Surprise!

    Hello everyone! I wanted to post a quick apology about not keeping up with the posting :-) I also wanted to say that you probably wont hear from me for a while because we are in the middle of moving! We will be moving to Florida in a little under two weeks, and we are all very excited. So, you will hear from us on the other end!

Bread Making

    This past Sunday I finally did something that I have been wanting to try my hand at for quite some time...... Dutch oven bread making! It was so fun and very Delicious, here are some pictures!

Making the bread....

The finished product!

Tammy's 14th Birthday

   After reading various blog posts and getting to know us better, you have probably realized something about us.
We are very last minute people.
Its not that we want it to be that way, somehow it just happens! As some of you know, my birthday is the 20th of December, and that this year it was on a Tuesday.......... The very Thursday before we decided that we were going to make a trip up to Virginia! We are really big into History, and we had wanted to go up to some of the Historical sites for quite some time. So we packed everything up and left 2 days later (the Sunday before my birthday). We were so incredibly excited to be able to go to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home), and to see our best friends the Aydlottes! You may remember my first post "Visit to Virginia" . There are just too many pictures to share them all (over 300 between my sister and I), so I will just show my favorites!
 First up are pictures from Jamestown. We left Sunday morning and arrived in Jamestown in the afternoon and had a couple hours to see it and then spend the night in a hotel....

On the way to Jamestown we were able to take a ferry across the James river.
Delany and I on the ferry.

Looking out over the James river from the ferry.

The church that was in the Jamestown fort.

One of the three replica ships that we were able to board. These were the ships that the original settlers of Jamestown came over on. The Godspeed, Susan Constant, and the Discovery.

Tammy and Delany by the statue of Pocahontas. :-)

The next day we spent the entire time at Williamsburg, which was so great! Another thing that was cool is that there have been many movies filmed here......

The Governor's Palace in Williamsburg.

The walls in the Foyer of the palace were paneled in black walnut and decorated with swords and guns...

The courthouse.

The Magazine where muskets, pistols, gunpowder and other supplies were kept.

The Capitol building

The Gaol (jail)

After spending a wonderful day at Williamsburg,  we were exhausted. We spent another night in a hotel and then the next morning we drove to Monticello! There was a really good restaurant at Monticello called Michie's Tavern that was so good.... amazing actually! If you ever go you will definitely have to visit it :-)



Here it is, the beautiful Monticello! The whole time that Thomas Jefferson lived here it was never finished, he kept making changes and rebuilding it! It was amazing seeing it :-)

After seeing Monticello (and an accidental detour) we drove to the Aydlottes house and arrived just as night fell. We spent two nights with them and were able to celebrate the first 2 days of Hanukkah with them (and, of course, my birthday).

Ellie, Delany, and Tirzah watching a movie.

Birthday decorations that I was surprised with the next morning. Thanks Anna!

Lauren lighting Hanukkah candles.

As often happens, we got so caught up in the excitement of seeing each other that we forgot to take pictures until the very last minute! Ooops. Well, we had a wonderful trip and were so excited to be able to take it! Stay tuned for bread baking pictures......

Thanksgiving

    This year for thanksgiving we were very privileged to be able to go to Georgia to visit our friends the Fuccis. While we were there we had the opportunity of visiting a few other families that we know from Family week. Here are some pictures!

Our thanksgiving meal. Whats that? There is something missing? Oh right! Well, this is a unusual thanksgiving dinner. We did a mostly Raw-Vegan thanksgiving! Everything was superb.

Tammy and Amdis playing the guitar.

Delany and Aliyah making Raw Coconut Ice cream (recipe will be posted on other blog soon!)

Having fun!

New Blog!

    Hey all! I have a new Raw food blog, be sure to check it out! Just click HERE

The Dangers of Soda to Your Body

     Ok, lets be honest here. Everybody knows that soda isn't exactly the best thing for you, right? Well, the funny thing is, most people drink it anyway because its tastes so good! But have you ever read the ingredient list? Have you ever wondered what those really long unpronounceable words are, and what they are doing to you?

     Lets talk about statistics. In the year 2000 over 15 billion gallons of Soft Drinks were sold, that's one 12 ounce can per person, per day! That one 12 ounce can (or more) that you drink daily adds up to about 60 gallons of soda in one year. Yikes!

     One of the reasons why people drink soda is the caffeine. In fact, that is one of the main reasons why people keep going back for more, because, lets face it, caffeine is a drug. When you drink a lot of caffeine your body becomes used to it, and really "needs" it. If you go without caffeine you will probably experience major migraine headaches, a rise in blood pressure, irritability, and stomach problems. Caffeine intoxication is very dangerous to your body. According to Rhonda J. Malkmus who said in her book Recipes for Life: "While the artificial stimulation of caffeine temporarily arouses the intellect and fatigue seems to disappear, it is short lived. The excess stimulation depletes the body of vital energy and it struggles to deal with the poison that has entered the system." So while you are drinking soda (or anything with caffeine in it) and trying to awaken yourself, what you are really doing is making yourself more tired! Caffeine also causes many other things including : Nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, gastrointestinal upset, tremor, rapid heartbeats, and agitation.

     Dr Mary Ruth Swope in her article titled, Why I don't Drink Soft Drinks and I Wish You Didn't, makes the following statement: "Soft Drinks contain caramel coloring, which, according to some researchers, has genetic effects and is a cancer-causing suspect. Polyethylene glycol is used as an ingredient sometimes. Glycol is used in anti-freeze in automobiles and as an oil solvent. Perhaps you have noticed that pouring cola drinks on your windshield in a snow or ice storm with keep the windshield from freezing over with ice." So, soda has an ingredient in it that is used in anti-freeze! Do you want to be putting that in your body?

     Diabetes has been linked to extensive soda drinking. Drinking soda stresses your body's ability to process sugar and increases your risk of Diabetes. Did you know that type 2 Diabetes has increases by 90% in 10 years? I wonder if it has something to do with the large increase of soda intake by Americans? Do you drink lots of soda and get Heartburn often? Thats right, drinking soda causes heartburn, due to the very high acid content. Tooth decay is a horrible result of drinking soda. Did you know that if you place a human tooth in soda, within two days they will become soft and the enamel on the surface will have lost most of its calcium? Now, when you drink soda your teeth aren't submerged in the liquid for that amount of time so the affects will take a little longer to be noticed, but the soda does slowly wear down your teeth. Heart disease and High Blood Pressure are also results of soda drinking, as well as Kidney Stones. You see, the acid content in soda changes the urine in a way that promotes Kidney Stones. An ingredient in soda called Phosphate is really bad for you. Phosphate lowers the calcium in your body, and when your body is low in calcium, your body pulls the needed calcium out out of your bones, this is also known as Osteoporosis. Other results of drinking soda are: Impaired Digestion (soda on an empty stomach upsets the fragile alkaline balance); Mental Health problems (soda dissolves your brain); Gout; Cancer (cancer cant live in an oxygen rich environment, soda depletes your body of oxygen); Weight gain (1 can of soda per day is equivalent to 1 pound of weight per month); Liver Damage (soda is so strong and high in acid that your body has to work so hard to dilute it in your system that it overworks your Liver and Kidney).

     We have talked about regular soda now lets look at Diet soda. Diet soda is advertised as "Sugar Free," and it is. It doesn't have regular sugar in it, but it has something 200 times sweeter, and much worse for you: Aspartame. Aspartame, though you may not realize it, has a very addictive nature and instead of getting you off sugar it actually increases your appetite for sweet things! Have you ever heard of Aspartame Disease? The symptoms are headaches, dizziness, attention difficulties, memory loss, slurred speech, and vision problems. Aspartame is cancer causing and has been proven to result in brain tumors. Methanol makes up 10% of Aspartame and is extremely harmful to the optic nerve (can cause blindness). Aspartame causes Seizures, Multiple sclerosis, Chronic fatigue, Depression, Diabetes, Potassium Depletions (which can result in Cardiac Arrhythmias and Paralysis of the Skeletal Muscles). Pretty horrible stuff, huh?

     Hopefully this article has shed some light on the dangers of soda and next time, when you reach for a can of soda, perhaps you will remember all of the things that it causes and think twice about your decision. :-)

"If Mankind would at once discard all refined, sprayed, and unnatural foods, it would be the beginning of a people that would live long happy lives and be free of disease".

-Paul C. Bragg

                                             

Sukkot

  Hey all! I'm sorry it has been so incredibly long since I have posted. I keep meaning to do it but things keep happening that make me have to put it off (school, shopping, cleaning). So, we have had a busy few weeks. First off we started babysitting every other week, that has been a cool experience, and we just recently went on a 10 day camping trip for Sukkot/ Feast of Tabernacles.
    Our excitement started about 2 weeks before Sukkot which was when we officially decided were we were going, we like to do things last minute, leaves room for more excitement :-) Anyway, we Sukkot-ed in Comer, Ga at Fort Yargo State Park with my Grandparents, and our good friends the F.s from Family week. Actually there were two groups of us, our small group and then another group that stayed at our friends the H.'s house. We had met the H. family at Family Week but hadn't really gotten to know them, so it was a very exciting opportunity! There were 2 or 3 family's staying at the H's house and many more that would come throughout the day to visit. So like I said, we were staying at the campground and would drive to the H's house every day to spend time with everybody.
    Our trip started out great, we got up early and left at around 7am (Thursday the 13th of Oct). Well, right off the bat things got bad. There was a really bad car accident on I85 and it was backed up for miles. The trip from North Carolina to Georgia is only supposed to be 4 1/2 hours but it took us that long just to get out of NC! Our trip all together ended up being about 7 1/2 hours long, so we arrived at the campsite and had just enough time to set up before it started raining! But, what would Sukkot be without rain, right?? ha ha.
    We were to tie rd and had to many things to do to go visit the H's and everybody that night, so, after the rain let up we had a nice fire and welcomed in the Shabbat that marks the first day of Sukkot! The next day we went over to the H's house and started off with some singing and playing instruments, I didn't bring my guitar because there wasn't enough room in the car *teehee, I always over pack* but it was a lot of fun. We spent a all of our time dancing, playing games, singing and playing instruments, talking, bible study, and more!

Oh, did I mention we brought my cat with us? Yes, a cat camping is quite a funny thing to see, but he loved it! Sleeping in the tent on the bed at night, hanging out by the fire, having everybody want to hold and cuddle him. He never forgave us for bringing him back :-)

We were playing a really fun game called Sheep and Shepherds, one person is the narrator and everyone else is either a sheepdog, sheep, or wolf. I don't remember exactly how it goes, but we played it a lot and it was fun :-)

Sheep and Shepherds again.

A group of the kids sitting downstairs talking, I think we were telling jokes :-)

Aliyah, Ella, and Savannah. They went everywhere together!

This was the Shabbat before we left, we were outside doing praise and worship and bible study before a potluck dinner.

Apparently the guitar is popular!! They did great :-)

Some of the Kids dancing to "Father Abraham" on the last Shabbat. It was cute to watch!

Eating dinner on the last Shabbat.

Downstairs playing instruments again!

And then everybody moved upstairs and started playing.

That's Delany and me in the front and then the 6 H. girls.

Amdis, Atalie, Ariana, Amara, Azalea, and Aliyah. It took me a couple days to get everybody's name down!

We did this in height order..... Does it remind you of something?

Aliyah, Azalea, Amara, Tammy, Ariana, Delany, Amdis, and Atalie.

One of my favorite parts was the night that everybody went outside with there instruments. We all gathered around a huge campfire (courtesy of Mr H) and were singing and playing instruments! I was cool outside and the fire and singing was really pleasant. Another fun time was when everybody cam to the campsite and we had a fire and played these really cool games. One was called "One up one down", and the other was called "Umbrella". The goal of the game was to figure out how to play the game! I know it doesn't really make sense, but it was to cool :-) We played a lot of cool games with the H. Family including Taboo, Basta, and Grab.

Well, Sukkot flew by and before we knew it, it was the last day and we were saying goodbye :-( But we had a wonderful time, the H family were a wonderful example and a great encouragement to us and we hope to see them again soon!