Monday!

After having a mystery fever and dizziness and extreme exhaustion for three-ish days last week, then feeling great for two and a half days, only to get a 24 intestinal bug OR food poisoning, I am hoping, perhaps, to stay sick free for good now! Crossing my fingers and praying that I can be functional at least, and energy filled at best for the remainder of this week. I have a lot to do, including getting ready for our trip to the Dominican Republic in 6 days, catching up on laundry, growing bacteria in petri dishes, going over the parts of speech, reviewing the "er" and "ar" sounds with Ian, teaching reading with Grace, and I still haven't decided if I should start the boys on their new math books or let them have a longer break from them. Most of all, I just want to spend every minute I can loving on my kids and praying that our time away from them will not be hard on us all. I am excited for this trip, for what it means to Nathan, for the relaxation aspect of it, and for the alone time it will afford us. I have been praying for the incredibly brave and kind family that will be caring for the children while we are gone and I hope it will be a time of fun, somehow, for them all.

We went to El Charro yesterday for the first time in about 6 months, and I have a strong feeling that is where my stomach distress came from yesterday and this morning. I stuck to my vegan-ism, but definitely felt different when leaving. Speaking of veganism, I've found a wonderful website that has all sorts of great recipes. By now are you saying "What?? Vegan....what?!?!" Yes, I, we, have decided to transition to not eating animal foods. This has been coming in stages, and the feeling in both Nathan and I that our diet needs to change has culminated in our reading an amazing book, The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell. We are still in the transition phase and have some dairy stuff still in our house, but when it runs out, we are done. We will probably still have turkey on Thanksgiving, or eat animal products if we go somewhere, but for our house, for the majority of our diet, we are sticking to fruits, veggies, grains and nuts. In short, we're becoming plant eaters. And feeling good because of it. Nate has lost 7 pounds, I have lost 4. At first I really felt awful and thought this was a horrible idea, but besides the random flukiness of the two recent ailments, after a few weeks animal product free, I have recently begun feeling an energy I haven't felt in years. My asthma isn't bothering me, and I have even begun to think about running again. Nate says he has more energy than he knows what to do with, and we are both sleeping better. It has come quietly about that we are on this path now, and just seems to make so much sense for us. I am thankful for the knowledge the Lord has laid in our path, and hope it can contribute to a healthier future.

And it feels SOOO good to be on the same page as Nate on this. I never would have thought that my meat and potatoes husband would choose to do this, but he began it before I did, and is doing great on it. So, now I am in the process of trying to figure out how and what we should eat. Soup and salad and bread are wonderful, but I am looking to expand our horizons here. Today I printed out a recipe for Creamy Peanut Kale, which looks great. We have been consuming kale like crazy around here, after finding out how incredibly good for you it is (a star of the cruciferous family) and how dirt cheap it is...cheaper than green leaf lettuce and cheaper than iceburg sometimes. My current favorite is to saute it with fresh mushrooms and eat it on couscous, but I'm hoping the peanut recipe pans out. (pun intended, hehe) I also printed out vegan recipes for Cinnamon Raisin Scones, Roasted Beet Ravioli with Sage Pesto Sauce, and Hearty Tomato Soup. Something that has so increased my enjoyment of eating well is discovering the delights of combining fruits and veggies. I almost always have a sliced apple on my salad now, and have had delicious salads of sprouts, kale and mango, as well as shredded beet, shredded apple and greens. That burst of sweet flavor against the backdrop of an earthy crunch of cruciferous is just lovely. I really think my taste buds have become more sensitive. I was actually craving celery the other day. Celery!!! I never used to like celery, I thought it was tasteless and boring, but recently, it just explodes with crunchy, juicy flavor. Hummus has become another staple, and as much as Nate complains about my garlic breath, I can't get enough of it. I have discovered though that it is so not worth my time and the few cents it will save to rinse and soak and rinse and cook and cook and cook and rinse and set the garbonzo beans from dried, as opposed to opening a can and pureeing them for my hummus. There are some things that I don't mind doing the easy way! Dried beans are much cheaper, and getting into a routine of soaking them and cooking them I think will be in my future, for sure, but the garbonzos...canned for me, please!

The kids are doing well, getting over a little sniffle, but well for the most part. Ian has lost two teeth in front, and the one top left one is loose, which gives him a friendly, snaggle toothed appearance which sometimes makes me giggle. George's top two are growing in well, finally, although I just see dollar signs when I look at his mouth, I think we are in for some expensive dental work there. Speaking of George, I was just so proud of him this morning. I was feeling so wiped out, and he volunteered to make breakfast and lunch for everyone (he helped me) and reminded the kids to be quiet and was just so sweet. I am so thankful for my children and all their varied personalities. What a blessing to be able to be with them at this time in our lives. Speaking of the children, I should really go and be with them, the girls are up from their nap now and the boys nintendo time, although well earned from much picking up, needs to come to an end.