A new gate and deer fence

A truly "island" gate... We repurposed the gate, the hinges, added a driftwood handle and arch... and added some old repurposed boards from another old gate to add height to keep the deer out

Summer joys

Free range kids

Batman takes a popsicle break

A Story by “My Son”

I’m starting a new series of stories as told by “My Son” (to protect his secret identity). He’s 5 years old.

The Angel Who Saved the Life by “My Son”

The angel was making a video and then she saw someone in trouble and then she had to call the police and then she had to make a note and then she had to use the video camera but her video camera was done already, so she used it for the bad guys. The video camera had a laser beam and could make an alarm and then the bad guys can be made into good guys. And when that happened it was a happy life. The End. (I wish it had started with once upon a time…)

Sweet! I love that angels now have video cameras with laser beams. High Tech angels. Who knew?

Fancy Pants is joining our family

We’re adopting a budgie. Why a budgie, you might be asking yourself. Well, I’ll tell you. I’m allergic to cats. My son is allergic to dogs, and besides, we’re not allowed to have furry pets at this house we’re leasing… So a budgie it is!

His name is going to be Fancy Pants, because my 5 year old son wants to teach him to talk and thinks it will be hysterically funny when the bird says “Hello, Fancy Pants” to visitors to our home. He giggles like a little maniac over the thought. Five year old little boys are a breed all their own. What can I say…

We are hoping to pick out one of thse four pretty male budgies next week. We found a family that hand raises budgies, and they are about 8 weeks old now. The younger we get him the better, cause we really want to teach him to talk, and want him to be used to being handled so he will be tame enough to have him out of the cage during the day.

I hate April Fools Day Jokes

Yes, I know my name is April and I should be a good sport about it even for that reason alone, but I just hate it. I can’t WAIT for this day to be over.

Every blog I read, every phone call I get, every story I hear, every forum I post on, every person I talk to, I can’t help being suspicious of every thing on this day every year.

I prefer being able to trust that people are telling me the truth and like not constantly having to be alert in case someone is trying to trick me so they can mock me for my gullibility.

Oh… and the carpenter ants all over my house? You can leave now. I’m on to your little joke too.

That’s all.

Oh Lordie… What will we do all summer?!

What is one to do when one has a crazy social kid who hates school vacations?

Monday: Flew a kite on the beach and practiced writing words in the sand

Tueday: Went to the park and played with whatever other kids are there (until it started raining)

Wednesday: Sent him off with Granny to go pick Grandpa up from the float plane.

Thursday: No idea… can’t even remember that day. LOL

Friday: Went on a camera hunt for spring. We found bulbs coming up, birds on the feeder, and frogs croaking in the pond.

Saturday: A trip to the library with a stop for a smoothie at the local healthfood store/cafe.

Another thing we did, which was highly amusing is I gave my 5 year old the digital camera, set it to video, and let him interview me. He asks much harder questions than I expected. LOL And wow… not so flattering angles… haha

A step closer to a healthier diet – Sugar Free

On February 26th I went off cane sugar, white flour, and white rice. I have to do things cold turkey, or it just sneaks back up on me.

After 8 relatively painless days of being free of sugar and white stuff, I decided to have an intentional sugary treat. My treat of choice was a bottle of coke and a piece of key lime pie. I enjoyed them, sure, but I wasn’t bowled over by their amazingness. The next day I went right back to being sugar free without experiencing any regrets or cravings.

I think I can confidently say that my diet as good as it’s going to get now. I posted more details about my diet choices on my PCOS blog if you’re interested in reading more about the healthy changes I’ve made.

Snow day. Again. Are you KIDDING me?!

So… we got about 4 inches of snow last night. No biggie, right? Oh yes, according to the school district it is! Our first day back at school after 2 weeks holidays and they declare a SNOW DAY! Give me a break, people. This is verging on the ridiculous now.

Today it’s raining and miserable out, but we have a 5 acre long driveway, and we got out just fine to the snow-free roads. *rolling eyes*

We are going to “town” today and I am thumbing my nose at the school district. Get real. It’s WINTER. Deal with it. Can we just get on with life now, please? Anyone ever heard of snow tires for school buses? Novel idea… hmm?

