Ben is only working till noon on most weekdays. We've also had a few random "DONSA's" and 4-day weekends. The girls are loving all the attention from their daddy. Violet said this morning, "Where's my daddy?" I said, "He's at work today." "Will he be gone for'longtime?" "No, he'll be back at lunch." Long pause...........*mutters* "He does that a lot." It's easy to get spoiled by this holiday-like lifestyle right now. We ADORE having him around so much! Violet is completely a Daddy's Girl, and Gracie flirts with him every waking moment. :)
Ben started "coaching" me through some Crossfit workouts yesterday. It left me pretty whipped. I thought I was doing well with 3-mile runs until 10 minutes (Yes, TEN) left me wobbly in the legs, and pretty Ouchy the morning after. I'm looking forward to beating this workout, tho. As long as my milk supply doesn't suffer.....I plan to rock it out with Crossfit! Size 6 jeans, I am coming for you!!!
Did I mention I'm loving our new "Home Life"? I really, really am. Setting up house has been mega-fun for me. I adore cooking again for our family.....and have done a couple of overhauls of our nutritional habits (which included a lot of peanut butter sandwiches). We found a local butcher shop (really, just a couple miles from here) and bought a quarter cow, and half a pig to store in our freezer. I am amazed how cheap it is to get meat that way. It's all grass-fed, too! I also ended up with some of the less-popular stuff like lard, organs, etc, which I plan on learning to use. I hear liver, especially, is a nutrient-rich food--especially for growing kids. I'm going to try my hand at rendering lard, too. I read some interesting articles about lard being a much healthier source of "oil".....better than the heavily processed canola/vegetable oils. Also, CHEAP. (and tasty!!)
We also started buying raw milk. My mother-in-law went on a raw milk diet with very dramatic results, and that, coupled with our recent studies on body-building nutrition, convinced me it was worth it to go that route, even though it costs over $9 a gallon. Reading up on Crossfit.com's website, I found some pretty harsh criticisms of alcohol-consumption while working out. We decided it would be nutritionally smart to swap out our weekend whisky sours for raw milk in our diet. It was a 1 for 1 swap, price-wise. :) (No, we're not alcoholics, we just like to chill with a drink now and then!)
Also, it turns out that raw milk is hugely beneficial to muscle growth. It turns out it has a 70% higher protein content than the "perfect protein," egg whites. We're sold. And, it tastes really good!
Moving on.
Soon, we will be hopping on a Space-A flight to Virginia! Block Leave starts on October 8th. We'll be spending a few days with Ben's side of the family, then moving down to my side in Southern Va. We have plans to make it as far south as Greenville, NC to see my grandmother, then we zip back up to Williamsburg for a little touring vacation. I'm looking forward to that. We have reservations at a very nice bed & breakfast cottage. :) All this time we'll be driving around our new X-Terra, freshly picked-up from the dealership where it has been waiting for Ben since May..... Poor Ben. He gets heart palpitations every time we pass an X-Terra, and starts panting like an overheated dog. :P He's very much looking forward to his Man-Truck. He was kind enough to buy me the van first.....and now he's got his Reward!
We had originally planned to drive cross-country again with our girls in the X-Terra. However.....between budgeting for said trip, and perusing plane ticket websites......we found it was going to be hundreds cheaper for Ben to do the trip himself, extra-fast, while the girlies and I flew back on a super-cheap ticket we found. SOOoooo.......*looks sheepish*..........once again, we find we have changed our plans! Violet & Grace & I will be staying one extra week at Mom's while Ben drives back. We'll meet him at Seattle airport on Nov. 1st instead.
We're just never quite as rich as we think we are.
Maybe one day......we can actually afford a Real Vacation.......like, to a "Destination".......complete with tour guides, famous places, cool accommodations, and yummy local food. The Army kinda forces our hand......by moving us so far away that we have to go visit our family any time we have Leave.
Ok, Work is calling.....it sounds like......"Mommy---I goed Poo!" :)
I must vanish back to my coffee-scented home with my little girlies and my sweet husband.
2 comments:
Seems like anytime you live far away from family, assuming you love your family, vacations don't really exist. Any time off is spent traveling to the family and staying with them. If you're lucky, you may cram a few days of "playing tourist" in the general area of said family, but still...
I know, I haven't had a real vacation since I moved out here...actually, since High School;)
Have fun!
I don't think anything could induce me to drink raw milk...... I can't even drink the store stuff unless it is full of chocolate syrup.
I would, however, make butter etc. with it. :)
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