The Ginny Bug

Dear Virginia,

Today, little one, you are eleven months old. I can't fathom where the time has gone. You are all too quickly growing up before my very eyes. The quick transition from baby to toddler has begun earlier than I imagined possible. You are definitely your own little person--full of personality and fun.

Sometimes we just might refer to you as a wild animal, you crazy girl. You love to climb and crawl and go go go. Today I set up an elaborate "gate" to keep you from going into the back part of the apartment. You won every time. No matter how I arranged those chairs, you climbed under, over, and around. It was truly impressive.

You are days (hours?) away from figuring out how to climb on the couch. And then I don't know how I will possibly keep the computer safe from your pounding little fists. But, oh!, the look of delight it gives you to do it. It's completely endearing.

Speaking of endearment, you are permanently endeared to your brother. Who, by the way, does not completely deserve it. He can be pretty viscous now and again in his undying efforts to keep you from his toys or books. But when he beacons, "walk to Raymond?" you always respond. When he shouts, you shout. When he laughs, you laugh. When he asks, "what does the elephant say, baby?" you make a raspberry every time.

I am actually (crazily??) looking forward to you figuring out walking this month. You stand up on your own and can keep your balance fairly well, all until you try to lunge forward. You love to grip my fingers and walk around the house. You soon will be running, I can tell.

Your favorite things to do are pull books of shelves (which you do at an alarming rate), "read" to yourself, explore new places, eat wood chips at the park, swing, eat (eat! My I should write a whole paragraph about how you love to eat!! You eat better than your brother does), and sit with mama. You don't like me to be too far away from you. I love the way your curl up so comfortably in my lap.

Despite being a mama's girl, you look more and more like your Daddy every day. You have his eyes, his mouth, and what I think will someday be his hair color. But for now you are blonde blonde blonde. It's a little bit at the scraggly baby stage. I wish you would wear headbands, but no such luck. Maybe someday the pigtails will work out. I can't wait.

Baby girl, despite your crazy energy, and unbelievable climbing abilities for a person who can't walk yet, you are as sweet and tender as I knew you would be from the womb. I never tire of kissing your chubby chunky cheeks.  I love gathering you in my arms when you are sad or hurt. I love making you laugh. I love your lispy babbling. I love watching you grow.

I love you. Love,

Mama

(Sorry this is not the best picture of Ginny. Tasha was here this week and took a whole photo shoot of her. Can't wait to get them. Can't wait to show you here in her Halloween costume. It's to die for.)

Park City

A few weeks ago Raymond, Virginia, and I drove the beautiful (fall!) drive to Park City to visit with my long-time friend, Jodianne. Jodi and I were freshmen together (Chipman Chicas!) and I just love her. She beautiful and talented, kind and sincere, and loves red to boot! I feel lucky to know her.

We had a lovely afternoon enjoying the fall leaves and parks of her little corner of Utah.

Raymond especially loved the tractor he got to climb on.

And they both loved the sand at the park. Seriously they could have stayed forever.

Thanks for letting us come play, Jodi! And thanks for taking such great pictures!

PS feel free to humor me by telling me how adorable my children are. They are, huh? Gosh, I just generally can't get over it!

Thoughts on food

Sometimes I forget that you don't all live in my back room and know the intimate details of my life. Probably for the best, no? But there are always so many things rambling around in my brain and coming and going on my to do lists, that I suddenly get tongue tied when it comes to filling in all the blanks in this space for all of you. Sorry about that.

One of the things up at the very top of my occupy-the-brain list lately is food. I feel like my life revolves around food. Before we moved to Blanding--where I was happily mostly just a consumer and not a fixer--I resolved that our move to Salt Lake would turn a new phase in my personal Healthy Eating for Life Campaign. We were going to eat healthy! Less meat! More vegetables! Whole grains! Homemade bread!

You get the picture.

I am happy to report that my efforts (and many successes) are going strong. Yes, I still probably make too many desserts. And somehow "tastey treats" make it to our pantry in abundance whether I plan on it or not, but by and large my vision of Healthy Eating for Life is being realized.

Whether Jeremy likes it or not. (Bless his heart, he tries to be optimistic about it. Even while eating wheat berries mixed into his sloppy joes. For realsies that was lunch today.)

Despite Jeremy's grimaces over added wheat berries or lentils to his meaty meals, I must say that by and large, this goal has opened our horizons when it comes to good foods out there. And so many of the foods I have made have received an enthusiastic thumbs up. Roasted Sweet Potato Soup for example. Healthy Corn Chowder was tasty too. And Vegetarian Burritos have gotten a repeated request for more.

I am also committed to whole grains. Don't get me wrong, I still use a handful of recipes that use half white, half wheat flour... but I'm starting to just put in all wheat anyway. Even in my birthday cupcakes I used whole wheat (cut the sugar, eliminated and egg, and replaced oil with applesauce) and thought they were oh so good. It's not just any whole wheat flour I'll use either. I am a true convert to freshly ground whole wheat. As in, I grind it myself. Seriously, the flour is so much lighter than anything you could buy in a store. Not to mention has both the bran and the germ still intact--making it indeed a whole grain (as opposed to wheat flour  in the store that has had parts taken out to preserve shelf life).

Tuesday night I decided to make wheat berries for the first time. Basically you cook wheat kernals in the crockpot with a lot of water and a little salt over night. I ate them for breakfast with milk (heavens, so much better than oatmeal--which I can't hardly even look at without wanting to gag). And I added them to my sloppy joe meat for lunch (which for the record, I thought was good, no matter how much Jeremy gritted his teeth about it!). And I plan to make some sort of salad with them this weekend (like this).

One of the key factors in making all this healthy eating happen, I should add, is our diligent purchasing of a bountiful basket each week. For those who don't know, it's a food co-op that for $16.50 a week provides us with enormous amounts of fruits and vegetables. Most people I talk to say they simply can't eat them all in a week. Somehow (!!) we manage to eat a whole basket by ourselves each week. It seriously makes for one happy mama.

I often make three meals a day and of our lunches and dinners we eat at least (at least) half meatless. Often more. Salads, soups, veggie burritos. The list goes one. Thank you bountiful baskets.

It's been a huge time commitment on my part to make this transition to more serious healthy eating. I am trying to cut way back on processed foods. Meaning I have to be the maker of our foods. I have learned to make tortillas, breads, and rouxes in abundance. I make my own pizza sauce. I make my own mac and cheese (although still keep the box stuff around for emergencies).  I knead my own bread.

I won't lie, it's a little intense sometimes. But at the end of the day, I usually feel so good about our eating choices. It makes me happy to see my kids lapping up fresh steamed broccoli. And I love knowing exactly what is in what we are eating. There are no fake ingredients. No high fructose corn syrup.

(Don't worry, we aren't perfect. We sure did eat candy corn the came in the mail today from Grandma. Plenty of high fructose in there.)

I tell you, I dream about someday having my own chickens for eggs and a great big garden with all my own fresh vegetables for canning, dehydrating, and eating, eating, eating.

Happy thoughts.

Today

"I am lucky to be what I am!

Thank goodness I'm not just a clam or a ham

Or a dusty old jar of sour gooseberry jam!

I am what I am! That's a great thing to be!

If I say so myself, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!"

--Happy Birthday to You by Dr. Seuss

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And that truly is just how I feel today. Life is good, no?