Roll Call

Hi everybody,
Recently, on days when I post, I'm getting about 50 hits a day on this blog. About 10 of you comment with any frequency. So who are the rest of you? I'm curious! Tell me about yourselves! :)

Worst Lyrics

This made me giggle this morning. Click on the tiny pictures and they'll magnify so you can see them.

Monday Headlines...on Tuesday

1. We went to "Territory Days" in this old section of town yesterday. It's a big festival with food, music, and little vendor stands everywhere. It was SO busy - the crowds were incredible. Not much to do around here, I guess. :) We had fun though. People playing everything from banjos to ukuleles to bagpipes. More junk food than you can imagine (I had one of those massive turkey legs and could only eat less than half), and LOTS of characters to watch.

2. Nick and I got to see two movies this week. I seriously don't think we've seen more than one every 6 months since college. My parents paid for all of their kids and spouses to see Indiana Jones late Thursday night. We got a babysitter and then put the girls to bed before she came. The showing was at 10:30pm. It worked pretty well, actually. Hannah got up, but was asleep again by the time we got home. My parents watched the girls Sunday night so Nick and I could have the first date we've had in a while. We saw Prince Caspian that night.

I gotta go on about this one for a minute. I grew up reading the Chronicles of Narnia, and I think I can say that nothing except for the Bible has shaped my faith as much. These movies bring up huge emotions in me that almost make me feel stupid, because the stories just mean so much to me. They are so much more than fantasy stories. I LOVED the movie. It's not exactly like the book, but for it to be a good movie they had to make some changes. I felt the changes they made were in keeping with the spirit of the story, even the dreaded kiss. heehee. I could go on and on about the spiritual principles that I love from this story, but I won't. Unless somebody else wants to with me. :)

3. My birthday is in just over a week. I'm going to be 28, for real. You know how 28 is the age everybody older than that says they still are? That makes me laugh. Honestly, I have no problems whatsoever with getting older. I am so much more comfortable in my own skin than I was even 5 years ago. I'll take the age, as long as I can have the wisdom that goes with it.

4. I played at the Presbyterian church again this Sunday. I really really enjoyed it. I love our church so much, but I also love the small community this church is. If only big churches could have lots to do, lots of resources and that small church feel. It's also so fun to get to serve people with my musical skills. My church is drastically different in style from that church, so much that I feel the need almost to hide where I attend. It's a weird feeling. I assume no one would have a problem with it, but they're just so different... I love what they do for worship, just like I love what my church does for worship, as long as we're all giving glory to God. As an aside, if we worship the same God, what is the point about any of us being critical about differences in style at other churches? It only creates division that is unnecessary. If I were to say that what my church does is superior to how other churches worship God, I feel that would be prideful and arrogant. How can I judge other people's worship? I am free to choose what I like, just as they are free to choose what they like, the way they best connect with God. Just something I was thinking about...

5. Maeve got another deposit this week! Yay! Holly has her work cut out for her the next few weeks. She has two gowns to finish and one to do the pattern for. Seems like we're starting to get on a roll. I'm excited.

6. This is a funny one, but I'm proud of myself. The cat tore a gaping hole in the couch slipcover. Last night I pulled the slipcover off and sewed it back up. You can hardly tell it was there. I'm proud of myself. Be proud of me. :)

7. I'm listening to the Prince Caspian soundtrack this morning. Regina Spektor has a song on there. Where has this person been? I really like her. I guess she's not quite mainstream sounding, but I would think I would have at least heard her stuff somewhere.

8. I have the school of worship graduation and then we have family pictures with Megan on Saturday(yay! We've needed new ones for forever). The following weekend we're going to Estes Park for Bible school reunion. The weekend after that is Nick's birthday and father's day. Whew.

Alright. Time to get off the computer and do something productive. Hope you all had fun weekends.

Homeopathics

At about 2am this morning, Hannah woke up suddenly with fever, a stuffy nose that is dry, and a confusion that was scary to me. I think it was the high fever, exactly like the one Audrey had last weekend. (I'm disinfecting my entire house today. Yes.)

Today, I pulled out my trusty Family Guide to Homeopathy. I looked under colds, and here was an amazing entry:

If the nose is stuffed up and dry: sambucus nigra (all homeopathics have latin names).

Then I looked up this particular remedy.

