ALL homemade

We just finished off a week of eating everything homemade. No packaged food for the Hagens. It's something I've always wanted to do, but it always seemed too extreme. A whole week! But Pax has been having some tummy issues, and Caleb thought it would be fun to try. So we all went grocery shopping together at the beginning of the week and loaded up on fruits and veggies, oatmeal, flour, etc. We skipped the cereal, packaged cookies, chips, crackers, and even all dairy.

Over the week we made breakfast bars, muffins, bread, crackers, and lots of breakfasts and dinners. I knew it I would spend a lot of time in the kitchen this week. And I did. But we all really enjoyed it. The kids never complained about not having packaged food. If they wanted a dessert I said, o.k., let's make one. I asked them today what they thought of the week of homemade food. They both agreed it was good. Charis' only complaint was the cakes weren't very good. (Turns out whole wheat cake isn't so tasty.)



I really like making breakfast for them instead of eating cereal in the morning. And I found a really good bread machine recipe. So I think we'll keep those things up. Admittedly, most snacks are better to just buy. The crackers we made weren't very good and didn't make very much. And the breakfast bars were just okay. Cliff bars, packaged crackers and chips are probably best store-bought. Sadly I couldn't eat much of what we made this week. This wasn't too bad except for the fresh baked bread. How do you resist that smell? I didn't completely resist.

Charis also did an art project with all homemade "paint brushes". She used cotton balls on straws, twigs, and a leaf to paint with. It was a fun experiment and the picture turned out cute.

Winery

My brother Scott turned 40 last week. His fun wife planned the surprise party of the century for him. She brought him blindfolded to his work. And we all yelled surprise! And he was. We were all giggling as we took him around the corner to the TOP DOG LIMO BUS!!



This thing is crazy. It's a huge bus (we comfortably fit 15 people in it) with a large screen t.v. in back and a smaller one in the front. It was blasting a U2 concert the whole time. Everything is all dark and swanky. There are foot lights, a disco ball and even a spot for a poll (we didn't use that option).



We rode with the kids (mine and Scott's) to a restaurant and winery in Temecula. And had a yummy, although hectic, lunch with the kids, and then mom drove them home (yeah mom). The rest of us stayed and went to 3 more wineries for tastings. Me and Caleb were the only novice wine tasters, so it was a totally new and fun experience for us. Although wine is considered okay by some raw foodists (since it's fermented at low temperatures) I felt like I totally went off my diet.

There was this guy at one of the wine taste-eries who was awesome. Every wine that he poured came along with a story of how he has a case of that same wine in his house. A case? After three or four "tastes" we were beginning to wonder if this guy wasn't a full-on wine-o. Shouldn't there be some kind of rule about this?



The whole day was super fun, and I highly recommend the Top Dog (Caleb said it should be "Top Dawg") Limo Bus for your next party!

I don't want to go to college

Charis- Mom, how long till I'm 18?
Kate- 12 years. Why do you ask?
Charis- I was wondering how long till I'm an adult.
Kate- Are you excited to be an adult?
Charis- yeah. Cause then I can do whatever I want.
Kate- Do you feel like you can't do what you want now?
Charis- I guess I can. Mom, I don't want to go to college.
Kate- Why?! (where did this randomness come from?)
Charis- And I don't want to get married.
Kate- what? (said calmly)
Charis- Because if I get married I'll have to love that person more than I love you.

These are the moments that keep me going.

I heart Hallie

There are some people who always make you feel loved. Who you know will say really nice things to you, and remind you that life is joyful. Hallie is one of those people. And I love her muchly.

We've been friends for 12 years. She was on vacation in San Diego last week, so I got to see her twice.

Our kids don't really know each other, since we became moms after college. But they played together swimmingly.

My kid's refer to her oldest son as "that silly and fun boy".

PIRATES!

my family

I've recently had two different friends tell me that I should be so thankful for my family. And I am. But I needed those reminders. Those friends have to work really hard to love their parents, and I admire them for doing that. I mean, we all have to work at it sometimes. But my parents and siblings and nephews and nieces are amazing (all 21 of them). I always look forward to family parties, and my kids are just beside themselves with anticipation for each family visit.



At the last family party Aunt Sissy and Uncle Tom were visiting from Tennessee (my parents are the one's on the left). And Rachel was not prepared for a swim party. John knew how to take care of that.

Twister anyone?

My old friend Amber spent the day with us recently. I have lots of comical and ridiculously fun memories of life with Amber. We were the best-est of friends in high school. Now we are both moms and much less fun, but every once in a while we do something crazy. Twister anyone? I know I know. It's been a while.



Amber was truly amazing me with her flexibility. I think my legs are twice as long as hers, but she was so able to put her left foot on the red and her right hand on the green. She's still got it. Jack, her adorable one year old, was playing right along with us. It truly is "the game that ties you up in knots".

legoland

My parents bought us season passes to Legoland last Christmas. Since it's a mere 10 minutes away, we've been often. The thing about legoland that's so great is it's relaxing. This is not a quality of Disneyland, Magic Mountain, or any other amuesment park. I have often chosen to go there on days when I needed calm. Amazingly that can be found at Legoland (as long as you don't go in the summer). It's the greenest spot in north county SD. Maybe thats why I like it.

