Fooooood!

Today, I'm going to share with you something that has been a great addition to my life lately. About 6 months ago, we started using a co-op for our fruits and veggies. I really wanted to start eating healthier AND try new things (anyone else feeling this way?). I was spending so much every week on produce that I was getting frustrated (anyone else feeling THIS way?).

Then, a friend told me about Bountiful Baskets. They are AWESOME! Unlike other co-ops I've heard about, with Bountiful Baskets you pay each week.  It's only $15 and I get a large basket of various fruits and another of veggies. They offer an organic basket for $25 every other week, but we've never tried it.

Anyway, here's what it looks like every Saturday when we go to get our yummy produce.

You check in and they send you off to your baskets. It's so exciting. It's almost like Christmas wondering what you're going to get that week. 

 Bridget likes to run ahead and look in other people's baskets.  We keep telling her it's all the same, but she LOVES looking at everything.  She also LOVES to help us move everything from our baskets to our box to take home.

Here's a pic of the baskets we got a few months ago. This is pretty typical of the variety we get.

Veggie basket. Lettuce, acorn squash, celery, corn on the cob, brussels sprouts, and I'm pretty sure there were sweet potatoes, and a butternut squash under there, too. I owe this basket for my new found love of brussels sprouts. Wash 'em, cut 'em in half, and roast them in the oven with olive oil and S&P.  Yum!

And our fruit basket.  Grapes, apples, pears, bananas, and persimmons.  There were oranges under there as well.  Many times there's a pineapple in there, too. This is the week I learned that persimmons are not to the liking of anyone in my family. Whenever we get them now, Mike trades them with a lady at his work for more bananas or apples.

Anyway, I thought I'd share in case some of you have been looking for something similar.  Bountiful Baskets are available over here in quite a few states out west.

Do any of you have ways that you get healthy, new foods into your family?  Any other great tips of tricks?

Oh, and FYI, this was not paid for in any way.  I just really like this things and figured some of you might want to know about it as well.  Yaaaay!

wordless wednesday

A PSA from me to you.

Ok, this is serious folks. A friend posted this video on Facebook and I thought it was important enough to share with you guys. Please keep you and yours safe. (You'll need to pause the music on the blog).

"Where do you get your news?"

A friend asked this of me awhile ago.  My first thought was, "I don't."  Then, after thinking about it for bit, the truthful answer is... Facebook and my iPhone.  Although I know I can't make up for that statement, please allow me to explain.

Here's the thing.  The news is depressing.  I have quite enough drama and depression going on in my own little life, thank-you-very-much, to deal with more that I can't do anything about.  If I watch the news, I feel that I need to have some emotion for every story and I just don't have that emotional wealth to share.  Much less do I have any ACTUAL wealth to share.  As much as I would LOVE to contribute funds to the myriad of natural disaster relief funds, I just don't have anything to spare.  
So, I choose not to watch any news at all.  I don't watch CNN, MSNBC, my local evening news, FOX news (*shudder*), or whatever else is out there.

Instead, I watch Facebook.  I have several friends who are news buffs and post about the important goings-on in the world.  I figure if several of them post about the same thing in one day, I should probably familiarize myself with it. Some days I learn about pop culture and others I learn real headline news, such as the Union issues in Wisconsin, the rebellion in Egypt, or the earthquake in New Zealand.  And then there are days when I get a bit of both.  I think those are my favorite.  Take this NY Times article about how pizzas are being delivered to the Wisconsin protesters from all over the world. Kinda gives you the warm fuzzies, right?

If I do decide that I MUST have a dose of actual news to feel connected to the world, I have the NPR app on my phone.  I think it's brilliant.  I love NPR and find then to be the least biased source of news for me. With the app, I can scan the headlines and choose what I think is important to know.  I can also bypass the things that are just too much to handle at any particular time.  PLUS, I can fit in my news while standing in line or watching a show with Bridget.

So there you have it.  I'm a horrible person who can't stand to hear about the fifth murder in a row or the ten car pileup that left several people seriously injured. I don't want to know over and over and over again that there is still fighting in the middle east.  I love and respect our soldiers but I know it's terrible wherever they are and I don't want to know the details.  Sorry.

What about you?  Where do you get your news?  Please tell me I'm not the only one out there that doesn't keep CNN on all day.

