7 days to better health

tip #3

unplug your air

aerosol air fresheners and the plug in variety have been found to be neurotoxins. neurotoxins are chemicals that adversely affect the nervous system and brain. not only are these products neurotoxins, but they can also be classified as carcinogens (cancer causing).

i have been in the homes of so many friends that use the plug in air fresheners and coincidentally have children with chronic runny noses. the immediate signs of a sensitivity to these air fresheners are:

runny noses

headaches

respiratory problems (as the chemicals are taken directly into the lungs)

the long term affects include:

behavioral changes

memory loss

emotional disturbances

brain damage that can precede dementia

linked to alzheimer syndrome

small doses of neurotoxins, like an aerosol air freshener used occasionally, is less harmful to adults, but can be very harmful to children. they have been found to alter a child's nervous system development. yikes!

this is an easy fix. even if you like your house smelling flowery, you can achieve this in a more natural way! i have an aura cacia plug in diffuser that diffuses essential oil into the air. i sometimes use this if i have a fancy dinner party (like when the president is in town). the honest truth is that i rarely use my plug in air diffuser. but it works great. i just forget that i have it. i use it most when there is sickness in the house. i diffuse a combination of oils that help disinfect the air. **make sure when using a product like this, that you only use essential oils. fragrance oils also contain neurotoxins.

other easy ways to have a fresh smelling house are plants to clean the air, baking soda to absorb odors, electric air purifiers and the simple act of taking out the garbage and keeping the refrigerator clean (or in homes with 3 year old boys- keeping the toilet 'area' clean- and yes, this includes the ceiling).

now we are six

When I was One,

I had just begun.

When I was Two,

I was nearly new.

When I was Three,

I was hardly Me.

When I was Four,

I was not much more.

When I was Five,

I was just alive.

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.

So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

A.A. Milne

happy birthday my moonpie,

my treasure,

my dearest dear,

forever and ever.

the girls are back!

the hens are finally laying again! hooray!

it only took a few threats under my breath to get them back into production. well, that and sunshine.
we are only getting green right now, and 2-3 a day. that's pretty good for 3 full sized hens and one banty.

look at this super cutey! who needs a workbook when you can just sequence beautifully hued eggs???

7 days to better health

tip #2

ditch the dye

the subject of synthetic food dye has come up with several different people this week, so i thought that this was a sign to talk about it!

it is a good idea to stay away from foods with any synthetic additives in it. artificial colors are actually pretty easy to avoid, once you get used to looking in the right areas for snacks. some feel that artificial coloring is harmless, but that's just not true. i think that it is important to remember that everything we put into our bodies causes some sort of reaction- whether that reaction be positive or negative is up to what you have chosen to eat.

back to food dyes. some of the hazards of these ingredients are:

• hyperactivity in children
• learning and visual disorders
• nerve damage
• most are carcinogenic (cancer causing)- this is due to the fact that most are derived from coal tar and petrochemicals
• some contain MSG
• reproductive disorders
• developmental problems

read that list again. anyone you know having trouble conceiving? any children you know having trouble concentrating? now, i am not going to simplify the matter and say that all reproductive problems, or attention problems are due to synthetic food dyes. the truth is that most artificial ingredients found in foods lead to these problems. think how detrimental this is to our children. their poor little bodies are just trying to do what they are designed to do, but then we throw chemicals at them in their food, their bath, their drinks, their rooms...it is no wonder to me that we are encountering the health and behavioral problems that we are.

i mentioned at the beginning of this post that food dyes are easy to avoid. there are candies, sprinkles and fruit leathers on the market today that are naturally flavored and colored. i have found that pretty much everything has a natural counterpart to it these days (including pop-tarts!).

bottom line here is to try to keep artificial ingredients out of our (and our children's) bodies. be vigilant about label reading- artificial colors may pop up where you'd never expect:

• 'healthy' chips
• soda
• ***cheese (ever wonder how cheese can be orange when it comes from white milk?)
• juice
• 'fruit' snacks
• medicine

one of the advantages of eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables is no labels to read- time saved at the market!

what do you think? in the next seven days can you begin to target and ditch the dye in your food?

i think you can.

for more on food dyes, check here or here.

______________________________________________________

***edit: check the comment section for more info on the coloring of cheese.

favorite book friday

i found this cookbook, the harvest eating by keith snow, in our library this week. i like how the book begins with his story- starting from his early love of food, working in million dollar restaurants, and then developing an auto-immune disease. that, coupled with the birth of his first child, led to his current passion- eating seasonally and locally.

this cookbook differs from other seasonal cookbooks i've read in that it is not organized seasonally, but more like a typical cookbook (example: all the soups are together). i prefer the seasonal grouping, but that is just a personal preference.

the recipes here (and there are over 200 of them!) are pretty basic- which i love! it really seems like a work out of a whole foods kitchen in any home. when cooking with whole, seasonal foods, you become creative- and that shows up here.

one of my favorite aspects of this book is the 'cookonomics' section in the back. it is here that all the basics are spelled out. and some not so basics, like how to make creme fraiche.

what comes across most in this book, is that this is a man that is passionate about good food (righteous food, as my friend brad calls it). and he desires to pass that passion and all of his wisdom onto us. i love that.

for more information on what keith snow is up to check out his website harvesteating.com. this will also give you lots of yummy recipes to try out.

and if you're stumped on finding local food- check out www.localharvest.org.

grey

last week i went to my mom's for a couple of days (that turned into a 6 day ordeal- think 'gilligan's island'). before leaving, john told me to choose the new paint color for the living room so he could do it while i was gone. i kept putting it off, because as i told him, "grey is grey- what's so hard about that?" aargh! that was the kiss of death. i ran in, chose a color, filled 3 gallons of very expensive no-VOC paint, and handed it off. and being the kind of man he is, he finished it. and had everything back the way we left it. upon walking in, i couldn't believe it. my grey living room and dining room were...blue. gulp. very diplomatically {{{wink}}} i told him that we were going to have to do it all over. that this was not grey. and he, being the kind of man he is, said 'ok'.

so we tried another color, this time in a sample size (yes, i learned my lesson), and it was- purple.

so here is what i've learned.

