OWS

"Fiery young idealists are now going to look at their country’s pretensions at being a model of democracy for the rest of the world, and laugh. The “1%” have revealed themselves as shrill ideologues willing to scapegoat America’s most vulnerable people in order to defeat a political movement that threatens them. They’ve revealed themselves to be thugs willing to beat up and pepper spray their own citizens for the crime of exercising their first amendment rights. Far from being a model for the emerging democracies of the Middle East, the people who rule the United States have revealed them to be democracy’s bitter enemy."

 http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/30/the-untouchables-of-zuccotti-park/

Made Up a Saying

36 weeks!
So I haven't been able to sleep well the past week. Last night in particular I woke up at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I mused around, took a shower, and made up a pregnancy saying that goes like this;
Nine months is a long time to carry a child, but the last month is even longer.
Because that is totally what I feel like.
I am waiting for my friend to get here right now, she is going to be attending my birth. Helping and kind of experiencing the homebirth process! Cool! She is interested in labor and delivery, and is an RN.

FAST update

So I have been meaning to post an update. And I have been thinking about it now all day wanting to get to it, as I am about to go to bed I thought I would run a quick one out of my system.
BABY BRAIN! Has got a hold of me so bad. But I am 23 weeks pregnant, and baby-o is moving all the time, and very strongly. I have been so weird with food this pregnancy, it is just crazy how odd it has been. Like, I will go crazy for a certain food item, and want it want it want it, like zucchini, then...i buy 4 zucchini and they sit in my fridge because the thought of eating them repulses me. What in the world! I have been craving fruit and sweet things a lot lately though. But I know better then to go out and buy a lot of whatever I happen to be craving...because most likely I am going to hate it tomorrow. My stomach and appetite may just be super temperamental, because often I will feel like eating a certain meal, but by the time I have it prepared I have no appetite and am quite disgusted by the food. Which is a trait I am going to be happy to shed.
SOEREN IS WALKING, or in the process of walking. He took his first official steps labor day weekend. Since then he has been taking 3 to 4 steps at a time here and there. He also will stand up by himself in the middle of a room, then squat, then stand, then squat, then stand, then step - step - crawl. Its awesome.

Good night, thats all I can pump out right now. I will try to make a blog about the things I am making and different updates and tid-bits that have been happening. Later!

YES!

AWESOMENESS go there!

Creations

So I have an Etsy account, and Chris was suggesting I throw my Etsy stuff up on here as well, so to acquire a broader audience so to speak. Don't really know how this is going to go since I haven't gotten anyone regular on my blog just yet. (My blog could probably use some publicity as well LOL.) DryadCreations is my Etsy account, check it out. I also have other stuff to sell as well, but I was kind of waiting for a hit on the items I have put up before I pay to put more on the site (if it were free I would throw everything up! hehe). I may just start putting them up on here for awhile first. 

All of my postcards are made by my own hands, I use recycled materials, and craft materials that I have in the house at the time, such as magazines, calendars, old photo cards, books, etc, and re-create them into postcards and cards, and I use ink and pen to create the backs and random designs. I see lots of people print out postcards and sell them as handmade, but everything I have is cut, pasted, marked, designed and glued by my own two hands. I am also dabbling in journal making, bookmarks, alongside my postcards, and cards. I will see where all this leads me, one of the things I would enjoy getting into would be making picture books, or simple infant or toddler books for my son.

Hooray!

I started feeling little bumper for the first time this week!

Baby is as big as a turnip.

Yum Yum.

So I have been in the cooking, baking, and doodling in the kitchen spirit lately. Therefore I have decided to throw up some of my favourite things as of recently.

First off cabbage rolls! I found this recipe on The Gluttonous Vegan food blog.

