Check out the incredibly talented Guitar Cat! Hiram’s Dad, Brian Clark. This is his latest music video! Please share with your friends. He’s trying to win $10,000.00!!!!!
Guitar Cat!!!!
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Summer Update Part 2: Photos!
My handsome son Jaiden driving our friend Don’s boat.
With help and adult supervision from Captain Don of course!!! 
Family fun in the sun- self portrait style!
Purple Cherokee Heirloom tomatoes. I adore these and will definitely grow them again. Though sadly, because of the blight I cannot use the seeds I saved from these beauties.
Love the varigated shades of red and green that sort of blur together in a brownish color that I guess is what they call purple in tomatoes. Love them! Incredible flavor, so big and juicy!
My second time growing tomatoes ever! My first time growing ANYTHING in Florida, AND my first time growing heirloom tomatoes too. Palm sized! (Though I admit….I do have small hands!) *wink wink*
My famous TLT sandwiches uses Smoky Maple Bacon flavored Tempeh and our home-grown, organic Cherokee Purple Heirloom tomatoes.
Lemon Boy’s
They are so pretty. I love yellow tomatoes.
Golden Jubilee. Loved these golden beauties. Such a warm yet vibrant flavor. I think these are my favorite of the yellow tomatoes we grew.
Vegan “Chicken” and Golden Jubilee Sandwich with pickle, curly leaf lettuce, Vegenaise and mustard on sprouted grain gread.
Moby grape tomatoes. Was told these don’t grow very well here, but I’m pleased to say ours did very well until the blight killed them. They were as perfect as anything you’d buy in a store. Grew well in the garden box, and just one plant produced an abundance of these tasty, bite-size little fruit.
Our biggest harvest in one day! We even had a few to share with a friend. All our lovely plants treated us well and gave us many delicious, nutritious, organic fruits. What a wonderful experience growing our own food!
I don’t know why, but I love this picture.
My best friend and companion Naiyah. She and I walk the beach every morning and every night during the summer.
Ghost crab. Our beach is crawling with these cute little guys. I really like this one as I finally caught a picture where you can see it! Usually they are soo transparent they don’t show up well in the pictures I take.
Summer update Part 1:
I have finally got the writing bug back after an unintentional summer hiatus. I have had the hardest time trying to write, because I have felt sad, bitter, angry and frustrated about how much of this summer went down, but alas, reality is all these things sometimes, and I would not be, being honest if I did not share the bad times with the good. We went out and had some adventures with our friend on his boat. I finished my yoga classes and really enjoyed them. Met a new friend named Chris at a beach clean-up and hit it off with her.
Our beautiful garden got blight and within 2 short weeks, all the tomato plants were shriveled up, all the leaves brown, yellow, and dying. I pulled them up and have yet to try planting again. Our garden went from this:
To this:
But I have to say it was still worth all the effort because for a while there we were eating the best tomatoes we’ve had since moving to Florida.
I am almost ready to try again this time with some other crops that can handle the cooler fall weather.
I took a couple of nasty falls. One off of my bike that lead me to having road rash on my shoulder, elbow, hand, knee and foot in multiples places on each body part. Then a few weeks later I took another fall and cut my leg up. I have scars from both now. I don’t know why I became so accident prone. Thankfully the rest of the summer has been uneventful as far as accidents and injuries go and I do hope it stays that way!
I finally got brave enough to get my hair cut. Didn’t like it. Got it cut again, hated it. Had me quite depressed. I ended up taking off more than 8″, and spending far more than I should have getting four haircuts total, at three different places until I finally found a stylist that could salvage the chop suey mess that was left of my hair. He did amazing and I will go back to him again and again. His name is Alex and he works @ Tangle’s Salon in Palm Coast. My hair is growing out beautifully and I’m truly grateful to him for saving me from the worst mess my hair has been in, hair cut wise—probably ever. I swear nothing worse than a bad haircut.
I sent my ten year old son back to Utah for his summer visit with his Dad…and he did not come back. My son now lives in Utah. I do feel it is best for him but it has been a very difficult thing for me to process and lead to a very emotional and difficult summer.
The weather. It kind of sucked this summer. This summer was brutally hot, as most Florida summers are, but it was very dark, dark as night, most of the summer. It was raining, thundering and lightning for most of the summer. Though grateful for the rain, I was not grateful for all the darkness. We had very few beach days. After spending the entire winter looking forward to beach days and having less than a dozen from May to now it was rather depressing. I missed the sunshine of the sunshine state during this dark summer. Thankfully last winter was the best winter of my life so that really helped to offset the dark, dreary, disappointing summer. Also the bugs—were the worst they’ve been since we moved to Florida. Hiram and I used to eat outside in our “Cafe’ Al Fresca” as we call it (it is our little outdoor table and chairs), nearly everyday for his lunch breaks. We haven’t been able to do that since early May because of the storms and also because the mosquitoes have been so terribly bad this year. Now that we are getting cooler weather and more sunshine, I pray we get a break from the mosquitoes soon.
I’ll update more soon, including some beautiful pictures I’ve taken this summer, and share with you our Mom’s visits. Both Hiram’s Mom and my Mom came to see us this summer.
How was your summer?
Plant Based Living: The Peaceful Path
Plant Based Living: The Peaceful Path.
This past April I felt inspired to start a Facebook Page, which like it’s title is all about Plant Based Living. Whether you are already vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian or just looking to find new ways of living, eating and being healthy I welcome you to this page. If you like it, please click the like button. I try to update daily, sometimes several times a day, sometimes only once or twice a week. I try to share any fun recipes I have seen, many I also try to report back on how it turned out. I post pictures of recipes I try. I share any health, nutrition, gardening tips, and even just fun ideas. As of today I have 38 likes, and I’m thrilled. I do hope that more people will come to the page and also share fun things they find and interact on the page.
The hardest part for me living as a vegan is the lack of community and isolation I feel. I feel like I am always the odd man out, the person that is often even made fun of at social gatherings, the person others feel guilty by being around. I am an introvert and I live a life of isolation working from home. It is hard for me to meet people, so I really have to go out of my way. When I do meet new people, or sadly even when hanging out with people I know, find that my beliefs are being attacked or made fun of, it makes it hard for me to really want to put myself out there. As much as I love living in NE Florida is not without its challenges. People can be very judgmental and I live in area that is very ignorant about veganism.
I know I’m not the only person to feel that way. No one in my family is vegan. I only know two other vegans personally, and have just a few vegan friends online. It is easy to feel very alone on this path sometimes. I hope that this new page will become a place for other vegans also seeking community, anyone looking to become vegan, anyone looking for information or to share information about adding more plants to their lifestyle to interact and share, and if nothing else it will be a reminder you are not alone, and perhaps you will find a fun new recipe to try?
Check it out? Like it if you do, don’t if you don’t. Have some feedback, let me know.
I am working on updates for what has been going on in our lives this past summer. It has been intense, with many unexpected and difficult events which has led to my long and unexpected hiatus, I do apologize and I look forward to catching you up with us, and catching up with you too.
Peacefully yours,
Evervescence
What To Do When Your Life Feels Meaningless | Live Life Boldly
What To Do When Your Life Feels Meaningless | Live Life Boldly.
I love this. I have read Victor Frankl’s book Man’s Search For Meaning. I believe every person should read it. This blog post is excellent, and worth the read.
I have finally discovered more about myself and my purpose in life and it has given me such a feeling of empowerment. I know it’s just a small fraction of a much larger piece of my life, but each tiny step brings me closer and closer to living authentically, and living my life boldly.
Do you live your life boldly?
Soap Deli News: How to Grow Garlic
Soap Deli News: How to Grow Garlic.
This is just too neat. I had no idea growing garlic could be so easy! I can’t wait to try it!
