Life is Never Dull!

If you haven’t heard, Larisa, my 16-year-old daughter and I decided to “go” organic.  It’s been two weeks now and I must say, either I’m forgetting what chemically engineered food tastes like, OR organic food really does taste better!  We’ve had pizza, quesadillas, Southwestern Black Bean Soup, Beef & brocoli with Coconut Basmati rice, Newman-Os (Oreos), plus mint chocolate bars.  We have not been suffering.  We keep looking at each other and saying, “This is the best ___________ I’ve ever had!”  And we’re still amazed every time it happens.  It happened tonight with white cheddar and green onion quesadillas.  Totally delicious.

After an exhausting day, Rick and I were home alone at dinner and I decided to go easy and make homemade apple/cinnamon/flax seed oatmeal with blue agave syrup.  Again, fabulous.  However, while I was cooking, Rick asked for my driver’s license number whilst I was stirring the pot on the stove.  No, I do not have it memorized.  Being a homeschool mom, I do know my library card number by heart 1110003116554… but not my driver’s license number.  So, being the kind wife that I am, I retrieved my wallet from the front room and delivered it to him in the back room… while the oatmeal simmered.  “Please put it back in my purse when you are done,” was my single request.

Not long after the totally delicious oatmeal was consumed, some of our children returned home.  Larisa asked if we could go to the grocery store because we were out of quite a few organic mainstays… like bread and cheese and butter.  So we made a list, checked it twice and were out the door.  Can you already see it coming????

We shopped for about 40 minutes, taking our time reading labels and comparing prices.  Finally we arrived at the check out stand and as the kind checker was flinging our food hither and yon, I realized (out loud, of course) that I didn’t have my wallet.  Then I realized (out loud, again) that I didn’t even have my cell phone.  So the kind flinger handed me his personal cell phone and I called my dear husband at home.  “Remember when I asked you to put my wallet back in my purse?”  Yes, he did indeed remember.

They have these two black leather livingroom sitting chairs across from the check-out lanes at Safeway with a cozy table between them and a vase full of live roses on it… for sale, of course.  I’ve always thought it was odd that the chairs were there.  Well, I didn’t think it odd tonight as we sat in them for a half hour.  Even though I did not have pertinent purse particulars (wallet and phone) I DID have my electronic Sudoku game!  Yes! 

I did figure out that this was the third time in my life that this has happened.  Once in Blumenort, Alberta… the owner let me take home $126 of groceries and return the next day with the money!!!!  Once in Safeway in Phoenix… they rolled my whole cart into their freezer and I returned later that day with the money.  And tonight, while I sat in the leather chair playing Sudoku until Rick showed up.  Three times isn’t that bad…. in 23 years of marriage… and he’s only had to save me once!

My knight in shining armor did arrive and save the day and we all lived happily ever after.

This episode brought on a meaningful mother/daughter (generation gap) conversation that I will save for another blog.  Too much excitement for one night could be hazardous to your health. (I was tired BEFORE we went to the store!!!)

The Grapefruit Saga

In our previous house we had a prolific pink grapefruit tree that produced more prize specimens than we could even hope to eat.  OH! The blossoms smelled so wonderful in late Fall!  I used to juice gallons of pulp and drink pink grapefruit juice till my little heart was content.  And we would pick bags and bags of them and set them on the sidewalk with a sign that read FREE!  People always took them.  They were delicious!

Now that Larisa and I are going organic… and eating two grapefruits per day, I was wishing we still had that lovely tree.  I have contemplated how tacky it would be to go and knock on our old front door and ask for fruit….. but I haven’t stooped that low yet.   We have been paying $1 per grapefruit and they haven’t even been the lovely pink ones…. they have been the yellow, sour, involuntarily-squeeze-your-eyes-shut kind.  Ewwww.   But we have been eating them faithfully.

Tonight Rick and I visited the neighborhood Trader Joe’s and purchased two bags of grapefruits.  I’m pretty sure they are the yellow tart variety, but it was all they had.  After Joe’s we went to pick up Larisa at a party.  We parked out front and Rick went in to find our daughter.  As I was admiring their large grassy yard… I spied four fruit trees… with fruit on the ground.  I jumped out of the van and found lemons and oranges… HUGE lemons and oranges… the size grapefruits are supposed to be.  Rick returned and I told him I was going inside to visit the party-hosting mom to find out if they have grapefruits.  SURE ENOUGH!  I chatted with her kind husband about their home and land… and then said, “I noticed your fruit trees out front.  What kind are they?”  Oh!  Did I score!  He was so excited to tell me about them, as he had planted them 13 years ago with his own hands.  (I was jealous at that moment.) Then he named the fruits: tangerine, lemon, orange and (BINGO!) grapefruit.  Following was the question of the hour, “Do you like grapefruit?”  I greedily answered, “We ALL love grapefruit!”  And he loaded us up, as I knew he would, being that I used to be a prolific grapefruit tree owner.  We were doing him a favor!  (wink wink!) They are mammoth!  It was the motherlode!  Seriously, the size of a large head of lettuce!  WOW!

So we are GOOD for pink grapefruit for at least 10 days, no …. more.  YES!

Organic… Here I Come!

 My daughter, yes, the one who is driving, wrote her most exhaustive term paper this year on America’s Obesity.  I proofread it for her and was shocked at the statistics and the sad food facts about us Americans.  I was secretly thankful she did not ask me for a personal interview for the paper.  I mean, first hand interviews are legit and all, but still.  Not something I want on my resume.

About a month ago we went on a hike out in the cactus infested wilderness with friends of ours and the gal talked about all the same information for the entire hike… plus more.  Don’t get me wrong, the information was interesting and I was indeed interested.  She referred me to a book which I found at the local library (my second home)  and have read and re-read it several times now… well, at least parts of it.  The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About by Trudeau, no, not the Canadian Prime Minister.  It’s a conspiracy theory in all reality…. and quite engaging.

Because of the paper and the book, my daughter, yes, the one who is driving, decided with me to go organic and do some cleanses… long overdue cleanses.  Never done in my lifetime cleanses.  And drink tea… special teas from Trader Joe’s that I can’t pronounce the names of.  I don’t like tea that much and I am now reminded why… they taste similar to wet cardboard mixed with weeds.  But I’m drinking them and feeling so cleansed.  My gallbladder has never felt so free.  I do enjoy chai, but of course, it’s not on the list to cleanse any clogged organs.

That inner cry for Oreos and Cheetos will hopefully be suppressed by tea and organic peanut butter….. what inner cry, you ask?  Just you watch:

We will keep you posted on our organic journey as we breathe deeply, jump on the trampoline, walk, sing, dance and cleanse.  That noise?  That’s my pancreas singing with glee.