Lily day

 No preschool meant a Lily and Mom day, and she's a fun workout buddy. The hat and sunglasses were for our stroller run, then we hit the garage for weights and abs.

Happy 40th birthday, dear Rachel!

 We LOVE you dearly!
 Here's celebrating you, special and dear friend Rachel! I cherish our lifelong friendship and love you so much. Your parents would be very proud of the woman and mother you are. Just know that from my heart! Holden and Karen are so lucky to have you.

(And we will all be joining you in a new decade very soon.) Lots of Love!

 Fun memories of our Southern California visit to meet Karen.

 And to Montana to meet Holden! :)

 Such a special visit!

Lily art

Lily is quite the perfectionist when it comes to her art, as in she is one to crumble up a piece of paper and toss it to the ground in frustration if not satisfied. She's quite good with detail. This was a preschool pigeon project.

Garden meals

 I've been roasting any tomatoes that won't get eaten right away to either save for pasta sauce or even to freeze to put in soups over the winter. A bit of garlic roasted softens and smashes into a paste (I add a bit of water) for nice flavor.

 Sauteed shishito peppers are a great side dish or appetizer, just cook them until completely blistered, with some olive oil, kosher salt and pepper.
They've been growing well!

 Tonight's dinner: I've been enjoying the simplicity and delicious, fresh taste of various garden tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, wild arugula and basil salad with salt, pepper, olive oil and a splash of balsamic. Perfect summer meal!

A good slicing tomato, courtesy of dear neighbors Denise and Lester. We are constantly "community" gardening and sharing our harvests. Such fun! (They get more sun on their side, too!).

Post-roasted tomatoes.

 Potato harvest after not checking them for months. The purple ones are so pretty.

Fresh-picked strawberries.

 Healthy zucchini-walnut-dark chocolate chip (in some only, Mom!), coconut muffins made with whole wheat flour, garden zucchini, little bit of brown sugar, applesauce, honey nonfat Greek yogurt. Not too sweet!

Alcatraz training

 My swimming pal Antonia and I swam in San Francisco's Aquatic Park yesterday and afterward I came home and signed up for the 1.5-mile Alcatraz "Escape from the Rock" race on Aug. 22, so less than two weeks. She's been signed up for a while and figured why not do it now, two months before turning 40 to usher in a new decade? YIKES! I swam with a wetsuit for the first time and also tried without, and will wear one for the race.

Biker babe

Lily's preschool teacher, LaKeela, snapped this from a police visit to Fuzzy yesterday.

Evan likes his birthday gift

Dad's favorite movie of all time.