So I tagged myself in a meme. Lame, I know, but no one tagged me. I’ve been out of the blogging loop for over a year and left all my blog rings when I went so most of the people I "knew" back then don’t know I exist again and I’m having trouble finding them too. So I did a meme on my own. I’ve seen this on several blogs but was at tiennieknits (check out those awesome spiral knee socks!) when I decided to do one myself.

The instructions:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions and my answers:
1. What is your first name? Peggy
2. What is your favorite food? Cashew chicken stir-fry (ideally from Casey’s)
3. What high school did you go to? Chippewa Secondary
4. What is your favorite color? Black
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Wentworth Miller
6. Favorite drink? Orange juice
7. Dream vacation? private Caribbean island
8. Favorite dessert? Rice pudding
9. What you wanted to be when you grow up? As happy as I am now
10. What do you love most in life? My son
11. One Word to describe you? Passionate
12. Your flickr name? brogansmomma (but I couldn’t find me on there ?? so I just took a picture from my flickr account)

Now go forth and tag yourself! 

We’re back. We came back on Sunday afternoon and then I worked today. Last night and tonight was spent running around trying to cram many hours of stuff into a few short ones as I was trying to get B’s suitcase etc packed to go to my aunt’s cottage tomorrow. I knew I wouldn’t have much time as he was sleeping at my mom’s both last night and tonight since I worked today and again tomorrow. But he’s packed and the food is packed and all his stuff and the little man himself are over at my mom’s right now. And I’m sitting here on the couch with a rumbling and empty stomach while what I really should be doing is sleeping. I’ll do a quick image-heavy post first though.

It was a good time, this past weekend. We did a few things with the kids, dodging raindrops as we went along. There were boats

and there were ore cars

There were huge inflatable bouncy play tunnels and slides. There was almost swimming (until we got thunderstormed out) and there was fishing. There was also a traumatic experience from running too fast in flip flops, tripping, and smashing one’s face off a wooden step outside. And then there were tears. And, a day later, there was a black eye (you can just barely see the actual injury below it - the scrape across his upper cheekbone and nose).

Back at home there was cuteness

And today, there was a haircut. This is the shortest I’ve had it cut. We normally use a number 2 about eight months out of the year and today I was feeling daring (hey - it’s not my hair!) and told her to use a number 1. She suggested a 1.5 and that was fine with me. It’s amazing how much difference there is between the two blades.

Goodbye, B! Have fun at the cottage. Love you, miss you, squeeze you until you groan. Mwah! 

We’re heading out tomorrow after work to go up to my boyfriend’s parents’ place. It’s not far - about an hour and a half north if the speed limit is obeyed - but I won’t be back until Sunday evening so I can head back to work on Monday. We’ll be testing out the ketchup I made from the untomato sauce that was made last night. It’ll be interesting to see what B thinks of it. I’m taking up a small cooler with a few things in it so that B doesn’t have to go without if something is being served to the rest of us that he can’t have. I wouldn’t expect S’s mom to cater to B’s program when there will be five others in the house who do not have restrictions. She’ll make what she makes (I don’t even know if she knows B is on a special diet) and we’ll work around it.

Off to bed! I should have been there hours ago since 4:45 comes awfully early in the morning (thank God for Dress Down Fridays!) but I was trying to get the ketchup made and peel and slice four dehydrator trays worth of kiwi and get food things gathered up for tomorrow. I’ll do a bit more gathering on my lunch tomorrow and then toss clothes together when I get home from work in the afternoon.

Enjoy your weekend! 

Surprisingly, this is not vile. It definitely doesn’t taste like the real thing but it’s Untomato Sauce from the Feingold program - beets and carrots puréed with a few spices. It’s supposed to sit overnight to let the flavours meld so I’ll have taste tomorrow and see if there’s a difference. (It’s actually a little redder than the photo shows; low light and no flash and all that.) This batch, my first, was made with B’s upcoming stay at my aunt’s cottage in mind. I’ll be talking to her tomorrow and will find out if she prefers the sauce or if I should make it into ketchup. I made a batch and a half, actually, since I had one and a half pounds of beets instead of one pound and because I knew the half pound would spoil in my fridge before I’d use them up. Maybe I’ll leave half as sauce and ketchup the rest.

I dropped B off at my mom’s for the night because I have to get up at 4:45 for work in the morning and then I ran to the grocery store. I had forgotten just how heavenly it is to shop by myself. I mean, I knew it was good but it’s been so long that the experience had faded a bit. I zipped around and picked up some things for the cottage. I was disappointed to get the Canadian foodlist for the Feingold program since it turns out that it’s just American products that are distributed in Canada, not Canadian products. Flipping through the list I only recognize a couple of brands in a few random categories. Strangely enough, flipping through the US foodlist, I recognize a greater number of brands and know they are on my store shelves. For example, under canned fruits, Dole and Del Monte are listed in the US list but only Dole shows up on the Canadian one. I buy Del Monte all the time. However, what I don’t know is if the ingredients are different from one country to the next. Very few of my regular brands are listed in my foodlist and I’m pretty sure it’s not because they don’t make any approved foods. I’m going to write to FAUS but it looks like I’ll have a lot of label-reading and finger-crossing to do; finger-crossing because not all ingredients and additives are listed on the label. I’m in this though for the full effort since my sanity can’t take anything less. I want to enjoy B’s childhood (and have him enjoy it as well), not just survive it. I don’t want either him or I to look back and have only unhappy thoughts come to the forefront. Granted, all our days are not horrible, but every single day has at least one, if not several, physically/emotionally/mentally exhausting episode due to behaviour. Even if this doesn’t "solve" anything, I have no doubt it will help. And who couldn’t benefit from a diet that is as free of preservatives and artificial additives as possible?

