1.  I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries about birth photography mentoring asking if it is still open to new members.  YES!  Birth photography mentoring through The Birth Experience is open!  If you are a professional photographer and interested in birth photography, we’d love to have you join us!

2.  During equine therapy this morning, Taryn was thrown from a horse.  She’s fine, but it really shook her up.  They put her right back on, which is a good thing.  Thankfully she wasn’t hurt.  She fell on her arm, hand and hit her head (she had a helmet on).  We’ll make an extra trip to the chiropractor and give her some arnica if she’s sore.  I know we will be spending the next 7 days convincing her to go back, she’s already started saying she doesn’t want to.  I hate that because it is usually the highlight of her week.

3.  Unfortunately, random rude lady at the grocery store didn’t help that battle we are facing.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home for just a few things.  We are in there all the time and everyone who works there knows us and the kids.  When we got to the checkout T started to tell the cashier about being thrown from the horse.  The lady checking out in front of us pipes up and stares right at Taryn leans in and says “Horses are dangerous, they will BITE YOU!” all dramatic like.  Oh my gosh, are you freaking kidding me lady?!  Taryn is never afraid of animals (ok, outside of spiders).  Way to instill fear in my kid who just got thrown from a horse like 30 minutes ago.  Asshat.  I glared at her and said “Don’t say that!  Why on earth would you say that to her?!”  She looked down and didn’t say anything else to Taryn thankfully.  I also told her it was going to be hard enough to get my daughter back on the horse and her comment didn’t help.  With a side of stink eye.  I have such a low tolerance for stupid these days, I blame in on being enormously pregnant, hot and cranky.

4.  Ty is currently off visiting my mom and step-dad  in New Orleans and Orange Beach, Alabama where they live.  Two weeks is his longest trip yet.  I missed him about 5 seconds after he left for the airport.  Or at least until my mom had a mini heart attack after grocery shopping with him.  Her wallet is begging for sweet mercy and mine is breathing a sigh of relief.

5.  In Ty’s absence, our family has rediscovered this thing the rest of the world calls…..leftovers.  I almost don’t even know what to do with myself knowing we have enough food left over from last night to feed us tonight.  Free time and extra food?!  It’s like living in a sudden time warp of a life that used to belong to us…..before a teenager arrived and inhaled everything in sight.

6.  We all miss Ty, but I think Maggie misses him the most.  They are roomies and she seems a little lost without him.  She follows him everywhere.  Especially in the evenings after the little kids are in bed.  Our evenings have been so quiet with Ty away.  I forgot what it was like to put littles in bed and be done for the day.  Maggie is doing her best to fill the gap though.  Trying to watch TV with her at night is like watching a movie with a drunk 2 year old cutting flips 2 feet away from you.

7.  Food tip:  We eat a lot of greens at our house.  For a long time that meant if I bought too much they would go bad before we could eat them all, or I had to go to the store every other day.  I have a routine down now and our greens stay good for up to a week at a time!  The is especially great if I can get romaine, spinach or kale on sale for around $1 per bunch.  Once we hit the store I come straight home and wash all the greens, I don’t put them away in the fridge first, or I get lazy, forget, or avoid doing it.  I wash it all, chop it up and throw it in mason jars.  Put the lids on, throw them in the fridge and they will stay fresh for up to a week.  On days I have time, I do a bunch of pre-made salads similar to this.  This is great, grab-n-go, fast, healthy food.  I’m more likely to grab a salad if it is already prepped and fixed.  And now that we store our greens this way, we have a lot less waste and that saves us a lot of money!

8.  Speaking of salads, Jase and I are currently addicted to this.  Minus the feta.  OMG, so good.

9.  I am regretting not blogging more during this pregnancy.  I know I’ve already failed to document so much.  And now I’m getting to that cranky and uncomfortable phase where if I come blog, it will be whining.  And I shouldn’t whine, because I really do feel good.  Outside of the symptom free UTI I had for over a week that caused a bunch of contractions.  But I’m better now.  And feel good.  I haven’t had the weight gain I had with the other 3.  We are hitting the 3rd trimester this week, I’m still sleeping, no real pain thanks to chiropractic, eating well.  It’s just hot and I feel like a swallowed a bowling ball.  Definitely my easiest pregnancy by far.  So I’ll try to blog about it more and keep the whining to a minimum.

10.  A few months of iphoneography.  Including my and Taryn’s girls trip with my mom to NOLA over Memorial Day, a few bump pics, lots of food, 4th of July and more.  I haven’t photographed my own family with the good camera very much, so these will have to suffice for now.