Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Lately I've been re-evaluating our diet. I've been wading through TONS of information on food, how it is processed, what is added to it, the effects of those additives...and all the OPTIONS and diet choices there are to be made. I feel a heavy burden to protect the health of my family. I've been lost, confused, overwhelmed, motivated, disgusted, disappointed and inspired. I've contemplated organic foods, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), whole foods, raw foods, local farms, vegetarianism...all in a matter of about two weeks! So if you run into me and I have a glazed-over, spacey look, that's why. I'm in a state of health food information overload! I've even been DREAMING in terms of raw milk and making my own butter and yogurt!

My research is not over, but changes are being made. Thankfully, I've found some great sources of information on healthy cooking and eating. People are sharing their knowledge and I am so grateful for their help. There are a couple of blogs, in particular, that I've found very helpful as I begin the transition to eating a truly healthy diet.

Kitchen Stewardship

Heavenly Homemakers

Naturally Knocked Up

Misadventures of a Homeschooling Foodie Family

Passionate Homemaking

I'm sure I'll find more great blogs in connections with these, and I'll post links to them as I stumble upon them. Just thought I'd share what I've found so far.

Hey, Did I Mention...

I got a new camera!!! Ok, so I got it about 3 weeks ago and I'm just getting around to posting about it. :-) It's a Canon Rebel XSi. I still have lots to learn about it, but I'm coming along, and I LOVE it! It's so nice to be able to get nice shots indoors without having to use the flash. And even when I do use the flash, it doesn't look half as bad as it did with my other camera. So, all you photography friends out there...if you had to pick ONE favorite lens, what would it be?

Blog Award!!

I was very surprised and honored to find this blog award presented to me by Joelle at Homeschooling For His Glory.

Now, there are some rules that go along with this award:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.Now here are my newly discovered great blogs:

Altering Life

This is What it's All About

Art Projects for Kids

School For Us

Proverbs 22:6

Cooking for my Family

Momology

Homeschool Distractions

Amazing Grace Learning Academy

Criss Cross Applesauce

Secret Agent Josephine

Ok, I know that's not 15, but I'm pretty new to this blog stuff. I'll have to add more later.

Crocheted Pot Holder

I found this project as I was checking out new blogs the other day and just HAD to try it. Here's my version:

My Husband, the Homeschooling Advocate

My husband has been educating those around him on the subject of homeschooling, and they have been listening. He has a gift. He is able to relate to people very well, and with a 5 minute conversation he can take someone from "Homeschoolers are strange." to "Wow, I can see how homeschooling can be a great thing!"

It makes me smile to think that just from what he has learned from my research, he is able to be so persuasive and a great advocate for homeschooling when he's out and about. I'm proud of him. That's MY man!!

It Really Is the Little Things...

...that bring such joy. I noticed this in my refrigerator the other day and it made me laugh. Does Nalley not have an editor? How did they not catch this? Ah, well, I'm glad they didn't because it made my day. :-)
Mmmm...now let us all go snack on some Crunchy Dill Wholes.

Exercise

I've decided to get back on the exercise train after the Dr recommended against it. It has been about a month and I'm SO tired of not exercising. I'll take it low-impact, but I'm doing it. How can a body be healthy without exercise? Anyway, we've been playing a lot of instant movies on www.netflix.com and last night, out of curiosity, I did a search to see if they had any exercise videos on instant play...and they DO!!! They have TONS of them! I'm so excited to have so many options! And no waiting for them to come in the mail. I can do a different workout every day. You have no idea how excited I am about this. :-)

My First Sock

I wanted to try knitting some socks, and this is definitely the right time of year for it, so I decided to knit some socks for G. I've got one done so far and have learned a lot! I'm pretty excited about how it turned out. Now to try to make a match!

7 Things Meme...

Ok, so what the heck is a meme? Since my friend, Kimberly at Altering Life tagged me, I'll give 'er a whirl:

7 Things I Can Do:

1) Knit & Crochet
2) A bit of Karate
3) Bake bread (I baked my first the other day)
4) Keep a reasonable workout schedule
5) Homeschool my boy
6) Continually learn
7) Play a bit of piano


7 Things I Can't Do

1) Spend money on myself.
2) Get pregnant.
3) Get by on 6 hours of sleep per night (like my husband does).
4) Pass up a piece of cake.
5) Remember to floss EVERY day.
6) Live without my computer.
7) Fake interest in electronics or computer programming (just ask DH).


7 Things that attracted me to my husband:

1) He was super cute!
2) He was smart.
3) He had nice muscular legs (I'm a leg girl).
4) He was funny.
5) He had pretty eyes.
6) He smelled good.
7) He was fun to talk to.


7 things I say most often:

1) C'mon (G likes to take his time when we're out and about).
2) You're so cute, I just want to eat ya!
3) I love you.
4) I'm SO cold!
5) Nice job!
6) How was your day?
7) What up, foo?


7 Celebrity Admirations:

1) Jenifer Aniston's hot bod
2) Madonna's hot bod
3) Kirk Cameron's bold stand for his faith
4) Britney's Smile
5) Ummmm...
6) This is a
7) hard one.


7 Favorite foods:

1) So you already know about my cake fetish.
2) Fettuccine Alfredo
3) Banana, peanut butter, tortilla wrap
4) Peanut butter captain crunch (which I almost never eat).
5) Grandma's strawberry jam
6) Pork chops
7) Steamed veggies


7 People to tag:

1) Uhhh...I don't really know very many people on here yet.

Seeing Double

Ok, how often does THIS happen...seriously! Today must be my lucky day!

Fed Up with Verizon!

Ugh! Have I ever mentioned how frustrating it is to deal with Verizon Wireless' Customer Service? Let me just see if anyone here can understand this scenario: There was one account with 6 phones on it. We wanted to split it into 2 separate accounts; one with 4 phones on it, one with 2 phones on it. Still with me so far? In addition to THAT monstrous change, we wanted one account to keep its current mailing address and owner name. We wanted the other one to have a new owner name and have a different mailing address (essentially, we wanted to open a new account and transfer two of the six lines from the old account to the new one). If you are still with me, you are WAY too with it to work for Verizon's Customer Service, either their help line or at their store. Why is it that it took us 6 MONTHS to get it through to them what we wanted to do? I think we finally got it ironed out today, but we'll see. It's highly likely that we'll still be getting bills with someone else's name on them.

I hope it IS all sorted out because if it is, I NEVER want to have to talk to them again! It's THAT irritating and frustrating. The actual phone service is fine, the customer service is horrible!

Who's Getting a Haircut?

ME!!! I was growing my hair out because Paul likes it long, but the other day he said that I actually looked good with it short and that I should go get it cut! Yay! It's been driving me nuts! There's just too much of it! So Saturday I'll get it cut and colored! I'll feel like a whole new woman! :-)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, into a new decade I go! I turned 30 today. It sounds scary, but I feel better than I did at 18, so it's not that bad. :-) On Friday, my friends had a girls' game night to celebrate my birthday. It was so much fun and they made me feel special. I am so blessed to have such wonderful ladies in my life. They made me a cake, brought gifts and went around saying what each of them thought was special about me. Wow! What a great way to start off a birthday weekend! Then today, we went out to dinner with Mom and Dad, Tiffany and Erik. Olive garden! Loved it! Then it was back to their house for cake! Ahhh, and my birthday is complete! Thank you to everyone who showed me love on my special day.