It's fall!

Wow! My summer away, and then some, is already over! I can't believe it. Days are flying by at a dizzying speed... my "schedule" is anything but predictable, except for the fact that when my kids need or what me I drop what I'm doing and attend... hence the serious lack of blogging.

I'm still cooking and creating, just keep forgetting to take the time to charge my camera's battery, take and edit photos, and write about all we're doing and learning. That's my fall resolution -- now that my son is back in school and my daughter a little more able to occupy herself for short periods of time, it's time for me to get some sort of regular schedule going and fit in some guaranteed time for my own creativity.

First, a quick recap of the exciting happenings in our lives over the last few months:
#1. We (Husband and I) went on a juice fast. This means that a) we bought ourselves a juicer and had all kinds of yummy drinks (and a few not so yummy ones... tomatoes, celery and onions do NOT a tasty drink make, I don't care WHO says Bloody Mary's are good!) and b) we started doing more research into the foods we were regularly eating and the effects those foods have/could have on our bodies.

Which led to #2.We now eat a vegan-based diet, meaning that we eat everything that does not come from an animal (the one exception being that we do eat a *small* amount of butter from time to time because I am convinced that this is healthier than eating margarine, and we just can't conceive of life without butter smeared onto our fresh-baked bread). We no longer eat meats of any kind (including fish), eggs, milk from any animal, or cheese (my biggest addiction, and BOY am I glad I kicked it!). We do sometimes eat honey, as I had a very large container of it and we do not want to be wasteful... but we will probably stick with plant-based sweeteners from now on... though the jury is still out... I like agave nectar for it's taste and consistency and glucemic index, but I don't like the price tag since I'm known to just up-end the container into my warm milk and nutmeg in the evening.

Milk? Oh yes we still drink a LOT of that... just now it comes primarily from Almonds or Soy. I'm wary of too much soymilk, and it's hard to find bulk deals on Almond milk around here, so I have purchased raw almonds and made my own for most of the summer... but this means I'm making a half-gallon of milk every few days and that's hard to keep up with when also cooking all our food from scratch, cloth diapering and finding lots of time to play with the babies. I have to do more reading about soy... right now I feel just a touch guilty when I cave to the ease of popping open a case of it (though Costco sells it so cheaply! This probably means it will eventually kill us. See what I mean about the guilt? ;).

I am absolutely in love with my homemade vegan cheese alternatives. Only one non-vegan has tried them (and wasn't impressed, I have to admit), but I STILL say they are dang good... and when you realize that the reason you used to eat at least 1 lbs. of cheese in 1 week (yep, I did that and sometimes more, all by myself) because you're addicted to the drugs in the cheese.... well, I say they're BETTER than cheese from animal milks.

There are so many tasty recipes online that I actually have to hold myself back when it comes to vegan baking. We would be eating MORE "treats" than we used to if I cooked all the delicious things I have found online.

#3. Baby Girl has started potty training herself! This has definitely not been led by us... in fact, I think I was a little slow on the uptake on this one since Brother didn't start until he was much closer to 3 years old. I finally went and bought Baby Girl a potty seat with fairies on it (she LOVES Disney fairies... and pretty much all things girly and pink!;), and she is asking either before needed to go, or as soon as she has gone in her diaper. So I'd say we're halfway there... I don't particularly care how long the process is, but I do find it fun esp. since she is so interested and proud of herself when she has success.

#4. Big Brother and I have finally found our groove with each other through a radical-by-not-being-radical parenting strategy called Love and Logic. I was at my wit's end, with growing frustration on both our parts and just a flat out stand-still on many issues, and asked his preschool director for advice. She recommended some reading, and I don't think I'm being dramatic at ALL to say that my parenting experience changed literally over night. Both Big Brother and I, as well as Baby Girl, have seen and enjoyed huge improvements. Of course, parenting a toddler and a preschooler is still a heck of a lot of work, and a great deal of patience is necessary... but I finally HAVE that patience, and when I start to run out I have proven ways to get it back. My son is loving being an integral part of the process, and being able to make many more of his own choices about how he lives his life. He is learning the costs and effects of different behaviors, and becoming a productive member of our family. I haven't heard "I'm boooooooored" since we started this journey, and I haven't said "just find something to DO and stop glaring at me!" once (ok, well maybe I did say that once.... but old habits die hard... I don't think I've said it twice!)

My evenings are much, much happier these days, as I feel free from the burden of stress over my parenting failures... We are *all* learning to see bad behavior patterns as just that, and angry words/actions as mistakes that can be learned from and are actually a positive instead of a negative -- how wonderful that I can teach my children how to make their OWN decisions about their behavior while they are still young instead of imposing MY feelings about a situation on them and risking their becoming adults whose mistakes will come at a much, much higher cost.

So there's a recent news... at least the big stuff....

Life's pretty different around here, in a lot of really good ways. We continue to learn and grow, and deepen our relationships with ourselves, our family, and our friends. Life is good!