Juicing.......101?

On Sunday evening I was randomly looking through the list of blogs which a friend follows [thanks Maria :)] and came across one that had a post about juicing.

I starting reading along, then started thinking....

 Wow! I could totally do this! How hard could it be to make

juice and "eat" just that for 7 days? 

Yep. I'm doing this thing. 

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You are probably wondering why in the world would one do this, right? 

And what exactly is it anyway?

Here goes.....

Our bodies need energy to keep us going. What makes energy? Food! So we shove as much in as we can so we're not hungry and we can keep living. That's all good and fine, 

but WHAT are we shoving in? 

Sometimes it's healthy, sometimes it's junk, whatever it is, our bodies need a little break from that constant intake.

That's where the juice comes in. 

A bunch of different fresh, raw fruits and vegetables all blended together for a delicious drink (OK yes, not all the combinations I tried were that delicious), is a wonderful way to cleanse out one's system of all the toxins present from one's diet.

The idea is to drink a variety of juices, 2-3 cups per meal, every day for as long as you want, but 7 days as a great start.

Once your body gets going on this and starts to clean out, you will either get really sick if you eat junky, therefore more toxins, or be totally fine, which means you might just eat OK after all, therefore not so many toxins to be gotten rid of!

So this was my little experiment to see what was going on with me.

I went with drink as much juice as I could, or whenever I was hungry, and eat 

one meal a day of something raw.

This was the combination of veggies/fruit that made the best juice.

Every morning I juiced about a half gallon which was what I drank for the rest of that day.

                                      

Our handy-dandy juicer 

In the end, the juice kind of looked like mud : / Not the most appetizing, but...! 

I did know what really was in it at least.

This was my one meal per day. Actually quite yummy.

And oh yes.... funny part of this, Mom was going to do it with me, but in the end only made it till about 11 am on Monday morning! Not totally sure why, but I'm thinking she had too much on her mind to think that hard about what she was going to eat :) 

She still thought my salad one night looked pretty good though, and Dad was a dear and got up and made her one too.

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As I said, my intention was to go 7 days like this. Got through day three which, I've heard from others who've done it, is the hardest day. But onto day four and I was just so hungry and the juice was not cutting it and I just wanted to eat something else.

That was when I weighed myself and discovered I had lost almost 5 lbs! 

THAT was not something I'd thought of! I guess it makes sense, but that must have been why I was so hungry. I wanted to at least do 5 days then, so that would mean only one more day, but today....

Well.... I guess I kind of just gave up. I ate lunch in the middle of the 5th day :)

It was soooo good.... haha

I did discover though, that I must not have too many toxins because I didn't get sick. 

So that was a good thing.

And that you can lose weight pretty easily this way. 

So that was a good thing. I guess. If I needed to lose weight....

That eating protein is actually really yummy.

That's a good thing.

And that I probably couldn't be a complete vegetarian.

And that's a good thing, because then I'd probably have to go hippie.....

and I like to take showers, so.... :)

Ben and His Newfound Passion

Hunting and anything that has to do with it has become his life.

This is basically his first year so he is still learning some things, 

but he still has quite a bit of fun at it.

He practices with his bow as often as he can, and even has

 spiffy little lights on his arrows that light up so that 

you can find them if it's too dark out!

In learning about the different types of bows, he's bought and sold a couple, 

and met some pretty interesting people that come buy them.

But doesn't he look good, though!

The dog couldn't figure out who he was and why he looked like that.

He made this stand in our driveway and then hauled it in the truck a mile away.

The neighbor said he could hunt on their land, so he has a food plot 

and wonderful stand all set up.

He got his buddies, Simon and Fin, to come spend their Sunday afternoon making

 good use of their muscles and helping him out .

This was in the process of getting the weighty thing 7ft up in the air on the posts.

There was much laughter and thankfully nobody getting dreadfully hurt, 

since it rolled back down couple times!

I walked up the as they were partway through and seriously thought someone was hurt because they were bent over laughing so hard.

That stand is up there good and solid now, though :)

Those same sidekicks go duck hunting with him as well. 

Yep. And this is them finding out how to call in the ducks, by watching YouTube videos.

It's nice place to do it since the sun was out at least!

They did this after they went out in the morning and tried but it didn't work :)

They didn't get anything, but Ben has now gotten one duck on his own.

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"He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said, 

'Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.' "

Genesis 10:9

"As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man...." 

