All the miles of a hard road are worth a
moment of true happiness.


Friday, September 25, 2009

EMF gone mad???



How do you know when you have offically lost it??? I am sitting here with a giant wad of tin foil under a base ball cap. I am thinking the emfs are giving me a monster headache so rather then turning off this stupid computer I wrap my head in foil???... It just dawned on me what a quack I may in fact be...I had to take a picture and show you. ps. my headache is lessening but now I have a funny metal taste in my mouth...no I havent been drinking and no I havent been chewing on foil....LOL! (not that drinking would cause the taste just this odd behavior.) Oh and I found a neat website for my fellow nuts: http://www.lessemf.com/personal.html check out the canopy for your bed....

Who needs to know?

Here is another creative catalyst from: http://www.danetterelic.com/drawingboard/

This Week's Creative Catalyst: Who Needs to Know?
This week is a creative writing prompt, but should you feel inspired to take this idea and bloom it out into some other form, I say follow that inspiration!
What do the following people or things need to know about you?

your dentist
your bed
your custom shoe maker
your garden
your new neighbour
your pet
your therapist or coach
the person next to you on a bus or plane
your bartender



Ahh my DENTIST what should you know about me??? Well I only just today (the day of my visit) started flossing on a regular basis, and I am most definitely worried about what you see in my nose as you gaze down at me. BUT I am also worried about what might be in your nose and fall into my wide open mouth!


BED you are my best friend, I day dream of you all day.

Well if I was so fortunate to have a CUSTOM SHOE MAKER you would need to know that I wear the same two shoes (my left shoe and right shoe) all year long. So please use your toughest, strongest materials to make my sandals. You might consider charging me a pretty penny because you will only be seeing my feet every few years. Ahh how I love my sandals!

Dear GARDEN, I just wanted to apologize to you! I didn't mean for your growth to be stunted and your roots to go dry. I loved you more then you can imagine in the early days. If the wind, the heat and the bugs didn't bother you so much (and lack of fertilizer) I just know you could have been so much more then a shriveled up stick in the ground. I morn you every visit to the market when I am forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money for my veggies! Maybe next year we can try our friendship out again...what do you say?

NEW NEIGHBOR please don't eat the cookies I brought you. My three year old helped me make them and I am not sure he washed his hands (or feet,)opps!

Dear sweet PETS I am sorry you may never gain the love and respect that my one true love of a pet once received. You will never be the best pet on the planet for in my mind my sweet Mimi girl holds that spot! I love you Mimi and miss you so much. RIP Mimi!!!


Oh dear THERAPIST, please stop asking me how I feel and just offer me a drink already!

Hello guy sitting next to me on the plane! I just thought I would warn you that airport food and lack of movement may induce a rumble followed by slight...well that's all, you have been warned!

BARTENDER, make it a triple and note that I haven't had a drink in almost four years...I might get a little rowdy!
PS. I do love my pets and I have no plans of drinking any time soon...this was just for fun!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I ♥ faces: Completely Candid




I was looking at my friend Lisa's blog: http://www.whatfeedsmysoul.com/2009/09/photo-wishes.html and she was taking part in yet another cool web contest. This contest is taking place over at http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/

I love taking pictures and am especially fond of taking candid pictures. So I thought I would go ahead and try this out as well. I am sort of bummed because I have several awesome pictures I took overseas of people, people not quite like you see here. I have an amazing picture of a gypsy women and her baby and beautiful picture of a group of very old men hashing it out on the streets of Italy, but alas I am a computer failure and have no idea how to scan them into my computer (these were taken pre-digital.)

Here is a picture I took just a few weeks ago, and has quickly become one of my favorite pictures. We were on vacation in Dana Point, California. Thomas found this great tree and decided to explore all of its potential. I just love the look of pure joy and satisfaction on his sweet little face! I think if you click on the picture (and any picture on my blog) that it will blow it up so you can see it better, enjoy!

