A Day of Reflection

Growing up we always had big get togethers at my grandparents house. There was always lots of family in the kitchen preparing food and laughing and talking and catching up. Those are fond memories of my childhood and being here in the house of raw I get those flashbacks of family and preparing food and being together. There are nine people here and the house is full of noise and fun and sometimes the kids get out of control but in between all of that we are preparing food, eating what we’ve made and laughing and enjoying each other. We spent a great deal of time in the kitchen today preparing all types of food. Trent was in charge of taking me through the steps of making the Coconut Breakfast Cakes this morning and we ate them with fresh strawberry syrup. Can you say YUMMY! Austin loved them! Alex and Justin, said "No Thanks", so we made Alex a Strawberry Creamsicle smoothie and Justin had a Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl smoothie. We always offer what we are eating first and then if that’s a no go, we ask what they do want.

Alex came and gave me a hug out of the blue today a real big squeeze around the waist. It really took me by surprise because I don’t usually get a hug from him unless I ask for one and it is usually given with the “is that enough” type of attitude. These are the little things that mean so much!

Alex and Justin get along with each other and seem to really like one another. Justin came in this morning and snuggled with Alex’s blanket. Alex is very particular about who can touch his blanket. It was so funny to see Justin just as enamored with the blanket as Alex is! He really looked like he could sneak away with it. Those two boys are very different, but they are both so full of mischief and fun.

We made some onion bread that should be ready soon. And we made and ate some black sesame sunflower bread yesterday that we made into veggie sandwiches. We put some mayonnaise that we made (it had a base of cashew and pine nuts) on it and it was fabulous. The kids weren’t too enthralled with that combo so we made them up a veggie plate. Austin did try the bread, but he didn’t ask for more.

We made peppermint meltaways (yes we are into dessert- don’t you wish you were here) and they tasted like peppermint patties…Alex ate two of them so you know they were good if he thought they were. We have made a lot of dessert type of recipes because those really help with the transition to raw. Alex and Austin liked some of the sweeter things, but they also really like to just sit down and have a plateful of strawberries, carrots, bananas and avocados. For me it is nice that they like the raw desserts, because it is challenging to bring something that is satisfying for them so they don’t feel deprived when we go to birthday parties or gatherings.

We are going to spend the day doing a little bit of food preparation and a lot of time with the kids out of doors. Time to get the wiggles out of the children and get some air! Take good care!!!