holiday beach day

 At the store picking up some juice and snacks (which I later regretted haha)

 He was excited to go

 The water used to be up to where the grass starts when I was younger

 Carried him over the hot sand

 There were lots of boats out

 For someone who asks to go to the beach all the time he didn't want to stay in the water long. I think I'll bring him somewhere else next time.

 I'm passing on my love of insects, one bug at a time

 Then we came home to a hot house, bathed, had grilled chicken for supper and played until bedtime

 I saw what I think was a juvenile Eagle out my window this morning. it was HUGE

Day 1 of Jillian's Body Revolution. I'll post what I ate all day tomorrow since I am not totally sure yet what i will eat. The workout was NOT EASY even though I had gotten well past it in her plan before. What 2 months of shitty eating can do to ya! I will give myself a good two weeks before i do a weigh in. Wish me luck!

 sometimes i do let my cats outside. its not a safe area for them though unless i'm out there with them

 my brainstorming on this week's healthier meals. lean protein, vegetables and whole grains

 always need to leave myself reminder notes

 i love tiny oranges

 and we have our first jalapeno!

 i apparently decided to cook on one of the hottest days so far. but we're going swimming later so it sort of evens out

 beginnings of a leek potato random vegetable puree soup

 brown rice i will section and eat over the week with lean protein and veggies

 busted out and dusted off this old baby, its going to make me some pulled pork tacos later this week, which i will wrap in lettuce, not tortillas

 this Kong Zoom Groom is awesome for pets that shed a lot. I have collected large amounts of fur off not only my pets but the fabric of my couches using this. its like a very effective broom

 more radishes from the garden

 i added some to my salad

 and some to my soup

 This pot belonged to my grandmother, who passed away prematurely before even my oldest brother was born some 40 years ago. My father kept a lot of her kitchen belongings

 My deck broke!

 Well one board...my husband and I better take some carpentry classes. Just from someone walking on it. The deck is about 20 years old now. I didn't keep up with painting it often enough either.

 Before it was blended

I added some quinoa to my vegetables and its now sitting in the fridge until we come back from swimming

 2:1 white vinegar to olive oil, a good amount of salt (yeah i know), some pepper, lots of oregano and the crappy dried grated parmesan cheese

After my soup was blended, I made a lunch out of one portion and froze 5 others

 so bad but so good

 for the short time my cousin is in town, i get to enjoy random trips to wherever, which is her style. she took us to a river in the woods that my car isn't too good at getting to

 my son loooooves water

 pretty soon his little runners were soaked

 and of course i go searching for animals

 and ate snacks

 pretty bugs!

 and i love when i can pass on knowledge i learned in school and keep it fresh in my mind. i showed my son these caddisfly rock houses on the bottom of a bigger rock. they live in there and filter feed until they become an adult and come out of the water

I am finished my experiment and am finally getting over ANOTHER summer illness that was going around in my extended family and of course i contracted it, so now all i have to focus on is evening classes and beginning to sort through my data and write my thesis. i am not sure how quickly i need to report back to my professor with the data but i do know he will be out of town all next week during which time i should get it all entered into excel and have at least the materials and methods written. I will also have time to restart Jillian Michaels Body Revolution. It's not the workouts I'm worried about, it's the eating. I will need to wean myself off of bad food again, and too much coffee, and booze. Why is summer my excuse to go absolutely insane and ruin my body? Cuz it's fun I guess, and I still think I'm a kid when I am soooooo not. Well, getting up and trying again! That should count for something.