We have sort of gone hippie, I am sure some of you are saying......sort of?!?!?! I mean after all my son was born in our living room! However, I only say sort of because there are folks out there that definitely walk off the beaten path waaaay more than Neal and I, which someday I sincerely hope we can get there, not crazy hippie, but more along the lines of living off our land.....lots of it. My passion for whole living, real food, natural products and just all around awareness of what I put into my body (and my family's) started soon after Sophie was born and I had a new little life to care for, nourish and help guide toward healthful eating. It was a slow journey, after all I married a man who, when I met him his diet consisted of peanut butter and jelly.....on white bread and sodas.....Mountain Dew...ewwww. So I had my work cut out for me trying to woo my husband with health food......a daunting task I had before me, but with effort and slowly weeding out the bad and replacing it with good, I have totally gotten the both of us to a place where we most definitely make better and more healthful food choices. Now, that is not to say that we don't enjoy the occasional "bad food" as Sophie calls it, because we do, we just aren't pulling up to the McDonald's drive through everyday like some folks! Actually, McDonald's is something that we avoid like the plague, LIKE THE PLAGUE people! Sophie told one of the farmers today at the Farmer's market, "This is good food, McDonald's is bad food, we don't eat McDonald's" ahhhhh sigh, my heart smiled! If we are in a pinch we will do fast food, but the only fast food chain we will visit on occasion is Chick-Fil-A only because the chicken served is actually a chicken breast, not mechanically separated pieces all smooshed together, like some places. We are by no means purists, but we do our best to put the best into our bodies, but no one is perfect!
What sparked me to write this post was that we buy our chicken and eggs locally from a farmer about 20 minutes away, Sophie, Jonah and I took a trip out there today to make a purchase, which I should have called ahead because the chickens won't be slaughtered and ready until tomorrow, so back to the farm tomorrow to pick up our farm fresh chicken! Anyhow Sophie had a blast watching the chickens eat and petting them, she is definitely my little nature girl! There was even a turkey there that she got to pet, along with a bunch of ducks, who Sophie said looked like Mr. Mallard from Make Way For Ducklings. I braved it and touched the birds too, who knew turkeys and ducks were so soft! While there I was able to score a 15lb turkey for Thanksgiving, I was super excited about this since our farmer has been sold out for a while, but someone just canceled...Yay! So who knows we may be eating Sophie's new friend for Thanksgiving dinner! I did explain this to her, but I think I will have to continue to reiterate this point! I managed to snap some pictures on my phone, so sorry about the quality, but you get the idea! Neal and I are actually seriously talking about buying our own chickens from our farmer friend so that we can have our own fresh eggs!!! How awesome is that!!! I love it!
Anyhow I wanted to shed some more light onto the epidemic of this fast, cheap food nation that we live in and how it really and truly is affecting us, our children and that it IS in fact making us sick!!!! The notion of cheap food is appealing because you can feed a family for little to nothing, I get that, but why, why fill your child's body with such poor food choices that are doing nothing to nourish their minds and bodies, this is why our children are failing in school, are overweight and have early onset childhood diabetes! Alright I have managed to get on my Soapbox.....stepping down now. Check out the newest film, FRESH, it actually reminds me a lot of another film called FOOD INC. which came out in the summer of 09, I put up that trailer too! Enjoy! I really hope this sparks some interest and gets some folks a little more curious about what is in the food you are putting in your body!
I have to brag on my husband for just a minute. I was one man down yesterday while Neal was in Virginia photographing a wedding on the most picturesque Lavender Farm. I can't even begin to describe the amazingness (if that is even a word) of the pictures he took. Sometimes, well most of the time really, I am just blown away by his talent and eye for things. Here is a quick preview, but to see more amazing shots click HERE to go to his blog.
So I was super busy inside on a day that Neal desperately needed to cut the grass, but little man was awake and needing some attention........solution wrap him up in the Moby and have Daddy wear him while cutting the grass......genius! He had a blast and the next time Neal mowed the grass, about a week later, Jonah did not get to ride along with Daddy, but watched from the porch with me, clearly Jonah was a little upset because he would get super excited when Neal would start toward us and then get equally as disappointed when he kept right on going past us!
food + jonah = big mess He does not eat too much food, he is still a nurse-aholic! But when he does choose to eat table food, he.is.messy! I mean in his hair, ears, up his nose, you name the orifice and there is food in there! He does enjoy his food though, I will say there is usually more food on him than in him! He seems to really enjoy bananas and avocado, those are the two I can usually count on him eating, and blueberries too.
sophie, my sweet, oh so grown up, sophie....... What can I say other than she is growing up waaaaaaaaaaaay too fast. She loves to love her little brother and her hearts biggest desire? ......to help all this little love wants to do is help no matter what the task, oh my sweet girl. Most recently she helped me saute the meat for tacos, and chop up avocado. A few weeks ago we made our own strawberry jam, she was a big help washing the strawberries and the jam is so yummy! She is now the proud owner of a bright orange BMX bike. She finally outgrew her Princess tricycle and Neal and I felt it was time to move onto a two wheeler with training wheels, she passed by every girly bike in the store and went straight for the neon orange bike!!! Rock on Sophie, the girl knows what she likes! Neal is pretty stoked that she chose a BMX bike too. Her and Daddy have been bike riding fools lately and she even tries to do her version of a "trick" just like Daddy does on his bike. You are growing up too fast little girl.
Ok, so my husband is a photographer, and yes we have lots of great pictures, but none of them have Neal in them or us as a whole family! So this past Saturday we enlisted the fabulous services of a local photographer Nicole Rogers to take our first family pictures! Not only is this the first time we have had family pictures taken, but it is the first time Neal and I have had pictures together since we were married......in October of 2004!!!! We had such a blast out taking pics with Nicole, she was very laid back and I feel like she captured our family just as we are......love it! Funny thing.....we go to the same church and had no idea, small world!
Anyway Nicole has posted a "sneak peek" on her blog for us to take a look at and share with you guys, click HERE to view. Also after the last image on the blog there is a link to view our slideshow with a few shots from the session. Our complete gallery will be up for us to view soon, and I will send out an email so anyone who wants to take a look can do so! Oh and the beautiful quilt that you see in the pictures was hand made by Neal's grandmother "Giz" as a wedding gift for us. We know Giz would be "tickled" to see these pictures.
Wow, I did not realize until I started uploading these pictures, how long it has been since I actually updated this thing! Whoops! Anyway........in a nutshell starting from the top and working our way down this is what we have been up to.....
*Daddy got a new backdrop and decided to test it out on Jonah (and he got some really cute shots).
*We celebrated the 4th of July for three days.
*Jonah's bottom two teeth popped up.
*Sophie has been sporting her curly locks lately since we have been spending lots of time in the pool.
*Jonah discovered he likes to eat grass.
*Sophie is still dressing up like "Princess Haley".
*Jonah is really stinkin' cute, curious and ready to crawl any day now!
*Neal's grandparents came down for a visit Memorial Day weekend and met their Great Grandson for the very first time.