Sambucus Nigra
Base Substance: black elder (which I was already giving her in tincture form)
Characteristic signs and symptoms: Child who wake suddenly at night with congestion, stridor, cough, and a great deal of perspiration.
Main clinical uses: Laryngeal stridor or false croup; coryza

Now, I haven't look up all those weird terms, but the part I do understand is exactly the problem. Now, if only I happened to have some sambucus nigra on hand...

Here's the homeopathic shpeal.

Homeopathics says "like cures like." It is the tiniest imaginable amount of something that would cause the same symptoms as the symptoms you're having. In fact, the smaller the amount of substance, the more powerful the dose is considered. The substance calls your body's attention to the problem, and your body fixes it. Since it's such a tiny amount, it's safe for pregnant women and tiny children. As dangerous as they have recently proven cold and flu medications to be to children, I don't even attempt using them. But with homeopathics, I have a way to help the kids feel better. They really do make a difference. Homeopathic doctors practice all over the world, and many people in Europe see them rather than medical doctors. Only in the U.S. are they labeled quacks, as far as I can tell.

The hardest/most important part is to find the right remedy. Strong flavors can also knock out the effectiveness of homeopathics (mint toothpaste, spicy foods, etc.) I highly recommend that book though. I use it all the time.

Questions? Homeopathic medicine stories?

Sad Day

Nick and I saw the headlines about the Chapman's daughter late last night. Ugh. What a horrible, horrible thing. That kind of thing is the worst fear of every parent. It sure makes everything else seem trivial. As awful as it is, I'm far enough removed from it to already see that God can do some incredible things through it. But wow. It reminds me how powerless we really are as parents. I must daily release mine to God's grace and mercy in order to have peace.

Too many words seem inappropriate. I'm off to (hopefully gratefully) take care of my sick Hannah.

Good for the soul part 2

Posted something about husbands, here's one about the kids. Good attitude checks for today.

Have a great day and enjoy your families!

Good for the soul...

Flylady sends lots of emails when you sign up for it. Some of them are reminders to do things, which, unless I am totally on schedule for the day (which probably happens one day a month if I'm lucky) I tend to delete so they don't sit there and make me feel guilty. Ha! However, the vast majority of them are testimonials from people about what a difference it makes in their lives to do what flylady teaches. I don't often read these either, honestly, but occasionally one catches my attention. I could totally relate to this one, and feel like it's a good reminder for us wives...

"Dear FlyLady,

My husband traveled last week and came home Friday. Since then, his
suitcase has sat by the door. I admit, I let it sit there to see how
long it would be there. I waited 3 days and the whole time in my head
I was getting bitter about it. "Why is he cluttering up my nice clean
hallway with that? Why doesn't he at least put it in the bedroom? How
long is it going to sit there?" You know the thoughts. All of them
were making me cranky and angry at him.

I, of course, did not say anything to him about it either so I'm sure
he had no idea it was bothering me. This morning I saw it sitting
there and I decided to move it to our bedroom and put it on his side
of the bed where he would be sure to have to do something with it
before getting into bed tonight. But after doing that, it made my
nicely-made bed look cluttered so I opened it. Then I unpacked it. And
while I was doing it, it occurred to me that he has been working so
hard lately. His trip was a nightmare. He was up for 24 hours because
of plane delays, then he got 3 hours of sleep and was up doing yard
work and hard labor all the next day. He didn't get one day off this
weekend.

And here I was, angry at him for not unpacking a tiny suitcase that
took me UNDER 2 MINUTES to do myself and will probably make him feel
loved and cared for when he sees that I took the trouble to unpack for
him without complaining about it.

I am so glad your voice is in my head. I had the worst attitude until
I realized I needed to bless myself by doing a small service for my
wonderful, hard-working husband. And he is wonderful and he doesn't
deserve a bitter wife. So thank you for changing my thinking! I think
you probably save marriages every day without even knowing it! The
suitcase caper could have turned into a wicked fight, but instead it's
a non-issue and has actually made me appreciate my husband."

Your Mothering Style

Some days, (yesterday, as an example) my own expectations for myself completely overwhelm me and make for a miserable day for me and the kids.

I was thinking about this, this morning. I am one of the few people I know who actually thinks their parents did a pretty great job raising them. Of course they had faults, but they did a great job. The issue arises from the fact that my personality type is completely opposite of my mother's. So, I think she did a great job, but because our personalities are so different, there's no way I will ever run my household exactly the same way. I would go nuts. But that is still the ideal in my mind. Anybody else deal with this?

