Granola Kids

Being named Lyrica isn't something that happens when you have average parents. 

First, my biological father is a very talented musician.  He can play guitar and make it sound like several other instruments are playing with him when it's just his guitar. 

Now let me tell you about my momma.  First of all, she is beautiful.  When someone says I look like her, I could just kiss them because this is truly the ultimate compliment.

Since she was a teenager in the 70's and since she had very frugal parents, she made a lot of her own clothes.  She also was an artist, which is a trait she inherited from several family members. Yes, she was a hippie. 

My mom continued her hippie "ways" into her adulthood, as she gave birth to all five of us kids at home.  She don't need no stinkin doctors!! Yep, she is pretty much a super woman.

Since we were on a tight budget with five kids and since she had hippie roots, my mom also sewed a lot of our clothes too.  I will never forget how much in love I was with the Little House on the Prairie dress that she made for me.  She even made the bonnet.  Oh yes, I was Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Not only did my mom sew our clothes, but she made much of the food that we ate from scratch.  She cooked and baked from scratch for health reasons, because she wanted us to eat as healthy as possible.  She grew a garden in the back yard, and we even raised a couple of chickens for eggs.  Mind you, we lived in a regular residential neighborhood.  If there was a Home Owner's Association, we were certainly breaking some rules.

I will share some chicken stories later...

I also remember even having to eat cod liver oil as a child for some reason... I think to get over a cold...but my memory is kind of fuzzy on that one...  However, it could have just been just to be healthy!  Regardless, it felt more like punishment than anything else.  Please do not give this stuff to your children! I don't care how healthy it is. Don't do it.

My mom is one healthy, cool chick.  I will also never forget the fact that after she had her last baby, my youngest sister, she went on a jog around the neighborhood not too long after she gave birth.  In fact, I believe that much of my drive to be active and healthy comes from values she instilled in me from a young age.

In her "older" age, she rides horses and motorcycles and she continues to be the fun, creative, lovely woman she has always been.  I just love her.