Wednesday Workout

Vegan Goodness:
Today was a day of leftovers! We picked up our first CSA box, which takes away time for dinner prep, so we had leftover night. It’s like cutting two carrots with one knife: we saved time while we were out and we made room in the refrigerator for our CSA veggies!

Today we ate:

Oatmeal with sunflower seeds (for crunch) and brown sugar (just because!)
Smoothies for LP and his dad. (I can’t WAIT until I can have my green smoothies in the morning this summer. During the school year I leave for work before LP wakes up, so I can’t use the blender because it would make too much noise)
Leftover Mu Shu from Vegan on the Cheap (for mom) and Leftover Tuscan White Bean Pizza (for dad and LP)
Almonds, vanilla soy yogurt with chocolate chips and a chocolate chip cookie for a mid-afternoon “grading boost” (just for mom)
Leftover Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli Pasta (from Veganomicon) and biscuits and gravy (using up leftover mushroom gravy) for dinner.

Money Matters:
During the month of June we have a bigger budget than we will in July. This is partially because I am still working, and there are costs that come with that (transportation, classroom materials, meeting co-workers for weekly Friday breakfast, etc.) So, rather than be completely limited by our “Year of Family” budget, we are simply trying to be more aware of our spending this month, and trying to cut down on “extras.”

Today we spent the following:

$5.24 on coffee shop goodies (italian soda and a cookie) to munch on while I waited for the G-man and LP to join me in Davis Square.
$2.00 on four kale plants from the Farmer’s market. The G-man has planted them and we have high hopes for a kale bounty – if we can keep the squirrels off them!
$6.35 on thank-you cards (for the end of the school year)
$30.00 on our CSA box. CSA stand for Community Supported Agriculture, and many local farms across the nation have this program. Simply put, we pre-paid around $700 in order to receive a box of fresh, local produce every week (from June to November) from a local farm. We get our CSA share from Enterprise Farms, which is one of the bigger farms in our area. We like their shares because there is a lot of variety, and their produce is great! Although we have prepaid for our CSA share, I put it in our budget on a monthly basis to remind us that we have spent that money on groceries already.

Wednesday Workout:
Well, this is embarrassing. I fully intend to keep you all posted on my fitness plans and goals, especially as I try and recover from baby #2. However, this Wednesday Workout update is really just that I haven’t been working out. I’m kind of bummed about it. During my last pregnancy I was working out almost to the bitter end, but this time I pretty much petered out by month 7. Most of this was due to the fact that I stopped being able to sleep through the night, and going to the gym requires me to get up at 5 am instead of 5:40 (and those forty minutes became much more valuable!). However, I also was having trouble with my muscles and ligaments, and so I also needed to take a bit of a break, which just seems to have stretched out. Before I wimped out I was doing circuits with inclined push-ups, squats, standing rows and lunges. I think it was a really great workout up until month 6 of pregnancy, and now that I am in month 9, I just need to do more walking and stretching. I do walk quite a bit since I take the bus to work, and I always use the stairs at work since I don’t have an elevator key, so that is helping me keep in some kind of shape. I’m looking forward to school being over so that I can go on more walks around the neighborhood with the G-man and LP, and stay as active and limber as I can!