good friends and chicken soup

one of the beautiful things about friendship is the chance to learn something, to take something away. my two friends brandi and traci are gifted at hospitality. if they hear mention that you may be sick, they don't wait for an invitation, they come running with food, making sure your family is fed while you're down. i'm sad to say that this is not my natural tendency. i always think that people will let you know when they need something, not to intrude until asked. come on! here's one thing i've learned over the years. people lie! people don't want to burden you, so they lie when you ask if you can do anything. and the old me, the pre-brandi/traci me would be satisfied with this. but no longer. i have learned from these women that when there is a hint of sickness in the air, you come, because there is nothing better to a momma than to know that her family is taken care of...even when she's flat out in bed watching 'you've got mail'. in that spirit, here is my recipe for 'good for whatever ails ya chicken soup' (i say recipe, but to be honest i just kinda chunk things into the pot- so bear with me!):

chicken stock:

i typically roast a chicken on monday for dinner so i can have chicken throughout the week. that night i make stock from the bones.

• put the chicken carcass in a pot and cover (almost completely) in water
• throw in some turnips (a good way to use up your csa box!), a few cloves of garlic, half an onion, some celery (if you have it) and the number one ingredient- BAY LEAVES!!!
• bring to a boil and boil for a few minutes
• turn down to a simmer- simmer for a few hours (3-5, or even over night in a crock pot)

the onions and garlic have great healing power!

soup:

• chopped carrots
• stock
• bring these things to a boil and then turn down to a simmer (to cook carrots)
• add 2 cups cooked brown rice and leftover chicken from the roasted chicken
• squeeze in half a lemon (for healing)
• grate some fresh ginger (for healing)
• add a few more bay leaves and salt and pepper to taste

and that's about it. a pot full of healing goodness!!!

knitbone

last week we had a scary incident here on the homestead. moonpie was attacked by our beloved kitty, texas. it was fast and completely out of his character. i often find buddy pulling him out from under the bed by his tail, and he's never attacked. never. so when i heard moonpie's scream, i flew off the porch with my mind racing. she popped up and her eye was covered in blood. i was panicky and confused. i just couldn't figure out what happened. she finally told us 'it was texas'. after john got her cleaned up we could finally see the damage. she had 2 puncture wounds on her scalp, 3 on her right cheek (with bruises under them), her left eyebrow was hanging off on one side, her left eyelid had a cut and under her eye there was a scratch from her cheek to her nose. yuck! after a couple of days of hydrogen peroxide and neosporin, i decided it was time to try something herbal. i started with aloe, but it made it feel too tight and scratchy. a friend passed on some comfrey oil to me that she had made and it has been fantastic!

i didn't know much about comfrey as we haven't had any major bodily harm like this before. comfrey is also referred to as 'knitbone' because it has traditionally been used to 'knit' bones back together. it is also great for skin because it only feeds healthy skin cells. this speeds the healing process and also minimizes scarring. after a day of using it, moonpie woke up to major results! the redness was gone and the cuts themselves looked smaller. less traumatic. we've been using it daily, and here at right under 1 week the puncture wounds are gone and her eyelid and eyebone scratch are almost gone. her eyebrow took the brunt of the attack, so i am anticipating many more days for that to heal. i cannot say enough good things about this herb! i highly recommend having some on hand for even minor skin irritations (can be used for poison ivy/oak, arthritis pain, scarring, etc.).

i should mention what became of texas. i woke up in the middle of the night remembering that right before the attack moonpie had sprinkled a tiny amount of catnip on his food. after some googling, i found on several sites that catnip can cause aggression in a small percentage of cats. apparently our kitty can't handle his high very well : ) (i've been really getting a lot of mileage out of that one- go ahead, roll your eyes if you've already heard it!). this is my warning to you though- if you don't know how your cat handles catnip just avoid it. i have since emailed the company of the catnip to request that they begin putting a warning on the bag, but i haven't received a response. i guess you have to sue someone to get them to listen to you...

mmm...berries

we went strawberry picking yesterday! we picked about 11 pounds of berries.



moonpie was serious about her berry picking. at no time was she near me. she zoomed down those rows, filling her basket not once, but twice! after 2 full baskets i asked her what she thought about how sweet they were. she hadn't even tasted one! give that girl a job and she is on it!



buddy, on the other hand, thought he was for sure in heaven. all the strawberries he could eat? and he got to hunt them down? the above picture is of his proximity to his basket. uh-huh, he was no where near it! who needs a basket when you have hands?



