Hate to say it, but I’m so glad the fourth is over! And hopefully my neighbors are done with their illegal fireworks for the sake of our dogs! They started celebrating Thursday night and Leela was not happy about that. Little miss cranky woke me up a few times during the night terrified and snarling and barking when any cats got too close to her. So yesterday I was in a slight sleep-deprived fog trying not to be cranky myself. A delicious smoothie did help, I tried the new vegan protein powder I picked up at Costco, Orgain Organic Protein Plant-based Powder in Creamy Chocolate Fudge.
This jug is about twice the size of the of the Garden of Life Raw Protein Powders tubs I order from Amazon for just a few dollars more. And has more protein per serving and it’s an organic blend of hemp and chia seeds, two plant based super foods for omegas. The powder looks, smells, and tastes like a sweet chocolaty beverage powder I remember from my childhood, so it could be a sweet protein-packed treat for kids and kids-at-heart blended with almond milk and frozen bananas.
I blended it with a frozen banana chunks, frozen cherries, a couple of carrots, and a huge handful of kale for a silky sweet chocolate smoothie.
The texture of the smoothie seemed lighter and airier than I’m used to which was nice. But it also seemed smoother and creamier with a nice chocolate flavor. Thumbs up for this protein powder so far, I hope Costco keeps it in stock for awhile at such a great price. I also did a guest blog post over at Cowgirls & Collard Greens about my every day smoothie habit and being a great way to have a nutrient-packed start to the day.
Our fourth celebration was a very low-key event at home since my sisters are off on fabulous vacations with their families. My mom came over for a casual dinner with her chihuahua and Miko was determined to not share her lap with him.
He loves company and being the center of attention which my mom’s dog pouted about most of the night.
Skipper did not have a great fourth either and probably hates the holiday even more than Leela now. Being a senior blind dog with diabetes is tough, the poor guy started chewing a spot on his leg so it wasn’t healing. Hubby and I treated it with doggy wound medicine, bandaged it, and sprayed the bandage with sour apple spray so he wouldn’t chew it which seemed to be working out okay. But yesterday he stepped on something and cut his foot on that leg, so we had to repeat the process to bandage up the foot to stop the bleeding and get on the right track to healing. He’s not happy about sporting two bandages on his leg now!
Luckily the foot stopped bleeding today and seems to be better now, so hopefully he’ll be down to just one bandage again.
We did have a nice dinner at home thanks to grill master hubby who did a great job grilling avocados for the first time.
My plate was loaded with grilled corn, grilled avocado, and a grilled Tofurky hot dog along with veggies and hummus and chips for snacking, whew!
But it was another bad night of sleep last night because of Skipper. When Skipper moved in with us last August, his uncontrolled canine diabetes was so severe that he was drinking tons of water and peeing loads every 30 minutes, it was impossible to keep him in the house during the night because we couldn’t get him outside enough. Diagnosing his conditions and stabilizing his blood sugar on insulin was many trips to the vet and thankfully things are much better, he can go 3-4 hours between peeing, but still a challenge to make it through the night. So he sleeps in our backyard under an overhang in a swanky doghouse I got for him which has been working out fine since summer nights are cool here.
Skipper is just a very mellow and sweet dog, nothing seems to upset him and he’s great with kids. While inside last night, the booms from the fireworks outside did not seem the bother him at all, he was not stressed or shaking. So I put him to bed in the backyard around 11 PM when things settled down outside and went to bed myself. But I got woken up around 11:30 to a panicked barking Skipper scratching the sliding glass door, he was hysterically freaked. Some doofy neighbors were setting off illegal mortar fireworks a street over and they were blowing up right over our backyard terrifying him.
I brought him inside for a bit and tried to calm him down, them put him back outside around midnight when things seemed to have calmed down, but the neighbors found more to set off, so the poor guy got terrified all over again and frantically scratched the back door to come in. I ended up getting him set up in the 2nd bathroom with potty pads, a bowl of water, and a baby gate for the night to settle him down and finally got back to bed around 1 AM. So I’m a little tired and cranky again today and will be ready to raise hell if the neighbors have anymore tonight. Especially in the dry drought conditions going on here now – some people, ugh!