Green Chef Review

I finally decided to try and home delivery meal service. The first one I am trying is Green Chef. The food is 100% organic, delivered right to your door, and mostly already prepped for you. All you have to do is follow the simple recipes and dinner is ready! Overall, we really enjoyed this past week's box of dinners. I love that it's all fresh and the simplicity of it all. Even though it still takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare. It would take longer if everything wasn't already ready and prepared for you. They truly are gourmet meals. We are doing the two servings and add extra sides or meat for the kids. The main con of this is the price. We got a promotional price of $9 for three organic dinners this week. After this week it will cost $82 per week for three meals. It's not the most economical but about the same or a little cheaper than going out to eat. Also it's all organic so I know we're not getting all of the GMOs and pesticides in the food.

I think we'll try this for a month or so and see if we continue to like it. I love not having to think about three dinners each week.

Here's what we made this past weekend.

Thursday: Summer Vegetables Soup with Lemon-Basil Pistou

Friday: Chicken Sausage and Mushroom Skewers, Roasted Carrots and Potatoes (rather than peppers), and Baked Beans

Saturday: Spice-Crusted Steak and Tabbouleh

Here's what the box looked and how it was packaged. It comes with freezer packs so you don't have to be home when it's delivered. 

Caden was super excited about this!

Thursday: Summer Vegetables Soup with Lemon-Basil Pistou

Friday: Chicken Sausage and Mushroom Skewers, Roasted Carrots and Potatoes (rather than peppers), and Baked Beans

Caden loved helping make the skewers!

Here's how it came

I added organic carrots and potatoes (forgot to take a picture of the potatoes and added extra sausage)

Saturday: Spice-Crusted Steak and Tabbouleh 

This was our favorite!

Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease

I remember when we lived in Germany, many of our friends' children got something called, Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. I used to count our blessings that we were spared that disease. Mainly because it sounds so horrible!

Well, this past week, I realized as a mom, I have some failure moments. Caden and it seems like Gracie, both have Hand, Foot, and Mouth. Last Wednesday, Caden started having an ulcer in his mouth. I thought he got his first canker sore. He went to VBS, swimming lessons, and tennis lessons. We visited with friends and kept plenty busy. Then Thursday morning I noticed he had a lot of bug bites on his feet. I thought, yep, the ants finally got him. He loves messing with ant beds and the bumps on his feet looked like a lot of bug bites. Sunday we went to church and Sunday evening to a mystery dinner with church where thankfully he swam for several hours. At bedtime Collin noticed he had bumps on the palms of his hands that looked like the bumps on his feet. Over the weekend his mouth was hurting more and more. I looked at them and thought, this has to be something more than canker sores and bug bites. I had read on Facebook that a number of my friends' children had Hand, Foot, and mouth. Hm, he had something that affected his hands, feet, and mouth. I took some pictures and posted them in one of my mommy FB groups. Sure enough, a number of friends confirmed that's what it was. A few of these spots are also on his bottom.

The next morning I looked Gracie over. She mostly had a slight diaper rash which she rarely gets with a few of these bumps. She has three on the back of her left leg, one of her face, and shoulder. I called our pediatrician's office and the nurse confirmed that they both had Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Neither one of them had a fever. Both seemed a bit more tired than normal, although Gracie has overall been getting less sleep than she needs. It's a virus and will run it's course. The kids are looking better now that's about over. Although we have keep them away from everyone this week. When the sores start blistering over or disappearing they are no longer contagious. One of my teacher friends said that the school nurses don't send kids home for this anymore unless they have a fever. I just feel bad for letting Caden participate in so many things without realizing he had a virus. Thankfully, Gracie seems to have a pretty mild case of it. It's her first known illness and her healthy body is fighting it off really well. Thankfully, Caden is super healthy as well and when he's sick you really don't know unless he has a fever. Which thankfully, neither one of them have had. I also want to apologize to those who I have missed telling about this. I am very sorry if your child caught this disease from us. :( Hopefully it will be mild and your kid will get over it quickly. It lasts about a week.

Here are a few pictures in case your child ever has some strange bumps. It was hard to see the mouth sores in his mouth but you can see the bumps around his lips. He's been having a hard time eating and talking. Poor guy!

Caden is Swimming!!

One of Caden's big goals this summer was to learn how to swim while putting his face in the water. He's always had a real natural fear of water and since the day of his first bath, he couldn't stand water on his head or face. Obviously, he can shower now without crying and throwing a fit but it took many years to get there. That's just how God made him. On one hand, we never had to worry about him falling into a swimming pool. On the other, it's been challenging to get him to learn to swim. He truly loves being in the pool now, if he can stand up. But one thing Collin and I have not been able to get him to do is put his head under the water. Most things we can teach our children but some, it's better to find someone else to teach them. He's taken a number of swimming classes in the past and last week he started swimming on his own! 

A week ago, he swam with my older brother at his house and the next day we went swimming with friends. He swam on his own! I was so impressed! We had some private lessons scheduled with an excellent swim coach later in the week. The first day she had him swimming and putting his face in the water. She even got him to float on his back! This is a huge accomplishment for him! We are very proud of him and how his confidence has improved. After 3 private lessons, we had to reschedule his 4th, he can swim across the pool. We have found a new swim teacher. She's way better than the YMCA and along with my older brother, and lots of practice with us, I think he'll become a very strong and more confident swimmer in no time. We are so proud of you, Caden!!!

