day 1

so even tho we haven't eaten dinner, i can say that today has been a success!! no processed foods have passed my lips or the lips of my boys! (unless michael snuck something while he was out!)

we never have bkft together b/c michael gets up so early and then mikey then me and finally caleb rolls out of bed. michael left without bkft b/c he was late. mikey was starving when i got up even tho i told him last night to eat an apple or banana till i got up. i hadn't made any cereal so he couldn't have that. i had a smoothie with almond milk, spinach, banana, frozen cherries, pumpkin, flax and a dash of cinnamon. oh and almond butter. it was yummy! mikey had a nut butter and honey sandwich as he dashed off to art class. i made caleb eggs and toast.

b/c we all had such a late bkft we didn't really have a big lunch. i had 1/2 nut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple, mikey had some cheese and crackers, caleb had nothing and hubby finished up my smoothie and ate an apple.

in the mean time i decided i needed to purge foods from the shelves. i filled a huge bin with off limit foods and this is what is left...


then i put an approved chicken to roast in the oven. we will have it with organic sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts for the hubby, peas for the boys and asparagus for me! popcorn popped in coconut oil with grass fed butter for snacking if needed.

while i was waiting for the chicken to cook, i prepped the granola to bake for later so there will be cereal in the morning! and for dinner tomorrow we are having red lentil and butternut squash curry stew. it is SO FREAKIN' AMAZING!! but it requires some prep so i got the butternut squash chopped and ready to roast for tomorrow. my oven is going to be on till midnight!!

i will be heading out to the store for more food tomorrow. bananas, veggies, some local beef if i can find it. and maybe some clean snacks for my snacker mikey.

one day down and nine to go! :)

10 days of real food

after a month of exhaustive research i'm putting my family to the test. tomorrow we start a 10 days of real food pledge. we eat too much crap. and it's making me sick (and tired). i stumbled across this recipe on pinterest and it linked to 100 days of real food. and i thought, if she could do it, so could we! weirdly enough she lives in matthews. which is like 10 minutes from me.

anywho. real food is described as true and actual; not artificial. we are packing up anything that has refined grains, such as white flour or white rice, refined sweeteners such as sugar, any form of corn syrup, cane juice or artificial stuff like Splenda. Nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has more than 5 ingredients listed on the label. and there will be no deep friend food or fast foods. our pantry is going to be empty!

i'm prepped with local organic eggs, milk, butter, veggies and fruits. i'm going to make my own bread tomorrow and homemade granola for cereal. i will take pictures and post our meals.

hold on tight! it's gonna be a bumpy ride!!!

hit or miss monday!!!

i'm actually posting this on a monday! woo-hoo! i guess staying up to watch the oscars then getting up early, really paid off for my blog today! not really. i'm pooped.



for my hits!!

is this the best idea ever!!! girl gets roses, boys gets bacon! love!



hahahaha!! i love this! but i'm thinking mario doesn't have a blue-tooth. i could be wrong...

and my misses...



who even came up with this idea?? must be a man b/c no woman would even THINK about wearing something that sharp and plasticy on their body. but i guess as a nursing bra you wouldn't have to worry about leaks...



and this. when i first saw it, i stared. then i pinned it. and i stared some more. and it keeps getting weirder. yet i can't look away....and what's going on with her arm/wrist/hand? see i keep spotting weirder stuff!!


linking back to the pinterest project

awesomeness!

here are some amazing things that have happened so far this year...

hubby has work out the wazoo!! so grateful!

caleb is going to be the worship leader for the student center at church!! he's just 16!!! way to go caleb!!

mikey is learning fractions and i don't have to teach him!! (b/c he has a computer program for that)

the boys (and all the co-op kids) got the opportunity to have a month of lessons on the bells for free!! thanks Ed!! they loved it!
winter camp was a HUGE success! and i only stressed out 1 time!!





being positive in 2012...

new years resolution

so yesterday, the first day of the new year, pastor mark was teaching at church. i just love him! he always makes me smile! his teaching was about the 5 things he would wish for us in 2012. great idea! to start off he asked us to turn to our neighbor (which was my hubby) and tell them one good thing that happened in 2011. do you know i couldn't think of ONE SINGLE THING??!!! but i could tell you 1,125,250,955 things that were not good. what in the heck is wrong with me!! on the way home i was thinking about it and came up with tons of AWESOME things that happened in 2011. i just am confused as to why none of them could come to me on the spur of the moment. and why only bad things popped into my head. so my resolution this year is to make sure i document all the great/awesome/fantastic things that happen this year, 2012. even if it's only fantastic to me. b/c really it's my blog and i make all the rules right! :)

so already in 2012 prayers are being answered. had some truly special people bless us at church yesterday. and not just with physical things. prayer are being lifted up for my husband and family. and we can tell! so thanks my wonderful friends!

