Ciao Bella! Rome Day 1

Pin It Now! I've been meaning to write a post on our trip to Rome for months now. We went over Thanksgiving weekend and came back in time for Christmas craziness. I've had writers block ever since :)

We were in Rome for 3 full days and I think November is a great time to go. Not only was it much less crowded, the weather was wonderful with temps in the upper 60's and we had sunshine everyday.

[caption id="attachment_1561" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Our apartment street, just 5 minutes from Spanish steps"][/caption]

We stayed in an adorable studio apartment just a few blocks from the Spanish steps. It was a great spot because we were within walking distance to all the major sights and had a place to crash or freshen up whenever it was needed. Which with two little ones in tow breaks were absolutely needed :)

When I first started planning our Rome trip I felt super overwhelmed. If you don't have a guide, then you do have to be prepared to get the most out of your trip to Rome.  We used Rick Steve's audio tour guide as well as his text tours for everything we saw. Can I just say Rick Steves rocks! His tips and tours are so easy to follow and just so wonderful for anyone who wants a DIY tour. Based off his book I created a daily itinerary that incorporated some play time and of course nap time.

Day 1
-Ancient Rome in the morning (Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, Arch of Constantine)
-Back to hotel for nap/break for kids (and us!)
-Exploring the city in the late afternoon/evening (Pantheon neighborhood, Piazza Navona)

We started out bright and early on Day 1 and after breakfast, headed to the Colosseum. The walk from our apartment to the Colosseum was everything you imagine Rome to be. Vespas zipping around corners, quaint little cobblestone laden alleys and cafes galore.   One of my favorite views on our walk to the Colosseum was of Piazza Venezia.

[caption id="attachment_1574" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Piazza Venezia"][/caption]

As we got closer to the Colosseum, these cheeky gladiator characters started to appear. Rick mentioned these guys in his book saying they could be frisky. Apparently some tourists have been known to pay 100 euro for having their picture taken with a gladiator! This guy cost us 5euro for a picture. Yes we fell for the silly tourist trap.

And then we fell for it again :)

We had booked our tickets for the Colosseum online as recommend by Rick. We went during off season, so there actually wasn't a line. During peak tourist season though, I would suggest buying the tickets online just in case to bypass any crowds. BTW I wouldn't recommend buying any snacks or drinks near the main sights unless you don't care to be charged an insane amount of money. We bought a bunch of bananas (only 4) and two coconut slices (trying to be healthy) and it cost 8 euro!

Once you get into the Colosseum it really is breathtaking. Even though the structure was built in 80 A.D, I thought the layout resembled our modern day football and soccer stadiums. I've heard people say the Colosseum is "ok" or it's overrated. We really tried to imagine what it looked and felt like thousands of years ago. Rick's book also helps you create an image of what it would have been like back then.

After existing the Colosseum, is the Arch of Constantine. If you're a Christian, this is a symbolic sight because it was Constantine who legalized Christianity in Rome.

[caption id="attachment_1565" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Arch of Constantine"][/caption]

The Roman Forum is located right next to the Colosseum. These tickets can also be purchased online and are usually included with the Colosseum price. The pathways in the forum were made mostly of stone and I was so grateful to have our Phil and Ted's stroller. Definitely need a stroller with air tires to get around in there. There were a few places with stairs, so we were able to incorporate a bit of a workout :)

[caption id="attachment_1566" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Inside the Roman Forum"][/caption]

It was so much fun to imagine what this city looked like thousands of years ago. Imagine what Denver will look like in thousands of years. Will it be a pile of rubble someday?

I loved this view of the Colosseum from inside the Roman Forum. After exploring Ancient Rome all morning it was about lunch time, so we headed back into town.

 We ordered some lunch and lattes at a little cafe. And what happened next was a "pinch me moment".  An adorable little waiter, wearing artsy black-rimmed glasses and a black cafe style apron, brought this out to me and said, "preggo":

Thanksgiving afternoon, and there I was. At a cafe in a little alley. IN ROME.  Drinking this too-pretty-to-drink drink and all I could think was *pinch me*.