30.5 weeks with Baby #3!

Monday I had my  regular 2 week check-up. I'm now going every two weeks and will continue until the baby is born. Our son looks great! He's going to be a big boy! At 31 weeks he weighs 4 lbs, 5 oz. Thankfully, my fluid looks great and he does too. We finally got to see his cute face! My doctor advised me to limit my carbs and sugar. I failed the first glucose test by 2 points. They checked my blood sugar and it was normal and we decided not to go ahead with the 3 hour test. I didn't want to take it as I almost passed out from it when I took it in Germany. That was the only option there. I told her I'd do my best. 

Baby boy was measuring 10 days early and based on his size, my new due date would be August 16th rather than August 26th. My doctor said if I made it to my normal due date we'd be looking at a 9 lb baby. I'm having flash backs to being pregnant with Caden. He came on his own 9 days early and was a good 8 lbs. Ultimately, I just want to be healthy and have a healthy baby. 

How far along? 31 weeks tomorrow

Baby’s size? As of Monday, at 30.5 weeks, he weighed 4 lbs, 5 oz!

Total weight gain/loss: I have gained 24 lbs!

Maternity clothes? Absolutely! There's no turning back until the baby is born right now!

Stretch marks? No new ones for this pregnancy. Although I'm 2 lbs away from my pregnancy weight when I gave birth to Caden 6 years ago.

Sleep: I wake up to pee about once, sometimes twice. Gracie is sleeping in her room and usually sleeps until 6:30am. So if I go to bed before 11, I get about 7 hours.

Best moment this week: Seeing my baby's sweet face in the sonogram for the first time!
 
Miss Anything? Sleep and feeling better. 

Movement: He moves constantly.

Food cravings: Fruit and ice cream.

Anything making you queasy or sick: No.

Gender: Boy!!

Labor Signs: I've started having some contractions.

Symptoms: Fatigue, big belly, baby movements, and early contractions.

Belly Button in or out? In but will poke out if I cough or laugh.

Wedding rings on or off? On!

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and blessed!

Looking forward to: Meeting my son.

Please pray for: A healthy baby and pregnancy.

Pickles!

A few nights ago we made pickles from our harvested cucumbers. We used Collin's mom's recipe. We used the same amount of water and vinegar, a teaspoon of salt, some fresh dill, and some garlic cloves. We tried them yesterday! They were delicious!

Caden's 6!!

6 wonderful years ago, I became a mom. It was one of the BEST days of my life, apart from being baptized and getting married. Caden has brought so much joy to our family and our lives are forever changed. He has now finished kindergarten and is going to be starting 1st grade this Fall at a part-time private school. We'll homeschool three days a week and he'll attend two days. We're all really looking forward to it.  He loved his elective school this year but with me having two kids under two at home this coming Fall, having two days off from teaching will be a blessing. Caden's a very social kid and thrives on social interactions with people. We're praying this is a good fit. The school has lots of boys and his 1st grade teacher apparently does really well with them. If you have an all boy, boy, you'll know how important finding the right school for your son is. If he's like Caden, sitting at a desk all day would not be good. Not having adequate PE and recess, would not be a good fit either. He's very bright, energetic, and needs movement throughout the day. He also loves hands-on activities. As a family we love homeschooling and really want to continue being the main teachers in his life so this is a great balance for us.

Caden had a great birthday party this year. Every year he wants to have his birthday party at our house. But the thought of being 7 months pregnant and hosting around 50 people did not sound appealing to me this year. It's stressful enough when I'm not pregnant to host a big group at our house. Although we love having home parties, we knew we needed to do something different this year. This year he chose to have his party at Buffalo Nickels. It's a fun mini golf course/arcade game place. We were able to bring in our own food and provide nickels for all of the games as well as miniature golf for everyone.  We decided to have it last night and provided pizza, watermelon, cake, and drinks for everyone. The party was a success and all of the kids had a fun time. We're always limited on space and wish we could have invited more people but as it was, we had 42 people, 20 kids and 22 adults, 12 families total were able to attend. At the last minute two families cancelled or we would have had even more there.

Caden's Favorites:

Favorite color: blue

Favorite sport: basketball and karate (he also loves tennis and is about to start playing again)

Best friends: Olivia and Neil

Favorite food: Peperoni Pizza

Favorite dessert: chocolate bars

Favorite drink: apple juice

Favorite book: Harold and the Purple Crayon and What Do People Do All Day

Favorite show: Lulu's Island

Favorite song: ones he makes up

Favorite places to go: Swimming and Buffalo Nickels

Pictures from today:

We decorate his room with balloons and numbers for his age

He ran through the streamers

He's so fast it was bury!

In 10 years he'll be driving! Slow down time!

At lunch he got a red velvet cake

Then he got some ice cream from our favorite place, Marble Slab

Making bouncy balls with Dad

Pictures from his birthday party

Camden, Caden, and Kaison

Caden, Joy, and Juliet

Joy, Kadence, Logan, Caden, Kaymen, Andew, and Kaison

Trent, Travis, Andrew, Kaison

Caden and Naomi

Caden, Joy, and Juliet

Travis, Trent, Olivia, Jeremy, Caden, and Neil

He got so many wonderful gifts! Thank you, friends and family!

Kalion and Alora

Goofy grandparents