Friesencold

It was such a nice day today, so after church we stopped by the Naperville Riverwalk to let the boys run, walk and bike around.

Cashie!

Ginger wearing her cool Canada Maple Leaf mittens!

Fun times!

Bauer loves his bike in any season.

Since he is from Naperville there are some signs around town.

Go Canada!!

And here is a fun peek at how Cash got his shirt so dirty at lunch today…

Here’s a picture of the rest of our groceries for this week. I usually go to Meijer once a week and Trader Joe’s once a week, and then fill in every now and then with a few things from Whole Foods, Target, and Michael’s Fresh Market.

Here’s a list of what I got at Trader Joe’s and some notes of explanation:

-Orange Juice with Calcium – We have never been an OJ-drinking family until very recently. TJ used to get sick anytime he would drink orange juice, and I only associated orange juice with having a cold and needing to get extra Vitamin C. But lately TJ has discovered he can drink OJ just fine and now he really likes mixing it with the Peach Juice from Trader Joe’s. Cash and Bauer will have a cup of OJ every now and then, but I still don’t really ever drink it. I just buy it.
-Organic Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup (regular version)
-Organic Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup (low-sodium version) – I like to mix the 2 versions of this soup together so it’s neither too salty nor too bland, but what I’d like even more is to make my own dairy-free version of this type of soup. I have a recipe that looks good but haven’t attempted it yet.
-Raw pecan halves – I haven’t bought these before, but plan to use them to make my own version of the Pecan Pie Larabars.
-Kalamata olives – I haven’t bought these before either. I guess you could say this was an impulse purchase today, but I really like kalamata olives and thought these would be something good to let the kids try. I enjoyed having the olives on my hummus and veggie pita today for lunch. Both Bauer and Cash tried them and neither reached for a second
-2 containers organic hummus – I used to buy the regular (non-organic) hummus from Trader Joe’s, but they stopped carrying it in the small size. I had started buying the larger size of the non-organic, but we kept having to throw out partially-used containers because it would start to go bad before we had eaten the whole thing. So I figure it’s cheaper to spend a little more on the organic small one and use it up, than to buy the larger non-organic and have to throw some away. I was making my own hummus for a very little while, but could never get it good enough that Bauer would happily eat it. I may try again in the future. I still have some frozen chickpeas in the freezer.
-Whole wheat pita pockets – I usually buy the smaller ones, but today they were out of those. They taste the same, of course, and made a delicious lunch today.
-Flour tortillas and whole wheat tortillas - I’ll use these tomorrow night for making Super-Stuffed Tortillas, which have quickly become one of our family’s favorite recipes!
-Organic Reduced-Sugar Blackberry Preserves – This was another brand-new item for us today. We usually buy the strawberry version of this but Bauer saw the other kinds today and wanted to try blueberry. I convinced him to get blackberry just because I thought it sounded better and I know he likes fresh blackberries a lot.
-Organic Raisins – Bauer eats raisins nearly every night as part of his bedtime snack while we read books. It’s usually a banana and a little container of raisins.
-Brown Rice Bread – We mostly use this for making toast to go along with certain meals such as spaghetti.
-Grape Tomatoes – I love these! And Cash is quite fond of them too. Trader Joe’s is the cheapest place I know to get good tiny tomatoes.
-Snow Peas - Bauer is the one who loves these. They are the veggies he always picks first from the veggie tray.

We also got our usual balloons from Trader Joe’s, but today Bauer was lucky enough to get 2!

Note the Lego booklet in Bauer’s hand and his toothless grin.

I love this new little outfit of Cash’s. My friend Brandy passed down a bunch of her son Zander’s clothes and I remember how cute Zander looked in this little Paul Frank monkey shirt. Now Cash gets to look cute in it! I also love the black sweat pants to match, although I’m not sure Brandy would’ve put Zander in sweat pants all that often, or ever. I like them though and am thankful for the blessing of free clothes.

