CSA bliss
You know you’ve achieved solid middle class when your reaction to an overly wet, overly cold growing season is: Cool! My farm is having trouble! I am so close to the land!
But this has been me, this year. We ponied up about $525 for 22+ weeks of produce from a local organic farm, plus free range turkey in October, including delivery to my actual porch, and it has been a revelation. Reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food as well as The 100-Mile Diet has only confirmed my experience, to wit:
- we eat more variety when we either get a CSA delivery or an organic food box. Not only is this personal, like getting out of a food rut, it’s also kind of a side-effect: Purple carrots, heirloom tomatoes, and orange cauliflower are just a few examples. And Savoy cabbage. I also saw tomatillos for the first time and made potato-bean enchiladas, which were super yummy. Garlic scape pesto also makes the list and no, I had never seen a garlic scape before either.
- food grown locally tastes better. I’d say it was the placebo effect, but I have fed it to guests unawares and they agreed. Tonight was sweet corn, eaten on the day of delivery, and it was so. fucking. yummy.
- I suspect that locally grown food also satisfies cravings better. This is pretty much hogwash scientifically, but it’s still my experience. It tastes so full and rich that a little goes a long way.
- except canteloupe which we can eat by the bushel, apparently. And yes, it grows in Ontario.
- it’s worked out reasonably close to what our usual budget would be, and when you include that it’s organic, it’s a good deal. But learning to preserve would be good. I am renting space in my parents’ freezer for cabbage-based dishes (6 cabbages! in two weeks!) but I wish that I had been more on the ball with setting myself up for pickling, and also having a freezer of my very own (not attached to my fridge) is a definite item on the wish list. We are doing some apple butter and port wine jelly this year for Xmas gifts, but next year if we do the CSA I will be a bit more methodical. As it is we’ve wasted some eggplant and beans and peas (shameful) and also supplied neighbours with produce.
Mostly though, it’s just freaking fun. It is. It arrives on Wednesday, with an email from the farmer, and it feels like Christmas every time.
Food plan
This week’s food plan is:
Tonight, Monday, Tuesday - eat whatever we can forage from the fridge to use it up before we go (on tap: squash, carrots, potatoes, eggs, cauliflower, cheese, lots of canned stuff).
Wed-Sun: Eat gourmet, thoughtfully selected, well made, beautifully presented dinners. For breakfast and lunch eat relatively thoughtfully selected buffet items, since during March Break the Briars goes buffet.
I like this plan, despite its costs. Did I mention that Carl got a surprise bonus at work nearly exactly the amount we were going to have to float? I cannot comment on a benevolent universe but it was definitely a nice coincidence.
I forgot to post last week’s plan but there was one. With notes:
Sat: Salmon, mashed potato, beet salad, eggplant - it was yummy, although we had peas instead of eggplant as the eggplant had unexpectedly gone mushy on one side.
Sun: Plan was for pea soup (froz from the week before) and quiche, to be borne to my mother’s home. But she decided she wanted Swiss Chalet, so we did that. A little grumpily.
Mon: Pea soup, scrambled eggs, peas, corn, salad.
Tues: Squash, potato, carrot, and sausage stew. Not much sausage, but enough to give it some flavour.
Wed: Salmon, rice & peas, broccoli.
Thurs: I was running late and Carl was out with friends so Noah and I sort of scavenged. He had orzo, tofu, and broccoli, and I had broccoli, stew, and bread.
Fri: English muffin pizzas, although the base was antipasto and not a traditional sauce, and chicken noodle soup. Noah selected the soup; the plan was going to be for pasta.
Sat: Beef, broccoli, kale, onion, pea, lentil, and rice mash/mess/fry/thingy.
I gave one squash away, there were two in the stew, and I have one remaining. Freezing the soup is a great idea Polly, the only problem being that my freezer is overly well endowed with frozen other leftover things from earlier. I think I’m going to have to learn to skip a week of delivery every so often (and indeed, am skipping this week as we’re away).
