Hippy Loaf Review

Hippy Loaf  Well, we tried this a while back I just haven't had time to blog or when I did there were other things to talk about.

Over all it didn't go over well.  I loved it, but the family didn't.  Patch (the new 6yo almost vegan) took a few bites claiming to like it, but then changed his mind?!  It was very vegatably tasting, and heaven forbid  we like vegetables.  It also had a hearty herby almost sage flavor to it.  Maybe it was the celery, I don't usually use celery.  It was very comforting.  A good food on a cold day.  It was pretty easy to make as well.  Especially since I used an electric chopper for the veggies.  The only issue I had was that it was very wet, even after I cooked longer then recommended.  That may be because I used wheat flour instead of rice, idk.  I froze the leftovers in individual portions.  I plan to heat those in a cast iron skillet, and maybe just crumble in some fried potatoes, or over mashed potatoes.
 

Maybe I brought home the wrong kid from the zoo.

Well it is winter, so there aren't a lot of people at the zoo, so we don't watch our children like hawks the entire time, so it is possible there was a child that looked just like my son, who conspired with my son to switch places.  However I think it's more likely an alien murdered my son, stole his skin, and is now doing a bad job of pretending to be him.

My evidence:

1.  My son is normally obsessed with playing video games.  I wont admit how many hours he spends playing on the wii, or playstation, or computer.  The normal greeting I get from him in the morning is, "Can I play (insert name of video game)?"  Today however he and his sister made an agreement that he would not play the playstation or wii all day.  In the past three days he's spent maybe an hour total playing video games?!  (Not that I'm complaining, it's wonderful to see him spending more time doing other things.)

2.  My son normally claims he is part lion so he's a carnivore and does not need to eat vegetables.   However, on Wednesday after a day at the zoo, he declared at dinner time that he is now a vegetarian. 

Ok, the first one is like eye witness testimony.  Not very reliable.  He's probably just board with the video games at the moment.  As soon as he gets a new one I'm sure the Lincoln Logs will be abandoned to a dark corner of his closet.

Refusing to eat meat on the other hand boggles me.  Anytime I've brought up the idea (my daughter boarders on that diet) he has balked, hard.  (See above claim of lion heritage.)  When my daughter has shown interest in eliminating meat it's been obvious why, she doesn't like most meat.  My son has failed to give any explanation, even an illogical 6yo explanation.

What he has offered is to make things easy on me by stating that he will eat meat if we are out to eat and there is nothing else, and to eat a peanut butter sandwich for dinner if I make meat.

For now I'm playing along.  I'm curious to see if I can figure out why, and how long he will actually keep this up.  I am also curious to find out if I can keep this up.  I've tried in the past to have a vegetarian diet for me and Em, with the boys on a part time veggy diet.  But the longest I've lasted is two weeks.  Trying new recipes is hard with kids, double hard when you still have to make meat for half the family.  This time will be an even bigger challenge.  My son (and me for moral support) giving up meat means we will basically be vegan.  We already don't consume dairy due to allergies.  And the only eggs we eat are the ones that are in things like cake or cookies.

So my question is, why couldn't the aliens have given me a child that wants to help more around the house instead of one that is creating more work for me???

PUT ON THE MEAT PONCHOS!!!

Think I could get Bear to "chase" me if I wore nothing but a meat poncho??

ummm it was ok.

Without boring you with our food issues I want to let you know I'm trying some new recipes.  Most of them are vegan, not because we are now vegan, but I've found it difficult to find new non vegan recipes that don't include dairy or things we don't eat.  In addition to dairy not being part of our diets, the only two meats we can agree on in this house are fish and beef.  So I wanted some protein options besides those two, cause frankly I'm bored with what we eat here.   

The first one I tried was this.  Instant Vegan Alfredo from the Happy Herbivore website. I mixed in steamed broccoli. 