And here’s Bauer this morning. Of course, he has his airplane booklet! The washcloth is in his mouth to help stop the bleeding from the first tooth he lost this morning. It was very loose, so TJ pulled it! There wasn’t much bleeding, but it was all quite traumatic for Bauer and the washcloth in the mouth seemed to help him calm down. He seems to be doing a bit better now.

I’ve been thinking about story a lot lately. I just finished reading Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and my favorite part of the book was the part about Bob Goff and his family and the story they are living. I want to have a story like that, or just a story period. I am going to go back and write down all the lines I underlined in a little bird notebook my sister gave me for Christmas. I love words and quotes and lines from books, and I love having them all together in one place so they can add up to something in my life.

Here is just one line I loved from this book, “You become the character in the story you are living, and whatever you were is gone.”

I am also thinking about placing an order for some new supplements from Hallelujah Acres. I have never taken a greens supplement before, but now that Hallelujah Acres has introduced a berry blend of their well-known BarleyMax product, I was thinking I might want to try it out. I worked it out, and the cost to take BarleyMax Berry would be $1 a day.

I also want to order some of their professional strength probiotics. I realized after starting to see the chiropractor that the probiotics I have been taking don’t have nearly enough strains, especially if I am hoping for that to help resolve the hormonal issue I referenced earlier. The chiro recommends 20 billion strains a day, and for me, he said 40 billion might be good for a while. The cost of this amount would also be $1 a day. So just for these 2 supplements alone, I would be spending $2 a day on myself. That’s not counting the Iodine supplement I am also considering, or the Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12, multivitamin, or chia gel I am currently using.

I was thinking about the 67 and the 20 which are numbers our church talks about all the time. 67% of people in the world are far from God, and 20% of people in the world live on less than $1 a day. And here I was, fixing to spend $2 a day to take a concentrated greens supplement and probiotics. I am thinking about what I think about this.

What if I took that $1 a day I was going to use on BarleyMax and actually did something different and specific with it?

I think it is so interesting that there are so many causes that a person could get involved with. For example, I was at the train station one day last week with the kids. I took them there to see the trains but it was cold enough that day that we had to go inside the train station to wait for the next train to come. I saw an old man sitting there in the train station. He was wearing glasses and he was holding the paperback novel he was reading very close to his face. I couldn’t see the man’s face as his back was to me, but I kept looking at how close he was holding the book to his face in order to see the words. It made me think, what if he needs a new prescription for his glasses and he can’t afford that, so he has to make do with the glasses he has and hold whatever he is reading so close to his eyes in order to see the words? I felt very sad for that man. I told TJ about him that night, and I have thought of him and felt sad about him multiple times since that day.

What if I found a way that I could give the money I would have spent on BarleyMax to an organization that helps people who can’t afford to pay for getting glasses, or new prescriptions, or vision check ups? That would be a true gift, to enable people to see. What if I couldn’t see the words that mean so much to me? Without the words, I would not be nearly as healed as I am. Words heal me in ways I cannot describe with words and what if that healing is what I would be offering by helping people to see with their eyes? I am just thinking about all this and wanted to share it with you.

I also wanted to tell you what is on Bauer’s little mind. Besides loving Caillou, which we discovered during the itchy days of chicken pox when all he did all day was watch TV, Bauer is truly head-over-heels about the little Lego instruction booklet and product catalog that came with the Lego City police helicopter set I bought for him recently.

I have never seen Bauer so attached to one thing for so long (except Tucker). He has been carrying the little booklet around with him for days and almost always has it turned to the one page with the big green Lego airplane that sits in the middle of the Lego airport scene. He says multiple times a day how much he loves that airplane. If he happens to forget about the Lego booklet for a little while, as soon as he remembers, he is quick to ask me where his airplane book is (and of course, I always know). He wanted to go to Target the other day just to look at the Lego stuff. He wanted to know when his birthday is and if he can get the airplane for his birthday. He wanted to know if he can get it sooner with the money in his jars or if he sells stuff he has (yes, my idea). He keeps wanting to know how much the airplane costs. He took the booklet in the bedroom before his nap today and wanted to lay on the bed and look at the airplane page for a few minutes before he went to sleep. He wanted the book left open to the airplane page when I put it on the nightstand by the bed while he took his nap.

