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!

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.

It's in the sauce.

I made tomato sauce yesterday.

Half the tomatoes were from my garden, some from Heidi's garden and some from the local farmers market.

Some things I learned.

It's more fun to can things if you do it with a friend. 

Never (well, if you're by yourself with two kids) try to do more than a bushel in one day. 

You need a lot of tomatoes to make sauce.

Roma tomatoes make for the best sauce - less seeds more meat -but really you can use any kind.

I chose these for next year. 

(I like mine to be organic)

This site has good instructions.

Here is a good place to get seeds.

Heirloom seeds are good. 

Also, after I cooked the tomatoes down, I used a vitamix. I don't like my sauce chunky. 

It's true that I don't like tomatoes but I like tomato sauce.

Also true that we went to the fair Friday. We ate taffy and some gross fair food. 

Noah rode 4 rides. He was tall enough this year. Asher was content watching. 

We saw lot of animals and Heath even agreed to let us get 2 chickens.

We met a lady there in the fowl barn that said she had a ton of chickens and we could have 2.

Only 3 days left in the cast.

feeding fish, garden harvest. and determinate or indeterminate?

Went to feed bread to the fish. There were a bzillion of 'em. 

Harvest

from the garden.

Do you know what the difference between a tomato that is determinate and indeterminate? Well, determinate tomatoes come in all at the same time so they are good for canning. Indeterminate come in staggered so you can use them for everyday things. Just found that out. Better luck next year with the canning of the tomatoes.    One day I will be a master gardener, one day. :)

Not sure what to call this one. MRI results.

I've decided to cut down on my Internet use. It seems I get caught up in researching, blogging and such that my life stopped feeling balanced.  I feel happy about it.

Up above is my clothes line. Heath put it up for me. I feel happy about that, too. 

Our garden wasn't doing so well so I decided to do a square foot garden. We then noticed the veggies growing out of the other garden so now the square foot garden is mine and the other garden is Heath's. Hopefully he'll be doing the canning from his garden.  right!

Those are Heath's cute legs. 

Growing up I remember eating graham crackers and milk at my Nanaw's house. I'm passing it down. The boys love it. Well, Heath doesn't, he's not a fan of the sogg.

Just doing a little farming. 

Heath and Noah slept out in the tent in the front yard the other night. Noah thought it was the best. They had a little fire and roasted mallows. 

Yes, it's a weed eater. It's small but it was free and it works. I think I prayed it here. 

It's true that it's not a good idea to pick up snapping turtles (they're mean). It's also true that I would like to be a soap maker and a bee keeper.  Soap maker first, bee keeper next. Also, the MRI results came in. They said they couldn't really see anything out of the ordinary with his brain (this is good) or his cervical spine (hoping they would have seen where the nerve was injured) but some of the images were not clear. My first thought was how could they not be clear? He was out (which means completely still) and they were in there for 2 hours. I don't know. Now they want to do an EMG. They stick long needles into his arm to test the nerves individually. They don't put him out but maybe give him a sedative. I don't know that's what the secretary lady said when she called. We have an appointment soon to figure out the details. 

"Faith is a gift of God bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness. It is always given when righteousness is present. The greater the measurement of obedience to God's laws, the greater will be the endowment of faith." - Bruce R. McConkie

The garden and Asher's weight.

We planted the garden this week. 

It has been a little cold so we'll see how it goes. 

Potty training is going pretty well. 

no potty accidents in 4 days

wish I could say the same for the BM's

He's scared

He even sleeps in his undies and wakes up dry. 

When he's done he says, "I need to splush." (flush) funny, huh?

His girlfriends will thank me for this picture someday. 

Asher had an  appointment on Wed. 

no weight gain

I was pretty shocked, I thought for sure he would have gained.

When the medical assistant told me the weight (17 lbs. 3 oz.)  I must have looked confused

because she asked me if I was ok. 

I started to tear up but I was able to stop myself from crying.

He is eating so well. He will try anything.

I concentrate so hard on making his meals so that they will have the most calories possible.

Plus, he hasn't been throwing up lately. 

The doctor came in and asked a few questions then said she would like to get a scope done.

