What's up?

Miah is learning the words "I" and "can". She has the first one down pretty good. She loves school, but this is all so new to her. She is really interested in all the rules at school. She told me today that if you have to go to the bathroom at school, you have to ask your teacher, and you can go pee at school but, they won't let you go poop, because it takes too long. Also, if the sign on the bathroom door is green with the letters "go" on it then you can go pee, but if the sign is red and says "stop", then you have to wait.

Jalen is learning what to do if other boys are making fun of you. The past two days Jalen has come home happy telling me what happened when another boy was saying mean stuff to him, and he said back to the boy, "You can say what you want, but it's not working with me, it's not the truth, and it doesn't bother me, I'm just gonna keep playing with my friends." "It's not working".

Cameron loves his teacher and is very loyal to her. She really "gets" him, and Cameron wants to work hard and impress her. His school work and effort is amazing to me, I am so proud of him.

We are getting into a good routine with the school year now in it's third week. My days are way busier than I had hoped. I am trying to stay on top of everything and balance home, school and office.

5 things I am thankful for today:

5. My van is working.
4. Whole family is healthy.
3. Kids have GREAT teachers and a phenomenal school.
2. My God is trustworthy and real.
1. I have the best husband in the world!!!!!!!


Looks like we will have a couple commuters....
The other day, in the van, just Miah and I, Miah asked me if you have to "go away" to college. So we talked about college, and how most kids live with their friends at college. She asked if you had to go to college, so we talked about all that. She then said, "Mom, I want to live with you and daddy when I go to college, I want to come home every night."

Later that same day, when it was just Jalen and I, he asked me about college. (Not as many questions as Miah) But, he concluded that he wants to live at home, he doesn't want to live with friends when he's in college.

2nd Year in the Three Rivers Tri-athalon

In the water, (he's in the middle with his arms stretched out.) Bright and early in the morning!
Minutes before the race......
Completed the 500 yard swim in about 10 minutes, now he's off to bike 12 miles.
After the race, (about 1 hr and 20 minutes), lots to talk about. Justin's here with good friend, Mike Rzeszutko.
Quick photo with his three biggest fans!

The race was fun, awesome and such a bummer at the same time. A few miles into the 12 mile bike, Justin's pedal on his bike broke. He had to stop and he couldn't get the pedal back on, so he pedaled the last 8 miles with one leg. Crazy, right! I am impressed by his determination and my heart breaks at the same time, cause the biking is his favorite part of the tri-athalon and it's his strongest element. I think his time would have been 10 - 15 minutes faster if he had 2 pedals. He finished strong with a great 5 K run in about 22 minutes.
Way to go Justin!!!! You're #1 in my book!

For all those wondering.....

I get asked often, "What do you pack for your child's lunch?" so this year as I was planning and thinking, I decided to take a few pictures and take time to blog about it.
(Let me give a disclaimer, I, in no way think this is the perfect thing to feed a child for any particular meal, this is simply my choices based on each individual child's likes/dislikes and nutritional needs. I figure why send a banana with a child for lunch if they are just going to throw it away, and why send a sandwich with a child who will bring it back home everyday with 1/2 a bite taken out of it.)

I tried to balance: 1. What they like. 2. What is healthy 3. Protein & Vegy for sure. (So basically what is fun enough for them to eat in front of friends and what is healthy enough for mom to feel good about.)

Breakfast & Vitamins

My kids each have a bowl of vitamins to take first thing. It is different for each of them, b12, b6, folic acid, vitamin C, immune boosting pills, probiotic drink, magnesium drink, and green pills (Chlorella and Spirulina).

Each of the kids then has a "shake" for breakfast. They each like it a little different, but all the shakes contain 1 raw egg, 12 grams of egg white protein, and 1 tbls. of Flax Oil. So each shake has between 20-28 grams of protein. To make the shakes yummy we add, goats milk, almond milk, raw honey, bananas, peanut butter, yogurt, etc. Each child is different.

After they drink their shake they can have a bowl of cereal if they want. I chose this cereal because of it's fiber, protein and low sugar content, as well as it's whole grain ingredients, and the kids love it! It is not organic (wish it were), but it fits in the category of kid friendly and mom's okay with it, and when I go to the store I don't have to wonder what cereal I am going to buy, I buy one kind and the decision is done! Also, we switched to raw organic goats milk a couple months ago, and we are happy with that decision. I also buy almond milk.

Lunches
Packing lunches is what we do. I let the kids have "hot lunch" for 2 weeks last year, just to see what it was like and because they wanted to try it. After the novelty wore off for them, we agreed that I would pack their lunches. It costs about the same or more for me to pack, but I like having control of what they eat, and I am able to buy much higher quality items for them, and if they don't eat everything at lunch they are to bring it home and they can eat it after school. After much trial and error on what works to pack,(somethings get cold, or get hot, or are too messy, and somethings that they will eat at home- they won't eat at the school lunch table with their friends watching!) So here's somethings we are putting in their lunches currently.

Cameron's lunch today. (Apple, Yogurt, Superfood green juice, protein bar)

Jalen's lunch today. (Peanut Butter sandwich, carrots, cucumbers, granola bar, cheese stick, water.)