This whole thing is just so cute for me to see, that Bauer has a desire. Something he really truly wants. I like the idea that we can try to teach Bauer to be resourceful through this want of his. Like, if you want something in life, what can you trade or give up to get what you want? I am also thinking, though, about how to teach him that we are not entitled to anything, that all we have is God’s, and that what other people need is way more important than what we want.

You know how the very hungry caterpillar ate all that junk, but then on Sunday he ate through one nice big green leaf?

Well, I kind of did that through my shopping experience today at Meijer.

Here are the fruits and veggies I bought:

24 Fuji apples
39 bananas
5 Bosc pears
1 Asian pear (tastes like candy, but because they cost $1 each, I only bought one)

2 one-pound clamshells of organic spinach
1 head of celery, or is it stalk?
6 cucumbers
3-lb bag of yellow onions
5-lb bag of organic russet potatoes
3 one-pound bags of organic baby carrots (on sale for $1 each!)
8 avocadoes
1 head of cauliflower
1 head of broccoli
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 bunch of kale

And here’s the other (non-produce) stuff I bought:

2 jars of mild salsa
4 large cans of diced tomatoes
1 loaf of whole wheat bread
1 pack of whole wheat hamburger buns
1 package raw walnuts

The thing I spent the longest time deciding on at Meijer was what bread to buy. I’ve noticed that I’ve done the same thing during several recent shopping trips. I just stand there on the bread aisle, looking at all the options, looking at all the prices, looking at all the ingredient lists, trying to pick the best overall. We used to always buy the Pepperidge Farm 100% Whole Wheat Hearty Texture, but when the regular price of this loaf went up and held at $3.69, I started looking to substitute with cheaper, yet similar loaves of bread.

Now I’m starting to think I might try to make some homemade bread. Maybe I will make that my project for March. We recently were given a loaf of bread from Panera and TJ really enjoyed slicing the bread himself for thick pieces of toast. I liked the idea of it, and how it seemed healthier somehow. There was no label on it, so I don’t know what the ingredients were or how much fiber or sugar or protein were in each slice. But just having that loaf of bread made homemade bread seem more achievable somehow.

During the same week as the bread from Panera, I read this article on a website that my friend Gretchen from Texas told me about and it made me feel part-inspired, part-overwhelmed. I know it’s supposed to be simple, but when you’ve never used a packet of yeast or kneaded a lump of dough in your life, well, it’s a little scary. I know the best way to start is to start small, so for the rest of February, I’m just going to think about making homemade bread. I’m not going to do it yet.

But what I am going to do this month is try to make some homemade Larabars. I searched online this past week for some recipes and found a few that look to be good copies of the real thing. I will let you know how it goes. My first kind to make will be the Cinnamon Roll kind. TJ will thank me.

It’s been like Christmas at our house the past few days. The best gift is that the kids are well. I can’t believe I’m saying that. In fact, I haven’t really been able to say that wholeheartedly since it actually was Christmas over six weeks ago.

Another reason it feels like Christmas is because of all the treats that have been around our house. The week started with chocolate chip cookie dough from Cookie Dough Creations. I bought a quart of the stuff to take to our small group ladies night when we gathered at a coffee shop that was not named Starbucks to talk and hang out. We ate a lot of the cookie dough, but a lot was left, so TJ and I enjoyed some the next night.

The day after that, TJ brought home 3 of those super-big cookies from Jimmie John’s that were left over from a lunch function he attended. Normally TJ is the one who loves the big chocolate chip cookies from sandwich shops, but I’ve discovered through nibbling on TJ’s cookies from time to time that Jimmie John’s cookies are my favorite. I ate part of one of those with some tea that evening, and then decided to freeze the remaining two and a half for another time.