Food post: no plan, and plan
As I stated somewhere, last week we did not have a food plan.
It worked out just fine that way. Of course now I have trouble remembering what we had exactly except for Friday, when we had penne with tomato sauce and eggplant parmesan. I also know we went through a lot of vegetables - broccoli, cauliflower, red pepper, carrots, mushrooms, celery. And we didn’t order in, but we did get chicken from the store one night.
I offer the eggplant recipe because, having married a man who salts the eggplant first and fries each cutlet lovingly, I was shocked to discover it can be totally fast and easy:
- Toast two slices of whole wheat bread
- Toss a few small cubes of parmesan into the magic bullet blender and grate into oblivion
- Wash one eggplant and slice into rounds
- After toast is out and has been cooled by toddler flipping it around in his wee frying pan, toss toast into magic bullet along with thyme and marjoram and let it make breadcrumbs mixed with previously grated cheese
- Crack two eggs into a bowl and get toddler to break yolks and mix up
- Bread eggplant slices, all the while explaining to toddler that he cannot help or stick his fingers into the raw egg because he has a tendency to eat raw egg off his fingers. Introduce “salmonella” into toddler vocabulary, which becomes “melonelda.” Don’t get the melonelda!
- Throw eggplant slices onto greased baking sheet and bake at 375 until crispy, about 30 min
It was a hit. I will be repeating this often I think.
Saturday we had more eggplant, in an eggplant-tomato-”sausage” (veg) sauce over polenta. The polenta was not a hit with the toddler crowd though. Veg hot dogs and cucumber slices figured prominently.
Sunday in honour of both Carl’s mum being down and the fact that a 10lb ham (with bone, so not all edible meat) was on sale at the market for $8, we had ham, fried potatoes and onions, and mashed turnips and carrots. I froze about half the meat.
Monday we had leftovers.
Last night Carl was not home for dinner so I asked Noah what he would like and he said soup, so we had soup and toasted cheese. And banana. This replaced a lentil dish.
Tonight the plan calls for homemade pizza with, yes, ham. And veggies. And cucumber slices.
Tomorrow (sense a theme here?) we will have ham and broccoli quiche, which I will have baked tonight along with banana bread for Noah’s snack day, and beet salad, and raw carrots.
And Friday we’ll have pea soup, and hummus and crackers.
And people wonder why the Sunday night roast used to be such a feature.
Food quote of the week, upon opening the organic produce box: “Broccoli WOW!” Also, when we brought the box in: “My LIKE vegetable surprises.” (Wait until the kid learns vegetable boxes are not, in fact, like Christmas. Except at our house they are, every week.)
If anyone has some fabulous squash recipes, I would love them, because we are experiencing a bit of a squash backlog right now. Acorn and butternut.
Meal plan, last week and this
I never posted last week’s and then we had issues. But I want to record it so here goes. The plan was:
Sun - tortilla casserole
Mon - quiche (baked sun) & gigantes salad
Tues - pork chops & ratatouile
Wed - leftovers
Thurs - pasta & lentils & broccoli
Fri - soup & hummus & crackers
The reality was: Sunday, tortilla casserole, check - except Noah freaked out. That stomach flu he had with the vegetarian chili seems to have put him off anything that resembles it in the slightest, including some kinds of beans, which is representing a challenge. Anyways, total rejection on his part, so he had PB & J and cucumber slices and peas.
Mon - went according to plan, but I tried a very garlicky dressing for the beans and it was not really a success with anyone (all Tues I felt like I was burping garlic!). The quiche however was great (peas and some ham I’d had leftover in the freezer in it) and Noah ate an adult-sized slice.
Tues - I threw the plan out (and left the pork chops frozen) because it was Shrove Tuesday and so Noah and I made pancakes, and also had more of the quiche, and more cucumber in the name of a few more veggies. Mostly pancakes though. The cooking them together was a smashing success and Noah was awed by having them for dinner.
