We went to a local farmer’s market a few weeks back and we came home with some goodies. Then, when Ben and I were in SF we made sure to go to the Ferry Building for their farmer’s market on Saturday morning and I think that was the mecca of farmer’s markets (maybe some of you would protest that based on your own experience). It was insane and intense all in a good way. A few days later, the election happened and the majority of California voted again Prop 37 regarding the labeling of genetically modified food , and it furthered more discussions in our home about how and where we get our food. We have talked about the CSA, but for where we live, we would have to pick up the box and it would be about an hour away drive (just one way), so it really wasn’t that convenient.

We mostly buy organic fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, but we wanted more options. Thus, Friday morning I told the girls to get dressed and we were heading out. We went to a farmer’s market at a local hospital, but when we got there, their options were sort of lame. There were 3 vendors selling fruits and veggies and only one of them offered organically grown goods. We all piled back in the van, and then headed to the farmer’s market we visited a few weeks back.

The girls were excited to go back to that one because they had the vendor who sold fresh pita bread and hummus and it was just about lunch time, so it was something we were all craving. We got our lunch, loaded up on some fruits and veggies and then made our way home. We’re going to try to make it a goal to go every Friday. The price for organic produce is reasonable and it’s another reason to get out of the house and get the girls involved in picking fruits and veggies.

I wore my clogs from Lotta from Stockholm and they seemed like the perfect farmer’s market uniform. Also, when going out with all four we get lots of little smiles, probably because people think I am crazy to have 4 kids (BTW- I think I’m crazy too!) and they’re always surprised to see another little one hiding in the back, bottom seat. To aid in going out and about, we use the Phil & Ted double stroller. It makes it so much easier to tote the 4 around; two sit and two walk. It’s great! We have been using it for about 5 years now and I can attest to it’s durability and ease of use. This is just some FYI for any of you needing a double stroller.

I’m curious, how do you shop for your fruits and veggies? Do you prefer organic or does it not matter? If you’ve tried out the CSA, what are your experiences with it?

I can’t believe it was just last weekend that we were in San Francisco. It was the best way to spend my 31st birthday. I would love to relive that weekend all over again. This guys is the bees knees. I really do love him. Plus, he’s the handsomest man alive! I knew that the first time I laid eyes on him and once I got to know him, I really fell hard.

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Glow walks like Charlie Chaplin. So cute!

True’s reading fluency is pretty good. I can’t believe I was able to teach her how to read! I was quite fearful of that aspect of homeschooling. God is good in helping both of us through it.

I love wearing sweaters all day long. It’s been feeling cozy these past couple days.

This is a unique necklace.

If you’re a size 7, these are really cute (and inexpensive) ankle boots!

I’m curious about Worker B face wash. Anyone try it? I’m still using this, but would love to try Worker B to see how it does.

The wedding video (made by CakeFlix) for my best (guy) friend and his wife is so beautiful. Such a testimony of God’s wonderful redeeming grace! I tear up every time I watch it. Brave was so excited she made the cut for a brief second!

I’ve never been much of a sneaker wearer except when I workout, but I love these New Balance 771s in all black.

Instagram has official web links for their users. Pretty cool. Find mine here. My user name is @rubyellenbratcher.

I love Joy’s blog redesign. She is such a talented painter too! See here. She’s also the one who redesigned Cakies a few months back.

Thankful for grace that is exhibited through the sharing life that occurs in our church family. We aren’t afraid to admit we suck, fail often, and need a lot of accountability and grace.

Thankful that God gave my BFF another year! She’s 30 now and she swears she suddenly has neck wrinkles. She’s a second mama to my girls and we are so thankful for her.

We had pumpkin waffles for our Saturday morning breakfast and I think I ate more than I should. It was so yummy though, so who cares! Enjoy your weekend friends!!!

Turkey Meatloaf and Mashed Cauliflower and Pumpkin. If you haven’t tried the meatloaf from Skinny Taste, you must. It’s good and easy! I made two batches; one for the kids and one for me and ben. A couple changes I did from the recipe is throwing the onions straight into the meat instead of browning it first, and also in the one for me and ben, I added 1 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper. Again, we love that spice. I did mashed cauliflower, but then realized we were out of potatoes or potato flakes, so I threw in some canned pumpkin. The combination doesn’t look go together with the meatloaf as far as color (both are kind of orangey), but it really does taste good together.

Sushi Burritos. Inspired from our trip last week to SF and eating Sushirrito. Okay, mine are oddly shaped and just looking at the pictures doesn’t make it look particularly appetizing, but this is a don’t judge a dish by its cover kind of thing. I was hurriedly rolling up our sushi burritos and frankly, I just don’t have time to make every picture look perfect. I’m just a mom who is trying to cook healthy, fresh meals for my family, I cook, put the food on the plate, take a picture (on a white background), then put it on the table and we eat! Despite the strange caterpillar-like-shape, this came out yummy. I studied the ingredients Sushirrito had and kind of added my own based on what we had. It was an experimental dish and we liked it. I’ll do another post sharing the recipe of what went in and this time I will try to roll better. I have no doubt sushi chefs would put my rolling skills to shame because I hardly call my rolling a skill. It’s more like crossing my fingers and hope the whole things stays together!

The rest of the days were spent eating leftovers and other quick things that were put together from random leftovers. Also, I got to escape two evenings in a row and have dinner with some of my friends. I really am so thankful for my friends. It’s always good times when we’re together. Food and friends make a really good combination!

Week 11/12 – 11/16
Monday: Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Tuesday: Paella Valenciana (reader’s recipe)
Wednesday: Black Bean soup
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Pizza night

What’s your favorite soup to make? I’m in a soup mood!