Stuffed Cabbage

150g basmati rice, about half a cup
1 medium white cabbage
60g pine nuts, about 1/3 cup, roughly chopped
Bunch of fresh mint and a bunch of fresh parsley
3 crushed garlic cloves
100ml dry white wine, just under 1/2 a cup
100ml vegetable stock, just under 1/2 a cup

Put the rice in some water and cook it as you normally would until it's soft and done. Drain it, then put it back into the pan (not on the heat). To the cooked rice add the pine nuts, fresh herbs and the garlic and some salt and pepper. (I also added chopped spinach to my rice instead of the parsley or mint)

Grab your cabbage leaves and a pan of water. Bring the water to boil, then place a couple of cabbage leaves at a time in the water until they go a little floppy. Then grab them out of the water and run them under the cold water tab for a second so that they don't cook any longer. Pat dry.

Holding a cooked leaf in your hand, scoop some rice out of the pan with a spoon and place in the centre of a leaf. 

Fold the edges around the filling, then place edge side down in a baking dish.

In a jug, mix the wine, stock and some salt and pepper in a jug, then pour over the cabbage leaves making sure to cover as much as possible. Place in the oven at 180C/Gas mark 4/350F until almost all of the liquid has gone, or until the cabbage is browned.

YUM! SO GOOD, we loved this recipe. And don't skimp on that last step, and certainly don't leave it out because you think you could do without...mmm it made them glorious!

Next is a Lumpia wrapped Asparagus recipe:

10-12 asparagus spears

3 tablespoons vegan butter

20-22 lumpia sheets

salt and garlic powder to taste

Take the asparagus and trim off the hard ends. Then lay out a double layer of the lumpia wraps and brush with butter. Next take two of the asparagus and lay them with the ends starting in the center of the wrap, then fold the wrap up on them - kinda like folding them in a blanket. Then take the right side and fold it over them again, theasparagus heads should still be poking out (depending on how small you cut them). Then just roll the asparagus up in the wrapper and place seam-side down on a baking sheet. Then repeat until you are done. 

Once all of the asparagus are rolled and on the sheet brush the outsides with the vegan butter and sprinkle with salt and a little garlic powder. Then put them in a 375 degree oven. You will have to keep checking them, and once they are nicely golden brown you will know they are done.

Second recipe is from her vegan food blog which I wasn't able to make to the fullest, but I certainly will at a later date. It is a recipe for ice cream cake, but I just made the chocolate cake part, and smothered it with fresh strawberry icing (I will share THAT recipe in a second!)

For the DELICIOUS chocolate cake part:

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix all the dry ingredients, then add all the rest. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I made it in two tin pie pans, and it was perfect.

Now for the strawberry frosting. Just for the record I have NEVER succeeded in making frosting. Ever, ever, ever. And I think I found the missing link, I recently acquired a little hand blender, and used it to make the frosting this time around and it came out awesome.

Strawberry frosting:

1/2 pint strawberries (rinsed and trimmed)

1/4 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons vegan butter

4 cups powdered sugar

You will need to macerate your strawberries the night before or at least a couple hours before you do any baking. That basically means, chop them up, sprinkle with granulated sugar and place in the fridge. This will bring out the natural sweetness of your berries and make them a little softer and mushy for crushing.

Next, remove the strawberries from the fridge and drain any excess liquid. Using a blender, hand blender, or a potato masher, crush the strawberries into a pile of mush. Then, using a mixer, whip the butter until smooth and begin adding the powdered sugar, all while continuing to mix. As you being to run out of sugar, you will see that your frosting is beginning to take shape. Then, add the mashed berries and mix thoroughly.

This recipe is on the web as well.

Now, what I would suggest for this recipe is to use only 2 tablespoons of vegan butter, and a tablespoon of soymilk. Also the first time around with this recipe I added the strawberries at the end and it watered down my entire frosting and basically ruined it. SO I ended up making it again, starting with a tiny bit of strawberries with the butter and milk, just make sure it isn't to much liquid, otherwise you will need quite a bit of sugar. Then I just spooned the smashed strawberries on top of the frosted cake. Just mess around with it and tweak it however you like, once I did it came out real good!!

I am going to make a vegan Zucchini Banana Plum hybrid bread recipe I created from a few recipes I found. So if that turns out well I will definitely post it sometime!

