In The Streets and On The Couch

Friday felt significant, because it meant it had been over a week since I started GAPS-ing.  I promise this won't be another post full of complaints about my self-imposed diet choices (especially since I get to eat squash walnut pancakes now...all is right with the world again).  I did pretty much the same thing this Friday as last Friday, that being pick up the CSA box (which was huge this week)...

A little blurry, but not bad for $20!

 ...and stop by Hedgeapple for some more meat.  This diet has encouraged me to try new cuts of meat, for example I now know what beef shin tastes like (tough).  When you're just boiling everything there's no point in getting tenderloin!  That definitely helps with the cost of buying local grass-fed organic beef.

Saturday we did In The Streets!  I used to go to this celebration back when I was a kid, but lately we've either been unable to go or we've ended up getting there too late when everything was closing.  This time we got there right as it opened!

Emily in front of the old FNP's bridal veil clematis

Love the new lily pads in Carroll Creek!

Yay!  At least SOMEONE was handing out healthy food!

Slime!

Me being very un-Montessori and telling the girls what to do at the Montessori activity table

 We spotted Greg and Lauren as we strolled by the acupuncture tent, and strolled around with them for awhile afterward.

Lauren with her two star Bodypump students :-)

Face-painting was a must

I love Charlotte's serious "I'm having my face painted" face

Checking out a snake

What season is it???

Charlotte FINALLY got to realize her dream of having a hands-on bunny rabbit encounter.

Time for food and some sitting

 We made it back to our car right as the first raindrops started to fall, and back to our house right as the skies really opened up in a torrential downpour.  By the time it was time to go back out to my sister's for a family dinner, the rain had stopped.  Perfect timing!

Krista, the middle sister

Ground turkey enchiladas, refried beans, guac and chips, and turmeric oat groats

My dinner...a lacto-fermented pickle, stuffed green pepper, butternut squash

This is why Gemmy takes Bodypump

On Sunday I was super-excited because I got to make pancakes for breakfast!  They were just pureed squash and eggs, but it was the first remotely normal breakfast I've had in awhile!

Yesterday and today I even got to add ground walnuts to my pancakes!  They are even more delicious that way!  I feel like I'm finally getting out of the worst part of the diet now that I can have whole cooked eggs, walnuts and avocado!  The next things I'm really looking forward to are carrot juice, then applesauce, then fresh vegetables!

After our usual Sunday morning routine of dog park/playground/workout, we were all so tired we scrapped our plans of going to the Greek Festival and just laid around the house.  We were lazy for awhile, but we did get somethings accomplished, like 2 hours of weeding that finally made my front garden look presentable.  The weeds were seriously about 3ft high.  I am not the most devoted gardener.  I do, however, love to decorate for the upcoming holidays so I wanted a respectable-looking canvas to start with this year.

I feel like the festival-filled fall weekends have officially started, and the weather is cooperating.  After this blazing hot summer I can't wait for fall!

And I would be remiss if I posted today without mentioning another beautiful fall-ish day 11 years ago when I woke up and walked out of my room to see my roommate crying and watching images of the pentagon smoking and the twin towers collapsing.  I remember feeling shocked and nauseous thinking about how many REAL people Will and I were watching die live on TV as the towers fell.  Being at UMCP we were quite close to DC, and we didn't know when the attacks would stop.  There was talk of biological attacks on the Metro, and I lived less than half a mile from a metro stop.  But school was not cancelled that day, so I headed to class marveling at how EMPTY the sky was.  I could usually look up and spot at least 4 airplanes at any given time but that day there wasn't a single one up there (luckily).  Less than 2 weeks later our campus was hit by an F3 tornado and we were all left wondering what ELSE we never thought we'd have to worry about could happen.

I still get choked up thinking about all the people who died that day, and I try to keep them in mind if I ever start to get irritated while standing in an airport security line.  I know that in the next couple years Emily will probably be learning about 9/11 in school and asking me where I was when it happened just like we asked our parents where they were when they found out Kennedy had been shot.  Not having gone through it herself, I know Emily can never really understand what it was like, the uncertainty about what would happen next, the friends who disappeared from school for a week to go to their parents' funerals and the sinking realization that we weren't nearly as safe as we had thought we were.  But as much as I want Emily to keep that feeling of safety for as long as possible, I also think it's important to honor the people who died by remembering and passing on our stories about 9/11, especially to those who weren't alive yet to experience it.