I don’t like a blog post without pictures and this one’s a little image heavy. Only five, but that’s heavy enough since I’m not sure how long they take to load.

First up, pictures of the garden. It’s doing pretty well considering I only planted in the middle to end of June due to cold, wet weather. I absolutely love that I have next to no weeds. I’m using a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost and the few weeds I do get are so easy to spot and even easier to pull. I’m out in the yard every day so I take a look and pull each weed as I see it.

I have four raised beds. They’re approximately 4 feet x 5 feet by the outside dimensions; they were supposed to be the inside dimensions but something got lost between me and the guy (my dad) who cut them for me. In square-foot-garden fashion, I marked them off into a grid using string and screws. Some of my squares are still empty and some are on their second crop (my spring onions, the second batch, which haven’t sprouted yet). Pardon the lawn: these were taken yesterday before I cut the grass.

The first bed has Roma tomatoes at the back. Left to right column-wise in front of those, starting at the back are lavender, chives, and basil at the front left corner, marigolds and parsley in the second-from-left column, and acorn squash taking up the rest. I may have to move my parsley to the second bed depending on how big and sprawling this squash wants to get.

The second bed houses more Romas along the back with the tall plant being an Amish Paste tomato. This bed has some empty squares. You an see the marigolds in the row in front of the tomatoes and directly in front of them are some carrots; I need to go plant the remaining two rows in that carrot square; I wanted to stagger the crop a little. Onions are in the squares in the right-hand corner, with the second crop of as-yet-unsprouted spring onions in the front right corner. I have radish in the left corner and I’ve already pulled out a few big ones. These radish are actually the second crop as, again, I staggered the crop and only planted half of the square awhile back.

Bed #3 contains more tomatoes at the back - Amish Paste, a square of marigolds, a Sweet 100 cherry tomato plant, a Glamour Girl (who isn’t growing all that quickly as compared to the others), and another Roma. The far right column contains brussels sprouts, as does the square next to them at the top. The rest are bell pepper plants. The empty square at the front contained another bell pepper plant but I pulled him out yesterday as he hasn’t grown (but nor had he died) in weeks. I have a number of tiny little peppers on most of the plants.

The last bed gets the least amount of sun, being in part shade for the morning. The front contains leaf lettuce on the left, romaine next to that, two squares of kale, and the right-hand square has dill. Behind the leaf lettuce are beans but, though the container (I bought them pre-started) said they were bush beans, they are sending arms out everywhere and seem to be climbers instead. They are getting very tangled up and I may end up pulling them. Directly behind the beans are two cucumber plants that are slowly climbing up a trellis. I love going out and seeing new tendrils all wrapped around the supports! The other trellis to the right of the cucumbers sits over my zucchini plants. They are growing slowly but surely; we’ll see how they do. I’m hoping for some little ones, just enough to make pickles (since cucumbers are not approved for Stage One of the Feingold program), but if I get more that would be fantastic too. The weedy dirt between the bed and the fence will be given a layer of top soil and sprinkled with grass seed. It’s the last such patch in the yard and I just haven’t done it yet.

And there you have it. My little garden. Each day that goes by, I like this wee house more and more. I look around the inside and both the front and back yards and see the changes I’ve made. From the empty scrubby spaces they used to be outside to the updating and finishing inside… I’m proud of myself and proud of doing it on my own. It was important to me that I own my own home, both for me and for Brogan and I’ve done that. There are still things I want to do (bathroom reno, for sure, and adding a window in there; a deck off the back above the brick patio would be nice) and I won’t stay here forever (no room to grow) but this is my house and no one else’s. A house for me and my boy.

My poor boy. He took one look at the picture below and said, "I’m a freak!" ("Freak" here is an occasionally-used affectionate term. Does that make me a bad mom? Oh well.)

poor picture quality. ugh!

It was raining yesterday morning when we got up and within a short period of time, B was getting restless. I managed to get his shirt on but he was giving me a hard time about getting his pajama shorts off so I figured that since it wasn’t a big deal, I’d wait for a more cooperative time. At some point before that happened I was downstairs transferring laundry when I heard him in the dresser that I have in the back entrance for mitts and hats etc. When I came up he was outside looking like this. At least now I know that the fleece hat that was way too big last year will fit perfectly this coming winter. He got a little damp but mostly stuck to the dry spot under the roof overhang.