Blinded by the Light

SO being a vegan there are many restrictions on what we can buy. Depending on how strict of a vegan you are will also play into what products are 'vegan' enough for you. I am the type of vegan who is not ok with products that have animal products in them, or test on animals. When I was pregnant with my first baby is when I made the huge switch to being vegan. I was already trying to stick away from products that tested on animals the best I could, which is difficult because you either have to play it safe and follow what peta says, or believe what the company says. I went full no animal by-products, as well as not consuming animal by-products. My veganism is pretty strict, I unfortunately buy sugar that isn't "vegan".
Here is an excerpt explaining from http://www.vegfamily.com/articles/sugar.htm :

(Bone charBone char, made from the bonesbones of cows, is at times used to whiten sugar. Some sugar companies use it in filters to decolorize their sugar. Other types of filters involve granular carbon or an ion exchange system rather than bone charchar. 

Supermarket brands of sugar (e.g., Giant, Townhouse, etc.) buy their sugar from several different refineries, so there is no way of knowing whether it is vegan at any given time.

Brown sugar is generally made by adding molasses to refined sugarrefined sugar, so sugar companies that use bone char in the production of their regular sugar will also use it in the production of their brown sugar. Confectioner's sugar (refined sugar mixed with cornstarch) made by such companies also involves the use of bone char. Fructose may, but does not typically involve a bone-char filter.

If you want to avoid all refined sugars, we recommend alternatives such as Sucanat and turbinado sugar. Neither of these sweeteners are ever filtered with bone char. Additionally, beet sugar--though normally refined--never involves the use of bone char.)

Other then that, no honey, dairy, etc. Honey is the big product reducer, LOTS of products contain honey. Luckily living in Seattle makes it real easy to find many alternatives and companies that have all vegan products.

ANYWAYS - I started this post talking about when I fist switched. And at the time I was also pregnant, so being new to both lifestyle changes I purchased something someone recommended to me Lansinoh, which is a 100% lanolin product that is used for sore, chapped nipples before and during breastfeeding. Luckily I only used this product maybe once or twice before I even gave birth (not liking it so much), because it turns out that lanolin is oil or grease, from sheep. 100% lanolin, 100% not vegan. Heh, and it turns out that oddly enough I was recommended this product by a recent new mother, who was/is also vegan.

I hope I wont have any other stupid surprises like that. One thing that is real cool that I found out, St. Ives has been switching to a more natural company, no animal testing and using mostly natural ingredients in their products. I have only been using their apricot facial scrub, and lotions, but like them quite a bit.

The Nature of Natural Flavoring

So the weekend of May 14th (yes very late post) my husband and myself kept quite busy. On Saturday I went to the gym with a friend - which gave me a whopping seven hours away from the house, and away from my babies. Which I haven't had EVER, and it went over well for both parties, I had fun, and everyone at home was happy and content. Then on Sunday we spent the day in Bellevue and got some hiking shoes for Chris, and had a relaxing, people watching time.

Later that evening we headed up to Beacon Hill for a Vegan Chili Cook-off! Mmm vegan chili and bread and treats and people. It was an enjoyable time, and we were able to try most of the chilies and my FAVORITE won! Awesome!! (The vegan cupcakes were really good too MMMM MMM!!) However, what leads me to write this blog is that on the way to the vegan cook-off, the bus driver was a lovely, friendly guy, who was chatting it up with some vegans who were en route to the cook-off as well. And I am not to sure what brought the topic up...BUT they ended up talking about "natural flavouring" ad how it doesn't really have to be "natural" at all - let alone vegan or vegetarian for gods sake.
Now, my opinion on natural flavouring before overhearing this conversation and doing my own personal research was the following; natural flavouring was naturally derived flavour from whatever the main flavour or flavours were in whatever I happened to be eating and/or drinking. For example, the raspberry sorbet that contained "natural flavour" was of course a flavour, or odor, or taste made from raspberries, or apple, or pear, and/or whatever other fruit derived flavours made up the raspberry sorbet, etc..
WRONG. Here is the definition of "natural flavour" and how the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations describes "natural flavorant" as:
"the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or any other edible portions of a plant, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose primary function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional."