I've had kids for three years (very short, but it feels long), and I still don't know what I want my household to look like day-to-day.

Organized? Spontaneous? Structured? Free-flowing? Outside work? No outside work? Tone? Schedule? Housekeeping style?

Some days I think I have this figured out, and then on others I question it all...

A Testimony

Hey, if anyone is interested, our pastor talked about the December shootings at a church in Texas this weekend. It's pretty powerful, what God has done in that horrible situation.

Monday Headlines

Where to start...

1. I walked though the house this week, finding all the little things we could do in each room to make our house nicer to live in. I completely ignored the fact that I would love all new furniture and a new bedding set on this list, because those things aren't financially feasible at this point. But as a result of that project and a little creativity (and a good deal at Kmart - $3 for a valance!), I now have something (in addition to roller shades) to go on all three windows in the main part of the house. I got a can of spray paint to paint my worn out kitchen stool with. I also rearranged some things in the kitchen to give me more counter space, and cleaned out and organized my spice shelf...now I just need one of those lazy susan thingys. Maybe at Ross or Marshalls? I find that I quit seeing the things that bother me, and just feel frustrated. I had to take a step back and figure out where the feeling was coming from. Does everybody do this?

2. Also at KMart, we found the new Veggie Tales video on sale. Audrey LOVES movies. She actually put this one under her arm, and walked off. I heard her saying, "Don't worry, Veggie Tales, I get you." Not even kidding. How can you tell that kid no? We're going to have to find a way here soon...

3. We're making some tough financial decisions around here. Cutting back and figuring out additional income. Hard work. Sometimes being a grownup is hard and not so fun...

4. Pretty amazing sermon at church yesterday. Answered some nagging questions of mine, straight from the Bible.

5. I am so thankful for warm weather this week! I was able to put the girls in dresses without sweaters yesterday for the first time this year. We will definitely be out in the sunshine, and maybe I'll start to take on that garage organizing project that's been waiting for us all winter. We had the windows in the house open till like 11pm last night. Heavenly.

6. My mom gave me a copy of Gift from the Sea. She told me it was her favorite book when she was a young mom, and she read it over and over. I don't know that it ranks as my favorite, but it is definitely a good one. It was written almost 50 years ago, so traditional gender roles are assumed and not apologized for. It has put words to some of my feelings about being a wife and mother, and validated other feelings I already have. Plus, it's just "pretty" reading, if you know what I mean. Almost poetic.

7. I've been spending lots of time on Maeve lately. We're about to launch a blog on the site that will have pictures of fittings, and demonstrate the process. I'm pretty excited about it. I think it will help people really understand what goes into their gown.

8. The girls' checkup was Thursday. It went well. Hannah is 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height, and Audrey is 25th for weight and only 5th for height, but he wasn't concerned. We finally were able to get health insurance, and I can't tell you how nice it was to just walk out of there without paying anything out of pocket. I'm very thankful!

9. I made this Carrot Cake last night. I'm not sure what to think yet. She says it's not meant to be like white flour, white sugar cake, but it's pretty drastically different. It's more the consistency of a lemon bar or something like that. Crispy/chewy on the outside, and kind of gooey on the inside. As a HUGE carrot cake fan, I'm not sure yet if this is okay. Anyone else have a GF carrot cake recipe without eggs? Me neither. And egg replacer does not work well in the cake recipes I've tried. Although carrot cake is heavier normally, so maybe it's worth a try. I need a birthday cake in a couple of weeks!

10. I have a roast and fingerling potatoes from our produce delivery in the Crockpot. Dinner is gonna be yummy!

11. Two and a half weeks till my Bible school reunion in Estes Park! We're going up there for the weekend. I haven't been in probably four years. I wonder if it still feels like home? I wonder how much we've all changed in 8 years? I wonder what it will be like to meet everybody's spouses and kids?

12. (I told you I had lots to say today) I have another exciting project I'm working on...a worship piano curriculum. I am so very excited about this project. I have been hesitant to say anything about it until I was sure it would happen, but it's looking likely. I meet with a worship keyboardist (who will probably be my editor/publisher), a designer, and a finale (music notation software) expert on June 5th to brainstorm. This is going to be an incredible tool for music teachers who want to teach this style, but only learned a classical background. Individual students with a solid classical and theory background could also use it and teach themselves. More details to come!

