What's in your food?

I know that lots of you don't even care. BUT YOU SHOULD!!!!
And I know some do.
Do you know that 90% of the food in the grocery store is processed?
It contains preservatives (it sits in salt and yucky chemicals) and it lacks the live enzymes that your body needs to function properly. These include:

•canned foods with large amounts of sodium or fat
•breads and pastas made with refined white flour instead of whole grains
•packaged high-calorie snack foods such as chips and candies
•frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners that are high in sodium
•packaged cakes and cookies
•boxed meal mixes that are high in fat and sodium
•sugary breakfast cereals
•processed meats
 (Just to name a few)

And the food that is NOT processed? I know you are wondering.
Well, that would be the fruits and vegetables at the front of the store that have been harvested prematurely (not at it's peak of ripeness when all the nutrients are available), then are sprayed with a plant chemical to help them ripen unnaturally, then shipped across the country or countries, then they sit on the shelf for a few days before you and I go into the store to purchase them.
Um...exactly what kind of nutrients are left?
To be honest, I don't really know but I know it's greatly diminished through that process.
Sounds gross, huh? Well, it does to me. 

Why am I blogging this you ask.

Well, I'm promoting growing your own. I'm sure someone somewhere has started a "grow your own" revolution. Be part of it! Grow what you can and do it ORGANICALLY! That seems to be a popular and fun word to say lately but do you know what it means and why it might be important.
Here's a definition on Wikipedia.
Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.
For the vast majority of human history, agriculture can be described as "organic"; only during the 20th century was a large supply of new synthetic chemicals introduced to the food supply. The organic farming movement arose in the 1940s in response to the industrialization of agriculture known as the Green Revolution.

Yikes! I know that there are some studies that link the pesticides and chemical fertilizers to tons of different medical conditions.

Do you know how they do things in other countries? Did you know that in other countries Mac 'n Cheese has different (more simple) ingredients than the Mac 'n Cheese sold in America?
Someone I know said that she bets that "Mr. Kraft" doesn't feed the American Mac 'n Cheese to his kids.
I would guess the same thing.
ALSO...
In France and other countries they garden all year round. This is nothing new for them. Why isn't this more common in America? Heck if I know.
So, here's the info. I'm reading this book called Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman.

You can harvest your own fruits and vegetables all year round. No, really, it's true!
By the way homegrown tastes a MILLION times better than store bought!

I'm not only for growing your own fruits and vegetables but your own meat too.
I don't do that YET but when we get settled somewhere I'm pretty set on getting chickens (for eggs and meat), maybe a few ducks, a cow (who knows). We'll see.

Bake your own, you'll know exactly what's in it because you put it there.
Use a popcorn popper to make popcorn instead of the microwave.

I know what you're thinking now. BUT I DON'T HAVE THE TIME! (for gardening or baking)
I'll tell you one thing everything worth while takes some time.
I'll do another post on saving time later but for now get your garden going if you haven't, make and bake your own, and try organic.

By the way, not saying we don't eat processed food sometimes...we do. We just try not to eat so much of it and we (by we I think I mean me) try to spread the word. FOOD IS GOING DOWNHILL FAST!

"Taking Chance"

So, the other night I watched a movie.
The title "Taking Chance".
I admit I am a fan of romantic comedies and comedies by themselves (although it's rare to find one these days that is clean enough to watch with kids, so I don't watch them) but this was a good movie.
There is no comedy in this movie, it's a pretty solemn movie, very moving, and filled with respect.
It is about an officer in the Marines returning a fallen soldier to his family.
It showed the process the fallen soldier went through to be prepared to return to their home town.
I was impressed by the respect and honor they showed to the soldier from the very beginning of this process.
He was cleaned, both body and personal effects.
Every time the casket was moved on or off a plane or to or from a vehicle the fallen soldier
was saluted, hats were taken off and a reverence was shown.

I haven't known anyone personally whose life was taken in a war or serving our country but I do know people who have served in the Marines, Army, and Navy. I have to say I have felt grateful for all who served but never more than after I watched this movie.

My Bishop is an old Marine. He doesn't talk about the war itself (none of them do) but he does talk about sand in all the food he ate and the Lord sparing his life several times.
My grandfather was in the Navy and the only story I know of came from my mother.
His life was spared also.

Just want to say THANK YOU to all those who have served, are presently serving, and those who plan to serve our country. May repect and  honor follow you where ever you go.

Deep in the heart of Texas.

It's a superhero thing. (and sort of dirty and slobbery)

This too!



this too

and this.



My new cute neice Olivia.

My other cute new neice Ember.

My mom will have 4 new grandbabies with in a year. 2 down , 2 to go.