Wed - There weren’t really any leftovers at this point, but Carl was working late again and I was tired out so I’m sorry to say I opened a CAN of soup and Noah and I had soup and toast and peas and corn.
Thurs - we did indeed have the pasta, but for the first time that I remember, Noah picked the lentils out. Sigh. I know it’s a perfectly normal developmental stage but it made me sad anyway!
Fri - I got a rotisserie chicken, and we had the broccoli and some potatoes.
Sat - I finally made a real soup, with broccoli, carrots, onion, tomato, leftover chicken and macaroni, and we had that and Noah ate a good lot so finally back to some more balance than cucumber and peas. He also ate 6 baby carrots during the chopping stage, so maybe his body rebelled. :)
This week’s plan:
Tonight: baked pork chops (see! there they are!), roasted sweet potato & potato and then snowpeas; I’m also going to bake a cassoulet at the same time (Moosewood Collective’s recipe, but probably, depending on whether I get to the butcher with the good sausage, with real sausage).
So Mon: cassoulet (I’m determined to keep beans on the menu here)
Tues: b-b-q pork (leftovers) on buns and salad and veg
Wed: crockpot soup (type depends on veg box) + lentils/onion/rice/saffon (I forget what this is called but it’s lovely)
Thurs: To. Be. Announced. Well it is Valentine’s Day!
Fri: soup + either cheese toast or beans on toast or mushroom on toast, kind of depends on mood and what’s around the house.
Meal plan
Last week’s meal plan went well, except that the sloppy joe mixture was very yummy and everyone was extra hungry, so we ended up with an unplanned night’s gap. Normally I think we’d’ve just made something else but I’d had a crazy day at work and Carl had too and we just… ordered pizza. Oh well!
Noah wasn’t a fan of the squash soup: he likes his soups with pieces in them, like minestrone. He also decided to go on a cheese toast strike. He ended up eating everyone’s peas (must have been about two cups’ worth) and a veggie dog instead one night, and leftover pizza the other.
Here’s this week’s plan, retroactive ‘cause that way I have a record of it:
Sat – my parents were over and we had mashed carrots’n’turnips, beet salad, orzo with peas, and pork schnitzel (from the store, the last, but a sad substitute for the fresh salmon I wanted, but was sold out). It was yummy and not too many leftovers, but a few.
Sun – Cabbage mess. Err, that requires explanation:
As part of our family table, Carl brought from his branch of the tree this tradition of having a massive dish of ground beef and onions as the meat dish (usually flavoured with oxo cubes or the like), served with pan-fried potatoes and a salad or something like that. I liked the simple concept of serving just cooked ground (beef, at the time) without having to shape it, etc., but I couldn’t handle the lack of vegetables.
So over the last oh, I don’t know, since we gave up being vegetarians, I’ve gradually shifted the proportions so that it’s more like a mess of chopped vegetables, sometimes with potatoes and sometimes not, sometimes with beans and sometimes not, mixed with a small amount of ground chicken (usually) and seasoned with garlic, oregano, basil, and rosemary. Thyme if we had it instead of rosemary. Vegetables under normal circumstances would be onions (onions are key!), zucchini, eggplant, carrots, celery, and maybe some spinach. So something like a ratatouille, but with meat in it. And lentils. And potatoes. Sometimes. Hence the term “mess.” In stores I guess it would be called a skillet supper? Not sure. Mess is more descriptive.
It’s not an elegant dish as you might guess from the title, but it’s versatile and tasty and we usually serve it over rice. The ground chicken/turkey/pork/beef keeps the cost down enough that we can usually swing buying the organic or “traditionally raised” stuff. That’s the trade-off instead of doing more of a chicken type stir fry.
With the advent of the organic food box and its endless winter cabbage, I looked around for recipes and found a cabbage recipe that was suspiciously like “the mess” except it involved a can of diced tomatoes and ground beef and onions and that was it. After some experimentation I found that if the cabbage is chopped relatively finely, and tomatoes are indeed present to give some moisture and sauce-like feel, then it’s actually not a bad addition/substitution in the mess.