On the docket for today: exercise, Home Blessing, hang up my curtains, clean my kitchen, play outside, teach piano, eat roast and potatoes, website work, find a babysitter for Thursday night so we can see Indiana Jones with my family...I'm sure there's more. Maybe we'll just drop it all and play outside instead. :)

Chores

I've been starting to think about how I want to handle chores for our kids. Hannah is getting to the age where she can do some things. At this point, brushing her teeth, making her bed to the best of her ability, putting away the silverware, and putting toys in the toy basket are all things she can do. Audrey can even help pick up toys. I found this today. And this a few days ago. In fact, Dave Ramsey recommends starting to teach about money at age 3, along with giving an allowance.

Do your kids do chores? Any tips?

Um

Lots of you out there are big readers. Is this weird, or kinda cool? I can't decide.

On Survival Mode

I hate it, to begin with. Audrey was so sick this weekend, and when people are sick other things don't get done. I seriously woke up this morning to a kitchen full of pretty much every dish we own, dirty.

I have been thinking and praying about this quite a bit lately: why is it that I can't allow myself to just "be"? Much of my value is tied up in what I can accomplish. And I don't think I'm alone in that. Why do dirty dishes have the ability to make us feel like failures?

On Sunday night, Pastor Ross and his wife Aimee spoke at the Young Marrieds group at church. He married us, and we love them so much. They have this tenderness and affection that they constantly express for each other. Yet they are also playful and tease each other constantly. I love to watch them interact. Something that intrigues me is the fact that they often talk about expectations for each other. Aimee apparently doesn't do laundry much. All their clothes are either in the dirty basket or the clean basket. She never puts them away. Many women would feel so ashamed of that, and for their husband to tease about that, especially in public, would embarrass them deeply. He says about that, "I didn't marry her to do my laundry. I married her for her character, and because she's who I want my kids to be like." And he genuinely means it! And she just laughs and smiles.

Obviously they need to teach their kids to do laundry, and they talk about that. But the point is laundry is a small thing, not a big thing. Most of the things we get all tied up about are small things. Not having too many expectations for each other in our relationships is a topic for another day, and equally important. But I wonder, how can we avoid having too many expectations for ourselves?! How is she able to laugh about that? They're supposed to talk more next week, and hopefully I can get her to talk about that.

I have noticed recently that if the tone in our house is not light and playful during the day, it's usually either because I have expectations for myself that I'm not meeting, or I have expectations for Nick that he's not meeting. Yuck. I don't want to live that way!

It seems like much of life, especially with young children, is just surviving. They are unpredictable. Your best plans don't work. I hate survival mode because it makes me feel like I haven't accomplished anything of value. I don't want to make excuses for sloppy living though. How do you know the difference between "doing your best" and just plain being lazy?

I know this post isn't very well organized, but hopefully you'll get my meaning. I would love to hear everybody's thoughts, especially the "more experienced" voices here...Leslie? Kim? Jana? Anybody? :)

Monday Headlines

Good morning all,

1. Mother's Day was nice. I said this to several of my friends yesterday, but Mother's Day always strikes me as a funny thing. You take a hard working, selfless job (Motherhood) and try to celebrate it with a day that is all about you and what you want to do. It just doesn't really work that way very often. :) Audrey was pretty sick yesterday, so we stayed home from church. I got two homemade cards from the girls, and breakfast in bed. Later we played on the swingset with the girls. Then in the evening my parents came over to watch the girls so Nick and I could go to hear Pastor Ross and his wife Aimee speak at the Young Married's group at church.

2. Audrey had a really high fever for about 24 hours. Now she's just stuffed up and kinda quiet. I am so ready to be done with sickness for the season.

3. This was a busy week! We went to church last Sunday night, I had a rehearsal Monday night for my Tuesday worship thing (done for the summer now), Tuesday was our small group, Wednesday I had a Maeve Consultation. By Thursday I needed to stay home all day. Saturday I had a fitting for Maeve, and then Mother's Day... I feel like I keep backing out of things and something comes to take their place. Mainly it was a busy week for Maeve, I guess.

4. I made Cinnamon Raisin Bar Cookies yesterday. These are pretty stinkin' good, especially considering what's not in them (gluten, soy, dairy, egg, sugar). They're not super sweet, which I actually like because that means I will not black out every time I stand up for the whole next day after I eat a couple, but they have a chewy texture that is missing in most gluten free baking. Yummy. She uses flax seed meal in place of eggs - good way to add extra fiber and omega 3!

