Hello All!

Forgive me for my lack of writing. I’m reminded of a comment a friend of mine would say when you came into her house. “Excuse the mess, I live here.” I can not write as much as I would like because I’m too busy living the life I want to write about!

First, my Piper story. We were in Burlington, IA parked in a casino parking lot for the day. The casino had an indoor/outdoor water park attached to it. I took the kids in to the toddler section. They were so excited to jump into the knee deep water, I could hardly get their shoes off. In the center of the shallow water, there was a huge playground area. I was planning on getting hardly wet in this little pool but I did take my sundress off and escort them into the water. We were holding hands and walking up to the very first tiny water fountain. As we were all reaching out to touch our first bit of water for the day, a HUGE bucket of water from up above had reached its tipping point. It poured all over us! We were in the front and center target for this bucket. We were completely drenched and almost knocked over. Levi was loving it. Piper was so mad and startled, it ruined the rest of her day. She sat on the sidewall watching the bucket fill and dump with fear. The poor thing! My children change personalities in the water. Levi puts his whole face directly onto the shooting fountains. While Piper freaks out about every drop that falls past her forehead. This happened almost 2 weeks ago and she still randomly declares her dislike for water buckets.

Fairfield, Ia – I love Fairfield but sometimes being in such a healthy location has its drawbacks. We are traveling all across Iowa doing these seminars. I have found that ordering sandwiches from HyVee is the easiest way to cater lunch. Well, in Fairfield we knew we would run into some vegetarians so along with my sandwiches, I cleaned out my fridge of all our fruit and served whole fruit and a huge mixed berries bowl. We always serve single bags of chips and cookies too. Everyone seemed happy with the food laid out before them except for one guy in particular. This is Ryan’s story, I was not there. This guy points to the tray of almost gone sandwiches, to the roast beef sandwich in particular and says “What is that?” Ryan says “Looks like beef.” The guy says “Why would you bring THAT here?” Ryan replies “To feed all the other people that ate the other ones, I guess!” Gotta love that! If someone were to put me on the spot like that, I would have stuttered an “I don’t know…” or something. I love the energy of this kind of town. I wish that with all the healthy, love life euphoria that happens in places like these, we didn’t also have to endure the judgments of others. I find this often while traveling. Why not allow everyone to be on a their own journey? Why judge who is next to you? I just don’t get it… Doesn’t stop me from wanting to go back to Fairfield! Love that place!

To make things even more interesting of late, we watched a movie called Forks over Knives. It is a very depressing, scary and informative movie about our American diet and is trying to show the benefits of a “plant based diet.” That means vegan but they don’t want to scare anyone with such words. Richard and Ryan are convinced they want to be at least vegetarian now, leaning heavily towards vegan. That changes my cooking plans! I have found some very yummy dishes this past week. If you wanted to make any of these as a side to your slab of meat, I think that would work just fine!

Recipe for Southwestern Quinoa Salad with Black Beans, Red Bell Pepper, and Cilantro

Sweet Potato with Tomatoey Beans

Ethiopian Cabbage Dish

Also, I have found a love for bean tacos.

The guys have quit eating cheese too. I’m not that brave yet so I still put a little Monterrey Jack cheese on my taco. You can serve this warm, room temperature or cold.

I must get back to work now. Here are some pictures of the kids, just because!

Sweet Levi

First time bowling

Posing by the Mississippi River

SolPowerPeople workers!