I'm Back!!!

I haven't necessarily been gone, but I've been so busy the last several weeks that blogging was unfortunately pushed to the bottom of my priority list. We sprouted several things in our kitchen that we planted in our garden house, and then the monster grasshoppers promptly ate most of them. I was so mad that I called Matt at work & told him to bring home some chickens (Callahan's is on his way home & they sell grown chickens). So I ran out & bought chicken wire, plywood, t-posts, etc. to throw up a fence around our garden house and build a coop. The first couple of days the stupid chickens wouldn't come out of the coop, until Matt brought home a rooster. Now they are all over the place & they LOVE to catch those grasshoppers - WOOHOO! Now if they'd just lay some eggs...

Next thing - Matt & I went on our "Marriage Retreat" that was put on & paid for by the National Guard. We stayed in Fredricksburg Friday & Saturday nights and sat through several hours of seminars intended to keep families together, especially after a deployment. Things like conflict resolution, how to assimilate back into the family after being gone, how to be patient with each other and re-learn your roles within the family, etc. We didn't really need that part of it because Matt & I have such a strong relationship, and our communication is really good. But there was a lot of good info, and it was great just hanging out sans kids. For all of you Homeschoolers (and anyone else interested in history) - taking a trip to Fredricksburg is a definite must when you study WWII. They not only have the Admiral Nimitz Museum, but attached to that is the George H.W. Bush Pacific War Museum. It is awesome! It's set up in a timeline of the Pacific War and there is just an incredible amount of information & artifacts. They even have the Japanese Midget submarine that was captured & toured the country to help sell war bonds. Go early & plan on staying all day to see everything if you make it a day trip, or better yet - make it a weekend get-away. One interesting tid-bit we picked up there was that prior to WWII the male wedding band was virtually unheard of. It only became popular during the war when so many young men were separated from their (in many cases) brand new wife.

During this time that I've been gone from the blog-o-sphere my Dad moved to Georgia to start his new project. After a few days I took the opportunity to get rid of our microwave & start moving some of my thousands of books back out to the trailer. That is a project that will take a while.

I've also been taking the kids to a "Healthy Kids in the Kitchen" class in town that my friend, Donna has been putting on. She's been teaching them how to make healthy alternatives to a typical breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, and drinks. I have learned so much about nutrition & about raw & 'living' food. I am totally psyched to start all this 'healthy living' stuff. I've made homemade 'grapenuts', homemade chicken soup from scratch, sprouted seeds & made crackers from them, soaked & dehydrated nuts, etc. Matt, who wouldn't even touch almonds, pecans, and especially walnuts (they all taste like dirt) now eats all of them & told me yesterday that the walnuts are his favorite! I learned from Donna that nuts have enzyme inhibitors that coat the outside of them which is what causes them to taste bitter. If you soak them in a bowl of water & a pinch of sea salt (or better yet, Redmond's Real Salt) overnight then dehydrate them at a low temp (not over 115 degrees) they will taste great. I tried it & it totally worked! We've also baked several loaves of whole-wheat bread by hand - NOT the bread machine, and the other day Jessi baked a loaf ALL BY HERSELF and it turned out great!

Last Friday we took the kids to Sea World since Matt had the day off & we had 4 free tickets. We still managed to spend more $$ than I'd have liked (not hard to do there). Oh, and Rachel & Jimmy have had their soccer camp this week as well.

All of this while the kids still had their activities going on - Folklorico, Flamenco, Jazz, Martial Arts, and Young Womens, and my Tumbling classes I teach.

So I'm sorry for taking so long to post - hopefully our lives will calm down a little now :-)