The Misadventures of an Average Mom: absentminded or just absent?

I don't have a lot of excuses for not blogging the past month. One of them is that a large part of this has chronicled my weight loss journey and up until the last week of the month that wasn't stellar. I have also just been the typical busy busy busy and haven't managed to find/make the time!

Since I have started my 3 month hiatus or suspension from the gym I would like to say I will have more time to sit down and write on here about my awesomely enthralling life... yeah... BUT in reality it means I will probably be busier. I am going to be running outside 3 days per week and walking the dog with intermittent running as she can handle the other 3. The last day will be a freebie or a wild card exercise day. I also have to hunker down and park myself in front of the sewing machine to push out some craft fair goods. I am going to try and cut everything ahead of time so I can just sit down and SEW. I am also going to try and get one item done at a time before I move on to the next. That didn't come out right. Of course I will do that, I have to. What I mean is, I will do ALL of one type of item before doing the next. It might bite me in the butt when it gets to be October and I have a million wash cloths and taggie blankies but no dolls or kitchen things. Hopefully I am a little more organized than that though. Otherwise, I really hope people want wash cloths and taggie blankies ;)

Last week we were up at the lake. It was weird to put it best. This sounds kind of strange since it should be anything but weird seeing as I have been going up since I was born. (My grandparents bought the cabin the year I was born). This year though we were missing one very VERY important piece: my grandma. You would never think one person could have such a presence without even doing anything. Every single time we came back from a boat ride I expected her to be waiting since in the last few years she really didn't go on a lot of those rides. My family also has a habit of being night people so we don't go to bed until at least midnight while there. To fill this down time my grandma always sat down and played solitaire. I loved it from a very young age and made sure she taught me as many games as she knew. Grandma, mom, and I always sat down at our own spot at the table and played our own solitaire game as we talked. This year Grandma's seat remained empty. Sigh.

Even without Grandma the lake was fun. The weather was GORGEOUS. It was the perfect place to be with temps in the upper 90's. The only bummer is that I am prone to what is called Swimmers Itch. Pain in the ass itchy awful suckers. It is when parasites in the water look for a new host and burrow into one when they find it. Guess who that host is? Yeah... me... NO ONE else in my family really gets them. I am just nice and tasty sweet apparently. We swam, got a raft to float around in, went on boat rides, and fishing. It really is just perfection. One thing I am exceptionally proud of myself for is the running I did while there. That's right. RUNNING. Outside. In 90 degree weather (at 8am). In 95-100% humidity. Up hills, in the sun. Running. I used a program on my phone to track it so if I can figure out how to post that here I will. I ran a shorter distance a couple of times but it was a 3.1 mile stretch. Perfect huh! One day the GPS didn't work so I don't have the stats for that but I did 3.07 miles in 29.39 minutes at an average speed of 6.22mph. I was pretty damn pumped by that. I mean I even technically walked a couple of times just to catch my breath since I was otherwise drinking the air.

This year Edison took to the water like a champ. He just loved floating around in his little turtle. Lilly was a little less excited about the water but she warmed up to it eventually when she got to build sand castles and find shells and rocks. We brought a number of them home along with some cat tails. I have no idea what we will do with them, but she is happy so you know... that's the important thing I guess.

Oh, I forgot! We started Edison at Occupational Therapy again. Sigh. He will be going once a week for the foreseeable future to try and work on some more of his odd eating behaviors. It isn't something to be overly concerned about but we just have to figure out what he is doing. He chipmunks the food we give him so he either presses it up and it sits in the palate of his mouth or he pushes it off to the side. The OT decided at the second session that he is just not chewing. He sucks on food and gums it and swallows but he isn't actually getting full range tongue motion or chewing like he should. He also is a little adverse to new things. For example the kid loves cheese, right? The OT gave him a cheese stick which is not the typical form or shape he eats and he just panicked. She said he worries over different foods more than other kids do or should. So we need to try to really work on introducing LOTS of different foods to constantly switch it up so he doesn't get set in patterns along with giving him things that forces him to move his tongue more to the sides of his mouth. Last week was difficult being at the lake so I really need to dive into this to help him out. He is also going to start a therapy called iLS (Integrated Listening System). I will go more into that later but it is supposed to get his whole vestibular system jump started which theoretically should help with the chewing and other awareness. If anyone has ideas for toddler food throw them at me! Edison isn't very picky, we just have a hard time since he tends to choke so easily since he doesn't chew! RAWR!

I forgot until I was going through my pictures here that the night before we left for vacation I was trying to fix Lilly's glo-e teddy. This is her security thing. I mean, this is the bear she has had since she was born and takes to all of her overnights and given the option it is the one stuffed animal she would choose if she could only pick one. And I BROKE it the night before we left. How awesome of a mother am I? (okay, yes it is a stuffed animal, but it glows when you push a button so it is a special one and hence the breaking.. I broke off a spring in the battery terminal). So I got on ebay and found one. For $45. I bought it anyway. It is very rare and hard to find and this was the exact same one so we could do a switch until Paco could get the parts to fix the original. I have pictures below of it all "fixed".

So finally, when we got home I expected my garden that had been subjected to 100+ degree temps with no rain to be shriveled and brown. HARDLY. It is thriving better this year than it ever has. It is amazing. The tomato are taller than me! I am SO excited for all the different canning ventures I will do this year. I am going to make a lot more than I usually do and try some fun different things that actually require the pressure canner. GASP. I have been to afraid in the past, but I really want to try things that require it. I'll keep this posted on that. I really am going to try and be more regular on here again. I just get into slumps! I know this is one of my typical forever long posts but now if you have made it all the way through you benefit from Pictures! Yay!