And if you begin to look up individual products flavourings, (natural, artificial, and the like) you will be surprised as to what concoctions we are actually consuming. NOT to mention putting into our babies.

Keeping your SANITY

So, if I have learned anything it is 1) I cannot get hardly anything done with a baby around 2) Either he wants what I have or he wants me. So I have figured out some helpful tips for those situations where you can't take a step forward without first taking four to the side and two back.

One of the tricks I have learned is that if I am cooking or reading, or opening mail and he is dying for my attention, I either give him the cardboard box I am cooking from, or a spoon, pot, or anything I am touching in the kitchen that is safe for him to play with. If I am going through the mail I just throw him a cardboard advertisement or the equivalent, paying mind to the fact that he can devour it if he wishes, or just hoard it in his mouth (NOT GOOD).

When I am reading it is quite a bit harder. And to be honest I haven't found a good way to read more then a paragraph or two while he is awake...(even though as I say this I am writing blog and he is happily playing with a chair leg 4 feet away). So I guess you have to choose your moments VERY carefully. However, when you are caught in the usual moments where you can't even begin reading, what I normally do is grab him one of his books, however this doesn't keep him occupied long, because he always seems to want mine more. Anything that you have found that works better when it comes to reading let me know!

Another little trick I tried one day was taking an ice cube and letting him toss it around in the kitchen while I cooked. He would flip it around and chase after it, (I can imagine this would have worked real well when he was still only sitting and not crawling) But he still had fun playing with the ice. One precaution is be careful not to trip or slip on the baby or the ice while you are moving around. You kind of have to keep an extra third eye out.

Mmm and since he has been moving around ALOT more these past couple months, it has been difficult to get his diaper changed. He is always wanting to roll one way or the other, or crawl away. So I have been handing him a diaper, and this keeps him busy. Because HEY! he has the same thing as mommy! I also let him grab on pretty much whatever else he is wanting at that point - even if it is my ipod or cell phone. It lets me change his diaper 50 times faster. Then we just move on to something else.

I don't know about your baby, but mine is usually happy any time I give him a chunk of bread to chew on, or a cantaloupe skin, or some baby puffs. He is an eater, and is most often happy when he is doing just that, eating. He is my big chunker. Sometimes as well, if he is particularly unhappy for no reason at all, he just needs to get outside, go for a stroll and see some different scenery. Great time to walk to the library and get a book you probably wont get a chance to read. :D

Check this out

I've thought this many times, but this blogger says it well.

thinking, waiting to leave.

 While we sit and watch our shows, and while we browse our online stores, daily life occurrences to other people in developing nations, things us as Americans (and I am including myself in this statement!) cannot even comprehend, are going on around the world. Things like communities spending hours upon hours a day searching and fetching water, that is not even healthy drinking water. And as human beings who are born with the pleasures of showers and water fountains and gallons and gallons of water at our disposal - I don't think we can ever understand.
This is just one of the trillion+ reasons I want to go immerse myself in this life. Get out and help, get out and see, - and not just see and be enlightened to some higher cause of donating each month to my charity of choice. No, I want to go and live in it. Feel it for more then just an eye-opening vacation. I feel so much for these people and those in crisis around the world, and yet I haven't even seen them. It is only the words I read and the pictures I see that evoke this emotion. So what if i go there? I hope it will turn my life upside down (even more). For those that know me already know that I am a vegan, minimalistic lifestyle, and compassionate human, I cant wait to see the changes I would instil after experiencing everything I want to experience. I hope it will only lead me to where I want to be, which is living. Living. Living, with only a backpack on my back. The shoes on my feet, going from place to place, a wandering helper, with my babies by my side.

Lemons

I have been drinking alot more water as of lately. At least attempting to, which has been turning out rather well for me. I've been experimenting with squeezing different citris fruits into it, to give a natural zest to the water. This addition in turn is causing me to drink even more water then I normally would have. Cool shit. So far I have been using mostly lemons, but I have also used orange, and want to use lime too. 


