On to the next adventure 🌊⛱☀️🌈 COVID has pushed us further west than we expected, heading to Honolulu to ride this out with our family.
Big decisions about the business had to be made this week and as heartbreaking as it is we realized that Happy Belly might not make it out of this. Being sole proprietors of 4 separate business (2 in food, 1 in teaching children, and 1 freelance writing) our operations are totally shut down. Our personal finances will be completely drained.
But more important having Celiac Disease means that I'm immune compromised. So, to us, heading back to NY seems fairly impossible and frankly unsafe right now.
Most of the time when we're faced with big life decisions, we prioritize Happy Belly over our personal life. We see this as a small sacrifice that we make for the greater good-- to help the people we love because that's what we love. We know that the ship will be steered in the right direction all the time. We trust.
This is seriously the first time where it's obvious that we need to think about our family and my health above everything. We realize that many of you are looking for us to lead, but we're checking out for now.
We just want to make it clear that we have always made downtime part of our business plan. Traveling to see family and be a family has been the main reason why we don't open a brick and mortar shop. Our overhead is low and we have weathered MANY storms. This storm was totally unpredicted and it will destroy many of the businesses that you love and depend on. That potential is real.
So let's fight for UBI and universal health care for the people who need it most and the ones who have more than enough but could also benefit ✊
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We'll still be posting and writing and creating, but from the social distancing beaches and mountains of O'ahu. We're gonna get lost for a while while we figure out the next steps for Happy Belly.
We love you all ❤
grandest
Realizing our Grand Canyon adventure was basically me taking pictures of tiny @brandon.of.bjerke on the edges of things while trying to make it look like we were the only ones there 😉😂 but more seriously... just wow 🤯🤯 we've been to Waimea Canyon on Kaua'i a few times, so we THOUGHT we knew what to expect.
Yeahhhhh 👌 the sheer vastness and quiet calm is truly unlike anything I've ever experienced.
Over and over I felt like putting myself in the shoes of whoever stumbled upon this first. Despite what you think, the canyon is not what you can imagine. There is no reference point.
We heard tons of people around the canyon say that their brains had no way to compute it's magnificence (as in: "I don't even know what I'm looking at right now!"). Seriously, how many times in life can we actually make that statement?
It was spiritual, for sure.
Walking the South Rim and viewing the canyon up close felt like sitting in on a masterclass of the Creator.
Tiny humans we are, in the grandness of the Universe and the land. Expansion and beauty, all poured in and out of this place. Not a thing but reverence
petrified forest
tree + silica + pressure + time = petrified wood
This place is called the Crystal Forest for a very good reason. It's an amplified and high vibe walk through time. Every wood-stone has a unique look, shape, and stage of process.
Under pressure the fallen trees absorbed silica, which when mixed with the impurities present in the environment, created the different hues. They were there hundreds of millions of years before the first dinosaurs walked the earth. Some still really look like trees-- crystal taking the shape of tree rings.
Walking the path became a great way to honor the elements that came together to create something out of a dream-- miraculousness of life, really. A place where the ground below your feet is made from the remnants of ancient forests which have been crystallized into quartz and preserved by the arid high desert.
True mindblowing stuff when you're willing to blow your mind
kitchen helper
Had a "helper" in the kitchen this morning 😉😏 she dumped oats on the floor to dance on top of, stuck her hand in a measuring cup of maple to then put in her mouth and her hair, snuck mochi while I wasn't looking, and squished the last of the raspberries into a juicy smearable pulp 😝🤣
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She definitely takes our philosophy of "playing with food" a liiiiiiittttttttle too seriously 😋😍 but her cheesy smile is the best, especially when accompanied with a well timed "hi mam". I melt 🥰🥰 .
Somehow I keep thinking that this, right here, is the #futureoffood 🙌 keeping that curious kid alive in all of us while we're in the kitchen. It's hard work.
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Recipes=rules
Rules=expectations
Expectations=high probability of not hitting the mark
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Sometimes we just have to jump in, get our hands (and the kitchen!) dirty, and have fun exploring our senses like toddlers.
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Forget about the expectations and perfections, let play guide you.
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Dance, taste, squish, drive your mam crazy 😉🤣