Psalm 127:4

Hurray, Ben! Be our Nimrod ;)....Now go get a super big deer. 

Or two. It doesn't matter how many....

Mt. Washington

Although it has been much too long after the fact, I am still posting about our beautiful and invigorating hike up Washington the end of September, right at peak season, just because it was such a spectacular time :)

The best part happened that morning before we left.... 

Josh called me at like 5:30 saying what I thought was just "Good morning". 

That seemed odd since he doesn't normally do that, but.... 

We just chit-chatted and then he said, 

"Why did you lock your little brother out??" 

I was puzzled as to what he was saying since the boys were all still sleeping, 

but I went downstairs and.....SCREAMED! 

He was standing right down by the basement door!!!

He totally drove through the night - 12 hours - to get here and surprise me and hike with us!

He bought us all hot cocoa for the ride to the mountain, too

 Water was everywhere as we hiked

Fin attempting a handstand.... Doesn't he look like a pro?! 

Elizabeth wanted me to get a picture of her doing a ballet pose....*magnificent!*

Annndd.... and when I turned around....Simon was copying her! 

I must say, they were both pretty good at it :)

 

  

Live long and prosper, Ben!

Josh can literally fall asleep anywhere. 

He's bigger than me finally.....

Such a nice little family picture of us four.... ;)

Elizabeth and I

On the Cog Railway

 

I like living on the wild side so I just walked right by this sign :)

In actuality, and seen by the pictures, the day was absolutely beautiful! A little windy at the top where we needed sweatshirts, but rather warm other than that.

The whole group of us that went

Oh, the fabulous memories of good times.

Thank you, Josh, for coming to make it even better!

Fall Days....

....are the best when you drive over to a friend's house 

to go for a walk 

because it's just so beautiful outside 

you have to share it with some one.

.....and have an extemporaneous mini photo shoot....

....and take sisters along since they're friends too....

  -- Besties --

....and of course get some of just us.....

...and find a backroad that look like it drops right off into nothingness.....

....and get in a bit of sisterly love :).... 

....and basically.... 

 

.....just have....

....a fantastic day!

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The EARTH is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; 

the WORLD, and all that dwell therein.

Psalm 24:1

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While the earth remaineth, 

seedtime and harvest, 

and cold and heat, 

and summer and winter, 

and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22

The Things I Do

Acting like an adult all the time isn't always up my alley, so I do this:

Everyone thought I was crazy when I said I wanted to be a  clown because it was on my bucket list, but after I did it they said it definitely  fits my personality.

A friend at work had such confidence in me that I could pull it off, that he gave me his phone number so I'd text him a picture right away :) 

And that was before I was even sure if I'd do it.

I only freaked out a few little kids, but the others happily gave me high-fives. 

If you ever want to do something crazy, be a clown.....

I'll lend you my awesome bike! (It comes with a horn on the front!)

While I Am At Work

Lots of things happen at work which is exceedingly interesting and adventurous

buuut......

Sometimes my favorite thing that happens at work is when I am scheduled to be all alone for the majority of the day. 

Yeah, well that's actually not normal for me to want to be alone, but after being around and talking to people all the time, sometimes it's fun!

Sooooo...

 I do this when I am alone - take selfies - at least I did this time

Carrots are my snack of choice while away from home, but sometimes....

Ice cream is fun too =)

This is our large made with my favorite ice cream to scoop - Death by Chocolate - and I actually made this cone but didn't sell it. It was made just for the pictures cuz I can do that when there's nothing else of importance to do. 

I guess I make ice cream on the side too!

That's how I do it...

Oh yeah, and I still like my job a lot =)

It's How Friends Do It

So I wrote this post probably over a month ago but since it was basically done, I'm still posting it even though it's old =)
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I'm pretty sure I have the bestest friends.

Of course everyone thinks that, but mine are significantly super cool. I'm pretty sure. 

I started working at the ice cream shop in town so I quite frequently see large quantities of people I know.

This is where my bestest friends come in.

They have probably come to get ice cream visit me at Pizza Man more 

this year than ever before. Actually they made a pact to never get ice cream there unless I was working. 

One of the last visits they decided to have more fun than usual....

I was standing at the window as this nice older man came up as if to give me his order. 

Instead he started to talk....

"Hello! You’re Kaylee, right? Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you....and you have two brothers, one of them Elijah, and the other...Ben? Ok. Very good."

“And your family is all camping right now and you’ll join them tomorrow?

….So I heard that you are looking for a nice Christian guy?!”

