Healthy eating

Ok blogger, you win, I have no idea how you decide what order to upload pictures in, you used to cooperate but now you are random.  So girls, here is a random assortment of pictures from the last few weeks. 

Paul and I have trying to eat more healthy.  Well, Paul is kinda along for the ride since I do the grocery shopping and cooking, but he is doing well with it!  We drink green smoothies all the time these days. Hungry for a snack? Green smoothie.  Too lazy to think of what fruit or veggie to go with lunch or dinner? Green smoothie. Now I know we are late hopping on the green smoothie train but they sounded and looked gross, but after making my first one I am a true believer in them.  Not an ounce of unhealthy anything goes in them.  I mix it up but here is what ususally goes in, sometimes all of this, sometimes I leave stuff out.  Anyway: bananas, costco frozen fruit mix (pineapple, payapa, strawberries), frozen banana, fresh pear, handful of spinach, some frozen yogurt cubes, a scoop of frozen orange juice concentrate and some water and voila, smoothie. 

We have also been eating more salad and fresh veggies.  I like balsamic vinegar with olive oil as my dressing, but below is poppyseed dressing on a salad that has romaine, spinach, and costcos kale mix that also comes with a mix of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and cranberries. Super yumm with strawberries on top. 

A few weeks ago my  mom and I went to visit my grandparents for 4 days to get a feel how they were doing with my grandpa living in the assisted living/nursing home area.  My grandpa was hilarious and each time when the two of us were hanging out he would say "would you look at all those old people over there, I am not one of them" Haha.  He is turning 90 this year, I love that man! 

 My other grandparents are living at their farm house still, which should come to an end too, but it will be hard finding an assisted living or independent living that they would enjoy. Prayers are always appreciated.  They rented out their cherry orchards this summer (praise the Lord) but my grandpa is still mowing the grass areas and my grandma planting tulips and trying to keep a house clean.  They live in 40 acres...

When I got home I had so much energy from doing nothing (though doing nothing and talking about yourself is it't own kind of exhausting) that I couldn't wait to get our garden ready.  We weren't even going to have a garden this year, but I decided why not try some tomatoes again...and so we are.  There were soooooo many weeds in the garden bed, it was the only place left that I hadn't weeded this spring yet.  Three buckets later the garden bed was spotless (don't look too closely tho). 

A few days later I decided our side yard needed an improvement.  I laid landscaping fabric and bought fake bark (made out of old tires and painted) to lay out.  It is not my favorite but I am excited it will be low maintance.  The top picture is mostly our neighbors side yard, the tree rock and lillies are our, but I weeded a bunch of their yard and raked the bark so it looked all fresh.  They had their kids weed the whole side yard but they missed areas and I knew they wouldn't care if I spiffed it up a bit.  

A friend is helping one of her friends get ready for a wedding.  The maid of honor backed out 20 days before the big day, and was supposed to make a thank you banner among other things.  She asked me if I would be able to help and with my handy silhouette I was able to whip these out in about half an hour before dinner one night.  

And more healthy eating, just so you can see the before and after of smoothies.  I use my stick blender so clean up takes about 30 seconds.  

Costco is my friend when it comes to fresh produce, though I think I am going to sign up for bountiful baskets this summer,  I am 95% sure I just need to take the plunge.  It's $15 a week for tons of fresh fruits and veggies, you just don't get to pick what you get weekly...and you can choose to only get stuff every other week which is what I will do. 

I ended up getting mandatory standby on Monday and having three days off in a row this week (mon-wed) I have been doing insane amounts of yard work.  On monday I think I spent 4.5 hours outside weeding, mowing, edging, sweeping, spraying, laying mulch and borders, and planting grass.  I think I am done with major yardwork for a while.  I am loving our new yard look though!  Oh and I cut a ton of branches off the pine trees in our front yard island so they now look like two separate trees instead of one. 

And on a not so healthy note Paul and I went out to Indian food the other night.  We had never tried this place, we think it is "new" but it looks kinda ghetto inside and we were the only customers. But the servings were huge and reasonably priced.  Paul got two meals out of his tikka masala and I got three!  I think it is more of a take out spot though because the service was slow and the "waitress" was the lady owner and she had food all over her pink t shirt.  But man, can Indians cook!  (We still love our Indian restaurant in Renton the best but this place is 1/2 the price and wayyyyy closer to our house). 

Paul is in the midst of woking 15/16 days and he has been kinda tired to say the least.  We have been trying to go on short walks down by the river to enjoy the awesome weather though and it has been so fun.  Our typical evening consists of a walk, dinner, mario kart on the n64, and bedtime. I know, we are super exciting. 

Another walk, it has just been so stinking gorgeous!!

And that's the end folks, until next time.