Bye Davy Jones, thanks for the memories!

Davy Jones (Dec. 30, 1945- Feb. 29, 2012)

I was infatuated with the Monkees when I was a little girl. My best friend and I would pretend we were them and man, could I play a mean tamborine. I used to wish they'd come to my hometown for a concert. Not that I was old enough to go! I remember babysitting for my neighbors when they actually did come and they attended. One of the first albums I ever bought with my own money was a Monkees album! They are silly and the songs are very sappy, but they still bring a smile to my face when I hear them today-- "Last Train to Clarksville", "Hey, hey we're the Monkees", "Gonna Buy Me a Dog", "I'm A Believer" and of course Davy's lead on "Daydream Believer"... there's too many to list! When I heard that he had passed away today, at only age 66, it did give me a lump in my throat because that was a big part of my childhood-- the music, the tv show reruns on at 4:00pm, and my first crushes. I still have their music on my ipod!! I guess that's life and we'll just have these fun memories to look back on.

say goodbye to winter

from maine magazine

Call me crazy, but I didn't get enough of winter this year! We hardly had anything. It was *warm*. blah. And it seems spring is starting to happen. Normally one would think there would be excitement to that, but around here in PA we're just talking a lot of rain and mud. Not my favorite season. I love the spring bulbs but that doesn't make up for the weather. Someday I'm going to do that (above)! Ski from hut to hut and take in the beautiful Maine countryside. If you've never cross-country skied, then you don't realize how warm you get when you do it. Open your jacket kind of hot. I am also not fond of 90+ degree weather... I turn into a slug, so please give me a little more time to be cool!!!

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Let's help feed some kids!

first world problems (?)

I saw this today and I had to share it... it is funny to a point. BUT then you think about the real point and it's that many people around the world do have real problems: hunger, loss of home, war, terrorism, cancer and illness... the list goes on:



So the next time you feel like complaining on Facebook (or anyplace else) that you hate the autocorrect on your smart phone, please don't share it with me (or anything else like it for that matter)!!

[Sponsor a child today!  My sponsor child lives amongst the city's trash and is thankful for her school, some simple art supplies, and a meal everyday. If I ever feel like complaining, I think of her.]

What's in your bathroom drawer?

EWG's Skin Deep Data Base

I've been thinking a lot more about this as I study homeopathy. We assume a tiny bit of something won't hurt us but in medicine, this has been proven to be wrong. I want to share more about alternative ways to heal with you, but I thought this would provoke some thought as to what we are doing today. I am definitely a girl who likes to play with cosmetics (even though you might not guess that about me) but I also have tried to minimize what I use because of the above. And Caroline celebrates her natural beauty by not using any of them, of which I'm very proud! It's impossible to avoid all exposure to chemicals and toxicity. That's why it's important to have a healthy body so the immune system can protect you from an imbalance and those imbalances are what lead to disease. I guess it might be time to give up my toxic hairspray! ;P

Netanel Driablate

Craig and I attended the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra's Concert last evening and they did a range of the classics (Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Mozart) as well as had a guest conductor/composer George Tsontakis conduct his piece "Laconika" which he described as "postcards" of music.

The real standout was the violin soloist Netanel Draiblate who played Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, op. 64. He was completely amazing and we were trying to figure out if he's even out of his twenties yet! Remember his name because this young man will probably be among the best. He's already studied and played with the best! I found a YouTube video of him playing Mendelssohn (He's on the left). Unfortunately he's seated so you can't see the amount of expression and genius he puts into his piece. After a standing ovation, he came back and played a small piece for an encore which was equally amazing. I have never enjoyed a symphonic concert as much as I did last evening! I only wish our generation would appreciate symphonic music because it's so moving, so beautiful and so inspiring of human potential.

a long winter weekend trip

Cross-country skiing at Sunday River

You haven't heard much from me for a week because we just took a mini-vacation up to Maine for the winter school holiday!  I regret that I took NO photos... I just don't think about it, especially when it's so cold out. Actually Maine has had a pretty warm winter like the rest of the States this year. We stayed in Freeport at the Applewood Inn where we could also take Elle. It was right next to the LL Bean store and close to their Outdoor Activity Center where we went Snow-shoeing on Friday night with a small group and two guides. We wore headlights and trekked out onto the snowy fields and through the pine woods. We turned off our lights and it was completely silent but the little light of the moon let us see across the field. We looked for stars and took in the beautiful surroundings. I am definitely doing that again!