Snacks for after school

This is the plan for now. Crackers, tuna, cheese, banana slices, apple slices. And dinner will be served between 5pm - 6pm.

So that's the plan for the Maust home for now. I have it all written down of course, my three kido's are very different and it helps to have written down how they like stuff, and writing it down helps me to calculate out how much protein, fat, vegys, fruit, etc they are getting each day.

First Day of School

Happenings around here

I know you are all dieing to know what the heck is going on over here in Granger... so I thought I would send out an update to the world.

Top Ten:

1. I made beef jerky for the first time ever. (Organic, all good ingredients, used a dehydrator). It actually is pretty good. It'll get better with practice.

2. I made really yummy organic raw salsa, like tons of it, and I'm making more tomorrow.

3. I haven't worked out very much or very hard for about 3 weeks now... and it doesn't really bother me. (For reason why see #4)

4. I have had at least one sick child for the past 3 weeks. It has been so unusual, and it isn't the normal cold or flu, so it's really altered my schedule, and I'm okay with that, I just want them better, it's hard to watch them day after day feel so yucky!

5. I am so loving having our CSA (Crop Share) this summer. We joined a crop share with our local Amish farmer (whom I love). We already bought our milk, eggs, meat, and cheese from him, and now for like 16 weeks (June - September) we get a basketful of vegetables and fruits every week. And it is a organic, locally grown, and it's whatever is in season that week, so it varies from week to week. I haven't had to buy really any fruit or vegys from anywhere else. I would recommend it to everyone!!! You pay one flat fee in April when you sign up, and then you just pick up each week!

6. I spent over an hour cleaning out my van yesterday. It was 95 degrees outside, so in the garage it was 105, and I was in the van vacuuming and scrubbing, as drops of sweat ran off my nose constantly. I actually liked it, it was like getting a good work-out in or sitting in a sauna for an hour. But the best thing about cleaning out the van... see #7.

7. I fixed our broken stand-up freezer in the garage! Yes, before we went on vacation I discovered all my strawberries partially unthawed in the "new" freezer we bought for $50 from craigslist. The freezer wasn't working... we were leaving for vacation in 6 hours, and I just figured I'd worry about it later. Well, here we are 3 weeks later... I go to vacuum the van, and the vacuum won't work either... ah duh.. the electricity isn't working... so I go to the basement, flip a switch. Tahda!! The freezer is fixed!

8. My sweet in-laws had planned to take the 3 kids on a trip for 3 days, we scheduled it in early July so I was looking forward to 3 days alone, and time with Justin when he wasn't at work. It was a pretty big deal, well, it happened to fall in the 3 week sickness time-frame... so Miah had to stay home with me. I felt so bad for her, she was crushed. 2 years ago when they did the same thing, Miah was too young to go, and this time she was sick. We made the best of it, and she slept so much of the time, that I still got a few things done.

9. We are all ready for school to start. I am so excited for Miah to finally get to go to school. Mainly because I know she is hungry to learn and she is very social, and because she is the youngest, she has been wishing she could go to school like her big brothers. So although it is bittersweet, (my baby is off to school), I think it is going to be a great experience and a great year for all of us.

10. Justin's TRI-ATHALON is in about a week. I am excited for him. He's been swimming alot and loving it. He hasn't been running or biking much, but he has fallen in love with the 'swim'.

11. I have a new bff. I like to call him "Johnny Jumper". Most people know him as Jump Box, but him and I have gotten close over the past month, so he is Johnny Jumper to me. My van has battery/electrical issues and without my bff, we'd be stuck (literally).

My Sweet, Sweet Cameron

My sweet, sweet Cameron is a phrase I have repeated many times over the past 8 years. He is truly one of the most thoughtful persons I have ever known. He is my big, big helper around the house. He has the ability to see what needs to be done without being told. He is also very perceptive and likes to do things for people or give things to people that would mean a lot to them. To say that he is smart is a huge understatement, he is gifted, hard-working, and competitive. He likes to hide his lovable soft side, but those of us close to him, see it daily.
Cameron loves gifts, prizes, and things. Currently he is into silly bands, legos, skateboards, football, and always books. He loves to go to the Library, loves ice cream, loves bike riding, building things out of wood, mowing the lawn, and taking care of anything mechanical.
Cameron has a way of bringing out the best and the worst in me, he's a pretty amazing little boy with a bright future ahead of him. He's very independent and truly believes that he can do anything, (and often thinks that he knows everything). My love for him grows each day, and I pray daily that God uses his life to bring glory to God.

All About Miah

Miah was so much fun on vacation. She has a blast no matter what we do. She was quite the hiker, I was amazed how well she did for a 5 year old. She is also excelling at swimming, jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder all by herself, many, many times. At the Waterpark, she did everything the boys did and loved it! If you ask me, she's a "momma's girl", but Justin will adamantly tell you she's a "daddy's girl". She loves to cuddle, hug, hold hands, and tell us that she loves us many times a day. She brings a smile to our face constantly. One of my favorite memories from vacation is walking through the woods holding Miah's hand and answering her cute little questions about life. She is a true treasure!

