What we have been up to

lots of knitting, mostly for our family and one gift for a far away friend and her new baby. I found a hat pattern that I love on Raverly. Directions for sizes from baby to adult large. easy to make and looks great. Its the one Harland is wearing and the one on the needles.
A 99% recycled material(only the screws are new) desk for Gaynor(Mike ROCKS), one end will be for their computer. It seems to still be in my kitchen. That is dangerous because it is a great sewing table.
And yes, that is a cat having a bath. A baking soda, peroxide, Dawn dish detergent bath to be exact. I wish you could hear the sounds that were coming from her. She spent the rest of the day in the sunny window by the wood stove sleeping and drying. Maybe, just maybe she will stay away from skunks now.

oh, our mini vacation to Massachusetts was wonderful. Relaxing and fun. Just what the doctor ordered. I, however did not bring my camera. Sorry. Think man in a Paul Revere type outfit walking through the streets of Boston shouting, Mike being a good sport about being a tourist in a city he basically grew up in. Yummy, REALLY YUMMY vegan food, board games and knitting. It was great.

Library fund raising Bake Sale a huge success!

So the boys wanted to do this Craft Fair/Bake Sale to benefit the New Vineyard Public Library. It's in the town we used to live in. We don't go there too often any more, but when we lived there the boys were there every day it was open. Sandy, the Librarian is wonderful! She does some remarkable stuff with the space and resources she has. She also lOVES my boys! The first time I saw this library I told mike it was as big as my van! It is by far the smallest library I have ever seen. But that doesn't stop Sandy. She ran a great "Story camp" over the summer. Like story time with an activity and maybe a guest. Harland loved it! Forrest volunteered to help. 17 kids and older helpers and even some adults would cram into the library every tuesday to see what Sandy had planned. It was too funny. Any way. Small library, maybe but a small library with a huge heart. So, all that being said, this was a cause that we could sink our teeth into! We baked and baked! All our favorite vegan treats. We made mocha and pumpkin muffins, pumpkin oatmeal cookies, Ginger cookies and Cinnamon Buns! plus Sarah and Andy (Marble Family Farms) donated some yummy home made loaves of bread for us to sell. We also made playdough and put four colors in a baggy and Harland sold these. The deal was any one could have a table and donate what ever they wanted out of the money they made to the library. My boys and I decided to give them everything we made. It ended up being $50 even! WOW! even i was impressed! Sandy was so happy she gave us all hugs. My boys felt great and they should be proud. They worked hard! We can't do much in the way of donating. Even time is hard with the kids. But, Bake we can do and so we did. Even Indigo behave the whole 5 hours we were there. Remarkable considering the size of the space we were in. He even took a nap in the Ergo on my back! LOVE THAT THING! check out our pics.

me kneading the dough for 3 dozen cinnamon buns! it was so much i had to do it. notice, Forrest's fancy, yet somewhat annoying photography!






sitting at the table rolling UP!

Food Glorious Food

I just wanted to show off some of the food we have made recently. Besides what is shown here we also tried a new recipe for cheesy bean enchiladas that was phenomenal! I just forgot to take a photo!
Here is the Curried Spinach with Cheesy tofu Paneer. It really tasted like cheese...who knew! The Spinach was a nice bright green but it had to sit in the pan and wait for mike to get home. It was still delicious though!




Here is our yummy kale soup. An old favorite but we used purple potatoes from the farm so i took a pic.


Ok So here are the cinnamon buns. WOW! is all I can say. these could clearly make me fat! It makes exactly 12 so thats 6 for us on Heroes night and 6 to be warmed up in AM.



thats all for now. too hectic to blog! gotta get shit done!

I don't even remember what we used to eat.

We have been eating a vegan diet now for I guess 3 years? I can't even remember what we used to eat. I will say one book changed it all for me. Vegan with a Vengance . It put Pizza, really great pizza back into our lives! There are so many amazing recipes, all kid friendly. Indigo allready loves tofu scramble and anything with chickpeas, even curry, the spicier the better. He will be the first of the four we have raised vegan. All have been vegetarian since birth, but even with harland I wasn't quite confident enough to cut the dairy out. When I look back its funny. They all nursed and then went to soy or rice milk. But I still gave them cheese and yogurt. I wish I had trusted my instinct more. With Forrest especially, but i was only 20. Looking back at all his ear and respiratory issues, i can't help but feel it was the dairy. Plus the fact I only nursed him for six months. He almost had tubes, he took more antibiotics than i am even willing to admit and had his adnoids out at age 7. Now compare Gaynor and Harland. Nursed for 2 1/2 years, never an ear infection, NEVER! Also we had cut way back on dairy. Indigo has barely had the sniffles. Let me also put this little bug in your ear, check out the rising rate of percocious puberty....could this have anything to do with hormones in milk and meat?? Forrest still struggles with allergies and such. I know i have met other women out there who were vegan but started including dairy during pregnancy and then let their children have it. I can tell you you should trust your self. This last pregnacy started off that way for me. But no matter what I ate I felt exhausted and could not get my iorn up to a decent level. Then I went 50-100% RAW(I didn't force it some days raw and some days not) and started growing and juicing wheat grass. WOW! Honestly I felt like superwoman! No naps!!!! NO NAPS! plenty of energy, My Iorn went up drastically in only 3 weeks! I am also allergic to tree nuts so my protein was not as high as people would like. I still grew a Gorgeous perfect little boy! The birth was easy and I felt fantastic immediately! I'm not sure where this blog came from. I have just been reading around other blogs and felt driven. My point though was this. I actually fought mike for years about the vegan thing. I really didn't think i could do it. I don't have much self control. Turns out it has nothing to do with control. It has to do with adjusting what you consider to be normal food. I cook and cook and cook. And I love it. The kids are constantly saying YUM! thats got to mean something right! I don't doubt any more. This is a very healthy way to live! don't let any one (especially the dairy or meat industry) tell you differently!

The Price of Groceries!

Man! Food is so expensive!

So Friday is shopping day. we do groceries, BLC (health food store) and the farmers market. I have been determined to get our grocery shopping down to $140 per week for everything and i just can't do it! I was sure i had it this week. I am guessing that we still spend less than most families of 6. We do buy organic and some specialty items. But it is still driving me crazy! I Hate to see the register at Hannafords go over $100. Two weeks ago it $164 at the grocery store alone! I make everything form scratch and buy no meat or dairy. Soymilk is expensive. I have been thinking about a soymilk maker. that would save us like $15 a week. Here is my menu.

butternut squash soup
coconut pancakes with pineapple sauce
chick pea and spinach curry
black bean burritos
vegan pizza
chick pea casserole
veggies and rice

i make everything from scratch, all bread, and flat bread, i did buy pitas for pizza to save time. but that's it. Maple syrup is outrageous right now but i simply can not buy that evil corn syrup impostor! I'm just venting but why the hell does food have to be so expensive?? I guess that is why i need to have a farm! Man I could grow so much yummy food! CARROTS! So Many Carrots! Once we move i will buy more in bulk. I all ready buy 50lb bags of organic oats, I will also buy flour and wheat flour, brown rice, and sugar in 50lb bags, maybe that will make a difference. so whatever if ya have any suggestions, let me know. Oh and having less children is not an option!