happy christmas

This Christmas season has so far included: decorating our silver tree, making a gingerbread house (which got attacked by ants), wrapping presents (Charis wanted to help for about 2 minutes), watching Charis perform in 3 Christmas concerts, teaching Charis to knit, playing lots of Lego Starwars on the Wii, decorating Xmas cookies with friends (and eating raw gingerbread cookies-yum!), admiring the huge lego Christmas tree with those same friends, getting unexpected (and much needed) checks in the mail (that still happens?!), lots of reading by the fire (thanks to whomever anonymously sent us firewood) and watching Jonas climb out of his bed and sneak into the living room (over and over again). I feel really aware of God's mercy this month. I feel Him taking care of us. And I know he's letting us and others be a big part of the process, but I also know He is the orchestrator of it all.





I re-read all the accounts of Jesus' birth this week (in my favorite version of the Bible The Message). And something struck me as cool, that never has before. It's the part where the wise men have been following the star (Star Appreciation Society anyone?) and they loose sight of it, only to see it again right over Jesus' house. It says...

Then the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time! (Matthew 2)

How cool is that! I never really thought about how relieved they must have been to finally be in the right place. I like the assurance of it...the right place and the right time. I feel like I am in the right place at the right time. Led by God. I think this is always true. We are always right where we are supposed to be at that moment. And God uses those places to teach us and change us. I want that phrase to run through my head when I am doubtful. "This is the right place and the right time!"

I do believe Jesus came at the right place and time. I believe that His birth and eventual death is what allows me access to God. These words that I have heard so many times, and are often stale, are also what give me hope and assurance and joy.

happy christmas.

Cloud Appreciation Society

My beloved friend Kari gave me an amazing birthday gift recently. I recieved a large package in the mail full of beautifully wrapped packages. Each gift had a note attached explaining what part of my life it was for. Some of the highlights included a book for me (Eat, Pray Love. I really liked it.), a book for my kids, a cute nighty from Anthropologie, and the book of Phillipians hand written to me as a letter (such an enlightening way to read that!). But the highlight for me (if I had to pick one) was a framed piece of paper indicating that I am now a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society. I found the site and sent it to her some time ago and had since forgotten about it. Thankfully she did not.

My duty as a member is to "seek to persuade all who'll listen of the wonder and beauty of clouds". This will be no problem for me, seeing as it comes quite naturally. I absolutely love that this society exists and that Kari signed me up for it. I love that she knows I would love this. And I do appreciate, dare I say love (again), clouds.

roommates, cards and billys

Kat and Bas. ahhhh. A weekend with the old roommates. Paxton absolutely loves Bas. The thing with Paxton is he's less friendly and social than Charis, and more of a home-body. So I've always thought of Charis as being more of a "people person". But Pax is the real people lover. Although he'd rather stay home, he wants to be home cuddling and kissing. Whereas Charis is planning the next outing whenever we're home. So back to Kat and Bas. Paxton wanted to be near and on Bas all weekend. He's only like this with people he feels comfortable with. And I guess old roommates fit the profile.

Other than Pax and Bas hugging, we also played cards with K & B. That brought out this funny contrast of personalities. K & B are quite competitive, and me and Caleb are, well, not in the least. But it was fun all the same. I used to think I wasn't competitive because I'm not very good at sports. I thought it was some sort of defense mechanism. Like since Im not very good at "games" I don't enjoy them and am therefore not competitive. But I was "king" like 4 times during our card game, and I never digressed all the way to "skum". Yet, I was mostly ambivalent. Admittedly, I would have enjoyed the game less is I had lost the entire time, but I never felt angry or exuberant. K & B felt and expressed both. Having such strong feelings about a card game is baffling to me, but being so relaxed about life is boring to them.

"The billys"....this is what Jonas calls his toes. Why? I have no clue. But I love it, and constantly ask him to say it. Also, he has an affection for the letter "w". He can pick it out of a line-up and searches for it on the fridge. I also love that.

And I have begun the 5th Harry Potter book. I've only read part of chapter one, and Im already itching for the kids to go to bed so I can read more. Im no longer ashamed. I proudly read. 

 

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.

Buba 2

When Caleb's grandma was alive, she asked Charis (her first great grand child) to call her Buba. Well, Charis liked that name, but wanted to know what to call Buba's husband. Before we could answer she said, "Buba two?" Well, we all laughed and the name stuck.