Review:

My son (6) who won't eat pasta (or tofu)  LOVED it.
My daughter who eats most things thought it was ok.  She has a cold right now sooo who knows what she really thought.
Hubby and I thought it was ok, bland even after I doctored it, a lot.  Hubby not a fan of tofu either.

Will I make it again:  sort of.  I am going to look at some other recipes and see what I can do to make it a little "butterier" and more flavorful.  Also I won't use whole wheat flour again.  I'm not a big fan of whole wheat.

Other notes.  It made a ton of sauce.   Much more then 2 servings.  I haven't had real alfredo in years so I have not a clue if it tastes like the real stuff.  I go into vegan dishes thinking of them as their own free standing dishes, not copies of other foods so I think that helps when first tasting them. 

Sex Ed

So, it is getting close to that time when I will have to have "The Talk."  I've been thinking about how I'm going to handle this.  The stuff about puberty will be pretty straight forward.  We've already had small discussions with both kids about various aspects.  Particularly the hair portion of puberty.  (P is mildly obsessed with the idea that someday hair will grow places besides the top of his head.  You know like his arms and legs, lol.)  Where I'm having trouble is the procreation part.  I have several questions I need answered before I have this "talk."  For example:  what is the appropriate age to give kids the particulars of sex?  what do I say about when is the appropriate age for sexual contact? 

So far the best I could come up with was, "Why aren't I one of those super religious people who tell their kids:  'Nothing, even kissing, until you are married.'  and then give them the particulars on their wedding day?"  And "Is it too late to become one of those families?" 

Realizing that I'm a couple dresses short of going to live with the Amish, I will need to figure out something to say.  I also realized that it's a bit sad that I'm 34 and don't have any feelings on when it's appropriate to engage in sexual activity. 

Here is what I have come up with, feel free to use it when the time comes in your family.  At the age of 13 (since in many cultures 13 is when you become a man or woman), or sooner if needed, I will sit the child down and say the following:  "You know that animals mate, and that humans are animals too. . .draw your conclusions."  

 

They can then study the various aspects of mating animals and decide which they feel works out best for them.  Do they think it would be best to want a mate like the weaver bird that will be a good provider and so be very particular about whom they get involved with?  Or perhaps the penguin will be ok, new mate every time you want a new baby but the mate will have the baby half the time and you won't have to see the mate except to hand off the child?  Maybe a gorilla set up will do, most likely only ever one strong good provider for the females, but you have to share him with other females?  Or the lions, like the gorilla, only if you are a female you do all the work?  Maybe they will choose to be like Cardinals that have only one mate for life and share in the work?  By looking at these different examples they will see what advantages and disadvantages sex/mating has in each situation, and compare that to what they want out of life and when, then decide accordingly. 

Problem solved!  (And I've got a huge unit study planned.  Middle school biology, check!)

I don't need a MRI, according to a new team of doctors.

I was going to blog about this the other day, but things came up.  Like being too tired and people demanding to know about homemade shampoo.  This was too funny to let go tho, so here it is.  I've been having headaches, if you've been keeping up you know.  The other day my son decided he would illustrate the diagnosis.  My 6 yo son.


As I wandered through the house the other morning, attempting to reign in the chaos my son came up to me with his leapster.  On it he had drawn me.  Not as sweet as it sounds.  In the picture I am holding my head and it is a cross section of my head and torso so that you can see my inner workings.  (See not so sweet.)  He explains to me that I'm holding my head because I have a head ache.  Very observant of him, I do hold my head in that manner when my head hurts.  Then he goes on to explain that this and that marking are the food I ate and how they go down into my stomach (which he delightfully calls a stummy or tummic, words he knows aren't real but that he made up for stomach, so out comes his sh*t eating grin which always cracks me up.)  and then travel back up my esophagus, being blocked by a special plug to keep it from going into my mouth (yummmy) and on into my brain.  There the food gives me a headache.  I unfortunately do not have a picture of his drawing.  However, I thought this sounded like as good a reason as any that had been given to me by the two Drs I have seen for my headaches. . .oh wait they haven't given me an actual reason yet.