So last night’s was: ground turkey (1/2 lb), onions (2), garlic (2 cloves), carrots (4), orange pepper (1), cabbage (1 small head), collard greens (couple of leaves that were left) and tomato (1 can, diced), with lots of seasoning, over rice. Noah ate two bowls, so go him.
I can’t believe I wrote that much about what’s essentially a meal made out of whatever is left in the fridge before the box comes. ☺
Mon: you guessed it, leftovers. With working I just figure why have one meal when my massive skillet holds enough for two!
Tues: Lentil squash potato sausage stew in the crockpot, with ciabbata buns and snow peas
Wed: Leftovers again! But this night I am also going to make lentil-rice “meat”balls in advance.
Thurs: Spaghetti and balls
Fri: leftovers or French toast
As a two-week pattern I guess it’s fairly clear that I aim for a couple of vegetarian meals, which doesn’t quite seem like enough. But in my defense, the amount of meat in the other meals is proportionally fairly small – a ½ lb of ground turkey over two nights, and in the stew it will be 4-5 sausages (depending on which packet I pull out of the freezer; they’re from a local butcher) over two nights. That’s sort of the direction I’ve tried to go in, especially as we introduce Noah to a range of food.
Noah’s lunches at daycare are fabulous by the way. They come from a company called Real Food for Real Kids that I adore. They supply healthy meals that are mostly modular like burritos that the kids build themselves (whole wheat tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, with a vegetarian option), pitas with greek fillings, tuna wraps, pasta primavera, vegetarian chili, etc. Fruit for dessert, sometimes with yoghurt, and once a month they do sundaes with frozen yogurt. When it’s a single dish meal they always have side dishes with it in case the kids don’t like it, and every meal has side options of raw veggies and healthy dips, to keep the kids interested. No hot dogs, nuggets, mac and cheese from a box, zoodles, or anything like that. Just from looking at the menu I’ve gotten ideas. It also takes some of the pressure off if we have pizza one night. For this we pay $65/mo.
Meal plan
I want to get back to talking about food more, so as I’m writing out this week’s meal plan (I only write out dinners; lunches are leftovers or sandwiches for grownups, provided by school for Noah; breakfast is oatmeal, cereal, or peanut butter toast plus fruit) I thought I might as well post it here.
Sun: balsamic “roasted” root veggies in crockpot (they are on already; it’s a new recipe I’m trying out with potato, carrot, onion, parsnip, garlic, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar, and a bit of brown sugar - all veggies came in the The Box this week so it was a happy coincidence) + tilapia, if there is still any good tilapia left at the store; otherwise some kind of protein you saute up.
Mon: ’sloppy Joes’ (crockpot), in quotes only because mine will have a fair amount of cabbage shredded in there and is half beef, half tvp, on buns, + peas + salad
Tues: sloppy Joe burritos (leftovers + grated cheese + tomatoes) + broccoli
Wed: butternut squash soup (crockpot) + cheese toast + salad/whatever comes in the box that needs to be cooked faster
Thurs: pasta + pesto + romano beans + whatever greens I shred into the sauce
Fri: leftovers &/or french toast
Junk food & kids
I’ve been kind of surprised at how quickly the junk food issue has come up with Noah. I suppose in my mind I lived in an idyllic world where Carl’s and my habits would be immediately reformed and not only that, but the whole world of mall food courts and inappropriate snack food would recede in the face of Parenting.
But no, here are the facts: since Emily died we, the system, have struggled to get back to a good relationship with our body, which is always pretty much fought over the ground of food choices. And coupled with new-parent stress, sleep deprivation, and the sudden inability to reward ourselves with say, time, there has been some junk food about.
But until the last three months or so, it was pretty easy to just not give Noah whatever the bad food was. Since then, though, he’s demanded a tithe of whatever we’re eating.