After soaking in my nostalgic Roman lunch, we did some shopping and strolling around the city and then went back to our apartment to freshen up. Then back out to the streets we went. We were just exploring and looking for somewhere to have dinner when we first saw The Pantheon.

[caption id="attachment_1580" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The Pantheon at night"][/caption]

Gorgeous isn't it? Now imagine to the right of this picture a man standing near a fountain with a box at his feet for donations. He has a crowd surrounding him and he is singing opera, alfresco.  So quintessential Rome. So romantic. So perfect.

And that was our first day in Rome :)

Day 2...coming soon (hopefully).

-B

Homeschooling with the k12 curriculum

Pin It Now! Although I do want to write up a post about our decision process to decide to homeschool our daughter, right now I'm more excited to share the curriculum program we have decided to use. The program we have decided to use is from www.k12.com. I am so exited and happy to have found this program. I have spent many hours on their website going through every sample lesson, the catalog, FAQ's and all the videos they have available. The best way to describe it I think is that it's like online college classes, but for kids k-12. It's very customizable. You can purchase individual courses, semesters (part time) or enroll full-time. If you do enroll full-time you have access to individualized learning plans, a teacher and tutors.

Since we live overseas we have to pay for the tuition cost (thankfully my husband's job pays for it) which for full-time is about $5k/year. They do offer a military discount as well as payment plans. Though this price seems hefty, it includes all the materials required for the year except for common household items. But textbooks, science materials, art materials, manipulatives, etc are all included and shipped out. It is considered a private school and is fully accredited. I know one concern I had about homeschooling was whether our daughter could get a diploma versus a GED. Through this program she can get a diploma. They keep track of all her credits and transcripts as well.

If you are physically living in the U.S, then depending on your state, there is no tuition! For example Colorado and Hawaii (the only two states I looked up) are state funded. How cool is that? Not only that, but there are co-op groups that meet for all kinds of groups like a cooking group and an aspiring music artist/actress club. In the U.S kids are able to join extracurricular activities and sports at the schools in their community, so there's no missing out on that. Another neat thing is kids can do show and tell via skype.

Even though a teacher is assigned for full-time students, the parent is still heavily involved, so I would still consider it homeschool. I think that once kids get older, like middle school or high school, they can be more independent. But especially in elementary school the caregiver has to be willing to still teach their child. The classes themselves aren't done online. The lessons plans are provided online and some activities are done online, but most lessons are done like in a typical classroom. Here's a sample lesson for kindergarten science I took from their site:

This particular lesson is for Kindergarten science and the field of study is the human body. This is what a lesson for one day would be like. The lesson starts with a recap of the previous lesson, brief intro to the next lesson and a fun fact.

 I love how the lesson gives me clear objectives and also shows me what supplies will be needed.

I really like how they provide ideas to present the information in an interesting and fun way. I also like the structure of the lesson. Giving background knowledge and preparing the child for what will be taught.

The next part is to investigate. This provides an opportunity for the child to think about some of the facts they learned and to put the information to use. I also like the opportunity to incorporate a craft/project related to the topic. It makes it more fun for a 5 year old to learn about bones :)

Having the child reinforce the information is awesome! They get an opportunity to show they understood and processed what was being taught.

This is one of the interactive online lessons. I went through it and it's really fun! I like that it not only reinforces the lesson material, but your child is also learning computer skills. If you click here, you can go through this sample lesson online and see the Dr.Jones online activity.

This lesson provides an optional learning activity to help reinforce the information and also have a little fun.

After each lesson is an assessment to ensure the that the information taught was understood and retained.

According to the course catalog each science lesson is about 45min and you could teach science just twice a week and get through the 32 week course on time. There are 70 science lesson plans. I'm working on our schedule for the fall and trying to decide which days we will do which subjects. We will most likely do a 4 day a week school week. That's the cool thing about homeschooling! And no homework either, woohoo!