This is one of memaw's favorite book and it's tradition for her to read it to the grandbabies.

Horton Hatches The Egg.

The boys helped grandpa wash the car.

We helped grandpa with his square foot garden on Earth Day! Yep, we're green.

We went to San Antonio for Time Out For Women. (Well, the girls) We all fit in the small elevator.

We ate Mexican food. Yum! They just don't have Mexican food in PA.



Noah fell asleep at dinner with uncle Josh. He carried Noah all the way back to the Hotel.

We saw the Alamo. It's part of Texas history. I'll let you google it.

Me with my Sister-in-law, Sommer. We are just a few weeks apart. Apparantly, her husband (my brother Josh) has put on some sympathy weight or he might be pregnant too.

Noah wore this helmet most of the way home from San Antonio.

Asher has red long johns. When grandpa got home we found out that he has some too.

We had an Easter egg hunt but my pictures were all terrible.

Heard Sherri Dew speak at Time Out for Women.

She's great!

I've seen all my family here.

I've been with my mother to buy a dining room table.

I got sunburned helping put in a square foot garden.

I had a miagraine after I mowed my sister back yard.

It was fixed by essential oils and reflexology (which is amazing because if I don't have good meds I'm usually in the ER with a 2 day hang over)

I've read good books.

Learned a little bit about aquaponics and solar gardening.

Missing my husband.

Glad my mom is retired.

Glad my sister does awesome research on everything.

She found stainless still baby bottles. cool, huh?

The boys like to run around in their undies (and diaper) in the warm weather.

My dad stepped in dog poop today.

I watched a good movie (What If) with my mom.

I've heard ya'll, thank ya, and been around a lot of nice southern folks.

I got a few books I can't wait to read.

I made burp cloths and a baby blanket.

Went to a rain harvesting class with my dad.

ate BlueBell ice cream.

Missed a months worth of Biggest Loser.

Did I miss the finale?

My mom got me the first baby girl onesies.

I think Asher weighs 23 pounds now. I know!

Pretty sure we are moving back to Utah.

and just so you know I'm not going to proof read this. It's taken too long with pictures and such.

That's all I guess.

Next time won't you sing with me?

Oh, also that's paint on his face. He and Noah decided they would paint on each other instead of the paper. And every time I open my blog and Asher sees the picture of Jesus he always says, "Jesus love me." How true! How true!

Heath Papa

This one is for Heath.

Hallelujah, you danced with me. 
I LOVE YOU!

Easter.

Easter will be here before long and I want this year to be different.
I want my children to understand Christ and his atonement and most importantly that He lives again.
That He is resurrected.
That because He lives again we can too.
That's what Easter is about.
It's not about the eggs (although we'll probably hunt) and not about new clothes (although they have new sweater vests). We do some things for fun or tradition but
I want to put the emphasis on Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

I found some good ways to do this HERE .

And here is a great Easter message by one of my favorite apostles.

Life and chickens.

Heath was talking to baby sister (the bun in the oven)
and being really loud and weird sounding.
I told him he was scaring her and I asked if he could be more soothing kind of like a humpback whale.
His whale noised were not much better.
At least she'll know her father's crazy before she comes out.

When Asher is trying to escape the wrath of Noah he runs and shuts himself in the bathroom.
He also does this when he gets hurt or upset. It use to be under the kitchen table but we could
get to him too easily under there. Good thing there's no lock. Really, we're lucky just to have a door on there.:)

Noah asked Heath to make him a sandwich. Heath said yes.
Noah said, "I can count on you!"

Socially Asher is doing so much better. He use to be so shy and really leery of new people.
He's really coming out of his shell and not clinging to me as much.
I'm ok with that.

Did you know that when a chicken lays an egg that it has a clear protective covering (that dries quickly after it's laid) on it to keep bacteria and things out. It's called the bloom. If you wash the egg, you wash this off and you should eat that egg within a reasonable amount of time. Just some info if you want to raise your own chickens for eggs. I do.

Or raise them for meat. Pure unadulterated chicken from your yard to your table. mmmmm! 

Raise your own! Then you'll know exactly what's in it and what your eating.

Noah was a chubby baby.
P.S. Heath is changing Asher diaper right now. They both have poop on their hands. funny but ewww!
Glad it's not me.

Shaving!

I was spiritually fed today. Conference was great!
The post about the Erye Family will have to wait because this is the cutest.

The cast, a soap snob, 2 firsts and a print.

Asher got his cast off today.

His original appointment was for today but I had to change it because Heath needed to have the car today.

Well, Asher got the cast all wet this morning and if the cast is wet then the skin inside can break down

so I called my friend Diana to see if she could take us in to the doctor.

She's a life saver. 