Here’s proof we drove out and came back…

Bliss List for 2009

I love the phrase “follow your bliss” because it really sums up how I feel about my life. There is so much bliss in my life and I am SO blessed. I originally wrote a list of “I resolves…” but decided that my resolves are actually more of a lifestyle choice. The word “resolution” has so many negative connotations for me, and “bliss” is just that. Blissful.

• Have more fun and go on more spontaneous day adventures.
• Be kinder to myself and stop beating myself up about my weight. God knew me before I was born and loved me just the way I am. I eat healthy, I get outdoors often, and it’s time to embrace life and stop worrying about the scale (dare I throw it away this year?!).
• Read more. Discover new authors. Write book reviews.
• Speaking of writing… I want to write more. Start that book I keep talking about writing. Last night I was watching an interview of the author James Herriot, and was quite inspired by his experiences as a writer.
• Love more and learn to speak my DS’ and DH’s love language – quality time. I like being alone, but my men really need me to be more present in their lives.
• Live a simpler life, and leave a smaller footprint on the earth. We are growing our first organic garden this year, which is very exciting for me. I need to get a recycling “system” in place so it’s easier to sort everything.
• Explore more ethnic vegetarian cuisine. I tend to get in a rut with my meals cause it’s easy to just grab the same ingredients at the grocery store and throw together something I’ve made a million times. I want to be more creative this year.

How it all started…

Yeah, so I have a couple other blogs already… one is private cause I have crazy ex inlaws that like to take my words out of context and twist my motives, so yeah, they don’t get access to my inner sanctum. Basically it’s a personal diary that I let a few select trusted loved ones in to take a peek at what makes me tick. I debated making it public, but honestly, there’s way too much private stuff, and I’m too lazy (and busy) to sift out the stuff I don’t want the general public reading.

Then there’s my PCOS one. It’s public, and relatively new, but writing about greenifying my life, and sharing my life story seemed just a touch off topic. I can’t disappoint or PO those who are truly looking for valid info on this condition. Aren’t I considerate? I know, I know. It’s all about my public.

So I guess you’re wondering what the heck this blog is going to be about… Patience… I’m getting there. It’s a long convoluted story.

When I was 2 years old (I told you it was a long story, so buckle up) my die-hard hippie parents moved to a commune in California and became fruitarians. Basically you eat a lot of fruit and not much else. My dad almost died of hepatitis. After this rather harrowing near-death experience, they moved to a more conservative lifestyle, which involved living in a school bus and traveling around Canada. My mom decided that being a vegetarian was extreme enough for her, and dad adopted his own strict diet of coffee, sweets (Tim Horton boston cream donuts were a main staple), with an odd meat and potatoes dinner thrown in for good measure. Ironically my health-nut mom was quite obsese and my junk-food-crazed dad was quite skinny. I always thought of them as Jack Sprat and his wife… Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean… so between the two of them, they licked the platter clean. Except mom was Jack, and she wasn’t lean. It really doesn’t work, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking of that nursery rhyme when I think of my parents.

Anyways, the point is that I was raised by a health freak mom who introduced me to many “health” foods such as air popped popcorn sprinkled with nutritional yeast flakes, and we considered trail mix a “treat” (raw almonds, raisins, unsalted raw sesame seeds, dried fruit, etc)… When I was 6 years old she gave up being a vegetarian too. She would go to a local Hutterite farm and buy fresh plucked chickens and eggs, and her all time favorite meal was cooked carrots, baked yams, brown rice, and roast chicken sprinkled with Spike seasoning.

I was the only kid in the class who brought homemade natural peanut butter sandwiches to school on whole grain bread with an apple for “dessert”. I envied my white bread-plastic cheese-potato chip toting friends their “normal” lunches… I turned up my nose at the raw milk from a local dairy farm that was served to me.

Around puberty I decided to reject my mother’s health indoctrination and adopted a finer diet that mainly consisted of diet coke, fat free artificially sweetened sweets, and “traditional” grocery market processed foods. For the next 15 years I nurtured an out of control binge eating disorder that centered around junk food and sugar cravings, alternated with strict diets of deprivation whenever guilt set in. Which was regularly. I went from a healthy 130 lbs in high school to over 210 lbs by the time I was 23 years old.

