Ahead of the Game!

We had an awesome weekend.   It started out, of course, in Hanalei with a surf session with Javy's favorite surf partner, Kevin.  And a gourmet beach bbq with Debbie, Maia and Ryder.  Debbie is an awesome cook.  Then my sister and her girlfriend came over from the Big Island.  I feel very very blessed, because we now have a full cupboard and refrigerator.  They bought us two bags full of vegetables from the Big Island farmer's market, they are much cheaper.  I also feel ahead of the game because we already had our Thanksgiving bonanza, I think it was one of the best Thanksgiving meals I've ever had, personally. We also got a special treat- a night out on the town at Port Allen Bar and Grill, at sunset.

Javy living it up at dinner.  His Keanu Reeves hair is making a come back.

But irony is never too far away, my friends, as my body decided to detox itself on Monday morning and I came down with some kind of vicious stomach bug.  I didn't eat for over 36 hours and my first meal was a bowl of brown rice and lots of hot tea.  It's Tuesday evening, and I'm just now able to sit up.  So far no other family members have been afflicted, thank God.  For whatever reason my body needed it, but I really missed my kids at school and I won't get to see them until after the break now.

 So now I've got a long weekend to prepare all the vegetables that they brought over.  I really feel like a pioneer woman who's got to prepare the harvest for the winter months. I'm nervous, because I don't want to blow it.  I want to make sure everything is used as efficiently, as possible so that Javy and grandma can have plenty of healthy meals.  So now that I can sit up, it's time to do some research.  After having such an awesome gourmet beach barbecue, mostly with vegetarian dishes, I'd really like to learn to cook like that.  I mean, I'm from the south.  We do meat and the vegetables come with meat, too.  I've got a lot to learn.  Anyone have any suggestions, message me.  Have a good holiday, my friends.

It's Never Too Late....

I was thinking that I love that life took the good and the bad parts of me and made one awesome meld, that is me.  I don't know if it took me this long to figure that out, or took this long for me to take shape.  I think its latter and I owe it all to Javy.  Pre-Javy, I was young and obnoxious.  Most of you guys wouldn't have given me the time of day.  Javy brings out the best in me.  I'm glad that I can finally say that I'm proud of myself.  

I am determined that I will reach my first goal weight of 155, the last 20 pounds that have haunted me for the past couple of months.  I am so determined that I know that I will even lose weight over the holidays.  This is huge for me.  Last year, my goal was just to make it through the holidays without gaining weight, which I was successful, by the way.  For me, this is more than a physical development.  It tells me that I'm gaining strength inwardly, as well.  The holidays are more than food.  They are more than physical indulgences.

We are actually having our Thanksgiving meal, this Sunday, because my sister and her girlfriend are flying over for the weekend.  I am so excited to share with them a meal that is made from scratch.  I've already pureed the pumpkin that I found at our local farmer's market.  I made homemade cranberry sauce.  I think that I've even convinced them not to have a turkey.  I'm not sure about that one, but I refuse to buy a Butterball with all the nasty stuff they inject into it.  So we'll see how that goes.  We're going to visit a local farm to get fresh herbs and vegetables, maybe even get some goat milk.  It's just going to be an awesome time of sharing and reminiscing.  I'm sure we'll bring my grandma's memories back to life as we cook her cornbread dressing, with a non-wheat twist.  And of course, our Aunt Dru's memory will be kept alive with some some fresh breakfast screw driver's, can't make Thanksgiving dinner without them.  

Home is where you make it!

I was just prepping everything for the week-planning meals and schedules, when I caught myself saying, "See! I would've made someone a good homemaker."  Don't worry, I self corrected and then stated, "Oh wait!  I did!  Home is where you make it."

As promised, I made a video of Javy's escapades.  But I made it more like a documentary, or momumentary.  Yeah, I made my own word up, take that spell check.  I call it a weekend, but really it was only one day, with the exception of Friday's clip of Hanalei.  Saturday ended up being a lazy on the couch, watching movies day.  Javy has been having restless, sleepless nights, lately.  And he had a fever Friday night.  It may have to do with his dysphagia, since it's only happening at night.  He could've gotten something in his lungs or it may be acid reflux, too.  I'm going to have him check out by the doctor next week.  But without further ado, I give you, "A Weekend in Javyland."  Just a warning, though.  It is fourteen minutes long and Javy doesn't have to wear clothes on the weekends, just his briefs.  

Apparently, Keanu Reeves hair isn't very persuasive.....

