Oh my gosh my kitchen counters are finally installed!!! I’m so excited and beyond thankful to have this done! Countertop measurements are being taken on Friday and should be installed early July!! I’m so excited!!
I’m also so incredibly thankfully that yesterday Jacob and I went to his social distance kindergarten meet and greet and now he’s excited for school this fall!!!
Happy Thursday friends! We are in our fourth week of self isolation over here! The new life “normal” is a lot to take in! Definitely a whole host of emotions daily! I’m thankful my little family is holding up well and healthy so far. I’m thankful for all the folks doing their best to follow the rules and care for each other!
Lets remember there is no one size fits all for handling this current pandemic situation! Some people will thrive through this and others will fall, hurt, or even take their own lives. If you want to work out at home, awesome! If you want to sit on the couch and binge watch Netflix, fantastic! Do whatever feels right with your time at home. Don’t worry about what other people are doing! Resist the urge to compare yourself to others! Resist the urge to judge how others are reacting/function/coping or not! We’re all in this together but we are all allowed to work through it how we need to! Stay home and do you ❤️
PS I’m really thankful for iced coffee! ☕️☕️
It’s been a long week for all of us! I don’t have much to say today but I will share one of the things im thankful for today. I’m thankful for all the logistics staff, farmers, truck drivers, grocery store staff etc working through this terrifying time to maintain our food supply. 
Without these integral workers things would be much harder than they already are! So thank you to you and everyone on the front lines. ❤️
I recently got the opportunity to take part in a new veggie buying collective organized by a lovely lady named Maria. Maria has organized an awesome program so local families can pool their funds and buy organic, locally grown produce at a great price.
The veggie buying club is a fantastic way for local community members to access fresh, healthy, organic produce while supporting local farms and keeping dollars in our own community and nearby communities.
I am excited to take part in this as it embraces supporting local farms, and eating healthy! Plus it brings together community members! All great things in my eyes.
The club currently offers two boxes, a 5 pound harvest and a 15 pound harvest box. Both boxes contain an assortment of veggies and herbs that will change with the growing seasons! They also offer a juicing box.
This weeks farmer and harvest boxes contained kale, chard, carrots, beets, a variety of potatoes, leeks, herbs, garlic and the option of wheatgrass add ons.
We have already eaten the white potatoes, carrots, and rainbow chard, All of which have been delicious, fresh and flavourful.
Maria is in the process of getting more farms and local products involved! Hopefully soon the collective will have one stop access to local eggs, honey, seeds, etc.
I am throughly impressed that Maria has give up her own time and energy to bring something so amazing to her community.
If you’re interested in taking part in the collective or just looking for more information check out The Clean Living Team website.
Did you know Honey bees pollinate 80% of the flowering crops we use as food sources?!? That means they are responsible for 1/3 of everything we eat! If the bees die out so does our varied diet. Just some food for thought.
Kevin and I recently visited The Honey Bee Center near our home in Surrey BC.
As I’ve mentioned many times I like to eat local as often as possible. We’ve visited The Honey Bee Center on a number of occasions but this visit I made sure to snap a few photos to share with you all.
We didn’t take the tour but it looked like a neat thing to do with kids. The tour covers topics like pollination, life cycle, etc. They involve lots of hands on learning and of course you get to see the bees up close! The Bees and Bugs lab looks like something any little learner would love to explore!
Our visit was more based on need! I was out of honey and Kevin wanted to ask about local honey and bee pollen as an allergy fighting method. The staff, as always were friendly and helpful. We tasted some new to us products and learned in fact consuming local honey and bee pollen is thought to ward off seasonal allergies. We figured we would give it a go and bought both the local wildflower honey and the bee pollen. I was skeptical at first but after only a week of consuming the bee pollen my eyes have stopped itching! Good enough for me! I’m sold on the idea! Plus the other health benefits of honey are nothing to sneeze at.
Aside from the wildflower honey and bee pollen we had the opportunity to sample many other flavors. I enjoyed them all but stuck to my favorite, creamed clover honey and Kevin got some cinnamon honey. If you’ve never heard of the health benefits of combining cinnamon and honey you’ve got some research to do!! I swear by cinnamon and honey to ward of colds and throat infections. Back on topic! The store offers all sorts of honey, honey related products, as well as cute gift items. I’m a sucker for the honey in the little bear bottle!!
While we were there we checked out The Tea Hive Cafe which I was instantly drawn to because of its pond!
It is a peaceful setting to enjoy a cup of tea and chat with a friend or just enjoy the quiet calm sounds of the waterfall. Quiet, calm is something I’m really learning to enjoy recently in my life.
The Tea room offers all sorts of yummy treats for purchase, like fresh baked scones. As well they offer a variety of loose leaf teas. Yum!
I am always impressed by the helpfulness of the staff at the Honeybee Center, and by the variety of products they offer. If you are local or traveling to the area be sure to check out this neat little interactive bee kingdom! And don’t forget to high five the honey bear out front!
Hope everyone’s Monday was productive and stress free! I promise to post some recipes soon! I’ve been busy the last few weekends with cupcake orders and catering an event but things are back to normal now!
Life With The McGavins 