Long time no see

This summer has been rough! Husband home, kids home, work busy, etc.
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I've got a little bit of a break right now--hubby and son are at Boy Scout Camp. Son left with his troupe on Monday, and hubby left yesterday morning. Just me and daughter.
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I've felt kind of bad for daughter this week--I've been really busy with work and she keeps coming over to me and asking when I'll be done. I have to tell her I'm not sure. I guess I never realized how much she and her brother entertain each other. I kind of made it up to her yesterday--I took her out to dinner.
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I'm also having some lifestyle issues right now. It's easy to live a vegan lifestyle, but eating that way--not so easy. I have been just craving dairy--ice cream and cheese, mostly. I know what it is; it's stress. I am fighting getting back into that lifestyle that had me so fat. I used to eat when I was stressed, eat when I was happy, eat when I was with friends, eat when I was alone, etc. I've made successful alternatives for most of my eating triggers, but stress it so hard for me.
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And the thing is that even when I am eating something I'd rather not eat, I'm almost nauseous thinking about it but I keep on eating. When I have time, I've been trying to do some reading--stuff that got me motivated toward this lifestyle in the first place. The problem is that I haven't had much time lately.
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Lack of time and a feeling like I've had people looking over my shoulder is why I haven't been blogging lately. Today, with just daughter and I home and her watching a show, I feel like I have a moment.
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Oh, my garden! We had a ton of really good broccoli. Our cauliflower was buggy and gross so it got chucked. Our cabbages have been huge and wonderful. I need to go get the first of our zukes today (none at all and now I have 6 I can harvest). The tomatoes are just starting to ripen--we've had just a few and when they go, I'm going to have a million all at once. I have one yellow squish (yes, we call them squish at my house) I can harvest. My cukes are still a ways off.
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We've been eating in waves--all broccoli, all cabbage, and next is going to be all zucchini. When the tomatoes go, I want to dehydrate a bunch. We also had a bunch of cherries--We ate a ton, I made a cherry cobbler, and I put up like 6 quarts of them. I could have done like that many again, but they got wormy--gross.
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Well, that's my life right now. I need to get back to work.
Ciao for now.

Whew, I have been busy

I can't truly say why--work, family, etc. but nothing horribly out of the ordinary.
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So here's "It's a Small World". They changed it since the last time we were there--they added dolls dressed in Disney movie character outfits. It was kind of fun trying to find them all. Here are two kids and some pirate's treasure. When I was a kid, the island at Disneyland was called "Tom Sawyer's Island"; now it's the "Pirate's Lair". They change things to keep current. Their shirts, by the way, came from Excalibur in LV. Several Disney employees noticed them and commented that they were "Phantasmic" shirts. Nope, sorry.

And here, as I promised, is a picture showing the crowds. There were lines up because a parade was supposed to be starting in about 45 minutes, but the crowds were like that all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Thursday morning was better and Friday we were at California Adventure and it wasn't nearly as bad.

So I'll give my vacation a rest now. How about on to some food?

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Sunday, son wanted pancakes for breakfast. I took my regular recipe and tweaked it a bit and they came out light, fluffy, and wonderful. I think they were the best I've ever made! I took the recipe and wrote out my tweaks so (hopefully) I can replicate the results. The were 100% whole wheat and had banana instead of egg and no dairy. I was impressed--usually when I make pancakes they are really hit or miss. One time they will be good and fluffy, the next time they will fall flat and have a crepe texture, or something like that.

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Saturday we went to the farmer's market and got Bok Choy--it was the first time I had ever had it. I stir fried it with onions, peppers, and garlic and a touch of teriyaki sauce. It was really good. Hubby said the leaves were tough but he liked the rest. We also got a big head of red romaine lettuce. I had several huge salads out of it.

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I need to harvest the garden again. I wish our tomatoes, squash, bell peppers, and cukes would get ripe--we are still at broccoli, onions, and kale.

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Well, I think I'll get back to work.

Ciao for now.

Reliving my vaca--a little bit at a time

Here are the kids out in the ocean on the beach at Newport, CA. Son was a little freaked out about the seaweed. But they had a great time. We walked up the pier and back and then played in the ocean for about an hour and a half and then had dinner at Rockin' Baja Lobster. Here are my kids in the stockade--they really got in trouble at Legoland and I had to lock them up.

And speaking of Legoland, I thought the bathroom signs were really cute. Little Lego people that had to go potty.

