vegan...again

I've been eating a (primarily) vegan diet for 4 weeks and have to tell you - I love it!! I have people roll their eyes at me (Nicole, my mom, my mother-in-law), and much to my sister-in-law's dismay I love eating vegan food! If you've ever thought about it - just try it - you will LOVE it! Here's my top ten list of why:
1) It's soooo much easier to cook! I like cooking, love it even, but I'm not good at it. I can't follow a recipe to save my life, and my poor husband lost a ton of weight just by eating my cooking. Sorry, honey! A vegan diet is mostly grains, vegetables, fruits, and soy products. Grains are about the simplest thing in the world to cook. I cook all my grains prior to cooking the "main course" (like on Sunday or the night before) and I can't even mess those up (too badly).
2) It's way cheaper. The first week was maybe about the same as my old grocery bill, but buying grain in bulk is cheap. Polenta was 2.99 and I made 2 giant casseroles with it and have a TON left to make more. Fresh veggies are fantastic (better for you and relatively less expensive than say, cheese or frozen meals).
3) It wasn't that much of a stretch (for me anyway). If you ever have been out to eat with me in the past 10 years, you'll know I don't usually order meat. I've had to have my poor friends check and double-check my chicken before I ate it, so I stopped ordering it altogether. Next, I started cooking less flesh at home - I hate cooking meat. I also hate milk. Yuck! (however I do drink soy milk with my nose plugged for B12 and calcium)
4) In 1 month I lost weight. So far, 4 lbs. down! Plus, I'm honestly not hungry. Grains, fruits and veggies fill you up really well.
5) I think about food differently. And that's a good thing! I used to envy people who looked at food as fuel. I'm there now! Don't get me wrong, I plan on socializing over meals, it's just changed my thinking.
6) I FEEL better. A biggie. I don't have aches and pains (especially my back). My allergies are not nearly what they used to be - in fact I haven't had a claritin all season yet!
7) My kids are eating better. They still eat meat and drink "real" milk. But they also eat my vegan food too and LOVE it. They are trying all kinds of vegetables and grains and tonight Luke asked for a third helping of polenta casserole. YUM!
8) Cheese substitutes aren't that bad. Really! I've made cheesecake and a red velvet cake that were both vegan. Not bad! (I do however love cream cheese and cheese in general and that has been the hardest thing to give up, but I've had some dairy here and there throughout the month - so I'm not a great vegan... - and then felt sick immediately following the dairy eating)
9) I can taste my food. I take my time to eat food - mostly because grains are chewier than swallowing a hunk of cheese. And my food tastes very different because it's all new to me!
10) I FEEL better!! I had to repeat my reason because it's my favorite one!! This whole month was a trial to see if I would feel differently. Would I feel weak? Sickly? Hungry? Could I really do this? I can honestly tell you that I feel good. I made a good choice!
Will I stick with it? Yep, sure will!! Forever? I don't know, we'll see. I'm not a vegan because I don't believe in killing animals for food. I feed my family meat sometimes. I have a whole bunch of deer meat in my freezer and 1/4 of a quarter of a cow (is that 1/16th of a cow?). I just wanted to see if I feel good - I do.

Happy Easter!

I thought you'd like these pictures. The boys are reading their Easter cards from their G-GA (Great-Grandma A).

They are also enjoying snack at their table - which they would like to eat all meals at right now because it's so cool :)

time out!

We had a 15 month check up this week, and our doctor told us that now is the perfect time to start disciplining our children. Since we have two EXACTLY the same age, this will come in handy. A typical "behavior" issue would be as follows:
Luke doing something naughty
stop Luke
Luke does naughty thing again
distract Luke
Andrew notices said naughty behavior
Andrew tries it himself
stop Andrew
Andrew tries one more time just to make sure it's still naughty
distract Andrew
Luke remembers naughty behavior
and so it goes. Literally ALL the time. It helps when both of us are home, but if not, no luck. PLUS, now we've been visiting relatives (example Auntie Amy) and the boys terrorized most of her house. Whoops.
So, back to discipline. Per dr's suggestion, we set up a pack and play in the living room to use as a time out spot. If they get a warning, and continue the behavior, they sit in the pack and play for 1 minute. you may think that doesn't seem long, but trust me, they realize it's not supposed to be fun.
We'll see if we can teach these kids any manners. :)
Luke's been in time out 5 times so far.
It's only been 15 minutes.
not surprised.

veganism

Recently I've been reading about, researching, and trying to be vegan. I'm on week 2 and feel pretty darn fantastic. Here's a video that says it better than I can.



Next I'm buying this book:
www.eatinganimals.com

run!!

We are so good at walking, that recently we've upgraded to running! Everywhere!
It called for a trip to the store to pick up some of these:

They were so funny - I wish I had my video camera when the boys put the shoes on for the first time. They wouldn't walk in them at all, and crawled around the store! :)

Now, a couple weeks later, they have adapted well and love their shoes. They help get them and put them away, but still need help with getting them on and off, but they look really cool.
And really fast!

haircuts, continued...

So, back to haircuts...

Here is Mr. Serious after his haircut.

After Andrew was done, I think that Luke could tell he was nervous, so Luke came up and gave him a "kiss" (almost a bite on the face)

Luke's turn. Above is the before.

And the After!
Not that big of a change, just a trim to keep his curls intact.
See his little red cheeks, more teeth are coming in. I think that makes #11 and #12.


After haircuts we went to Noodles to have some lunch. The boys had mac n cheese with big boy forks! Dangerous, but they did so well!!

A good day and no one poked an eye out!

haircuts!

Today was an exciting day!! We got some haircuts!! Andrew was long overdue, sporting a flock of seagulls meets the flying nun look with wings out on the sides and weird sticking up all over the place: Notice the upper left side of the picture - flying away. I don't really have many pictures of Andrew's "bad hair days" truthfully, because I felt bad for him. :(

So, we went to the hair salon and were pretty serious.

Before:

During:

And after will have to wait, due to technical difficulties.

Stay tuned for more...