Summer in rapid fire

Oh my. It's been nearly a month since I blogged last. This summer has been jam-packed with trips, chickens, gardening, bike riding, chigger bites, grandparents, cousins, swimming, Insanity (the workout, not the state of mind), and boot camp training. With each day that passes it becomes more apparent to me that I'm not going to be able to give each subject due time in its own separate blog, so I've decided to do a rapid-fire re-cap.

In no particular order, here's what's been going on this month:

#1: Losing teeth!

In the interest of full disclosure, this actually happened in May, but this picture of Drew's dangling tooth is so hilarious and awful that I felt it must be included.

#2: Team Beachbody Coach Summit in Las Vegas

Zach and I had a good time in Las Vegas for the Coach Summit meeting. We met new/old friends, participated in live workouts and training, and heard John Maxwell speak. The fabulous ladies below I've know through Facebook for the better part of a year, but only met in person last week.

We did a live Les Mills Combat workout with about 2,000 people that was super fun. Here's Zach getting his aschiva on (spelling? this is one of those martial arts terms that I have no idea how to spell).

Vanilla Shakeology! This one was a surprise. Beachbody has been looking for a "clean" source of vanilla for nearly three years, and they finally found it in the Malagasi farmers of Madagascar. The vanilla plants are hand-pollinated by these farmers!

We also got to meet and talk with Darin Olien, the co-creator of Shakeology. We listened to him speak about the process the team went through to find a natural vanilla source, and I was blown away by the integrity of Beachbody as a company.

They absolutely refuse to compromise on quality of the ingredients in this shake, while investing in the livelihood of indigenous farmers around the world. Beachbody is essentially providing microfinancing to these farmers to help them grow crops in a sustainable fashion, while supporting the Madagascar economy so that schools can be built.

Please take a minute to watch this video:

But how does vanilla Shakeology taste, you ask? As always, we go to the kids for an opinion:



We also tried out Shaun T's new Focus T25 workout live, and bought the program to start in July.
Each workout is only 25 minutes long, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be a game-changer. More on this topic to come!

And finally, at Summit we participated in a super workout with about 7,000 people. I'd estimate we were a half mile from the stage!

#3: I made this, and it was yummy:

Roasted Vegetable Cous Cous from Southern Living

#4: I have a GREAT IDEA, Mom!
How about you put one braid here, and another braid here, and then put a pony tail in the middle. And then put this barrette in too, okay? Isn't that a GREAT IDEA?

#5: MONSTER ZUCCHINI PLANTS

#6: Chickens laying eggs

The peace in the coop continues, and Polly has begun to lay eggs along with Roxie! We have a suspicion that Polly may also be eating some of her eggs, but it is thus far unconfirmed. We are keeping a close watch.

In case you missed Roxie running on Facebook, here you go. It will change your life.

#7: I read this book, and it made me twitchy and preachy about processed food.

#8: As a result of #7, I sought and found some jelly at the store that does not contain high fructose corn syrup. Hooray! (Yes, this is still a processed food, but it's a lesser evil, and kids gotta have some PB&J in their life! I'm just glad I can do it with straight up sugar rather than HFCS.)

Whew! That's it. Two more trips and many more fun things to go this summer.

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Workout of the Day

Insanity Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs

Polly, Rehabilitated

I am pleased to report that there is peace in the coop. Against all odds, Polly the Picker has been rehabilitated.

Everything I read said that if you've got a cannibalistic chicken in your flock, you will most likely have to cull her. We didn't know what we would do, so we separated her for two weeks, allowing only supervised visitation with Roxie and Ginger.

The Vicks on Roxie's behind kicked off the rehabilitation process, but you know what finished it? This:

One night we were out pitching the ball to Drew so he could hit it. I was the pitcher, and I looked over at the chickens only to see Polly pick at Roxie's behind.

I chunked that tennis ball as hard as I could and nailed that chicken.

She jumped in the air, squawked like crazy and ran for cover behind the coop. It was the last time we saw her pick.

I bet PETA would have some issues with me lobbing tennis balls at birds, but you know what? It was that, or ring her neck. I think even PETA would agree the tennis ball was a kinder option.

Roxie and Polly, peacefully co-existing.

Now the pecking order is clear: Roxie, Polly, Ginger. Although Polly and Ginger have been having little episodes where they bow up at each other and feathers get ruffled. Not sure what that is all about quite yet.

Roxie is giving us roughly an egg a day. Sometimes she skips a day, and sometimes the egg is huge and sometimes the egg is small. Zach cracked two huge Roxie eggs the other day and got six yolks. This morning I fixed Drew "Egg in a Hole" with two perfect little Roxie eggs, one yolk per egg. We're gettin' there!

I'm hopeful that Polly is nearly ready to lay, as her waddle and comb have gotten bigger and are bright red; that's a sign that they are close to laying, and that is what happened with Roxie.

Last week we had three chickens and three rabbits grazing in our backyard.
Sometimes the chickens chase the rabbits, which is entertaining.

The kids are still enamored with these chickens. They play with the chickens way more than they ever played with our dog, and the highlight of their day is to go feed the chickens a handful of corn. Well, actually that's the number two highlight behind checking for eggs.

I have to admit I'm pretty enamored with them, too, although I really can't figure out why. I still feel bad about Nadine and wish she was still around. We have thought about adding another hen but we don't want to rock the boat just yet. Polly's delicate mental state may not take too well to a new bird in the flock. I can't believe I'm considering a bird's mental state. That's life with chickens, I guess.

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Workout of the Day
P90X2 - Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps