Let's have the best new year EVER!

Join us for the Daniel Fast in 2013! We're starting tomorrow morning. Today is the last day to indulge in your sugary sweets.

Not sure what it's all about? Not sure you can do it? I guarantee you, that you can do it. That it'll change your life. It's a time we set some time to focus on the Lord, and detox our bodies from all the Christmas foods. Check out the video to learn more. I hope you join us on this journey!

With Christ we can do all things!

7 Day Juice Fast

Lately I've been talking with some of my girl friends that in the new year we want to get healthy and start eating/living better. Then we started talking about wanting to do a 7 day juice fast. We were so excited about the idea, the idea grew and a couple of us, grew to a few of us. This week I opened my email and received one from the Juice Master: aka Jason Vale! It wasn't a personalized email or anything: however it was an email describing the World's Biggest Juice Detox. He's encouraging the world to do the detox. Last year he had over 18,000 people participate. This year he's looking to have over 20,000 participate. The Juice fast starts January 7 - January 13 2013. How neat is that, we were already thinking/planning to do a juice fast in the new year and here is a movement happening, inspiring the world to do a juice fast.

The reason he's not doing it January 1st, is to get your body ready for a juice fast after the holiday eating. So the first few days in January you cut out the sugar and garbage and stop caffeine etc to get ready for the fast.

Check out the website here.

Go to the Juice Master's website and sign up to join us!

So what will you need for the Juice fast?

• a Juicer 

•  a Blender 

•  Mason Jars (to store and bring your juice with you to work/while you're out)  

•  Fresh fruits/veggies to create delicious juice

• Optional:  His book 7 lbs in 7 days, or his Iphone app 7lbs in 7 days (to follow along, get great advice, amazing recipes etc)

 

So you're considering juicing in January with us? Here's a few reasons why I do it:

• You feel fabulous!
• Great way to jump start weight loss
• A quick way to get rid of toxicity in the body (especially after Christmas and holiday foods this season)
• Get a ton of minerals and nutrients to your body quickly with juicing

So what's my plan?

I've signed up for the world's biggest juice detox to start on the 7th and end on the 13th of January. I'm also going to start the Daniel Fast on January 1st. That way my body will be prepared for the juice fast. After the juice fast I'm going to continue the Daniel fast until January 21st. Not only will I be starting off the year right with healthy habits and spending the 1st 21 days of the year restraining from my sweet treats to focus on the Lord and hear his direction for my year and life. 

Want to be part? Follow this blog. I will be posting each day a video or post. Also, follow our group Greener living moms to get encouragement and feedback from other juicers during the journey. 

Live in Pensacola? We'll be going out for juice once during the week as a group at Everman. There's strength in numbers. we can do it together. 

My Favorite Loaf of Bread yet...

I've made about 1/2 a dozen loaves of bread in my breadmaker since I've been grinding my own flour. Most of them have seemed pretty dense, not really light and fluffy. The loaf of bread I made today is definitely the lightest, fluffiest, homemade bread I've ever made in the bread maker with my own ground flour.

It's called: Light Oat Bread. I got the recipe from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

It ended up a little lop sided, but tasted delicious, light and fluffy!

• 1 1/4 cups of warm water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup rolled oats ground
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt

The best news was that my family LOVED it too!

Old Fashioned Popcorn

I absolutely love a yummy snack while watching TV or a movie. Popcorn is definitely one of my favorite snacks. Growing up as a child, my family had a popcorn maker. You'd plug it in, pour your popcorn kernels in it, and popcorn would come out the other side.

 Then we would get bags of popcorn to pop in the microwave. I'll never forget when "Movie Theater flavored butter Popcorn" came out to pop at home. My family was literally in heaven. Every Thursday night we'd rent Blockbuster movies, order pizza, and make some "movie theater flavored butter popcorn" at home! We couldn't believe we could make that kind of popcorn at home without going to the theater. What a treat, and such fond memories I have.

