We goin’ a little crazy over here!
Can you tell Kyle’s been gone a bit longer than usual???
My wordpress account made me log back in because it had been so long and I have a camera roll full of kiddo selfies from the 5-7 pm hours. You do the math.
Honestly though, when you are stuck inside and solo parenting, wellllllll….it can make a normally semi-sane person go a little bonkers!!!
People ask me if it’s hard when he travels and of COURSE it is, but at the same time, I like being a mom so much. I like being able to hang out with my kids all day. It is hard, don’t get me wrong (the hardest job I’ve ever ever had), but I am also super lucky that I get the option to. It’s my choice to be the person who shuttles them around to all their activities, plans arts and crafts for them, yells at them for throwing balls in the house and breaking picture frames, teaches them to zip their jackets, helps with homework, shows them how to field a ground ball, and negotiates every single aspect of the bedtime routine…and yes, I lose my sh!t from time to time, but when Kyle is gone, I have a different mentality. It’s like the three of us are a team and we have to work together. And working together let’s us enjoy our time together, rather than just survive it until Kyle is back home. Does that make any sense?
I made these muffins because I wanted something new and different for the kids’ breakfasts this week and we had shredded zucchini in the freezer. So once that thawed I combined it with some mashed bananas, flax meal, flax seeds, chia seeds, eggs, almond milk, coconut oil, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt. I purposefully made it super seedy and hearty so that I wouldn’t need too much flour. I wanted a really healthy muffin with jam packed with nutrients. I topped them with a few sunflower seeds too.
Combined with fruit, the 12 muffins lasted just three days (two per kid per day) but at least it made mornings as easy as could be. We aim to be out the door by 7:50 so that I have a bit of a cushion on my run allowing us to arrive between the kinder 8-8:15 window. It’s only a 12 minute run, but sometimes the 7:50 departure actually ends up being more like 8 because some people want to change shoes six times before we leave (ahem, Valley). This week was literally freezing so I had to seriously layer up (they aren’t as cold because the Thule has a cover). Like true California kids, they had never seen the grass all frozen, so I let them out at one of the parks along the way so they could feel the grass and see the icy blades.
I had seitan for lunch with a simple Caesar salad on the side.
This is HALF of the CSA for the week. This week was especially awesome because it had soooo much lettuce, which is the main produce item I want/need. It had THREE KIDS of kale (dino, russian, and carinata), both red and green leaf lettuce, bok choy, and cabbage. There was also a tiny head of broccoli, which I figured I may as well use right away. Same with the spaghetti squash.
I had whole wheat spaghetti for the kids, which I tossed in olive oil. The almond pesto was for moi.
I was pretty lazy for the broccoli and just threw it in the boiling water for the last few minutes as the pasta finished cooking which meant it was slightly al dente but nice and warm.
Not exactly glamour shots, but here are each of our bowls. I ended up sharing a bunch of my squash with the kids. They love it. They love stealing all my food though.
Just a little somethin somethin to close the night out.
What happened to the babysitter..?? You gotta get a little break while on long stretches of solo parent time so you stay sane! Your CSA is so beyond epic, it’s like a totally valid reason to move to davis!
LOL when i first read the part about what’s in the muffins my brain just filled in mashed potatoes instead of banana! I was like…well… i guess if anyone can make that work…! Hahaha!
Ugh. I know. I forgot again, but she is coming later this week for a date night.
Also, mashed potatoes… 😛 hahaha