Two night after this, which was last night, we had a friend over for dinner and she brought along one of those huge dessert apples on a stick from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. You know which ones I’m talking about? It was the one that is covered in caramel first and then dipped in tons of tiny dark and white chocolate chips. So we had some of that last night and I must say that the Apple Pie one, which used to be our favorite, now has some competition.

Then this evening, my friend Yvonne brought over some homemade cookies called “Snowballs” that she had just made. They are a combination of sugar, butter, walnuts, maybe vanilla, and I’m not sure what else, but they’re rolled in powdered sugar at the end and they just about melt in your mouth. I had four of those with some tea, and a bite of the leftover caramel apple from last night.

I think I better take a break from sugar for the next week, or at least a day. Oh, I forgot to mention that Yvonne was super-thoughtful and also picked up some chocolate-covered raisins from Trader Joe’s for Bauer to enjoy as those are one of his favorite treats. That and popcorn!

Bauer enjoyed playing with his friends (Yvonne’s children) this evening, especially the popping of and the eating of the popcorn.

This was Cash’s first time having popcorn and he loved it!

[Disclaimer: This is a long post entirely related to health/nutrition/wellness stuff....so make sure you're in the right frame of mind and you have a little time on your hands. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!]

Two of our latest health-related ventures are the incorporation of chia seed into our diet and the addition of chiropractic wellness care to our arsenal against pain and sickness.

Let me remember, though, that I am not in control. I repeat, I am not in control.

Part I

Chia seed was introduced to me a while back by none other than Jeffrey L. Hardin. That’s my dad. I don’t know how he originally found out about chia seed, but he has done quite a bit of research on the topic and has shared much of what he has learned with me. It’s like my own nutrition seminar. He even bought me what could be the textbook, The Magic of Chia by James F. Scheer.

Chia seed has been around for ages but is just now starting to make a comeback because it is only in recent years that chia has been farmed in large enough quantities to be affordable to people like you and me. Today, in fact, I saw a big display of bags of organic chia seeds at Whole Foods. I was really surprised, but at the same time, not. I have been wanting to write this post for a while to share my newfound zeal for chia, but I kept feeling like I didn’t know how to sum it all up concisely enough to do it justice on the blog. But I’ll try.

Chia Gel and Chia Seeds

Here’s a little synopsis I got from an article about chia seeds that my dad printed for me a long time ago (which I cannot currently reproduce now for some reason). Chia seeds contain:
*6 times more calcium than whole milk
*15 times more magnesium than broccoli
*3 times more antioxidant capacity than fresh blueberries
*3 times more iron than spinach
*2 times more potassium than bananas
*More fiber than flaxseed
*More protein than soy
*Good source of B vitamins and the bone-building mineral combination of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, boron, and copper

I am also sharing with you this website where I purchase chia seeds (I buy the black seeds at about $7/lb, which is $4/lb cheaper than what I saw at Whole Foods today) and where you can read this to learn more for yourself about chia. Here’s another place to learn some basic facts about chia. And if that’s not enough, here’s one more article. Or just go read the book.

The bottom line is that chia seeds are high in protein, calcium, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids, and they do not turn rancid the way that flaxseed is known to do. In fact, as I was learning about chia seed, I also learned simultaneously that flaxseed has been banned for human consumption in some countries because it contains toxins and other antinutritional factors. What I read was convincing enough that I threw away about 5 pounds of flaxseed that I had just purchased at Whole Foods the week before.

Chia seeds have the interesting property of absorbing up to 9 times their weight in water, which means you either need to consume it as a gel (water already absorbed into the seeds) or you need to consume the dry seeds along with liquid so that the seeds don’t soak up the fluids inside your body. The primary way I currently use chia seed is to mix 2 cups of water with 1/3 cup chia seeds. Stir the mixture with a whisk and let it sit for 15 minutes. Stir again, then put in a container with a lid, and store in the refrigerator for 24 hours before using. Now what you have is chia gel. The recommended amount to take, according to the paperwork I received with my chia seeds, is 3 Tablespoons of chia gel 3 times a day. My understanding, though, is that you cannot use too much so I don’t really worry that much quantities. I just try and use it when it makes sense to add it to something.

