Vegetables

2011 has been a life-changing year for me.  I have realized new things, learned new things, met new people, made new friends and experienced things that I thought were impossible.  My faith and relationship with God has grown tremendously.  I have learned more about others (including those I thought I already knew inside and out) and learned a LOT more about myself. 

While I'm not ready or willing to share the details of the "deep" stuff yet, I am willing to share some of the more light-hearted things.  One in particular - vegetables.  I love them.  Actually, I'm slightly obsessed with them.  Did you know that the snow peas I buy have 16 vitamins in them?  That pretty much rocks my world!  I count how many veggies we eat every day and make sure that we have a nice variety of them - including a variety of colors.

I contribute 35% of my love for vegetables to having my own garden.  Things taste so much better when you pick them off the vine.  I took things a step further this year by freezing the extra squash.  Our spare freezer is full of beautiful, yellow, organic squash!!!

I contribute another 50% of my new obsession to my guardian angel/nurse that took care of me twice in DC.  Yes, she takes care of me (not Devin).    Marie and I had deep and long conversations that touched on a million topics and somewhere in there, she inspired me to learn more about vegetables and vitamins.  Because of her, my children eat snow peas and green peppers for snacks.  I should also note that Braden's night terrors have diminished.  I think of Marie every time I sneak veggies into our main dishes (like tonight's lasagna had 50% less noodles and an entire bag of spinach) and she crosses my mind every time Ryan begs me to buy more avocados (I still think it's a veggie b/c it is green), cauliflower or broccoli.

I'd say 14% of my new love is simply contributed to being old.  These things happen as we age!

And the last 1% - I'm just nuts.

I don't claim to be a total health nut and I still do love my sweets!  Just sayin - this love of veggies is new for me.  It only took 30 years, mom ;-)