Foodie

I am a foodie! I love to eat, BUT not just anything. I love to eat good food. Food with lots of flavor and seasonings, the fresher the ingredients the better, of course. My favorite foods are vegetables, (seriously, im not making that up) so there is another reason why summer is so awesome. Vegetables are abundant in the summer! But when I am pregnant, my taste buds and appetite change a little. (No I am not pregnant) When I am pregnant I want sweets and junk food and meat and french fries and anything that is easy to prepare. My last pregnancy I couldn't even eat salads because they grossed me out. Then after having my babes it takes me a while to get back to my normal self. My appetite for fresh veggies and healthier foods starts to come back. Six months seems to be my magic mark. With both girls by six months after having them I have been back to my normal eating habits. (And back to pre-pregnancy weight, YAY!) So the past few weeks I have been putting so much more effort in to meal planning and preparing good foods for my family. With a picky toddler and a little to no veggie eating hubby I have to be creative if I want them to eat well. I have started using this cook book. "Deceptively Delicious" was given to me by a friend when I had Nonah and I wasn't too intereseted in it at first. But I kept it just in case. Well it is brilliant! I love it. The basic jist is you steam and then puree fruits and/or vegetables and then freeze them to use when needed. Then she has a bunch of recipes on how to use the purees. You add it to things like mac n cheese or sloppy joes or spaghetti. So your family doesn't have a clue that they are eating veggies. Last night Nonah ate sweet potatoe for the first time since she was a baby because it was mixed into a sloppy joe, she had no clue. That is the only one I have made so far but I plan to make a lot more purees. I have also been making healthier breakfasts and lunch for Nonah and I. I was getting really lazy with what Nonah ate and Im very surprised at how well Nonah has accepted the change. There will be no more pop tarts served for breakfast. Thankfully she loves fruit so we always have fruit and then some sort of eggs or oatmeal or Gluten Free cereal or granola. (I still try to limit her gluten intake) Oh and she always has a yougurt for breakfast. For lunches we almost always have pickles and olives and some sort of tortilla chips and salsa. They are staples in this house. The other day we tried ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins) and she loved and ate 3 stalks of celery. Yay! Here of late I have been making hummus once a week which Nonah enjoys. My absolute fave summer lunch is gaspacho soup which is a cold tomatoe soup. We also eat lots of cucumber and tomatoe salads with a little lemon or lime juice on it. I guess I really shouldn't complain about a picky toddler because my girl eats all that stuff and not many kids I know would. For ideas for meals I have been going to this website that I found on Pinterest. I am not strictly following there plan or anything but I browse their meal plans and use some recipes or tweek it to what will work for us. Its really helpful. I never understood why my mom would complain about coming up with meal ideas but after doing it now for almost 7 years I get it mom! I need all the help I can get right now. Heres some yummy healthy recipes to check out if you're interested. Gazpacho Soup I have never added the sugar but might try that next time. Hummus This is a very basic recipe, you can all sorts of things to hummus like roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, your favorite spices or herbs, hot peppers, a different bean, the possibilities are endless. Also I don't always add the tahini just a little water and it turns out fine. Kale Chips These are so yummy. Noni and I ate these for breakfast the other day, she loves them! Guacamole We usually don't add the tomatoes or cayenne pepper and we don't always add the cilantro. Noni will lick the bowl she likes it so much. Goulash I made this the other night and was able to chop up kale red peppers and carrots really fine and everyone loved it. You could add all sorts of things to a dish like this. Another suggestion that a friend of mine made for me is dates wrapped in bacon. simply wrap up the dates with raw bacon and bake in the oven til bacon is as crispy as you want. They are soooooo good. I usually don't eat dates but these are delic. Noni actually does not eat this one. She eats the bacon but not the date. Thats all for now! I will post more recipe ideas as I find them!

Random sTuFF

I have been reading and discussing the book "The Mission of Motherhood" by Sally Clarkson with a few of my mama friends and it has been really good. It is a perfect encouragement for me right now. Being a mama is AMAZING but it has its challenges and this book is reminding me to embrace those challenges and all that comes with the amazing blessing of being a mama! So good. Speaking of mama, I am so in love with these girls!! We got a new baby carrier, an Ergo. It is super comfy and really easy to use which is what we wanted. I love it! And its a cool color. Evey seems to like it too! You may have noticed my Etsy button is gone from the right side of my blog. I am taking a temporary (possibly permanent) break from it right now due to time and finances. I still so when I feel inspired but I am not going to sell on Etsy. My mom actually sells crafts at a few different places and I am going to have her sell some of my stuff. I hope to be able to do more serious sewing in the future (like a long time from now) but for now its just a hobby that makes me happy! Evey girl is officially crawling! She also has been pulling herself up!! Getting so big! It's really exciting but I have to be very careful now, shes going to get into everything. I guess thats all for now! Heres some random pics from our week!!!! Happy Weekend!