and the first dinner of the new year, AMAZING! black eyed peas, ham and cornbread with some greens on the side. in the crockpot no less. so super easy, delicious dinner was a success! :)

and know what else is fantastic already!??!! i got up and took a walk this morning. yay me!

time for school. but here is something awesome that happened in 2011... a family Christmas picture!! never happened before. i'm blessed!

december via my iphone

i thought i would steal an idea from my friend brianne and post my phone pix from december. this way i will feel like i covered the high points anyway! :)

the first weekend in december we went to jacksonville to visit auntie jane and uncle bill. sassy joined us and we took a jaunt to the beach!
it was not too cold. for mikey anyway!




we had the whole place to ourselves!!! awesome


we let mikey draw faces on our shadows. i think he was being funny don't you!?

gotta love toes in the sand!!

december 15th we hosted our 2nd annual co-op cookie exchange. everyone brought cookies and munchies. it was such a nice day for the kids to run around and burn off all that sugar!



po is huge. almost as big as mikey. but nice and warm


i love our tree!! and yes it's artificial



mikey being mikey!



pecan pie baker extraordinaire



sassy was here for CHRISTmas and we made the best cookies ever!! instead of oreo truffles, she suggested using nutter butters. OMG!! they were fantastic!!! (note the cute apron she bought)



CHRISTmas eve at Next Level Church!! thank you Jesus for the gift of YOU and for this beautiful sunset!!




looks like Santa was hungry!


Legos from the Beans!


a Banjo from Sassy!



the worst thing about December was the loss of our sweet doggy zoe. she had not been doing well and went fast. it was hard to celebrate the season without her but we know she is in a better place. we love you zoe!



thank goodness we have these two nut jobs to keep our spirits lifted!


HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!! HOPE IT'S FILLED WITH LOVE AND LAUGHTER!!

it was a pinteresting kind of day...

so my pinterest addiction is slowing down i'm glad to say. (i'm guessing it's b/c of the CHRISTmas season) but i've still had all these ideas running around in my head. yesterday i took advantage of both of the kids having people over to play with to get some of them done.

this year i decided i was not going to buy any wrapping paper. i mean think about it. wrapping paper is trash. literally. you take it off package and throw it away. i have a bit left but i'll save it for my sister when she gets here. she always steals, uh i mean borrows my paper. i have been getting paper bags at the grocery store for a few months now. yesterday i opened them all up so i would be ready. and i bought a snowflake stamp and some green ink. here is the result not too shaby and i have some fun sharpie colors i'll put names on the presents with.

project #2 have you seen these? this is one of the first things i ever pinned. what a great idea. so i gathered my materials. and got to work. i didn't want a super long bookmark so i cut off the top 3 colors. i used a cute heart punch to make the hole for the string and used the extra colors as contrast hearts. looks pretty! but i didn't have any glue! what? so i had to use a glue stick of all things. but still turned out great! can't wait to give them as gifts.
still feeling crafty, i took out the pringles containers i had been saving. and i covered them with wrapping paper. (i had some scraps from last year) they will be used for the next project

ok here's the yummy stuff. (if you don't like peppermint, you won't be impressed) i made peppermint popcorn! oh man this stuff is so good! for 20+ years i have been making white trash for CHRISTmas. but it's kinda expensive to make and we are on a budget this year. so i found this recipe on pinterest and thought i'd try it. gathered my ingredients... and got to work! i have an air-popper and i put it to good use. made two big batches of corn. no added oil or salt. then i poured in half a bag of CHRISTmas m&m's. (that's my own addition) and i had a box of small candy canes. i processed them in the magic bullet type thing i have and made a fine dust with some bigger pieces left for texture and added color. melted one bag of white chocolate chips (i added 1Tbsp of oil to keep it smooth) in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each beep. here's where you have to work fast. i used a spoon and drizzled the chocolate over the popcorn/m&m mixture. then i would toss with two spoons and sprinkle with some candy cane dust. repeat until mixture is gone. i had to stick the chocolate back in the microwave once to melt it down again. toss, toss, and toss some more. then spread it on wax paper to dry. oh my so yummy!! i am going to put the peppermint popcorn into the covered pringles cans and give them as gifts!!

i have another project i did, but i can't post it. someone is getting it for CHRISTmas and she reads my blog!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!!