Mercury Fillings



If you have any fillings in your teeth you MUST watch this video!!! I have two, which I already have scheduled to be removed. Pat also is scheduled to have his one removed. The tooth they show in this video is over 25 years old, so don't assume just because you have had your fillings in your mouth for a long time that they are not effecting you! Please click on this link and watch this short clip so you can be aware of what is happening inside your body. You must be aware of how your filling are removed. Just going into a regular dentist could be dangerous to your health.

We have been planing on getting our mercury fillings removed for a while now but after talking briefly to a "regular" dentist I decided to wait and find a better option. When I asked this dentist about her experience she was overly smug about the whole thing, saying that she has been doing it daily for years. Which was not the response I was looking for. Perhaps if she had mentioned what precautions she took to insure mine and her own safety I would have been a little more open to using her.

Here is a link to the Holistic Dental Association http://www.holisticdental.org/membersearch

You simply type in your city and state and a list of Holistic Dentists will pop up. There were three listed in our city and I went with a wonderful man who's wife I spent nearly an hour talking with on the phone. She was passionate to say the least, and that my friends is what you should be looking for!

Wow, I just realized I might have gotten a bit ahead of myself with this post. Some of you reading this might not have any idea why you would want to get rid of your pretty silver fillings. Let me just add a list of issues that can arise from having these in your mouth. I will put my list at the end. I also just want to say that the wife of the dentist I will be seeing told me how after her mercury fillings were removed she stopped having migraines which had plagued her for most of her life. OK here is the list, I am copying this from a friend off face book (thanks, April!)

Alzheimer’s disease, Asthma, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD,) Learning Disabilities, Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis (MS,) Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Chronic Fatigue syndrome... the list goes on!!!

Friday, September 18, 2009

This Week's Creative Catalyst: Imagination

Danette @ http://www.danetterelic.com/drawingboard/2009/09/launching-you-fascinate-me-express-yourself-.html has invited her readers to share in weekly Self-Expression Springboards. She says: "Every Thursday I will provide a creative catalyst, a springboard to get you inspired. My catalysts will invite your imagination, creativity and curiosity to find new ways of expressing yourself - and maybe discovering new things about yourself you didn't even know you knew!"

"This Week's Creative Catalyst: Imagination
Imagine you at your most powerful. You rock. You are a freaking champion, and everyone knows it. We are filling a stadium to the brim, voices cheering and hearts splashing in anticipation of you making your entrance. We all know what song is going to blast through the speakers as you walk into the ring. It suits this moment perfectly. It makes you feel so good, to step into the light with this song playing...
What is the song? Oh I'm dying to know! What is it about this song? How does it make you feel? Who are you being when you walk out to this song?"

Lately I have been pulled in by this song called Gitchi Manidoo off the Sacred Spirit CD. We just took a little day trip to St. George UT, I added pictures we took along the way to go with the music. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Starting new traditions

I love the idea of having family traditions, things that Thomas will recall from his childhood and hopefully pass on to his own family someday. I was talking with my mom about traditions she recalled from her childhood. She said every Sunday her mom would make coffee cake for breakfast followed by a mid after noon family dinner. So using the exact same recipe my grandmother used I made coffee cake for my family Sunday morning.

I have always hated that our beautiful china sits in the pantry zipped away in cases all year round. Why even bother owning something so nice if you only get to see it (maybe) once a year. So now every Sunday I will carefully bring down our china and iron our nice table cloth and napkins. This will be a great way to welcome a new week.

This meal turned out super delicious. I tried something new: coca cola! I added a can of cola to the crock pot roast and it was the moistest roast I have ever turned out.

Thomas loves carrots and potatoes from the crock pot. He also loved drinking from the tall glasses. This meal and new tradition was a big hit!



For dessert I made Amish bread pudding. If I only ever pass on one recipe, this should be the one! I have never had such heavenly sweetness in my whole life...bless the Amish!!!

Here is the link if you would like to try it: http://www.momswhothink.com/easy-recipes/bread-pudding-recipe.html I used half and half for the pudding and the sauce. I omitted the raisins. Enjoy and happy traditions to you and your family!!!