On Saturday we drove a couple hours inland to Sunday River Mountain where we took cross-country skiing lessons and then went out on their beautiful trails. We all loved it and it was great to see the kids enjoying being outside in the winter and having fun learning a new sport. I love sports that don't require teams or scores, but that challenge you and that you can do the rest of your life. This is something I want to give the kids so that they can have these skills and memories when they are adults. I loved it as a kid and though I don't play basketball anymore on a team, I can cross-country ski and do snow-shoeing whenever there's snow on the ground!

On Sunday we drove North to Camden, Maine and ate some yummy chowder at Cappy's Chowder House for lunch. Then we drove around and saw the sights before going back to Freeport. We left on Monday, sorry to say good-bye to the State that we've grown to love so much. This was Craig's birthday present as we are celebrating his birthday tomorrow! So I have to get to the grocery so I can bake a cake and cook a yummy meal for him!

Review of "Radical Homemakers" by Shannon Hayes

I mentioned earlier that I was reading Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes and I wanted to tell you more about it!  The word "radical" can sometimes scare people away because it infers something big and different and even disturbing. But in this instance, it is a paradigm shift. Women of our generation and the next have jumped into the modern idea of obtaining college degrees, careers and consumer lifestyles... all while trying to be the nurturers and homemakers like our grandmother's generation. Women's Rights was such a strong movement during my mother's twenties and thirties. But where did that get us?  I think our generation struggles daily with balance in life and especially with the idea of doing the right thing. That right thing is different for everyone, but this book really made me contemplate what my goals are in my life. I decided to stay home with my kids to be here all the time to raise them. I did take part-time jobs here and there, especially if I could do them while the kids were at school or at home. I know my limits of how much I can juggle and still do a good job. But the biggest eye-opening idea of this book was that I still feel that I have to meet a certain "standard of living" and that we should have a certain income to be "successful" instead of taking into account what we really "need" and not just "want". What if I tried to stop spending and started to make everything I could? That was my dream in college-- to make anything and everything I could by hand. I know we don't have time to do it all, but I think that's what attracted most of us to these craft blogs-- the idea that we could make some of it. I also think that this book is correct in pointing out that we need community-- if we are to turn from constant consumerism, then we need to rely on the help and expertise of other friends and family to meet our needs, as well as helping them. I love this idea. I tend to be very independent and I have been since I was twelve years old but I think interdependence is something I need to grow into.

The first half of the book is a very interesting look at how the role of women has changed over the decades and it's maybe not what you think. The second half is a collection of stories about people-- some families, some couples, some single people-- who have traded fast-track careers to stay at home and create a life that is based on really living. This could include growing their own food, trading work for friends in exchange for neccessities, relying on the land and their neighbors instead of the local Walmart. Some people are more radical than others, as some still went to work every day in regular jobs while others didn't really have anything to their name but some clothes and their skills. But all of them were living a life that they chose on purpose, with purpose.

I really think that anyone who reads this book will find something inspiring or thought-provoking to take from it. I know personally that it has propelled me into being more serious about my little garden, and to start planning a future that includes having my own chickens, learning homeopathy, sewing more clothes, and downsizing to a home that is just big enough instead of too big... and most importantly, becoming a part of a community where I can be more helpful and money doesn't seem to be quite as necessary as it is today. I'd love to hear what you think about this, especially if you read the book!

♥ This is really good!...

Excerpted from All There Is

Leroy A. Morgan, 85

Remembers his late wife, Vivian

“My wife and I were in Philadelphia, and we saw a sign that said SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE. I will never forget it: It had six points to always say to your wife or husband and the first one was YOU LOOK GREAT. The second one was CAN I HELP? The third one was: LET’S EAT OUT. The fourth one was I WAS WRONG. And the fifth one was I AM SORRY. But the last and most important one was I LOVE YOU. That was it. There were six statements, and it said if you follow that, you’ll have a successful marriage. So we followed it, and we did have a successful marriage.