Our current use of chia seeds/gel includes:
*Adding several Tablespoons of chia gel in place of ground flaxseed to our smoothies each morning before blending in the Vita-Mix.
*I usually add a couple more Tablespoons to the top of my smoothie because I enjoy the unique texture of the gel which adds a little “chewiness” and a lot of nutrition.
*I have also added the chia gel to soup a couple times.
*I have added ground chia seed to the banana-oatmeal bars I make and also to the boxed butternut squash risotto we have on occasion.
*I have been adding 1 Tablespoon of the dry seeds to a 20 oz bottle of water and letting it sit in the fridge overnight before drinking it the next day. This ratio doesn’t end up being as much of a gel as the regular chia gel, but each little seed does form a bit of a gel pocket around it and almost makes the water chewy. Hard to explain, but a fun little experiment.
*To show another use for the whole chia seeds, here’s a little snack I’ve been enjoying lately:

Sliced Banana with Sunflower Seed Butter and Dry Chia Seeds

So that’s the chia story. Anyone who has any chia experience of your own, I’d love to hear it!

Part II

My friend Lisa has been sharing hers and her family’s chiropractic experience with me on occasion over the past year or so. I have never felt any pressure to “join,” but I have always been interested in and intrigued by things she has shared with me. Last Friday night, Lisa and I were hanging out at Starbucks and I was sharing with her the most recent of Bauer’s ailments in the long list that started right after Christmas with croup, followed by chicken pox, soon followed by a bad cold, and finally ended with an ear infection. I was talking to Lisa about the ear infection, how it was Bauer’s second ever in his life, and how we had gone for five days since it started, trying to wait it out, seeing if it would get better on its own. We took him back to the doctor to see if it was improving and they told us it was getting worse, which made sense as Bauer had not slept through the night in five nights and was complaining often of his ear hurting, not to mention his hearing was about shot.

We finally resorted to an antibiotic to try and treat the infection. I really don’t know if the antibiotic did it or if time did it, but Bauer seems to be all better now, minus the minor hearing loss he is still experiencing. After I got done with my whole speil (yes, that’s a real word and that’s how it’s spelled – I just looked it up!), Lisa shared with me about how that same week, she had taken her 9 month old daughter to the pediatrician for a well visit and came to find out that her daughter was suffering from an ear infection. Lisa was surprised to hear it as her daughter wasn’t any fussier than would be expected with the teething she was in the middle of. Nonetheless, Lisa decided to leave the pediatrician’s office and go straight to the chiropractor to have her daughter adjusted. [FYI, Lisa's daughter has been being adjusted since the day she was born, literally. Their chiropractor came to the hospital and adjusted her that soon!] Lisa decided not to tell the chiropractor about the ear infection diagnosis and just see if he noticed anything unusual when he was doing the adjustment. Lisa said that he did notice that something didn’t feel right around one of her ears or on that side of her neck, or wherever it is that they feel stuff like that. He put some pressure in that area, and Lisa said she heard a popping noise. Well, two days later, Lisa took her daughter back to the pediatrician just to have her ears looked at, and she was given a clean bill of health! That whole story was pretty convincing, given what we had just been through with Bauer. Lisa shared more things with me as well, but the ear infection incident was especially timely….more timely than I even realized that night, as I had no idea what was to come for Cash just a couple days later.

I went home that Friday night after talking with Lisa and talked to TJ about all this. And then on Saturday morning I called the chiropractor’s office where Lisa goes and made an appointment for me and Bauer on Monday morning to go for a consultation with the chiropractor and to have X-rays done. I wasn’t sure at that point if TJ was going to be able to go with us, or whether I would take Cash. But at the very least, I wanted me and Bauer to go.

