Thoughtful Tuesday

Well I'm obviously not over the alliterations. I considered titling it Introspective Tuesday but what fun what that be?

Did you all have a great 4th of July celebration??? We did! We got to spend the day at home with a group of friends we don't see often enough. And I got to watch my husband play in the street with Warren, one of our really good friends, until the dark hours of the night. 10:30p. Whoo, we're getting old!

It was fireworks on parade at our house and, as the night grew older, on our street. I'm pretty sure all the neighbors got into fireworks battles once the big guns came out.

Does anyone else think these 'snakes' are gross?

Kayla does!

Caught a parachute!

We finished the night off almost totally incident free. Warren and Patrice invited friends of theirs to stop by and of course the 8 month pregnant woman whom none of us really knew got hit by a firework. Thankfully she only had a couple of really small scratches but why couldn't it have happened to one of us? Or to the two crazies who were lighting them off! As we were cleaning her off she said, 'At least I had my hair pulled back'. Holy mother! I hadn't even thought of that, instead of a pregnant woman with little scratches we could have had a pregnant woman on FIRE!!! Needless to say that incident put a damper on things and most of us headed inside to watch Robbie and Warren light fireworks off from the safety of the picture window!

Once everyone left I started putting away the food and I couldn't help but wonder why our celebrations and emotions are so intertwined with food. As soon as Patrice and I decided to 'do' the 4th together the first thing we planned was what to eat. And when we included the others that was also their first question, 'What can we bring?'.

Food is so tied up in our memories and emotions that yesterday when I told my husband what we were going to have to eat I felt like we were still missing something. Do you know what he said? 'It feels like something is missing because its all fancy food. Theres no traditional 4th of July food. No potato salad or baked beans.' I'm not totally sure whats fancy about chicken on the grill, pasta salad and coleslaw but he had a point. Thinking back on all other 4th of July, heck all warm weather celebrations, there is always macaroni salad or potato salad. Baked beans are a given, as is fresh corn. At least since we've moved here. (In my defense there was no corn at the Farmers Market, I looked. I wanted some! Most of our local produce is showing up late this year. And I had a can of baked beans in the cabinet so I saved the day with that. Go me.)

Now I'm not saying I didn't enjoy every morsel I put in my mouth. And in case you're wondering what I ate...grilled portobello mushroom cap (Side not- spell check wants to change portobello to potbelly. Really?), quinoa caprese salad from here, pasta salad full of yummy fresh veggies, 'Asian' coleslaw, cream cheese pound cake with berries, fruit salsa with cinnamon chips and at the end of the night one s'more.

I wonder why it is that at Summer celebrations we expect potato salad and baked beans, at Thanksgiving we expect turkey, stuffing, potatoes and pumpkin pie. At Christmas, at least in my family, there is ham. Same with Easter. For New Years Day my grandma makes black eyed peas and ham. Some of my favorite childhood memories are spending the night at Grandmas house to have her make us bacon, eggs fried in the left over grease and Jiffy blueberry muffins. Later in the day, if we were good, she'd take us to Thriftys to get ice cream.

Think about it. Births, deaths, holidays, parties, time with family and friends it always includes food. Heck I was in LABOR and Patrice brought me Lumpia (pre-veggie days) and let me tell you, it was awesome! When my Uncle John passed away we went to his funeral and then back to my Aunts house to a big buffet. Every birthday party anyone has ever thrown, even those not at 'designated' meal times, has included food. All the holidays and celebrations seem to revolve around food.. Why do we eat? Besides the obvious need. Is it emotionally driven? Is it the societal norm? Is it an excuse to spend time together? An excuse to overindulge? Is it habit? Does anyone have thoughts on this?

Weekend wrap up!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICA! You're looking pretty dang good for 235 years old!

My husband told me the other day, which was a Wednesday by the way, that 1 in 4 AMERICANS don't know whom we obtained our independence from or when! How disgusting is that!?!? In case you're the one in four, which I'm certain you're not--but just in case. We obtained our independence from England in 1776.

Any how, are you over my alliterations yet? I can't decide if I am or not. Guess we'll see tomorrow.

On Thursday we had no plans for the weekend. None. We were planning on enjoying a long quiet weekend. Well, ok, we knew that Friday evening we were watching our friends kids and that we were having them back over, plus the parents, on the 4th to grill. But that was it. We were having a low key weekend.

Enter Saturday. We ended up going to a last minute birthday party. I know this sounds crazy to all you non-military families but this couple are both active duty and have nutso schedules. While the unplanned party isn't common its not terribly unusual, its just part of military life. Anyhow, we were able to make it. And let me tell you...yumm! Cake and ice cream and a pinata. My son still doesn't know that candy is an uber coveted treat so he still shares with his Sweet Mommy. By the way, thats what he sometimes (ok rarely, but still) calls me now. Yes my kid is better than yours. Fine, maybe not. But hes definitely sweeter!

And better.

The boy and I 'shared' a piece of cake and one scoop of ice cream. Which I happily saw was a lower fat version. But lets just be real. Sharing cake and ice cream with your kid means you eat more than half and they get a couple of bites here and there. And inside the pinata were Tootsie Rolls. The long skinny ones and the flavored ones. (Yes I do realize how inappropriate that sounds if it were to be taken out of context. Shame on you for taking all of our minds there!) I ate five. Yummmmmmmy! But soon after having cake, ice cream and Tootsie Rolls I could feel it. And not in the 'Oh no my WW points are totally screwed' way--even though they were-- but in the 'Despite my love for Hersheys I really don't eat like this anymore and I'm pretty sure that cake was made with either real or synthetic (mass produced) eggs and butter.'

If you don't eat veggie--or maybe if you're just not me?-- let me tell you what that means. Farts. Smelly, tuba sounding farts. It also means its time to g-o! (If you happen to eat veggie and this doesn't happen to you I don't want to hear about it. I like to believe that my insides are so clean and efficient that any deviation from my no meat, no egg, no milk diet equals gastric unrest. Don't squash my dreams!) But the boy had fun!

--sorry my voice is so loud in the video--

I wrapped up the night with a giant 0 WW points salad. Delish! I love 'free' food. Especially when I've already blown my numbers!

Sunday came and its was fantastic. The boy and I started the morning off with church and a trip to the Farmers Market. We love the Farmers Market. When I asked my little man if he wanted to get some veggies he said, 'Veggies are duh-wishis.' (See I told you he was better! ;) ) He melts my heart. We shopped for our veggies and then played at the park and ate kettle corn. Yum! Unfortunately for us the husband was missing this morning, working on being awake for 28 hours after being called in to work the night before. Can we say boo employer?

The afternoon came to me with wine, food--edamame, veggie flat bread pizza and creme brulee-- and time with a couple of my favorite ladies. Speaking of favorite ladies, if you're a lady in my life you can rest assured you fall into the category of 'favorite'. I'm not big on lukewarm relationships. I like you or I don't and if I do its because I can tell you're going to become a favorite. Or at very least I really like you ;)

Hug your families and enjoy Americas birthday! She sure is beautiful.