Have you ever heard of a GMO? I'll confess, I hadn't until recently. The term GMO stands for "Genetically Modified Organisms", and my older sister, Rachel, began doing some research about GMO a little over a month ago. She thought that eliminating GMO from my younger sister, Avalon's diet might balance her mood swings and help her to focus, make progress in speech and social behaviors. (For those of you who don't know my family very well, we adopted Avalon in 2008 after having her in our home through foster care since she was 20 months old. She has a significant delay in speech and social behaviors, but she is a smart girl! She amazes us academically and is a hard worker. She has a merciful, tender heart and we love her and thank the Lord for bringing her to us!)

Anyway, Rachel has read through 2 books on the subject of GMO (author - Jeffrey M. Smith), consulted with my parents, and has put Avalon (and herself) on a "GMO-free" diet for 30 days. Avalon is on day 18 right now, and to be honest, we haven't seen any major changes. But even if we don't see dramatic results on the outside, we are still planning to elimate most of the processed food that she used to eat once these 30 days are over. We've done a major overhaul in her diet, including a lot more fruits and veggies (she was a very picky eater!) and Rachel spends several hours a week baking things that she can eat. (Homemade chicken nuggets and ketchup, graham crackers, banana bread, fruit popsicles, etc.) Rachel has found some great recipes, and we've found that we prefer our homemade recipes more than store bought items!

We're also excited to see our garden plants growing bigger. (Pics above...ignore the weeds. No garden is perfect. LOL) We can rest assured that our garden produce has not been genetically modified!

I encourage you all to eat fresh this summer! Take advantage of local Farmer's Markets...grow your own garden...enjoy the delicious produce that the Lord designed for us to eat. I simply can't wait until harvest time!

Blessings,

Bekah

Family Vacation

These are a few pictures from our family vacation to Des Moines last weekend! We enjoyed staying in the Adventureland hotel and swimming in the hotel pools on Friday, and then we went to the Adventureland park all of Saturday. It was great! I took the weekend off of "typical exercising" and traded in my gym shoes for a swim suit and flip flops. But it worked out great. We swam for over 3 hours on Friday, and though I didn't swim laps, it was a workout playing with Avalon and Bethany and chasing after them. (We went down the slides countless times, and climbed up stairs to get there.) And on Saturday, we walked several miles in the theme park. (I have blisters to prove it!)

I really feel awful about my lack of posting recently. This Census job is taking up more time than I thought, and blogging just hasn't been a top priority. I appreciate all of your comments and how you've hung in there with me! We have embarked on a new family diet for at least the next 30 days, and I'm planning to explain the diet in my next post. (I can't post about it quite yet, because I haven't finished reading the book. ) It's been quite the challenge...but I love how our fridge is overflowing with fresh fruits and veggies! I made some steel cut oats for breakfast and sprinkled some brown sugar and blueberries on top. Delicious! If you haven't tasted steel cut oats, you MUST! They are so much better than regular rolled oats. Rolled oats tend to be "blah" in the texture category, and steel cut have a nice, hearty texture. I'm hooked!

On a completely different note, I've been memorizing the book of Philippians recently and want to leave you with this verse. I think it sums up my prayer about my weight perfectly!

Philippians 1:20 "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage, so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death."

Blessings ~ Bekah