Once Monday morning arrived, it was very clear to me that whether TJ could go or not, Cash would definitely be going with me. The reason for this is that all Sunday night, Cash did not sleep. And that means we did not sleep. Cash started with his crying around 8 or 9 pm on Sunday night and was basically up off and on throughout the whole night, running a fever, crying, tugging at his ears, and not being the Cash we all know and love. After our recent experience with Bauer’s ear infection, I was pretty sure that was what we were dealing with with Cash. I called our pediatrician’s office first thing on Monday morning and was in there for an appointment at 9:30 am. TJ was home with the guys who were replacing our hot water heater (yay for our new 40 gallon hot water heater and showers that are actually hot from start to finish!), and Bauer was watching their every move and wishing he could help.

The pediatrician confirmed that Cash had lots of fluid in one ear and a bright red eardrum in the other ear, signaling an ear infection. She said it was a low-grade infection at this point, but could easily develop into more. As soon as the appointment ended, I went back home and picked up Bauer and off we went to the chiropractor for our scheduled 10:45 am appointment. TJ couldn’t come with us because the worker guys were still working, but thankfully my friend Lisa was able to arrive just a little after 11:00 for their weekly adjustments and then stayed to help me with the kids during what ended up being about an hour and half of talking with the doctor, me and Bauer getting X-rays done, and Cash having his first adjustment.

I don’t think the chiropractor would normally have done any adjustments on our first visit, but with the ear infection news, I was eager to have the chiropractor work his magic on Cash. At least that’s how I was thinking of it on that day. It must have been magic because when we got home, Cash ate a tiny lunch and then had a not-so-tiny nap. Five and a half hours to be exact. I was leaving at 7 pm to go out with some friends that night and Cash was still sleeping from his nap. I got home at 10:15 that night to find Cash up and just as happy as a lark. He was playing with Geo-Trax, toting around a piece of a sandwich or something TJ made him. TJ said Cash had finally woken around 8:15 pm! The chiropractor had told me Cash might want to sleep after the adjustment and he wasn’t kidding! We put Cash back to bed that night around 10:45 and he slept through the night with no problem. I will say we did give him Infants Motrin a couple times that first day and then maybe once or twice the day after, but it was nothing like the amount of Motrin we gave Bauer during his week of pain. The next morning (the morning after Cash’s long-nap-day), I noticed a dried puddle of yellowish fluid in Cash’s crib, which I assume was drainage from his ear.

We went back to the chiropractor again on Tuesday, and this time the chiropractor adjusted Cash again, and me and Bauer for the first time. Bauer was a little hesitant, but he did well. The adjustments are over so quickly so there really isn’t much time for the kids to be anxious, and I’m sure they will get more used to it the more we go. TJ came on Tuesday as well so that he could hear some of the initial results of mine and Bauer’s X-rays and so he could see how the adjustments would go. Today (Friday) we all went back again, with me, Bauer, and Cash being adjusted, and TJ staying extra so he could have an X-ray of his own and a consultation with the doctor. TJ and I will be going to a little class with some other new folks next week so we can learn more, see the detailed results of our X-rays, and go over the financial stuff (i.e. insurance coverage or non-coverage) and then decide on a plan of action for our family.

This is all very new to me, but very exciting. I just feel like chiropractic care could be the missing piece in several areas of our lives. I am still dealing with some hormone-related issues since being pregnant with and giving birth to Cash, Bauer has his ongoing allergy/asthma issues, TJ has had some knee pain that he’d like to see gone, and Cash, well Cash is the only one of us without an actual pinpointed issue, but wellness is not a bad reason to see a chiropractor.

I am very thankful that Lisa shared with me about their experiences with this chiropractor and that we have the opportunity to try the practice for ourselves. I’m even thankful that Cash had the ear infection so I would know to take him along with us that first day. I’m thankful that TJ is willing to give this a try with us. I’m thankful that here in America, during this time in which we live, we are so fortunate to be able to just decide we want to do something for our health and we can do it.

You can do it! Just remember, you are not in control.

“There’s no answer, no problem-solving, simply awareness.”  (Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr)

Please forgive my typing errors in my earlier blog from today, if you saw them before TJ fixed them. I think I must have been half-asleep or something.