Pray more?

Last week was not a good week. Tuesday and Wednesday in particular were real pissers. It's hard to know sometimes why certain days are harder than others. I've had lots of days like last week, and I am normally able to be patient, or see the joy in the situation, or feel hopeful about the next day. But this time, I was out of hope. I had that bad feeling you get deep in your stomach, that tells you everything sucks. Which is not true. But it feels that way. Tuesday I got to the point when I was so frustrated and sad at my kids that I ran into my bedroom, closed the door and literally fell on my knees to pray. It was a bit dramatic. And I'm not a dramatic person. It's not unusual for me to pray for help, but this was a desperate prayer. One minute later Charis barged in and said "what are you doing?" I told her I was praying and she wanted to know "what for?" So I said I was sad and frustrated at the way everyone was acting, and I was asking God to give me patience and wisdom. By this time Paxton and Jonas had come in too. Charis got really quite and Paxton gave me lots of hugs. A minute later Charis said, "I prayed too...that we would be more nice!" Amazingly, the rest of that day was much better. The kids were more aware of the way I was being affected by them. And I felt thankful.



I would have blogged about this the following day - God answering my prayer - but the next day was much worse than the one before. I even called Caleb and told him I was ready to trade in Jonas. He was interested, depending on what we were trading him in for. JoJo (as Charis calls him) is amazing and fun and brilliant, as well as strong willed, defiant, and hot-tempered. Sometime that afternoon I asked Charis what we could do to make our day better. (We all knew it was a bad day.)She said, "pray more?" We did. I guess God answered "no" because the day did not really improve.

Yet somehow in the midst of all that we did these amazing things that would make it apear we had a fabulous week. I could have just posted those, but I would feel like a fraud. So you get both : )





The above pictures are of this cool bubble art we did during our bad week. They turned out really cute.



And Charis can now make it to level 2 at the R.E.I climbing wall! She's awesome.

Raw Date

Caleb and I got to go on a date last Friday. Grams came over to watch the kids, and since she spent the night, we got to stay out as late as we wanted. We fought through our yawns, and stayed out until 11:00pm. Can you believe how crazy we are?! Caleb came home from work with flowers for me. Awwhhhh.



We ate at Cilantro Live for dinner. We dined at the one in Carlsbad (there are 4 of them in San Diego county). We ordered a sampler plate, a "margarita", and carrot cake for dessert. It was all really good and surprisingly filling. The sampler plate included 2 Nori Rolls, 1 Spring Roll, 1 Buenos Vida Wrap, 2 Raw-violis, 2 Mini -Pizzaza and a small House Salad. The margarita was crazy but yummy. It had green apple, lime, ginger and a pinch of ground cinnamon. The ginger gave it a serious kick. I've tried to reproduce the carrot cake, but I need to keep working on my recipe. Theirs was tasty.

Afterward we saw a (gasp) 9:20pm showing of Bourne Ultimatum. Man it was intense! It has the craziest fighting and chase scenes ever. It was a little over-the-top violent for me. But Caleb really liked it.

I have a great raw recipe to share. I took it to a BBQ and everyone liked it! (Randomly, I got it from the Tyra Banks website.)

The “Raw Food Diet” Recipe for Angel Hair Pasta and Marinara Sauce:

INGREDIENTS:
3 medium to large green zucchinis
4- 6 medium size roma tomatoes
12- 16 sun dried tomatoes, soaked
3 medjule dates, pitted and soaked
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons parsley (dried okay)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (or paprika)

Use your food processor to cut the zucchini into thin strips, reminiscent of angel hair pasta.(I cut these by hand since I don't have a food processor. But it took a while.) For the sauce, you don't need to chop or dice any of the ingredients. Simply combine all ingredients in the processor or a blender and blend. Let the sauce "marinate" the zucchinis for a couple of hours. Then serve!

(Recipe makes 8-11 cups)



Charis has been fascinated by my morning juicing. So she asked if she could make some for herself. I gladly agreed, and she proceeded to make herself cucumber, carrot, apple, celery juice. And she liked it!

BBQ @ Kirsten's

Who needs "Swiss Family Robinson" when you can have pillow fights, princesses, sword fights, races, kid-directed performances, screaming, and yummy food? And all this right here in Encinitas!



There was a lot running and loud talking. And the adults had a great time hanging out while the kids entertained themselves. I enjoyed meeting an unschooling mom who has 3 older girls (who she's unschooled all the way).



The sword fights eventually ended with a real injury. Pax claims he cut Asher with his sword.



The girls gave all the adults special jewelry and food they concocted.



And the evening ended with a lengthy and confusing, although impressive, performance by the kids. The red box was the stage, and everyone took a turn doing their thing on it. Don't think organized talent show. Think guitar, bongo drum, yelling, sword fighting, bossiness and lots of fun.