“It lasted fifty-three years, two months, and five days. It’s been rough, but every morning when I wake up she’s included in my prayers and I talk to her every night when I go to bed. She was something. One thing: If they ever let me in those pearly gates, I’m going to walk all over God’s heaven until I find that girl. And the first thing I’m going to do is ask her if she would marry me, and do it all over again.”

6 Phrases to Use for a Successful Relationship

1. You Look Great.

2. Can I Help?

3. Let’s Eat Out.

4. I Was Wrong.

5. I Am Sorry.

6. I LOVE YOU.

   
   
   Read the whole article here!
   
   

oh Ryan Gosling...

First there was Handmade Ryan Gosling on Twitter. Now there is Real Food Ryan Gosling on Tumblr! I am CRACKING.UP!  Of course because I think maybe I sound like this and hey, Ryan Gosling makes it sexy. My kids also think I'm "up there in the top 10% of Moms" since I know what a meme is. (If you have teens, then you probably know that it's a picture or saying on a theme, and people add their own twists to it.) There... now you're in the top 10% too! :P Enjoy this meme!
Hope you're having a good Valentine's Day!  ♥♥♥♥♥ Hey girl, that cod liver oil makes your heart so fine!

wisdom

"You shouldn't do something just for the sake of doing it. It ought to be meaningful, beautiful, intelligent or genuine." 

 ~ Joette Calabrese 

time for the love bug...

Yes, it's that time of year again when I have to come up with something for the loves of my life!  (As much as I am a love bug, this is my least favorite holiday. I don't know why-- it's the holiday where chocolate abounds!!)

I've wanted to do a few posts and hopefully I will if I get a chance--

:: I'm almost finished with Radical Homemakers - awesome book!

:: Cure Tooth Decay is a radical way of understanding how our teeth remineralize from the inside out, not the outside in! And flouride, especially in your drinking water, is bad. This is based on the studies by Weston Price who was the first ADA President. Indigenous tribes with excellent nutrition and who never brushed their teeth, had straight cavity-free teeth!

:: I've been busy making fermented mayo, ketchup, sauerkraut (again) and Kefir Juice. So yummy and all so full of good probiotics! Who knew mayo could be so healthy and delicious??

:: They played teaser episodes for the new Sherlock Holmes on Masterpiece Mystery with Benedict Cumberbatch. The whole family loved it and can't wait until May 6 when it starts! They take the classic stories and film it in the 21st century settings-- brilliant!  In the meantime, Caroline and I are in love with Downton Abbey!

:: I cured my burnt finger last night with a homeopathic remedy. Homeopathy is my newest passion and I'm considering actually studying it as a practitioner (or doctor). All of this nutrition and natural healing is fascinating to me! Have to think longer on making that 4+ year commitment to schooling.

:: We finally got some snow yesterday... the first of 2012! We were planning on snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing this February but I don't think there's enough to actually do it. :(

That's about it (I think) for now. I've been in my Sugar Detox Class which has been a miracle and also taking my Fermentation Class which lasts for several months (this month is condiments, obviously!). It's all good and I've lost 10 lbs. that have been hanging on forever, but more importantly, I feel great. I have been doing my Pilates too (though I missed one week being sick) so it's been a slow start but I'm in love with that also... that's a lifetime thing for me too!

Hope all is well where you are!

cancer

Cancer is that dirty word and even worse disease that it seems like everyone has some sort of connection to-- whether it be a family member or a friend or just an acquaintance. It's everywhere today. This fact has had me on a search for how to keep my family healthy, and not from drugs. This is why I post so much about health issues. Because, really, my illustration and crafts are nice idle work, but my work at feeding and keeping my family well has tremendous effects on our quality of life and the lives of our future generations. In my own family we have one person who has suffered from throat and tongue cancer and has lost his tongue to it, now only able to eat with a stomach tube because swallowing is impossible and cannot talk, so there was a loss of career with it also along with a loss of lifestyle in general. One person had a brain tumor and died from radiation and chemo because it weakened him so much. One person had breast cancer and her breast was removed. One person had skin cancer and it left a scar the size of a golf ball. One dog died from tumors that spread from it's back to it's internal organs. One person had Hodgkin's Lymphoma which occurs in the lymph nodes. These are all family members of mine. This doesn't even list friends or others I know who have cancer. This is serious business.