Sunny Leo Stretched Canvas by Robert Farkas | Society6
Hi everyone! Long time no post. My apologies on a far longer absence than I intended. I do hope to do some updates to share with you the ups and downs of this rainy, but hot Florida summer. How was your summer? I hope it was amazing!
In the meantime, check out this amazing print I stumbled upon. I adore this. Sunny Leo Stretched Canvas by Robert Farkas | Society6. The colors, the shades. Such a sweet piece.
Happy haps in the merry month of May!
May. This month has been wonderfully full of LIFE and I am thrilled! We have been having summer weather, and I admit my spring fever is in full force. It feels so great to be alive, and I’m overwhelmed (in the best way) with energy. We have been doing spring-cleaning and re-organizing our little cottage and it looks and feels amazing!
Our little garden has grown beautifully! It has been just a little over a month. Here is day 12:
Here is a picture 1 month later:
!
Can you believe it? I can’t! Those green poles are six feet tall, the plants are about 4’5″. Our little garden space gets about 4-6 hours of sun, but has grown immensely in the last month, bigger than our plants in our Utah garden grew in the entire growing season. Gardening is so gratifying. I love growing our own food and most of all I love eating it!
We’ve enjoyed the “fruits” of our labor! We’ve eaten our first yellow squash and several tomatoes now. All the tomato plants have beautiful fruit growing on them, and we are anxiously waiting for them to ripen. There is just nothing like a home-grown organic tomato, which is why we planted so many of them. I am hoping we planted enough that we will have plenty of fruit to share with our friends and neighbors.
Another amazing thing about the magnificent month of May is that this month marks five glorious years since I first laid eyes on, the brilliant, generous, kind, honest, compassionate, understanding, supportive, beautiful, loving man I share my life with. From the moment my eyes met Hiram’s, there was a spark. That spark grew into the beautiful love and friendship and a life we have built together. These past five years have been the happiest years of my life. My love, my dream come true. I am truly blessed. Happy anniversary my darling!
This is us having an afternoon date @ one of our favorite places Dimitri’s on the beach in Daytona Beach.
Jaiden is almost done with school and we are scrambling to get him caught up on his work and both he and I are very burned out. It won’t be much longer and he will be on a plane heading back to his loving family in Utah. I will miss him so very much.
I’ve been getting out more and socializing and making some wonderful new friends, spending time with my current friends and just enjoying the amazing spring weather. It has been absolutely gorgeous this year. My new friend Margie and I are going to be starting a yoga class this week. I’m so excited!
How is your May so far? I hope it has been wonderful!
Our organic raised bed garden!!!
Hi everyone! I wanted to share our gardening adventure with you! We have put a lot planning, time, energy, work, sweat (and unfortunately for Jaiden, some stitches) into creating this garden but it has been worth it! This garden is very special to us because we all helped make it happen, including my Dad who bought us all of our starter plants and helped me gather the wood to build the garden bed! The wood is from one of the boardwalks that is being replaced at our beach. I love being able to give a new life and purpose to the wood that was going to be sent to a landfill. The same wood we used to walk on to reach our beach now is the home to our plants! I love it!
There is something truly magical about working together as a family to build something that helps us grow our own food. Growing our own food is also very magical. There is an amazing sense of wonder and tranquility in watching the plants grow each day and the fruits grow as we anxiously wait for them to ripen.
03-25-2012 Hiram building our raised garden bed using the salvaged wood my Dad and I gathered from the boardwalk that is being replaced on the beach by our house. Still has the sticker on it from when it was originally purchased whenever that was. Cool!
Our sunny spot and the plants my Dad bought for us for our garden. You can see the square outline where we put down the wood to figure out where we wanted to place the raised garden bed.
Installing the "chicken wire" to keep burrowing critters out.
I love that Jaiden helped!
All done! Ready for next step!
03-30-2012 Then we flipped the garden bed over and lined it with weed mat on top of the wire.
The bags of organic soil Jaiden and I picked up from Lowe's (the night of his dreaded gash on his leg and subsequent stitches). We have saved all those plastic bags and will be re-using them.
