Drop Dead Healthy

I checked out the audiobook Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs from the library.  He spends two years trying to become as healthy as he possibly can be, consulting experts in many fields and experimenting on himself. Jacobs refuses to eat birthday party cupcakes, physically runs all of his errands, tries a myriad of diets (one had him coveting lettuce), and practices cursing for pain management. 

It was interesting and I learned many ways to improve health, from the obvious, like eating more vegetables and fruits to the harder sells, including creating a treadmill desk, to the ridiculous, such as wearing pedestrian helmets. 

Whee!

Babyface is currently going through a climbing phase.  We go to the playground regularly and he plays outside every day.  I've been keeping my eye out for an inexpensive outdoor play structure for the yard.  

My mom recently visited and I mentioned to her that someone in my neighborhood has a play structure (like the one pictured) in the front yard and that I have never seen any kids playing on it. 

Outdoor climbing cube with slide

Never one to let a potential bargain go by, my mom knocked on the door, introduced herself, and found out that the owner was getting a new outdoor climbing  structure and would be happy to pass hers down to me.  So if anyone wonders, the apple did not fall far from the frugal tree. 

Lo and behold, two weeks later I get a message saying we can pick it up.  My Heart's Desire and I disassembled it, brought it home, and gave it a good scrub.  Babyface loves it!  He likes crawling in and out, climbing up the sides, hiding under the platform, and going down the slide.  He calls it Wheee!  

(You won’t believe they're) Vegetarian Tacos

For many years I have been a flexitarian.  Lately I've been including even more meatless meals into my repertoire.  I made these tacos for the first time and was surprised that they turned out to be excellent!  I didn't tell My Heart's Desire they were veg and after dinner, he told me he was glad I was using real meat.

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1/2 c chopped onion (of course I use frozen)
1 box Smart Ground
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 can black beans
2t minced onion
1/4t chili powder
1/2t crushed red pepper
1t seasoned salt
1t cumin
1t garlic powder

These are very easy to make.  Heat up the olive oil and cook the onion.  Add the Smart Ground and break it up thoroughly.  If you're not familiar, it's protein crumbles that are the same texture as ground meat.  I find them with the other hippie foods in the produce section. Let the Smart Ground cook for about 5 minutes.

I rinse off the beans to reduce sodium then toss them in the pan with the remaining ingredients.  Then stir, stir, stir. Add 1 c of water and turn the heat up until it boils.  Turn the heat down and let it simmer for a little bit.  This makes a pretty big batch of (non) meat.

Delicious vegetarian taco salad

We ate it for dinner as tacos.  Then I had it another time as a taco salad, My Heart's Desire ate it as a tostada, then as taco nachos.  Babyface had it for dinner and liked it as well. We added cheese, sour cream, salsa and guacamole but if you eliminated the dairy toppings you'd have a vegan meal.

Grateful

Today I am grateful for air conditioning, acceptance, being Babyface's mom, important women in my life, glasses, finally getting more ponytail holders (where do they all go?), a great mechanic for my 13-year-old car, and being able to ask for help.

Nesting

When I was pregnant, I was too busy being exhausted, scared, and happy to think about nesting.  I let My Heart's Desire (who is a very handy man) be in charge of creating a nursery.

We went back and forth about making the guest room (the bigger room) the nursery or my office (the smaller room with a tiny closet).  The pros for making the guest room the nursery was that it was bigger and could fit more baby stuff and comfy spots for us.  The con was that a single bed would barely fit in my office and we needed a nice place for guests.  So they could stay and help with Babyface, of course.

Home office

My Heart's Desire did a great job making my office a lovely nursery.  He put the crib together, got the changing table from Craigslist, and made space for my office stuff in other rooms.  He also sorted the baby clothes by size so that we'd have what we needed handy.

I thought I had successfully avoided nesting.  I had no interest in painting, organizing, deep cleaning, or similar.  After this picture was taken My Heart's Desire even installed wall to wall carpet tiles, making it the coziest room in the house.  I'll take a picture of how the nursery looks now and post it soon.

Nursery before baby came home

Lately I've been feeling like I want to get rid of anything unnecessary.  So far I've sold a few things online (having a virtual yard sale on Craigslist) and made several trips to Goodwill.  Three years later, my instincts kicked in and I want things to be as simple as possible.