CSA 12 plus a few random updates

We were very excited about this box this week.

In addition to our staples, like lettuce, strawberries, carrots and avocados, we got some zucchini this week, green beans, bean sprouts, limes and oranges. We also got apples and cantaloupe! You have to imagine two more little apples because they didn't make it home and into the picture :-D. We got basil, thought about trading it, but were too late to trade it for anything but more carrots, which we didn't need even more than basil (we still have carrots from last week, and plenty growing in the garden as well.) So we decided to keep the basil, at least its something I don't have to pick. I don't really like cantaloupe, but Blake does, so that's still great.

The reason we ate the apples already is because we were coming home from the Orange County fair. We go every year, mostly to walk around and see things, and because its a tradition since I was little. We get really excited about the fair food... and then we eat it... and decide we miss our fruits/veggies! So, yesterday we had a interesting corn dog that was a hot dog, inside a zucchini, and then dipped in the corn and fried. It was pretty good :-) We also had some fresh chips with a jalapeno cheese sauce, which we enjoyed until we ran out of sauce, and then we didn't eat much more of it. For dessert, we shared a plate of chocolate dipped raspberries and boysenberries. It was all good... but we wanted some straight fruits and vegetables, that were not dipped in chocolate or fried! So we picked up our box, looked inside it for what we could eat immediately, and found some of the apples, and they disappeared on the ride home. We also had some wheat toast with avocado on it to satisfy our craving for more food that wasn't fair food. :-)

In other news, I spent Tuesday with my good friend Erin, and her two adorable kids Elaynea and Jeremiah. It helped me realize just how tough kids are, and I was happy to lend her a hand throughout the day as times came up that she had to focus on one or the other. Elaynea is going through potty training now, so much of our conversation included interruptions to check if she was still dry, and if she needed to go. :-) She is talking up a storm now, although you can't always understand her (Erin translates sometimes... and sometimes she can't even figure out what Elaynea is trying to say!). I brought some books over that were in my 2nd grade classroom that I don't need for 4th for them to get some enjoyment out of before we have kids or I go back to a primary grade, and she really enjoyed them. Her favorites were the ones where it was about counting candies.


She doesn't totally get counting yet, but it is so cute! She does pretty well up to 5, but after, she can sometimes get up to eight, and then she just keeps repeating seven, eight, seven eight etc. Also, sometimes I would ask her to count the M&M on the page and she would tell me what color it was instead. :-) Oh, and she definitely has a 2yr old attention span, at least when I was there, we never made it through a book before she grabbed another one, or a doll, or asked mom for a snack etc. She definitely loved me though, and would frequently choose to hold my hand instead of mom's as we crossed streets, sometimes she wanted me to carry her. Towards the end of my visit, she fell asleep on my shoulder. (awww.... so cute!!!!).


Jeremiah was cute in his own way as well, but he is only 9 months old, so he is harder to interact with. He was interested in everything I was doing with Elaynea, and wanted to grab the books we were looking at, and when we ate lunch, he was very intent on trying to grab anything within reach (so we spent lunch finding out exactly what was in his reach, and having to move it). He doesn't like sitting still, so most of the time Erin or I (mostly Erin) was bouncing him, and singing to him. He definitely likes attention.

Overall it was a really fun time hanging out with Erin and her kids, and I hope that we can get together at least one more time before the summer ends.


The last update is that we recently watched the movie Food Inc. and learned a lot more than we knew before about our food. The biggest impact it had on us is that we realized that while we are fairly careful about what produce we eat (CSA or organic from the store for the most part), we have not thought about our meat... at all. Its not even about the chemicals that go into most meat products out there in stores and restaurants, its more about how the animals are treated during their lifetimes! Neither of us want to become vegetarians after watching this, but we do want to be more conscious about only buying and eating meat that was treated nicely before it was our food. I won't go into more details for anyone that doesn't want to know them, but if you are interested, watch Food, Inc., it will really change the way you think about what food you are eating. The saddest part is that except for Chipotle, In and Out, and possibly Chick-fil-A, we won't be eating meat at restaurants much anymore, if at all. (I know, we already screwed up yesterday at the fair... its really hard to try to live that conscious of your food!).

Anyways, there are my latest updates!

Improv Everywhere

Transitions

Today Blake and I spent 5 hours moving me from my 2nd grade classroom to my 4th grade classroom. I think by the end I actually felt really good about the move. Blake was amazing (even just for how long we spent there) because he helped me sort through the various things I had in my classroom, and he helped me figure out what goes where in my new room. He also said that he will give up another weekend day sometime soon to help me organize more in depth in the new room.