And this is the choice I have made (and Carl too): I have chosen to give it to him. Of course this has meant not eating really awful shit and stepping up on the whole getting back to eating better thing.
What I really want for my child is to almost always eat good, wholesome food, that is not only good for him but also is purchased and prepared (and occasionally grown, but I mostly purchase) in a way that is pretty well in line with our values. And I am armed with a lot of information about what that means and I am lucky to have at least some play in our food budget to make good choices with.
However.
I have also surprised myself by not sweating some of the opposite. I’ve pretty much decided that although it is my job/privilege to keep going on that path towards more wholesome eating, I also value some things as much as clean/healthy eating.
I value appreciation and politeness, for example, and that is how my son came to be eating strawberry flavoured, corn-syrup laden puffs at one of our better playdate-friends’ houses. This friend of mine does not sweat the food stuff. She is an intelligent, kind, and caring person and I think she is really great. She serves fruit and vegetables and does not deep-fry her son’s breakfast. But she missed the (middle class) memo on the evilness of food companies and she has Alphaghetti in her home. And I do not consider it my job to try to change her or disrespect her choices in any way.
And it was out of caring that she offered my son a handful of the puffs his toddler peer was enjoying. And I really wanted to refuse them, except that my little voice (and not a system member, just mine, that conscience one) said that if she were, say, from another country and she was offering my son some delicacy, I would want him to try it, or at least turn it down in grace and style and not in some assholely judgmental way.
And in that moment I chose the rule of hospitality over the rule of good eating which was try a little bit, it won’t kill you. And I’m kind of glad. (He liked them. I will buy him a pack of them when hell freezes over though, just because they are the kind of toddler-marketed food that drives me batty.)
(Okay if he asked for them for Christmas or his birthday I might buy a pack; see below.)
I also value generosity and sharing. And modelling for your kids. And that’s why, when I have fallen down on the job on the latter - as I have not just once but a few times - by ordering or eating something in front of Noah that isn’t optimal food… like french fries… and he has wanted some, I have at least modelled the first, and shared.
Yes, I believe that as a parent it is my job to make sure Noah eats healthy food the vast majority of the time. And ideally I would not have a french fry before me to share. But the fact is that sometimes I will order the french fries. In moderation. Because they are yummy, despite knowing all about how much they suck. And I guess ultimately I don’t think that’s so awful, in the context of a whole, generally healthy lifestyle.
And I think also that I could not really live with myself for too long if I totally refused to share them. Sharing food is such a primal thing, and it’s also how I introduce Noah to things like asparagus and bulgur wheat as well as jerk chicken and roti. It just didn’t at the time and doesn’t in retrospect seem right to hold back the deep fried potato.
So I will continue to occasionally hand over bits to Noah. I sort of hoped he would hate them, but no. He loves them.
Lest the discussion turn to parents who don’t set limits, I have no trouble enforcing the things I think are absolutes: I drink decaff coffee; he doesn’t. No wine or beer. I figure once he learns about pop/soda (we don’t drink it) we will have to make some kind of deal about having a small amount once in a while, but I think it is so awful meantime that it falls in the total no category. If he were to be allergic to something, that would be it too, of course.
It’s just that I believe that a hard limit for me does not include all forms of junk food are forbidden forever. I do believe junk foods really are bad, in a lot of ways. I just don’t think all badness has to be stamped out all the time. Some women have likened this to smoking. Well, okay, I would be a very happy parent if Noah never smoked. I’m not sure I would be like “oh well, as long as you only smoke two cigarettes a month it’s okay.”
I have never smoked anything other than second-hand, because I was asthmatic as a teen and this convinced me not to mess with my lungs. So I will model that. And perhaps junk food is as bad - it certainly is if it replaces a healthy diet. But for me the two are different. Maybe because I know junk food, despite its tendrils, can be limited, and I’m not convinced about smoking.
