Raising Harvey

WHOA NELLY! How is it already christmas???? I have been terrible about keeping up with my posts but I've got an excuse. Whether or not it's a good one is up to you to decide.

As you all well know my little family is less than rich. That being said I decided that this year I was going to hand make all of our gifts with items I already had around the house or that I only needed a few dollars to purchase and make. I've always loved crafting gifts for people. I find myself walking around stores with a dazed look on my face when I try to buy someone something. I just think most every thing out there is so impersonal and that just isn't my style.

I've been trying to squeeze in crafting time, which has cut down dramatically on all of my "other" time. I'm cranking this out quickly as Harvey naps. (Letting my shower go for today) I tell myself that I'll stay up late and craft while the boys sleep, but I'm awful at being up past 10. Firstly, if I'm awake past 9:30 I am automatically hungry. Secondly, I get grumpy because I'm ridiculous.

Okay- so there is my excuse for there being a MONTH between posts. Bear with me folks, I'm new to this :)

As you all may well know, our little family has been vegan for awhile now. It wasn't nearly as hard as we had imagined it being. It takes knowledge to motivate us, and after doing all of our research we found that our new life style choice was going to be one that did not include the consumption of any animal products. Recently we've decided on another new life style choice to partner with our already vegan life. We are now a gluten free family.

Are we crazy? I was just starting to get in my groove with cooking vegan meals. I had found all of my go to recipes and replacements for the things we liked to eat. VICTORY! Or so I thought. After again, educating ourselves on the effects that eating wheat can have on a human body we decided that it was time to cut that out of our lives as well. In short- we eat raw (sort of) still no meat, and we like to cook our veggies!

Immediately after switching to our gluten free diet both Jason and myself have lost a dramatic amount of weight. I mean dramatic. Since January, with all of our lifestyle choices we have lost close to 100 lbs combined. WHAT?!?! And let me tell you, it feels so good :)

I'm more and more encouraged and motivated to get my family on a healthy track. I love knowing that what I'm feeding Harvey is not processed and that I made it with my own two hands. We do not eat out, anywhere, ever. How could we? Almost everything has gluten in it, and even if it says gluten free the substitutions they use to replace the gluten are just as bad. So if it's not a vegetable, fruit or corn product we aren't eating it.

I will readily admit that this transition was a little harder because of how much I love and live for bread. Any kind of bread, sweet bread, savory bread, frozen bread, home made bread and how well bread pairs with things like pasta and casseroles.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel here. After your body can detox itself from all of the cravings you will still experience you will feel so good!

I am nervous about sending Harvey off to school or friends houses and hoping that he always can make the right decisions. I imagine that if he grows up only knowing one way of eating he will be more confident in basing his choices on that than just on what tastes good.  I will be posting recipes as I come across them on here- hopefully with pictures of Harvey helping.

Oh yeah- maybe you all know already. This kid is MOBILE! And I mean it- walking, running, pulling on everything in sight. Please think good thoughts about all the breakable things in my home.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours. I hope that you all travel safely and love all over your families.

Here are some pictures of my loves :)