on the very last night.

It was so so hot.

Like drowning in sweat hot, but considering the spider situation I forced the sheet to swaddle itself around my body and occasionally over my head.

and as long as no one so much as touched me in the slightest I was ok.

and besides, the winds were fairly strong.

There was a storm coming.

Not that it mattered, it stormed to some degree every night we were there. Lake Powell.

The next thing we heard after slipping into sweet slumber was the voice of my mother following a loud crack of thunder.

'are you awake now' she said. I can only assume she was standing there trying to wake us minutes before. She was worried about us. We sleep on the top deck of the boat. It's cooler up there and who doesn't like falling asleep under the milky way?!

We had a lightning storm move in right on top of us. It was close. Chad grabbed Lu, and I picked up the bedding and headed down stairs. I went back up to get Kassidy. She was just lying there. I told her she needed to get up and move downstairs.

She argued with me. Can you believe it?

And then the biggest bolt of lightning I ever seen/heard/felt cracked through the sky and suddenly as if by magic she seemed to know what I was talking about. (She claims she was still asleep while I was talking to her, pshhhhah)

Once we were all downstairs safe and sound (well... as safe as you can feel sitting in a metal boat in a pool of water) I pulled out my camera. Chad hung around with me.

The great thing is, I didn't even see this bolt.

I hit the shutter, the sky lit up, hair stood on edge, and me and Chad busted through the screen door as fast as we could. In that exact order.

Funny how we thought we could out run lightning. ha! we're so rad.


Did I mention our rad-ness?

You wanna see something almost as nifty?



Have you ever seen a nose wrinkle up like that? haha!

It looks like a lion's nose.

grawr!

truly.

I took a personality test last week.

Have you ever known something you're whole life, but then someone tells you and its like a whole new discovery? Me to.

I'm an introvert.

So THAT'S why I hate parties so much! right right. makes sense.

Also, you know that weird girl that that won't eat just anything. Annoying isn't she?

That's me.

Those that know me well know that I will not eat ground beef, cows milk, or fast food. And those that know me REAL well know I also won't eat shellfish, cheapo chocolate, margarine or things that say 'light' on it. And then there's a whole nother list of things that bother me greatly and its only a matter of time before I nix. Artificial sweeteners and colors are extremely high on that list!!

All I'm sayin is I'm not the cheapest date in town ;)

But this summer I kicked something else out of my diet and actually out of my whole families diet. I don't usually push my weirdness on my family but after reading about High Fructose Cornsyrup I decided it was time for it to get the boot.

Imagine taking your 5 year old to the store to buy popsicles and then you get to stand there watching her cry for 10 minutes because we can't buy the Popsicle brand popsicles and for what ever reason the Dole pops aren't going to cut it.

Me again!!

Haha. I have to say though that I have no regrets ousting that one. And actually Lucy and Natalie have both been very good at reading labels to see if there is High Fructose Cornsyrup in stuff I buy. I've thrown out whole loaves of bread because I forgot to check for it! The thing we learned is that you really don't have to go without, there is always some brand that doesn't use it, with the exception of snow cones (one of my kids favorites)

But the hardest thing for the majority of my family was the soda! Chad got a little huffy with me on this one because (and he's right to some extent) I already don't drink soda so for me it wasn't giving anything up. I forgot to add soda to the list above. haha. I will occasionally drink rootbeer but on the whole I probably drink less soda in a year than most do in a week, possibly a day depending on the individual.

About a month after getting rid of HFC I took my kids to Miami/Globe, AZ to photograph them and it was hot. I mean really really hot. They were eyeing the public pool big time hot!! So I took them to a convenience mart and let them get any frozen treat they wanted. I didn't restrict anything. It was painful but I watched Lucy pick out a giant rainbow popsicle... 100% HFC! And let me just tell you how my little angel turned into a gigantic monster from the deep! It was then that I decided no matter how good they were being the restriction must always apply! There was one other time after this that couldn't be helped and again angels turned to monsters. noticeable behavior change!

and why am I telling you all this again? oh yeah, I was going to share with you the magical wonders of making your own almond milk at home!

(Don't tell my kids but the plan is to slowly ween them off cow milk and get them on something much more nutritious and natural)

So here's what you need:

1 cup of raw almonds
4 cups of water

If you want to add sweetener you can. I use agave to sweeten. just a tablespoon or 2 depending on how sweet you want it. A little cinnamon or vanilla won't hurt it either!

Soak the almonds in filtered water over night in the refrigerator.

I drain this water and add 4 cups of fresh water, I haven't decided if I prefer draining the water or using the soak water so I drain it for now.

Pour in high powered blender ( I use a vitamix)

Strain through a nut milk bag. I've used cheesecloth before but it leaves too much grain for me so I prefer the nut milk bag which you can make yourself if you sew. I made mine out of a loosely woven fabric I found in one of my many drawers of fabric.


Here we are, we've just poured our blended mixture into the nut milk bag lining a glass bowl.


And now we just grab the string and cinch it up lifting it up so the milk can drain.


We let it continue to seep till it slowed down then we started twisting the bag putting a squeeze on it to get ALL the milk out.


Fresh raw almond milk!

For now I am sweetening my milk so I can get my kids to drink it and hopefully I can slowly back off the sweetness without them noticing. Thats my plan anyway.

If you're interested in macadamia nut milk check THIS out! I tried this, it was delicious. loved the addition of coconut oil!

I take some flack in my family for my somewhat particular views on food. When I say family I mean my mom, dad, sisters and their husbands. Like last month while talking to my dad he told me they think I am snobby when it comes to food. ha! Can we just replace the word snobby with choosy? or careful? or enlightened? or smart? caring? genius? Come on! nutrition isn't a gimmick!

I didn't get an A in most of my classes in culinary school but guess which one I did ace?!

NUTRITION!

I've always been interested in nutrition. And I guess you could say I don't like to live in the middle. When life is good I want it to be incredibly good and when its bad I allow myself to feel it so that when we get back to good it feels OH SO AMAZINGLY GOOD!

Just for fun you should go take the personality test and report back to me what your 4 letter code is.

Mine is ISFP (the I stands for introvert btw)

You can take the test HERE!