She wants to take it in through his mouth all the way to his small intestine taking biopsies along the way.

This is suppose to check for allergies.

I asked if she could coordinate it with his MRI. She said she would see what she could do. 

I kept reminding myself that he is happy and doesn't seem "sick".

He's been blessed so much so far.

plus, this touches my heart.

I am the young women's president in our ward. 

Wednesday 3 of my girls who are sisters told me that they had called 5 different temples and put Asher's name on the prayer roll there. They each called one, their mom called one, and their older sister called one. 

Their mom is not even active.  

I know there are lots of people thinking about us and keeping us in their prayers and I feel so grateful for that, so grateful! I have no doubt that is why he hasn't thrown up in about 3 weeks. The longest span EVER!

I know that through our trials we are strengthened and we come to know ourselves and become more acquainted with God.

It's true that Heath critiques my sewing projects like he would a piece of art. He tells me what he likes then he tells me how they could be improved. Most the time he's right. He's smart. Also true that we have an apple tree in our yard and that Asher's vocabulary seems to increase daily.

seeds for the garden.

It's probably a little late but HERE is a site to get great seeds for your garden.
They have heirloom seeds and I think all are organic.
I haven't planted mine yet,  still waiting to get past the fear of frost.
I do have my tomatoes, strawberries and peppers started inside.
This will be a good site for next year.

Sweet corn and meet Heidi

So, Donna and Gary invited us to go pick corn on Monday night. We picked 6 gunny (is that how you spell that?) sacks full. We kept three. Monday night we worked until 12:30. Heath was shucking the corn and I was blanching and cutting the corn off the cob to freeze. We only got through one sack. Last night we invited Deric and Heidi over to help us out and to take some of the corn home. We were up until midnight but all the corn is in the freezer. It was a TON.

Meet Heidi. She is Deric's wife. She works at Home Depot and is the seminary teacher in our ward. She loves country living and long walks on the beach. OK, I don't really know about the long walks but she is now an expert corn off the cob cutter.

Blanching the corn.

Lots of corn.

Heath taking a break eating the corn.

Blueberries & cucumbers

Tuesday we went to a friend's house in our ward and picked blueberries. Yesterday I washed them and got them in the freezer. We plan on picking more. Also, this couple offered us something that seems to good to be true but they say it's really true. It's really too good to pass up. Details to come in a later post.
Well, we pickled the cucumbers from our garden. This was my first time trying something like this by myself. Results coming soon.

The cucumbers before their bath.

The cucumbers after their bath with all sealed lids. So far so good. We'll taste them tonight.

Well, our friends from Southern Utah finally made it to PA. Heath and Deric both did their undergrad work at Southern Utah University and now they're doing their grad work here at Edinboro Univ. of PA. We're excited they're here. Well, it's summer in this small college town, PA and it's quiet in the mornings. Most of the kids are home for the summer. When I go running early it's me, the birds, and the rabbits (and sometimes Noah). Although it is summer some of the leaves are already beginning to change. I can't believe it. It's still July. I have only had to turn on our AC a few times.OK, time for truth: Most people that live in PA always say PA and never Pennsylvania. I have learned to identify a catalpa tree, maple tree, and oak tree thanks to Heath. My electric bill for last month was $26 and my gas bill $23.60 (It's NEVER EVER been that low)...it's true. Asher is in the 75th %tile for his height and the 3rd %tile for weight (he's on the chart now, yippee!)

Picks from our garden

Well, we payed a visit to our garden today. There were a few cucumbers and some green beans ready for picking. The zucchini is from Sister Householders side of the garden and they are huge. Zucchini bread here we come.

Asher ate 26 ounces yesterday. This is by far the most he has ever eaten. Before that it was 21 ounces. Hopefully he'll start putting on the pounds and not just the ounces :) More truth...I'm almost 30 and still a picky eater, I have skittles in my food storage, My husband thinks I have too many decorations, I like watching The Office (and so does my almost 3 year old), I think Will Farrell is funny when he's clean (I mean really funny...same with Steve Carrell), and sometimes I have the urge to blow a bubble which explains my secret stash of bubble gum. Anyway, we are off to pick blueberries.