Food poisoning and balloons

Happy November! Oh it's been a fun last couple of days here.

Edyn loom knitting a hat

November is supposed to be the month to reflect on what we give thanks for. I can tell you another reason I am thankful for homeschool is because, food poisoning. Last Saturday my daughter started feeling bad and ended up running fever with stomach issues. We think it was bad sushi. Yuck! Shes still not feeling well, but hoping that shes on her way to being completely healed. The silver lining is that she has taught herself to knit on the knitting loom, and has even made 2 hats!

  

A few months ago I had heard that there was going to be a small hot air balloon festival about 30 miles from us. I was so excited and wanted to bring our kids. I had never seen hot air balloons, and it's always been a dream. The festival weekend came around, Friday night thru Sunday night, and it was so exciting, and FREE to get in. You just had to pay to park and at $15 for all of us, I was in. I had done all of my research, as usual lol. I planned, talked to my husband, planned some more because, I wasn't interested in anything but seeing the balloons take off. I could care less about arts and crafts or music, just give me the balloons!! The website said they would take off on Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. This meant we had to get everyone up, dressed, and out the door by 630. It was 30 miles away, and we new we had to park and walk. Well I should have known to get everyone up by 3 a.m. for us to be on time. My kids were moving as slow as molasses up a tree! We didn't pull out of our driveway until 6:50 a.m. I was not a very happy camper. All I could think is we are going to miss it. Then I got on Facebook to check the event again to see if anyone had posted about parking. Oh, well if my stress level wasn't at a 10 from being late, it was at a 15 after I got on Facebook. Comment after negative comment were complaints from the night before.

 "Parking is terrible!"

 "Completely unorganized!!" 

"GET THERE EARLY!!"  

Well goody. This looks like it's shaping up to be a great time. I told my husband, I am about ready to turn around and save our gas after reading these comments. We kept going and arrived about 7:20.

Beautiful sunrise on our way

The line of cars looked like a hurricane evacuation. I thought well great. Not trying to be negative Nelly, but maybe we can at least see a balloon float over our car while we sit here in this hot mess. All of a sudden, the cars started moving and flowing right into the gate. This may be happening after all!! We parked, jumped out and walked I know 4 miles uphill, but we made it just in time to see the balloons filling up and getting ready to take off! 

Edyn loves this pic she took and edited herself

We watched all of the balloons take off, and walked back another 4 miles uphill to our car. It was well worth it for me. I can't wait until my husband takes us to the one in New Mexico!

In an effort to get healthy, I decided to go plant based. It wasn't something I wanted to push entirely on my family, but it's something I wanted to do personally.

I knew that I would have to still cook meat for my family, but I also know that I am the one that meal plans. My family has been eating healthy and eating less meat, even if it is by default lol, They are really learning to embrace all kinds of fruits and veggies. I am going to shamelessly beg my husband for a Vitamix. It can be my birthdayChristmasValentinesdayorjustsimplybecauseI'mawesome gift from him.

 I really don't care, I just know I want a red one. **hint dropping right here**  On a plant based diet, there are quite a few soups that I love to make. For most of these soups, you will need vegetable stock. I was buying this stuff left and right, and thought at $2 a box, I'm going to have to take out a loan! I realized I had everything I needed to make my own. The kids wanted to help so I of course took them up on it.

There's those sweet small hands again.

We did the math together and we ended up making the equivalence of 7 boxes for the same amount of money as 2. Next time we will make even more!

Last but not least, we got to find a Geocache while we were at the park one day. If you aren't sure what Geocaching is, it's like a big scavenger hunt.You use GPS to find coordinates to the cache.

They come in all sizes! Sometimes they are small with nothing but a log, and sometimes they are big with little trinkets or toys in a big container. Those things are called swag! Here's the link to Geocaching.com if you would like to learn more. We absolutely love doing it as a family. Believe me after you find one, you will love it as much as we do! Be sure to watch out for Muggles!

Here's a video of our favorite Geocaching Youtuber! We love the Geocaching Vlogger!

That about wraps up what we've been up to. I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!

-Tasha