One more birthday pic...

Getting ready for softball in February?  Meanwhile, Ezra is ready for hockey OR baseball... or a rain storm.

The boys discovered hair product.  Watch out world.

Speaking of hair, mama got a new 'do!  After three years and a bad encounter with a box (or two or three) of hair bleach, it was a long time coming. 

Little Miss managed to scratch her own eyeball- the same day I cut her fingernails, no less.  The quiet hum of the baby monitor was pierced with sudden agonizing wails.  I raced up the steps to find blood-filled tears welling up over her screwed-shut eyeball.  It was SO sad. 

Aside from the eyeball, it was kind of a banner week for the little gal.  She discovered her toes- even pulling off socks to reach them- and rolled over from front to back and back to front.  All for the first time.

On the food front, I began making kefir.  Despite the vast resources available on the internet, I am filled with questions.  No, I don't "trust my nose" to determine when the kefir is ready.  I have never smelled homemade kefir, and it is assuredly not the same thing as the store-bought variety I've had before.

Grace wanted me to take a picture of her plate after finishing some blueberry pancakes... I wish I could link you to the recipe but I've tried so many gluten-free, grain-free, carb-free, etc. recipes lately I have no idea which one it was.  Cool plate though.

And last, but not least, the kids have been really into drawing lately.  Yes!  I just love Isaac's style.  And Ezra has advanced to drawing the stereotypical first people.  It is a self-portrait, although I'm sure you could already see the resemblance without me telling you.

And that, my friends, was just a fractional part of what our week entailed.  You know the old saying, "The days are long but the years are short."  Amen to that!

Background:  I honestly don't remember if I've ever even tried them before, maybe only the canned variety.  Something about them reminds me of cheap Italian restaurants with parquet bowls full of white iceberg lettuce, carrot shards, and a pale quarter of mealy tomato. Since I am changing the way I think about eating, though, I've got to expand my palate. 

The beets that we got from our CSA this summer went un-eaten, but I did take the time to peel and cut them (not knowing what else to do!).  They are the most beautiful color; I just can't get over it.  And you'd never know from looking at them on the outside! 

I did a quick internet search to see if there was a highly rated beet salad that included blue cheese, and here's what I chose, although I roasted the beets using these instructions.

Before I tried it, I joked with Aaron that at least we would feast with our eyes if it not our bellies!

The verdict:  I liked them!  At this point I'm not craving them or anything, and I did leave one on my plate, but I was mildly shocked that I not only tolerated them but actually enjoyed them.  I think the next time I make them I'd like to add some vinegar or something a little sharper.  They have a much milder flavor than I was expecting.

A massive shift is underway in our household.  Amidst the chaos, Isaac finds some time to perform some procedures on his little sister, or experiments, or something.  I'm not really sure.

Like mother, like daughter.  I always liked organizing the crayons as much, if not more, than using them!

Sweet, sweet baby toes.  Why do they cause the irresistable urge to bite them?  I could rub baby toes on my face all day.  I know, weird.  But then again, maybe more people do it than I think, right?

I try to eat vegetables and fruit in season, but a birthday celebration calls for a little splurge on tomatoes and basil! 

Oh, the delightful period of life where you can pick out what you want to wear without a care to what others think- or what the weather is- or if it fits- or if the buttons match up, etc. etc.  Oh, to be three again.

Although it has been frigid this week, at least we had some sun.  We are like cats, drawn to the sunny spots in our warm cozy home.

I got to design a birthday party invite for a friend this week, for her daughter that I've never met.  Sad face.  I miss my west coast friends!  (Names have been blurred to protect against baby partycrashers.)

Turn your back for a second, and a pterodactyl might land on your baby's seat.

Me and my new red hat, hangin' with Moze.  That's Mozart for you un-classical kind of folk.  Hey, I actually look kind of like him!  Maybe that's where my musical genius comes from.  Just kidding!

And a happy birthday today to my two birthday buddy boys!

SUNDAY: After braving the "wintry mix" to get to church and Sunday school, we re-assembled a new-to-us Ikea bunk bed so that the three eldest children can share a bedroom.

Contrary to popular opinion, three children can share one smallish bedroom and LOVE IT. A sleep over every night? What could be better?!

MONDAY: Sharing a bedroom means lots of these (top secret meetings):

TUESDAY: Nothin' cuter than a baby wearing nothing but a diaper. Except a baby wearing nothing maybe.

Obligatory blog-shot of a green smoothie. I have one every day.

WEDNESDAY: National Pancake Day! At least that's what I was told, and who am I to argue. We have pancakes twice a week- they are they only way I can get sweet potato or butternut squash into my children! These are soaked oat pancakes.

THURSDAY: Grace made a spa for Valentines Day, called the 15 min. Spa. Sample of services offered: lemon slices on your eyeballs and saw massages. Grace said, and I quote: "We have 100% good reviews from our customers."