Now that I'm the mom and have a family of my own, we have family movie night once a week. We try to pick a movie that the whole family will enjoy (including my youngest who's two). We make pizza at home, and lately have been wanting to find a better alternative to making popcorn in the microwave in a bag. It's really full of...for lack of a better word: 'junk'. I was at Everman, our local  co-op grocery store and discovered that you can buy organic popcorn kernels pretty cheap in bulk. I bought some and brought it home and put it in a glass jar. So it's ready when we're ready to make popcorn:

Here's how I make it:

• I put some oil in a pot on the stove
• I pour about a 1/4 of popcorn kernels in the pot
• Put the lid on the pot so the popcorn doesn't pop out
• Wait for it to pop
• Once it slows down popping, bring it off the stove and pour the kernels in a bowl
• Add your seasonings: like cinnamon/sugar, dill & garlic salt,  butter and salt etc. The options are endless! I love homemade popcorn

The best part about making homemade organic popcorn is you know exactly what you're putting in your body! No junk, no additives, no chemicals, and definitely no GMO's!   I promise you that making it at home, takes no more than 3 minutes. Which is exactly how much time it takes to make it in the bag in the microwave. So why not make it on the stove as a MUCH healthier and cheaper option?

 Try it! I'd love to hear what you think. 

Cheesy Bread, a total flop...literally

I decided to up the ante with baking bread in the bread maker, from making simple regular whole wheat bread to a Cheesy bread. It honestly isn't that much harder. It really is just adding a couple extra ingredients.
I followed the directions completely! I put the ingredients in the bread maker just the way it said. I should've stopped there....however I have these instincts when it comes to cooking. Like to add a dash of 'this' or 'that', however whenever I get these instincts, I need to ignore them. They're ALWAYS WRONG! I keep thinking I can substitute 'this' ingredient for 'that.' Or 'this' seems like a good idea, however IT NEVER IS! I don't know why I never inherited the cooking gene, I just didn't.

So this is what happened:

The bread maker said 40 minutes left. It was on the last cycle for it to rise. So I opened the bread maker lid and thought, wouldn't it be great to put a layer of cheese on top of the bread? I would love to slice into a loaf of cheesy bread that has a layer of cheese on top. Doesn't that sound yummy? Can't you taste the ooey gooey cheese now? Well I put some cheese on top and then lowered the lid. I opened up the bread maker 40 minutes later to discover a TOTAL FAIL...or should I say flop!

The bread couldn't rise with the heavy cheese on top. So lesson learned...I should perhaps wait until the bread is completely finished baking to then add a layer of cheese. My poor looking bread, what a sad sight!

Despite the appearance of the bread, it did taste pretty good!

Churning Butter!?!?!?!

It honestly started as a joke. A few weeks before my 31st birthday I mentioned to my family I wanted a grain mill for my birthday, so I could start grinding my own flour. My parents joked that next I'd want to start churning my own butter too!  I laughed, but didn't say anything. The thought kind of stuck with me. How does one churn their own butter in this modern age? I found quite a few youtube videos that show you how to make butter. One of the things that shocked me is that Heavy whipping cream and butter are almost exactly the same! The only things I needed to make butter were: Organic Heavy whipping cream and my kitchenaid Stand Mixer.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. ALL you need is heavy cream!
2. Pour it into your kitchenaid mixer
3. Use the whisk attachment, and put it on high
4. Whisk until it looks like whipped cream...keep on going until it looks more like butter wading in milk
5. Strain the buttermilk out of the butter, so that the butter doesn't go rancid. But save the buttermilk for waffles, or pancakes.
6. Pour in a bit of water, and whisk some more
7. Strain out the water
8. put the butter in the fridge

1/2 a container of heavy whipping cream, after 10 minutes of whipping it in the kitchenaid mixer. It separated into buttermilk and butter. 

The finished product: delicious organic butter!

So why am I making my own butter? Well for a few reasons:

• To know exactly what is in my butter: (1 ingredient, organic whipping cream)
• To try my hand at making it, to see if it's something I could consider as part of my regular routine
• To save money, organic butter is quite pricey.
• Best part of all: it's extremely simple to do! Anyone can do it.

Tonight, I'm trying it on some homemade bread.

