Out of the loop

It's hard to believe it’s been almost a week since I last blogged. My goal is to blog every day and inform you on our entire journey with "Going Vegan". We have had many forks in the road this past week which has not allowed me much time to blog.

On August 18th on Luke's actual 7th birthday, we had a birthday celebration with McD's. As well as a forever farewell to McD's food for us all. We promised them they could have "forever farewells" from their favorite fast food restaurants as they wean off our old food habits and learn new Vegan food habits.

Friday was the start of Luke's 7th birthday party weekend. Luke was invited to his friends 6th birthday party that night; that meant sugar, cake, pizza. All the old food choices we would have allowed. Since he is only 7 and is learning all about becoming a vegan, it's truly unfair to take all of his "normal food habits" away from him cold turkey. So we allowed him to go to his friend’s birthday party and sleep over. Our girls had friends sleep over our house. The good thing is the girls are older and more acceptable to us creating vegan foods and actually eating it. Their friends know we are vegans now, don’t' really understand what that means. I just don't explain much as it can get confusing for them or too much information type deal and I do not wish to upset them or their parents while in our care. So I just make what we would make for us and have the kids try it. I've found it refreshing to notice our kids friends are happy with veggie burgers or veggie sausages and steamed veg and our brown rice for dinner. Our daughter Britain's friend said felt like she was having a mini thanksgiving meal. Which I thought was cute, since it was just our typical vegan dinner we eat most nights.  We had a double sleep over party; meaning not only did we have 2 extra kids Friday, we then had 4 extra kids on Saturday night and let Sky sleep over her friend’s house.  Again we had to come up with a meal that would be pleasing to all but keep it vegan. We decided on wheat spaghetti and marinara sauce. All the kids wolfed it down! That was nice to see. Homemade popcorn for movie night watching "Robots" a classic in our house was a huge hit as well. Breakfast for sleep over parties in my house is always homemade pancakes. It's a quick meal, its filling and I know the kids will be satisfied and full till their parents come get them before lunch time. I like pancakes because it means if I feed them this meal an hour or so after they get up, I can guarantee I can clean up once and not have to make them another meal due ot the filling brunch I just served! With 3 kids it's a lot of clean up and adding 4 or however many more is just more than double the work. I try to plan accordingly and make my life as easy as possible.

So now it's Saturday, August 20th and we have Luke's 7th birthday party at Jelly Beans. It's a roller skating rink. This means plenty of sugar will be had with ice-cream cups, fun dips, pizza and soda. I wish I could veganize this day, make it healthier for my kids and the others. But this is not practical in the real world with small kids. We had a total of 14 kids and thank goodness we booked the party out of the house this year as our lives have been pretty busy and it was one less thing to deal with. Luke, his sisters and friends had a wonderful time! We all did!! I'll be adding several new postings from last weekend as well as pictures and videos.    Friday and Saturday was a blur! So much fun, nonstop taking care of the kiddies and the house got destroyed. The irony there is we wanted Luke's party to be out of the house to ensure no mess and then had an unexpected sleep over party with 4 additional kids and it looked like we had the party at home regardless! Well many fun memories made, so that's what really counts right!  Come Sunday we all wanted to stay home, tidy up the house and get it back in order and get ready for the week ahead. We didn't have time because I had booked a BBQ at my dear friends house for that afternoon. By the time the kids had been picked up, I got a couple of loads on, and put some away it was time to go!

So needless to say this weekend is going to be less hectic, more time to focus on the house and most importantly create a Veganized menu for this coming week. Oh on top of all that I decided it was time I got a 2nd job to help out with the bills and so now I am truly a full time working Momma. I am now waiting at a really nice restaurant down the street from my house. Takes about 4 minutes to get there. My day consists of working out from 5 am, getting kids up at 6 am, getting kids to school  and out the door by 7 am. Getting to my Real Estate office by 8 or 8:30 am. Work there till 2 pm. Then get into the car to pick up Sky from her school by 2:50 onward. Rush home to try and be home before Britain and Luke get off the bus by 3:15 and then have about an hour and half with them for homework, snacks and find out how their day was. I then get ready for my 2nd job waiting from 5 pm to close and have to leave the house no later than 4:45 pm. I don't see my gorgeous husband until I hit the sheets from 10 pm onward and he's typically asleep! So how crazy is it to change our entire eating lifestyle, raise 3 kids, build a real estate career, work a 2nd job and get up and do it again the next day!! I thankfully make sure I have Sunday's off to spend with my family or be available for open houses!! I know we can do it all as long as we plan and organize our lives accordingly!! Please look out for our new video's from last weekend and photos too. Thank you for all the support we have received from family and friends with our new food lifestyle adventure!!