Life after Sandy

Hello everyone.  Life has been crazy after Hurricane Sandy devastated our community.  We are slowly but surely getting life back to “normal”.  Boy is it hard to stick to a clean eating lifestyle when you are stuck with no power in a cold house.  We were without power for 10 days and I can actually say that I was sick and tired of eating oatmeal (which I made over my gas stove) and eating it out of paper bowls (ok please don’t send me emails telling me how bad paper bowls are for my health and the environment, all things go out the window when you lose power).  I was feeding my kids canned Trader Joe’s brand spaghettio’s (again, no emails please. at least they were organic, right? 😉 )  You do what you need to do to get by, and that’s what we did.  I was at one of my lovely friend’s houses who was fortunate enough to have never lost power and also generous enough to invite us over to do laundry and have a meal, and of course to warm up.  I looked in the mirror (in her well lit bathroom) and realized how dehydrated my skin looked.  With just a few days of not eating well (don’t judge me, there were bags and bags and bags of Halloween candy in my ice cold house) and not drinking enough water, my skin really showed it.  This pretty much solidifies why I try to eat well.  It makes me feel (and look) better.

As we all are aware of, there were many who had it worse than us.  Many people lost their houses and belongings and have no where to live.  Sandy made our family appreciate how fortunate we are to have all the blessings that we have.  My heart goes out to all those who have lost so much.  My dear friend grew up spending her summers at her family house in Breezy Point, NY, which was completely devastated by this hurricane.   She has been feverishly working to help those that still need water, food and shelter and I admire her strength through this unbelievably difficult time.  This is an excerpt of an email she sent out :

Hurricane Sandy left a path of devastation which is nothing like you have seen on the news.  It quite literally looks like a war went on.  People’s homes have been destroyed by fire and floods.  All of their possessions are gone.  They try to put on brave faces, but, most have children to worry about.  The schools in  the area have been damaged and destroyed.  Some have relocated to empty apartments in areas of Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, some as far as the Carolinas and Florida so that their kids return to a sense of normalcy. Some are still looking for homes while relying on family. We are being told that the Peninsula will be uninhabitable until June at the earliest.  There is so much work to be done and the residents have taken it on full force. 

Please feel free to email me directly at lbmcp@verizon.net if you can donate time or a gift card to this deserving community. 

So I go back on track this Monday, back to my healthy lifestyle.  And wouldn’t you know it, I forgot it was MY BIRTHDAY on Tuesday (hello birthday cake!)!  I LOVE my friends’ and families’ birthdays, but mine, not so much.  The one thing I do love is seeing how excited my kids get on my birthday.  Homemade cards, flowers, a recital of a song they made up for me.  I am one lucky lady.

OH and I also submitted my final revisions for my cookbook due out in February (click here to see it- it’s on pre-order at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble 🙂 ) Just one more thing that I have to be thankful for.  With Thanksgiving coming up, I may not be as organized as I’d like to be and I may be feeling a little older (ugh) but I sure do have A LOT to be thankful for.  I promise to get back to blogging with healthy recipes my friends!

See you soon~

Lauren XO