5. Random funny thing...Moses the cat has learned to turn off the bathroom light. Last night Nick took Hannah potty. He turned on the light, and Moses jumped up and turned it off again. He did that THREE TIMES!

6. I had been using Outlook for my email and calendar, but our old computer gets locked up very easily, so I decided to experiment with some other tools. Thunderbird is a much faster, much simpler, free email program. Along with Jott, and Remember the Milk, I've also been using Sandy. Sandy is pretty cool. Basically, you send it an email (or set it up with Jott and leave a voicemail), and add things to your calendar, tasks, or contacts. Then, Sandy will send you an email to remind you of whatever, whenever you asked for it. You can also access your list online. Remember the Milk is pretty handy for work stuff, but I like Sandy better for personal stuff, because then I don't have to have a long list of stuff in front of me all the time. Yes, I am a gadget person, and I love that there are so many free programs out there!

7. We're doing pretty well eating up all our fresh produce. I made chicken salads with maple-poppyseed dressing for dinner for Nick and me last night. We had broccoli with Apricot Chicken a couple nights ago. We've been eating fruit every day. I still have chard, spinach, beets, and one HUGE leek in the fridge. Those are the scary ones. Any brilliant ideas?

8. We did NOT get our tax rebate this week. :( We missed the fine print where it said that if you had preparation costs taken out, you would get a paper check by the end of June. We did Turbo Tax online and paid for it. Lame.

On that high note, I better go get our day started. Hope you moms had a great Mother's Day!

My Recipes

So, I've been working with Accuchef for a couple of weeks now, and I have to say, it really has made a difference. I can find recipes faster, it's easier to put together a creative menu with a shopping list, and if I find a recipe I want to try - it's a breeze to add it!

People often ask me how I learned to cook this way. The answer is trial and error! I have made many many things that did not taste good, but practice pays off. I have been cooking several meals a week since 2000, so I've had some time to experiment. So, with that said, here's a CSV file of my recipes. If you download Accuchef, you can also download this file and import it. Then, you should be able to view all the recipes easily. I could also make a PDF of them, if anyone is interested, but I didn't want to think that hard. Let me know if you want me to though, and I will. Some of the recipes in this file are favorites and some I haven't actually tried, but they all (with minor changes) represent the way we eat around here.

Please let me know if this is helpful to you, and feel free to share some of your favorites too - I can always use new inspiration!

Encouragement

This has been kind of a tough week for me, for various reasons. Staci sent me this site last week, and it has provided so much encouragement to me this week, both spiritually and in the food area. I have never found any site that had recipes with only things we can all eat! Plus, she uses all natural sweeteners. It's amazing for me to be able to cook straight from a recipe, without tons of substitutions that may or may not work. Plus, her food is SO good.

My cat takes baths

Don't look at my dirty tub that needs to be scrubbed, but our cat does this almost every night after the girls' bath. Is it not bizarre?

More Random Stuff

Have you seen Jott yet? Call a toll-free number, leave a message, and it transcribes it and emails it to you or anyone else you have on your contacts. You can even send it to Blogger, Remember the Milk, or a huge list of other stuff.

Yes, I'm a geek. You know you've left yourself voicemails so you don't forget something...

We had a consultation with another potential Maeve client last night. She wants a beautiful white mermaid strapless gown with a long black sash that ties in back. Emily is sketching it for us tonight. Maybe I'll post it tomorrow. We also have a first fitting with Renee on Saturday. We're excited!

My kids just got up. That was NOT a nap.

Got our produce delivery today. We pulled it out of the box and set it all over the table:
This was $38 worth. How much are we willing to bet on us actually eating all of this before it goes bad? I'm pretty determined. Wagers?

Hannah took this one:
We're off to gramma's house...

A couple of tangents...

1. I got a telemarketing call on the Maeve phone today, a guy wanting to design and market a website for us. I decided to go along with the call...after all, he's trying to do the same thing we're trying to do when think about it. I ended up telling him that we would love for him to design us a website, except that we are starting our business without debt and therefore have no money to pay for such a thing yet.

He stuttered a little, and said, "Excuse me? Without DEBT?!?" As if he wasn't sure he heard me right.
"Yes."
"How would you do that?"
"Well, we have alternate sources of income right now, and we have decided to put most of our profit back into the business in order to grow it, rather than taking out loans."

Since we've been Dave Ramsey followers for over a year now, I guess I forget what a novel idea this really is. Sad day...people cannot imagine being able to start a business without loans...