(And all this info he knew was totally true too)

By then was standing there with a grin and kinda big eyes just trying to figure out what was going on and what I was missing. 

I then noticed that there was a guy with a black hoodie –hood up of course – right there as well and he seemed to be videoing me while he back was still towards us…..

That was when I got a little scared, because there’s a guy that someone is trying to set me up with and I was suddenly worried that he was hidden around the corner or something!

Then I was like, no, this is just too funny for that, so I very seriously said,

“Well, yes, I guess I am but not right now of course.”

And then all my friends (Josh, Ruth, Joy, Nancy, Ben, and Jonno, as well as others) burst around the corner laughing their eyes out.

The whole thing got videoed (by Mr. Sanders with the black hoodie) and they had been planning this for a while. They used their missionary friend who was visiting since I don’t know him and they fed him all the lines.

I loved it though and now think my friends are double cool =)

And then (almost) totally random friends come to visit me at work, then leave and then come back when I’m closing at like 10:30 pm and actually do my work for me. It’s great.

That's what Billy did.

He was in the area for work on Sat. and he called to see if he could come visit us.

I haven’t seen him for like 4 years and it’s been even longer for Dad and Mom.

We all did some major catching up and laughed at all his funny stories and the hilarious way he can tell things. 

I had to leave for work then but some other mutual friends (the above-mentioned tricksters) wished to meet up with him so he said he’d meet them at the ice cream place and therefore would see me again.

They all hung out there until like 7 (laughing and talking, of which I couldn’t totally participate in since I had to serve people, but at least I’d gotten to serve them too!)

and then they all left to go to Sander’s house.

It was a bummer I couldn’t go, but was happy for the bit of visiting I’d had.

Well, it was after 10 later that night and I was cleaning up for closing and Billy called me. He was just leaving Sander’s and was coming back over to hang out more.

He came right in and took the mop from me and mopped the whole floor for me!

 That is the part I dread, especially at ten-thirty at night, so I was super happy.

One of the other girls came in and saw him mopping and whistling away and asked, 

“Do you work here?! Cuz I haven’t ever seen you before.”

He was like, “Nope! I don’t! ....I’m Billy and I’m from Nashville.”

Then we went out and sat on the curb and talked until nearly midnight. He said he’d totally talked himself out before then, but he still had something left because he did most of the talking :)

So super fun and random to do that day.

That’s why I love my friends!

And I love my job. I mean really, I just stand there and make people happy all day.

Smile and hand them an over-sized amount of ice cream!

Camping

Yes. We do go camping. Yes. We may live in a very remote part of the country that might seem as if everyday life is camping, but to us, this is the kind of camping we love =)

And our camping includes swimming, boating, fishing, biking,.....

 
....... and the most important part is the food.
Elijah said that's what we go for really.

Dad has decided to become a photographer so consequently he's not in many of the pictures.

While we were all standing around by this sign before we went out onto that road to ride, a little red zippy car went flying by with a guy hanging out the window yelling and waving at us. Automatically I grinned and waved as they sailed away.

Dad's like, "Good thing we keep you around, Kay. We wouldn't get nearly as much attention otherwise!" 

I exclaimed, "Dad! He wasn't waving at me! I just was the only one who waved back!"

Dad, "That's what you think.... =)"

Mother Dear and Daddy =)

(They must have been truly happy that day because those are truly real smiles!)

We did a fabulous 15-mile loop around Lake Carmi

There were multiple families of ducks in different stages of growth all around where we were.

So ridiculously adorable too.

I'd love to know that worried little mother's method of training of her children, because those little things come running at the slightest sound she makes.

This raccoon really wanted to eat the ducklings, but we scared it up this tree. 

It was a bold thing because we woke up to Ben yelling in the middle of the night because it had gone right up in the lean-to while he was sleeping and was on his feet!

This is the difference between Elijah and Ben.

Elijah wore mud boots and wranglers the whole time while Ben tipped over his kayak so that he could see what fun things could be done with it.

You know, all those things you think when you are paddling along and you wonder if you could actually do?!

This was me demonstrating how strong my right arm is from scooping ice cream. 

Just kidding. It's really not, although Dad thought for sure 

one side of Elijah was higher when I went to pick him up by the shoulders =)

Nate seems to be addicted to fishing, he loves it so much! 

The only downside to it is the cleaning of the fish you keep, he thinks =)

The most comfortable way to kayak....

Sunsets are amazing....