I think the weirdest thing is letting go of my old classroom. It has been my room for 4 years, and I am comfortable there. I know what I put on the bulletin boards and the windows, I know what to teach, I know what to expect.

But at the same time... its exciting having a new arrangement to try to figure out. I am really excited to teach the 4th grade curriculum, and I am starting, slowly but surely to not only accept the grade change, but to look forward to it, to be excited about this new phase in my teaching career. Mentally making the shift from 2nd to 4th instead of going through the motions. I think moving today has put me past the halfway mark... and that's good.

My 2nd grade "term" has ended, here's to a great 4th one!

Eye Color

Did you know that eye color can change over time?

I had no idea, till it happened to me! I had always been told that I had brown eyes, and had it on my driver's liscense etc. but I have been looking closely at my eyes lately, and decided that they were hazel.

I conferred with others, asked them to look at my eyes in the last few months, and everyone agrees, there is definitely green in them.

Last night I was looking at pictures of me, and zooming way in on my eyes, and I found a recent one where my eyes look more green than brown! But I also have pictures of myself as a kid, and I looked at those too... and my eyes as a child were completely brown... pretty dark brown.

So my next search was if eye color can change over time, and sure enough... it can! As a matter of fact, it does for 10-15% of Caucasians! So... my eyes were brown... but now they are hazel, and they could continue to lighten. See:


The left is a picture of my eye as a child, and the right is a more recent picture of my eye (and wrinkles!)

The only question is... do I need to change my driver's license now? (jk)

Zumba and World War 2

Yesterday I went to the most fun workout class I have ever been to- Zumba!

Online at LA fitness they call it "latin heat" probably for copyright reasons, but the class was introduced as zumba, and I almost felt like I was tricked into working out while I was just having fun dancing.

Every song we did a separate routine, none complicated, but I definitely got a workout because I was sweating by the end... which was actually almost 15 minutes late, and I didn't even care!

The definition of a zumba class according to the wikipedia is:

"The Zumba workout provides fitness benefits because its routines feature interval training sessions with fast and slow rhythms and resistance training, which are intended to tone and sculpt the body while burning fat.^[6]

Music is the key ingredient to Zumba classes. The score, created with specific beats and tempo changes, transitions the workout from one toning, strengthening or cardio move to another, and targets every major muscle group in the body. The Zumba program borrows Latin flavor from the following dance styles: Cumbia, Salsa, Merengue, Mambo, Flamenco, Chachacha, Reggaeton, Samba, Belly dancing, Bhangra, Hip Hop, and Tango. "

I just wanted to share how much fun I had in this class and I encourage anyone who hears about a class like this at their gym... go! I am by no means a good dancer, but I didn't even care, we were laughing, joking, enjoying the music and having a good time. I plan to continue going to this class instead of spin class. Lots of cardio in both, but one is much more fun.

The other topic of this blog is WWII, and this is just on my mind from reading Blackout by Connie Willis (only part 1 of two books, but very interesting read).

After I finished the book, I wanted to learn more about the Blitz and London's struggles. It was just amazing to learn what the people of London put up with during the Blitz. I know some of WWII history, but I never really studied the Blitz itself, or the fact that London stayed open and working and functioning while having to go into shelters almost every night for almost a year and never knowing if when they came out it was their house or their workplace that was destroyed. For a huge chunk of time, kids from great loving families were shipped off to other countries or the countryside of London to be raised by other people to protect them. Can you imagine? You as a parent miss 4 or more years of your son or daughter's life to just keep them safe? Some kids returned to visit during these times, but not all.

The shelters were sometimes tiny! Although there were underground shelters, and background shelters, some people used Morrison shelters, which looked like a box, that was 6 feet wide, 4 feet across and 2 feet 6 inches high. Wow! That's tiny! Can you imagine having to go there every night when the siren goes off, and stay there until it says its done.

I was curious why anyone would stay there during this intense time of bombing, why wouldn't you just leave? What I found is that it was from intense patriotism. Hitler wanted the London people to get so tired of bombing that they would push the government to surrender, that's why it was almost every night for almost a year (and then resumed later for another chunk of time). Instead, the London people "fought back" by keeping stores open, keeping factories going, continuing to work through all of the problems caused by having your city being bombed each night so that you could show Germany that you were not going to back down, you were not going to give in, and you could stand by your country's fight, no matter what it took! Crazy.

I saw this video too, and it shows exactly what I am talking about. It is a period video that was put on youtube. It's a bit long, but I found it very interesting.