The 'Unjunked' verdict

Well the verdict is in! I had posted awhile back about 'Unjunked' candy that i now on the market. I thought, how neat candy that doesn't have any preservatives, no artificial ingredients, no corn syrup, no hydrogenated oil, GMO's, or for lack of a better word 'junk' in it!  This week I went to CVS and when we were checking out my daughter wanted some candy. I looked down and there (on the lowest shelf possible) it was! There were four different options in fun bright packaging.

My daughter loves the ones like M & M's

My son wanted to eat it right out of the packaging.

Here's what the M & M ones looked like. I love the colors, so pretty!

This one was my favorite. I'm caramel kind of girl.

• chocolate caramel nougat bar
• ones like regular m & m's
• ones like peanut m & m's
• ones like peanut butter cups

They were on sale 2 for $2. I went back later in the week to buy some for my husband to try and they were $1.19 a piece. The packaging is about the same size as regular candy bars.  Let's just say they are all AMAZING! My kids couldn't get enough, my husband loves them. I honestly couldn't taste the difference. I love that when you eat them, you know exactly what the ingredients are inside them. There's no junk! They simply are UNREAL!

Give them a whirl and see what you think.

Local Honey

Did you know that there is a difference between eating honey from a company that mass produces honey and eating honey from your local bee keeper? I didn't, until only recently.  There are amazing health benefits to eating honey that's produced locally. Here are some reasons to enjoy local, raw honey:

• It's a natural sweetener, much better than sugar for you

• Raw honey contains: assortment of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and amino acids

• Modern food-processing techniques often involve filtering honey for clarity and superheating it to avoid crystallization and extend its shelf life. These processes can dilute much of the nutritional value of the honey, however. Filtering might remove minerals, for example, and superheating honey partially destroys its vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes. 

• Another casualty of industrial honey production is taste. Much of the honey found in stores is a mixture of many different kinds of honey, with much of its uniqueness lost in the process of filtering, heating, and mixing. 

• Because local raw honey contains minute particles of pollen from local plants, some people believe that ingesting local raw honey helps build up immunity to the pollen, alleviating springtime allergies.

• If you don't know where your honey is coming from, chances are it's imported: 
The majority of honey sold in the U.S. is now imported from four major sources: Canada, Mexico, Argentina, and China. This is a shift from past decades, when most of the honey sold in the U.S. was produced domestically. 

• Buying local honey causes less pollution and saves resources.

So where do I get my honey? Well if you live in Pace or Pensacola I highly recommend East Hill Honey Company. Not only do they sell local, raw honey, but they're on a mission to bring apiary's to other neighborhoods. They're working to live more of a sustainable life, which is exactly the same mission I'm on. I'm trying to find ways to live a 'greener life'. 

This past Saturday I went to our local farmers market: The Palafox Market.  Tommy Van Horn (the founder and beekeeper for East Hill Honey) was there selling his honey. I shared with him how much I appreciated the lavender soap I purchased from him in the past. He was so kind and gave me these three beautiful end pieces of soap for me to try free of charge! What a blessing. I was so surprised, and thankful for his generosity! A whole bar of beeswax soap from him costs $6 regularly. I bought some creamed honey from him as well. I adore creamed honey. I used to eat it a lot as a child growing up in Canada. I couldn't wait to try East Hill's version of it. It came in such a pretty bottle. When I got home, I put a piece of homemade bread in the toaster and covered it in the creamed honey. It tasted a lot like my childhood, but better. His honey has a distinct flavor, almost fruity.  

I've bought their amazing soap. My favorite is the lavender.  Here's what they say about their soap:

"Our Lavender Soap bars measure 2.5" x 3.25" x 1" thick - a great size for a bar of soap. We use all natural ingredients (oatmeal) and they feel great to use everyday. Our soaps have no Parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate (or similar), unnatural preservatives, or petroleum products. All soaps are vegan."

My children LOVE their honey sticks. They remind me of pixie sticks, except they're such a fun, delicious, and good for you treat! They cost $2.00 for 5 honey sticks. 

I'm finding that when I know where my food comes from, and when I know the story behind it, I become so much more grateful for it. I can envision the labor and care that went into it. There becomes this appreciation for it, like I haven't had before when just picking up a manufactured bottle of honey on the store shelf at the local grocery store. The experience is almost spiritual, as I thank God for providing the food and sincerely thank him for the hands that prepared it. 

