Dear Ms. Lee

We got Sophia's school letter yesterday. In it came the usual list of supplies and once sentence that will determine her entire school year: "Sophia will be in room B1 and her teacher is Ms. Lee."
While Sophia has been to both Pre-K3 and Pre-K4, she was at different schools for that, so while her new school is right next door, I've never met Ms. Lee. I do know that NJ schools have a great reputation and our town, West New York, at least through grammar school has a great program. I want to imagine that Ms. Lee has a huge, warm and welcoming smile. I choose to believe that she will be compassionate and kind that first day of school when there will be jitters and tears. (I'll be shocked if we don't have tears!!) If I could write Ms. Lee a letter, I think this would be what I'd ask of her for this new school year:

Dear Ms. Lee,
Today you will be meeting my oldest, Sophia. She is starting kindergarten. It doesn't seem possible that she's old enough to be in actual school. Something out Pre-K and knowing it wasn't actual school made it ok that she went. Now that she's in "big kid" school my heart squeezes just a little tighter in my chest. I whisper prayers for her school journey more frequently. My prayer is that you'll take the time to truly understand her and what makes her Sophia. She has such a huge heart. She loves to be silly which can sometimes get her into trouble because when she's silly, she doesn't listen nearly as well. Please be patient with her. She's a quick learner and she's incredibly smart. I know you have every parent tell you how bright and amazing their kids are and this is just one more year and one more class for you, but I pray that you make this an amazing year for Sophia and her class!
Please know that you have my full support! This will likely be the only year Sophia is in public school, so I do want it to be a very positive experience!
I have been very happy with the teachers she's had so far, although her teacher last year, Ms. Ines, is definitely the one to beat. She understood Sophia...what make her tick and what made her excel and I will be forever grateful for that. My prayer is that you won't be frustrated with her "feisty" spirit as her first teacher was. She has such a loving heart and wants to help others excel as well. She just needs a little love and encouragement and she will soar.

I'm giving you my baby. Please take care of her for me. She lights up my life like a million fireflies and I would be honored if you would join me in becoming her cheerleader on this journey of life. She's five even though she thinks she's fifteen most of the time; she's five, but she's still a little baby in my heart. I entrust her to you, confident that you will do great things with and for her this year.

know this: You are already being prayed for by this little girl. She's picking flowers for you and counting down the days until she can finally meet you. My heart's prayer is that the smile I'm imaging on your face will be huge that first day of school....my Sophia already loves you. She's so so excited for school. Please, please be that teacher I imagine you can be! And thank you. Thank you for taking on such a huge job of teaching little 5 year olds!

Sincerely,
Sophia's Mami

one more week and school starts...when did she get old enough?

We survived Irene!

From Thursday on, there was so much hype and news coverage of Hurricane Irene. Really, if you've ever been to NYC, you can understand why there would be so much anticipation and worry when facing the possibility of such destruction in the middle of a City on an Island.
We left Thursday late afternoon to head to Kirkwood Camp in the Poconos to attend Trinity Grace Church's Leadership Retreat. What a wonderful time we had there for about 24 hours until Hurricane Irene forced us to make our way home. It was definitely the right call, but my kiddos especially were so bummed that the awesome time they were having was being cut short.

On our way home, we stopped at Target to load up on water, milk, eggs and other essentials. It was hard to know how exactly to prepare, but I felt pretty good with our choices.
Saturday while I knew we'd still have power, I made sourdough tortilla chips, english muffins, a pot of soaked brown rice, pasta, cooked a chicken and boiled some eggs. I figured we'd be set with some healthy options in case we lost power at any point.

After even brewing coffee the night before just in case (cause you know life without coffee is no life at all) we were basically just set for the next couple of days because we kept power, water and every other thing we needed during the storm! Thankfully Irene couldn't take us down!

We were in the house from Friday night when we got back from Pennsylvania until this morning. Needless to say, we were all very stir crazy and it felt like there might be a bit of a hurricane in our home as well!

We've lived through earthquakes both here and in Peru. Jose saw a tornado pass right over our apartment right after he moved to the USA and now we've experienced a hurricane. Such a different experience when living in an urban setting...but thankfully we were safe, we had an experience we won't soon forget and we have enough hard boiled eggs to last us the rest of the week! :)

In the Kitchen

Hubby and I have made a commitment to make most, if not all of our food from scratch. This involves eating traditional, real food and chucking the processed, boxed, store-bought as much as possible. Granted, there will be moments when organic will have to suffice, but our goal is to definitely go beyond organic; back to our roots. I used to love to read "Little House on the Prairie" as a kid...and I guess I'm become as close to that as possible without having a homestead, without the chickens clucking about, without being able to milk my own cow, without the wide open green spaces and while living 10 minutes from one of the Largest Cities in the world! Because of all this, I've been trying some new things and I have several more on my list to try! It's such a fun adventure! I love knowing that the food my family eats, while tasting slightly different than a lot of the foods we're used to, is just so wholesome and nutritious! I'm not saying it works for everyone, but it works for us and I'm just so darn excited!! :)

Here are a few of the things I've tried this past week:

Sourdough pizza crust. So super easy! And very tasty. We had green peppers, onions and cheese on one side and just cheese on the other. We're a "no marinara sauce" family...hence the lack of red :)

Lacto-fermented peaches with prunes. I used the peaches we got from the landlord and followed the recipe in "Nourishing Traditions"
the book I'm currently reading! Cannot wait to try these!

