Monday, August 4, 2008

A New Day

So the twins and Jimmy are STILL in Florida with Mama C visiting TT. I'm eager for their return, but want to make the most of my time with only two children. My workload per day is much easier simply because there are only two children. No matter which two kids are away, the two that are left are inevitably going to be easier to deal with because they have more of my attention.

This past weekend we visited at MaJe's and Papa J's house. On Saturday I went yardsaling with my aunt. It was a great day to yardsale. I found another Zip and Dash dress which I fell in love with. It was white with a black floral print which looked similar to a toile print. The cut of the dress, especially the sleeves, look like what Alice, Flo, and Vera wore working at Mel's Diner. I found a few other clothes, two dresses for Lou Lou, binoculars for Bear, and two upholstered chairs (one for the living room, one for my bedroom). One of the chairs has a cream floral print and the other one is a bit bigger with a soft solid khaki look. The chairs are still in my mama's house because I couldn't fit both the chairs and the children, and I chose the children:). I also bought 4 pairs of shoes for $1.00. It was a great day to yardsale!

On Friday night, we visited with my aunt and uncle and their grown children. My aunt was showing Bug all of her outdoor statues. She had a little boy, a little girl, a saint (old man), and several rabbits. Recently, Bug is very into assigning roles to people. For example, when we read a book, she points out which character she is, which character I am, etc. When she came back to me after a tour of the yard statues, she told me, "Bear is the little boy. I am the little girl. That man right there is my daddy." She paused for a few seconds, and then said, "Mama, I don't know where you are. You'll have to be the bunny rabbits!"

My time off is growing shorter and shorter. I have so many more things I want to do. I'm going to try to at least knock something off my list each day.

Today I'm going to try to eat only a vegetarian diet. I've thought about this for more than a year now. I've sort of had this in the back of my mind, floating through each day considering it as a "someday soon" happening. If I don't decide to commit to it, even if only for one day, then it's not going to happen. However, today I'm visiting a friend of mine that I taught with in Johnston County. She's fixing lunch, so if she fixes something special for me, I don't want to be rude and not eat it. She of course is unaware of my "this is the day" decision. We'll see how it goes!

Last night I looked online for more Zip and Dash style dresses as well as intro. to vegetarian websites. Unfortunately, many of the recipes I found were things that sounded very unappealing. Anything Mexican is less than inviting to my tastebuds. For today, I'm looking forward to vegetables, pasta, and peanut butter toast. I've NEVER been sick of peanut butter, so this should work for awhile.

4 comments:

VeganLinda said...

What kind of things do you like to eat now? When I teach vegan cooking classes, I always start with that to see what people are already eating and see how they could just tweak it a little to go meatless for a day or a week. Sometimes it is helpful not to have something too off the wall. :-)

fredbunch said...

I've done pretty good for the last three days. Breakfast is easy because I like all kinds of breakfast food: cereal, toast, oatmeal with raisins, juices, etc. Lunch and supper have been some combination of: pasta with tomatoes, couscous with tomatoes, Annie's brand mac and cheese, and other veg. to go with it. For my "meat", I usually eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or peanut butter toast. This has been easy so far because I'm only cooking for me and the baby girls. When the twins and Steve get back, they'll bring a little more expectation to the table. I think I need another energy source because even me, Queen Peanut Butter Lover, may eventually wear out on peanut butter. Any pointers you have would be great.

VeganLinda said...

Do you like beans at all? Black beans also have calcium and you can add beans to pasta sauce (puree it if you don't want the actual beans), especially white beans work well with pasta. Nuts and seeds besides peanuts? Nuts and seeds are really easy to add to things and almonds add calcium as do sesame seeds. Pretty much all nuts and seeds are packed with nutrients. Ever seen or tried nutritional yeast? I'm guessing you can get it down there...really good in grits and as a base for sauces or sprinkled on pasta or popcorn. Remember even veggies have protein and most Americans get way too much protein which causes absorption issues with other nutrients like calcium.

VeganLinda said...

Oh and go with whole wheat pastas if you can because that will also add nutrients. Make sure to get enough good fats which will help you feel full (nuts and seeds, avocados, etc.).