If you get the opportunity go to your local farmers market and meet the beekeeper. If you're in pensacola, meet Tommy.  Pick up some honey and I guarantee you, it will taste nothing like the store bought kind you have purchased in the past. Once you try local, raw honey, there's definitely no going back. 

Homemade Delicious Bread

For my birthday about 10 years ago I would've been thrilled with getting a pair of boots, gift certificates to my favorite clothing store, or something along those lines. Is it because I'm in my 30's, or perhaps because I'm on this new journey about living the healthiest lifestyle I asked for kitchen products for my birthday.  I was hoping for a Green dutch oven from my parents, and a grain mill from my hubby. Of course I got made fun of, by my wonderful parents, who think I'll want a butter churn for christmas. My reply to them was "I don't need a butter churn, my kitchenaid mixer makes butter just fine." I don't think I'll be stopping their teasing much with that comment, but I'll ensure I don't receive a butter churn for Christmas.

The grain mill arrived in the mail the day after Thanksgiving. I couldn't wait to try it. The only downside: I know nothing about wheat, what kind to buy, where to buy, how much to buy, where to store it, how long it lasts, once ground how long will it last. I had a slew of questions and not sure where to start. Sarah Jones from Bread of life bakery was a HUGE help. I messaged her with many questions. I was ready to buy a six gallon bucket of wheat. She recommended buying 3-5 pounds of three different kinds of the main wheats to start. Here's what I've learned so far.

• Hard wheats are good for breads.
• Soft wheats are good for pastries.
• I realized I've never seen wheat before it was ground up. It looks kind of like rice to me. 
• I can grind corn, rice, oats for different types of grain
• buying the grain whole is cheaper than buying flour
• Whole grain can last 40-60 years, if kept in a sealed container

So I bought five pounds of each:

• Red hard wheat
• White hard wheat
• White soft wheat

I love the grain mill. It attaches right to my KitchenAid KSM75WH Classic Tilt-Head Stand Mixer (Google Affiliate Ad). I placed a bowl underneath it to catch the flour. I placed the white hard grain in the top and turn on the mixer. It took about 6-10 minutes to grind three cups of flour. While it was grinding I grabbed all my ingredients for the bread maker. I have to say I've made bread by hand, and I've used the bread maker. What a lifesaver a bread maker can be! There's so much kneading, and rising that I pop all the ingredients inside the maker and in 3 hours I have fresh bread, my house smells like bread and it's beyond delicious with some honey on it. 

3 cups of beautiful whole grain flour. 

There's my hardworking bread maker (thanks to a dear friend who gave it to me! Such a blessing). On the right is the 1st loaf of white bread I made. I made the mistake of opening the bread maker while it baking and the top of the bread sunk in. It didn't rise all the way. 

So why am I interested in grinding my own wheat and baking my own bread? A couple reasons:

• I'm always looking to save money
• I want to provide the healthiest food for my family. Store bought breads have so many ingredients in them, that I can't even pronounce. If I make it myself, I know exactly what 5-10 ingredients I'm putting in the bread. I can pronounce my ingredients.
• Flour bought at the store has been sitting on the shelf, for who knows how long
• If I buy organic bread, it can be expensive.
• The choice to use a bread maker is to make it easier, quicker, and less work. 

The Dancing cucumber

I'm not sure if any of you remember my last post about my cucumbers...but they didn't end well for me. The ants came in and enjoyed my plant. However after I wrote that I didn't pull the plant. I left it. I figured I'll pull it once it's completely dead and brown. It never completely turned dead and brown. I had the surprise of my life this week, when I went outside and spotted a CUCUMBER on the vine! My cucumber plant miraculously survived. I literally jumped up and down and shouted "WOHOO! I didn't kill my plant!"I couldn't believe it.

Can you spot my lone cucumber?

Every time I talk about my cucumbers I always think of Veggie tales and the Dance of the cucumber song. I figured it was best to share that video, than one of my attempt at singing that song. haha.

So if you think something is far beyond help/repair, don't count it out. It might surprise you. Like my cucumber coming back from what I thought was dead.  Another gardening lesson from the newbie gardner.

