Surprisingly good smoothies

You might not believe this, but one of the best smoothies I've made lately are orange. Yes, from oranges.

Here's the recipe:

1 orange, divided in sections
1 cup Greek yogurt
a couple of ice cubes

Blend.

I never thought the whole dairy & citrus thing would work, but it definitely does.

I spoke too soon

I had been feeling all happy about the state of my morning sickness. I'd been having a kind of perpetual queasiness, but I'd been keeping food down. That has all changed.

At the same time, it's probably a good sign, as it means the hormones are kicking in as they should.

Seasonal eating

One great thing about living in Calfornia is the produce. The strawberries are amazing. There are always locally grown, leafy greens around.

There are some things that you can't really find out here, though, which always surprises people.

There is no good fresh corn, like we had in Indiana. The blueberries and cherries aren't nearly as good either, as they need a freeze.

Strawberries are in season right now. Oranges and lemons almost always are -- plus, you can almost always find people giving them away, as many people have trees in their yards. Avocados are also really good here, for the most part. I never ate them until we moved out here; I'm not sure I was  missing much, as I'd be surprised ones that were shipped in for thousands of miles would've been any good.

I've been trying to stick with the seasonal things as much as possible. The kids know it, too. My 9-year-old asked recently when apricots would be in season, as she loves them. She has a couple of months to wait. We could get them now, but they'd be expensive and not nearly as yummy.

Walking

I haven't been doing a lot of running, but I have been walking, nightly, with Paul, for at least 30 minutes.

My 15-year-old went running without me, which is good, as if he waited for me to want to run in the evening, he'd be waiting a while.

I do think that the no-sugar, no-wheat, no-flour plan has helped my morning sickness a lot. It usually keeps getting worse and worse until I hit the 12-week mark and then lessens quite a bit. I haven't noticed a lot of increase. The luxury of sleep might be helping as well.

New things

OK, it isn't as if I haven't spent a fair amount of time (3 years!) pregnant.

But, I had forgotten. And -- it might very well be the 43.5-year-old pregnancy that is different, but it's hard to tell.

Here are things that have surprised me:

1) I sleep a ton. Because I can, apparently. My 12-year-old says, "Yes, you'll take a nap from 5-8, eat and then go right back to sleep." The nice thing about now is that my older children are OK with my sleeping. Last time I was pregnant, I had a one-year-old. There wasn't a lot of sleeping happening.

2) I don't sleep as easily. Paul jokes about how I can go to sleep on a dime and easily sleep through the night. That has changed. It takes me longer, and I wake up in the middle of the night now.

3) My hands look younger all of a sudden; they were starting to get the more prominent veins, as is befitting someone my age. The pregnancy has apparently puffed everything up.

4) I have cleavage again. I never totally lost it, but I like to play it down. It's harder to play down now.