Whatever: Summer has been a little different

Hello my one reader...
I bet you thought I had given up on blogging.
I am a little rusty to be sure, but in my head, I am always thinking, blogging and arguing with the world.  My life has taken a big change from three years ago when I started this blog.

I have a full time job that I love. My bosses are super savvy, smart women who believe that I am as well. It is nice to be valued as such. The down side is that I spend my day on a computer and at the end of the day...do not want to be sitting still. I have missed being hot and in the sun all summer and hanging out with my girls.

Speaking of which, my girls are growing, smarter and taller every single day. The oldest worked this summer as a camp counselor, babysitter and swim lesson giver.  Both girls have spent the summer reading all the books on the summer reading list and watching an insane amount of television since I was at work all day.

Cooking: A menu means routine or vice versa

My love/hate relationship with kids going back to school continues.

Hate the hassle of getting everyone out the door. Love that food I buy lasts more than 15 seconds.

Hate that my kids social lives trump mine. Love that my kids have social lives and are not bugging me to create fun for them. Hate the nagging "do your home work" "bring home all the pieces of your uniform" and the ever popular "check the lost and found for your uniform". 

Love a schedule. 

 

Uniforms change colors as they move up

Along with a schedule comes meal planning. Cooking and eating never take a vacation at my house (we actually cook on vacation), but sometimes we are a little more "fly by the seat of our pants". 

Sometimes I run out of food (*Ahem ALL SUMMER).

Back to school means back to a menu. 

Here's this week's:

 Casa Swann Momma's Gotta Job/ 

Girls Gotta Get Some Learnin' Menu

• Pulled chicken sandwiches/ oven fried okra/ baked sweet potato fries
• Tomato pie with bacon/ sauteed kale
• Red Beans and Rice/ Sausage
• Grilled chicken and veggie flat bread sandwiches

Whatever: The list is back

August is here. My least favorite month of the year. This dates back to being a child. My birthday aka The National Holiday is in early September, so August is a brutally long month. Also, school starts in August. ALL school, elementary, high school, college...I loathed it all. Summer ends in August for most people and I love Summer. Like it is my job.

Dirt: Friday, Summer and Gratitude

How did another week go by? 

Is it really less than 30 days (25) until the girls go back to school?

I had lunch today with three of my best girls and we talked about how with swimming, summer begins the day after City Meet. Meaning, for us, summer started July 15th.

Crazy. 

 

 

This sight is the signal for "Summer's here"!

But, I fully intend to maximize the rest of my summer.

I plan on taking my girls to the pool, going to a drive-in movie, eating tomatoes (hopefully they are in) and living a little less harried.

I have slipped on my blogging and especially my Gratituesday posts. The thoughts are always going through my mind, just not making it onto paper (so to speak).

I am eternally grateful for several things that are really  not things.

God's love, which He reminds me in interesting ways is always there (Hello, Aunt Margaret), Summer and the health and physical ability of my children and husband. 

We run because we can. We swim because we can.

Summer is the time to revel in being strong and healthy.

 

As I start the weekend full of fun and catching up (chores) on the home front, I can't help but lift up a prayer of thanksgiving for these things.

 

 

Dirt: A summer to do list

Oh Snap!

I have got to get on the ball.

Instafriday: Finally!

Linking up with Jeanette...

Finally downloaded all the photos off my cameras! 

Here are two of my favorites from The Avett Brothers when we took these cute girls with us.

We were that close...and he was that cute.

Two weeks ago, we went to this. 

We all had so much fun, but when we saw this, the Mecca for my Ellie, the Mac the Cheese Truck, we were very excited.

She was smitten.
We have all been singing all the songs from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros after their fabulous show. Here is one of my favorite photos of Alex Ebert, lead singer.

Summer has been fun and we are taking advantage of all the local fun to be had. 

Sunday, our girls competed in a pie eating contest at The Chattanooga Market. Delaney was a return participant, determined to win.

 She did! 

We stopped mid week to celebrate Steve's birthday.

American Gothic has nothing on Silly Swanns.

 Chattanooga is a summer swim city and we take full advantage. Ellie has fun with her buddies and Delaney does it to stay in shape for fall and winter swimming.

Lots of swim practice and meets the first month of summer for all of us. 

The heat and time is worth it though.

We are undefeated! 

A little more local flavor. 

Happy First Official Week of Summer!

Cooking: A new way to balance your diet

Well Kids, I missed a whole week of blogging. 

Yep, I basically had writers block. 

I hardly read any either. Instead, I drove over 400 miles taking my children to practice, conditioning, camp, swim meets (two) and several social events. Oh, and I worked every day this past week, putting me up to 5 whole hours of catering. Very busy week. 

This past week was a game changer for me. First, it was my favorite week of the year. The kick off for summer and I was outside as much as possible. I ran or walked every day, worked in my yard and spread two truck loads of mulch. I felt great.

