I Am Thankful For…

St. Jude Give Thanks. Walk.

Yesterday, Christopher and I joined thousands of others all across the USA who walked to support St. Jude. For those of you who don’t know, St. Jude is a children’s hospital located in Memphis, Tennessee. Part of what makes them so special is found in their mission statement:

St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay. – from the St. Jude website.

^ that’s the promo for this year’s walk

Us just before the walk!

Breakfast on the go!

Turkey Sausage, Egg, and Cheese on an English Muffin!

Ingredients:

1 English Muffins, split and toasted
4 sprays I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray
1 turkey sausage patty, cooked
1 egg
1 slice cheese

Directions:

1. Spritz each half of toasted English muffin with 2 sprays of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray.

2. Spray microwave safe bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Crack egg into bowl and whisk for 20 seconds until bubbles appear on surface. Microwave 45 seconds or until done.

3. Top toasted English muffin with slice of cheese, egg, turkey sausage and then other half of English muffin. Serve hot!

Recipe by my husband, Christopher V.

—

Lots of people getting registered and warmed up!

Elvis helped get us warmed up for the walk with a little bit of dancing

I got to meet Duane and Abby! They are the DJs from KIX 106. I listen to them every morning while I’m at work so it was super cool to meet them. They were seriously so nice. We chatted for a few minutes and actually got to know them some. Abby was pretty teary eyed about all the kids present who were walking to support other kids and she nearly made me cry just talking about it. She has a sweet spirit for sure.

Flirting with a reindeer just before we took off walking!

Like my shoelaces? They gave these out to all the walkers which was pretty cool because now every time I put on my sneakers, I have a great reminder to pray for all the precious children at St. Jude.

I wish I had pictures of the walk, but sadly my camera went flying out of my pocket during the warm up dance/exercise. It hit the concrete and I got the dreaded “lens error”… yeah, it was pretty sad. But honestly, surrounded by so many other people who were walking in support of specific children they know with cancer… well, a damaged camera just doesn’t come close to comparison. I am grateful we had a chance to be part of this day!

Fair Trade led to a Whole Foods Trip

I am so glad you ladies like our little heart in wet cement with our initials in it! I definitely thought it was pretty adorable.

On the last post someone commented on how rural and beautiful our yard is so I went back to look at the pictures I posted and sure enough, it looks like that. We’re actually in the middle of a city. We just happened to buy a house with .77 acre land so our yard is pretty huge. We actually won’t even be fencing the entire property in because there is honestly just SO much, haha! And our neighbors who live behind us have trees/bushes going along their back fence so it makes it look like we live in the country. I gotta say, though, I love that we have so much space to run and play in our backyard!

Also several of you asked if we have previous construction experience. Other than what we’ve done to the house, not really, haha! To be honest we just Google and YouTube every project we want to do and go from there. We also ask lots of advice from people we know who’ve done this sort of thing before. So far it’s worked out really well for us so hopefully this fence will too!

In other news… we went to Whole Foods earlier this week. I haven’t been to Whole Foods since the first time I bought a cheese alternative. It’s such a fun store, but nearly everything we would want to buy from there we can get far cheaper elsewhere. Anyway, we had been looking for fair trade coffee at our normal grocery store and hadn’t be able to find much of a selection so we figured Whole Foods would have more options. We definitely walked out with more than just coffee, though…

Carob Chips! I can’t believe how expensive these were, but worth it because I’m really trying to get away from putting so many sugar-free (read: full of chemicals) products in my body when I make desserts. Plus they are totally caffeine free which is another huge bonus. I need to bake with them and then I’ll get back with you on how I feel about them.

Puffins: Peanut Butter! I’d had the Cinnamon ones, but not the PB ones. Oh gracious they are delicious! I’ve added them to my breakfast cereal mix and they are perfect! YUM!

Herbal Coffee! So this is going beyond fair trade because it’s not even actual coffee. It’s a mix of herbs and roots and nuts without any caffeine. We were a bit skeptical, but we love it! We make it in the espresso maker and add a bit of frothed almond milk and it is FABULOUS!

I am not much into being preachy about stuff, but I do love to share things I’m passionate about. And I am passionate about loving and helping people. And that includes the way I use my spending power as a consumer. Fair Trade’s purpose:

We seek to empower family farmers and workers around the world, while enriching the lives of those struggling in poverty. Rather than creating dependency on aid, we use a market-based approach that empowers farmers to get a fair price for their harvest, helps workers create safe working conditions, provides a decent living wage and guarantees the right to organize. Through direct, equitable trade, farming and working families are able to eat better, keep their kids in school, improve health and housing, and invest in the future. Keeping families, local economies, the natural environment, and the larger community strong today and for generations to come; these are the results we seek through Fair Trade.

And that’s why we try to be responsible about the products we buy and making sure that our buying power goes to support farmers across the globe even if it means we have to spend a little more cash.