Feed.

     I am back....but regrettably so. We left our heart on the beach. It was beautiful and refreshing. The best Mother's Day week ever as I didn't cook, nor clean for 5 days straight. However, I realized that I am good for about 2 days of eating out only.Then, my body begs for my home cooked meals. My body knows the difference between white, processed flours and sprouted whole grains. It knows what real farm eggs are and what egg beaters are not. I loved the break but was so thankful to be able to cook the breakfast my body needed this morning. How can people live on fast food and eating out? Probably because they don't know the difference.


     Most people go on living in a sort of mediocre zone. They don't feel great but they don't know how good they can feel. They feed themselves sub par. They feed for convenience and for sustenance not for health and vitality. If you don't let your body know what real food is, you are missing out on how you can feel and perform. Many people spend more time picking out their pet's food than their own. 


     I ate at the hotel for breakfast every morning. I ate white flour pancakes and cinnamon rolls. Eggs that were from a container not a shell. I had some fresh fruit but mostly my breakfast ended up as paste in my belly. Try mixing white flour with water....paste. That is what is in your intestines. I couldn't do my normal morning "business" and thus, my gut wasn't too pleased with me. I needed whole grains. Today, I made some Tropical Peach Muffins with my sprouted wheat flour and fresh peaches from my tree. We threw it down with a great smoothie packed with spinach and cabbage and blackberries. My body rejoiced. I feel wonderful. Sure, it is a little work but so very worth it. 


    Take time to "feed" your body in every sense. Listen to what it is telling you. Is your stomach happy after you eat? Do you take care of business after you eat on a regular basis? Is your hair and nails healthy? Do you have a sugar drop in the afternoon? Evaluate your health and indulge yourself by feeding your system what it is screaming for you to give it. If it is screaming for donuts and chocolate, your body is telling you it is time for a cleansing. You crave sugar when yeast is overtaking your system. Clean the yeast and the cravings will go down. Do a sugar elimination diet for a little while also and you will be surprised what that does for your sweet tooth. Clean your liver. Drink smoothies. Do a little spring cleaning of sorts.


     I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. I wish I could have taken you all with me to the sunny beach. You all deserve it! Take a little time out for yourselves and treat your body right. 


***All coconut oil is in so email me for pick up. Supplement orders will also be put in later this week. 

Produce something.

Few things give me greater joy than seeing the fruit of my labors. I took a walk around my plantation, all 1/4 acre of it the other day and was elated with the beauty of my crops. Apples, peaches, oranges, strawberries, tomatoes, etc. They are a beautiful creation and I am so thankful to have them at my disposal.


If you have been paying attention lately at the grocery store, prices are out of control. Few things are left untouched by soaring prices. There is also talk of fungus and disease in many crops this year for produce as well. We need to produce something on our own. If you don't already have something going in your yard, no matter what the size, it is a great weekend to play farmer. Plant something, anything. It will give you great satisfaction. We need to work towards self-reliance. Just start somewhere. It is a great time of year to plant. I added three new trees this year and two more are coming next week along with my much anticipated chickens. My garden is full and my new boysenberry bush has beautiful berries popping up. I can hardly wait! I had my first peach of the year yesterday and my mouth jumped for joy! I am sort of sick of apples and oranges. I am very ready for the summer season....peach cobbler, fresh garden salsa and pasta sauce, omelets with fresh peppers and onions, zucchini frittatas and chocolate zucchini cake. Delightful. 


What's in your yard? 

Meat Glue

Meat glue? Yep, it's true. If you want to solidify the fact that you need to choose grass-fed , organic beef or go vegetarian completely, read this article today from Mercola. If you dare.


Click here.

Cheesy Sauce

I'll tell ya, ball season at our house means quick dinners. Usually that makes kids happy because it seems like the quick dinners are their favorites. I miss the good ole fashioned long prep dinners but with only minutes of cook time in the evening, we have to settle for quick nutrition. 

They love a simple stuffed potato...probably because it is covered with cheesy sauce. The recipe I use is from my friend Molly's cookbook. You could put cheesy sauce on anything and make it tasty. I like this sauce because it is subtle and not processed. No Velveeta in my house. We have our limits.

Cheesy Sauce

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk 

1 tsp. sea salt

1 1/2  cups grated cheddar (we use raw grass fed)

1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp. dry mustard

pepper to taste

Melt butter in pan. Mix in flour and cook for a minute, stirring constantly. Stir in milk and cook until thickened, stirring. Add rest of the ingredients and stir until cheese is melted. Serve warm.

Coconut oil order

The coconut oil is in. Please email me so I can get them to you. I have placed the second order and will have that in a week. I will keep doing orders as I get groups together so if you are interested, just email me. When I get six together, I will put in the order.


Thanks!

Rhetoric

Ladies, I am here to chew you out. You need to cool it. You need to change your daily rhetoric. You need to reinvent the way you see things. You are not being fair to yourselves. You are stopping yourself from thinking of more important things. You are making yourself believe things that aren't true. You need to start being happy with who you are now. Truly happy.


I had an email from a sweet friend this last week about a post I did a little while back. It was a post on how I found myself and was happy with who I am. She just had a baby and that of course is a time when body image isn't at its peak! She is feeling less than adequate about herself and has all the emotions that goes with it. She wanted to know how I got to the point where I was happy with me. That made me think about my journey to where I am now. In addition to that email, another thing that gave me thought this last week was the women at the gym. They are constantly talking about their bodies and how horrible they look. I gave a friend a sincere compliment at the gym about how super skinny she looked (the truth) and she could only point out her thighs. Seriously, there wasn't an ounce of jiggle on her. But, as women, we are really good about talking about our faults, even if they aren't there, and not taking a compliment. We worry so much about being perfect that we don't even appreciate what we have. Honestly, I am tired of hearing women put themselves down.