Asher was babying his arm until the PA put an ACE wrap on it.

He said it was just for comfort nothing else and sure enough Asher let his arm down.

Funny how that works.

Also, my husband is a SOAP SNOB. I never thought I would say that. 

He has to have the peppermint soap that I make for his shower or he says that he won't shower. 

Boy, howdy better believe I find the boy some soap. 

If I try to give him anything else he says no way. 

At least he likes my soap :)

Noah is getting so tall. I can't believe he'll be 5 this year. 

How did that happen?

He's so funny and seems so smart to me. 

The boys are playing and Asher is still holding that arm up, not really moving it. 

Noah's got a long sleeve shirt, orange underwear and blue rain boots.  Yes, that's all.

I could sink a ship with the amount of vanilla that I have. 

On sale with a bunch of coupons. 

I never measure I just pour. That's probably why I go through it so fast. 

I hid my camera so the boys couldn't play with it and now I can't find it. 

go figure. 

2 firsts for me.

Last night I watched 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' for the first time. Watched it with Heath.

I'm pretty sure he knew all the words to all the songs. 

I practically had to talk him out of doing all the dance moves so he wouldn't wake up the boys (we have a small house).

Wish I had my camera. 

Ok, that's a lie (not the camera part but the dancing part). I wish he would dance.

And I heard a Justin Bieber song the other day. 

All this talk about the kid, curiosity finally killed the cat.

I do live in my own little bubble, I think, but I don't mind it. Keeping up with celebrities and top news doesn't necessarily excite me. 

Heath is taking a print making class this semester and this is a print he made. He wanted to make some art for the boys. If you have read THIS book you'll know exactly what this print is about. or this is the cover

It's a book we read practically every night.

Seems posts are always better with pictures, eh?

Also, do you know the Eyres? That post is for tomorrow. Stay tuned.

AsherNothat'spoop!

Today I decided to take the boys outside.
They wanted to take a walk so I took them on a walk through the wooded area behind our house.
There are still no leaves on trees so you can see straight back to the little pond.
Anyway, I told them not to touch anything unless they asked me first.
Moments later from behind I hear, "Mom, gwapes!"
I turn and do the only thing I can do with the amount of time I'm facing.
I yell, "AsherNOthat'spoop!" Yes, I'm pretty sure that came out as one word.
Deer poop in fact. It was not a grape at all and it was within inches of his lips.
Sooooooooo glad I caught it before it went in.
The rest of the walk we heard "more poop!, more poop!"  Lots of deer behind are house apparently.

Also, right now it's snowing outside.

Dear PA,
Don't you know it's the end of March, that the official first day of Spring was the 20th, all the snow just melted. Seriously, STOP SNOWING!

Tonight's dinner:
Noah: I don't want it, it's really really gross! (crying, crying, more crying)
Asher: Noah, calm down! Eat dinner!

He finally ate.

In the past week I've made gluten free corn bread muffins, lemon pound cake (oh so good), pancakes, bread and tortillas are on the list for tomorrow. I don't think I've been feeding Heath very well so this past week I've been trying to do a little better.

Life and Square Foot Gardening.

Dinner time is sometimes hectic. Heath's not here a lot of the time because he's at school.
He seems to be able to calm them a little easier than I can at the dinner table.
Noah screams and says, "I'm not eating this yuck, yuck, yuck!"
This is before he even tastes it.
Then Asher screams back, "Four more bites!"
He says this because Noah never really likes to eat so he takes a few bites then we have to do the "4 more bites" routine (obviously done enough that Asher knows it too)

When Noah doesn't want to do things he has lots of excuses which include:

I can't my hands are too small.
It's too heavy.
I can't get up.
No, thanks, I just busy.
If he doesn't want to eat - It's too hot or too big.
My hands and/or legs won't work.
I'm just tired.

It really is funny sometimes.

I got out some bigger clothes for Asher today. 24 months.
They'll be a little big on 'em but they're summer clothes and Noah's hand me downs.
It'll work.

I love reading lately. I've been reading books about chickens and several on motherhood and parenting.
I've still have a little stack of books to get to and 1 coming in the mail.
My spider plant and my aloe plants are having babies too.
Tis the season I guess.

I don't know if I have ever put anything on my blog about Square Foot Gardening.
It really is the best type of gardening in the world. Check it out HERE.
Even if you think you're the best gardener and maybe you are, you should still check it out.
Also, I've been reading some in a book called "The Urban Homesteader"
and I think everyone should have edible landscaping.
Why spend money on landscaping that doesn't give back.
This really deserves a post all its own.
I'm talkin' fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, and gardening your lawn space.

Asher keeps asking to be put on the potty. He might be ready to potty train but I'm not sure I am.