Best Juice I've EVER made

My favorite juice is called:

SHERBET LEMONADE

• 2 apples
• 1/2 a lemon

That's it! So simple, yet so delicious!  I was amazed at how simple it is. So refreshing!

Courtesy of Jason Vale (who I consider the king of juicing). He's written countless books on the subject. Juicing has changed his life.  He makes that recipe in this video. He's pretty eccentric. I absolutely love the juicer he uses in this video. It's a wide mouth juicer, so you don't have to cut most of the fruit before you put it in. For example when I juice an apple I have to cut it into 6 pieces to fit into my juicer. This one, you just put the whole apple in. Plus it cleans in one minute! This is definitely going on my dream list. 

Try the sherbet lemonade, let me know what you think. By watching his enthusiasm I had to try it, and I absolutely love it. Plus, I had the kids & hubby try it and it was a hit! I know it's a good juice when they'll drink it too. Now I wonder if I could hide any veggies in that...probably not, probably is why it's so good!

Girls Spa night!

I had the opportunity to host a 'Spa Party' at my home. Friends of mine started selling beauticontrol products. I chose a Detox themed party. There are many different kinds of spa parties they can throw. I was very excited to try their detox line of products. The 'beauty' of hosting one of these parties is the lovely ladies who sell beauty control do all the spa treatments to you! My part was just opening my home, inviting all my friends and of course, providing the food. So what kind of food do you prepare for a spa party? I assumed it would need to be a lighter fare. Here's what I prepared:

1. Fruit Kabobs 
2. Veggie Tray
3. Quinoa Salad
4. Semi Dried Tomatoes 
5. Hummus and pita chips (both were store bought)
6. Cucumber cups filled with olive tapenade
7. Organic Iced white peppermint tea (sweetened with organic cane sugar)
8. Iced raspberry tea (sweetened with organic cane sugar)
9. Coffee (organic sugar, organic cream, homemade whipped cream)

Instead of the usual fruit tray I would do, I got the idea to do fruit kabobs from Pinterest!  Their fruit kabobs had strawberries on them, and I agree they would've made the kabobs much prettier. Unfortunately when I went to purchase the strawberries they had doubled in price since I was there earlier in the week. I wasn't going to pay what they were selling them for...so I opted for blackberries since they were on sale. 

Nothing special. Just my regular veggie tray. Our Veggie tray included:

tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, green peppers, broccolini (tiny broccoli!), organic carrots and organic ranch dressing.

Cucumber cups filled with Olive tepanade. Courtesy of Kris Carr from her latest book Crazy Sexy kitchen. (if you're not sure who this girl is...she was diagnosed with cancer about a decade ago and have held her cancer at bay by completely changing her lifestyle. To learn more about her journey click here

Semi-dried tomatoes. These were so yummy! This is my first time blanching anything! It turned out great. After blanching them, they went into the oven on the lowest setting for 4 hours. Of course I topped them with yummy seasonings first. You can get the recipe from Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Kitchen Book.

Quinoa Salad. (sorry it's blurry). It tasted kinda like tabouli (one of my favorite mediterranean dishes). 

Us girls, had a great time. The comments at the party included:

"Do you normally eat like this?" -- haha. I'm not sure how to take that. I didn't find it abnormal...

"Do you do all the cooking at your home?" --absolutely not. My hubby does MOST of the cooking. I usually do it on my days off (2x a week).

"What is this?" --referring to the quinoa salad. 

I think the veggie fare was enjoyed by most...we hardly had any leftovers to put in the fridge. That's definitely always a good sign.

30 New Healthy Habits this Year

I decided this past year to add 30 new healthy habits to my life. As I came up with new ideas I would jot them down in my 30 year journal.

Here's what I came up with.