and a mouth?



on our walk back to check out he asked me to hold him because his legs felt 'all wobbly'. i picked him up and noted how heavy he was, he replied 'it's all dos strawbewies i ate'. probably so...



and here is what we did with some of our bounty. strawberry jam cooling alongside a loaf of crusty bread. i was really dreading all of the sugar i was going to have to put in the jam, but when i got to the store i found that ball jelly is now offering a sugar free pectin! that was VERY exciting to me! i added a cup of fresh squeezed apple juice and 1/2 a cup of honey to 4 cups of strawberries and then one packet of pectin. it seems to have set well, but i'll let you know after we actually open one!
the jam was a true team effort. moonpie cut off the stems and halved each berry. buddy mashed 'em all up! we also made strawberry muffins for a road trip we're taking tomorrow and put some up in the freezer. man, without my little helpers i don't think i could have gotten it all done! i'm worn out just thinking about it!

what did i expect?

it appears that my children are some kind of weird hippie/cowboy hybrid.

they like their eggs fried ( "yolks hard, not sneezy" moonpie says).

with dulse and kelp sprinkled on top.

deep thoughts and etsy

i've been browsing etsy lately- both for the eye candy aspect and for inspiration. i love etsy! the idea of a collaborative place of so much creativity and hard work is exciting to me. here are some things catching my eye:

the green cow dress by bayan hippo first seen here.
when i wondered aloud about where that fantastic fabric was from my daughter said, "oh, can't we just buy it?"
alright...point taken.




rosie's bears and bitty creatures has the cutest little amigurumi dolls. you can buy either the pattern or the doll. and for just $10 you can customize the doll to your standards. i ordered 2 kitties this week! i can't wait to get them!





i love the fabric collections put together by fabricworm ! she takes all the guess work out of online fabric shopping for me by putting colors and patterns together that actually work.









a beautiful vase by cocoa marie to hold all of my fresh cut garden flowers this summer!

and lastly, the beautiful paintings by coriD . this one in particular reminds me so much of my moonpie (who rescued a baby mourning dove this weekend).

i've been thinking a lot lately (along with everyone else) about what i can do during this hard economic time in our country. what i can't do is spend a lot of money. but the money i spend, i can choose to whom it goes to. and i think the most responsible, compassionate thing i can do in a time like this is support individuals. how we spend our money speaks volumes about what we care about. i am deciding today to be even more proactive about supporting small businesses in my community, small farms around me, and to buy handmade whenever possible.

will you join me?

favorite book friday

children of the forest by elsa beskow is a wonderfully, gentle book, perfect for the first day of spring! we love all of her books, but right now, this is one of our very favorites!

happy spring, everyone!

where children live

art work courtesy of moonpie (our resident artist)

today was glorious! one of those days where it is great to be a kid, and even better to be a mom watching your kids revel in the beauty of it all. we played with friends, built forts out of logs, picked wildflowers and enjoyed each other. my mind likes to wander on these days, just like when i was young watching clouds roll by, telling a story only i could hear.

where children live

homes where children live exude a pleasant rumpledness,
like a bed made by a child, or a yard littered with balloons.

to be a child again one would need to shed details
till the heart found itself dressed in the coat with a hood.
now the heart has taken on gloves and mufflers,
the heart never goes outside to find something to "do".
and the house takes on a new face, dignified.
no lost shoes blooming under bushes.
no chipped trucks in the drive.
grown-ups like swings, leafy plants, slow-motion back and forth.
while the yard of a child is strewn with the corpses
of bottle-rockets and whistles,
anything whizzing and spectacular, brilliantly short-lived.

trees in children's yards speak in clearer tongues.
ants have more hope. squirrels dance as well as hide.
the fence has a reason to b there, so children can go in and out.
even when the children are at school, the yards glow
with the leftovers of their affection,
the roots of the tiniest grasses curl toward one another
like secret smiles.

naomi shihab nye

on the road again

so i've been making granola for my (one) customer and i thought of something i wanted to share with you. it's the story of my health journey.

when i think back on my childhood one of the first things that pops into my head is 'stomach ache'. i was chronically sick to my stomach. really all the way up until my mid-twenties. i was teaching full time and also busy serving the teenagers in my church and community. but it came to a point where the stomach aches began to be debilitating. after work i'd come home and lay on the couch. i was sick, i was tired, and i was sad. i was sad that i couldn't be the kind of wife i wanted to be, the kind of friend i wanted to be, and i wanted to be a mommy. but i didn't want to be a sick mommy. so i began praying about my health. really praying. like prostrate on the floor praying. during this time of asking for wisdom, a random woman at my church came up to me and said 'god's been talking to me about you. i think you need to lay off of the dairy.' umm, excuse me random woman? that's crazy talk! i've read my food pyramid!