Even when my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I refused to contemplate the damage I was doing to my health through the foods I was putting in my body. I brushed her concerns for my health off with humor and made morbid death jokes. She passed away in August of 1998.

Then when I was 26 years old I got pregnant. My whole perspective on life changed. I didn’t want my child to be subjected to my self destructive behaviour, so I started going back to the foundation of healthy eating that my mom instilled in me as a child – for him, not me. I started researching attachment parenting, and through that, kept coming back to a more natural whole food way of eating. I definitely wasn’t sold on the whole idea, but thought I could start working on taking small steps towards healthier eating.

When my son was 6 months old he developed severe eczema. I was breastfeeding him exclusively, so when he was diagnosed with multiple food allergies and asthma, I eliminated his trigger foods out of my diet. His problems improved dramatically, and when he weaned at 2.5 years old… Yes, I’m one of “those” freaks that did child-led weaning… I started feeding him really healthy foods. His diet consists of very little sugar, lots of whole foods, and I’ve gotten really creative with baking without dairy, eggs, soy, or nuts. To date I’ve mastered organic whole grain pancakes that are fortified with rice protein powder… pumpkin chocolate cupcakes that are to die for… and a chocolate birthday cake made with chickpeas and no eggs.

I was still drinking tons of diet coke at the time though, and my binge eating disorder was still rearing its ugly head on a regular basis, but I thought if I started with one small thing at a time, it would be a start.

First I worked on eliminating all the processed white flour out of my diet. I started buying all whole grain breads, whole wheat pasta, tortillas, and bagels. Once I adapted my palate to whole grains, I switched to whole grain AND organic.

Next I worked on the produce. I switched all the fruit and veggies I bought to only organic options. I found a local produce market that stocked only local organic in-season produce and started buying my produce there. Surprisingly I found the prices were quite reasonable!

It seemed as I started making these changes, that chain grocery stores were also getting on the organic food bandwagon, and started stocking more options at a more comparable price. I switched all the canned or jarred products I normally bought, such as tomato sauce and canned beans, to organic. I found the flavors were a lot richer, and I was enjoying my food more. What great satisfaction I got out of making a 100% organic meal for my family!

My midwife sent me an article about the evils of artificial sweeteners, and I took the initiative to do some reading up on it. I was appalled at what I was putting in my body in HUGE quantities! I was drinking 4-5 cans of diet soda everyday, not to mention the artificially sweetened diet foods I filled up on when I was trying to “diet”. I took a large garbage bag and cleaned out my cupboards, fridge and freezer, and went off it completely in all forms, cold turkey. Haven’t had anything with artificial sweeteners in about 2 years now.

Next I found a local butcher who only carried local hormone/antibiotic free meat and poultry. I couldn’t believe the difference in taste! It took me back to my childhood of farm chickens and beef that my mom would bring home. Amazing! I hadn’t even realized how different the meat tasted until I found the real thing again. I had a moment of epiphany when I stopped at a fast food restaurant for a hamburger, one that claims to use no fillers, and literally had to spit my food out cause it tasted like bleach! I can’t go back now.

The next hurdle was dairy. It is harder to find organic dairy products, but I have persevered, and I can say I’m only eating 100% organic dairy products now.

Recently I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovaries and my doctor put me on the South Beach Diet. I have to admit I’m already following it pretty closely, EXCEPT for sugar and the artificial sweeteners he advocates. I found an excellent natural sugar alternative, xylitol, and on April 12th I stopped eating sugar cold turkey. The first week was intense. I had migraines and I haven’t been that exhausted in ages. I felt like I had the flu or something! Once I got past the first week though, it got easier day by day. So, I said all that to say this. This blog is about my journey to going organic. It will include shopping tips, frugal shopping ideas, and recipes. It’s not just about food though, even though that’s been the main focus of my greenifying to date. Now I want to expand into broader horizons. I’m thinking of starting a container garden on my condo patio. Composting! Recycling! Becoming more efficient. Analyzing my carbon footprint and shrinking it.

Come back soon…