Blooming Bridget

So, I think I'm going to start documenting some of the things we're doing around these parts for Bridget's learning time.  I like to think of it as "Blooming Bridget" time.  It's when she shows me the amazing things that she can do and starts to blossom into an awesome little thinker (among other things).

Now, we're just starting to do a somewhat structured (in that I have a plan for what I'd like to expose her to that day) learning time.  I'd love to be able to look back in later years and see what Bridget was learning and doing at this time in her life.  So, welcome to the first of the Blooming Bridget posts!

This is Bridget with an absolutely fabulous sensory tub we won through a giveaway with Time for Tots etsy shop.  If you have young learners, please check out her shop.  I think I'm in love and would go broke buying up her entire inventory if I could.  I can't even tell you how much I (and Bridget) love this tub!  Check out all the fun things Bridget got to explore...

Beads, erasers, presents, foam snowflakes, bells, colored rice, shiny stuff, and a DUCK!  Bridget absolutely loved playing with everything and was fascinated with the using the tongs to pick things up.  After these pictures, we covered everything up and played treasure hunt looking for all of the letters.  We must have played and learned with this for at least a half hour before she was finished.  Seriously awesome.  Bridget will now ask to "play rice" and will get her yellow play blanket, bring it into the kitchen, and wait for me to set everything up for her.  After a month of playing with this set, I have decided that Bridget needs a new set each month. These sensory tubs work on so many developmental needs and are so much fun!

I'll show you what we have for February in another post. ;)

She amazes me...

Every.Single.Day. Be warned, this is a blog post for me to put down some of the things I don't want to forget that Bridget is doing at 18 months. 

Bridget is amazing to me. I can't believe that she's a part of Mike and me some days. She's so smart and seems to learn something new every day. Some of her newest developments:

*She is really grasping ASL now.
*Her favorite show is Signing Time on PBS.  We have all learned so much from it. Animals, family members, manners, food, toys.  It's great!
*She recognizes any letter in sign or print. 
*Same with her numbers to 10. 
*She can count out loud to 13.
*A few days ago, she put together words in sign to make a sentence using no voice.  She said, "Please Daddy cheese" asking Mike to cut her off some cheese.  We were so proud of her!
*She knows most of her body parts and LOVES to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."
*She builds block towers and then laughs maniacally when she knocks them down.
*She still loves to read.
*She helps clean up and put things away.  Her favorite "game" is to get something from Mommy and bring it to Daddy to put away.  We do this often when emptying the dishwasher (Mommy's least favorite chore).
*She repeats pretty much any new word she hears.  Daddy has had to start being REALLY careful with his words.  It has also really made me realize how often I say some things as I now hear them out of her mouth.  Most often heard: "Oh boy!" when she's excited, "mm hmm" (with a higher pitch at the end) in confirmation of anything, and yelling the names of the animals (oops).
*Dancing, singing, laughing, coloring, puzzles, and just learning about life.

There's so much more but I'll leave it at that for now.  I can't believe how much she's grown.  She's such a little girl now and not a baby anymore.  I love it but it's a little bittersweet.

Coming clean

Alright, this here blog has been neglected long enough. It's time for me to just get the big stuff out in the open so I don't feel like I'm hiding things and can get back to my regular posts with random bits of crappiness thrown in. I'm going to work in bullet points because it seems the best way to keep from the total crazy ramblings going on in my head.

*First and foremost, know that we are all healthy. Aside from the random cough/cold/flu type stuff, we're all good.

*Biggest stress right now: our home. We're losing it. There are many, many reasons for this and it's extremely stressful and heartbreaking. Adding to this stress is the fact that we're so up in the air about it all right now. We don't know how long we'll be able to stay in the house before they foreclose on us. We also don't know where we're going to go after they do. HUGE STRESS!

*A very close second stress: money. Isn't it always? As of right now, Mike is the only one in our home working. I resigned from the school district last year as we were planning to move this past summer. That fell through and so I am without a job. *sigh* So now, were in the position of me needing to find a job that makes it worth it for me to go back to work and put Bridget in daycare again. This is NOT easy in today's economy.

Ok, so that's out. There are several other stresses going on but they fall far behind after these two. I'm not posting this for any kind of pity or fix-it solutions, but just to get it out there so that I can move on and start spending my brain power on something a bit more productive than constant worry. *sigh*

And now, just to end on a positive note and because I never did post about Bridget's first trick or treating, here's the best shot I got of her in her costume. Isn't she the cutest butterfly?