The only way to stop this is to change the way we eat and what we use because everything we put in and on our body is either good and healing or bad and harmful. It's that simple.

Here is a link to a list by Joette Calabrese, HMC, CCH, RSHom(NA) called "Don't Get Cancer! 51 Ways to Protect Your Family; A Homeopathic, Nutritional and Common Sense Perspective". I lovingly encourage you to read it. Her website is very informative too if you're interested in Homeopathy.

One more thing: If you're scared of raw milk, as the FDA and Government have been SO good at doing, then you have to read Jen's article about the safety of raw milk compared to pasteurized milk and other foods: click here. Pasteurized milk made 12 people sick in PA last year but no news stations or papers reported it!  There is a societal bias against raw milk but those who drink it know better. Unfortunately some states made it illegal (yes, that milk that everyone's ancestors drank! It's a wonder we are all here today!!).  What I have just learned is that people's intestinal health determines who gets sick from pathogens and who doesn't. Even Louis Pasteur wrote about this in his later years. He said he made a mistake in his work on pasteurization and that it did not promote good health. He said it was not at all about the germs but about "the terrain". The terrain is where those germs land and the health of the body to expel them. And as things happen in synchronicity with me, we were watching "The Daily Show" with John Stewart and he had David Agus, a cancer physician and writer, on who wrote the book The End of Illness which just came out this year. He states this same idea that illness from inflammation, cancer, heart disease, and things like Alzheimer's, are all internal and can't be solved with a pill. It is up to us to create a healthy body through what we eat and with exercise. I hope the world will embrace this idea. It just might save us!

My love for my raw milk dairy

My story is the same as many people-- my poor health and exhaustion led me to a new diet of real foods and I wanted my children to have the milk like their Daddy had growing up on the farm. I have never been able to tolerate pasteurized/homogenized milk well and thought it was lactose intolerance, but it wasn't. We tried real raw milk and it tasted so good and made us feel good too! I had a tough time finding it as there were very few places that even sold it, which is pretty odd considering I live in the middle of dairy country! I researched it before we tried it and found out that the cows were cleaner, free of antibiotics and the hormone rGBH which now scientists are saying could promote cancer. The regulations are five times as tough on raw milk dairies and the FDA watches them closely. I knew the health benefits of drinking raw milk but I also knew that our safety was in our farmer's hands. (As it is in with any food.) This past fall we had a little health food store open in downtown Lancaster called Lemon Street Market which is completely wonderful! I find all my WAPF foods there. They were carrying raw milk from Your Family Cow and when I saw that it was from Chambersburg, it made me thrilled to support the Farmer from the area my husband grew up in!  I wanted milk from Jersey cows which have the best milk fat and taste, and cows that grazed on clean chemical free grass. Their cows do just that. And when I checked out their "FAQ" page on their website, I found out that Edwin Shank, the owner, goes above and beyond the state requirements for testing of his milk for safety. One big reason is that he and his family all drink it too! I also found out how lovely this family is-- they are people of strong faith and integrity. They are truly caring about their customers. When I signed up for emails from them, it came across in every letter. How often is it that you know the farmer who produces your food and you look up to them as examples in farming and more so, in life? I also found out that they sell eggs and poultry meat from chickens that are free to peck in the field, grass finished beef, and a number of delicious dairy products. They have a store there on the farm, but they also distribute to the whole state of Pennsylvania because the demand for their food and milk is very high. If you happen to be in this state or on the border, you can contact the Farm to find out if there's a drop-off point near you. If not, you can arrange one. I have other real foodie friends who also love their milk! I would like to see a time when people start depending on their local farmers instead of giant food corporations to provide nourishing food for their families and for farmers to be as caring and excellent as the Shank family at Your Family Cow!

What a week!

Sometimes life gets so fully busy, it makes my head spin and that has been my last two weeks! How can I even tell you everything that's kept me from my blog! It's impossible. But I'll give you the lowdown and there's a couple things I've been dying to write about and they deserve a full post.