Because this happened this week, after my letter to the Mayor of Kauai.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/business/bill-limiting-pesticide-use-on-hawaii-island-is-vetoed.html?_r=1&

It's was a sad day, but the counsel can override the veto with five votes.  Hopefully, there will be no funny business before they can bring it to vote.  We can still make a difference with our money and our votes next election day.  I haven't been very fond of Mayor Carvalho, anyway, since he doesn't want anyone driving or parking on the beaches.

It happened on Halloween Day, but we didn't let it kill our spirit.  We still went out and collected our GMO candies, lol.  I made a promise to myself not to not buy it, I can't keep other people from buying it.  But really, we just got to educate, educate, educate.  People don't really know what's inside most of the things they buy.  Halloween is more of a social event for us since Javy can't eat most candies, anyways.  It's a good way to walk around and get to know neighbors.

My letter to the Mayor of Kauai

I e-mailed the Mayor of Kauai, tonight and this is what I put:

Dear Mayor Carvalho, 

Please sign Bill 2491.  I have attached a picture of my son, Javy.  He has special needs.  He loves living on Kauai.  He's a big wave surfer, you know.  We live in Hanapepe Heights and he attends Waimea Canyon Middle School.  As his mother, I have to make decisions the best I can to protect his health and safety-the food that he eats, his medicines, the fabrics that his clothes are made of, etc.  But I cannot protect him from what goes on in the fields just to the west of our house, nor can I protect him from the what goes on in the fields just outside of his school.  Only you can do that.  The counsel has already done their jobs, please do yours and help protect my son and the people of Kauai.  

Sincerely,

Doris Williams 

PO Box 688

Hanapepe, HI  96716

And then I attached these two pictures:  

This one because I thought Javy's Keanu Reeves hair can persuade anyone and also, behind him is west where the GMO fields are.

This one, because who couldn't be swayed by Javy surfing.

For those who aren't aware, Kauai is having a huge community debate, right now.  We have Bio-Ag corporations on our island, on the west side- Syngenta, Dow Ag and Pioneer.  They are experimenting with GMO crops and they spray pesticides, at a higher concentration than what is allowed, 7 days a week.  Our county counsel actually passed a watered down bill that would hold these corporations accountable for what they are doing to our small island.  My understanding is that it would create a buffer zone between homes, schools, and roads.  It would make them disclose what they are spraying in their fields and then they would have to do an environmental impact statement before they could continue doing their "research".  If you want to read more about it, here's a link to a Huffington Post article.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/kauai-gmo-hearing_n_4108914.html

Admittedly, when all of this started, I was on the fence about GMO's.  I believe in science, God created science.  Scientists are always banging their heads, trying to come up with better ways of doing things.  But I never agreed with how these corporations treat the surrounding communities.  I know people who are personally affected by what goes on in these fields-they are constantly sick with respiratory infections.  Here's a link to a video that was actually made by people who live on the west side of Kauai.  http://westsideeyes.tumblr.com/?og=1  Plus, who can deny the fact that west of Kaumakani looks like a wasteland now, especially with all the dust storms.  Wouldn't it be better if they actually grew crops that we could actually eat.  I love the farmer's markets but geez, they can be pricey.  

But then, I also started researching about GMO's themselves.  It's not good from what I can see.  They're not actually producing anything that's beneficial to society.  They say that they can make more food to feed the world's growing population, that's more nutritious.  But they're not, there is very little output by these corporations and there's been very little study done about how they effect communities such as ours.  Most GMO's can be found in processed foods, especially those with corn syrups, beet sugar, and soy.  I think my next step will be to start a letter writing campaign to the companies that sell foods with GMO.  I think we can effectively protest with our votes and our money.  I'm going to start with some of the companies on this link.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/celebrate-nongmo-month-8-_b_4069900.html  These companies have nonGMO products but the company as a whole, has products with GMO.  

I want to do something.  I haven't been able to attend any of the events, but I want to do something.  I can support my friends, but its hard for me to get away, to actually be a physical presence at counsel meetings.  The one I was going to attend, didn't happen because our van is overheating and I needed to take care of it.  Plus, you pretty much have to camp overnight to even get into the tiny counsel room.  Well, this was kind of an impromptu blog, but it comes from the heart.  Goodnight!