03-31-2012 Hiram and I filled the bed, and then he levelled the soil, and there is our creation! Ready for planting!
To keep our cats out of the garden bed we added a layer of weed mat on top, then planted all the plants and watered them. Our beautiful raised garden bed is finished!
Update: 04-11-12 Growing fast and plants are doing well! We have our first Celebrity tomato ripening already!
04-15-2012 More me than the garden in this pic looking all springtime and wearing my favorite vegan shoes by Jambu!! The plants are doing great and are growing thick and tall. We are battling army worms (without pesticides) but the tomato plants have suffered a bit. I have added some temporary supports to the tomatoes until I put in the Florida weave this week.
How is your springtime so far? Are you planting a garden this year?
March
Aside
Wow time is going by fast! I can’t believe what a busy month March was and that it has already come and gone. It feels like April is getting away from me already too! My Dad came to visit and we had a lovely time together. We went on long walks on the nature path near our home, and on the beach and went on an educational eco-tour of Ponce Inlet in the rain. We shared meals together, played games, and watched the movie The Big Year together. As an avid nature lover it was fun to watch a family friendly movie about people obsessed with bird watching, and I always enjoy the antics of the actors/comedians, Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson and it was really great to see all three of them together in one enjoyable movie. My week with my Dad flew by, it seemed like I was just picking him up from the airport one minute and the next I was already dropping him back off and he was back home in Utah. It was wonderful having him here, spending some quality time together and sharing our beautiful home with him. I am so glad he could come and visit.
Everyday the beach looks different. My Dad enjoyed the rocks and finding shells.
Resting on a bench on our daily walk on the nature trail
Vegan baked ziti with Daiya cheese, green salad and roll. My Dad tried and even enjoyed some new vegan foods while he stayed with us.
Eco-Cruise @ Ponce Inlet. It was very cold, and it rained on us but we still had a wonderful time and learned a lot!
One last walk on the beach before my Dad and I headed to Orlando for his flight back to Utah.
My prayers have been answered and a new family with two young boys moved into our neighborhood. The oldest son is fourteen and the younger son is eleven (they also have a one year old daughter too.) Jaiden and the new boys hit it off immediately, and he is so happy to finally have a friend here in our little neighborhood. We live in a relatively remote area with mostly retirees, there are a few young families but the only other two kids in the neighborhood were fifth grade girls. Unfortunately one of them moved and the other is moving soon, so thankfully the new boys are here!
March is Jaiden’s birthday month…and this year he turns 10! He got some new shoes, a new haircut, lots of wonderful cards and money, a loving tribute video, and unfortunately 3 stitches some scrapes and bruising.
Jaiden's new Toe Shoes, called Skeletoes by Fila. I got them at Ross for $25\
View from the bottom, at the bench at our beach. I LOVE this pic.
Before long and shaggy
Profile
After: Fauxhawk. I thought we were going in for a trim, but he had other plans.
So cute! I love it.
March was a huge milestone for me as my baby boy turned ten years old. I worked very hard for more than a month compiling some of my favorite pictures from each year of his life up to the most recent picture I had taken of him, I added music from Owl City which is his favorite musician and created a video tribute to the most amazing little person in my life. That was one of my gifts to Jaiden as well as to his family to share in some of the special times over the past ten years of this little guys life. Jaiden, my only son is a truly incredible person and I’m honored and deeply humbled to have been given the responsibility of being his mother and raising him. He is my greatest teacher, I learn more from him than I feel I could ever hope to teach him. I have never known a love like the love I feel for him. Being a parent has been both the most difficult and most beautiful experience of my life. I met this milestone in his life with happiness as well as a sadness I know all parents will relate to. I’m sad that he is no longer little, that he will never be a baby in my arms again, that he needs me less and less. Though that is what parenting is all about, helping my child realize his potential, to become independent and to have the skills and knowledge necessary to survive this crazy world and all its challenges. It’s bittersweet, but I can honestly say I’m more happy than I am sad, because what a great little person my son is. I couldn’t be more proud of him.
