AEDs, ankles and irony

I'll be honest. Until Saturday, I didn't even know what an AED was. Now I have an adult AED certification. Scary, huh? :-)

In case you are wondering, AED stands for automated external defibrillator (say that three times fast!). It's basically an electronic device meant for shocking an abnormal heartbeat to get it back in a normal rhythm. My Mom and I took a first aid/CPR/AED course Saturday. Ever since I was younger, one of my favorite books to read was the American Red Cross first aid book that my Dad brought home from his work one day. I now have the updated version!

The hardest part of the course was putting the mannequins together. I think a good part of the beginning of the class should have covered that necessary detail. :-) I put the plastic bag "lung" inside my adult mnqn and the poor guy STILL didn't breath, no matter how much CPR I did on him. I think he had a hole in his lung. :-(

Anyways, it was a good class, and the Red Cross first aid book that the teacher gave us has a lot of good information in it.

Now here's the irony. Shortly after I got home, I was going outside to water the newly-planted snap bush beans, and as I stepped off of the landscape tie onto the driveway my right ankle decided to turn. My first thought was: ouch. My second thought was: This is ironic! I get home from a first-aid class and the first thing I do is sprain my ankle. Great! :-)

Garden greens

Nothing like a fresh-picked mesclun salad...

...with garlic scapes and homemade lettuce/scape pesto!

Kitten antics video

When Eppie and Ollie were small, we got them a "kitten condo": cat house, play toy, perch and scratching post all in one. We would have rather had them climb on that than on our furniture, that's for sure! I got this video of them playing on it. Watch for when they start playing with each others' tails; it's near the end (no pun intended!) of the video. :-)

 

What's in the Garden?

I said that I would post pictures of the garden, so here they are!

The potatoes (the garlic is just past them)

The black seeded Simpson lettuce

Mesclun and more Simpson lettuce

The rather anemic-looking summer squashes (the soil needs more nitrogen in general)

Eggplant

Pole beans!

Romaine lettuce (some of which we already harvested)

Cabbage...

 

Onions and broccoli

The beets that mysteriously sprung up that I never actually planted right there...

Carrots!

Tomatoes and peppers (with radishes sprinkled in)

Pole beans (cucumbers are down at the end under the trellises)

Sad-looking sweet potato vines... :(

Snap peas

The basil bed

More onions!

More broccoli! (We have cauliflower growing, too)

And the garlic again!

We also got some strawberries from the farm, which will hopefully produce next year.

I am looking forward to raspberries! There are lots of plants growing in the woods in our backyard. I've already seen some tiny green berries.

We are being inundated with lettuce! It's nice being able to have salad for every meal, though! Some friends of ours are juicing theirs, they're getting so much. :-) We are going to attempt to make pesto out of garlic scapes and lettuce. Has anybody out there ever tried it?

My week in a few Words

When I don't have much time to write a full-blown post but I still want to update the blog, I may occasionally write a post that just summarizes what I've been up to lately. Stay tuned for posts expounding on the details!

Summer. Biking. Gardening. Friends. Church. Bible studies. Studying. Prayer. Birthdays. Volleyball. CYIA. CEF. Camp. Packing. Last minute. Clothes. Bonfire. Goji berries. Cocoa nibs. Sunshine. Enjoyment. Scripture.

How would you describe your week in a few words?

"No Healthy Diet" website plug

Recently I wrote a post for a blog that a friend of mine started. The blog focuses on maintaining a gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free healthy diet. You can find recommendations, recipes and products, along with some tips for avoiding foods containing allergens. I hope you check it out! The blog gets updated several times a week. It's an excellent resource to be aware of, whether you can use the information yourself, or know someone who has an allergy to dairy, gluten and/or soy.

Can you spot the common allergens in this photo? :-)

 http://nohealthydiet.com/
And here's the link to the post that I wrote:
http://nohealthydiet.com/healthy-diet-plan/essentials-for-a-healthy-diet/

P.S. I am going to post photos of our family's garden as soon as I get our camera back! :-)