This also seemed reasonable to my 9yo daughter who then took it upon herself to come up with a more scientifically plausible scenario.  She drew hers out on a piece of paper. . .so I have that to show you.      

That is my head and torso, again a cross section.  On the side is a key to tell you what each color represents.  Blue: soda, which you can see entering my mouth on the left side of my head.  I must be in profile.  Red: my nerves.  Yellow: food in particular a biscuit , again entering my mouth and then in my stomach which is the big ball of green just below my heart.  Green: stomach acid.  Here is her actual explanation:
"You eat the biscuit and drink the soda, they travel down your esophagus to your stomach.  There your stomach acids start digesting, but that makes your nerves start making your heart pump too much, that makes the stomach acid get pushed up into your brain where it irritates your nerves in your brain." 

She ended with this:  "Don't drink soda, or eat biscuits." 

By popular demand, mistake, and the fact that you can't really tell when I have a link embeded. . .

I am posting again today even tho it usually take at least a week for me to have anything even remotely interesting to say. 

First shampoo business since it seems to be a popular subject.  

One HERE is the link to the shampoo video.  I think I embedded it, but I realize the difference in color of the font when there is a link is really minimal  so I will change that asap.

And here is a link to a similar poo, with good smelling stuff. 

And here is what I did:

Took old shampoo bottle that has screw off top, cleaned thoroughly after using every drop of store bought shampoo.  Mixed in a medium bowl one heaping Tablespoon of baking soda with one cup of warm water.  Used funnel to pour into old shampoo bottle.  Added 6 drops o' essential lavender oil.  (Next time I'm cutting that amount in half.)  Got in shower, wet hair,  shook bottle vigorously, gently poured about half the bottle (I have a ton of shoulder length hair) through my hair as I messaged my scalp.  Then rinsed out.


A few notes:  I didn't use the mix until hours after I made it up. . .it was very cold!  I didn't mind that much, my nine year old however was not pleased when I poured cold water on her head this morning.  I laughed.  But I'm not a good mom.   In the future I will make it up for her, and my son right before I use it on them so that it's still warm.  Also I am going to play around with different smells. 

Updates on the success of the shampoo.  Most impressive was that after feeling my hair last night my husband was so impressed that he agreed to try using it!!!!  And he won't do anything "hippie-ish."  Or that he perceives as such.  Altho, it might have been that I mentioned reading that all the chemicals in shampoo can cause hair loss.  Almost as impressive was that my highly skeptical daughter was willing to let me try it on her after feeling my hair.  Probably most impressive to the viewing audience: after 24 hours my hair is still clean and soft and shiny and full, as if I just washed it, with out any itchy scalp!    I am just now starting to get some mild itchy-ness, but nothing like before.  That may be that it's really dry here now.  And I'm hoping over time that too will go away as I remove all the chemicals from my scalp. 

Now the big test will be how well it holds up over the next couple weeks. 

Moving on.

I need to state that I do in fact know my left from my right.  I may have said in the last post that the blogs I read are listed on the left when in fact they are on the right. 

I was going to blog about something amusing my kids did yesterday, but I think that will have to wait until tomorrow.  So stay tuned.

Hair and there.

Two things this evening. 

One. There is actually a blog out there called Help Me Obi Mom Kenobi, You're my only hope.  I have a link to it with all the other blogs there on the left.  I was rummaging around the web and came across it.  Seriously I love this woman based on the name of her blog.  For those of you who don't know me I LOVE star wars.  And since I've only just read enough of her blog to know that she uses Star Wars quotes to talk about her life (which includes homeschooling another topic I'm fond of) I can't actually say if it's worth reading or not, but damn I'm excited.  I really hope it's good.

