We’re going to be blogging lightly for the month of August, posting frequent photo postcards with a snippet of text.
Father-daughter kitchen adventures: making chai from scratch.
Author: Carrie
Meal Planning
Are you tired yet of these posts from the couch, with photos from my camera phone? I know I am.
The big news is that I can now place weight on my ankle, stand for short periods of time, and inadvertently took a few steps yesterday. (Talking with friends can be so fun and distracting; you may start walking without even thinking about it!) Today I walked around the house quite a bit and am now recovering on the couch. This is very, very good news.
However, I have been concerned about staying healthy since I can no longer run each night. While using crutches does give me a stellar upper body and core workout, I need to get back to consuming more vegetables in my diet. (We’ve done a LOT of take-out the past two weeks.) The good news is that since I’ve stopped running, my appetite is much smaller. The bad news is that it’s harder to get in the kitchen with crutches.
That being said, I have been doing some cooking, focusing on preparing veggie intensive, healthful meals.
I pulled out our trusty recipe binder and found several salads and healthful grains to prepare this week: Quinoa Salad with Pears, Baby Spinach and Chickpeas in a Maple Vinaigrette; Golden Spice Rice with Chickpeas (from Feeding the Whole Family: Recipes for Babies, Young Children, and Their Parents); Green Beans with Roasted Nuts and Cranberries; and Garlicky Shrimp and Spinach. Yum yum!
Creative (Pretend) Pizza Toppings
Our daughter may only eat cheese pizza in the real world, but she likes all kinds of creative toppings in the world of pretend.
Featured here is the often-played-with and much-loved wooden Melissa and Doug Pizza dressed with our felt, hand-sewn spinach, mixed-greens salad and mushrooms, topped with several slices of cheese.
Order’s up!
First Dance Recital
Our daughter (shown above, third child from the right) was the smallest, youngest and most interpretive of the enthusiastic dancers.
Following directions in time with everyone else is so challenging tricky overrated when you’re three years old. Yep, that’s our peanut doing downward dog in dance class.
Look at her move with pure joy! (She’s on the left, above.)
My heart nearly melted.
Parenting from the couch
Here we are, almost a week after I sprained my ankle, and I’m still stuck on the couch, healing, and completely blown away and in awe of the remarkable community we have here in California.
I feel thankful for the support of friends, neighbors and my Leyba loves, who have comforted, carried (literally!), iced and wrapped my ankle, driven me around, cooked for, visited and supported me, providing care I didn’t even realize I needed. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude for your support and care. I feel so very thankful having you all in my life.
Back on the couch front, my swollen, bruised ankle is starting to resemble an ankle again, but I still can’t yet stand, let alone drive. As someone who leads a very busy and social life, I’ve found it quite challenging staying at home and waiting for the action to come to us.
It’s also given me a clearer glimpse into my parenting style. I didn’t realize what a hands on parent I was until this experience. I may like to be in charge, but sitting back and directing is so not for me.
Today is my first day without pain meds, so I hope to be walking again soon…