I missed rabbit rabbit

I have so much to say but I’m so exhausted.  Last time Kyle was gone the kids were sick but at least I was healthy.  This time I’m sick (too) and there’s only so long that you can fake it.

But I will forge ahead because he is coming home soon and we have so much fun stuff planned this weekend.

You know what people email me the most about?  Well, allergy stuff mostly, but aside from that I get asked how we do “media free” for the kids.  I haven’t ever responded in a formal way because I don’t have a good answer!  I honestly don’t know what to say.  We just…don’t.  I realize all kids are different and I definitely don’t want to shame or guilt parents who use tv or ipads or whatever to help them out, but I don’t consider it an option so it’s just not an option.  That’s really it.  As a result, the kids don’t know it exists.  So far P hasn’t seemed to realize all the references that he misses when classmates are talking about Star Wars or whatever character (it helps that you can get everything in book form at the library). And V thinks that TV means Mickey Mouse in a hotel room (because that Florida trip was a special kind of h.e.l.l. that needed an exemption).  Sooooo they aren’t asking for it, and I’m not offering it, so therefore it doesn’t exist.  Does that help? Probably not. Every study says free play free play free play, read read read, and then more free play.  So that’s where my parenting “style” (if you call it that) comes from.  I think it’s had a positive effect on their development, but I have no “control” so it’s just my intuition.  And while I’d happily brag about my kids for another 200 paragraphs, that’s not what this blog is about.

On Wednesday, P had a field trip to the fire station, and V and I had nothing planned while he was in school, so I figured I’d “sleep in” and work out after he was in school – probably a stroller run with V. But then both kids were up and ’em at 6:30 so we were done with breakfast by 7:40 and I decided we may as well go on a run then!?!  So I took the double stroller and went on a 30 minute jog, and got back with plenty of time to spare before taking P to school.  There are some perks to having kids on an early am schedule I guess?

V played dress up in my closet while I showered.  This was after she got herself naked and I re-dressed her.  I knew it was too quiet in her room…

I got this at TJs the day before and can’t wait to try it!

My girl friend drove on the field trip and sent me photos from the trip.

What’s better than firemen?  A bestie hug.

The rest of the week has been very fireman focused.  Note his mask and hose.

I didn’t photograph their food very well this week.  It’s so hard to remember.  They had the rest of the red lentil noodles I shared a few posts ago from TJs.  They LOVED those noodles and have requested them almost daily.  They are definitely on next week’s grocery list.  All I did was toss them in olive oil and salt!  It’s an easy carb option that has more protein than normal, which makes it a whole meal once you add a fruit and veggie on the side!

And I know I rarely mention their snacks, but they eat apple slices pretty much exclusively as snacks because it’s an easy on the go option.  They eat them in the car, they eat them when we are grocery shopping, they eat them all. the. time.  They never seem to get sick of them, so I never bother changing it up.  We go through so many apples though.  They each eat at least an apple a day, but probably more??  My tupperware are suddenly not big enough for both of them to share.  I just got a glimpse of my (bag lady) future – in no time at all I am going to be shlepping around a cooler for them both, full of sliced fruit.  If we are at home, I’m more creative, and their snacks are more well rounded (like roasted chickpeas, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, sliced veggies, home-made bars, etc) but they don’t snack at home very much, probably because we are always out and about.  Roasted chickpeas are definitely a staple, and I always have a batch made because I pack them for Pattycakes’ school snack 99% of the time.  They are easy and cheap, too.  Home-made bars require more prep but I make such big batches now that they last a long time.

The tangents!! Oh the tangents!

Lunch for moi. Standard. Add another handful of mac nuts to the post-salad scene and you have the full picture.

We had no plans that afternoon so once they woke up from naps we went to a new park.  It was so awesome!  There was nobody else there and the ability level for both of them was perfect, so I literally sat on a bench and read articles on my phone while they played (with each other!).

She needed a little help from time to time because she’s a daredevil (she went all the way to the top of this thing!), but otherwise it was an hour of me just watching them play.