2. I have been thinking about time a lot lately. In the working world I was in for several years before kids, time=money. Efficiency is highly valued. Because my brain works very quickly, I was able to provide that efficiency, and was always praised for it. Kids do not value efficiency. They only want to know how important they are to their parents. They do not (at least at this age) care if they are on time or late, whether they accomplish much or little in a day, or even how they are perceived by other people. They only want to know their value.

If I'm not careful, I find myself constantly pushing or pulling against time. Things come too quickly or not quickly enough. There is no sense of rest, of trust. Even daily tasks become things to rush through, trying to get to the next thing. For what? Whose schedule am I on? Who am I trying to impress? Certainly not my kids. Nick doesn't ask that of me. So I can only conclude that I'm trying to prove my own worth, my own ability to do EVERYTHING.

Here's how this works out in my life: getting frustrated with Hannah for dawdling on her walk to the car because we're late? Not worth it. Working to have a spotless house when I haven't slept well the night before and I have an opportunity for a nap? Silly. I have small hearts I must protect, and I cannot do that on too little sleep. Committing myself to extra activities, even good ones, when I know my family has not had enough quality or quantity time together? Not gonna do it.

I'm becoming very purposeful about my time. That doesn't mean I'm scheduled to the minute and I can't stop for the important things. That means I slow down enough to see what's important.

Alright. Making myself some lunch, putting away groceries, and I'm off to take a nap.

Could it be?

Hannah has been wearing panties all morning, and has done incredibly. They say that all of a sudden, they are just ready for potty training. Could this be the day?

Monday Headlines

1. We've been having sleep issues around here again. Last night it was Audrey with a stuffy nose that was keeping her from being able to suck her finger. The night before it was Hannah because she was too hot and her diaper was wet, but Nick and I couldn't wake up enough to figure that out for an hour or so. I am so tired.

2. We had a nice relaxing weekend. Just mostly hung out around the house.

3. I have almost all of my recipes collected onto that recipe software. This thing is really nice. You can import recipes from website or emails with just a couple of clicks. Considering I had recipes in 5 different places, meal planning is going to be so much easier! I also plan to make my file available to download, if anybody wants to. This might be a fun way to exchange recipes...

4. New Maeve Bridal site is up, mostly. If you know anyone who is getting married and needs a gown or bridesmaid dresses, we'd love to make perfect ones for them.

5. The girls are both stuffed up this morning. Yuck. Hopefully we can knock that out before it gets bad.

6. Not much planned this week. I had kind of reached burnout point. Lately I've been wanting nothing more than to stay home, clean, talk to the girls, cook, and read. I actually got out a needle and thread and mended a couple of articles of clothing last week. I'll probably write a blog about time here soon. It's been on my mind.

That's about all I got this morning. I'm pretty worn out. Anything interesting going on with you guys?

5 a day?

As Nick and I were talking about something unrelated last night, we stumbled across talking about how we don't tend to eat enough fruits and vegetables around here. Now, that may surprise you, since I'm the resident health nut. But, we focus so much on protein for blood sugar stability and gluten-free grain, that sometimes, too often, the produce becomes an afterthought. Nick reminded me of Door to Door Organics. We did this a while back, but quit in an attempt to cut back on grocery costs. The problem is, we quit buying much fresh produce in the process of saving money. At our house, we work to prioritize money for healthy eating. Sometimes it requires sacrifices in other areas. I talk about this all the time...blah, blah, blah.

Anyway!

Door-to-door is a pretty cool thing. Weekly, they deliver to your door a box of organic, very fresh fruits and vegetables for a pretty competitive price. What I think we like most is the variety. Unless we want to shop at the expensive grocery stores, variety is sorely lacking in Colorado. You can make up to 3 substitutions if you absolutely cannot eat what is in your box for the week, but we love that it encourages us to try new vegetables, and experiment with recipes.

I just got the email about our box for the week, which I think will come on Thursday. Here's what's in it:

Pinata Apple
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
Red Leaf Lettuce
Local Spinach
Leeks
Green Chard
Carrots
Beets with Tops
Tangelos
Strawberries
Bananas
Avocado
Broccoli

Sounds pretty yummy, doesn't it?

Free Music

Did you go download your free copy of the new Coldplay single? It's a good one...

85%

This is information that, to me, demands action. I have a three year old. I know this is correct - maybe even generous to the parents some days. I will be thinking on this one...