I have just realized that it has been almost 3 months since my last post. Wow. How time has flown! There have been moments that I’ve wanted to post, ideas I’ve wanted to share, or recipes I’ve experimented on the go…but I was living in a whirlwind and I would push aside that nagging urge to write so I could focus on the urgent task which was to move out of my house. And finally today, as I feel more settled, I came back to my blog that I have loved so much over the last few years. It feels as though I am meeting with an old friend that I was so close to once, but time has separated us and I don’t know if we will pick up where we left off. So here I am hoping we can rekindle our relationship. I think the most logical first step, is to tell you where i’ve been these last couple of months.

For 7 years we have been living in a charming 3 bedroom townhouse. That home was where we began our marriage, where our 3 children were born, where they took their first steps, and where we committed ourselves to a healthy life. It was the happiest of homes, but it had become quite snug with our 3 growing boys. I did wonders in keeping the house  comfortable and organized, thanks to bloggers like Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist. But it all went downhill when my husband surprised us all with bicycles last December!!! At that point, without a garage, living in a small space with 3 boys and 5 bikes in my dining room became overwhelming. I don’t regret having those bicycles for one minute, however, because it is one of the most pleasant activities I have with my family. I love riding for hours on the weekend, instead of sitting at home sedentary. In fact, it was on a bike ride on a sunny saturday that we rode right in front of our new house…a house I fell in love with from the moment I saw it. To spare you the boring details, suffice it to say, that after a lot of hard work and help from my dad, all the stars aligned in our favor and we were blessed enough to finally purchase our dream home and sell our beloved townhouse. This process entailed packing up the house, moving everything into storage, and living at my mom’s and mother in law’s house off a suitcase. There went the blog.

To begin, here is something I learned. It does not matter how tidy you keep your house…when you move the dust unsettles and comes out of every corner!!! So much so, that my son had a major allergic reaction

At the same time my baby got a fever and ear infection, and we were all sniffling and coughing. We finally got out of the house, which solved a lot of our health issues, but still we were living out of a suitcase. We didn’t have our groceries and we were eating out or food at our relatives house, which limited our options. It was definitely stressful.

The only thing I took with me was my blendtec and ginger. This was mainly because the dust had made the boys sick. So I did try to make them smoothies with lots of ginger to keep up their immune system. (I also had to give Orly children’s Zyrtec while we were in the middle of the move).

But even with my blender, I did slack a lot. I was tired, overwhelmed, and uncomfortable. It was just easier to eat what was available. This was an amazing experience. It brought me back to the reality of how hard it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle if you don’t have a good system set up. There are no healthy pick up or delivery options if you’re eating on the go and often times your family members don’t eat the same as you do. And lunches?? lunches were so difficult. I didn’t have my salad containers and I didn’t have my regular groceries for my kids, so they ended up eating hot lunch at school and I would eat as good as I could.

My only saving grace was that I’ve been eating healthy for so long that my habits are very well ingrained in my being. So I would make good choices 9 out of 10 times, even if I was not eating optimally. I enlisted my husband’s grandmother to make healthy vegetable soups for us to eat. I bought smoothies next to my office and replaced the juices they use with fresh squeezed oranges or water. And no matter how chaotic it got, I never caved to a fast food restaurant. I did, however, eat a lot of pizza!!!!! It was a learning and humbling experience. It made me really see the need we need to create a community of healthy eating. It can be extremely lonely and challenging without the necessary support and resources.

There was change in all of us. Between the dust, the stress, and the food we were all feeling sick and tired. We truly felt the change.

I’m happy to report that we are back in motion. I went to Costco yesterday and finally stocked up my kitchen with all my nuts, seeds, organic frozen fruits, and lean meats. I’m adding ginger and garlic to everything I can to restore our systems. And we are blessed with a yard for the very first time. So we are lucky enough to have fruit trees and can now regularly “earth” as many like to call it. I’m really looking forward to getting my well oiled machine running again and sharing all the new recipes and tricks with you!!!!! It feels good to be back!