Dinner was leftovers re-purposed.  Ground beef + veggies + brown rice.  Not fancy at all.

And more pizza for me. I have officially eaten all the Simple Mills crusts I made. They are so good. If Nugget market doesn’t sell them I can get them from Thrive Market.  I went to Nugget the other day for my usual non-TJs products run (now that WF is closed) and was sad that they didn’t have Kite Hill stuffs, but then I talked to the super awesome staff member in the yogurt section and he said he’d make a note to see if they could get it so I’m hopeful about the way they listen to consumer requests.  Good sign!

This guy!

Can we just discuss the title for a sec?  Ravishing Rocky Road salted caramelized almonds and chewy marshmallows pave the way in milk chocolate.  Dude.  I want to be the person who comes up with the descriptions on candy bars.  What lucky person gets that job in life?  I want to throw my hat in that ring, asap.

I would have been surprised that the ingredients weren’t crushed and embedded within the chocolate had I not already had the same reaction to the chuao pretzel bar I had last week.  It was milk chocolate based, so pretty sweet, but I liked the spiced nuts a lot.  The marshmallows weren’t super fluffy but it was still good.  I don’t think I’d buy it again though, because even though it was tasty, there are better bars at better price points, in my opinion.

After my sugar high kicked in, I got to baking.

It was too late to bake them (I need my sleep) so I threw them in the breadmaker on the quickbread/bake cycle and left them to do their thing overnight.  Since I have two breadmakers and 4 super ripe bananas, I made a double batch and set them both up.  Out of curiosity, I set one for delay bake and the other to start right away.  I didn’t notice much of a difference in the outcome, but it was definitely nice to have one warm and ready as soon as I woke up.

I set my alarm for 5:55 to work out before the kids were up, and sure enough P ran to my room at 6:30 on the dot.  He said “I smell pancakes!!!! I love pancakes, they are my favorite food in the whole world.”  He gets his foodie hyperbole from his mama.  Good thing I had pancakes already made for them! 😉

Because this bad boy is allllll for mama.  Well, at least I hope.  I’ll probably end up sharing because when my kids beg for quality food I really have a hard time saying no.

I had two slices.  One warm with buttah.

And one plain while I waited for the other to toast. Look at those walnuts in there!

Hmmm…looks like my photography was spotty.  Without the kids’ food photos, who knows what I gave them. Probably a smoothie and something else. My lunch salad had miso dressing, avocado, carrots, also (unpictured) coconut flakes and then I had leftover french fries (don’t judge me but they were from almost two weeks ago but still good so whatever!). Usually I maximize nap time, cramming it with housework, food prep, and everything, but I was so tired today, I just sat and ate lunch.  I did the rest of the stuff after they went to bed that night.

P had soccer that afternoon but we got back home in time for them to play in the yard.

I ran upstairs for two seconds and took this photo and then P immediately fell off his bike.  Of course. I have never left them in the yard by themselves and gone farther than the kitchen (which has a connecting door to the yard), so naturally this happens the first time I risk it. He was fine btw, and already over it by the time I got down to him.

The mosquitoes were a different story though.  Both kids were completely wigged out by them and so we eventually gave up on the outside play time and came in to read stories before dinner.

I added leftover rice to the leftover crock pot chicken soup (that I think I forgot to blog about?) to make a new dish for the kids.  They both had seconds (finishing it off) followed by a few medjool dates each.

I enjoyed the leftover GF baked bread from Pushkin’s with smoked salmon, vegan cream cheese, and bacon. I basically tried to recreate the same dish V had for breakfast there.  Total winner.

I finished off the dark chocolate almonds and chuao bar for dessert while tackling my to-do list and blogging and watching The Mindy Project.  I am way behind because I only got into it when Kyle started taking trips out of town (because I needed a show that I could watch that he wouldn’t care if I watched without him).  Problem is, I now think he would like it so I want him to watch it too, but I’m too far ahead, so I’m in a limbo land of do I continue or do I stop and restart with him? What are other shows that are easy to watch that aren’t totally dumb, but can also accommodate multi tasking??