But I digress - back to values. I value cultural tradition, up to a point. This being the day of chocolate, it’s an especially good day to just come out and say: I would actually rather that Noah participate in some family celebrations and traditions and eat the friggin’ chocolate, even if I think chocolate is not really an age-appropriate food. Of course I would also like it to be fair-trade chocolate and preferably a really good kind rather than Wal-Mart chocolate. But if it is Wal-Mart chocolate that the bunny brought to grandma’s house or whatever, so be it.
So today Noah did wake up to find that the Easter Bunny came and left some toys (plastic eggs strewn about! (they were empty. He loved them anyway!), and the old Playschool counting eggs! He thought those were great too! More egg toys!) and incidently, one chocolate thing, and some crackers. He took a few bites of each, all excited and wriggly. And then we went to the Easter Parade and pointed out the bunny and told him maybe that was the bunny that brought him chocolate!
(He thought that was very… suspect, and a giant bunny was a little bit scary, but he did love the balloons.)
It is kind of crazy, this chocolate toting bunny story. But what it also is is a welcome to spring, a nod to fertility gods, and one of the weirdest cultural combos (Jesus is risen! Pass the marshmellow chickens!) ever known to man. How could we not participate, in our own small way (bought the baskets, nice natural ones, at Value Village and saved them from the garbage; bought the toys at the same and on eBay)? Well actually there are lots of ways ’cause we didn’t really do Valentine’s Day as far as Noah was concerned. But I think we’ll keep this welcome to spring, and maybe add in some more respectful traditions as we go along.
All of which is to say that I think I am finding some middle ground here, where food has its place and spotlight but Super Nutritious Everything All the Time is not the trump card to every situation.
I would still sort of like to move towards Vegan Lunchbox standards. But, not there yet. And that is okay. It might be okay forever. I really admire people who are sure they are dead right that all junk is bad /and/ never eat it /and/ keep their kids away from it. I am just not that person. Not yet anyway.
I find it strange to be arguing for a little junk food. I’m unsure how much of that is self-justification and laziness, and how much is actual balance.
But that’s where I am today. It may well change tomorrow.
Days of food and whine
Noah’s been downstairs 20 with V. minutes and so far no tears. I’m sure they’ll start soon, but that’s an improvement over yesterday. I do agree that it’s probably the worst sort of arrangement in some ways - I’m here, but not here for him, and he doesn’t understand that. But it does really help me that I can hear what’s going on, even if it’s hard to hear it. And if my observation and instinct on V. keeps working out, I think if he does adjust it will be really good.
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Today’s organic veggie box day and that makes Lyria happy. And Noah too; once the box arrives, usually around 4 pm, Lyr brings it into the kitchen and she and Noah sit and sort through it and then she washes one of the things - whatever he’s glommed onto - and he carries it around with pride while the rest gets put away.
I still constantly end up with too much kale, but I can’t quite bring myself to substitute it. I just end up hiding it in everything. I still end up supplementing a bit from the grocery store - zucchini, for example, has not come in the box, and Noah goes through massive quantities of frozen peas, plus I usually use a bag of frozen veggies a week due to lack of time to chop on particular days. But I have noticed that the regularity of its arrival and the variety of stuff it contains forces us to be more creative and eat more vegetables and that is only a good thing. Last night we had a “use up before new box arrives” vegetable + chickpea stew and it was very yummy.
The big surprise so far is that Noah really liked baby bok choy. There’s a veggie it would not have occured to me to give him had it not arrived on our doorstep.
~~
Yesterday while I was not-working-with-crying-in-background I had one of those “gifted child” moments where I corrected a fact in someone’s (almost entirely) erroneous essay online. I can ignore 999/1000 idiot things on the Internet but sometimes I just get that feeling that I must as some kind of citizenly duty step in and point out something like, you know, a completely wrong fact. This is almost entirely the fault of my high school, where coming to class drunk was tolerated much better than coming to class with incorrect information.
But the truth is that except where it is in fact my job, it’s just - not. On that note I think I will go do my job!
