I am a strong believer that pesticides play a role in the cancer rates on the island.  It puts me in an awkward position because I have relatives that farm and will argue just the opposite.  So, I keep mum and do what I feel is best for my family.  A few months back, a friend emailed me about a new organic veggie delivery.  It was something some local organic farmers decided to create for other families.  Tuesday was my first pick up and I am beyond pleased. The veggies were washed and placed in a tub.  Each family has a tub and once a week we receive a new batch of veggies.  As the veggies grow, there will be a bit more variety.  They also include a sheet with recipes and some info about the veggies.  Here is a first organic veggie delivery…all for $20 plus $5 for the tub rental.  What a sweet deal!

5lb bag of new potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, swiss chard, radishes, zucchini, snap peas, onions, beets and broccoli.

Every summer I try to make it out to the dinner theatres on PEI.   They are so much fun and the characters are hilarious.  Last night, my highschool/college friends and I went to see “Summer of ‘69″.  The characters (cloud, rainbow, ziggy, dancer to name a few) were all dressed in 60’s clothing and they played popular tunes from the 60’s.  It was a great show and the food was really good too.  I’m also going to the show in charlottetown next month “Class of ‘89″, so I will post some pics from that show as well.  If you are ever in PEI, be sure to check out a dinner theatre.

the whole gang together again

“ziggy” on the left, “rainbow” on the right

“ziggy” and “cloud” in the background…the music was amazing!

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”  ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

I seen a woman the other day and I just can’t seem to get her off my mind.  You see, this was no ordinary woman.  She was in a pool with her daughter and when she turned around I noticed something very different about her;  she had only one breast.  My first thought was “wow, what an amazing woman!”.   I really wanted to go up to her and tell her how much I admired her for showing the world what she had been through.  I’m not sure I could be that brave but I would hope that I could.  I have aunts and a cousin who have lost one or both breasts to cancer.  I can’t imagine what they must have gone through emotionally.  I think from now on, whenever I feel down or upset about something, I will think of this woman and know that to get through life, all you need is a little courage and some faith.

We’ve been busy the last two weeks going to the beach and taking part in some of the local festivities.  Last week we went to cavendish and enjoyed a beaver tail at the boardwalk and then a  swim at cavendish beach.

chocolate hazelnut beaver tail

cavendish beach

cavendish

On the weekend we went to the annual Master Packaging S.O.S cardboard boat race.  All the boats are made of cardboard and there were some really cool entries this year.

tow mater ~ cardboard boat 

theodore tugboat, another cardboard boat

Today we went to Magic Mountain and Butterfly World in Moncton.  It was a little chilly at Magic Mountain, but the kids enjoyed it.  I was also able to enjoy another beaver tail. They are soooo good!  The girls and I loved Butterfly world.  It’s an enclosed building with wild butterflies.  A must to see if you are ever in Monton, New Brunswick.
butterfly world

Magic Mountain

chocolate and banana beaver tail

Today the sun finally decided to make an appearance and we are taking full advantage of it.  I took the girls to Cackleberry Farms this morning to pick berries.  What a nice morning!  We picked 3 bowls.  I came home and washed the berries and made jam.  We had a nice strawberry treat after dinner and now it’s off to the beach.  I love summer!

sponge cake, vanilla yogurt icecream and jam…yummmm!

berries…yummmm!

Meal planning has taken a back seat lately. I was visiting my favorite meal planning site (mealsmatter.org) and I noticed it had a new feature, so I decided to get back into the swing of things.  The site now has a calender feature that will allow me to see meals a week or a month in advance.  Very nice!  Here are my meals for the week(weight watchers meals):

WW Grandma’s Casserole

 Stephanie’s Spinach Salad

WW Tuna potato dish with corn topping

WW  California style mini pizzas

WW Slow cooker lasagna

WW Philly chicken cheese steaks

WW Tortilla Soup

I also picked up the Personal Trainer ~ Cooking program for my nintendo DS.  It has recipes from all over the world.  I was browsing through a few last night and I can’t wait to try them.  There are 245 recipes from the U.S., Peru, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, the U.K., France, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, Australia, Japan, Thailand, North Africa, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, South Korea, and Mexico.  I love the fact that gaming company’s are coming out with such ingenious software.  Kudos to them!

some cool features of the program:

Nutritional info, a little history about the recipe and it’s origin and you can include your own notes about the recipe.

Step by step instructions on how to prepare the recipe and your own cooking timer.

Information about each ingredient such as where it originated and a description of the taste and texture of the ingredient.

There is definite truth in the phrase “when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade”.  We went camping for Canada Day and the weather was miserable.  It misted off and on for two days and we did not see the sun once.  We made the best of it though.  We had campfires, roasted marshmallows, took the kids to the park and the beach and visited with friends and made lots of new ones.  We also seen the best fireworks display I have ever seen.  It lasted 45 minutes and was absolutely amazing.  Of course, when it came time to leave the sun decided to make an appearance.  Isn’t that always the way?

entrance to the campground

gabby

braeden

mommy and gabby

the girls enjoying treats from the parade

beautiful fireworks

sand sculptures on the beach

roasting marshmallows under daddy’s careful eye