Soeren-Raedek seems to have an affinity for lemons! He loves to suck on them!! I am finding that he likes tart things, he was taking a couple sips of my Vincent cranberry juice made in Oregon YuM yUm!! (100% all-natural pressed cranberries, without sweeteners and such) therefore it is a bit tartish. And he was totally liking it. 


AS an addition to the Food Comsumptions:
Oatmeal with banana -- liked it!
Buckwheat grouts mashed up -- mehh, not so much
Daves Killer Peace Bomb Bread -- Ate that shit UP!



OH!!! And another important update!!! He has begun to move around quite a bit. He began by popping up onto his knees, along with scootching forward whenever he was laying on his belly (kind of like an inch worm). AND!!! now he is doing an marine low crawl. His uncle Zach is in the Marines, so when I told him how Soeren was moving he said it was "Marine" crawl, not Army crawl like I had initially called it. Soon I will be posting video of this moving baby!!

My Babes Consumptions #2

An update into what Soeren-Raedek has been introduced to:


Red Pepper,definately liked it.
Beets, liked it! And has continued to like it.


Yeaah, I know, its not to much to update on, just two food items. However he liked both of them quite well so I thought I would post it.

Spinach Face

Soeren-Raedeks consumptions

So, as for baby food -- lol. Random-ass posts here in this blog, but thats ok by me. So far these are the baby foods I have feed Soeren Raedek and his liking (in [I don't swear on my life, but to the best of my knowledge] chronological order):

Mango, was the first thing he ever tasted...and he still loves them to death.
Carrots, was the first helping he actually ate, and he liked quite well.
Avacado, he tasted here and there inbetween the mango and carrots (and sometimes some banana) and always liked them, then he had a full helping and he liked them. But then slowly began to dislike them. 
I then unsuccessfully tried to make him beets. He seemed to like them though. And he certainly sucked the shit out of a big slice I had cut off and given him to taste. 
Sweet potato, definately liked it.
Spinach and sweet potato, loved it to death.
Spinach, loved it.
Brown Rice, HATED it.

and he has been sucking on mango all day today. Man, i want him to adore veggies, and all exotic/weird foods. It is my calling. LOL 

FREEDOM

I love the word. Freedom. It encompasses so much, but also symbolises our human fight for the most basic elements needed to stay alive. The freedom to food, water, clean air, and each other. It is such a beautiful word, yet holds so much sadness in the world we are in today. The fact that these basic freedoms are not available, freely available, burdens me. So many more people should be burdened by this fact, and in addition, in the least probably 88 percent of the people burdened "heavily" with this fact, should be a little more bugged by it. They should say no to the hypocrisy, the absolute selfishness, the materialism, arrogance, wasteful nature, and say no to the brainwashing they succumb to everyday. 

Any everyday citizen should  think it would be enough seeing people struggling for food, struggling for the right to live happily without oppression, the struggle people endure in war zones, and the struggle to attain the most simple and most basic human rights we all should be able to enjoy.

How do we get so lost and caught up in our societies distractions and illusions. I mean honestly! Even those organisations that so proudly help out in disaster relief, or feeding the hungry, or aid in "third world" countries have been caught withholding money for themselves, and claiming to be giving more then they are. MONEY

The Beauty

The birth of Soeren-Raedek, was on July 24, 2010.

Pregnancy changes the mind, all the chemicals and hormones just keep building up, as that little body of his just kept growing inside of me. Then, all those chemicals and hormones were blown out of the water when he subjected my body to that beautiful torment. Even when I thought there couldn't be any other emotions felt, I looked into his eyes, in that moment my body, mind, and soul were transformed. By this I do not in any way mean 'into the perfect mother mind, transformed, and all-knowing'... yeaa no. But certainly different, certainly changed, certainly feeling things I have never ever thought possible.


Now 6 months later I am staring into the eyes of one beautiful child, whom has stolen my heart forever. 6 months after his birth I am still changing, and maybe I was changing just as much before, but now I am just a little bit more aware. Who knows.


But one thing I know is I look at every human being a little bit different, which I do not think I would have ever been able to do with out Soeren-Raedek Sivananda James Athanazereku Gendron.


Caitlyn Gendron