We've added a new soup recipe on the www.sparkrecipes.com website. We all love Butternut Squash Soup, even if we don't really like any other kind of squash.
This great little soup is packed with sweet flavor and lots of vitamins!
One serving is only 137 calories and 2.5 grams of protein.
Growing Butternut Squash is not hard at all, and it is the only squash we plan to grow next summer. If you grow your own organic squash the only costs that will be associated with this great dish are from the canned coconut milk and the small amount of spices that will be used.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Resurrection
It would have been cool to keep this blog going during the past two years of transition. But alas, blogging and transitioning to a completely new life have not gone hand in hand.
The past two years have been a whirlwind of new things. In June 2013, I began my new life as a stay at home mom after a hectic, rewarding life helping to lead Vision of Hope Residential Treatment Center in Lafayette, IN. The 6 1/2 years I spent there were wonderful, and I loved so many aspects of my job. However, over the years my husband and I realized our kids were getting left in the dust. While we made many changes over the years to simplify our lives, we eventually came to the conclusion that for me working full time outside of our home and being a full time wife and mother wasn't going to continue to work.
The summer of 2013 was about gardening and farming and helping our kids learn the value of hard work.
The fall of 2013 was about helping the girls apply that new knowledge of hard work to school. Homeschooling for the first time was a lot harder than I thought, but it was also much more rewarding than I expected. The first year of homeschooling was about helping the kids academics be brought up to grade level, which meant many days of crying and agonizing over schoolwork. By the end of that school year we all agreed that homeschooling was one of the best decisions we have ever made. The girls flourished under the direct supervision, and it was good for our family.
The first year with me home we spent a lot of time snowed in, isolated, and focused on just each other. A lot of relationship issues were mended, and we really grew as a family. Communication, problem solving, team work, valuing each other..... It was a really good year. We were also able to more deeply connect with our extended families.
The summer of 2014 we again focused on gardening and farming, that summer with less of a focus on farming, because we came to realize that all of the work and expense of farming is not worth it if the people in the family don't want to eat the products of that labor and expense. The garden was awesome and lots of canning and freezing happened. We also had lots of opportunities to visit our out of state family.
The fall of 2014 involved more canning, freezing, and prepping for the winter. I also got caught up on some health problems, which ended up involving several surgeries and doctor appointments.
Beginning in the fall of 2013, I had decided to quit making excuses about my health and weight and began to work hard to lose weight and be healthy. Thankfully, that resulted in the loss of about 60 pounds by the summer of 2014, and the need to work through lots of mental and emotional issues that were associated with the way I had eaten and exercised all of my life. I'm incredibly thankful for that time to think through why I was living the way I was, and why I was willing to live blameshifting about my health. I'm really thankful for the SparkPeople web site. The calorie and exercise tracker there really made it easier than it could have been.
The summer of 2014 was so busy that I quit focusing on losing weight and just tried to live sensibly, but by the fall of 2014 the weight was creeping back up. It has been a journey to figure out how to eat correctly, work out enough, but still have energy and time for life's responsibilities.
Also in the fall of 2014, a visit to my doctor revealed some problems and some concerns about the possibility of a genetic disorder which would almost guarantee further cancer problems. At that point, I decided to make the transition from vegetarian to vegan. Having been a vegetarian since 2010, the transition wasn't too hard. The decision involved lots of education and study. As a result of the positive results of these changes, our entire family is now mostly vegan.
One of the reasons I am making the decision to resurrect this blog is to start making more widely available the things we've learned over the past year about health and nutrition. We've learned a lot about farming and gardening and living a more sustainable lifestyle (spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and relationally). As more and more people observe the results of our transitions over the past two years, they are asking questions and wanting to know why/what/how we are living the way we are. After saying the same things over and over, I've come to realize the time to maintain a blog will be less time than the time to keep repeating myself about such important things. So....in the end it makes sense to resurrect this old beast, and see what happens.