FRIDAY: Awesome taco salad that I made but forgot to take a picture of, so did when I remembered.

In typical last-minute Sarah fashion, here are four free printable Valentine options for you.

Click here to download your valentines.  You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.  I used images from the graphics fairy, one of my favorite places to find vintage images.

We made valentines for each other yesterday using good 'ole potato stamps.  Cut a potato in two, carve out the shape you want (hearts for us), squish around in paint, stamp onto paper!  Good times.

And my treat for all my sweeties:  Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

It's healthy too.

Have a super day with the ones you love!

Unfortunately for me, it about $15-$20 a yard.

This past weekend I wanted to re-cover the two chair seats in our kitchen.  Anyone with kids will understand that plain cotton fabric will be quickly destroyed by a three-year-old at meal time, and the white pleather underneath that was busting open.

I happen to have a fabric stash, including some Amy Butler fabric, just waiting for the right occasion.  I also happen to have clear contact paper around to cover school materials. I would laminate my own fabric!

It is soooooo easy.  I wouldn't recommend using your homemade laminate fabric for anything that would be going through a washing machine or require a lot of sewing, but it was perfect for this project.

I measured and cut the cotton fabric for the chairs.  Then I cut the contact paper to cover the fabric.  The contact paper didn't quite reach the edges of the cotton but that was okay since I made sure that it DID cover the entire area of the chair seat.

I ironed the cotton fabric first, making sure to remove any dust or strings off the surface at the same time. Then I carefully peeled the paper off the back of the sticky contact paper a little bit at a time, while attaching the sticky side onto the fabric.  (If you're like me, do NOT take all the backing paper off and then try to stick it, or you'll probably end up with a big sticky ball of contact paper and have to start over!) Don't discard the backing paper yet, because you'll need it soon.

Smooth the contact paper onto the fabric with your hands, moving from the middle towards the edges to prevent wrinkles. 

Turn your iron on to its lowest setting.  Cover the contact paper and fabric with the left-over backing paper with the matte side facing up at you.  QUICKLY run the iron over the backing paper to "activate" the adhesive from the contact paper onto the fabric.  Don't linger too long in any one spot.

NOW you can discard the backing paper and you have your own little piece of laminate fabric!  I love how the chair turned out, and sweet little Ezra was so pleased. 

"You made me a new chair, mama?  Just for me?"  Yes, buddy, I did.

 SUNDAY

MONDAY:  The first pair of earrings I ever picked out when I was young, now on my daughter.TUESDAY: "I'm queen of the world!" or "The Gracie and the Pea" or both together.WEDNESDAY:  My healthy green smoothie in a souvenir beer mug- typical.

These two have got something special between them:THURSDAY: menu planning... again...FRIDAY:  I'd prefer that this math meeting graph showed some temps above 30 degrees, at least!And for the next week,

(From a series of chapter books Grace is writing; we've gotta work on that question mark!)

These are the salads I made on Saturday morning.  I get my cheeses at Trader Joes, and I'm working on cutting back the amount I use, and the amount of dairy I consume in general. 

I also experimented in the last week or two with putting hummus on green salads; not my favorite thus far.  I'll try it again, though, as my current batch of hummus is a little "off".  I tried starting with dried garbanzo beans, and I think I'll stick with the canned variety for now.  Hummus is not meant to be crunchy!  I've been successfully soaking and cooking black beans for the last few weeks, and thought I was ready for big ole garbanzos, but apparently not.  (Fortunately I did use canned for the two salads that have whole garbanzo beans- I might have cracked a tooth if I had used the ones I made!)

I usually make my own dressings, but this week I'm trying to get rid of a couple of pre-made bottles, so I ate the third salad on the right with Whole Foods 365 Organic Ranch and the last one with Ken's Steakhouse Greek dressing.  When I have the first two, I'll just mix up my own concoction of 1 part balsamic vinegar to 3 parts olive oil with a squirt of dijon mustard- my favorite!

I was struck down with the nasty cold/flu/fever about a week after Christmas.  For the first time in about seven years, I was able to spend a day and a half laying in bed and resting while I was sick.  (I rarely get sick.)  Since I couldn’t sleep due to head congestion, post-nasal drip, and horrible cough, I watched a bunch of those food documentaries that have been sitting in my Netflix queue forever.

Now, before everyone starts thinking, “You can’t believe everything you see on a documentary” and “Don’t be so gullible”, I want you to know that I weigh things carefully, consider sources, compare to my own experience.  I’ve told MYSELF those things many times!  But to continue the story...

I’ve gone through these information overloads before.  I am an avid seeker of knowledge, and can become quite obsessed with my different quests for THE TRUTH.  (Fortunately, I already know the ultimate truth, about God’s gift of Jesus ;)  But I generally end up feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, give up, and things remain the same in my life. There are simply too many sides to every story.  But this time I was determined that a real change needed to be made.