well, i continued praying, and obviously, ignoring the answers coming to me. i finally had to go in for testing. after a colonoscopy and blood work i was told that i was normal. there was nothing wrong with me. but based on my complaints they prescribed me meds for IBS. that didn't make sense to me. so i didn't take the meds. i eventually got pregnant, and because of that, tried to eat healthier. i stopped drinking soda. i ate -less- fast food. and i began feeling better. actually, the second and third trimester of my pregnancy i felt better than i ever had. and after moonpie was born she began having digestive problems. my pediatrician advised me to lay off the dairy. hmm...i'd heard that before. but being wiser (after all, i WAS a mom now: ) ) i listened. and within a week of cutting out dairy i felt great! and so did moonpie! it was right around then that god put a new friend in my life. she became my health mentor. i was (and still am) so thankful for this woman. she is wise and lives her convictions. i needed this kind of woman in my life so badly. kicking the dairy was hard for me. but i'm so thick headed that once i choose to do something, there's no turning back! this got me thinking though, could my health REALLY be so linked to my diet? i mean, COME ON!!! how can it be that easy? so i started reading. and reading. and praying. and praying. one very memorable day was when i was sooooo frustrated with all the information and mis-information i was coming across. what was the right way? i went to god in prayer and through my tears and turmoil he showed me this bible passage in daniel, chapter one:

8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your [c] food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you."
11 Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 "Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see." 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
17 To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

so at first i thought, 'yes lord! i will be a vegetarian! thank you for your very literal and black and white answer!' but then he told me to look at it again, and again, and again. after a week of praying on this scripture what i felt him telling me was that it wasn't about the food. it was about my motives and the spiritual application. he showed me that yes, i should abstain from the 'rich foods of the king', but for me it was more about the spiritual discipline that needed to be sowed within me. i needed discipline, i needed to learn how to deny myself. the next day (after about a week of praying on this) i went back to him and asked for specifics. now that i understood my motive wasn't my health, it was my relationship with him, he gave them to me. i was to abstain from processed foods, refined foods and dairy (at this time i had never heard of raw dairy...more to come on that). i was only to eat REAL food, and he was very specific that i needed organic produce. but to be honest, we couldn't afford organic produce. again, it wasn't really about the produce, it was about trusting and being obedient. so i prayed about our financial situation and the fact that i couldn't afford to buy organic produce. the very next day (no exaggeration here) the new friend i mentioned before called me up. she told me that she was a part of an organic produce co-op and she felt god was telling her to buy my family organic produce every month! i was beside myself with excitement. i told her about my prayer the day before, and we both were overjoyed! so she was faithful. for 1 1/2 years she bought my family organic produce every 2 weeks. i'll never forget the first shipment. i had never even dreamed of eating that much produce in a 2 week period. i called her and said 'umm...i think you forgot to take your produce out of my box.' she cracked up and told me, no, it was all for me. and i needed to strive to eat it all!

so those were the beginning stages. and at every stage god was faithful to provide the money we needed to afford the food we needed to be eating. sure, it called for some sacrifice on our part. we cut cable, we went down to one cell phone, even one car. we moved out of our house and into our friend's 700 square foot guest house...but what fantastic spiritual truths we obtained! the truths of self-denial, of discipline, of living simply...it was such a rich time in our lives.

after about 4 1/2 years of eating 65-85% raw with very little meat, my health began to plateau. i was tired and shaky feeling. all the time. that started about 1 1/2 years ago. so i've been back on my knees. asking god for guidance here. i feel like i'm back on the road again- looking for direction from my god and he is delivering. of course he is. the information he is leading me to is not in contradiction to what he taught me 6 years ago. see, i really needed to go almost full fledged vegetarian. my body was at so much dis-ease that i needed a true purification time. but right now i feel my body is ready to handle what is described as a 'traditional' diet. one with more fat and protein than i was before eating, but still loaded with fruit and veggies. mainly my beloved green leafies! i know so much more now about enzymes, maintaining a healthy gut flora, and about continuing to stay away from franken-foods and anything processed.