1. Washing Face daily with Organic Face wash system
2. Discipline to morning bible/prayer time at 6am daily
3. One night a week is family night: homemade pizza, homemade popcorn, and watching a movie in the living room with lots of pillows & blankets
4. Sunday nights being "my night" to do spa stuff: face masks etc
5. Went to Natural Skin Care Class at Everman - Jan 14
6. Cleaned every crevis of my home
7. Went Vegetarian - April 7th
8. Started Juicing - April 22
9. Went to a seminar on Fair Trade - April 29
10. Created a Raised Veggie Garden - May 28
11. Turned the front garden into a veggie garden - May 10
12. Picked blueberries 3x this summer
13. Planted tomatoes, cucumbers in raised vegetable garden - July
14. Blogged about all my adventures
15. Planted tops of my pinnapples
16. Started growing veggies by seeds
17. Juan created another veggie garden
18. Led a 6 week mom's group on greener living
19. Teaching green cleaning at  a seminar at brownsville - Sept
20. Make laundry detergent for my family monthly
21. Make our dishwashing detergent for our family
22. Only buy organic meats & dairy for our home
23. Saw the eye dr and had an eye analysis done
24. Made tomato sauce from scratch
25. Devotions with Charlotte every morning
26. planted a lemon tree
27. refurbished the baby crib to make a bench
28. Enjoy a cup of green tea each night with honey before bed
29. 3 day juice/liquid fast
30. ____________________

I'm sure there will be more adventures up until November 16, but after re-reading this list I'm blown away at all we've accomplished this year. 

3 Day Juice Fast

This week I did my very first liquid/juice fast for 3 full days. One of the hardest, yet rewarding experiences I've ever done in my life. 

While on the juice fast, I did some research. There's a documentary called Fat, sick and nearly dead. where he does I think a 100 day juice fast. It's amazing to see. I also found many people on youtube that did 10 or even 60 day juice fasts! That's hard to believe. Many stated that day 3 is VERY hard. So I found it encouraging that I'm not the only one who had a hard time on day 3.

Hope you've had a great week:) Hope you found a green moment during your week.

The YEAR of Less

I have found this inspirational blog called The Year of Less.
http://theyearofless.blogspot.com

She focusses on:
- consuming less and having less
- consuming consciously
- eating real food
- reducing their environmental impact
- spending their time intentionally
- pursing greater self-sufficiency
- giving more

It seemed like her vision is a lot like mine. I am definitely try to consume less, consume consciously, eat more real food, reducing my enviromental impact, spending my time more intentionally, pursing greater self-sufficiency and giving more! What is not to love about this blgo! A year of less is great because she posts every weekday. I definitely look forward to what she is organizing each day!

I have already done:
Eat Your Pantry Month
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/09/day-42-eat-your-pantry-month.html

Bath & Body Products
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-39-bath-and-beauty-products.html

Purging the Kids Toys
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-33-purging-childrens-toys.html

Cleaning out the Inbox
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-31-cleaning-out-inbox.html

Cleaning out the kitchen
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-26-decluttering-kitchen-part-one.html

Purging the Books (I donated most of them to my church)
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-23-purging-books-gulp.html

The Bath Toys
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/08/day-16-minimalizing-bath-toys.html

My Closet
- http://theyearofless.blogspot.com/2012/07/day-3-minimizing-our-wardrobes.html

I should've taken pictures of before and after each of the challenges I completed above. Perhaps I will from now on.

I don't always agree with everything she does, but I always find each day inspiring! I never know what she'll blog about next. I love reading more about someone who is living this green journey and is inspire so many others. The best part is: she's Canadian like me!

Check out her blog, I guarantee you'll be inspired!

To Melon or Not to Melon? --that is the question

To Melon or Not to Melon? -- that is the question

I bought a small starter cantaloupe plant from our home depot a few months ago. It actually was one of the first fruits/veggies I ever purchased to plant. I had no idea how it was going to grow. I had no idea how long it would take to get cantaloupes. I just was excited every day to walk out my door and look in my garden and watch the changes. Then one day the cantaloupe plant took over the entire garden! It's a vine and it started wrapping itself around all my other plants including my rose bush. A couple weeks later we walked outside and I spotted a golf ball sized cantaloupe growing on the vine! So exciting! It was no where near the size of cantaloupes you see in the grocery store...but this cantaloupe was special since I grew it!

