A little breather...

I've taken a little break from blogging lately. Not really on purpose. Just because I've been so crazy busy!

I did finish the dress(es) I made for Little O. And I've got a few more in the works. But now that her Morning Out program is over for the summer, I'm just not sure when I'll find the time to sew!

I know, this isn't the best picture. Sorry. It's the only one I have! Turns out, a 2-year-old isn't the greatest model.

I'm still involved in a monthly whole-foods supper swap. All the meals have been AMAZING! And it is so nice to have one or two meals a week that require no thinking and very little effort. And since they are all made with whole foods, I can feel good about feeding them to my family. We got an upright deep freezer for the garage. So that's where we store our freezer meals. And we also went in on a half of a locally raised cow. So we keep all our meat out there too. And the massive quantities of chicken stock I've been making.

In other news, Little O broke her leg. On Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day! She fell off a piece of playground equipment (while trying to turn over onto her belly to slide down). She fell less than two feet. We wound up in the ER for several hours, and she wound up with a pink cast up to her mid-thigh. Good thing I got those dresses done because getting shorts over her cast is a bit of a chore. Although some days she insists that's what she wears.

She's in good spirits. And the cast will come off in just three more weeks. In the meantime, we're keeping busy with lots of sensory bins, sidewalk chalk, the library, and play dates with friends. And the Toddler Busy Bags from the exchange I hosted a few months ago are really coming in handy! She spent the first day snuggled up on the couch watching Sesame Street and reading books. But by the second day she was crawling around all over the place. And yesterday, she started walking on it again.

It hasn't really slowed her down much. We even took her camping last weekend with some friends.

The wagon came in really handy while camping! We found it used for $25 the day before we left for our trip. SCORE!

We kept her cast clean with a large men's sock pulled up over it. She actually really liked the look and wanted to wear one on the other leg too.

Anyway, hopefully I'll find some time to get back to crafting soon! I've been missing it. And my craft room has been lonely.

Whole Foods Dinner Club

No, this is not going to become a food blog, but I am excited to share that I've joined 5 like-minded friends on a food journey to start cooking more healthfully for our families. For us that means eliminating as much processed foods from our diets. No more refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, colors, or flavors, no "cream of crap" soup either. We also want to be more eco-conscious, using local and organic meats and veggies whenever possible.

Basically, the six of us have created a dinner club. Each month, we meet up to exchange freezer meals (based on a preassigned category that rotates each month). This month, I'm responsible for the chicken dish. I'll need to create 6 of the same chicken dish that meets our health requirements and can be frozen and prepared later. I'll come home with my chicken dish and 5 other recipes: soup, beef, pork, vegetarian, and breakfast.

Baby steps.

I'm not going crazy and tossing everything in my pantry (although I'd really like to). And I'm not buying all new stainless steel and cast iron cookware. However, I will be replacing junk with healthy food when I go food shopping and replacing my poisonous Teflon cookware one piece at a time.

Last summer, I did a lot of once-a-month meal planning. I'd like to get back into that again. I think it will be a lot easier once we get our upright freezer. We're planning to split a local, grass-fed cow and a pig with the other families. Then all I'll need to buy each week are veggies, eggs, and dairy. Oh, how I can't wait for the farmers' market and the veggie CSA to start up again!

What does this mean for the blog? Not much. I want this to remain a mostly crafty blog. But it is about my life, and healthy cooking is going to be taking a much-needed front seat in my life for good. So, I'm thinking about adding a once-a-month food related post, including our monthly menu, and anything exciting going on with our dinner club. Maybe I'll include some recipes if I find some really awesome ones that are worth sharing. What do you think?