I really, really love this curriculum and hope that by sharing this with other people they will see and understand the opportunities that  are available through education.

BTW I feel like I should mention I am in NO WAY affiliated with k12.com. I simply am a parent who is very excited about the product they offer.

Raw salad with hemp seeds

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It's amazing how flavorful and delicious a raw salad can be! I believe there are two key factors that make a salad, with just a few ingredients, burst with flavor:

1) The produce should be organic and preferably locally grown. The further away the produce travels, the older it is. Thus less flavor and less nutrition. I have also noticed that produce that isn't pre-packaged (lettuce or carrots for example) tastes much more fresh and flavorful. I always grab loose lettuce and spinach now for salads.

2) I know this is probably obvious, but well cleaned produce tastes better too. Proper washing and cleaning of produce is essential to help avoid food related illness. My mom gave me a great tip for washing lettuce and it really works well. Fill a large bowl with cold water and add the lettuce to the water. With your hands, swirl the lettuce around in the water for about 30 seconds, then remove lettuce from the water and place in a colander and rinse with cold water. I always notice dirt in the water bowl! Repeat this process a second time to thoroughly clean the lettuce. For the rest of your produce definitely use a brush to scrub everything well. Even foods with peels I wash because I don't want cross contamination on the knife.

You can add whatever you want to a salad. I usually include mixed greens, sliced red bell peppers, celery and cucumbers.

I got so super excited because last week I found hemp seeds at my local biomarkt (organic supermarket), so I've been adding those to my salads too. They are an excellent source of plant based omega 3's and also are a great source of protein! They don't have a very strong flavor. I'd say they taste like very, very mild sunflower seeds. I love how crunchy they are! Amazon sells them in bulk for a decent price. Well a decent price compared to what I can buy them for in Germany.

Anyway I throw all these ingredients together and then I just make a simple dressing using olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Though the olive oil and balsamic vinegar aren't considered "raw" by most raw foodies, I don't mind because I'm not doing a 100% raw food diet.  I'm tellin' ya, eating like this really is delicious and satisfying!

 

Food Matters

Pin It Now! “The reason that one vitamin can cure so many illness is because a deficiency of one vitamin can cause so many illness.” Andrew Saul

We recently watched the documentary Food Matters.  What an incredibly fascinating and life changing film that has been for our family. I thought we were pretty healthy before, but after watching the documentary we have really made a full on lifestyle change. The best way to sum up the concept of the documentary is to share this paragraph from the film-maker’s website:

“With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what's wrong with our malnourished bodies, it's no wonder that modern society is getting sicker. Food Matters sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide 'sickness industry' and gives people some scientifically verifiable solutions for overcoming illness naturally.”

The film elaborates deeply into the philosophy of nourishing our bodies with vitamins and nutritious food as a method of preventing and treating disease and illness. Several leading experts in nutrition lend their knowledge of how exactly food can not only improve, but actually save your life.

Being a mother, I want to live as long as possible to see my kids grow up and to experience life to its fullest. Not only that, it is my responsibility to protect my children from harm. I refuse to feed them food that introduces toxins into their bodies and also provides little to no nutritional value. Aside from a tragic accident or natural disaster, the one thing I can control to ensure we do live a long life free of health complications is to feed our bodies with REAL food.

How many times have you gone to the doctor for some type of symptom and walked away with a prescription? I personally  haven't experienced many doctors who try to find the source of the symptom.  Instead medicine is prescribed to mask the symptoms. Then what? How does the actual cause of symptoms ever get solved?

These are questions people should really ask themselves. We have made a decision as a family that we want to change. It isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle change. Some people can go cold turkey, while it takes a slower transition for others. We have transitioned to this point.  We have made the decision to eat a 70% raw food diet. For us this means green smoothies for breakfast, raw fruits and veggies throughout the day and a salad for lunch and/or dinner. We still cook food. That’s the other 30%.

Whether you are sick or healthy I encourage everyone I know to watch Food Matters!

