New Ideas about Food

I believe I’ve recently mentioned that menu planning and food preparation while traveling gets both old and difficult fairly quickly.  If my children and my palate could handle peanut butter and jelly 3 times a day we’d be good, no problem.  But neither are cooperative with this arrangement for long.  I have tried a variety of things I’ve never tried before.  For instance, microwave dinners.  After three nights of them I was ready to go back to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches permanently.  The companies who stock the freezer section even know how to ruin spaghetti.  I didn’t know that was possible- I can even handle seriously overcooked noodles.  So plan B was…well there wasn’t one, or I wouldn’t have resorted to microwave food in the first place.  However, I became very diligent at looking up ideas on the internet.

I found a site called greensmoothiegirl.com.  It seems to be somewhat of a fad diet, but she calls it a lifestyle change and after my diet I was willing to try anything.  The idea of a 60-80% raw diet looked very appealing (as I didn’t have any cooking appliances anyway, after we switched hotels I didn’t even have a microwave), and I started to look up the concept of “whole” foods.  I’m interested!  So the plan at the moment, is to buy a Blendtec as soon as I can muster up the will to push the button that causes me to spend $400, as a birthday present to mwah, and incorporate as many smoothies and salads as I can comfortably handle into our family’s diet, while eliminating most of the junk…and you’d be surprised at what I consider junk.  I don’t expect amazing results while traveling, and we’ve been doing tons of salads anyway, but I hope to continually improve.

I guess I've always had some weird ideas about food, but friends and fam beware...it's getting weirder.  People ask me if I'm a vegetarian.  I guess I'm not officially, but I don't cook meat pretty much at all anymore, I just eat it when I go out.  It's been a gradual process.  I learned what kale is, and arugula, and lots of other types of vegetables that caused the checker at the grocery store lots of grief trying to find out what the items were and then price them.

Anyway, I'm finding it's actually quite fun to eat mostly whole foods, although considerably more expensive.

Becoming a Motel Connoisseur

I’m quickly learning how to pick motels.  I’m learning what “brands” I like and what amenities are higher on the priority list.  I’m learning to weigh costs/benefits such as a fridge and microwave, general neighborhood/environment, carpet or hardwood and other possible cleanliness issues that had never bothered me before (remember, there are cockroaches here!), proximity to base, pool availability, being on the first or second floor (because I have BOYS, who like to play on the railings), bed availability and hotel policies (charging for internet, charging per person, how many people can stay in a room, etc), and so many other little things that didn’t matter when I was only staying for a night and then moving on.  It’s quite interesting really.  I now have chains I like and chains I refuse to stay at.  Amazing the quirks frequent or prolonged traveling can instill.

Homeless

     I must say, as much fun as I’m having visiting family, and as grateful as I am to be able to be with Shawn on the weekends, traveling gets extremely difficult after a while.  There’s no real routine, a lot of time in a car, I have a difficult time sticking with goals (fitness goals for instance, or budget goals), tracking expenses after a while, etc.  It’s tiring too; you’re always on the go, packing or unpacking, looking for the toothbrushes, worrying about washing the clothes, or how you’re going to work out the meal plans.  Especially the food- planning meals in a motel with no fridge or even a microwave is just ridiculous.  I’m extremely grateful to be staying with family during the week. 

     Theo is my most needy child as far as routines go.  If we don’t do the same thing every time it can seriously upset his entire day.  This is a child who can throw a fit for hours over a single diaper change if you don’t have the right diapers—Huggies, with Mickey Mouse on them (which I totally spaced the other day when buying diapers…it’s gonna be a fun month).  So he’s been telling me every day that he wants to go back home now, to California.    He is not taking the news well that there is no more home in California, even though I try to get him psyched up about the new house we’ll be going to in Hawaii.  Right now, he’s just sad he doesn’t have any home at all.  (Olie is also telling me he wants a house now please, and he wants to not stay in hotels anymore!)  I feel for the kid, all of them really, even though I do get a little flustered when one of them goes around telling random people we’re homeless. 

So where should we go to church honey?

10th June 2012- Update!

Our solution to the church dilemma- going to church in a branch with no children (but they still wanted us there, and Shawn will have to attend that branch when we’re gone) is to go to the last two hours of the ward that meets at 9:00 so that the kids are able to attend classes too, and then the sacrament of the branch Shawn is assigned to.  It seems to be working out so I guess we’ll keep doing it :). 

I’m Melting, I’m Melting!

Can you guess what the picture is of?  So some people store things in their oven, and some don’t.  I don’t, my sister-in-law does.  I didn’t check the oven before turning it on to make biscuits.  The sad part is, I knew the large plastic bowl of granola was in there!  She’d told me that morning, but I’d forgotten by dinner time.  It wasn’t pretty, and I spent a lot of time cleaning it up.  I ran to the store and got oven cleaner, scrubbed it down the next morning, and in the afternoon.  My only consolation is that the oven looks better now than before I melted the plastic in it.  Now to find another plastic bowl and lid of that gargantuan size!

Branches Grow on Trees

As you'll soon be able to tell, this post was written yesterday :)

Shawn has been assigned to a student branch.  So that’s where we went today.  Ours were the only children there.  There’s no primary or nursery.  They haven’t had children around much, and were very happy to have us.  The boys all bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting, something they aren’t usually allowed to do (except Demetri), and had lots of attention the whole time.  Shawn stayed with the littler ones and conducted a mini class/nursery, while Demetri went to class with me.  He was happy to know some of the answers in Sunday School.  It was the story of Alma the Younger :).

While talking to the Branch President Theo told him that branches grow on trees.  I think he’s used to being in a ward, haha. 

Two Moms in a Kitchen

We’ve been staying at Shawn’s sister’s house in San Antonio for the last week.  We= Me and the kids.  We’ve had fun; it’s been an adventure!  The kids are getting along most of the time, and are enjoying the “vacation.”  I learned how to make granola (and the kids love her granola- yay!), we’ve been making smoothies like crazy in her Vitamix :), and yeah, well, cooking for a crowd of our size requires lots of time in the kitchen.  She has 5 kids and I have 4.  I’m excited to try a few recipes, and since she also homeschools, a few homeschool projects.  The first one in line for next week is a solar oven, 'cause, it's definitely warm enough.

We’re staying there during the week and coming back to San Angelo (3 hours away) to visit Shawn on the weekends.  It’s the compromise we came up with when Shawn got put in the barracks instead of being able to live with us, but didn’t want to miss his new baby for 3 months (they grow so fast when they’re that little!).  So we’re doing this till the 4^th of July and then heading back to Idaho, possibly very slowly.  The 30 hr. trip down here was killer. 

However, we did get to stop by Arches National Park for a few hours, which was awesome :), and we visited family and friends on the way, which was also cool.  I will see if I still have the ability to post pics…Oh look, it worked :)

 The boys were thrilled to find some "shade."  Doesn't look like much shade to me but I suppose it's all relative.

 Wow, all of us together in a picture...that's a rarity...

 The only acceptable-ish pic of me during the entire trip, and believe me there are plenty; my husband is camera crazy.

 There's a baby in there somewhere. Those shades are army-issued, and boy does he love them.  He takes better care of them than I do of the kids!