Hopefully, I'll be able to carve time out of my day to keep the world (if anyone cares) up to date about what we are up to, what we're learning, and the "how's" and "why's" of the changes that have come to our life. I hope to post recipes, tips, observations, etc here as I have time. If they're helpful to anyone, we'll be happy about that.
The past two years have been a whirlwind of new things. In June 2013, I began my new life as a stay at home mom after a hectic, rewarding life helping to lead Vision of Hope Residential Treatment Center in Lafayette, IN. The 6 1/2 years I spent there were wonderful, and I loved so many aspects of my job. However, over the years my husband and I realized our kids were getting left in the dust. While we made many changes over the years to simplify our lives, we eventually came to the conclusion that for me working full time outside of our home and being a full time wife and mother wasn't going to continue to work.
The summer of 2013 was about gardening and farming and helping our kids learn the value of hard work.
The fall of 2013 was about helping the girls apply that new knowledge of hard work to school. Homeschooling for the first time was a lot harder than I thought, but it was also much more rewarding than I expected. The first year of homeschooling was about helping the kids academics be brought up to grade level, which meant many days of crying and agonizing over schoolwork. By the end of that school year we all agreed that homeschooling was one of the best decisions we have ever made. The girls flourished under the direct supervision, and it was good for our family.
The first year with me home we spent a lot of time snowed in, isolated, and focused on just each other. A lot of relationship issues were mended, and we really grew as a family. Communication, problem solving, team work, valuing each other..... It was a really good year. We were also able to more deeply connect with our extended families.
The summer of 2014 we again focused on gardening and farming, that summer with less of a focus on farming, because we came to realize that all of the work and expense of farming is not worth it if the people in the family don't want to eat the products of that labor and expense. The garden was awesome and lots of canning and freezing happened. We also had lots of opportunities to visit our out of state family.
The fall of 2014 involved more canning, freezing, and prepping for the winter. I also got caught up on some health problems, which ended up involving several surgeries and doctor appointments.
Beginning in the fall of 2013, I had decided to quit making excuses about my health and weight and began to work hard to lose weight and be healthy. Thankfully, that resulted in the loss of about 60 pounds by the summer of 2014, and the need to work through lots of mental and emotional issues that were associated with the way I had eaten and exercised all of my life. I'm incredibly thankful for that time to think through why I was living the way I was, and why I was willing to live blameshifting about my health. I'm really thankful for the SparkPeople web site. The calorie and exercise tracker there really made it easier than it could have been.
The summer of 2014 was so busy that I quit focusing on losing weight and just tried to live sensibly, but by the fall of 2014 the weight was creeping back up. It has been a journey to figure out how to eat correctly, work out enough, but still have energy and time for life's responsibilities.
Also in the fall of 2014, a visit to my doctor revealed some problems and some concerns about the possibility of a genetic disorder which would almost guarantee further cancer problems. At that point, I decided to make the transition from vegetarian to vegan. Having been a vegetarian since 2010, the transition wasn't too hard. The decision involved lots of education and study. As a result of the positive results of these changes, our entire family is now mostly vegan.
One of the reasons I am making the decision to resurrect this blog is to start making more widely available the things we've learned over the past year about health and nutrition. We've learned a lot about farming and gardening and living a more sustainable lifestyle (spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and relationally). As more and more people observe the results of our transitions over the past two years, they are asking questions and wanting to know why/what/how we are living the way we are. After saying the same things over and over, I've come to realize the time to maintain a blog will be less time than the time to keep repeating myself about such important things. So....in the end it makes sense to resurrect this old beast, and see what happens.
Hopefully, I'll be able to carve time out of my day to keep the world (if anyone cares) up to date about what we are up to, what we're learning, and the "how's" and "why's" of the changes that have come to our life. I hope to post recipes, tips, observations, etc here as I have time. If they're helpful to anyone, we'll be happy about that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)