Normal Again

Thank you everyone.  After yesterday's e-mails...messages...responses, I can really feel the love. ❤

Now my goal is to get things back to normal.  Normal schedules, normal meals, normal activities.  Here we go!...

Lunch yesterday was a plate of nachos (what's more normal than that? lol!)

A few chips and a LOT of spinach plus black beans, salsa, sweet pepper, avocado, cucumber (I never had cucumber on nachos before eating at Moe's, now I can't get enough!), nutritional yeast and some greek yogurt.

After lunch we went out to plant a sunflower that Kai got over the weekend.  On Saturday we went to my mom's Alma Mater, St. Mary of the Woods College, for their Earth Day Celebration.  There were information booths, crafts for sale, food and children's activities.  One of the booths gave Kai a sunflower she can plant at home. 

Of course Kai "didn't want to get her hands dirty" so I did the actual planting.  The girl has no problem with paint, chalk, markers or food caked on her but a drop of actual dirt and she'll freak out and demand a bath!


We found a nice sunny spot and planted it.

Then Kai added the water. :)

Now all I need is for it to grow/bloom instantly.  Kai checked on it a couple times yesterday but believe it or not, it still hasn't bloomed!!  I have a feeling this is going to be a long summer. lol!


After playing out side we came in for some snacks.  Kai made herself a fruit and sweet pepper plate (she's becoming more and more independent).  I made myself a Gingerbread Smoothie with extra spinach...

I also chopped up & snacked on a watermelon and a cantaloupe.  This is one side of my sink after snack time.  Add to it the corn husks & cobs from dinner and I REALLY need to make a trip outside to our composter.  

Speaking of dinner, the Hubs was grilling a pork chop so I pulled out my grill basket and added some asparagus, baby carrots and zucchini.

After grilling them on low for about 5-10 minutes I sprayed them with Olive Oil and a drizzle of Lemon Juice.  Olive Oil and Lemon Juice are now one of my FAVORITE veggie toppings, if you haven't tried it yet you must...immediately. :)

My dinner was a pile of the veggies, corn on the cob and a pile of lime-basil humus.

Then we all ate a lot of watermelon.  MMMMMMMM!!


After dinner I got to work on cleaning up our swing.  The canopy has been completely shredded over the last couple of years, and the pillows weren't looking too good either so for my birthday the Hub's bought me new pillows.  Then I bought a canopy on line, but when we got it the material was a cheep grey-tan color (so ugly!), it didn't actually fit and the seems ripped!!  I contacted the company and they gave me a full refund and said I could keep the canopy (anyone have a need for a cheep unusable canopy?).


Since plan A didn't work, we went to JoAnn Fabrics and actually found material that matches the new cushions exactly!!  (and we got the material for a little over half the cost of the cheep on-line canopy)

Then I cut apart the old canopy and used it as a template to sew a new one...

Yes, that's my sewing machine and my new serger!!  When I told my mom I was going to buy a serger she gave me her old one (she's had it for YEARS and never used it).  I also taught myself to use a double needle on my sewing machine.  There were a lot of slow starts but now I feel like I could make anything! lol!

The next step is to pant the swing frame itself.  We decided that since we're cleaning up the rest of it, why not also add a coat of new paint.  That's my goal for today....  :)