Day Seven








Days Four thru Six

A little better.  I'm almost certain that my mood is on the upturn.  During the day I'm great.  Lots of energy, happy, not hungry at all.  Then after all my peeps are in bed and the living room god starts luring me in with it's intoxicating glow, and I want meat...and bread...with salt and maybe some chocolate.  I'm trying, I really am and I think when I walk away from this raw business, I'll make some big changes to my diet, but I won't ever be 100% raw.  More on this later.

Guess who's back.  Yeah, who were we kidding?  I have three kids under the age of 6, I NEED coffee. I did discover vanilla flavored coconut milk instead of cream. 

Good Seasons make these spice packets for dressing and all you do is add oil and vinegar.  I think I'm so used to ordering ranch dressing that I've been missing out on a lot of flavor.  This salad is cucumber, tomato, avocado and a garlic salsa dressing.  

Fruit salad: Strawberries, blueberries, bananas and a splash of vanilla coconut milk. 

Day Two and Three

So what happened was...

Day two:  Same as day one for breakfast and lunch, but I had a salad for dinner this time.  The no caffeine did get to me so I broke down and had a coffee.  The conversation in my head involved some correlation between caffeine, enemas and a healthy digestive system.  So chug, chug!

Day three:  Yummy fruit salad, green smoothie and then... dum,dum,dum... BBQ at my parents!  I went prepared with a edamame salad and cantaloupe tossed in coconut milk and mint for dessert.  So what happened was...I ate my salad and fruit, but I had a burger too!  gah.  Tomorrow's another day.  Starting over. 

Raw-r

If you've read even a few posts on this blog, you've figured out that I'm not the steady and consistent type.  I often have way out there ideas and follow them with all gusto I can manage, then I'm done and it fizzles out.  I know this is not a sought out characteristic and in all honestly I try really hard to follow through and be THAT person, but lets just call it the duck that it is - genius!!  Really, who wants to do the same thing for-ev-er??  I just can't waste my time doing stuff that I don't want to anymore and I can't not try new things, because I'm afraid that I won't like it and quit.  I'm sure there's some clever little saying like, "It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all" but for life experiences instead of love, but I'm already bored with this post so I don't feel like looking it up. 

All that to say, I'm in a rut and going to try something new.  The raw food diet.   Only for two weeks. Surprise!! I think the idea is that eating "live foods" help your body cleanse, heal and a whole bunch of awesome things.  For me, I need a good cleanse - physically, emotionally, motivationally....  My weight loss has hit a plateau, I'm emotionally blah and I'm just in a rut.  Also, I told my friend Emily about two years ago that I would try vegetarianism.  So now that she's trying meat, I thought it only fitting to go the other way.  Wish me luck!

Day One:

I'm doing okay.  Lots of fruit, no coffee, big yummy salad and I tried a green smoothie (yum).  I did go out tonight and struggled with what to order.  I ended up with a Greek salad (cheese is not on the plan) and grilled falafel (cooked food is a no no ) BUT I didn't eat meat!!

The no theme, theme

My poor third baby.  After pirate princess, dinosaur,Nemo, Curious George, superhero and mermaid parties, I guess I'm tapped out.  Benjamin had a low key first birthday, like Allie and Martin, but then all I could come up with for his big boy two year old party was... dirt.  Really there is nothing else this kid likes more than to get dirty.  Well, maybe to get wet.  So, wet and dirty, that's all I've got and it doesn't make for a solid birthday theme.  I know, I know he'll live and really, he DID have an awesome party. 

Bright and colorful, just like my baby.  Thanks Tiffany for another awesome invite.  http://www.miragreetings.com/

Games and things Benjamin loves to do:



WATER: We rented a slip-n-slide from a family friend (Angel's Moonwalks) and it was the best idea for a summer birthday.  EVERYone from the birthday boy to his 63 year old uncle had a blast.



Getting dirty:  With all the shovels and dump trucks the kids had a good'ole dirty time at the sand table.

Balls!!!  We filled up our baby pool with a little bit of water and a ton of balls.



Hitting things!  Fortunatly for his bother and sister, this time it was a pinata.



Things Benjamin loves to eat!

Ben's favorite foods: hot dogs, fruit and chips!  I bought these little fast food baskets and lined them with butcher paper for an easy clean up.

Snow cones!
I bought a little Sunbeam snow cone maker from Target.  Great investment for summer!  I made the syrup with a simple syrup mixture and two koolaid packets. No highfrutose corn syrup here!





Lemonade!! This is so much easier than box drinks and sodas!



I know it's hard to tell, but he just destroyed a piece of watermelon!



In honor of Benjamin loving to be dirty, I made dirt cake in individual dump trucks.  The trucks also served as the party favor.



And messes they made...



And his favorite thing of all...fun time with good friends. 



Thanks kids for helping us celebrate Ben's second birthday!

So I guess we did have a theme after all.  "All things Ben".  Love you baby.