Love for Kids & a Power Smoothie

     This past weekend my mom and I volunteered at Love for Kids, which is something that some friends of ours have been doing for years. Basically thousands of kids from the Dallas/ Ft. Worth area get to come out to the Circle R Ranch, play games, gets their face painted, ride horses, and eat all they want. So they get the chance to be care free kids if just for a day. Plus, every bus that the kids arrived on (There were over 60 full sized school buses!And then more came in vans)  were packed with presents designated by each child's sex and age group.
  Saturday morning I wasn't feeling to good. Actually I felt awful, but I still was going to go to the camp. By the time we got out there it was freezing cold, but as the day went on it warmed up a tad bit and the wind died down. Time also seemed to fly by and I soon forgot how bad I was feeling. We arrived at 9:15 and we were suppose to be at our first stations by 10, but we were made into "human fenceposts" to guide the kids coming off the buses into the camp entrance which took almost 2 hours.Some of the kids were absolutely adorable! Then Fred (family friend) and I went to our stations which were with the horses. Fred lead the horse (we had a gray gelding named Ghost) and I was a sidekick- basically I walked next to the horse to make sure the kid didn't fall off. We walked Ghost for 1 1/2 hours before putting him to pasture to rest and going to help clean up and eat.
  By 2pm all of the volunteers (there were hundreds) were all lined up, waving goodbye as the buses left with some very happy kids on board.

This was one of those experiences that helps put everything back into perspective and cherish what you have.

  A "get up and go" attitude is a good thing, but it seems like lately a lot of people's "get up and go" is wanting to stay home and sleep.
  With this being to holiday season, everybody is busy doing something, whether it's shopping, baking, entertaining, or visiting friends and family. No one has time to be feeling sick or under the weather. But that seems to be the case with me. I have had a case of the sniffles for the last 2 months and I figured that since I wasn't "sick" yet, that it would just pass. Well, this past week I have been waking up with a stuffy nose, foggy head, and not having much energy. Since the next few weeks will be spent baking, cooking, attending dinners & parties, and visiting friends the last thing I need or want is to get sick. So I decided that I was going to make myself a smoothie to cheer me up and thinking that it may magically make me well.
  I use to spend the summer's at my grandparents house and my grandma and I would always find a recipe or 2 to make while I was there. One summer she got a brand new blender and it came with a book full of recipes for smoothies and since then, making smoothies during the summer has been our thing.We made most of the recipes in the book and even came up with a few of our own. My mom makes a smoothie every morning, but I rarely ever drink an of it. Maybe it is because it has yogurt in it (not a big fan of dairy) or maybe because I prefer my body demands  a hot beverage when I first wake up.
  A smoothie is basically just a easy and travel friendly way of having a bunch of things you like to eat blending into a drink form. You can base your smoothie with yogurt, ice, sherbet, milk, coconut/almond/soy milk. You can change the ingreidents to what you prefer and have on hand. This smoothie has zip from the cranberry juice, pineapple, and orange juice while the banana gives it creaminess. Whether you are feeling tired, under the weather, or if you just want a healthy and refreshing drink, you should give this a try.

Power Smoothie
Created by Rayna of Curious Country Cook

serves: 1

1/2 cp orange juice
1/2 cp cranberry juice
1 banana, frozen *
1/2 cp pineapple chunks*

*If you don't use frozen fruit, you could just add some ice cubes to make your smoothie colder.

1. Add the ingredients into a blender and blend on high until smooth.
2. Serve and enjoy.