Ok two.  A few months back my friend sent me a link to a rather amusing and informative video on how to make your own shampoo. Maybe I should back up a minute.  I am allergic to like everything, and have huge issues with beauty care products.  And  I'm basically too lazy and cheap to wear make up, even if I could find some that didn't make my face itch.  So I don't use many things to pretty myself.  Shampoo however is not one I can avoid. . .for long.  The problem has been as follows.  The more natural the shampoo the more I sneeze in the shower, yes I literally sneeze in the shower.  The more it's made of nothing but chemicals the itchier my scalp gets.  I even tried using sulfate free shampoo with no luck.   Lately I've been on this kick to spend a little more time on myself so that I feel better about myself.  And being too cheap (as I mentioned) I've resorted to using things I can make myself.  Plus there is the whole better for the environment angle I can get in on too.   In comes the before mentioned make it yourself shampoo.  When she described how to do it it was like a light went off.  This method would not only save me money, be better for the earth, it would solve my issues with shampoo.   I finally tried it today.  (Being too cheap I waited until I was out of old store bought shampoo.)  It was super simple.  I even added a couple drops of lavender oil (real not chemically produced) to make me smell purdy.  MY HAIR FEELS GREAT!!!  My scalp doesn't itch, and there was no need for kleenex in the shower.  YAY! 

I did not do the vinegar rinse that she describes. . .I may try it in the future.  And the true test will be the 24 mark and the two week mark.  I'll keep you posted.

Have a good night, and think about joining me in washing that man out of your hair.

The most woderful sound.

As a mother some of the most wonderful sounds are the first time my children said "Mama" and "I love you."  But it's a given that that should bring tears to my eyes.  Equally as wonderful are the sounds that are unexpected.  The ones that come after a long struggle.  The ones that tell you you aren't a complete failure as a parent before your kids even reach the age of ten.

Learning to read was a battle for our daughter.  She's a bright girl without any learning disabilities, we read to her daily for hours when she was a toddler, she loves books and stories.  The issue was she wasn't ready, and she has NEVER done anything she didn't want to do (unless we have held her down and forced her, like any time she has needed shots, or a splinter removed, or a cast put on, or her hair brushed).  She's got a stubborn streak like no other.  Good, for when she needs to face down those tempting her to do naughty things, not so good for when mom and dad need her to do something she doesn't want to do.  So when the world said it was time to learn to read and she wasn't ready, a war began.  Months of reading agony went by.  When I threw up the white flag, she taught herself. . .in secret.  And she learned quickly.  The new battle has become what she will read.  Now don't get me wrong, she loves reading.  And at her age I loathed it.  In fact I can count on one hand the number of books I willingly read before I was 24.  I made it 99% of the way through college without reading a book.  (Not something to be proud of I know.)  The reading bug burrowed in and infected me tho.  A few years ago I started reading for pleasure.  I began devouring books, and they have changed my life.  I become annoyed when I start a book and it isn't life altering.  Maybe because subconsciously I feel like I'm trying to make up for lost time and don't want to waste it on mediocre books.  So it drives me batty when my daughter wants to read books that are the equivalent to a low budget cartoon.  I need to remember she's 9.  And has plenty of time to read, both classics and less then so books.  I need to look at the big picture and remember that right now, she's reading, and enjoying.  A lot!  The other night she came out of her room three times to give me updates on what was going on in the books she is currently reading.  In between the updates I could hear her yelling out emotional responses to the book.  And that is one of the most wonderful sounds for a parent.   

too cute karate

I love the place Patch is taking karate.  oh, and he loves it too, lol!  I always scoffed a bit when places would advertise martial arts as a great place for kids to learn discipline,  but it's so true.  At least here, the sensai even backs up parents. . .as in kids who don't listen to parents get in trouble at karate.  They earn patches for doing chores at home and getting good grades.  There is a great balance rewarding good behavior and not tolerating mischief.  But, the best part by far is how cute Patch looks in his gi.