I had a blog once before. But I lost it. I imagine it's still out there floating through cyberspace, but I can't find it, and even if I could, I probably wouldn't be able to convince it that I was its creator. My postings were rare anyways, so no great loss.

My intent for this blog is to be a record of my desire (and hopeful achievement) of living more healthfully, and getting back to eating the things the way God intended them to be eaten.

My first step has been to find a source of raw milk. Yep. raw. Unpasteurized. Non-homogenized. Straight from the cow. And I think I found it! A farm near Fulton sells it, but right now it's all spoken for. The owner says they have a couple cows about ready to drop calves, so I'll be calling back at the end of the month. I can't wait!

I also hope to be more diligent about the meat I buy. My ultimate goal? Pastured/free-range chickens, grass-fed beef, pork with no nitrates or msg. At the Fulton farm I'm hoping to order a quarter of beef for next fall. By then we should have a finished (please Lord) garage, and a secondhand freezer purchased for a song to live in said garage.

I've been getting a shipment of organic fruits and veggies from a great company out of Yorkville, IL called TCF Organics for a couple years now, but lately I'm compelled to do more. Maybe because, in spite of my good intentions, we still eat fast food much too often. I'm hoping that a stocked freezer will make it easier for me to cook, but I recognize the need for some serious discipline on my part. I'm hoping looking at 2 cute little faces every day will help give me the proverbial kick in the pants that I will need.

So obviously these changes are something that will be happening in the future, but what about now? First and foremost, I want to make sure fast food is a once in a while thing. Maybe we'll continue our post-church Culver's run on Sundays (for a while at least), but I'm hopeful that "Happy Meal" will no longer be part of our vocabulary.

Next, I plan to stick with things like "Just Bare" chicken from County Market, and my only red meat purchases will be bison until I find a source of grass-fed beef. No antibiotics, no bovine growth hormone (eww), no steroids, no genetically-modified, uber large breasted chickens. And I intend to purchase organic at least for the "dirty dozen" (fruits/veg with the highest pesticide load.)

One big question we have is in regards to our budget. Is this going to hurt us financially? Obviously the things I'm hoping to do will cost more than just going to the store or clipping coupons, and I'm not entirely sure how we'll weather the financial burden, but we're committed to try. I'm hopeful we'll see success, not just in our pocketbook, but also in our health, and maybe even in a spiritual sense, as we find ourselves getting closer to God's wonderful creation.