We waited patiently for it to grow and after a crazy week of rain my cantaloupe was moldy and rotten. All that work, for NOTHING:(

So this past week I went out to the garden and not only did I have one cantaloupe growing, not two, not three but four!!!!! Not only did I have four cantaloupes growing (of various sizes) but the vine was turning brown. I know that sign. I've seen my squash plant, and cucumber plant vines turn brown. It means it's about to go. What I don't know is WHY the vine all of sudden starts to die and turn brown.



So my choices with a vine turning brown with my four cantaloupes on it:

1. If I leave the cantaloupes they'll probably die too with the vine.
2. If I pick them, they might not be ready to be eaten.

So it didn't seem like I had much of a choice, keep the cantaloupes, or loose them. So I picked them all...and I was glad I did. The vines were completely brown and dead.

I brought them inside and decided to cut one up. I asked my hubby if he'd like a piece and said "I don't like cantaloupe." I couldn't believe it, we had been growing these for MONTHS and MONTHS. I responded "I don't like cantaloupe either! I bought these because I thought you did!"

So I had been carefully growing these beautiful cantaloupes for....wait for it.......NO ONE! hahaha!

I think I might cut them up, freeze them and put them in smoothies. I gave one away to my dad since he does like cantaloupes.

Lesson learned:

• I now know how cantaloupes grow
• I now know I should probably only buy fruits/veggies to grow that my family enjoys and that doesn't include cantaloupes.

Bad week better with the Pumpkin Patch

Have you ever had one of those weeks where things didn't go well? You anticipated everything to go smoothly, and then it felt as if the world was crashing? ....Well that was my week. By the end of the week I was just ready for some family time. Where better to have family time, than a pumpkin patch? It is definitely on our families Autumn bucket list. Last year we went to Holland Farms for the first time as a family. I decided then, that this would be a great annual family tradition. They have hayrides, a corn box, a petting zoo, a hay maze and a double slide down a huge hill! It's a great place to go as a family. Pumpkins are $5, or you can get a wristband which includes all of the activities plus a pumpkin! A great deal, either way!

The weather was absolutely crummy this morning in North Florida, with rain most of the day. By the time my hubby got home from work the skies had cleared and the sun was shinning. The drive out in the country to the farm is about 20 minutes. I love hearing my kids get excited about seeing cotton growing in the fields, spotting cows, or horses. My sweet two year old would cry as we passed the cows saying "they're going away!" He just loves animals.

When we pulled up to Holland Farms I noticed, that they had really upgraded their farm a lot since last year. They had a new barn, new fences, and a permanent location for the corn box with a cover. If you haven't seen/heard of a corn box, you don't know what you're missing! It's a great big box full of....you guessed it: CORN! The kids had a blast playing in the corn.

We buried the kids in it!

My two year old made "corn angels"!

It was so much fun, I had to jump in to!

I think my hubby had the most fun! I love these pictures of him.

They had these great wagons you could take out to the patch to bring your pumpkin back in. Our little ones enjoyed the ride.

Before we found our way to the patch we stopped at the slide. My son went down it with my hubby. We didn't think the the slide would be wet, or full of that dirt that you see all around it. Let's just say my husband didn't want to stop anywhere else after the pumpkin patch in public....the backside of his pants looked slightly, um let's say embarrassing. 

Here's my handsome men heading out to find the perfect pumpkin.

Each kiddo got to pick out their favorite pumpkin. I wonder what their strategy was to finding the perfect one? As you can see my 2 year old found the biggest one in the whole pumpkin patch!

He decided to take a ride back with the pumpkins, in all fairness it was a REALLY long walk back.

Before making it all the way back to the barn to check out, the kids went through the hay maze. My two year old was pretty smart to follow My five year old, and they made it through in no time!

Next was the petting zoo. Can you hear him say "GOAT"?

We got a couple small pumpkins too. We might do a fun craft with these when we get home. I'm thinking maybe painting them fun colors?

The best part of the Pumpkin Patch Adventure? Since it started out a rainy day, the place was practically empty! We had the place to ourselves. Last year, when we came it was packed with people! Let's just say this is the perfect place to go when I needed a little "pick me up". We had a blast, until it was time to go home.

He cried all the way home saying "farmer"! Bless his little heart.