Second, I ate mostly fruit all week. Cantaloupe, grapes, and watermelon were what I craved and I ate them with a slice of cheese and on Tuesday, a piece of sour dough toast. I felt great all week, and lost 5 pounds. Yesterday I read an article about eating that turned on a light bulb for me. The article, in Vogue magazine of all places, was about a spa that people attend which  basically resets the body. Detox and rewiring what one eats is involved. Now, I am not interested in that, but the article explained that most people eat too much acid and their body uses their own minerals to survive. Hence we are always tired, run down, etc.  LIGHT BULB! The doctor also said our metabolism slows down as the day goes on and we should not eat anything raw after 4pm. LIGHT BULB! 

I got up this morning and researched acid vs.alkaline and found a lot of  science behind the doctor in the article's recommendations. The main offenders of a high acid diet are meat, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, grains, and legumes. A balance is 60/40 = alkaline/ acid. The imbalance can lead to fatigue, gas, weight gain, osteoporosis, cancer and general poor health.

As a vegetarian, I struggle to eat sometimes. My family eats mostly paleo, but vegetarians don't really do paleo well. So, I eat a lot of salads. I also have a lot of stomach issues. Hence the light bulb.  Lucky for me,there are not a lot of changes I need to make to my own diet. My family's diet could be another story. I am happy to discover that because I buy hormone free meat, we are getting the least alkaline of the most alkaline food we eat.  Combining meat with vegetable in a 1:3 ratio (Meat: veggie) is the best way to consume meat.  Family, get ready to eat more veggies.

The biggest change for my family will be crackers and snacks. My family loves crackers. Saltines to be exact. I had already made a pact with my husband that the two main offenders in our kids' diets would not enter our house this summer. Crackers and ice cream. He was happy to keep the crackers out as he eats them himself and  we agreed to only eat ice cream out. 

Armed with my new found info, here is the menu of the week. 

Casa Swann 60/40 Menu

• Grilled cider vinegar marinated chicken/ grilled zucchini/ steamed green beans with garlic/sauteed kale
• Chicken Stew/ Tuscan tomato kale soup
• Kale frittata/ grilled sweet potatoes/roasted turnips
• chicken tacos/ veggie tacos/ watermelon salsa 
• Bunless burgers/ roasted potatoes/ sauteed spinach

Happy SUMMER!

Here is how my family and I started our summer kick off a week ago at Midsummer Music and Food festival in the ATL. The Soul Rebels  is a band from New Orleans and Steve and I saw them at Track29 here in Chattanooga in the Spring. Needless to say, they were AWESOME!

Dirt: When your kids are cool(er)

Since Steve and I are so into all kinds of music, we always have something playing. 

Whether it is the car, outside or even the earworm going on in our brains, there is always something playing or being sung at Casa Swann.

So, it is no wonder both of our kids are into music. 

Ellie is less of a concert goer, but she is more into music. Delaney lives to see live music. She has been begging me to take her to Bonnaroo for the past two years.

 

 

Next year might be our year (once I figure out a leash system for her). But in the meantime...

Being underage and into cool music that most of their friends have never heard of is really kind of hard. The all ages shows usually do not appeal to them. And while they get that when they are 18 there will be even better bands that they love, it still is hard. 

Next week, one of their favorite bands is coming to Chattanooga. But of course, it is 18 and older. 

So, I got online to see what I could find. 

BOOM!

Free music fest in Atlanta (two hours away). All ages, all good music and of course, outside.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

So, today, we are packing up the truck and heading down to hear music and eat street food.

Perfect Saturday with the family unit if you ask me.

InstaFriday: Cool as we wanna be

 Instagram makes my life look so much cooler than it is! 

Have been hanging out with my mom doing what she loves to do, scour estate sales.

I scored these fancy glasses. Passed up the 8 track tapes, but dang it was tempting.

My newest obsession

 Summer means two things, swim team and good eating.

Salads get a lot more exciting at Casa Swann in the summer.

Swim meets twice a week go so much faster if you have a job to do. 

I like to be a judge. Love getting front row of all the swimmers, from hilarious 8 and unders "diving" off the blocks to the seriously fast seniors flying across the pool. 

My girls are middle of the pack summer swimmers, but love it.

salmon cakes and kitchen sink salad

 Did a crazy thing this week and convinced my reluctant hair dresser to darken my hair.

Right now, it is temporarily darker than it will end up. Which is kind of fun. It's shocking when people see me and I love seeing them try to figure it out.

 My husband is an 80's old wave guy and we went to hear the Psychedelic Furs at our local music festival. They were great, but about 102 years old which was really weird. Pretty in Pink? You bet.

 My girls are finally easing into summer. We have been up every morning and out the door by 7:45, but they come back and relax and goof off. Friends are over watching movies, I have been the chauffeur to the pool and library, and today we are heading off to hear music in Atlanta. 

Perfect, fly by the seat of your pants summer. 

Maybe we are cool.

Check out the really cool Jeannette.

Cooking: Summer is for eating and reading

Summer is finally here!

We start swim practice this week, first swim meet today and of course, summer reading is on like Donkey Kong. Luckily my girls love to read. I am thrilled to be able to finally  want to read the same books they are reading. My oldest decided to read all the books on the summer reading list, as a way to be prepared. There are several that I have not read, so I too will be doing "summer reading" as well.