Catch Up

So here's a few things that happened while I was on a blogging hiatus:

1) The big girls received the first MAJOR haircut of their young lives.

Before:

It was sooooo long!

And after:

The "after" picture is horrible of them (they both must have been between facial expressions or something??), but gives you the idea. They each donated 10 1/2 inches to Locks of Love.

It seems like these kids of mine grow in fits and starts. They will wear the same clothes for a couple of years in a row (NO LIE), but then all of a sudden- KA-POW- they are instantly about 7 years older than they were the day before. In the same time frame as these haircuts happened, Kate also lost her first 2 teeth, they both finished Kindergarten, and Kate got her ears pierced.

Hi! What are you trying to do to your poor mother? Must you suddenly be, what, THIRTEEN or something?

2) I learned that the reason I was napping my life away was not because I was simply Lazy, but I was (slash AM) pretty severely anemic. Oh, sweet validation! Oh, little red iron pills that make me dream of days of pooping gone by!

I've been taking some Serious Fucking Iron (or SFI) for almost 2 months now, and I can certainly see the difference. While it will likely take quite a bit longer for my iron stores to reach and STAY elevated, it sure is nice to have a bit more oomph each day. Just wondering though, how long do you think it's safe to play the "but Honey, I'm anemic" card?

3) We joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and have started receiving a weekly farm share. So far so good, but hot damn, it's a lot of lettuce to eat! (Sorry kids, no money for a vacation, but LOOK, we have LETTUCE!)

(I kid. I mean, while a share- or half share in our case- was a large chunk of our grocery budget, it evens out to be around what we would spend weekly of produce anyway, albeit not all at once.)

(Ha, ha, ha, I say that as if we have a budget! Have we EVER had a budget???? *mumblemumblemumblenomumblemumble*)

This is what we got this week:

That's rhubarb, lettuce, more lettuce, some other kind of lettuce, basil, kale, radishes, and cilantro (in the center). Theoretically, there is also some spearmint springs in there somewhere, but my sniffer can't find them. And I really wanted to use the mint for a recipe... Ah, well, CSA user hazard, I suppose: "Woman looses her mint in vat of other greenish garden-y type things." *SIGH*

(Do you think if I merely took a little lick of each bunch of greens, one would taste minty? I mean, do I have to bite into it to find the mint, or would a little lick do????)