Who eats raw in Alabama?

Nobody, is the answer. So after a short break from eating raw, I'm back to it. The other night I made a delicious Pineapple- Cucumber Gazpacho. It's more of a summer food, but I enjoyed eating it with my slippers on in front of the fire. My friend Ginger gave me a great raw recipe book, Raw Food Real World, and this one's from that...

4 cups chopped peeled cucmber

4 cups chopped pineapple

1 cup fresh pineapple juice (I didn't do this)

1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced

1 green onion, white and 1 inch of green, chopped

1 Tablespoon lime juice (I used lemon)

1 handful cilantro leaves, plus a few for garnish

3 Tablespoons avocado, macadamia or olive oil (I used olive)

1 handful finely shopped raw macadamia nuts (I used almonds)

In a blender, add 3 cups each of the cucumber and pineapple, the pineapple juice, jalapeno, green onion, lime juice, and salt. Blend until smooth. Add the remaining 1 cup pineapple and 1 cup cucumber, the handful of cilantro, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the oil. Pulse the blender quickly a few times - it should remain chunky. Taste for seasoning. Can chill or serve immediately.

Before serving, add the nuts to the gazpacho and stir to distribute evenly. Drizzle with remaining oil. Garnish with cilantro.

H-TOWN

My (not so little anymore) sister lives in the (not so) beautiful town of Houston. It was wonderful to see her face. We stayed two weekends with her. It was nice to spend some time with her boyfriend's family, and see where she works. We stayed up late one night talking. It's been a while since we've done that.




April and Charis have a special relationship. It's endearing how much Charis loves Aunt April. I think it's the big earings, high heals, impromptu dance shows, and clarinet skills that win her over (who wouldn't be?). Oh, and there's the hair rollers. Thank you April for this...

Sweet Home

Alabama? Caleb said it was time for us to come home when Charis announced she wanted to move to Alabama after we live in Fallbrook. Needless to say, we had an amazing time. The kids played hard and long everyday. And it was almost a week's break for me. My cousins are 12,13,15,16, and 18. The oldest was at college, but the other 4 loved on and tired out my kids everyday. Their house is on 5 acres of land which has a creek and small forest in the back yard. Not to mention a tree house, trampoline, 4 wheeler, basketball hoop, toys, games, etc. But the thing that made my kids love Alabama so much was the play time with the cousins.





A big motivator for going on this trip was to see my precious 94 year old grandma. Its really special to me that my kids got to know and play with their "meemaw". It was fun to watch her pretend to be annoyed at Jonas. And just the smell of her house (corn bread and vegetable soup) and the "sameness" of her life was comforting to me.

Lauren, my 12 year old cousin, had a horrible accident while we were there. We were all at Cheehaw Park climbing rocks and enjoying the spectacular fall colors. Lauren was somewhat out of view climbing up a large rock, when a boy "harmlessly" threw a (big) rock over the side and hit her in the head. This caused her to fall backwards off the rock (a few feet) and also hit the back of her head on the rocks below. We thought for a second she was dead. It still makes my stomach turn to think about it. Her parents rushed her to the hospital where she spent the next 4 days. She recovered beautifully, and we got to spend our last 2 days with her. Since she ended up being okay, it was actually a cool bonding time for all us. There's nothing like a tragedy to bring people together and put immediate perspective on life. I think every church in Alabama was praying for Lauren (and sending us fried chicken). It was pretty awesome to see the support and love of all their church family.

There is so much more I could say about our trip, but this post is way too long already. So, I'll end with 2 of my favorite pictures. The first is of Paxton looking like a true farm boy. If there is one thing he's not, its a farm boy. Despite the forced smile for the camera, he hated the farm visit. Charis on the other hand, ran around like a crazy kid picking up goats and chasing the miniature horses. I love to see the differences in my kids.

And Jonas. He's 2 now. So tough and fun and loud and kissable. I love this picture of him.

Life is a highway

and I don't want to ride it anymore. At least not with three small kids in a motor home. But seriously, it could have been much worse.

We played a lot of "Whosit?" My parents still have the 1975 edition. It is awesome. It was Paxton's favorite game.



We grew to love and hate gas stations. There was such excitement over getting to stop and buy a (nasty) truck stop treat. The sweet video games and ridiculously expensive toys were a bonus too. And yet the smells and the possible big rig maulings were something we are glad to be done with.





We fell into a nice routine in the motor home, and I only had occasional moments of "this sucks!" A lot of the places we stopped at were really beautiful, which always excited me. The beauty was mildly interesting to my kids. But one RV park in Texas was so desperately ugly. There was nothing pretty about the place. But it was my kids favorite stop. Why? Because they got to play with 2 fun girls for a few hours. They are still talking about those girls. It was a good reminder for me...people are the most beautiful thing to children, and should be to me as well.




We talked a lot about America and each state we were in (7 in all). Unschooling was a breeze. Charis can proudly spell m-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i all by herself. And Paxton almost has America and California distinguished from each other.



Im so glad we did it, although next time it will definitely have to be with Caleb.