Link Up Reminder!

Tomorrow's April Fool's Day.
Which means the 1st is here and it's time for First Day!
We had 15 ladies join up last month!  I had a blast looking at everyone's day so let's do it again.
It's easy to play along:
Set your camera out tonight, snap away all day long on the 1st, create your post, than link up here on Monday Morning!
Grab the box and spread the word!

<br /> <a href="http;//www.journeytojosie.com"><img src="http://i496.photobucket.com/albums/rr321/thehanchan/firstday.jpg"></a><br />

She's a Pope - Take 4

It's been four years since we changed her name.

The old was gone and the new was official.

This baby girl who slept the whole way to the court house, cried when the judge tried to hold her, and giggled at everyone waiting outside the glass window is now more of a Pope than I dreamed possible.

Her Daddy's girlfriend.  Her Mommy's bird.

It still blows my mind that someone just dropped her off at our house and, just like that, I was a Mom.

How can this stunning child be all mine?

To celebrate her Adoption Day Anniversary, we got her tickets to see Disney on Ice with a friend.

She wanted to go dressed as Rapunzel and who am I to tell her no on her special day.

I even agreed to straighten her hair for the occasion.  Which is seldom allowed since it makes her look 18.

And Gabe refused to be outdone by her costume.

She decided to bring Olivia as her date.

These two have become close over the past month or so.  Which is good since they'll be joining us for part of our vacation next month.

They had a great time running wild through the food court during dinner and staring at the show, mesmerized from the first scene.

Happy Adoption Day Josie Girl!  Thank you for making me a Mommy.

**Don't forget that our 2nd First Day Link Up will happen on Monday! Get those cameras out Saturday night and snap away all day Sunday. See you back Monday morning for the fun!

Whole Family (embraced)

Andrew hates getting family pictures done.

Hates it.

But what he doesn't hate is adoption.  So when my work (Faith, Hope, Adoption) needed some adoptive families to come get photos done for our new brochures, he agreed.

I'm not letting him out of our Fall Photo Session that I've been dreaming up since last Spring, so this year I get two family portraits!  Yea me!

So here you go, the face of Foster Care Adoption:

I swear the kids like us.

Labled

I'm reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollen.

It's good stuff.

It has really got me thinking about the food that we eat.  I think that we eat pretty healthy, but Pollen really talks a lot about how today's food culture talks a lot about individual nutrients but not much about the processing or extra ingredients that get shoved in during the process of making food more "nutritious."

I'll be honest, parts of the book are dry.

It is a book about food and nutrients and the history of eating in America.

But what caught my interest were the rules in the back of the book.  I've decided to tackle them one by one with the hopes that I can actually understand what I'm feeding my family.  

So last week I loaded Josie and Gabriel up and headed to our local grocery store to stock up with Rule One in mind:

Avoid products with ingredients that are A) Unfamiliar, B) Unpronounceable, C) More Then 5 In Number, or that include D) High Fructose Corn Syrup.

None of these things are awful in and of themselves, but they are really great ways to tell if something has been processed out the wazoo.

My rule sounded simple, "pronounce, understand, under 5"

In reality, finding things to buy that fit this rule was next to impossible.

So much so that I busted out my camera for a little illustration.

I get that a lot of today's foods are loaded with preservatives and other additives that aren't even real food ingredients.  

I'm pretty good about not buying those things.  

But there were a ton of items that should only have a few ingredients that had lists that blew my mind.

Like bread.

It's been made since pretty much the start of time.  3 or 4 ingredients.

Flour, yeast, water, and maybe some honey.

So why does Sara Lee's Wheat Bread label look like this?

I couldn't even get the whole list in the shot.

 I read bread labels for, no joke, 10 minutes.

Josie started to get antsy so I picked the shortest list I could find.

So we are having Tostadas one night this week so I mosey on over to the rice isle.

We could eat this:

Or I could make some brown rice, add in my own spices and tomato paste, throw in a little corn, and leave out the other junk.

I seriously cannot pronounce the majority of that label.

