Laundry Warrior

We resumed our home school cooking program tonight. Emma made home made vegetable minestrone. She and Jake had their braces tightened this morning so were in the mood for soft food. I sampled it, and must say that it was very good! We had a little ingredients mishap, but recovered nicely. She was supposed to have a can of diced tomatoes, but we did not have any. Instead we added some tomato sauce, some sun-dried tomato paste, and diced some fresh tomatoes -- it was a very tasty substitution. Phillip was claiming he wasn't going to eat it and that he didn't like soup with vegetables in it the entire time Emma was preparing it, but he ate almost all of it. I gave her meal a 4.5/5. (She wanted to make sure I was going to post her picture, too!)

I made some delicious juices today, too! This morning I had spinach, carrot, and apple juice (1 red delicious and 1 granny smith). Later this afternoon I made kale, pineapple, cantaloupe, kiwi, grape. I had all the fruit left over from a fruit salad I made earlier this week so I just threw it all into the juicer. It is amazing to me how filling juice can be.

I have had lots of energy today thanks to all of my juices -- they have enabled me to be the "laundry warrior." I must have done 15 loads of laundry today. Seriously, I do not know how that much laundry creeps up on me! I wonder if I am the only mom who must do laundry marathons so that her hildren will have something to wear tomorrow.

Stress Test -- he passed!

My dad's stress test went very well today! I am so glad. It really is a relief to know. I mentioned before that my dad had a heart attack at a young age. His father had multiple heart attacks, the first at a young age. This knowledge was not part of my switch to a raw diet because I had so many other health problems -- I wasn't even thinking about my heart. However, I do worry about my brothers. I hope they are aware of the increased risk since they run in our family. I know they know about the risk (technically), but being aware of it is a different thing all together. Being aware of the increased risk requires one's attention and vigilance, not, "One hamburger a week won't matter." I love them and want them around for a long while.

Speaking of loving someone and wanting them around, I spoke with Wayne about my concern for him. Since Thanksgiving he has been gradually wandering away from the healthy lifestyle he had adopted. A few cookies here, some holiday ham there, a few drinks at the party started to become, "can you brig home some of that from the grocery." I wasn't sure how he would take it, but when I mentioned it to him he was glad. He said he had really noticed a difference in how he looks and feels and is ready to get back to a healthy lifestyle again. He just needed a little push. It is so easy to get sucked back into a SAD diet. I am glad he is willing to make positive changes.

The kids and I started reading Dante's Inferno today. I had forgotten how much I like it. We have been through the first circle of Hell -- they were surprised to find out that Dante thought angels were there, existing side by side with all the people who sat on the fence. Jake didn't think that was very fair. He said, "But they didn't do anything wrong." I reminded him they didn't do anything right either, in fact, they didn't do anything at all. We had a great discussion about what makes a person virtuous.

In raw food news, I am really getting into this juicing thing! This morning I made juice out of two apples, 2 carrots, a handful of raspberries, a handful of blackberries, and two handfuls of spinach. Jake and Emma said it looked diarrhea, but thought it tasted delicious.

JUICY!

I received a juicer for Christmas and I have been juicing my little heart out today. The kids and I went to Costco this morning and they each got to pick out a fruit. Phillip picked apples (sweet apples, actually -- he makes sure to clarify "sweet"). Jake picked oranges and Emma picked pears. We bought in bulk because I wanted to try lots of different concoctions. Then we came home and did some experimenting. We made carrot, apple, pear, spinach juice. It was really good! I was surprised how much juice we got out of the carrots; it was pretty impressive. The juice was such a pretty orange, too.

I poured myself a large glass and that was lunch. I was going to have a salad, too, but I was full from the juice. In fact, I wasn't hungry all afternoon. I expect smoothies to fill me up, but just juice? I did not expect to be full. Jake drank a full glass, but Emma and Phillip just had a sip. They both said they liked it, but neither wanted a full glass. I'll keep trying. I did succeed in getting Phillip to eat a small salad at dinner this evening, though. It even had yellow and red bell peppers, onions, and cucumbers on it. Wayne and I are making a little extra effort to get him to eat his veggies. He is the only one of my children who turns his nose up at vegetables. If I don't offer it to him and show him how much we value having veggies in our diet then he is sure not to ever like them. Therefore, I will keep piling them on him plate and making him eat even a few small bites.

We got a new game for Christmas called Qwirkle. We really like playing games and this one was GREAT! If you haven't heard of it, I highly recommend taking a look at it. It requires lots of strategy and planning. It is MENSA approved, and we all enjoyed playing it. Speaking of games, we got another game that we played with the kids before my parents left that was also fun. It was Funglish. It is sort of like charades (you are trying to get people to guess a word), but there are only printed words, no acting. Both games guarantee a fun family night!

Before I wrap this blog up for the night I just have to tell you about one more thing. We had more SNOW today! I cannot believe it. It was not as much as Christmas Eve, only about one inch today, but it was so pretty falling. Tomorrow it will be in the mid forties, so it is not going to last long. We are enjoying it while we can.