“This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Chrysler. All opinions are 100% mine.”

Okay, so my birthday was coming up and we wanted to go on a road trip. Then, a possible collaboration with Chrysler to borrow their car came up and I figured it was the perfect opportunity… take a road trip in someone else’s car! Now why in the world would I turn that down?! Our car has so many miles on it from previous road trips that I thought it would be nice to give my car a break, so I said, “Sign me up!” Here’s the catch… I’m driving a minivan!

Yes, we are family of six and we probably should have a minivan, but we don’t. We’ve had our car when it was just the 3 and they all fit perfectly in one row. Now, that there are 4 of them, we popped up the third row in our SUV (it’s not one of those ridiculously large ones) and True and Brave are pretty squished in the back and the stroller only fits behind the driver’s seat. Our car is pretty tight, but we don’t want car payments, and our girls are pretty teeny, so we make do. Plus, I’m not ready to be a “mad mom in a minivan” just yet.

Here we are and I am borrowing a Town & Country for a few weeks and let’s see how it goes. We got the van and then 30 minutes later took off on the road. One of my first observations of the Town & County were the leather seats and after doing a little research found out that is standard. That’s kinda nice. My parents had a minivan, actually a Chrysler one and back then it was the caravan, and I remember how filthy those cloth seats got with 4 kids. My parents ran their van to the ground and they really got their monies worth. This little leather feature is nice because with kids, leather is so much easier to clean!

On the road trip, the van had so much more space. Ben and I just threw our stuff everywhere! It was nice to have a lot more space to place things and on our road trip we had plans to go to the flea market, so the extra space in a van is welcomed. Of course though, what stood out to me the most about the van was the large tank it carried, we only had to fill up once from L.A. to San Francicso, there is an economy fuel button that changes the way the car runs so that you get better gas mileage, and the music system (their U-Connect Media Center, if you want the technical term). That was our favorite part. It was touch screen and it easily hooked up to our ipod and I sang the whole ride up and the whole ride down. Oh and it helps that the car had Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Ben was especially excited to be able to listen to San Antonio Spurs basketball while on the road. The navigation feature is cool too, but it’s the easy way our music hooked up that was great.

We were pretty jazzed about the car during our road trip (and we went sans kids), so we were especially excited because if we found something large at the flea market, we definitely had space to bring it back home. Usually for flea market trips, we borrow my parents’ minivan for all our goods, this time we had our own! I was definitely glad to have the Town & Country to play with.

Now, it’s still a minivan and I just feel older in it. I think that’s why I have never been quite ready to commit to a minivan because it just makes me feel older. More grownup. I know having 4 kids is a whole lot of grown up, but still. The kids so far love it because 1) it’s new to them and 2) they love the little sun protector thingies that pull up for every window. That’s their favorite part. I must admit driving a minivan makes it a lot easier to tote around 4 kids and all the stuff that comes along with them. We get to use it for a couple weeks, so we are definitely enjoying the extra space the Town & Country offers.

There is this local pumpkin patch that the girls have been wanting to go to and we finally made it there the day before Halloween. Better late than never right? It was a lot of fun, but these places make out like bandits for their little attractions! $3 per child for some bouncy jump house is kind of ridiculous. We let the girls do the $1 and $2 little attractions, but we drew the line at the $3. It just seemed kind of excessive to us (or maybe we’re just cheapos) for what they were offering.

Besides our qualms with their prices for some activities, we did of course allow the kids to have fun with the ones that seemed slightly more reasonable. True and Brave went on the big slide together, but I think Brave got a little freaked out by it that she didn’t want to go back on. True on the other hand, was all about it. Soul was too small for most of the attractions that she could only ride one of them and she was so cute going down that big slide. That little Soul is pretty fearless when it comes to rides and playgrounds. We were just at the patch for an hour, but it was enough to satiate the little desires of our girls.

We came home with a pretty large pumpkin and the girls are still wanting to carve it, so I am thinking we might despite the fact Halloween already came and went. I don’t think there are any rules preventing pumpkin carving in November, are there?!

In honor of election day here in the U.S., yesterday we held our own mock election (the girls are at enrichment classes today, so we did it a day early) and made our own little polling booth and ballots. We have been working on memorizing all the presidents in order and have been discussing the role of the president and what an election is all about. Of course, True and Brave are still so young, so they don’t understand it entirely, but it’s good to start exposing them to it and try to engage them in discussions about it. This is real world stuff that they will eventually be a part of and have a say in, and I want them to learn how to be actively engaged in their community and government (something Ben and I definitely need to work on and model for them).

The girls were pretty excited to go into the “booth,” cast their own vote, and then tally up the votes afterwards. It wasn’t that hard since there were only two votes to count, but I think they get the gist of what voting is all about. Most importantly, they know it is their job as citizens to help and they can help by casting their vote. Okay, it doesnt’ really count just yet, but they’re learning and one day it will count for real. It’s a privilege to vote and I hope that they will understand it and be responsible enough one day to make their own informed decisions.

Tomorrow, Ben and I will take them with us when we put in our vote. They will actually get to see firsthand what really goes on and based on their own experience of yesterday, they will enrich their understanding of voting and the election even more. I also told them that no matter who is in office, even if we love ’em or hate ’em, it is also our responsibility as citizens to support and pray for our leaders that they would do the best they can and bear the responsibility of taking the course which he/she feels they ought to take, just as spoken by Abraham Lincoln.

Happy Election day folks! Today should be interesting…

P.S. I don’t really recommend that “So You Want to Be President?” book (pictured above) because of how it paints vegetables in a bad light in one part, and though it’s somewhat informative, it is much too wordy, and I am sure there are much better books out there. We just happen to have that one in our stash.