Paella

This was my first attempt at making Paella. Look at the steam coming off the food...

Unfortunately I could not find Spanish rice anywhere in this big city! Since I was to impatient to buy some mail order, I used arborio rice instead. It was a bit mushy for my taste.

I served it with warm sourdough bread...my favorite!

The clams and mussels did not survive thawing out...not sure what I did wrong there...

But chicken, chorizo, and shrimp were enough meat for us.

Over all it was a TON of work and I don't even want to add up the cost of all my ingredients. To top it all off it was really lacking in flavor. Pat said he really liked it, I only liked the way it looked. Since I have a wonderful Spanish paella pan I am sure I will attempt this again, but just not in the near future...

Sunday, September 6, 2009

A gift for myself

When it comes to spending money on myself, it rarely happens. Don't get me wrong I spend money. Some how every week I am able to find too many ways to spend our budget. Usually it has something to do with food, Thomas or the house. You may be looking at my picture and scratching your head. Yes, technically a broom is for the house, but not this broom. This broom is all mine! I have been contemplating buying a new one for quite some time now. I wanted to buy one that was American made and a corn cob broom as well.

When I saw this one for under seven (yes, I said seven) dollars at Cost Co I almost walked right passed it. Surely nothing under that giant roof was American made, except for a large portion of the people walking around. But then my love of the broom took over and I picked it up... Only to see it was made right here in the good ole USA! Thomas of course pretended to be a witch riding on the broom all the way through the store and out to our car.

Now all that is left is a bitter sweet good bye to my old worn out broom. Who, I cant seem to find now... ahh the mysteries of a good old broom!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

What I posted on my NEW Waldorf groups site.


I just joined what looks to be a great online site for Waldorf families...and those of us wanting to know more. This was my first post chalked full of questions, hope I didn't come across like a complete moron!


I am pretty new to the Waldorf world. I have known (to some degree) about Waldorf for a year or two but have just really started delving into it. I have a son who has just turned three years old. When my son turned about a year maybe a year and a half all the mamas that I knew from an AP play group who's boys were the same age were starting to potty train. So I ran out and bought a little potty and followed suit. Then my sister in law who has slightly older kids gave me some advice that had been given to her. Which was to wait until my son turned three before truly trying to potty train him. We felt 100 percent like that was the right thing to do and our son peacefully trained himself to use the real toilette well before any of my friends kids who had been pushed and pushed by frustrated parents to train early.

Ok whats my point...well several months ago all the mamas I know started yammering on and on about schooling and what methods they were trying to implement in their homes. Gasp! My son was still two and I was already so far behind with his education! I started reading Montessori books and buying little things here and there to try out on him. But frankly it didn't feel natural. I loved that they used nice wooden things to teach children with and it seemed pretty gentle but...my son was only two!

So I kept thinking about a couple great mamas I know (mostly via on line) and knew of their interests in Waldorf. I knew they liked natural and wooden "stuff'' as well so thats when I slowly started wanting to learn more. I could never really tell someone the difference between the two...Montessori and Waldorf. So thats were my journey began, trying to figure out what separates the two. Now I am pretty sure the difference is that they are total opposites.

I am currently reading my first Waldorf book which is "you are your child's first teacher." Which I am simply loving. Plus I check out Waldorf blogs when I have a chance. I am thrilled to see the author of my favorite belongs to this very group! I feel like I am surrounded by super stars!

Part of me feels very behind but no longer about schooling, thank goodness. So here are my questions...

How do I get rid of the television??? My husband agreed to cancel it but when the time came some how he returned to me with the fact that he UPGRADED our service! So now instead of 100 yucky channels we have 250!

I would love to start celebrating the different festivals and holidays that are part of the Waldorf community (in some form.) But I don't know where to start with that either, in an age appropriate way...any ideas?

Big mess up on our part is that our son has tons of cars and trucks and other not so desirable toys, how do I peacefully make the transition for him. Or am I just too late. We also have musical instruments, which now I am reading on here is not good for him.

Uggg... how does one un-mess the mess that they have made???