I’ve been excited to write this post for a while now. Time has truly flown by and our brand new vegan status has slowly evolved into 6 months! Yes, 6 months!

Even looking at this picture of Max and June goofing off – they look like babies to me! God knows the amount of food they eat, they have to be growing.

I never thought this lifestyle could feel so natural. At this point, you couldn’t pay us enough money to eat anything but vegan. Recently I was in a situation where someone was preparing pork chops, and I myself was surprised by how overwhelmingly sick I felt at the sight and smell. Before, it would have still been something I craved, even if I chose not to eat it.

I guess that’s what happens when you become fully educated about THE TRUTH of what your food is.

What’s even more awesome is I’ve had many instances where I’m sitting with a delicious vegan meal in front of me, savoring each tasty bite, and feeling a level of spiritual connection to the world – a sense of peace that I have never felt before while eating a meat sandwich, that’s for sure!

Every day just keeps getting better and better. We are truly blessed to have the opportunity to live this lifestyle!

Max and June have had amazing changes taking place in their lives as well. I’m seeing strength, courage, selflessness, and compassion emerging from them that has me in awe all the time.

When we first started this journey, June of course, being the inspiring factor, was 1000% on board and ready to go. Even during our transition phase, she unwaveringly denounced anything that included animal ingredients no matter how delicious and satisfying it was. She inspired me beyond belief, making my own transition much easier.

Max wasn’t too far behind on that one. A little further below you can read about Max’s pizza conundrum and how he followed his heart to come to a really awesome conclusion on the matter.

Going vegan has given us such a grateful outlook on life. I mean, I thought we were a grateful family before, but this new change has inspired such a deep level of humbleness, it’s unmatched by anything else. Here’s a short list of some of the things that have happened this month that I’m proud to share with all of you:

1. Max Finally Ditched the Pizza

Max is a strong kid. He’s totally driven by his heart and passions. However, he’s just a little guy and through no fault of his own, he’s so fond of cheesy pizza goodness. His Friday night pizza was something I wasn’t sure how to approach (the vegan version wasn’t quite the same at the time, although still delicious and gooey).

So, during the first few months of our transition, he still ate a pizza about every other Friday while I contemplated how we would proceed from there. But, to my pleasure, it wasn’t long before we stood in the pizza isle of the store and Max asked where the vegan pizzas were.

This particular store didn’t sell them, and I watched as tears welled up in Max’s eyes because he didn’t want to eat regular pizza anymore.

That was a truly touching moment, and as I held him close and told him how proud I was of his big heart, we found our way to a different store, got the vegan pizza, and we haven’t looked back since. My boy <3

2. June Ran a 5K!

Not too long ago, June (in the middle) participated in her very first 5K race.

Now, this girl has never shown much interest in athletics, so I was way proud to see her strong, healthy, vegan self undertake a training program at her school and compete in her first ever race…which she finished in an awesome 49 minutes!

We’re getting ready to do it all again and I can’t wait to see how she does this time around! I can attest to the fact that eating a plant-based diet makes your body feel amazingly strong, fit, and healthy! I know June definitely agrees!

3. Helping Those in Need 

This past month, again upon June’s continued urging, we fullfilled a long-time goal to begin collecting food and supplies for those in need and taking them to the homeless in our area.

June, carrying the organization gene passed from yours truly, was awesome at bagging up potato chips, counting out portions, and decorating paper bags with loving messages for its recipients.

Meanwhile, Max continued to prove that he is a future chef in the making. He cooked our jackfruit BBQ just about by himself, stirring and searing like a tiny little pro. He even made sure to taste test his food to make sure our seasoning was just right!

Our first adventure with this project was jackfruit BBQ sandwiches with cole slaw, potato chips, and bananas. We also had cold water bottles, and bags full of toiletries of all kinds.

We packed everything up, found a parking spot downtown and headed out…not really knowing what to expect! It didn’t take long to find folks in need, and they were extremely friendly and grateful for what we had for them.

I can’t describe the rewarding feeling I felt watching my kids hand out water and lunches to folks with smiles on their faces. We walked for several miles, talking and sharing love. It was truly an honor, and we look forward to doing it again!

Side note: we didn’t even tell anyone that their meals were 100% vegan and no one said anything negative.

Total win.

4. Youngin’s Standing Up to Hate!

The final thing the kids did that I wanted to share with you is they participated in an anti-hate rally after the most recent nazi-influenced attack in Charlottesville. As we prepared to join this movement, I found that I had to explain to my kids what had happened in Charlottesville and I won’t lie – it was hard at first. So much of our lives are spent protecting our children from the evils of life. It was difficult to admit to them that awful things like this are still happening in today’s world – in their world.

But, then I thought about it, and I realized that their knowledge gives them power to stand up to the very hate I spend my time protecting them from. There may be a lot of bad things going on in the world every day but the older my children get, the more I believe that they, and children like them all over the world, will be the ones to finally stand up and create true, lasting change. I can just feel it. Kids are powerful, powerful beings and I believe in them completely.

And that’s about all of it! We have spent a lot of time settling into our new lifestlye, and we get so much joy from inspiring others to make positive changes in their lives.

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