Wow. It's been a while hasn't it?  What I've learned from having a blog is that I am not as interested in writing about my life and family and times as I am in reading about others. I sometimes feel like I don't have enough to say, or whatever I have to say has already been said in so many eloquent and witty ways. But in the end these are just excuses for being inconsistent and tired. Sorry. I'll do better.
So, this last few months have been fun. So fun I haven't even put all my Christmas stuff away yet. But it's all collected into the living room though (I'm not THAT lazy). I've been procrastinating because it's too stinking cold in there to pack everything up and because I have a cute little baby

 that is much more fun to hang out with and snuggle than it is to put junk away we're just gonna take out again in ...a mere....10 mos. -  right???
Anyway, I had a friend request that I do a blog post about raw milk or as we like to call it "REAL milk".
I will address that with photos and links but not expound too much because much has been said already about the stuff and better than I could as well.  So here goes - raw milk, we drank it as kids and liked it but then stopped later when the evil food police convinced my mom and everyone else  that fat was bad for us.

So our family switched to non fat ( blech). I finally convinced my mom to buy at least 2 % milk because I never liked the watery blue stuff called non fat. After I was married and had my own household I really rebelled and started buying whole milk. YIKES! We're gonna die for sure! I'm kidding but in seriousness, it's like for years my body was craving the primal good fats that sustain us and when I started drinking whole milk again I could feel my body absorb all those good fats and vitamins and say "Ahhhh! thanks!"  Turns out we need those good fats to get our fat soluble vitamins like, D and E! On my quest to find perfect milk a found a dairy that delivered to my door and the milk was not homogenized ( fat cells broken down to stay mixed in), but still pasteurized. This was up to that point, the most beautiful milk I had seen in a long, loooong time with a thick head of cream on top!  We drank that for several years and then, we met our friend Dr. Pooley, who has changed our lives in SO many ways we aren't even the same family we were 5 years ago. We have learned about healthy fats, healthy, wise, nutritionally dense foods and also how important the entire endocrine system is to our heath and well being. And somehow, somewhere in there, we acquired a cute little calf from him ...Little Cow. This is not her as a calf but her with HER baby last May. Time flew by and soon we had a mommie cow and baby.  Time to git milking!  Now, we are total novices to all of this and do NOT know what were doing. But my husband is a champ and definitely NOT a quitter so, he learned all about milking and now he milks in the am and Cliff,

 our oldest son at home now, does the evening milking. I'm so amazed and proud of him. These kids did not grow up on a farm, so this is really a miracle! Anyway now I know what really beautiful milk is...it's this stuff!  ...and it is SO. GOOD.  If you want to know more about why we drink raw milk besides that it tastes like ice cream,

you can start here.. http://www.realmilk.com/

....

or here...http://www.westonaprice.org/

Here are a few things that have changed since we have switched over...
1. Everyone in our family that will actually drink milk stay healthier throughout the year.
2. Moroni drinks and LIKES milk for the first time ever. He grew up hating milk!
3. I no longer get a stomach ache from milk.
4.. Because of switching to real milk and cod liver oil supplements and Do terra oils, my family is rarely sick, never for long and haven't had to see a Dr. for illness in years. THAT's a miracle. I remember entire winters spent in a Dr. office waiting room and at the pharmacy. SO glad that's over!
5. When my daughter drinks more real milk she has less asthma.
6. I drank real milk my whole last pregnancy and when the Dr. did the last ultrasound at 7 mos. just before Stella was born, the Dr. stood back from the screen and said "What have you been doing???" "Those are the densest bones I've ever seen on a baby of this gestational age!!"  I didn't dare tell him it was the raw/real milk .....food police would have arrested me.
7. Moroni has learned to make really awesome yogurt!!!   So now we don't buy yogurt anymore.
All these things have changed our lives completely. We feel and live differently than I ever imagined.
It's difficult to maintain sometimes with the cow and chores and everything else, but we wouldn't have it any other way.
Peace and love to you all and I will try hard to do much better at posting.

Sue

A Fun Fall Frolic!

What a gorgeous season it's been.
A friend and I decided to take some pictures of our little ones who are good friends at church.
But little Caden had other ideas and did not want to hang out with Stella and have pictures taken.
That's ok, we got some great shots anyway! I love this time of year. It's one of the rewards for living in a a part of the country that is hard to live in. I miss the west and my good friends and family, but this definitely helps ease the longing. It has insistently become home in the last 4 of the 11 years we've been here. I use the term insistently because we've been trying to get back west forever but the east has insisted that we stay and settle in.

 Stella digs her ride. I found it at a barn sale 6 yrs ago for $5.00 and got it for Sammy's dolls. Yep, you heard it right. 5. dollars. I'm in love with it, it works great and is still in mint condition for being 40+ yrs old, which is more than I can say for myself!  That's Peg Perego for you.

 We don't use this everyday because it is old and I don't want to put the miles on it, but it's great for photo shoots and sometimes we take her to town with us just for a spin in a classic. It really brightens peoples day when a sweet, friendly little baby like Stella rolls up in this cutie and cocks her head to the side. smiles and says says "HI!" in her high pitched, perfect baby voice.

