"So What Do You Eat?"

We are vegetarian, have been for about a year and a half. We went vegetarian for health reasons, my husband dropped his cholesterol by 170 points and my children rarely get sick anymore. I will be posting another blog with details on my children's health as soon as I get copies of their medical records, but I will say it has been miraculous.

One of the questions I get asked the most, well probably tied with, "Where do you get your protein?" (the answer is "From vegetables, nuts, beans, and dairy. Plus, Americans get WAY more protein than our bodies need - that's another post!) is "What do you eat?" The answer to that is so extensive that I could not answer it completely! Think of your favorite side dishes, for instance at Thanksgiving and Christmas we eat everything except turkey and ham.

Or think of your favorite types of food. Mexican and Italian are our faves so we eat rice, beans, guacamole, veggie quesadillas, chips & dips, breakfast burritos, pasta with meatless sauces (tomato, alfredo), mac and cheese, vegetable lasagna, garlic bread. We eats LOTS of fruit and vegetables but not a lot of salads.

"Well, what about when you travel and have to get fast food?" Good question, Taco Bell will substitute beans for beef, Burger King has a veggie burger, Wendy's has salads, baked potatoes and fruit, and we love most of the sides from KFC.

One of the best things about becoming vegetarian is that we are trying really great vegetables that we have never eaten before! I will be posting soon about our adventure with spaghetti squash soon!

So, we basically eat anything and everything - except meat. Easy enough...

Summer Fun!

Summer is here and we have our "list" of summer activities ready to go! Due to Joe's current job situation we will not be traveling and are on a limited budget so most of activities are cheap or FREE! Here is what we have lined up:

1. Movies in the Park. FREE event each month at the park with jumpy things, face painting, music, and a movie at dusk.

2. Bowling. Our local bowling alley has a program for kids to sign-up and bowl for FREE through August 30 - shoes not included.

3. Zoo. Considering a membership.
If we go 3 times it will be worth it.

4. Swimming. Since we have already joined the Rec. Center, admission to the outdoor pool is FREE.

5. Morning movies. A local church is showing a different kid movie each week for FREE. They also have FREE popcorn and 50 cent juice boxes.

6. Hiking & Letterboxing.

7. Library Summer Reading Programs

8. Jump Rope Club. We have started a club for the kids to learn jump rope skills, we have 16 kids participating!

9. Church Camps and VBS.

We are always looking for new ideas, what are your summer plans?

Better Late Than Never?

My dear husband just wrote a post on his blog about his (and my) #1 Pet Peeve - Being Late.
As I thought about the comment I was going to leave on his blog I decided that, since it was going to be more of a dissertation than a comment, I would write my own post about it. So here we go...

My number one pet peeve is being late. I can't stand to be late, my husband can't stand to be late, and my children can't stand to be late.
It started in my childhood, back in the days before cell phones. Yes, there used to be a time without cell phones. Then there came a time of HUGE car phones. Anyway, back in the day my family used to go a lot of places and meet up with a lot of people. Mom and Dad always used the 15 minute rule, it goes like this. Let's say we were going to meet another family downtown and go window shopping, wait, that is something my dad would never do. Let's say we are in the mountains skiing with several other families and we decide that after skiing we will all meet at a certain place at 6:00 and go to dinner. Dad would say we would use the 15 minute rule which states that at 6:15 whoever is there leaves and goes to dinner, no hard feelings. Everyone knew that they had a 15 minute window and then everyone was leaving. No one got mad and if someone was late they would always apologize profusely.
After I got married, my dh and I took a parenting class and one of the lessons solidified my inner most need to be on time. The lesson was about stealing. Yes, stealing. The writer of the program stated that people who you can count on to be late are STEALING. They are stealing your precious time. Time that you can never get back. Now, they were not talking about a person being occasionally late, we get it, things happen. They were talking about taking responsibility for ones actions and respecting others enough to regularly show up on time. THAT stuck with me.
If I am late I am not showing respect to the other person and I am stealing from them. I do not want to represent myself that way.
This is how it works at our house. We generally plan to leave in enough time to get where we need to be 15 minutes EARLY. 10 minutes if it is right here in town. That way, even if things come up - they normally do- a lost shoe, a pit stop, I can't find my keys, we still have a window of time. Having that window of time decreases our stress levels IMMENSELY! We arrive leisurely and are often able to help with any last minutes preparations or it gives us a chance to sit in the car and talk, uninterrupted by technology for a few minutes.
So, I am still striving for us to be known as the family that is always 10 minutes early!
If I get to your house 10 minutes early I have probably been driving around wasting time for 10 minutes so as not to some over TOO early! And if I am right on time, I am stressed. If, for some reason I am late, please know that it was something VERY out of the ordinary and I will apologize profusely!
The last thing I want to do is to steal from my friends.
So, there is my dissertation. I hope you have learned something about me you did not know before!

Photos

We went to a local park yesterday and took some photos. Thought I would share a couple of them with you!

New Blogger

My dear husband put off joining Facebook for months after I joined. He finally joined and is having fun connecting with people and reconnecting with old friends. He is of the few people who grew up in the same small town from the time he was 1 year old until he left for college, so he has a lot of people that he really grew up with.
He also put off for months the whole blogging thing. I LOVE blogging and I do it mainly for friends and family to keep up with what we are doing. I am one of the many people who moved around quite a bit as a kid and I have friends and relatives in lots of states.
Anyway, he is now blogging and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading what he has to say. Whereas my blog is more about our daily activities, his site is "deeper" and is on a different level than mine. He has a lot of incite to share.

I encourage you to head on over to Common Threads and A Golden Needle and check it out!

The Garden - Part 2

Everyone said not to plant before April 15. Did I listen? Of course not! The weather had been so beautiful so we planted our tender little seedlings early. Yes, all of those people were right, sort of. There came a few days of frosty weather causing us to tarp or otherwise cover our little plants. And yes, it was a hassle. But we are now reaping (pun intended) the benefits of planting an early garden! It amazes me that God can pack the whole plant and all of that food into a tiny little seed!

Here is our first little harvest of zucchini, parsley, basil, mint, and one little carrot - and the resulting dinner! This time we had to add store-bought squash and red bell pepper, hopefully in a few more weeks our peppers will be ready.


We have about 5-10 little zucchinis, 10 squash, 15 peppers, a couple of cucumbers, and countless tomatoes ripening out there right now and I can hardly wait to start making freezer spaghetti sauce and dill pickles!

I am also planning now for a garden to be harvested in the fall and winter. If you are considering a fall or spring garden you need to plan now, seeds will not be as readily available after the summer! Hopefully, I will post soon on what I am planning to plant. As I have never planted a fall garden it will be completely experimental!

Field Day

Last week the girls attended the area wide homeschool Field Day. There were a couple hundred kids and lots of family and friends there. The girls had so much fun and always look forward to it.
The things I love about it are:
FRIENDS! (Mine and the girls')
Kids who did not know each other were pairing up for team competitions
I heard NO bad language at all
Kids were cheering for each other
I did not see anyone making fun of anyone else
Lots of good sportsmanship
Lots of fun and good exercise!

Casey won 1st place in the 3-legged race with her friend Addison,
she won second place in the back-to-back with her friend Alyssa,
she won third place in the girls team relay with Addison and a girl she did not know, and she ran a mile.

Cody won a first place ribbon for participation,
second place ribbons in the 1/4 mile run,
backwards run, girls team relay with her friends Camille and Prairie, the frisbee throw, the hula hoop, and a third place ribbon for the short yard dash.

Good Friends!

It was fun and exhausting and we need an entire year to recover and be ready for it again next year!