We got to visit Buba 2 at Sunrise Home last week. The kids had a great time. And I think Buba 2 did as well.

fall fun

All my fall decorations are in storage, so we made some new one's this year.



a ghost of course



this is a spider not a cat, caleb.



paper pumpkins for the wall. charis made hers a girl.



and this amazing scarecrow my dad bought us. yes, that's right, my dad picked this out and drove it up to us. awesome. paxton is scared of it.

How do you know they're learning?

A friend was asking me about unschooling yesterday. She wondered how I knew if my kids were learning enough and if they were "on track". I think this is a great question, and one that all us unschoolers get asked all the time. Basically, I know what they're learning because Im with them all the time, and I see and hear what they know. Amazingly they are learning a ton without any required workbooks or "learning time". I don't know if they are exactly on track with their school-going peers. And honestly, I don't care. I know they are ahead in some areas, and possibly "behind" in others. But it is obvious they are growing and learning. The really cool thing is they remember what they learn because they are discovering things they are interested in, on their timing. Isn't that how we all ultimately learn?



Last night we had a perfect example. Most of the day was spent playing with friends and watching a movie. Which could be seen as non-educational (although I believe they learn a lot from both of those activites). But that night we went on a family walk around downtown Encinitas. After a successful trip at a funky thrift shop, we went into a store with kid's toys. Outside they had a chalkboard and chalk. After playing inside for a long time the kids headed outside, and colored with the chalk for about 30 minutes. Charis started by writing 1-20 on the ground and hopping on the numbers. Which helped Paxton learn some of those higher numbers. Then she wrote out "10 plus 10 is 20". Why she wrote that I don't know. I didn't even realize she knew that. And since I haven't taught her formal math, she didn't know the short cuts. So I asked her if she wanted to see the shortcuts for "plus" and "is". So she learned how to write simple equations on the ground of downtown Encinitas at 6:00pm. Paxton kinda copied the equations and Jonas doodled. Caleb and I stood back and marveled.



Once home we ended up having a discussion about different country's governments. For some reason she wondered which countries have Kings and Queens. That lead to a talk about our government and the president and democracy. I explained how our country is run. So, now she knows about that. And that is how I know they are learning. And why I'm not concerned about them being on track.

this kid

i love him.

still raw

yes, I am still eating all raw. I have occasional "cheats" but they are rare. I have said to some of you my joints feel 90% better and the rest of my body feels 100% better. Recently we've had a few cold days (now it's hot again) and during the cold weather my joints we're bothering me more again. But much less than they used to in the cold. So I'd have to say my joints 75% better and the rest of me feels 95% better. Im hoping that more time on raw will continue to heal my body, and that even the cold will have little affect on my joints at some point.



i do like living this way. It's becoming normal, and I don't have to think about every meal before I eat anymore. There are times when the inconvenience of it bothers me, but the benefits completely outweigh the negatives. Due to digestive issues, I eat only fruit until lunchtime, and then no more the rest of the day. I thought this would be really hard, but it's been great. As long as I have a banana first thing, I have plenty of energy. (I always thought I needed some protein in the morning, but I have more energy with the fruit.)

I've become much more in-tune with my body, and am realizing I need less food than I used to consume. I never considered myself an emotional eater, but I was/am! It was masked by the fact that I would turn to food when I felt "off". So it seemed like a positive understanding of my food-body relationship. But I was just turning to food to make me feel better, instead of exploring other options. This is still my first response, but I'm learning to try other things first (exercise, water, sleep, talking to a friend,etc.). Im realizing that I usually don't need to eat more when I feel bad. My body is probably still digesting what I ate last, and adding to that process will just make me feel worse.



a typical day's "diet" for me consists of...
*banana, orange, apple, figs, avocado, other fruits until noon. warm tea.
*loaded salad with spinach, cucumber, broccoli, sunflower seeds, sprouts, peppers, other veggies for lunch.
*soaked almonds or raw crackers with green olive spread, or veg juice, or raw granola, or coconut smoothie for snack
*nori rolls (like eating sushi w/o the fish), or raw soup, or raw "spaghetti" for dinner
*carob coconut balls, raw ice cream for dessert (raw desserts are great, and guilt free)

this is just off the top of my head. There is more. I'm still learning, and there are some things I can't make until I have a dehydrator. If you're interested in some great and fairly simple recipes check out the book Rawvolution by Matt Amsden.

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!