CSA 11 and pets

Changing up the format here a bit, mostly because I didn't post the last box, but also because it's easier this way.

Yesterday's box included green beans, carrots, zucchini (the yellow lemon like things in the front), avocadoes, limes, strawberries, lettuce and yellow watermelon. We traded basil for an orange because we have tons of basil growing in our garden, and we love her oranges. We actually also traded boxes... the first one that we opened (which is usually the one we take, we only open it for trading purposes) had a small head of lettuce mostly mushed under the watermelon. We love the fresh lettuce, I planned a meal around this lettuce, and a small crushed head was not going to cut it if at all possible. So we looked at the box under it, and sure enough there was a lovely large head of red lettuce (even better than the green to us!) on top of the watermelon in that box. So we took it.


Obviously the watermelon isn't yellow on the outside... its yellow on the inside. I think it tastes better than regular watermelon, Blake thought they tasted the same.

Blake has made a valid point on the CSA boxes... they are not really saving us money. In fact... they are probably costing us extra considering that if I bought all of the produce at the store, it would definitely not be 35 dollars this week. Some weeks it might be closer, especially when you consider it is all organic, but it probably never pencils out financially.

BUT... I still am glad to be doing it. It hurts knowing that I am not cutting costs in an area where I could, but there are many reasons that I still enjoy the boxes, even though they are not saving money.

1- I love that its supporting a local farm. Sprouts tries to buy local whenever possible, which is part of the reason that we go there for other things, but I know that that money every week goes to a specific farm about an hour away, and that it is helping her keep her farm.

2- I love that its all organic. There is an organic section of Sprouts, but they don't have all of the same things that she has organic. Also, for some reason, it is easier for me to see a big chunk disappear at the beginning of a quarter for my organic produce than it is for me to buy a 2 dollar bunch of cilantro when I see the 50 cent bunch of (non organic) cilantro just a few steps to the right. (sometimes I still do it, sometimes I cave and get the cheap one).

3- I love that its fresh. There are some things that aren't a huge difference, like zucchini... but there are other things, like lettuce, where it is night and day getting it fresh from a farm versus sitting in a store for a few days/a week etc. I have been spoiled by fresh produce since I was little and my dad had a garden in the backyard. I learned what tomatoes tasted like by tasting ones that had been on a plant a few minutes earlier. There is no turning back from that! Honestly, even when our tomato plant is not in season, I can only buy tomatoes that have ripened on the vine in the store. All other tomatoes are not even worth it. I know... I am a tomato snob.

4- I love the forced variety each week. There is no chance of us getting set with a few meals that I make every week because the boxes are different each week. So far, no two boxes have been exactly the same. And I have tried vegetables that I had never had before like kale, swiss chard, beets, etc. because of these boxes, and as the seasons change, I know there will be more. I have liked every thing that I have tried... well... radishes are still a tough one... but I liked them in some forms...

5- It forces us to eat fruits and vegetables. We are good at this now, even without the box, but before Blake decided to change his life and get healthy, there would be many meals in the week that wouldn't have a fruit or a vegetable. I don't think we would go back to this, but getting all the fresh produce keeps us from this potential fate.

Anyways, we decided that while it might not be worth it financially to do the CSA boxes, it is still worth it to us because of the other benefits of it. It doesn't get any more green either, buying local, seasonal produce, supporting an organic farmer etc.

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I also wanted to steal a moment on here and talk about my pets, because they haven't gotten to be on my blog in a long time. The main reason for this is that I like having pictures of them when I talk about them, and although amazing photo opportunities happen all the time... by the time I get my camera, they move. Sigh.



So here is a recent picture of Roxie, laying on one of her favorite spots in the house... the top of the couch. It never gets fluffed back up to its proper height because this one thinks its a great place to lay. She really is a happy dog... though she doesn't look like it in the picture. Hanging out with her this summer I have seen that she is really quite content spending the majority of the day napping in various locations.



Here is a picture of Argon. He really no longer looks like a kitten (which is good, since he is a year and a half now), but he has beautiful coloring. I took a bunch of him last night, but this one is my favorite.



And here is a picture of the two of them. One of the activities that I love to watch them do is chase bugs (like flies) that get in the house. They work together, running around, watching the insect, and sometimes even chattering to each other. If the bug is unfortunate enough to land in a spot where they can get to, they even will catch it and eat it. Maybe that's too much information for you... but I think that its really cool that they get to do some hunting in the house, and they save me the trouble of taking care of the insect myself. :-)

They also spend a lot of the morning chattering about the birds that are outside near our windows. Actually, we think that some birds are making a nest in our front door wreath... not sure what to do about that lol.