Today was an exceptional one. I’m sitting here steeping in the aroma of homemade chicken stock, which is simmering on the stove and mingling with the smell of cooling freshly-baked granola and I’m reflecting on this day that is nearly done. It wasn’t exceptional because of the beautiful weather or because it was the first of two days off work, but because B had an awesome day. I cannot think of anything that was a problem. He was cooperative and agreeable and didn’t put up a fuss (or a meltdown!) when things didn’t go as he was wanting. He was dropped off at home by my mom, who had him last night while I worked and shortly after that we went out to hunt down a whipper snipper and a large watering can among a few other things. I use a reel mower to cut my small yards but need something, other than shears (which I did consider), to do the large amount of trimming and edging. We ended up at Canadian Tire, where we did find the needed whipper snipper, an electric one on sale for $20 off, making it the same price as their cheapest one but for a larger and more powerful machine with better features and a better warranty. We also found a 10L watering can (perfect!), an inflatable 5-foot round pool on sale for half price (I had told B that we would be on the look-out for one), two cute votive candle holders on for 93c each (regular $2.99) and a cute (I think) Debbie Travis vase on sale for roughly half off as well; it’s about the size of a large canteloupe and I love it even though I have no place to put it. I think it would look wonderful wtih some cheery flowers in bright saturated colours bursting out the top.

I also found a bicycle for B. The poor kid has a tricycle that he got a couple of summers ago but he’s never really learned to ride it due to lack of opportunity and assistance. We have a bit of a brick patio here (I won’t let him use the driveway since I don’t currently trust him to stay and listen) but his trike is poorly designed and it takes quite a bit of strength and effort to get it to pedal unless he’s already going at a decent pace (and then he runs out of patio). Add to that the fact that he’s 3.5 and would be getting a "big boy bike" next summer. I saw this little guy for $40 and, influenced by myself and my amazement and happiness at B’s happy and cooperative demeanor, we picked it up too. He wants me to take him to the park to ride it. We’ll have to find a school playground, possibly "his" school (the one he’ll be attending in the fall).

so hard to believe that he’s big enough for this 

Tomorrow will hopefully see us picking up some tall stakes or other equipment to help my poor Amish Paste tomatoes, which are growing too thick and tall for their current set-up. It will also see me re-potting one of my indoor plants, doing laundry and hanging it on the line and making soup (hopefully Feingold-friendly!) with some of the stock, carrots, celery, green beans, corn, lentils, barley, leftover rice, and chicken. If things go well I may even venture downtown to the health food stores to pick up some coconut oil and look for some Feingold-friendly toothpaste. I have my fingers crossed for another awesome day tomorrow.

It is an absolutely beautiful day here. Fluffy white clouds in a clear blue sky, sun that is intermittently shadowed by the clouds just when it starts to get too warm, and an perfectly delicious breeze. I do not love the smell of clothes dried outside but this kind of day just begs a load of laundry flapping in the breeze. Unfortunately, I did my last load yesterday when it was too gray and humid (and breeze-less) to get the clothes dried outside in the time frame I had available; I had to put them in the dryer instead.

It’s been another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day here. Or morning, I guess I should say. Mom had B last night because I worked nights and even as she was getting him out of the car right after pulling into the driveway, I could hear him being belligerent and rude. I so do not have the strength for this. The morning stayed pretty bad though I did manage to make some bread and he calmed down enough to help me (and didn’t do too badly at it). I’m still waiting on the food list and other program materials from FAUS and mom asked me this morning if he could have regular bread. The answer is, "I don’t know, but I wouldn’t think so". FAUS has done the research and when I get the food list I should have a list of ready-made items I can by and their brand. In the meantime, I decided to make some bread because I know exactly what’s in it. I was surprised to see that even the bakery bread that is freshly-made at the grocery store has a list of ingredients a mile long, many of which I have no clue what they are. I used this recipe and didn’t change a thing. I haven’t yet cut into a loaf but it definitely smells good. The recipe has a five-star rating based on 248 reviews so I’m optimistic.

I’ve found a recipe for hamburger buns on the Feingold yahoo group that I plan to try. If my aunt does decide to take B to the cottage, she’s going to have all four kids on the same eating plan in order to simplify things. I will send the buns, a batch of granola since B eats that for breakfast very well, some instant oatmeal that I mixed up*, and a couple loaves of bread if I can’t find the Feingold-approved ones. I plan to mix up a batch of un-tomato sauce and ketchup as well.

*Take one cup of quick oats and put them in the blender or food processor until powedery. Add that to two cups of quick oats, mix it all together, and store in an airtight container. Use 1/3 cup to 3/4 cup of water and add a pinch of salt and whatever else you want to add.

I am admittedly emotional today. It’s been a bit of a difficult day so far with B and I’m exhausted. The video below is making me cry. I tend to cry at things like this but I think the tiredness might be adding to it (I could so crash for a nap but I have too much stuff to do while B’s having his). Click, smile, maybe even cry. Even though it’s not sad.