More on Jalen's Hives

We still don't know what caused the hives. We thought maybe it was the carrot juice, since he drank that right before the hives came. We thought it might be the bed sheets, might be the milk, might be something in the air. Jalen has never been allergic to anything, and actually we didn't know he had hives, cause we've never seen hives before. We right away thought it was the chicken pox.

I am very thankful it wasn't the chicken pox. I am also thankful Tammy, my sister, was able to help us through it. It has been a week now, and the hives are gone, but he is still not 100%. The past two weeks he has slept way more hours than he's been awake and he has eaten very little. He's had head aches a lot, and had a fever for about a week straight, but it's gone now.

I am writing this at 11:20 a.m. and he is still sleeping.
I plan to take him to the doctor tomorrow and have him tested for Mono.

Virginia Vacation

Vacation was: CRAZY, EXHAUSTING, AMAZING, AND WELL WORTH IT.
It was not at all what we were expecting. We have been to the Shenandoah Valley before, to the same resort, and we loved every minute of it. Here's the low down on our 2010 Virginia Vacation.
The drive there took about 11 hours, way too long, way, way too long to ride in a car. Jalen was not feeling great, he has been really tired for the past week, and started coughing a few days ago. He slept most of the ride down.
We arrived and settled into our really great condo! (It's awesome). Justin took the kids to the pool, and I went to get groceries for the week (which I must say, I did a great job of calculating how much we needed for the week, so we didn't have to eat out!) That night, Jalen left his very favorite beach towel (his doggy towel) at the pool, never to be seen again.
Monday morning, our first full day of vacation begins. I make some yummy carrot juice (carrot, cucumber, apple, lemon, etc.) All five of us sit down for a little talk and prayer together. The kids had cereal for breakfast, but because Jalen was fighting a cold of some sort, I gave him a glass of carrot juice to drink also. It was only like 6 oz, and so he sipped on it as we had our little meeting. Justin talked about the book, "The 4:8 Principle", which is about Phil. 4:8 (thinking on the right stuff), we were all pumped to start off the day... Justin and Cameron headed out to go mountain biking, and Jalen, Miah, and I were going to get ready to head to the pool, when Jalen told me he had some itchy mosquito bites. I was doing the dishes, and thought, I am sure it's not that bad, but I stopped what I was doing to go check out these mosquito bites. (SEE WEIRD PHOTO ABOVE). He was covered with hives, his belly, legs, from his chest to his knees! I panicked for 1 minute, ran out the door to stop Justin from leaving with Cameron to go mountain biking. The next 2 hours were intense, trying to figure out what was wrong with Jalen, getting pictures to my sister so she could diagnose his condition, and we were very relieved that it was just an allergic reaction to something, not the chicken pox or strep. So Then I was off to locate some Benadryl. His hives went away, we thought we were through with that, little did we now it was only just beginning!!!!!!!! Jalen slept like all day. Hives kept coming back. Jalen slept all day Tuesday and Wednesday as well. We postponed the Waterpark till Friday, hoping that Jalen would feel better. Hives kept coming back worse than before, finally he needed drugs. Justin drove an hour away Wednesday night to a 24 hour pharmacy to get what Jalen needed. He got back at midnight, we gave Jalen the drugs, and he woke up a different person. Thursday and Friday we actually did stuff together as a family. Went to the pools, went shopping, arcade, waterpark all day Friday (so fun!) But, by Friday night, Jalen was so exhausted and worn out, he rested 1/2 of Saturday, he would have slept the whole day, but it was our last day and so we carried him along to do some stuff.
I must say my favorite parts of the vacation were when all five of us were doing stuff together, so as you can see that didn't happen very much. I tried not to be bummed, I felt so bad for Jalen. None of my kids have been sick in like 3 years, so this was so strange and frustrating. We still don't know what hit him! He had a great attitude through it all, I hated hearing him crying saying, "I just want to be home" or "I'm allergic to Virginia" or "I hate this".
I was happy for Justin. He was able to mountain bike and hike a lot. He enjoyed that immensely. The weather was totally perfect, not too hot, nice breeze, not cold at all, seriously perfect. I was able to go hiking or running four different times. Miah and I hiked a two-mile trek together on Saturday, on the very top of the mountain, through some very rocky terrain. She loved it and so did I. We also got to have some great conversations, she is such a joy to be with, I also got to carry her on my back for much of the last mile, so I got a bonus work-out in. I learned that Miah really likes to pose for photos. She was hillarious! I would get out the camera and she would begin posing in front of a rock or something, too funny!
Cameron was frustrated with all the up-hill biking at first, but he started getting used to it. He really enjoyed the hiking/running through the trails. He is so strong and agile. He wants to live in Virginia some day. He had a great vacation, but I could tell, and he would often say, "I wish Jalen wasn't sick, so he could do this with us" (He missed having the real Jalen around).
I will blog more about our Virginia Adventures soon. I posted most of my favorite pictures.
The last thing I will say, even though Jalen was sick, we still all want to go back. We made the best of the week, and I think even Jalen had a good time (which really is amazing!)