And did you catch the warning at the bottom.  Sulfites are gross and cause all sorts of health problems.

Ugh, and my old favorite creamer was even worse.

It is "Good To Know" Nestle.

You may be trans fat, lactose, and gluten free, but you are not free from more than 11 unrecognizable and very science sounding ingredients.

And you're not in my fridge.

I switched to regular old half and half about 2 months ago and haven't missed this stuff at all.  Sometimes I add a splash of vanilla, but for the most part, this is my creamer label now:

Yogurt is another thing we eat a ton of around here.

It should have one ingredient: Cultured Milk.  

Total fail.

I do love how all these packages now say "Gluten Free" as if that negates the science experiment listed above it.

And you might have noticed that the organic version is not much better then the regular brand.

I sure noticed.

I was actually pretty peeved about it.

I've spent a lot of money buying the more expensive version because I assumed "Organic" meant "Healthier."

But we rarely buy flavored yogurt.  I buy big cartons of plain yogurt and we add fruit or granola to sweeten it up.

This is the organic yogurt we usually buy:

Make that USED to buy.

Dannon's brands label fit my new rule much better:

It may not be organic, but I know what's in it and it's not a bunch of junk that causes cancer.

I left the store feeling much more educated about marketing and food choices.  

And a little ridiculous for taking so many pictures in the middle of Kroger.

Adding Rule Two on our next trip.

The Grateful Girl's Look Book

There are a lot of women in my life that inspire me to be better.

They mentor me without even trying to, teach me to be bold and take a chance on the things that are important to me.

Some of them have been in my life since my very first breath and others are new to my Hall of Fame.

Lanie Beth is one of the latter.

I've known of her for a long time.  

She's married to one of my husband's childhood friends.  But she's just recently become a friend.

Not only is she drop dead gorgeous, but she's honest, she loves the Lord, and is a master encourager.

And she's smack full of passion.

I found my calling in shining light on Foster Care and she has found her's in exposing the Sex Slave industry for the tragedy that it is.

Girlfriend is doing unreal things to make a difference.  You should follow her blog to follow the amazing adventure they are about to launch off on.

Lanie Beth recently combined two of her favorite things, teaching women to love who they are and raising money to end human trafficking.

She has compiled a Spring Look Book that shows 10 awesome fashion trends that are easy for normal women to pull off.  I got my copy last week and was able to recreate half of the looks using what I already owned but had never thought to put together.  

It's awesome!

She's selling the online Look Book for $8.  Part of ever purchase is going back to a non-profit called As Our Own to help bring an end to human trafficking.

Think of the difference we can make if we all pull together!

If you'd like to help support Lanie Beth's mission, click HERE.

And here's a little tease of what you'll find in your copy:

Monday, Monday

Happy Monday Everyone!

How was your weekend?

Ours included working in the yard, trips to the garden center, and an 8 hour date day with my Pizza Man.  The date day ended with 2 hours and 22 minutes of The Hunger Games.

So my weekend was pretty good!

We've been busting tail in the yard the past couple weeks.

This is the first year we are really taking ownership of it and man, it's a lot of work!  I'm glad that all this weed pulling and soil turning is resulting in toned arms and bronzed skin or I'd probably give up.

We finally got to the part where I can start planting so I'm happy.  And if I'm really being honest, I've enjoyed the prep work too.  

I'm turning into my Mother (which is a good thing!).

We drained the fountain to get it all cleaned up and Josie found a Tadpole Haven.

She spent the better part of a morning scooping them up and investigating them.  I totally counted that as our science for the week.

Hunger Games was everything I dreamed it would be.

I thought I was on the Biggest Fan List until I heard about the Tribute Games going on at our local bookstore.  I guess I'm on the So-So Fan List.  

As good as the movie was, the best part of the day was (cue sappy music) spending all day with this dude.

We've got a pretty relaxed week coming up.

We are getting ready for a big trip so we'll be doing Easter lessons a week early and trying to wrap up parts of the yard.

I'll leave you with a few shots from around here this weekend.

Insta-Friday - 4

Just a Little Friday Afternoon Phone Dump.