I spent two weeks ago sick with an UTI which by the end of the week took me to the doctors and the pharmacy for antibiotics. I hate antibiotics. No, I despise them. They wipe out every bit of good gut flora that I've been working so hard to establish so I can fight any cold or flu that comes along, in addition to healing from my discovery of the gluten intolerance. So... here we go again!

Then Nathaniel came down with a terrible stomach bug which sent him to bed with high fevers and flu like symptoms (I'll leave that up to your imagination). I was by his side the whole time and the fever started Sunday and didn't start to go down until Wednesday. That's when Caroline caught what he had and another one was in bed! I was on and off the phone with the nurse line. Finally on Thursday I took him to the doctor and they ran tests (which I didn't get back until Sat.). Of course Thursday night I knew I had succumbed to it also and all three of us were basically on water, pedialyte and gaterade. Not a great way to lose weight so don't try it! Poor Craig took care of us all. 

In the meantime, while tweeting "help!", I made a new friend Jen who tried her best to give me some advice during the fever of the kids. I'd been following her tweets because we're both Traditional Foods advocates and I like how she writes. I had no idea that she lives about 2 hours away from me! And has been talking to me from California while she's there. There's a lot of flu going around everywhere here and every cashier I talked to said they had had it and the receptionists when I'd call to reschedule appointments would say they just heard from three other people who had the flu.

To make a very long story short, Jen and I both get our raw milk from the same dairy and that farm was accused of having caused the stomach bug. We couldn't believe that because we had drank two gallons of the milk and the only one who was sick was Nathaniel and his friend had gone home sick with the flu the day before he got sick! 

That's when I found out the sordid world of the Health Dept. and the news media. The Farm sent out compassionate letters to it's customers saying that two different testings of their milk (and they do them regularly) showed it to be 100% free of any pathogens. BUT the Health Department found three different families with this stomach bug who all drink raw milk, so they immediately draw the conclusion that it must be the source. Then they tested the milk from the families. All of it showed up as 100% free of any pathogens again. In the meantime, the small local newspaper had a reporter who decided to print the article that the raw milk of this farm was definitely linked to 6 cases of campylobacter! And it continued up to 20. The Health Dept. and the Dept. of Ag never stated that nor had production of the milk stopped. Farmer Edwin decided to hold off on production until all testing was completed just to be sure. He has gone above and beyond to make sure everything is safe. (Which by the way, his whole extended family drinks the milk and no one had gotten sick and many, many other customers were fine too.) The big problem here is that the little rinky dink article hit the main newswire and suddenly papers in Philly, Baltimore, and beyond were stating that there was definitely a link! That's when Jen and I stepped in and I left as many comments on each of their blogs stating that the paper misprinted the facts-- all tests were negative and that a link had not been established. We knew this could hurt the farm's business and that just isn't right. I also wrote the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund to ask them for help and now they are following the story. I even got emails from Bill Marler! If you don't know who he is, then do you remember the Jack in the Box scandal with the e.coli in the hamburgers? His business is going after any food poisoning and he has a website designated about how unsafe raw milk is (sheesh). Actually today Bill wrote a very flattering blog post about Edwin Shank, our farmer and that was really nice of him, and totally caught us all by surprise!

So, with all of that going on, and the kids going back to school-- one on Monday, one on Tuesday-- and me finally getting out of the house for the first time today... that's why you haven't heard from me!

I really hope your week wasn't like mine. But we all have to have those weeks to appreciate the wonderful normalcy of every day. I'm so grateful for my health. And we found out that Craig can cook a mean Roast Chicken (and make delicious broth!) himself plus all the other sides... and clean up! I was so impressed. Though it's torture to smell a roast chicken when you're lying in bed unable to eat anything! I determined that that is exactly how heaven smells. I'm looking forward to it! 

Speaking of, Obama also majorly crossed Catholics and Christians in general this past week with the mandate to fund birth control and abortions in health insurance. This was a huge shock and I am upset about this too. I had just tweeted a link to an article about how bad birth control is for the mother and future children she may have and then this! If you've not heard of Natural Family Planning, then I urge you to find out about it. I'm sorry I didn't look into it before I had children but you can bet my kids will know all about it! I would hate to be in Obama's shoes right now!

More soon!