Well that's enough vaca for today--coming tomorrow (maybe): Disney crowds and pirate's treasure.

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For lunch today, I made a broccoli and kale salad (garden kale) with nut cheese mixed in. Son said it was good, but he didn't eat very much of it.

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Last night dinner was sauteed veggies with olives, mushrooms, and a can of diced tomatoes served over whole wheat pasta. CCV mentioned yesterday about putting vinegar in stuff, so I put a bit in the veggies and it really added something. I make a pasta with capers and marinated artichoke hearts in it and the vinegar in my regular veggies gave them a similar flair.

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Today, daughter is over at a friend's house and hubby is helping another friend out with some work on his place. So it's just son and I. I could get used to this (although it is better with both kids in school and hubby working).
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Also, I have exercised 2 days in a row. (Yeah Me!) And my relationship with food is getting back to where it needs to be. (Yeah Me, again!) I just need to keep going.

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Well, back to work.

Ciao for now.

Garden Bounty

Here's a pic of us at LegoLand last Wednesday. When we got back, even though it had rained the whole time we were gone, our garden had really jumped up. Yesterday we basked in some of the bounty.
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For lunch, I had a kale salad made with two kinds of kale from my garden.
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For dinner we had broccoli from the garden. (Does anyone know if broccoli keeps producing or if once you harvest the crown it's done?)
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That's all I have right now. Son is working, daughter is watching TV (I really need to get her busy this summer), and hubby is at a doctor's appointment. I'm back to work.
Ciao for now.

We're Back--a little bug eyed and big eared, but back

We made it and we had a wonderful time! We did Disneyland, California Adventure, LegoLand and Newport Beach. This is a pic of the kids after we saw the 4-D show, "It's Tough to be a Bug". They have their bug eyes on and their ears on--so cute.
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There were a lot of people in Disneyland! I have never seen that many people there! So Sunday and Monday were a bit frustrating because of that, but the rest of the time was good.
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In Newport, we walked out onto the pier and there were people fishing all over. The kids were really interested when one guy brought up a sand shark. So another guy showed us a sand shark he had on a rope swimming around under the Pier. It was disgusting--the rope was like through the poor shark's nose and he was just swimming around down there. It kind of made me nauseous. We did have fun at the beach, though.
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I didn't stay vegan while gone, but did stay vegetarian. I had some items made with milk and eggs but I'm not going to beat myself up for it--overall, the world is still a better place for the choices I make. I eat the way I eat as a choice and I made the choice to change it up a bit for vacation. (I actually had planned on eating better while gone, but got frustrated at the lack of choices since we had to eat out for every meal.)
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Saturday, lunch was at a Mexican place and there was a rolled up tortilla left over. So on Sunday, we gave the dried up old tortilla to Little Girl. She was so proud of that silly tortilla! She carried it around in her mouth all day Sunday and until it got too soggy to stay together on Monday. It was like "I got a tortilla from Disneyland!". Silly dog.
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Well, I ought to get back to work.
Ciao for now.

I'm out......

Just letting you all know that I won't be blogging for a couple of weeks. I'll give full details when I get back. (When I get back and caught up, that is.)

Yes, we have no bananas

So I'm almost out of everything fresh, but we do have a good supply of bananas! Got some yesterday because I couldn't deal with no bananas. I had one yesterday afternoon, one in my oatmeal for breakfast and will probably have another here after a bit for a snack.
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Things at work are starting to move along so I'll be in a good place to leave for vacation. Tomorrow, I'll work, do laundry, and we'll all pack and then we're off Saturday morning. Can't wait.
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My folks were exceedingly nice yesterday. I needed new batteries for my old camera (actually, it was a hand me down from my parents) and it takes special expensive ones and I hadn't had time to go shopping for them. Dad actually did some shopping for me and told me where I could get the batteries and how much they'd be etc. but I never got around to getting them. So yesterday, he called me and said that they had a camera I could use that just uses regular batteries. It is a really nice one and it's small (my old one is a huge beast). Thanks Dad!
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It has been really weird weather here. Just a few minutes ago, the sky opened up and we had rain like we rarely have. It's still coming down, but not nearly so hard. The sky is still rumbling.
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Son's building with his Lego's and daughter is playing the Wii. And I'm just finishing with lunch (a steamed sweet potato and a bocca burger w/ Veganaise on Ezekiel bread).
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I've got to go out to the bank here in a bit--I hope it quits raining soon.
Ciao for now.