Crazy Ideas

Sometimes I wonder what's going on in my brain. I get these crazy ideas and want to try them out, but I don't know where they come from in the first place!

Lent started last Wednesday. I'm giving up sweets again, but the experience has been very different so far. It has all the same benefits, but it just doesn't feel like much of a sacrifice. Being pregnant is a huge motivation to eat healthier anyway, but I've had no real cravings for sweets since I started drinking green smoothies almost every day this year. The few sweets I've had have been good, but just not the same as they used to be, especially ice cream.

My crazy idea is to try going meatless for a month. I guess you could say vegetarian (but definitely not vegan!) I don't eat tons of meat right now, but I want to see what difference it really makes to only get 5% of my daily intake from animal products. So yes, I'd still eat dairy products, eggs, and some broth. I see a lot of advantages to this experiment, like

1. adapting my current meals to be meatless, which I believe I can do for the majority of them. This will be a good way to see how they taste without meat, and since we have no way of storing lots of meat, it would be good to know how these meals taste without it.

2. saving money.

3. eating healthier by getting more servings of veggies, fruits, whole grains, and legumes.

In case anyone worries about nutritional deficiencies...don't! Near-vegetarians are the healthiest people on the earth. A variety of good, whole foods, with or without meat, provides all the nutrients that you need. And I won't go hungry. That's completely against my nature. I hope to be able to add some notes about meat-free versions of the meals on my blog. It will be interesting to see what happens.

On the less crazy side, I've been getting ready for Kenny a little at a time. I washed the car seat cover, set up the crib, and washed my nursing pillow. It smelled a little funny from being in storage for a year. I really want to pull out all the cute clothes, but I'm restraining myself...for now.

My two other boys, throwing rocks in the water

Only 5 weeks till he gets here! That's hardly over a month. The time has just flown by, and Joseph grows up every time I turn around. We figured out that he knows how to "count"...1...2...8...9...4...5...yay! And then he claps for himself. I have no idea how he picked up those numbers, but it's super cute. Time to pull out the video camera, if we can get him to cooperate. :)