And a quote that speaks to that is this:

“The only true perfection available to us is the honest acceptance of our imperfection.” (Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr)

I’m chewing on this, too:

“You get a feeling when you look back on life that that’s all God really wants from us, to live in a body he made and enjoy the story and bond with us through the experience.” (A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller)

And finally, but never finally:

“Spirituality is about seeing. It’s not about earning or achieving. It’s about relationship rather than results or requirements. Once you see, the rest follows. You don’t need to push the river, because you are in it. The life is lived within us, and we learn how to say yes to that life.” (Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr)

Ummm, go buy the book already.

I wrote these four quotes on index cards earlier this evening, but I haven’t decided where to post them yet. For now, I’m just toting them around with me from spot to spot: kitchen table, desk, coffee table, bathroom counter. I guess I will put them by my bedside tonight.

We had a very low-key Valentine’s Day this year. No cards, but TJ and I did go to Barnes and Noble one night and look at the Valentine’s cards and try to pick out the ones we would have bought for one another. That was a fun thing to do that I think is quite sustainable for future holidays. No gifts either, except for something small that TJ bought for me. On the morning of Valentine’s Day, TJ told me to go look on the big bookcase from IKEA for my gift. Right away, I knew it had to be a book and within seconds, I had found it. What TJ doesn’t realize is that I stand in front of the bookcase often, just looking at all our books, so when a new one (especially one with a bright green cover) appears, I’m sure to find it.

The book is called Simply in Season, and I love it! My friend Hannah has mentioned this book several times in posts she has written on her blog, which is how I first found out about it. I also recently ordered a copy of the book to give to my friend Amber for her birthday because I know she loves eating good local food and it just seemed like a book she’d like, but I also secretly wanted to check out the book for myself to see if I’d truly want my own copy. TJ must have heard me say I did!

The book is really a book of recipes but with lots of interesting commentary throughout on not only the recipes themselves, but on the bigger picture of eating in a way where everything belongs, meaning good for us, for those who grow our food, and for the earth itself. Isn’t that all the rage these days? But this book isn’t faddish at all. The title really is most appropriate. It’s about eating simple meals, whole foods, what’s in season, and what’s local, and appreciating God for all of it.

Today I was flipping through the Winter Recipes section and found myself going over a Sweet Potato Soup recipe a few times. It looks like something I want to try. What caught me even more, though, was the short essay at the bottom of the page. I feel like these few paragraphs really capture the essence of the book, and the essence of what I want my family’s eating to be about. I like how there is room for imperfection and growth and how we can “celebrate with gusto” what we are given to enjoy. I am typing it out to share with you here, now:

“Cherish that sweet potato”

If I had to put what I believe about food and the environment into two words of advice, I would say this: Celebrate hope.

If you can find a farm, a market, a store where you can see that love for the earth and for future generations is a priority, sell all that you have and buy their food. If you can find friendly faces in your local food system who are willing to go beyond public relations and discuss tough questions, hug them! If you can smell the Spirit of God on their sweet potatoes, buy 20 pounds! Eat these potatoes with gusto, thanking God that someone, somewhere had a vision.

You are not consistent in all areas of your life? Lord have mercy on you, a sinner: act on one little thing you know. You can only afford one holy sweet potato and the rest is boxed macaroni and cheese? Act on what you can afford. You will love that sweet potato and the earth that grew it even more.

-Jennifer Schrock

In honor of the opening ceremonies the other night, I am finally posting a video of my fine performance in the 1988 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies from my hometown of Calgary, Canada. I can’t believe I was only 10 years old at the time. We practiced for over a year leading up to this, mostly as a smaller group of 74 kids at a local school. I think it was every Tuesday evening…for a year! As we got closer to the day all 1000 of us kids from around the city all practiced together. I remember getting to miss a lot of school for that month…sweet! Both my sister and I participated in this together, so that was fun. And we got to keep our electric blue outfits, complete with silver hightops. And the best part was that right at the end of our performance there is a close up of me. When’s the last time you were viewed by over a billion people? Our whole performance was about six minutes. The video below is shortened to show the highlights. Enjoy!