Funny....Stella wasn't even a thought being entertained when I bought this.

Now we could hardly imagine life without this cheery little imp!

knock knock!

" I hear you like babies around here!" Here's another!"

"Oohhh, and some more leaves!"  

Caden was crying so she was trying to comfort him.

Sweetness.

This was out in the backyard..

The sunset was beautiful and made little halos on their sweet baby heads

They found a rock to exchange. 

We watched the sunset. 

It was perfect. 

There.
Just a little glimpse of a proper New England fall. Hope you liked it!  I do realize I need more pics of the rest of us.  They are forthcoming!

Hi.
(Sheepishly)
It's been a long several months since I blogged. This was supposed to be an at least once a week thing.
Stuff happened, I lost control of my pictures and life for a while. But Things are doing ok now.
I really want my blog to be an image rich experience for people to visit and feel uplifted or be able to relate to - or at the very least relate to escape to. But life is very fickle sometimes, and when ever I aspire to do something, challenges most assuredly show up.  I have had many health challenges to deal with as well and as a result of years of these health problems I've come up with a hybrid of 2 old sayings that goes "that which does not kill us - will most likely try and try again."
We don't always get stronger, sometimes just humbler and maybe...MAYbe wiser and more patient if we accept what we cannot change...at least not right now.
I have SO many photos of what's been going on around here for the last several months, I don't even know where to begin...so we'll begin where we left off in April I guess. If a  picture is worth a thousand words, how much are a thousand pictures worth?
That's about how many I have to share. Where to begin....hmmm.
well, lets start here.....in the garden.

 Spring had sprung and the air was a mixed boquet of beautiful scents. Most of which I cannot identify because we did not plant most of this garden. The previous owners of the property did.
                                         Bless them!

 This boquet is a little more pungent but just as beautiful. It's fresh matured manure from our very own Little Cow.

 We put it in our grow boxes and get planting our veggies....

That was a fun day and I have to thank our dear friends the Mike and Andrea Saunders for helping us for the second year in a row to put in a garden. I'm not a green thumb, I'm a black thumb, so this was a big deal for me. I do believe Andrea is the plant whisperer. She could grow bananas in Antarctica. She is my gardening super hero!


Next up....in May,

Stella and I took a trip to Utah to visit my daughter at school and lots and lots of family!!
We love to visit family and friends whenever we can, we are pretty isolated out here in Connecticut, all our families live in the west. So we had a great time and it looked like this..

 Fist thing I did was go have a Mother's day treatment at Carly's cosmetology school. She did a nice job on my hair and nails. We had a good time.

Stella good timed herself right out!

Then we went to my Brothers and hung out and had a good dinner and good times like always. His kids are so funny. Stella had her first pickle and loved it! Didn't give it any thought, just another yummy food!

Mmmmmm, pickles! 

Tyson decided that they should have an awkward faces photo contest. 

Kenny won.  

We also made camp at Steve and Terressa's.....and Fender's...home.

 Stella and Fender have a "special" relationship.
They always have since their first meeting when she was newborn. He has always been very interested and protective of her. She thinks he's pretty awesome too.











Here, Stella is saying....."Fender, you're such a great host but I have to go soon. But  I'll be back, I promise, I'll be back!  Please don't cry buddy...then I'll cry too, it will be messy & slobbery & hairy. "

We also loved watching Fender capture evil balloons!! 

Stella was having trouble deciding what to wear one day......Then later at cousins she had her first strawberry! 

More please!!

Cousins are the mostest funnest !!

 Stella is a great traveller and .....

Had a nice visit and cuddle with Gramama while I had all the mercury removed from my old fillings. 

Then we got to go to Cousin Teressa's studio so I could get my hair cut. Stella was a good girl! Or maybe she was probably a little tipsy from all the product odors in there!

Either way we had a good time with cousins!Also of note PROPS to cousin Tress for sprucing up the awesome little Emmaljunga stroller. It's called the Dennis and I had bought if when Billy, my oldest son was a baby...22 years ag...o. Wow, was it that long ago??? Whoa. Anyway, she did a bang up job and everywhere we went people were begging to know where we got this cute little buggy! Sadly these are no longer available anywhere anymore. That's why I was so thrilled that Teressa did such a great job breathing new life into this sweet little ride! BRAVO TRESS!

Then later we did a little late night shopping with cousin Tress. As you can see Stella is shocked to still be aloud to be awake so late!!

 

She was very ...very helpful and inspected every piece of produce scrupulously before it was aloud in the cart. 

This of course can be exhausting.....

..but we still managed a little more fun with big sis, Carly

And then, after a good nights sleep we ended our tour back at Aunt Marialice's house, crawling EVERYWHERE and investigating EVERYTHING!!

 They had great conversations and ....

 Played some seriously FUN games!

That Aunt Marialice sure knows how to show a baby a good time!!

Then suddenly we were home, in our bed, well, in my bed. Relaxing in the familiar sights, smells and sounds that only home can provide. Even after a great trip to visit loved ones, it's good to be home.We both had a nice long snoooze, well at least I did. : )    Next up...Mothers Day post. Stay tuned!