Well, well, well! It HAS been a long time, hasn't it? 2 1/2 months of nothin' but FUN, and that's why I've been away. Ok, I'm being sarcastic. While there have certainly been some very fun moments, life has been interesting, to say the least.
Our wee one was sick on & off for 2 months, beginning the 2nd week of school, and that was on high raw! We think he just had a big detox, plus a child who sits next to him at school had the swine flu. We don't know if Jahn got the specific H1N1 virus, but he usually is sick for 24 hours (if he even gets sick) and 72 hours if he's REALLY sick. At one point, 2 in 3 kids at his school were out, and there wasn't a dry nose at the bus stop. Eek! But alas, everyone seems to either be on the mend or mended. No deaths. Whew!!! I've never seen so many sick kids as this school year, and so early too.
Another thing that kept me busy was the end-of-summer harvest. It jumped me rather suddenly, as we had an early and unexpected freeze. Good thing I listened to the weather forecast. I spent a day in September harvesting cherry tomatoes in 37 degree weather. Yes, I said 37 in September. It was absolutely crazy! Then that night it got down to 32 degrees. This, after having nearly 100 degree heat just a month prior. Bizarre. I also harvested what turned out to be honeydew melons (the blossoms looked just like cukes, so we were surprised to find melons growing happily in our Pacific Northwest garden box), as well as my red basil, large heirloom tomatoes, and the last gallon of wild blackberries. A month later, we got pears and hazelnuts from the neighbors, and now we're full into apple season. The little beauties we grew (well, that nature gave us and we tended) made me so proud I actually cried on harvest day in October. I'll be posting pics of everything I harvested, complete with captions, later this week so stay tuned.
Jahn turned 8 in September, too, and we had a little party for him with a few friends and family members. Transformers was the theme, and I made him a Raw-lmond Joy raw candy-cake, raw snickerdoodles and raw lemon cookies for his party. We also served fresh-squeezed apple/pear juice. I thought it was cool that he requested an all-raw party. We almost made kale chips, but decided against them at the last minute. A fun time was had by all, and he made a little kitchen out of the Legos he got. Put all of us (plus David Wolfe) into it, and had us making stuff in the Vita Mix. And all out of Legos. Too funny.
And speaking of kale (or not), to look at my little patch o' greenery, you'd never know it was November. It's just thrivin' away out there in the sub-freezing, wet, windy conditions. Tim Van Orden was right ... "This stuff is TOUGH!" It really is a great green to grow because it is so frickin' hardy. Also, we're finding that we like dandelion and clover greens in our green smoothies these days. I thought the winter dandelion leaves would be too bitter, but they are quite nice, blending especially well with the fresh apple juice. I've been adding 1/2 water and 1/2 apple juice for the liquid in our green smoothies, and it's REALLY tasty! We're so lucky to have a local company, Bellwood Acres, who uses UV "pasteurization" practices, which actually means the juice is not heated. It's just exposed to UV light to kill e-coli, etc. So that means we get raw apple cider that we don't have to juice, and it is out of this world!
To wrap up, last night we went to see 2012. Again, I say eek! Really makes you prioritize when you see something like that. Makes you wonder, too. Are all these cultures and predictions right? Seeing it last night made me think, and I've come up with the idea of having a Question of the Week ... something that will make this blog more interactive for you. I'll also be posting it on my twitter and facebook pages. So here's this week's question:
What do you make a priority in your life? (And what do you wish you made more of a priority? How can you bump it up?) My answers: Kissing and listening to my Love. And more of a priority? Family time. To bump it up, I play games like Boggle with them and/or have a family meal together at the table that we all help prepare (instead of watching TV or playing on the computer). Share what you've been making your priority and what you want to bump up. I'd love to hear.
Until later this week ...
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