Prairie Mama

I was in the paper on Monday.  Check it out here

Have you ever seen 2 cuter kids? I think not. That top picture of A was a total fluke, I swear! She was playing outside, sat up, looked at me and smiled. I just happened to get the shot, I love it!
S is being Super Why for Halloween this year. That is him on his airplane flying, see the cape flying in the back? It’s awesome!!! I wish I had the imagination of a 3 year old!!

So, I am changing my life, pretty drastically, but very much for the better. My sister-in-law, Stephanie, told me about a book, Eat to Live. At first I was really skeptical. I thought that it was just another weight loss scheme, something that never really works for me. Sure, it works in the short term but what happens when you go back to eating the way you always have? Well, with this, you don’t. You completely change your life, your eating habits, and your health. You eat so that you can live longer and healthier. The weight loss part is just a nice benefit. In the last 6 weeks Stephanie has been vegan. She has lost 21 lbs. She feels better than she ever has. So, J and I are going to do this. We got the book this weekend and have been reading it. It really is interesting how closely it parallels the Word of Wisdom, something, that as an LDS culture, we adhere very closely to. The problem is that we usually just say no coffee, tea, alcohol, drugs or cigarettes. We so quickly forget the part about eating meat sparingly, in times of cold or famine. For a long time now, I’ve thought if I could just live the Word of Wisdom completely, I would be healthier and would lose weight. I just never knew how to do it. Now I do! I am really excited.

So, for the next 6 weeks I will be vegan (with the exception of Thanksgiving when I will have one piece of prime rib). I will also have very limited grains (1 C. a day) and no sweets (except for 1 piece of the vegan chocolate pumpkin pie I will be making).

J has a cold right now, usually he gets one in the fall and it lasts through spring allergy season. I think that by us changing the way we eat, he will be better very quickly. We have not eaten any meat this week although we will tonight. We are officially starting on Saturday. After the first 6 weeks, we will then go to the 90/10 lifestyle. 90% of the time we will eat vegan, and 10% we will be able to have dairy and meat. So, he doesn’t have to give up his BBQ and I don’t have to give up my ice cream

Honestly, just in doing this for a couple of days, I am already feeling better. And my kids love it! Well, S is having a harder time than A, but he is getting used to it. He even had, and enjoyed, a green smoothie this morning!

So, back to the title of this post, why I do it…for them. I do it all for my children. I want to instill in them good eating habits. I don’t want them to have to change these habits when they are 30-somethings. I don’t want them to struggle with their weight their entire lives like I have. I want so much more for them. I want them to be healthy, and I truly believe this is an excellent way to do it.

So…wish me luck. If you have any good vegan recipes you want to share also, please pass them along!!!

Now for knitting.  I have no pictures, but I am almost done with Anouk!!!  I am SO excited!  I weaved in all the ends, seamed together the top, and picked up stitches for the collar last night.  Now all I have to do is the collar, 2 pockets and the side tabs.  I am SO close I can taste it!

I need to finish that and then get 2 Wallaby’s finished this month!  ACK!  Oh, and then there is the issue of hats for the kids, a hat and scarf for J, and a few toys for the kidlets for Christmas.  Not too much! HA!

I had a very proud moment this morning that I just had to share with all of you. My sweet son, sweet 3 year old, do you see him? He’s so sweet…so innocent…

Out of his mouth came the most foul word today. He was playing and he said, “F$@#”. I looked at him and said, “What did you say??” He said it again. Now, lest you think he heard this from anyone in our house, we don’t say that word. Yeah, he’ll hear an occasional shit or damn, but never the f word. He was playing around with words and came up with that one. So here is how the rest of the conversation went:

Me: Sweetie, that is a really, really, really bad word.
S: What is? F*&$?
Me: Yes. So, I don’t want to ever hear you say that again. If you choose to say it again, you will be in really big trouble because you know it’s a bad word now.
S: No Mom, I don’t know that f*&# is a bad word.
Me: yes you do.
S: Is Buck a bad word?
Me: No
S: Is Truck a bad word?
Me: No.

And it continues. He keeps coming up with words that rhyme asking if they are bad words. Oh he is just a goof.

yes, this was a very proud moment. My son saying the f word for the first time…at 3.