Colorado Part 2 Saturday and Sunday

My blog has been sadly neglected lately... and the sad thing is that I am not even sure what I have been so busy with lol.

I have officially decided to abandon my cookie project. I don't usually quit things, but when you start doing something for fun, and it becomes a chore, then it seems to me that it should be time to stop, especially when it is something that increases grocery bills and calorie intake :-).

I was not feeling great on Wednesday, so I just put away my CSA box without taking a picture, but it had a lot of citrus, which was exciting (oranges and grapefruit), many of our regular things like avocadoes, lettuce and cucumber, and then the big new thing this week was green beans. There is my twenty second update on that.

Okay, so on Saturday in Colorado, Blake and I had our one leisurely morning in our hotel room, and decided to do it right with room service delivered to our room, ordered the night before, so it just arrived shortly after we woke up. It was a wonderful morning enjoying the scenic view, eating a nice breakfast on our patio.

Then we joined my brother and my parents as we drove on our many excursions that day.

Our first stop was interesting because my brother picked it, but I think Blake and I enjoyed it the most- a dinosaur museum! Blake and I actually really enjoyed looking at these various fossils, bones and replicas and learning all about these amazing creatures.


The next few hours were just okay as we drove out to a little town known as Cripple Creek. It was advertised as a ghost town, and the town itself is very old, but in the early 90's gambling was legalized there, so it seemed like Vegas in the sheer amount of Casinos in such a small space. My brother wanted to go there to get some good pictures, which he did, but it wasn't even a highlight for him.


On our way back from spending the morning driving there and back (it was an hour away) we went to Cave of the Winds. My mom didn't have an interest in walking around the cave, so when we found out we were waiting an hour for the next tour anyways, my dad drove her to the Indian cliff dwellings nearby for her to explore, and then returned to take the tour with us.

I really enjoyed most of our cave tour, though there were some very tight spaces that I had to fight claustrophobia, but even so it was very interesting to learn about caves and the history of the cave.

After our tour was over, we picked up my mom and went back to the hotel. I had booked reservations for all 5 of us to go to the Flying W Ranch, but my mom and brother decided that they didn't really want to go. So, my dad, Blake and I headed off to the ranch for dinner.

They had a few activities around the town before dinner, but what caught our attention most was someone cleaning a horse's hooves, and then putting horseshoes on. Dinner was good, but the evening entertainment (a cowboy style singing group) was fantastic! I had such a good time there that I was reluctant to leave early, but we wanted to beat the crowd, besides we had an early call the next day for our hot air balloon ride.

Sunday morning was really early. We had to be in the south lobby at 5:15am for the balloon ride. This was just the three of us again (dad, Blake and I). I had never been on a hot air balloon ride before, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was slightly less interesting at the beginning because our pilot was having trouble finding a wind current that morning, but eventually he found one, and it became really exciting. The landing was less than perfect because although the balloon landed upright, it was not staying that way, and eventually the pilot just let us know that the basket was going to tip over, and we were going to have to get out sideways, which was interesting lol. Some of my favorite pictures from the whole trip were actually from the balloon ride.

We got back to the hotel fairly early still, about 9 (crazy to think how much we did and were back by 9 lol), and the only plan that we had at this point was to meet up for lunch after my dad and brother went to the Colorado Springs Apple store. Blake and I thought about what we wanted to do for the morning, and I think we found the perfect way to spend the morning... we found some chairs by the hotel's lake, and we read our books. For an avid reader like myself... this is a little piece of heaven. :-)

After lunch and a little more hotel time, we went to the Academy Riding Stables to go horseback riding. This time, everyone except my dad went. My horse's name was Bonita. It was a fun experience, but I wished I could go a bit faster, and unfortunately, I felt like I spent the majority of the ride making her slow down because she kept getting too close to Blake's horse! All four of us agreed it was an interesting experience that we wouldn't mind doing again. The scenery was okay (it was at the Garden of the gods), but the real highlight was the horseback riding.

Dinner that night was interesting as well because we went to a restaurant that specializes in more unique food, like ostrich, venison, wild boar, elk and buffalo. Between the five of us we tasted all of them! Our collective favorite was the ostrich, which after sharing the appetizer with the four of us, my brother actually ordered some more for himself. :-) I appreciated the fact that our last meal was somewhere unlike anywhere we could eat in California (I feel like I "waste" meals if they are identical food I could eat at home).




*The pictures above are a combination of my pictures, my brother's pictures and my dad's pictures (when Grant wasn't there), but the pictures below are my brother's pictures of Thursday and Friday events.