• grey is not 'just grey'. sometimes it's blue, lavender, sage, or taupe.
• always buy a sample first!
• make your friends come over and look at it as you cry about how awful the color is

today i go back to get yet another sample can. this time with sage undertones. we'll see what happens.

any grey suggestions??? that actually look grey? i need actual sherwin william's numbers here, people!

psst...

photo from home sweet farm

if you live in texas, the time for planting potatoes is mid january - mid february. so get on it, people!

if you need a source for fantastic potatoes please check out my friend's farm.

if you want some tips on growing potatoes in straw, please check here. (this article is ad heavy, but informative)

looks like i know what i'll be doing this weekend- and i can't wait!

treasures

over christmas, my second cousin and her husband came down from north carolina to spend time with us. it was her first christmas without her mom, and our first without our aunt margie. aunt margie was my great-aunt, but felt more like a grandmother to me. she was a link to our family history and was eager to relay that history whenever asked.
my cousin brought a car load of little treasures from my aunt's home for us to choose from and i'm so grateful she did. i love having these little bits from aunt margie sprinkled throughout our home.

this carrying case belonged to my great-grandmother, nanny. her luggage tag is still attached.

7 days to better health

there is no better way to begin a new year than by taking better care of ourselves, am i right? when i get the chance to talk to people about health matters, what comes up more than anything else is that the desire is there, but the 'doing it' seems confusing. there is so much information to be found about 'healthy' living, that most people walk away feeling overwhelmed and needing a bit of help.

i've decided to dedicate mondays on the blog to '7 days to better health'. it will offer one simple tip and then give you 7 days to put it into practice before being hit with another one.

the key word here is 'simple'. i don't want to make anyone feel overwhelmed or bad. that is not healthy living, friends!

please also know that i am not a university educated health care professional. i'm a woman that takes matters of health seriously and therefore does LOTS of reading and research. i just want to pass on what i've learned and have been practicing for the past 7-ish years.

7 days to better health

tip #1

cut the white pasta

there has never been an easier time to cut white pasta out of your diet. make the simple change to pick up a whole wheat option over the white, and soon that change will become habit.

my friend jenny always says that 'your home is your haven', you are able to do what is best within your walls. but let's say you are out, or at a friend's house, and the option is white pasta. if you choose to eat it, it's not the end of the world. the real world sometimes dictates what we will eat. any time i know i will be eating out of my home, i try to load up on raw veggies and healthy foods before i go out.

let's say i were going to an italian restaurant for dinner. i would try to eat fiber rich and nutrient dense foods throughout the day, and then have a fresh salad with a little olive oil on it along with my white flour pasta. that would help with the digestion and nutrient absorption that the white flour would, on its own, inhibit.

** i have to also add (because i'm just that way) that eating white flour while out and about should really be a 'once in a while' and not a daily (or even weekly) occurrence.**

if you want to know the 'why' behind avoiding white flour in general, here is a short, yet accurate article. i can't vouch for the source, but the information is spot on.

so that's it. easy enough to say, and truly, pretty easy to put into practice!

favorite book friday

don't call it a comeback! i'm bringing back one of my favorite series from last year- favorite book friday!

last year i bought the kids the little animal series from thornton burgess. they did not like them one bit. while at a friend's house recently, i noticed that she was reading the adventures of reddy fox to her daughters. i decided then and there that i was going to give it another go, and i'm so glad i did! my kids love this book! in our first sitting, we read 28 pages. out of those 28 pages only there was only one picture. the story is just that good. it reads quickly, has fantastic character development, and each chapter ends in a bit of a cliff hanger.

such wonderful little books!

hugs

thank you so much for all of the kindness you have shown here lately. i cannot tell you how much your words, your thoughts, your prayers, mean to us. if i could wrap each of you in a big hug right now, i would.

i think we are doing well. there are hard moments and sadness still, but overall, peace resides. peace in the knowledge that we are deeply loved and cared for, and being held near the heart of god during this time.

yesterday turned into a hard day. i couldn't shake this melancholy feeling all day, and then while i was cleaning out the art nook, i came across a basket of baby announcements moonpie had made. there must be 20 in there at least. each one has a little baby cradled by the moon and reads "u babe is kumen to taln" (a baby is coming to town). that sweet big sissy. i sat on the couch next to john and cried. oh the lessons of hope and loss, and then back to hope. what a difficult path. i think the hardest part for me has been to allow the sadness to move in and take over for a minute. to just sit and work through the sad. that is important, yet something i resist. this morning the thought popped into my head "i wonder what color her eyes would have been". and instead of pushing the thought out and moving onto dinner plans or school plans, i just sat and thought about it for a minute, cried a little, and then moved on. and it was good. acknowledging the grief feels like honoring the baby, and myself. honoring the fact that i can survive this. that i can be sad, yet joyful at the same time. that i can continue to have hope that a fourth babe will come along one day.

thank you for the love you have passed on-

here it is

back to you

-mandi