Garden, flowers n Patio!

These are a few of my favorite things...about summer! I love the beautiful flowers, I love the satisfaction of growing our own food, and I love love love my beautiful patio. Sitting on it in the early morning with my morning coffee, eating dinner with my family on it, grilling, and relaxing in the evenings with my Petey and a glass of wine. I love that Noni loves being outside playing in her bucket of water or playing with chalk or bubbles. I love listening to the birds, watching the fireflies and looking at the stars! I just love it! Ok I will stop rambling.

Summer is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!! Hello sweet summer, oh how I have missed you so!!...Yes summer is here. And that makes me so happy! For some reason I always associate summer with schools letting out. Like its not really summer until kids are off from school, then its official! And we are ready! We have been doing lots of summer things around here! Strawberry Pickin swimming with cousins playing in the sprinkler that we got at a yard sale any and all kinds of water play is the best! can entertain for hours My favorite thing of all is grilling and eating dinner on our patio! We also got our garden done and all my flowers planted but that will be the next post!

Our week=Happiness

These girls make me so happy! she can really bounce in this now! Noni got a new (used) trampoline and is in love. (like the undies? long story) Yes that is Noni on our roof. Daddy took her up cuz he had to work on something. She did not move but loved and just was singing songs waiting for daddy to get done! Excited for a fun and beautiful summer weekend!!! Happy Weekend!

The Wright Girls

I'm Back!!

Did ya miss me?? We have been in vacation mode for 10 straight days!! Eight of them were spent down in the mountains of Tennessee with my in laws. And the last two were here at home. We had a great time in Tennessee. It is a looong drive (11 1/2 hours one way) for us and with our two girlies I was def dreading it. BUT on the way down we stopped in Virginia at spent the night at Peters Aunts house. That was so nice to break up the drive.

This big girl is now sitting up and both her and mama are luving it! Yay! And shes 7 months old!!!!!! We had a wonderful relaxing time. My in laws own a cabin rental business (check out thier website HERE)so we got to tag along with them while they did thier duties, we took a few hikes, played in thier creek, hung out on thier beautiful back deck, went in the hot tub many times (that was Noni's favorite thing to do), played games and had a campfire. Peter and I got to go on 2 dates while we were there and Noni and Evey got lots of Nee-Nee and Poppy time! (Thnx again Nee-Nee) There is no cell phone service there and very slow internet so we were "unplugged" for the week which was sooo nice. I really enjoyed not having to think about much and I could just be. I read almost a whole book which is a big deal for me. It always is so nice to be able to visit L and c. :) Oh and the absolute best part was I didn't have to think about or make any dinners. She took care of it all and Peter cooked one meal. It truly was a vacation for me. *smile* (U ladies know what Im talking about)

The amazing, fun, wonderful, sweet, generous, and beautiful NEE-NEE!

Buggie time!- another one of Nonis favorite things to do!

family hike!

Hot tub fun! It was raining in this pic.

Campfire and smores right by the creek! What more could you want?!?!

Noni would go off with Nee-Nee and Poppy as much as she could. She had so much fun "helping" them with things!

In honor of thier Grandkids they have named each of the cabins after each one and made a sign for them. Isnt that so sweet? I think it is so cute and adds such character to the cabins. I wanted a pic of the girls by thier sign but guess who wouldn't cooperate.

CHEESE! When I want to take her pic she says no way but if she wants me to take it she is all smiles!!!! The ride home was a little tough. We left at 1 a.m. thinking they would sleep most of the time. I was tired and cranky and Nonah whined off and on, did not sleep real great in her carseat and then had a melt down at about 2 hours to go. She just cried and screamed a little and didn't want to get out of the car at the gas station and was just miserable. Evey slept most of the time but also was really cranky the last two hours. But we survived and slept when we got home and did nothin the next day and are now all caught up on sleep. Now its back to reality!!!