We made it through the first month

It's almost been 30 days since I said goodbye to my last career.  More importantly, it has been over a month since we'd been to Costco.  I mentioned in my last blog that we had to streamline our lives, quite a bit.  I'd say we've been fairly successful, despite a few rough patches.  We set a goal for our total budget for our groceries with only one trip to Costco a month.  This being the first month, we estimated how much meat we would need to last us the month and that was the majority of our purchase on that trip.

I then made a 30 day meal plan.  At first, this challenge gave me a rash for a few days.  How the heck do you plan 30 days of meals.  Thank God, I finally realized that I was completely over thinking this and I found a simpler way to think about it.  I divided up the days of the week with general meals, according to our schedule.  So our weeks went something like this: Sunday-chicken dinner (cause its easy to throw a whole chicken in the crock pot and then there's some broth to use for other recipes later in the week), Monday-Steak w/ a fresh vegetable, Tuesday-Comfort Food, Wednesday-Seafood, Thursday-Experimental Ethnic Food, Friday-Stew, chili or soup (that way we'd have left over to eat on Saturday when we'd be playing), Saturday-Grill night.  So I take these general themes and then just plan a more specific menu on a weekly basis.

The surprising part to me was the vegetables.  I planned on going to farmer's markets and then planning my recipes for the week.  But it was difficult to make it to the farmer's markets a couple of times because of my schedule.  So I had to go to Big Save.  Sadly, vegetables and fruits are kind of pricey and that took a huge chunk out of the budget.  We're looking into signing up with a farmer's co-op, where you pay a flat rate and you get a box of fresh stuff, whatever they have in season.  It would end up being much cheaper.

The awesome thing was that we grossly overestimated our meat supply.  The freezer is loaded up about half way, still.

But then about a week ago, I started watching the movie, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", while I rode the stationary bike. I'm not advocating a juice diet and I think there's more to get out of this movie than that.  It really made me think hard about our consumption of meat and proteins.  We really eat a lot of food and we're not hunter's and gatherers, anymore.  We don't need that much meat in our diets, it doesn't have to be in every meal.  And guess what, this saves us money.

So again, we went to Costco, our one big monthly trip to Costco.  We bought no meat.  We bought vegetables and nuts.  I bought stuff that I could stretch into bigger things, like Javy's snacks-organic sugar and coconut oil and organic chocolate chips.  Carrots and Sweet Potatoes, I can make stews that I can freeze and make them last a long time.  Because we didn't have to buy meat, we splurged on organic, cage-free eggs.  We'll see how this month goes, I love having a stocked kitchen.

I do recommend the movie, though, it was really inspirational and the main guy, Joe Cross is really handsome.  A lot of people still want to know how I lost all my weight and I still get compliments.  I kind of clam up, because I really don't like all the attention.  But from this movie, I see how he inspired one person and then that one person ended up inspiring many more people.  I see how I need to be more vocal.  And my message is, just start moving, even if its only 2 minutes.  Just keep pushing yourself more.  The confidence you gain will make you want to do more, even change your eating habits because you'll want to keep feeling good.

And on another happy note-we've noticed great progress in Javy, lately.  He's been moving himself across the floor, twisting and moving his body, like its nothing, and trying to verbalize more.  I'm going to work on getting some video of him for a future post.  I want everyone to see what he can do.  I have nothing to back this up, but I can't help but think that it may be because he doesn't eat processed foods, anymore.  It's been a few months since I've bought him anything that was loaded with preservatives and food coloring.  And that was exactly the reason that I did start making his snacks and limiting processed foods-to see if it would help his brain function better.  Hmmmm, could be.

If I had a trillion, kazillion dollars.....

I would build a big wheelchair accessible playground on the side of my house, just like Kamalani bridge.  It would be custom made for Javy with original artwork, plenty of sensory areas and at the end there would be a water feature to play in.  But on the very top there would be an adults only, cocktail bar for stargazing and early morning coffee drinking, sunrise watching.   

I would send my mom to MIT to get her engineering degree, since that is what she should be doing.  Then I would send her on a cruise around the world with Tom Selleck and David Caruso.

I would build a helicopter pad on top of our house and get my helicopter pilot's license so that I could fly just over the mountain and Javy could go surfing anytime he wanted.  Things like schedules would never get in the way of such an important thing.

Hoku Foods, Ishihara and Sueoka's would be the only grocery stores that we would shop at.

We would eat at Wrangler's every Friday night.

We would travel the world, on Virgin Airlines, and hike around all kinds of cool places because I would buy Javy one of those fancy off-roading strollers for big kids.

Who needs a trillion, kazillion dollars?  This could all come true even without it.