so for me, in my health journey, it really hasn't been about my health at all. i mean, that has been a fantastic benefit! but i've never been out to be skinny or whatever- it's all been about the spiritual truths that could be obtained from this one, seemingly simple, area of my life. those truths have been self-discipline (i'm constantly having to think ahead about food i need to prepare and carry with me if we go out), self-denial (walk past that do-nut table, you can do it!), and obedience. it's about not deceiving myself into thinking that food isn't really a spritual issue.

because really, it's all spiritual.

chewing the fat

a couple of weeks ago i was speaking to a friend of mine that is a fellow birth junkie. she was telling me about a conversation that she had with her midwife. the midwife was saying that over the past few months she had a rash of pre-term (3-5 weeks early) deliveries. the one common factor between all moms was that they were eating vegetarian/vegan or generally low-fat/low protein diets. this got my mind working and i began to wonder if my own problems with fertility could be because i eat a diet that is rich in veggies and fruit but low in fats and protein. i had my protein levels checked about one month ago and it confirmed that my body was low in protein. then i began craving fats like a crazy lady! knowing my body, and my dietary limits (little to no processed foods, cook from scratch, eat locally, high volume of raw veg and fruit, etc.) i decided to increase my whole milk yogurt intake as well as my raw whole milk intake. i've also increased my meat consumption (i was only eating chicken about once a week). i've been doing this just over the past week, and i feel great! i have higher energy levels, i'm sleeping better at night, i don't get the weak/shaky feelings that i was getting over the past year. i'm going to keep it up and see where it leads me.
i've been doing lots of reading this week over healthy fats. it is really interesting to read the history of fat in our nation. how it has been just over the course of the past few generations that our view of fat has been greatly shifted. the bottom line is that WE NEED FAT! whether we are trying to conceive or not, we need fat. alright, don't get excited and bust out your krispy kreme donut membership card. that's not the kinds of fat i'm talking about. what i'm talking about is fat from animals, tropical oils and fruit oils (think olive or grape seed). it is important that each of these is consumed in the purest form available: animals that are pasture raised only (some creepy stuff happens to the composition of the meat when it comes from an animal that is grain fed- or fed m&m's), virgin, unrefined coconut oil is the best form you can consume, and cold pressed olive oil and grapeseed oil. i'm going to blog more specifically over oils in the coming days.
if you would like to research this topic some really great information can be found in the good fat cookbook by fran mccullough, eat fat lose fat and nourishing traditions both by sally fallon, and the maker's diet by jordan rubin.

here are some things to think about. fran mccullough states in the good fat cookbook that "your hormones, which control every cell in your body, don't work properly without adequate fat". in eat fat, lose fat sally fallon notes "your body needs cholesterol to make all the sex hormones, including androgen, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and dhea". healthy fat? healthy cholesterol? aren't these the two evils that have led to so much sickness? there is so much research that presents otherwise. and it seems confusing, but really, it's not. there is nothing confusing about this: YOU SHOULD ONLY EAT REAL FOOD!!! if you can't pronounce the ingredients, don't buy it. better yet, if you want a 'processed' food, make it yourself! if you want to eat meat, make sure it's pasture raised. if you want eggs, find someone who raises chickens near you (even in the city!). if you consume dairy, make sure it's raw and comes from a trusted source. and always eat animal products closest to what nature intended. what i mean by that is in its full fat form. when you want a snack, choose some raw fruit or veg. if you cook your veggies, steam them or cook them in coconut oil, grapeseed oil or butter.

i know this post is all over the place! there's a lot of info in my head waiting to pop out! i'm going to post in smaller increments coming up, but this is the nutshell version- research from cultures world wide and on my previous post show that fat is essential to reproduction.

(btw: it is possible to thrive as a vegan, you just have to be sure to eat LOTS of coconut to get the good saturated fat needed to process and use your essential fatty acids).

i need your help

so i've been doing some thinking...
and i need your help.
i'm researching links between infertility (in otherwise healthy women) and lowfat/low protein diets.
i'll post more about the conception of the idea later, but i want to hear from you and your friends. i'm not exactly publishing this in a science journal or anything, but if we can help ourselves and our sisters, i think it's worth it. so please, pose this question on your blog as well and let's see where the answers lead us.

the question(s):

have you had trouble conceiving, or had miscarriages, at any time in your life? what was (is) your diet like during this time?
if you have had no problem conceiving, please tell us what your diet typically consists of (lots of veggies, only raw food, no red meat, lots of red meat, only doritos!). if you have had trouble conceiving, again, what does your diet typically consist of?

that's it.
and please,
let me say that i'm not trying to over simplify this very tender issue.