Fast food
While I’m thinking of it, some of the fast food that has worked during this crazy period.
Pasta tofu-esto
Whole wheat or oter pasta + mashed up extra-firm tofu + 1 jar pesto = yummy one pot goodness. For some reason tofu and pesto seems to be a match - the tofu is textury and the pesto is flavour.
Chicken leftover stew (fast to prepare, slow to simmer)
First night, chicken cooked by the grocery store (!!) + veggies (yes, includes kale)
Second night:
Chicken, or leftover chicken, from a roasted chicken, including some (like half) of the skin
1 or 2 cans your favourite white beans
3 or 4 potatoes, washed and cut up
half a package green beans
Organics and more
I finally got my act and our financial priorities together to order the organic veggie/fruit box again. (From Green Earth Organics, if anyone’s wondering.) It’s been two and a half years - maybe a bit more - since we were receiving that, since we cancelled it while we were saving up for mat leave for Emily.
Lyr had been agitating and I’d wanted to, but what ultimately pushed me to order it now - middle of winter, when it’s Big Organics mostly coming in the box anyway and not local produce (although they try to buy local where possible) - was Marion Nestle’s What to Eat. I’m really enjoying that book a lot, and learning a lot - and I thought I had a handle on food companies, etc. Anyways, she said a study on kids in elementary school showed that kids who ate regular produce had 6 times the pesticide levels in their urine than kids who ate organic produce. We buy organic at the store about 1/3 to a 1/2 the time - it’s so pricey but I do believe with a baby it makes an even bigger difference, plus I like my money to go to that - but I decided to go with getting a whack of it cheaper. We can figure out what to do with the kale. (Actually that’s one of the neat things, for veggies to just arrive and get us out of our ruts.)
When it arrived today I remembered too that there’s no packaging - it all comes in a big rubbermaid bin, that they exchange for a full one every week. Another bonus for the environment.
Noah was enthralled to get to open it. I had to be a little careful with the spinach and lettuce (the FDA still hasn’t revoked their spinach warning, and this was US greens) but he picked up a pear and toddled around with it proudly, occasionally signing “fruit” or “apple” (which is more his generic fruit). It was definitely a moment. That’s the kind of fun that gets Lyria giggling for breaths and breaths.
We’ve also been doing some holiday baking - not the usual amount, but some - I daresay enough although after tomorrow’s deadline we must do more so as to have enough to hand out to everyone local, at least. That’s been good. A little sad, because the last time we did we were pregnant with Emily and it’s rather amazing how getting our hands in the dough really brings up those visceral memories, pregnant bellies in that striped red shirt that was our favourite maternity sweater against the counter getting all floury. The feel of it.
But good nonetheless. I feel like we’re still exhaling that Noah is okay and here, and recovering from all the changes that cascaded the last couple of years. It makes me grateful for changes that haven’t occured (boss idiotic statements nonetheless) like having somewhat the same work, the same friends, the same partners.
We’re also getting back on the path to healthier eating and living again. I’ve been feeding Noah really well but often eating crap myself good PLUS crap) and although I’m still a little under my pre-Emily weight I’m totally not pleased with my body. I feel ready to get on the wagon again, and the yummy veggie box is a good part of that. So’s What to Eat and also Mindless Eating which is a whole post unto itself.
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Noah is recovering fine from his fall; the gooseegg is still going down. I took him to get his picture with Santa yesterday (ambivalently, but we did last year so I figured why not) and Noah hated Santa, and freaked out. He definitely knows whose kid he is not and when Santa tried to touch him he let out a huge shriek. So I do have a Santa pic (no scanner yet, sorry) with me sitting with Santa (woe; I didn’t plan to be in the picture) holding a crying Noah. Well, that’s what it was like. It’s looks a little sadistic though so I think I’ll keep most copies to myself.
Today I dared the sidewalk again and he was fine. And very glad to get outside under his own steam again. Then we did dishes (pics later). It was a really good day.
And now, down to work!