Glen Park

We love Glen Park in Cardiff. There is an ocean view, a little playground, about 10 different kinds of huge beautiful trees (many climbable), lots of grass to run around on, the train to watch, and sand to dig in. We had a family picnic there on Saturday.



Charis spent a lot of time climbing this tree. By the time we were done she was able to scoot up it really quickly and walk up pretty high.



This tree was not as easy. Note the frustrated face. It had lots of sap on it, and the branches were too close together.



The boys weren't interested in climbing but, man, they were cute.



And Jonas was loving being in the middle of Pax and Caleb's "spider".

NO MORE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON!

Charis is obsessed. She claims "Swiss Family Robinson" is her favorite movie except for Cinderella III. And she wants to watch it all the time. The other day we went to Cardiff Beach with our friend Astrid. Charis explained the movie to her in great detail, telling her she had to come over and watch it. Astrid was mildly interested. Her and her mom ended up coming over, so Charis was ecstatic to show her the film. But Astrid preferred to play, so Charis preceded to give the most impressive sale of the movie. She would not let it go! Finally Astrid consented to watch, but about 10 minutes in, she was over it and wanted to play. Charis couldn't believe it. She said, "There are tigers and pirates coming! Don't you want to watch that?!" But Astrid was not convinced.



Later we got a short karate demonstration from Astrid, which has generated several fun conversations.

Swiss Family Robinson

Have you seen this movie? Oh my gosh. It is hilarious. So terribly cheesy and politically incorrect. But it was a fun thing to watch as a family. Shipwrecks, tree houses, crushes, exotic animals, and pirates. What more could you ask for? Caleb made an elaborate tent for us to sit in as we sipped our smoothies and watched the film. He's a fun dad.

Puppy School

For never having gone to school, Charis is quite the little teacher. We overheard Charis teaching her cousins and brother on Labor Day. They were all to sit still and listen to her ask questions from this Kindergarten questions booklet. They actually followed her directions, and sat still listening to her in the 105 degree weather. When I asked her what they were doing she said "puppy school". Pretty soon we saw them all prancing through the house barking and chasing each other.



The puppies needed a break, so they stopped for lunch.

Raw Recipe

I'm snacking on raw macadamia nuts as I'm writing this. It's been two weeks since I've gone raw. And I'm still loving it. mostly. My energy level is still higher than before, and my moods seem less extreme. I'm just generally in a better mood. My body seems to like eating this way, and it's been fairly easy. The past few days I've had very minimal joint pain, but Im not sure that's due to the diet. It will take more time to evaluate that.

The negative: it's freakin' expensive to eat this way! I'm trying to learn how to do it more frugally. The raw crackers, cereals and ice creams are super good, but really pricey. If I end up doing this for a long time, I will make a lot of that stuff myself, but I'd need to buy a sprouter and dehydrator. And some of the specialty items I've bought, I didn't like. For instance, the sea vegetables. They literally made me gag. Nothing makes me gag. It was that bad. But overall I love eating this way.

I modified a recipe I found online, and it turned out pretty good. Here it is...

COCONUT ALMOND TREAT
There is a "crust" and then a icy topping. Serves 2-3
Crust:
2 cups germinated raw almonds (germinated=soaked in water for 8-10 hours)
3 Tablespoons coconut oil
1 Tablespoon agave syrup (or raw honey)

mix the almonds and oil together in blender or food processor. Mix in agave syrup and form 2 "pancakes" out of it all.
Place on wax paper and put in freezer aprox. 2 hours.

Sauce:
1 young Thai coconut (has to be carefully opened with a big knife)
1 Tablespoon agave syrup (or raw honey)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Open up the coconut and put the milk and "meat" in a blender. Add the syrup and vanilla and mix.
Place in a container and freeze aprox. 2 hours.

Once they're ready, place the almond "pancake" on a plate and spoon the sauce over the top. It's a refreshing treat.

our weekend

We have cats. Two of them. "Li Li" is orange and "Ash" is black. Both are strays. And they don't like each other. It's scary sometimes - the cat fight noises truly are frightening. But Charis and Jonas adore them. So, I keep feeding them. I even bought cat food today. (Turns out, cats don't like brocolli.) It's the perfect way to have cats - I don't feel responsible for them, but my kids get to enjoy them. Unfortunately, Caleb is not a fan.



Charis and Pax were playing secret agent the other day. So, Charis came up to me and said, "What's your problem? How can we help you?" I told her I didn't want to tell her my problems until I knew who she was. At first she just looked at me, so I repeated my request. After more silence she said, "you can look it up at www.charis.com". And, that is my daughter!



Charis, Pax and 2 of their friends built this intricate island and canal system at Cottonwood Creek Park. It was pretty impressive.



Our old friend Esther Ko came to visit us for the day. It was fun and mellow; full of the beach and games. The kids were really excited to play Kids of Catan with her, since she is the Settlers of Catan queen. And they drank chocolate soy milk out of a coconut.