Day 57
RAW












Had a beautiful day today!
Dinner with good friends, who quizzed me about raw foods and our children's education, two really fun things to talk about.

Favorite food right now, Satsumas... I have been singing their praises.
Sweet, small, juicy, and so good in a smoothy or slush.
Favorite Satsuma recipe:
2 satsumas peeled
a few almonds
vanilla extract
ice
Blend, yum!

My husband has had a bad week. He was essentially fired from his job and is appealing and making claims with the union, etc... The chances are very likely that he will get it back, but it is very stressful having to go through this. Esp during Christmas time. He most likely will not know what is going on til after Christmas. So it is making for a bleaker than normal holiday. What is amazing, and I feel a little bad about, is I am really enjoying him being home. He was working upwards of 60 hours a week and that makes for very little down time. He also had a very hard time sleeping and that made him grumpy, so when we did see each other it was not ideal.

All of this has brought us to a lot of questions. We have had conversations about money and losing it all and what are we working for and what is important. It is good to have those conversations. It is good to think about losing everything you have. What is important. What you could lose and still have enough. It is a possibility that some of these ideas could be reality. It is a possibility that even if we are not forced into these decisions, we might need to make them on our own.

It is definitely taking what was already going to be a simple Christmas and making it really simple. And I am not the least bit upset. OK, that is what I say right now... But, I have been going in waves. Up / Down, that was an up comment. The truth is, even with this stress.. I am having a low stress Christmas. It is the raw foods, no doubt, helping me keep it together. It centers me so much. But it is also the way we have chosen to do Christmas. Our church had a project to build a well in Chacocente, so they would have fresh water. So we gave water bottles to signify this to our friends and families, and kept everything else very simple and very fair trade.

The raw foods diet, to me... is an amazing practice in simplicity. I have done a lot of things to try to simplify my life, to be "more intentional" in my lifestyle. Nothing I have done has had quite the same effect. And if you think about it you eat so frequently, and very few things have the power to effect so much of your life. It has sharpened my spiritual focus. And it really echoes a lot of the ideals Vyk and I have in living.

How will this play out on the future of our lives. I find myself during yet another advent asking God, while bracing myself, "what do you want now"? "What do you want to birth in us?"

I finally went to the grocery store and got food yesterday. So today ended up being much higher raw. I think I managed to eak out my 80% raw goal, but just barely!

Oh, one strange note... I have noticed something small but good. I used to get tiny little hairs on the left side of my chin. Usually blonde, thank God. But sometimes Dark and long wild hairs. I am no longer getting them or if I am WAY less. This has to be hormonal, and I had been eating organic meats and milk for years (minus eating out) so interesting! And good, who wants strange hair on their face? Not me.;)