I finished my Clapotis yesterday! I really wanted to get it done for my anniversary, which was yesterday. I finished it at 3 and we went out at 5:30. I really love how it turned out and this yarn was just such a delight!

Now for the Specs. Yarn: Plymouth Galway Highland Heathers, 4 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbo’s US size 8.
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert.

Next up…sweaters for the kids, a doll, an elephant, a few hats, some socks, pants…the list never ends.

I really haven’t done any other knitting than this lately. I have worked non-stop on this project and I love it.

Here are some pictures though of things we’ve been doing. I just call it living.

We call him Super Roo!

I love fall. I love the cooler weather (note, I did not say cold, I do not enjoy the cold, cool though, that is nice) that follows the always so hot summers. I love watching the leaves change color. I love the sound of the leaves as they crunch under my feet. Here are some photos I took of fall here in Logan. The colors are not as brilliant as they have been in past years. Apparently this is because it was so hot and so dry this summer. Hmm…hot and dry in the desert? Surely you jest.

Have you also noticed how S has been dressing up? He wears many different costumes daily. He ranges from Peter Pan, to a Cheerleader (complete in Nebraska Cornhuskers Garb…much to his Father’s dismay!), a Cowboy, Superman, Roo, Super Roo, or just Super S. He is so funny, and I love to watch him dress up and become these characters. It really is so much fun for me because I remember loving dressing up when I was little. I just need to make sure he has lots of warm costumes for this cold city we live in!

Happy One Year to my blog!!! I was not so surprised to only see a few people enter the drawing…but I really thought more people read my blog. Oh well…I don’t do it for anyone but myself. It’s a fun place to record what I’m doing and what is going on in my life and the life of my kiddos.

Now for the winner….LORI! So Miss Lori, do you want some luscious fabric or yarn? I’ll get a package together and send it this week. We’ll have to find something for Cohen to put in there also

Hope you’re all having a great weekend…I am! More knitting news later

I can not believe I didn’t ever post pictures here of A’s longies!!! They turned out SO cute!! I used Malabrigo Chunky yarn in the colorway Noviembre. I love it!!! My only complaint is that it bleeds a bit. I’ve been able to finally (knock on wood) get it under control
So, here are pictures!!!!

Also this week, I got out the sewing machine and made a real live cowboy vest for the boy. He loves playing cowboy, so I decided that he really needed a vest. He’d been wearing a green sweater vest…sad, I know. So, we went to Joann’s and bought enough fabric to make him a great cowboy vest. He was really upset (even though he picked out the fabric) that there was cow print on the inside. However, yesterday he wore it inside out all day…he had to be like Woody!

I’m quite proud of myself as this is the first thing I’ve sewn that didn’t have a pattern! I totally winged it and it worked!!! Yipee!

I’m rethinking my Clapotis. No, I’m still doing it, but the yarn I was using just wasn’t speaking to me for the Clap. Oh and before I go any further, in response to Tina – I was going to just knit the outer most stitches every time in the Thunderstorm colorway. But, that is neither here nor there as I am not using that yarn anymore. Like I said, it didn’t feel right in my hands for this project. so, I went to Yarn Today today and found the perfect yarn for my project. I typically steer away from Plymouth yarns. I don’t know why, I’ve never had a bad experience with them…I just don’t go straight to them, so I often forget they are even there. I was getting a bit frustrated (as were my children, the toys were losing their appeal after an hour of Mom searching!), and was about to just get my store credit (yes, I took back the Majestic fibers…I couldn’t afford to keep that and get something else) when I saw it. The perfect yarn. It isn’t a color I normally even would look at for myself, purple, but it just jumped off the shelf at me and said, “KNIT ME!”. How could I refuse? I grabbed the only 3 skeins of it and had them order me 2 more! Look at this!

I am just beyond thrilled about this yarn, it is BEAUTIFUL!!! Yipee!!!

This week marks my 1 year blogaversary! So….comment here and I will have the boy draw a name on Sunday and the lucky person will win something grand. If you knit it will be yarn, if you are a sewer, I will send you some great fabric. So, there is something for everyone!!!