Since new baby = fewer trips to the grocery store, we’ve been visiting our weekly, neighborhood farmer’s market a bit more regularly this summer than we have in the past.

For the last couple of years the CSA has served most of our local, seasonal produce needs. I didn’t sign us up this year because I didn’t know how much I would be cooking, I also didn’t want to have to worry about waking any babies from afternoon naps in order to make it in time for pick up. WHO CARES ABOUT VEGETABLES!  WE’VE GOT A SLEEPING BABY HERE!

(For crying out loud stop shouting, the baby’s asleep.)

Fortunately, our neighborhood farmer’s market is very close, just a few blocks away from the house. Even better, our neighborhood farmer’s market is very smart.  So smart I could kiss them and then offer to rock their baby to sleep.

(ok I’ll stop now with the sleeping baby jokes.)

Each week they have a craft table for the kids. A craft table = more money for them because it means I can drop the big kids off for 10 to 15 minutes and shop that much longer and therefore spend a few more dollars. More than I would spend if I had to hustle along with a couple of unimpressed kids who won’t stop asking if we’re done yet.

NO we’re not done yet!  Now go fetch Mama that rutabaga.

But nope, nobody’s hustling anybody anywhere!  Instead, I get to take my sweet time and we bring home more produce. The girls get to take their sweet time painting clay pots for a spider plant. I also take my sweet time explaining that no, spider plants are not filled with spiders.

At least I hope not.

During our trip to the market last week, I was on the look out for tomatoes.  My loving father brought us over a batch of his homemade salsa to try, and after we stopped saying “this is SO GOOD” with our mouths full, I made him rattle off the list of ingredients for me as I scrawled them onto a grocery list. After a nice, leisurely visit to the market to load up on veggies, I got chopping.

(Chopping that was interrupted by someone who woke from his nap mid salsa prep, but I’m not naming names.)

Let’s just be glad Kaz is happy to hang out in the sling while I squeeze limes with one hand.

Anyway, fresh salsa at home!  Here we go.

Easy, Do-It-Yourself Salsa

2 large tomatoes, diced
1 red onion, diced
1/2 sweet pepper, diced
1/2 jalepeno pepper with seeds removed, diced (optional, removing the seeds helps cut down on the heat of the pepper)
1 – 2 cloves of garlic, minced (vampires beware)
the juice from 1 lime
fresh cilantro, chopped
cumin, salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and serve immediately if you like, or wait til tomorrow when it tastes even better.

I’ve made this salsa a couple times now and I’ve been using it in all different ways. Serving with tortilla chips, loading it into wraps and omelets for a quick splash of lycopenes, shoveling it straight from the bowl into my mouth with a spoon.

On this particular day, it was served as an easy lunch with hummus and red pepper lentil chips.

This is not a picture of levitating Sabra and homemade salsa (although that would be impressive), there is a lentil chip under that pile, I promise.

(P.S., it turned out better the second time with more salt and more cumin.)

So that’s the salsa story. And now, as promised in the title of this post, a birth story. (If babies aren’t your thing, feel free to skip this part.) It’s taken me nearly 7 weeks to write it, but I think it’s finally done.

The short version of the story is that we planned a home birth. Actually, we planned an HBA2C, which stands for Home Birth After Two Cesareans. Things didn’t turn out exactly as planned as we ended up having to transfer to the hospital at the last minute for fetal heart decels, but all was well and Baby Kaz was born naturally and safely shortly after we arrived at the hospital.

For anyone interested, the whole story can be found here. (It’s long.) I’ve decided to share our story on the blog for a few reasons. Kaz’s birth is most definitely a defining moment in my life, and it actually has a little something to do with the birth of this blog.

I’ve wanted a natural child birth for as long as I can remember, but things didn’t turn out that way the first time, or the second time either. My cesareans are one of the reasons I wanted to run a marathon. I wanted to know what it felt like to push my body to the limit. It was during my marathon training in 2008 that I came to see my diet needed some cleaning up if I was going to be able to run long and strong. From there came real, lasting weight loss, a love for running and best of all, a passion for healthy, whole foods.  It was about then that I birthed a blog to share all my ideas and let you share your ideas with me too.

Kaz’s story is written with a few people in mind; birth junkies, mama’s who love to read birth stories (like me!) and perhaps most importantly, for women who have had a cesarean and are hopeful they can have a vaginal birth next time around too.

And if birth stories aren’t your thing, I hope that salsa is!