ezra and lono

so ezra and i made some new friends, holly and lono. holly recently arrived to the island with her husband chris and their dog lono and we spent the afternoon at the beautiful baie aux prunes yesterday. i love this beach and yesterday was a particularly beautiful day. there was a bigger stretch of beach than i have ever seen and the water was warm and calm. we spent 90 % of the time in the water, but i caught this little video of ezra throwing the ball to his new friend lono at the end of our day.

gratitude sunday

this week I am grateful for:

my body's miraculous ability to heal itself inside and out - my new raw food diet is creating amazing changes in my body (softer hair and skin. shrinking waistline, and boundless energy!) and my finger is regenerating a nice little rounded finger pad so i won't have a slanted strange looking fingertip!

raw food bloggers like rawon10, sweetlyraw. aniphyo, and loveveggiesandyoga - i have been making the most delicious recipes this week using their online recipes and am so grateful that they take the time to create and share these with the world

rawdorable cupcakes

the return of our amazing little strip of beach and my friend alexi for swimming with ezra while my finger is still repairing itself and kept me on the beach with her cute dog bailey

being Ezra's mama and getting to be with him all day long everyday

my mom who loves me

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas! I hope you get to spend a day doing what you love, which may be just like everyday of your life if you're as lucky as me!

this moment

corner view

yesterday i decided i would do some shopping for a new student to make a little cash. i took over the spouse's organization's shopping program this semester. they charge students $20.00 to get their goods. $15.00 goes to the shopper and $5.00 goes to the spouse's organization. i really miss having an income, so i thought i would do this once and see how it is! well as i drove away and was about 10 minutes into my trip, traffic came to a halt. traffic on an island? oh yes. there is only one main road around the entire island and we have tons of road construction and two draw bridges that go up at various times during the day to let the yachts in and out of the bays. so, i decided instead of getting irritated that i was stuck in traffic for $15.00 for a job that would take me at least two hours (and it did) when i could be at home playing with ezra, i decided to do something for myself while on the job. i took out my iphone and started shooting the journey from my driver's seat with my new hipstamatic iphone app. i thought it would be good to record the sites i see as i drive along the road through simpson bay to get to the hardware store. a little attitude adjustment and i was happy to shoot these little scenes. but, i do think that's the last time i'll do any shopping. from now on i'll be forwarding the lists to the rest of the shoppers.

Calling Mike Coakley

This post if for Mike Coakley, long lost friend of Michael's. Thank you for your kind posts on my blog. We were delighted to get your messages. Michael tried to contact you by commenting back to you following your first comment, since we don't have your contact information. He left his email for you, but you must not have gotten it. Sooooo..... here is Michael calling you on the banana phone! : ) He would love to get in touch with you. His email is bogoyevac@gmail.com

gratitude sunday

today i am grateful for:

my mind and body's will and desire to drop old habits that no longer serve me and adopt new ones that do

love and forgiveness

a wonderful week's time spent in family togetherness

healing grace

green smoothies

Gone Raw

I never thought I could be a vegan and give up dairy products. Now, one year later after becoming a vegan, I can honestly say I do not miss them at all. We became vegan by accident after stumbling across this book that explained in detail not only the inhumane practices employed by the meat and dairy industries, but also the detriments of including those foods into our diets. Michael and I have been vegetarian for the majority of the 16 years we've been together, so to switch to a diet without dairy products wasn't that much of a leap. I had this cookbook to help me along, and we decided to try it for a week and see how we felt. The change in our bodies was remarkable and life-changing.

Now, a year later, and a change is taking place again. Again, almost by accident, I have been influenced by the blog-o-sphere of which I have become a part since moving to the Caribbean and becoming a full time mom, wife, and homemaker. I had seen the green smoothie challenge coming up on some of the blogs I follow and then I read this post on Shivaya Naturals. It led me down the internet rabbit hole to several interesting raw food blogs like this one that left me with the same sentiment I had before becoming a vegan. Let's try it for a week and see how we feel. So, not only have we been having green smoothies every morning for breakfast since Michael has been on break, but we've been enjoying raw meals at every meal from this cookbook and are loving the energy and lightness we both feel. Michael and I are often all or nothing in our lifestyle choices - we can be a bit extreme when it comes to food preferences.

I spend a lot of my time thinking about what goes into our diets and what we will be eating for each meal. We have always avoided eating processed foods and refined flours and sugars, favoring homemade slow food using as many organic and fresh ingredients as possible (unfortunately, local is not an option here) and whole grains as well as unrefined sugars and their alternatives. But, my one problem with my diet, is that I love to bake. I am a carbohydrate addict. So, something else this raw diet has led me to, which for me is the gold mine, are the delicious and guilt-free raw desserts that use only nuts, seeds, and fruit. The first dessert I made was a chocolate mousse tart with strawberries. You use avocado in place of cream and it tastes so chocolatey rich and creamy, you have no idea there is an avocado in there! Our new favorite cookie is made using only cashew butter, a little maple syrup, vanilla extract, and ground almonds. The trick is putting them in the freezer. I am very excited about this recent dietary change and am loving the vibrant energy I feel.

Tonight we went to Tropicana, an upscale french restaurant in the Marigot Marina Royale, and I was so excited that I could order a market salad and a raw carrot soup from the menu. I left still feeling fantastic and not overly full and sleepy like I would've felt had I ordered something with pasta and had eaten the bread on the table, which is so easy to do when you are a vegan and not eating any animal products. So, I just thought I'd share this exciting change in our lives. Michael has been super supportive in this endeavor since at the beginning I sliced off the tip of my right middle finger with the mandolin vegetable slicer I bought, he's been my sous chef every day and is very skilled with a knife.