Picnic Season

Steve just planted our vegetable garden and we are going to have quite a few tomatoes.  It made me pine for some chips and salsa.  Here's my recipe for it but there are a million out there....

Anjanette’s Salsa

3 or 4 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped (if you don’t seed them, the salsa is watery)

½  sweet onion, finely chopped (can substitute with ½ cup scallions or red onion)

1 fresh Serrano or Jalapeño chile, seeded and finely chopped

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1 to 2 tsp salt (I like Sea Salt or Kosher Salt)

1 tbsp of salad oil (optional but it has a good mouth feel)

Juice from 1 lime

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Stir well and chill……

*For an earthier taste, roast the tomatoes, onions and chiles in the broiler or on the grill.  Peel the skins off of the tomatoes and peppers and proceed as directed... : )

Red Tape

Don't know where the time went since my last post.....  I have been in Special Education mire the last few weeks.  Getting the boys to transition from Early Invention into Early Childhood programs.  Getting Gretchen evaluated as well.  I need a guide to get through all this and help me understand everything.  I am patiently reading the parents guide on the Illinois Board of Education site.  It's not bad but lengthy...

Dec 19th Mom's Dance

Baby Fat

So the boys are two and I'm finally looking at myself and deciding I need to lose weight. In May I started Weight Watchers again. Today I am up to 42 lbs lost with another 40 or 50 to go. I'm half way. While I'm happy to be half way, I know the harder 40 lbs to lose is the second half. It makes the first half look easy... I'm proud of myself and all that but it's the second half for me that really counts. I'm going to get my annual physical soon so maybe that will boost my enthusiasm. My goal is to get to my target weight by my 40th birthday (which is next year). As I approach my 39th birthday this week, I do smile a little knowing the 40th will be my one of the best birthdays I've had in a while.

Water Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink

I have been extremely busy but I'm finally getting back to doing the stuff I love to do - like post on my blog! Since most of my activities revolve around my kids (and those blogs are updated), this update should be short. Only a few real things going on with me personally. First major update: I joined Weight Watchers. I'm getting old and baby weight has ceased to be an excuse for over a year now. My goal is to get to my goal weight (which is a 90 to 100lb loss) by my 40th birthday in 2011. I think it's reasonable but I am not going to fall apart if I don't make it. I can be extremely focused when I want something and I'm finally getting that focus back after the haze of having twins has burned off. So far, I've lost 16 pounds in about 5 weeks so I'm happy. Steve is also trying to get in better shape and is making a huge effort to eat healthy. His support is helping me so much since it's so much easier if everyone in the house is making the effort to eat vegetables and fruits. Second major update: hmm... there has to be something... I guess not. Oh, we're having a summer party in August. Details coming soon!

In other news, we lost power on Father's Day weekend due to bad storms in the area. Power loss isn't that big of a deal except we're on a well so no power means no water. It was out for three days but it felt like forever. I never felt so spoiled as when the power finally went back on. We bought a generator to run the refrigerator and TV. We boiled water to wash dishes (we got water from the guy across the street since the folks across the street did have power... don't ask...). It felt like camping for us so after a week of having power again, we decided to book our camping vacation for the summer. (Though Gretchen and I have already camped in the backyard this summer).

As always, lots of pictures on Flickr... I'll try to post more though if you follow me on twitter, I update that more frequently.