Zuzana's Power Balls

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I've always been a believer of holistic approaches as a first attempt to treating illness and battling disease. It only makes sense that what you put into your body will affect how you feel and how your body functions. Ever since I saw the documentary Food Inc. I have changed the way our family eats. Though we don't cut out processed foods completely, we have made a dramatic change in our lifestyle. It's a gradual process and I feel we are ready to move to the next level of wholesome nutrition by becoming even more discerning with our food choices. I have decided to cut white and even wheat flour out and just use almond flour (for now and will experiment with other types later on). I really want to take on the challenge of  a truly healthy (and maybe eventually Primal) diet.

My first experience with almond flour was today when I made Zuzana's Powerballs. Zuzana is a badass chick from bodyrock.tv. I can say that her FREE workouts are hardcore and will produce results. She is a true health nut. Anyway, on to the recipe! What I really love about these powerballs is how insanely healthy they are and the fact they taste so good you wouldn't really know. The coconut oil adds just a hint of the coconut flavor and because carrots are naturally sweet, the flavors really come together so well.

Every single ingredient in these powerballs has a health benefit:

Honey is a natural sweetner that is high in antioxidants.

Almond flour is low carb and gluten free.

Carrots are also high in antioxidants as well as vitamin A and recent research has found that the phytonutrients in carrots can inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells.

Spinach ( I added this, it wasn't an original ingredient) is of course another well known antioxidant super food. According to the WH Foods (World's Healthiest Foods), spinach was ranked number one for nutrient richness. WH Foods also mentions how in a recent study "spinach showed evidence of significant protection against the occurrence of aggressive prostate cancer."(2011)

Coconut oil Plays an important role in the prevention of diabetes and kidney and gall bladder disease. Mark from Mark's Daily Apple wrote up a great explanation of the health benefits of coconut oil here.

Almonds have so many health benefits to list that it's better to just link the source. Read about all the many reasons these nuts are so good for your body.

Now on to the recipe!  I changed a few things about how I put all the ingredients together and I also added spinach because it has such a mild flavor, yet is so good for you. I honestly couldn't taste the spinach at all. I used our Vitamix blender for making these, but a food processor would work fine too.

First, grind up one cup of oats to form an oat flour.

Then add 2 cups of almond flour to the oat mix and 3 tablespoons of baking powder.

Here is where I did it just a little different. I combined the 4 tablespoons of honey and the 4 tablespoon of coconut oil in a bowl together and mixed them up a little. I then stuck the bowl in the microwave on medium setting for 30 seconds.

Heating up the honey and coconut oil makes the mixture much easier to stir into the flour mix. After taking the bowl out of the microwave I found it was easier to use a fork to mash up the bigger pieces of coconut oil.

Dip your pinkie finger in and have a  taste. mmmmmm.

Add the coconut/honey mix to the flour and stir up. It will be clumpy.

Next add about a cup of carrots to the Vitamix blender and puree until mostly smooth. Then add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of spinach to the carrot puree.

If you don't have a vitamix, you can do as Zuzana suggested and cook the carrots until soft and then mash them up with a potato masher and add chopped spinach to the mix.

Add the carrot mix to the bowl and stir well. I kind of mushed it all together with a spoon.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Then roll the dough into balls (I made 20, but it depends on the size you roll). Then take some crushed almonds,  and roll the balls in the almonds.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Then let cool for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

Btw, my kids loved these! I had to take the plate away :)

Finally!

Pin It Now! We finally have internet! After 9 brutal months we can connect to the world. Ahhhh. So happy :)

Will share pictures form our trip to Rome later.

Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!

xoxo

B

Holiday party!

Pin It Now! I have internet! After 9 grueling months I have internet. YAY! I want to share the invite I made for the holiday party I'm throwing for Mr.Wright's students.

I am having SO much fun planning this party. I hope to make it my best yet. I have a whole board on my pinterest with fabulous ideas, check it out.

Can't wait to catch up on blogs and share more stuff! I'm working on a sparkly craft and will share it later on.

xoxoxoxo

B :)