Granola bars that became Granola Balls when they wouldn't stick together. You can find the recipe here Katie's ebook "Healthy Snacks to Go"

Yogurt Cheese! So tasty and creamy and oh-so-easy!!! And it gives you the whey you need to make the peaches! :)

I wasn't the only one trying new things! Lucas tried some rice cereal for the first time...

I think he likes it!

Joy

Let me preface this post by saying that I am absolutely crazy about all my kids! This post is specifically about Sophia so I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea. I love her! She's the best little girl in the whole wide world! She made me a mami, she keeps me on my toes and started us off on the adventure of being parents over 5 years ago.

That being said...as the the school year ended, I must confess, I got increasingly nervous thinking about how I would keep her entertained and happy all summer long. If you personally know my Sophia, you know what I'm talking about when I say that I've never met someone with as much energy as she has! She is nonstop for the 12 or so hours she's awake during the day! She was born that way and has been going every since! It can be exhausting trying to find things for her to do so that she keeps occupied and I was terrified.

But...as this summer has progressed, I have been so pleasantly surprised. I have absolutely loved my time with her! She is such a blessing and such a little helper! What a big girl she's becoming!

Last Friday, we took the day and went to the beach. All day she just impressed me so much with her willingness to lend a helping hand, go off with Papi to swim and just her overall cheerful attitude. I tell her all the time to her delight that she is getting so big, but on Friday I told her she is maturing. I asked her if she knew what that meant and when she told me she didn't, I told her that it meant that not only was her body getting bigger, but her heart and mind were as well. She beamed with pride! I told her how proud I was and she asked me if Jesus was proud too. I was so quick to assure her that he was overjoyed with her good behavior and new understanding of how to handle life.

I feel like I'm getting to know my firstborn on a whole new level this summer. To be honest, this is the most time we've spent together since the first 8 weeks of her life before I went back to work and then the 12 weeks I had of maternity leave when Nicholas was born. What a joy and privilege and blessing it is to be at home now and know that I can soak up these moments for the rest of their childhood, pre-teen and teen years. Thank you Father for this opportunity!

My heart is overflowing with joy!

Real, wholesome Foods.

6 years ago, before our lives were changed with kids, Hubby and I committed to a more holistic, healthy approach to eating. We read labels and cut out the high fructose corn syrup and diet drinks, etc....It has always been my goal to stay on the "straight and narrow" so to speak of healthy eating, but budgets, kids and time have gotten in the way from time to time. As I took the plunge and quit my job after Lucas was born, I made the commitment again to have us be as holistic and healthy as financially possible. I started off with smaller things like going to cloth diapers for Lucas and making my own homemade laundry detergent. I am still working on perfecting a dishwashing soap that I like...but food was the biggest issue and I wanted to make sure that the things that my kids were putting into their mouths would benefit them for years to come. Living 15 minutes from New York City provides great healthy choices, but with a hefty price tag, so my next task was to figure out how to keep food on the table without breaking the bank. Farms are a good distance in the car and a veggie garden isn't possible for us right now. My 2 1/2 year old alone can eat like a teenage boy himself, so I was wondering how I might accomplish this.

About a month ago, I came across a wonderful, information packed website: http://gnowfglins.com that so encouraged me to begin this real foods implementation into our lives. We began with a sourdough starter which I was sure I would flop at....but surprisingly got bubbles a bubblin' right away. We've taken that starter and made some wonderful treats and it's just been such a joy to know that my kiddos can help me in the kitchen and learnto make real foods themselves and we get to spend all this time together!

Below are some pictures of some of our adventures. What a wonderful journey! I went to bed the other night so thankful to God that He's provided a way for me to be a good steward of our money and our bodies! And in turn, we take care of the biggest thing He gave us, this earth!

I cannot wait to learn and implement more!!!

Our sourdough starter - with lots of wonderful bubbles!!

Sourdough Tortilla Chips - Hubby's favorite!

My big helper, Sophia. What a joy to work with her in the kitchen!

Rolling out our tortillas

My first attempt at a sourdough loaf was not a flop!! I was sure it would be

Super tasty with butter and jam or as sandwich bread!

All these recipes can be found at http://gnowfglins.com