What Happened to my Summer?

September is just a few days away, and I am trying to cram an entire summer's worth of activities into a few short weeks. Summer did not happen at our house this year. We spent over a month inside our house, surviving, not killing each other. I layed on the couch while the boys played together. I would make sure they were ok when they were either too loud (crying) or too quiet (causing mischief).

In July, Benjamin and I were hit with a virus unlike anything else I've ever had. Sure, it was just a fever, cold, and sinus infection, so it seems like I should have been able to carry on and function somewhat normally. Wrong! It knocked me down and kept me there for weeks! The pain in my head was so bad it often brought me to tears and required me to keep a bag of frozen peas on my head for hours and hours each day to numb the pain. Thankfully Benjamin was given antibiotics that cleared him up much more quickly. I am still working on the sore throat and cough, over 6 weeks later.
I have heard from so many people this summer that got the same thing (including my sister-in-law and nephew who got it at the same time as we did). This thing was nasty, nasty, nasty, and I hope to never get it again.

So now we are busy fitting the zoo, children's museum, parks, friends, gym, and church into the last few weeks that we have before we move on to the next season.

Florida with my fam

Our villa on the beach

The view from our porch

Mom and Dad
Swimming at sunset was the best!

My brother and sister-in-law

My sister

My beautiful niece

My nephew

with BeeGee

first meal

We ate our first meal with veggies from the garden last week. It was so incredible to eat something that my hands helped create. We had spinach, lettuce, and radishes. As you can see, there wasn't a ton yet, so I supplemented the lettuce.

Need to eat your veggies?

Here is a great and easy way to get those vegetables into your system: vegetable jambalaya. I made it last Friday morning for dinner that night, and I had a hard time staying away from it all day. It is so good! If you have a food processor for dicing the vegetables, it really isn't much work. I don't know how well it freezes, but I have 3 containers of it in the freezer, so I will find out. This recipe makes an entire large pot full of healthy dinner. OE even ate it without too much complaint.

Check it out!

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/veg/veg-jambalaya.html