And why did I- and my family- need to make a change anyway?  Several reasons:
1.  Well, for the last few years I have been so exhausted I have often needed to take a nap during the day.  That might be considered normal for a homeschooling mom of four who’s trying to keep up with a part-time freelance graphic design gig.  But really?  A nap EVERY day?  I got to the point I avoided reading to my children because I couldn’t stay awake for it!

2.  Starting at the age of 18, I have struggled with depression.  I have been on different meds, gone to therapy, cried out to God, and done a lot of soul-searching, but MAN!  It can really be depressing to be so depressed!  I was spending the little energy I had just to deal with it, and that was time I wanted/needed to be devoting to my family.

3.  I had begun to experience the old middle-age weight gain that seems inevitable in our culture.  It was puzzling to me on a few different levels.  I wasn’t eating any differently than I previously had- in fact, in some ways I was eating “better”!  I didn’t exercise regularly, but I am by no means inactive.  I have four children for crying out loud- it’s not possible to sit around and eat bon-bons all day!  And I was so hungry all the time.  Not just bored hunger, like “Oh there’s nothing else to do, I better go eat a cheesecake”, but actual pains in the stomach that made me feel irritable and sick.

4.  My brain has become a little less than “sharp” over the last five years.  I know, I know, mommy-brain, pregnancy-brain, breastfeeding-brain, whatever you want to call it.  But we’re talking about a person who never used to use a calendar but still knew what was going on.  Now I’m wandering around the house wondering what on earth I’m doing.  I actually tell my children what I’m trying to do, so that one minute later when I’m standing in my bedroom with eyes glazed over, staring into my closet, I can say, “Why am I here?”  and someone can tell me to get my slippers before I’ve walked all the way back downstairs, into the kitchen, and started back to making breakfast before realizing that my feet are freezing and I need my slippers!

5.  I had an epiphany:  my son only ate two basic things, cheese and bread.  Oh wait- he wouldn’t turn down McDonald’s chicken nuggets, either. My other son, who used to be a good eater, became addicted to cookies and ice cream while we struggled to keep it together after our six-week-old was in the hospital with a possible blood infection.  Regular, nutritious meals were few and far between for a couple of weeks, and afterwards, the previously open-and-adventurous eater cried when forced to eat such bland and mundane foods as pizza.  PIZZA!  Because it wasn’t a cupcake.  

6.  Last, but not least, was the regularity with which we were eating out.  For two months I carefully tracked where every penny of our money was going, and was appalled by the amount that went to eating out.  And we’re not talking about eating at the neighborhood locally-grown cafe.  I’m too embarrassed to say where we were getting our food.  It sure is hard to summon up the strength to make real food at home, though, when you’re running on carbs and sugar.  What a vicious cycle!  How could I say that we couldn’t afford healthier food when so much money was being thrown down the drain buying junk?

So.  That was the way of things on December 31, 2012 when I put my sick self to bed early.  But for once, I made the choice to do something.  I would start somewhere.  Thus began the change that has already started transforming my life.  

How, you ask?  (Or maybe you’re thinking this sounds suspiciously like an ad for something.)

No.  I decided on two things: I would make at least half of everything I ate vegetables or fruit, and to remember MODERATION IN ALL THINGS.  Now, some of the documentaries I watched advocate for veganism, or only local food sources.  The arguments about RAW MILK vs. PASTEURIZED MILK, FERMENTING (or not) IS ESSENTIAL, ARTIFICIAL DYES ARE KILLING US, ALMONDS POISON PEOPLE, BLAH BLAH BLAH all make my head spin.  So when I am reading or watching any of these things that make me feel overwhelmed, I recite “moderation, moderation, moderation” to myself.  

We are still working out exactly how this all looks for our family, but since the first of the year, we have been doing things like green smoothies at breakfast, no refined sugars, a lot less meat and dairy, and nothing that we can’t make in our own kitchen (as little processing as possible).  It’s a lot of work, I’m not gonna lie, but it’s also fun!  For me anyway; I love to be in the kitchen trying new things.)

I’m sure I’ll share more here on the blog, but I’ve lost 15 pounds, have a ton more energy, and find it way easier to maintain a positive outlook in life.  Coincidence?  I don’t believe in coincidences.  And I’m so excited.

RESOURCES:

Here are the documentaries I’ve watched:
Food Matters
Ingredients

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead 

Vanishing of the Bees
Vegucated
Hungry for Change

These are some that are still in my queue that need watching:

Forks Over Knives
Food Fight
Fresh
The Gerson Miracle
King Corn
Dying to Have Known

and the first one I watched, a couple of years ago: Food, Inc.

Here are some blogs/websites I’ve been loving for food inspiration:
greenplaterule.com
ohsheglows.com
chocolatecoveredkatie.com
101cookbooks.com
food52.com

thekitchn.com