The Beginning

SO.......... This is our journey. Who are we? We are a husband and wife with 4 kids, crazy work schedules, animals to take care of, kids with practices and games, 4-H meetings, 4-H superintendent meetings, homework to help with, band concerts, chores to do, yardwork, a house to clean, laundry, dishes, etc. Our lives are just as hectic as yours. We are also Vegans, with 4 Vegetarian (mostly) kids, runners, health and fitness nuts, and cross country coaches. Yep.........Vegan. Your thinking either: What the heck is a Vegan? or Vegan?! You guys are nuts. In case you don't know.... Vegans do not consume any animal products or anything made with animal products. OMG!!! NO MILK OR EGGS OR MEAT!!! nope. Lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains. No we are not crazy....... Well..... we ARE crazy.... just in a zany, loony tunes kind of way.  Being vegans has opened a whole new world of food preparation. We have made everything from cakes and brownies to veggie lasagna, and vegan "bacon cheeseburgers".  We make the majority of our food from scratch. There are "vegan" things that are processed and prepackaged. We do our best to steer away from those things. For example we make our own peanut butter, bread, jams/preserves, applesauce, and salsa. We also make a concerted effort to stay away from high fructose corn syrup, non-organic and genetically modified (GMO) foods. That stuff is bad for you.
   
Before I get anymore off track (sometimes I ramble.... A LOT!!) ..... I also stated that we are runners and fitness nuts. Felicia runs everything from 5k's to half marathon's. She also does Pilates. I am currently training for an Ultra-Marathon (50 miles).  I run everyday and lift weight 3 times a week. Yes every single day at least 1 mile to keep the streak alive. The kids are all active in sports as well, the oldest 2 play soccer, 3 of them run on the cross country team, the youngest also plays baseball in the spring. We are also assistant coaches for the cross country team (which we thoroughly enjoy) and we are both about to return to school so we can get more nutritional edumacated.

So as you can see we are a pretty busy family and some days can get pretty hectic. We try (it doesn't always happen) to create a menu each month. That way we don't spend an hour (we can be a little a lot indecisive at times) trying to figure out what to eat and we don't get tempted to make unhealthy choices based on convenience. It also helps us to plan the time to make the meal and make a grocery list each week. We also have a large calendar on the wall where we keep track of everything. Everyone has a color. Everything big and small is put on the calendar. That way everyone knows what is going on. We also have a chore schedule for the kids. Everyday they each have certain animals to take care of and certain chores to be accomplished. Of course getting the kids to accomplish those chores is a whole different story.

That is a little about us. Check back again soon. Like I said we will be sharing a little bit of everything. Glad to have you along on our journey.