Veggie Heaven

Life is still good.  I’m sure Kory tries to convince himself of that every morning, now that we’ve begun a detox program.  I’m hoping it erases all the bad food choices he made prior to landing himself in the ER a month ago.  As if going vegan wasn’t bad enough…

This program is run through the local chiropractor who is very much into natural healing techniques, so I’m all over that.  Kory isn’t nearly as enthusiast but he hasn’t complained once.  He said the best part is when I call out “Dinner’s Ready!”  I must admit, I’d like the whole process a whole lot more if someone else were making all the food, too.  But I’m trying to make it as easy on him as possible.  We’re eating vegetables every which way a person can.  We’re also drinking these protein/fiber shakes 2-3 times a day, which are supposed to keep us full, but Kory’s been hungry ever since we started this.  I guess I have more reserves to burn off, but I haven’t been able to drink the 3^rd shake, as dinner is filling enough. 

The rule of the detox is, eat more veggies than fruit; more raw than cooked.  So we’re going with fruit and veggie smoothies, salad for lunch, veggies for snacks and some kind of steamed veggies/veggie soup for dinner.  We are also allowed half a cup of brown rice and half a cup of lentils per day, so they work well in any soup base I’ve been making.  Tuesday I counted 30 different types of fruits and vegetables we consumed, so I think I’m doing the “variety” part pretty well.  We were also challenged to try new kinds of produce that we don’t normally eat, so that’s been fun (maybe not).  This detox lasts for three weeks, and we’re now on Day 4. 

This is a community thing so many people are doing it at the same time.  I noticed the local organic grocery store was out of many things we can eat – like lentils!  Good thing I’d stocked up before hand.  We are also attending weekly meetings for 4 weeks to talk about different aspects of toxins and ways to detox.  We found out last night how incredible versatile hydrogen peroxide is and the many ways it can clean not just our veggies, but the bathroom sink as well.  Who knew it cleans windows, laundry and whitens teeth? 

Our usual weekly routine is in full force with Kaleb.  He’s going somewhere every single day so he’ll never get cabin fever.  We’ve taken to doing a good share of school work in the car because of all the running around he does.  Kaleb and Kory finally went skiing for the first time this season last Saturday.

Kory’s been busy drawing his first commissioned piece of art!  I met a woman from Norway that works at a local potato barn and when she saw Kory’s drawings of Norway she asked if he would make one of her potato store.  Kinda boring building, but Kory was thrilled someone would actually pay him to sit and draw lines, and the woman was thrilled with how it turned out.  Woo hoo.

A few weeks ago I was judging a local speech tournament for our speech club that held an event in our county.  Kaleb couldn’t attend it because he had his science fair with his school on that day.  He came in 2^nd place overall, which is impressive when you consider he was up against 10^th graders and the judges said a first year student has NEVER placed at all.  He studied the affects of magnets on plant growth and discovered they do much better with a magnet in the soil. 

So, I was at this speech tournament and one guy gave a speech on how to solve the national debt crisis by imposing a “stupid tax.”  He outlined his proposal on what would get taxed, how much, and how it would be collected.  It was a pretty funny speech.  The very next morning, I was looking for something in the top of the closet and I put up a step-stool because I couldn’t reach it, but I was in such a hurry I didn’t extend the stool the whole way so when I stepped on it, it collapsed and gravity got the best of me.  I landed on my tailbone and smacked the back of my head and upper back against a dresser and I was in more pain than I’ve been in for along time.  I’m still in pain.  I had a pinched nerve, which a trip to the chiropractor fixed, but my muscles are still reeling and my butt hurts everytime I stand up or sit down.  My back is still terribly sore and one massage helped, and hopefully another one will, too.  All I could think about, as I was lying on the floor that morning, was how incredibly stupid I was and I wondered how much tax I should have to pay for that.  I guess I paid in other ways, more dear than money.

So that’s what’s happening in our world.  I have still been struggling with what to write each week in my Norway column, thus, no time to even think about what to write in a blog, but now that I’ve reached my two year anniversary, I might take a break for a while.  The editor offered to rerun my old columns, and if I don’t come up with more ideas soon, I might take her up on it.