growing like crazy but is not really putting out that many squashes. The peppers I think will really get going soon but for right now we have a couple peppers on each plant. 

Finally, these are the tomato plants. They are growing like crazy. Plus they have tons of tomatoes on them but none of them are ripe yet. Now it's just a watering and waiting game.

Here are just a few of the vegetables that we have been able to harvest so far. They have all been delicious!

I finally have a plan!

A plan that I like that is. A plan that keeps all the different parts of my life organized. A plan that looks aesthetically pleasing (which is of utmost importance to me)!

I love Etsy! Just get on there and search for printable planners. There are so many good designs. I am always amazed by the talent and the time that people have put into their designs. The planning pages that I found that work for me best are these by LittleDropDesigns.

Obviously they come in this awesome color pallet but I chose to save on ink and print mine on the laser printer. My love of colored pens adds the color and awesomeness to my own calendar. The reason I love this design so much is that I can break my life down into categories and then prioritize what I want to get done in each area for the day. It's a huge plus that I can plan my whole week on...well two pages, but I can see the whole week at one time. I can see areas where I am overwhelming myself and areas where I am slacking off and could put in more effort. I prioritized my life areas from top (most important) to bottom (least important). Although all areas are important or else they wouldn't even be on the list we all know as mothers that some parts of our lives come before others. I've been using this for a few weeks now and I have to say it's really made a difference.

July 4th

Pizza Night

Last night we had pizza night. At our house we love pizza...well at least The Pessimist and I do. The Optimist not so much but he will eat it. No ordinary pizza would do and I didn't want to heat up the house so we went for the grill. I have never grilled pizza before last night but I have to say it went really well. 

Again I really have to figure out how to take better pictures! Anyway this is a nice pepperoni pizza with mozzarella, basil, and sun dried tomatoes. This one was The Optimist's and I have to say, I had a bite, and it was very good. The grill made a very crunchy crust even though it was a pretty thick piece of bread. I use this recipe for the crust because it is made with self-rising flour and there is no rising time. Doing it this way allows for less work and planning.

For me, I made a pizza with basil pesto for the sauce, with heirloom grape and cherry tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella. This thing was the bomb. It was so good I can't even get started or I won't stop but the heirloom tomatoes were the best part. The CSA basket this week came with a bunch of basil in it so I whipped up the pesto while I was waiting for the grill to heat up. Fresh pesto is the best.

The Pessimist only likes cheese pizza and I think we have all seen a cheese pizza before so no photo's of that one but he did like them and actually ate two. Which says a lot. That guy is about to hit a major growth spurt because he eats about twice as much as he did a month ago!