A Busy Couple Of Days

Hello! The last couple days have been extrememly busy and I am just now getting the chance to write about everything. So here goes:

Saturday was a lot of fun. The Wildlife Refuge area down the road had a migratory bird day with special activities for the children so we headed down there to see what was going on. First we went on a bird walk. We didn't see much but it was a nice walk. Then we got to see a demonstration on a live red tailed hawk and a cute little owl. After that there were lots of activities and fun games for the children to play and they had so much fun. It was also very educational for them. We all enjoyed ourselves. Once we finished at the Wildlife Refuge we went back to the house and ate lunch. Then we took off again to go strawberry picking. When we lived in Maine the strawberries were not ready until the middle of June. I was very happy to know that we could get strawberries a whole month earlier here and I was very excited. Unfortunately I was underwhelmed once we arrived at the strawberry farm. I am very picky about picking strawberries. Only the nice red juicy berries make it into my bucket. The strawberries at the farm we went to were light red or pink. Certainly not ripe enough to eat. I was so sad. And I had driven a good distance with all of the children to go get strawberries. We were there so I figured we might as well make the best of it and even if I did not want to eat them because they weren't quite sweet enough I could certainly use them for jelly for the family. The children and I picked two flats of strawberries, about 25 pounds. I made 5 quarts (yes, quarts, when you have a family as big as mine little jelly sized jars don't go very far) of strawberry jelly and Hubby and the children all had strawberry shortcake. We will be getting more later but I will try a different farm. I still need enough strawberries to fill up at least 24 large gallon sized freezer bags, plus make more jelly and have some for eating too.

Sunday was Mothers Day. Our church had a special Mothers Day breakfast where all the husbands came in and made breakfast for the mothers. While I was not planning on eating the breakfast buffet they made I still wanted to go as that way I wouldn't have to worry about making breakfast for the family. So even though I wasn't eating, it still was a blessing and a help for me to go. And the children were really excited to go too. But let me tell you the breakfast that I brought with me was so amazing! I was inspired by a meal that I had made for my family and did some tinkering in the kitchen. What I came up with was so delicious. I made banana crepes with orange carmel sauce and a creamy glaze. It was so good. I topped it with banana pieces and some crushed pecans. I put the whole concoction in the dehydrator for about an hour before we left and the flavors all melded together wonderfully. I was really, really happy with my creation and with my delicious Mothers Day breakfast. It really was a treat and it looked beautiful too. The pastor even came over and asked me what I was eating and commented that it looked really tasty. He never would have guessed that it was raw vegan!! Haha!

Monday I had to go to the dentist to get a couple of fillings. I brought my Big Helper and Little Angel with me and Hubby stayed home with the other children. At the dentists my Little Angel was, well, a little angel. She was so good. I was worried that she would cry but my Big Helper is really amazing and she took such good care of her in the waiting room while I got my teeth filled. Plus Little Angel really is a very good baby. She is such a sweetie, very content and happy. When I left the dentist half of my face was still numb. Even part of my nose was numb. It felt really weird and I looked ridiculous with half of my face all slouchy and droopy. I couldn't smile properly, it actually looked rather creepy when I smiled. Hubby kept making faces at me and Big Helper and I kept laughing at how ridiculous I looked. Amazingly the other children didn't even seem to notice. I thought they would be looking at me weird but they didn't pay any attention to it. One of the worst things about having my mouth and half of my face numb was that I couldn't feel the baby when I kissed her sweet little head. That was weird. It was also really hard eating anything. I made some smoothies and they were good but I had a hard time drinking them and ended up feeling hungry most of the day. I think I missed chewing. Even today my face is still not back to "normal" and I still have some numbness. But it is a lot better. Oh and my sweet hubby made me a special drink last night too. He was so sweet about it. He said, I am going to make you something tonight. Something raw? I said. Yes, something raw he replied. Really? I said. Mmm-hmm. He said. And he did. He made me a really yummy raw virgin strawberry margarita. It was delicious but I think the best thing was that he made an effort to make something special for me and that was really, really sweet. What a nice guy!

Now I am off to eat some oranges.

I love my family, I love my life, I love my food and.....

I love raw!