miscellany monday, and answers part one

It's Miscellany Monday! Apparently it's also wacky formatting day on Blogger. I cannot get my font and formatting right on this post no matter what I do... 

• I don't feel like today's a holiday because first, all days are the same for me now that I'm not at work, and secondly because Chris doesn't have the day off. I don't know what I'll do with the little ones today. Probably spend most of the day at home. Maybe a trip to Trader Joe's? 

• Plans are finally well under way for Celia's birthday party, and not a moment too soon. It's this Saturday. I haven't had any time to plan things and didn't even get to sending out all the invitations we wanted to. We ended up just emailing some people we meant to invite. It will all turn out well, though. All we really need is enough food and a couple fun things for the kids to do. I'm sure they will pretty much entertain themselves anyway :) 

• I have to start pumping and saving milk regularly. It would be nice to get out every so often without having to worry about feedings, just so I feel like I have a little freedom and don't have to have Henry with me all the time. We also should really have milk available in case of emergency or if a situation comes up when I have to be away unexpectedly. 

• Speaking of not being with Henry 24/7, Chris told me we have a date scheduled in May for a baseball game. And I was really excited about it. I was excited that we have a date in MAY, you guys. That's still months away and I thought it was the best thing ever. I think we need to start getting out more...

• Celia is into playing pirate. She likes using empty paper towel rolls as telescopes for her pirate ship. Let me tell you, nothing is cuter than a little girl who can't say "r" pretending to be a pirate.

• Henry is 7 weeks old today. I can't believe he's already almost two months. He's such a good little guy. He's almost always happy, smiling, cooing, and has started almost laughing a little. Why here's the handsome little devil now:

I didn't even pose his arm like that. It's just the way he hangs out. 

I know, I know. You get the idea. But I can't help putting up just one more picture ;)

I also thought I'd start answering some of your questions. This was really fun! I'll answer some today, and finish the rest in another post. 

1) When are you going to update your family photo on your blog to include Henry (ha ha I know you are trying to get a good one of everyone together)? Haha, I'll get to that eventually! I want to make a new header with more than one picture, and haven't found the time. Can't imagine why...


2) Do you have any siblings? I have a younger brother, Colin, who I call Wally because I'm a weirdo. He's three years younger than I am. For some reason I don't write a lot about family on the blog. I guess to maintain some sense of privacy I keep it mainly to Chris, myself, and our children. 

3) Coffee or tea? Always coffee in the morning. I love coffee. I drink herbal tea during the day and sometimes before bed, though. 

4) What kind of music do you like most? I've almost forgotten that music exists outside of Celia's kids' cds. In the olden days before children, I listened to what I guess you'd call "classic rock". Blech, that makes me sound old. But I always listened to classics like the Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, etc. I am also a classically trained singer and play the piano (again, in my former before-kids life) so I love classical music, especially choral music. I've always listened to jazz and blues, too. I could write a whole post about my musical life. Someday I'll get back to it, I hope. 

5) Favorite movie of all time? This may be a cop-out, but I don't have one. I have never been into watching movies. I'd rather do other things. But, when I was little I loved Beauty and the Beast, so maybe that's my favorite. These days I like watching the occasional documentary. 

6) Religion? We are not religious. Though I'm not religious I have an interest in biblical history and study. I like to read about that stuff and find bible study really interesting. Is that weird for someone who's not a religious person? I actually know more about religion and the bible than Chris does, and he was raised Catholic :) 


7) When did you become a vegan? What led to that decision? It took a while for me to fully transition to a vegan diet. Sometime around winter of 2008, I listened to the audio book version of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Kingsolver narrates the audio version herself and it is done beautifully. It was not only a great story, but a great introduction to the concept of eating locally and in-season, and also to the concept of knowing where your food comes from and how it's produced- especially animal products. After that I cut back on our meat consumption and started buying local and humanely raised meat, eggs, and dairy products. I started reading more and more about diet, agribusiness, and factory farming, and began thinking about switching to a vegan diet. At some point I stopped eating meat all together, and eventually around spring 2010 I got serious about becoming vegan. I did a lot of research on nutrition, and by that summer while training for my first marathon I went fully vegan. I am vegan for a few reasons. It started with my concerns about factory farming- the treatment of the animals, the disastrous effects on the environment, health and safety issues, and the fact that so much grain is spent fattening animals when it could be used to feed hungry people. Then I began to research diet-related health issues, and that convinced me beyond a doubt that I'm doing the right thing for myself and for my family. I highly recommend reading The China Study, Becoming Vegan, and Whitewashed: The Disturbing Truth about Cow's Milk and Your Health. None of them are light reading, but you'll learn a lot. There are also several decent documentaries out now about plant-based diets. We just watched "Forks over Knives" and that one was pretty good. 


8) Does your family eat that way? What did your family think? When I first talked about going vegan and made the switch, people pretty much thought I was nuts. We spend our lives being told that we need meat and dairy products to be healthy, and it's not easy to accept that it may be just the opposite. A vegan diet can seem very extreme. Nowadays, it's really not a big deal. If the family is having a non-vegan meal, I just have something else available that I can eat. I have also introduced people to new foods that they've enjoyed! 


At home, I don't cook with meat or dairy. When my family has dinner or eats anything I've prepared, we're all eating vegan. Chris and Celia sometimes have meat or fish if he buys some as a treat. Celia likes cheese and sometimes has that for snack or lunch. She doesn't like cow's milk, but does drink almond milk. I would like to reduce the amount of dairy she consumes, though she doesn't have a lot anyway. I'd also like to keep Henry vegan, or as close to it as possible, when he starts eating food. The most difficult thing as our children get older will be figuring out how to explain to them that what they hear about meat and dairy outside the house is wrong. Everyone else will be telling them they need milk for strong bones. I am absolutely convinced that's wrong and that dairy is actually bad for our health, and I have lots of scientific data on my side, but how do I explain that to my kids? 


9) What is your favorite vegan meal? That's a hard question! I can't really think of one thing that's my favorite. We have a lot of vegan meals that we like. Even my meat eating husband is perfectly happy eating vegan dinners every night :). Maybe sometime I'll come up with a list of the kinds of things we eat. 


10) What's your go-to dinner when you're running low on time? Lately I've been doing pizza for dinner when I need something really easy. I get a relatively healthy pizza with spinach that Chris and Celia like, and Trader Joe's makes a roasted vegetable pizza with no dairy that's really good.  


There are still more questions and I'll answer them in another post!