Jaiden received cards from friends and family all over the country that love him, and with the money they sent him he was able to buy a Nintendo 3DS that he has been wanting for two years. He had wanted one last year but they were so new and we didn’t have enough money. This year though with everyone’s help not only could he get a 3DS, he bought the new Mario game to go with it, a big Nerf gun, some extra ammunition and a three-month subscription to Xbox Live. He had a really great birthday and couldn’t have been happier. He said he didn’t even want a party after he received all the cards and birthday money from his family because he already had everything he wanted. (aww!) He had wanted to have a small pool party nearby but we haven’t been able to work the details of that out, as of yet. Perhaps we can have a party there before he goes back to Utah for the summer. His little friends from the neighborhood came by to see him open his cards after school so he had an unofficial birthday party anyway. It all worked out wonderfully.
- With his friends from the neighborhood
The friends hanging out w/ Jaiden
He received money from his loved ones to buy something he's been wanting for a long time.
Jaiden’s spring break began just three days after his birthday, and that night he was helping me pick up the bags of soil at Lowe’s for our raised garden beds we’ve been busy building and he got hurt! He started his spring break out with a trip to the E.R and three stitches!
He went to climb up onto the flat metal cart where the soil bags were stacked up, but his feet were wet (from where they had been watering plants and he was wearing flip-flops) and he fell backwards when his shoes hit the smooth surface of the cart, cutting his leg up on the sharp edge of the cart as he went down. He broke his own fall as he hit the ground with his hands and not his head thankfully or this night would have been much worse, his hands are just scuffed up but not badly hurt. I was loading the car so I didn’t see it happen. I just saw him afterwards saying “ow, ow,” and jumping on one leg. I feel so bad because right after he fell I told him “just sit here you’ll be fine” and directed him to sit in the front seat as an employee and I finished loading the car full of the bags of soil. It was dark and I only saw the scrape and a couple small cuts, I didn’t see the deep gash until he said “Mom, I’m bleeding all over” and then I went and turned on the light in the car and said, “that looks like it’s gonna need stitches” as the blood was pooling in his flip-flop. Then we rushed home, cleaned him up a bit, tried to stop the bleeding, grabbed the insurance info, called the nurse, figured out where to go and took him to the hospital, got him stitched up and then tired and exhausted we went home. He was a great helper to me, not only at Lowe’s before he was hurt, but during the whole ordeal. Before we went to the hospital I asked him about his pain level on a scale of 1-10 he said 3 and remained perfectly calm through the whole thing. I am so proud of my little man. I have such an awesome kid. Though my heart aches he got hurt, I am so grateful he is okay and that the injury was relatively minor. I’m very grateful to the emergency team at Florida Hospital Flagler for their kindness, courteous, unbelievably fast and compassionate service to the most important little person in my life.
He's pretty relaxed and thankfully wasn't in much pain. This kid is tough as nails. He is playing on his Flame Red Nintendo 3DS he bought for himself with his birthday money.
At the E.R. the Nurse cleaning him up so he can get his stitches.
All cleaned up and ready for the Dr. to stitch him up.
He's finished, not in much pain and just ready to go home.
One day later it is quite bruised but he feels great. Thankfully aside from not being able to swim, the injury didn't slow him down at all. On a scale of 1-10 he said that his pain was a 1, and that it was just tight feeling and itchy.
I of course was more traumatized than Jaiden because it is the worst when your child gets hurt, but especially when he gets hurt helping you! He is recovering nicely, the wound has healed up very quickly and most of the bruising is gone now. We have an appointment with his doctor to remove his stitches on Friday the 13th. He can’t wait to get them out. The worse part for him was getting hurt at all of course and not being able to swim the first few days of spring break. Thankfully it didn’t slow him down other than that though, this kid of mine is a trooper!
Next post: More on Spring Break and our new Raised Garden Bed!
How was your March?