The truth is ladies, we will never be perfect. Super models even have imperfections. If you are looking for perfection, you will never get there. If you tell yourself every day that you aren't slim enough, pretty enough, talented enough, etc.... you will believe exactly that. By definition, rhetoric is the art of using language in a persuasive way. We use daily rhetoric to persuade ourselves that we need to be a certain way to be content with ourselves. Just 5 pounds more and we will be happy.


Last year, I decided that I was going to give myself a break. Not that I ever felt horrible about myself but I would always look in the mirror with a grimace. I would weigh myself and the scale would tell me how confident I would be that day. Silly, really. No one else would notice  a slight change in my weight. No one else cared if I had my cute jeans on or not. I don't think there is anyone out there who is my friend because I was thinner that week than the last week. I decided that my attitude toward myself was not only stupid but damaging as well. If I felt bad about myself, I was less apt to think about others. I was a little more self centered and introverted if I wasn't happy with me. I decided that this attitude was selfish and needed to change.


I decided that when I look in the mirror and those less than pleasant thoughts come into my head (and we all get them), I was going to change the rhetoric and say things to myself to change the way I feel. I began to be thankful for my healthy body. If I felt bad about my thighs, I would instead by thankful that I had them to run with. If my belly stuck out a little more than I wanted that day, I would be thankful that it made 5 beautiful babies. I began to appreciate me and tell myself that I didn't need to be perfect. I began to believe myself.


Being happy with ourselves doesn't mean that we don't keep trying to look good and slim down, etc. We still need to get in shape and take care of ourselves, we just need to not let it define our feelings. We can't let that be our happiness. Some of my slimmest friends are some of the unhappiest. When I was at my slimmest point, I was more consumed with myself than I am now. It is really all in the attitude.


I think about this last year and how I am where I am now. I know that a huge difference has been the fact that I am so entirely busy that I don't have time to dwell on myself much. I have about 30 minutes to get ready so there isn't much time to stare in the mirror. There is something to the slogan, "Loose yourself in service." 


If you are unhappy with yourself, get out there and serve others. Get too busy to worry about your own problems. Start working out to feel good, letting go of looking perfect. Eat right so you will feel good. You deserve to have energy and health.


Bottom line: No one cares if you are perfect. In fact, people usually like you better if you aren't. People like those who are confident and are uplifting. Those who aren't negative and berating of themselves. Think of who you like to be around the most and you will see. If we become happy with ourselves, we will be better mothers and wives; better friends and better servants. 


I still have my days where I don't feel the best but those are pretty fleeting now. I just change my tone and get out the door. I can honestly tell you all that I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. Consequently, I am not the slimmest I have been. But, that's ok

Coconut oil order

I am putting in a group order for my very favorite coconut oil from Tropical Traditions. A one gallon pail of the Gold Label organic coconut oil is $60, that includes tax and shipping. I am putting in the order Thursday. You will have to pick it up from me if you want it. I need a minimum of at least 6 gallons to get this price.

I will also be ordering oils and supplements on Thursday as well.

Email me if interested. 

Thanks!

Dish scum

Are your dishes looking cloudy and filmy from the dishwasher? Your not alone. I have had this problem for a few months and tried all sorts of detergents, totally natural and not. I have a new dishwasher and blamed it on that. I almost unhooked it to return it. Then, my sister in law told me she was having the same problem and also another friend. They too thought it was their machine. We had to do the vinegar rinse just to get the baked on film off our dishes. Thanks to a comment from  Katie, the case of the cloudy dishes has been solved. Don't go out and buy a new machine.


It seems that phosphates have been removed from most dish detergents. That is a good thing in that phosphates are bad for our environment and we don't really want that in our water system or our households. However, it is the phosphates that caused the breakdown of hard water and for the dirt to breakdown in the cleaning cycle. Now, we are left with less than adequate cleaning products. That has been a very recent change so that is why we are all just discovering it. 


I have searched for a more natural cleaning product that still makes my dishes shine like they were hand cleaned. I was successful.

I have tried quite a few powdered natural detergents but was never happy. I have a new love. It is "Wave" detergent in Organic Lavender. I got it at Sprout's but you can probably find it elsewhere. It smells great and contains pure and simple ingredients. No more cloudy dishes and no more worry over chemicals left on my drinking cups. Oh, happiness. 

Thanks for solving the mystery, Katie!

Fresh Finds.....Costco

Just a couple finds at Costco lately I thought I should share.....

Rudi's Gluten Free Bread in the freezer section. Two loaves for $6.99. Much better than $5.99 for Udi's single loaf. It tastes great as well. Wish they wouldn't put corn in everything but life isn't perfect!

Frozen Organic Blackberries. I think it is around $8.99. Great for smoothies!

20lb bag of peruano beans. If you don't know what these are , read my old post here. They are my very favorites for mexican food, especially refried beans. You usually pay around $1.40 per pound but at Costco, this 20lb bag ends up being about $.73 per pound! Yipee! Grab them while they have them. There is a long storage life. 

They had some organic romaine hearts last time I went but not this time. Hopefully that will come back.

***I have found these at my Costco at Gilbert San Tan. 

Anyone else find some great deals out there? 

Piano Lessons

To anyone in the Gilbert area interested: My almost 15 year-old daughter has a couple more opening for piano lessons. Lessons are 1/2 hour long and $10 per lesson. She is a very good teacher; very organized and great with the kids. She plays beautifully and can sight read anything. She had 7 years of lessons and really enjoys teaching. 


Email me or leave a comment if interested.


Another note, someone emailed me about water kefir issues and I somehow deleted the email. Email me back so I can answer you.


Thanks!