Thoughts While Running

The Freedom we feel in the mountains

2011-12-29T19:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas Letter 2011

2011-12-29T18:27:00.000-08:00

From Nicaragua

to the top of Tumalo mountain a few days ago

we have had an amazing year. Every year seems like a better one then the last, and this one is no exception. It's been such a full year that somehow the news that we sold our home (in 5 days!) in September barely even made the list to be mentioned here!

Cory is working hard to develop and implement the engineering program at Redmond High School, as the department head. He loves the hands on classes he is teaching that inspire kids to come in during their lunch and groan when class ENDS. Julie continues to teach High school Spanish, elementary music, and piano at Central Christian School (and in our private home studio) where Cade and Bekah are 5th and 3rd graders. Both kids have found a love for soccer and are progressing nicely on the piano (and a little guitar!). My big project of the year culminated on Dec. 14th, with our elementary Christmas musical of 2 showings to a crowd of at least 700 folks that watched us sing, dance, and act out the truth that it truly is better to give than receive!

Our summer adventures began on June 20th when we hooked up the trailer and said goodbye to our home for a 10 week life on the road. It started in Zion National Park for 10 days. Then off to Nicaragua for 3 weeks. After Nica, we "convalesced" at Bryce National Park as Nica was quite exhausting. It was nice to get home to safe water, food, dry air, and our own vehicle after giving 110% for 3 weeks.

We then enjoyed a 5 week stay in Eastern California where we backpacked over 150 miles in the Sierras and camped in between trips. Nothing beats the Sierras for the O'Neills!!

Our mission trip in Nicaragua for 3 weeks was life changing, to say the least! It is our sincere prayer that we will get to return in a summer. I loved being able to connect with the locals through Spanish conversation and Bible schools I lead but it was amazing to watch all 4 of us discover our niche there. The kids played with the kids day after day as if they knew Spanish - Love knows no language! Cory and I got to spend a day fitting folks with eye glasses and never grew tired of watching faces of young and old light up when we found the right prescription and they could see for the first time! Cory also spent about 10 days working on an orphanage property installing solar panels - this was not pre planned. We heard about the orphanage, gave them a quick call, showed up and found that they had been praying for an engineer to come and help them with this project (and needed a worship leader too which Cory enjoyed doing in the evenings). Cade helped daddy a lot while Bekah and I played with the kids, led a Bible school, and helped in the kitchen.

Here's the main solar tower completed and ready to be anchored in the ground:The truth about short term mission trips is that it allows us to go to a different part of the planet and see a different face of God in the lives of those that live there. We did get to do some amazing hands on helping type projects, but the real lessons were the ones our hearts learned through the gracious people we met while there.

With all these epic trips, some of the best memories are contained in the simple essence of those moments when we deeply connect with someone -(Bullfrog lake below: another 12,000 foot lunch at an exquisite lake!) holding hands with Cade as we walk across a campground, a killer run that gets the sweat pouring, going out to coffee with a friend, a hug from a student, tea time with Bekah or a quick surprise visit from someone all weave the days together with true joy. We do feel so blessed at our full and bountiful life and for your friendship in our lives. May you have an amazing 2012, where you seize each day with joy and hope.

Love, the O'Neills
Cory, Julie, Cade, and Bekah

2012 - here we come!

2011-12-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

She packed up her potential

and all she had learned,

grabbed a cute pair of shoes

and headed out to

change a few things

The tale of 2 pianos

2011-06-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

It began with an innocent question to a student in my class about her mom. Her matter-of-fact toned reply caused the meaning of what she was saying to take a few seconds longer then it should have to register. But when it did, my heart broke, and my resolve to get to know her was made.

For Sarah had lost her mom, a year and a half earlier, at the tender age of 10, to pneumonia.

The process of developing trust with students is slow - built over weeks and months through smiles, eye contact, side hugs, and eventually, little conversation morsels. It's not like I can take her out to coffee and sit down for 4 hours and call it good - instead, it's mini-coffee like breaks throughout the year that slowly, someday, lead to a real relationship.

As the school year progressed, I could see that music sparked something within Sarah that could be seen clearly in her twinkling eyes. She worked hard in my group piano class, tryed out and was awarded solo parts in my choir, and took more then one road-trip with her dad to California to go to special acting camps.

So while that story was unfolding all school year, a mom in our same town was continuing to work through the grief of her 15 year old son who died 14 years earlier. Eric loved music and had a special talent for all forms of music, despite his deformed heart and missing lung and sickly life.

For years I have secretly wanted to upgrade my piano. It is the original piano my parents bought for me when I began piano, in a Chicago suburb, at the age of 5. My brother, David Klinkenberg and I have spent hundreds of hours practicing music around this piano. It sits in my studio now, a bit beat up, but still sounds majestic to my ears. God Had whispered to me many times when I thought about purchasing a new piano that He had one for me (and it would even be my favorite brand - Kawai) - but that I just had to wait.

Late last week the phone rang and I met Wanda, a mom who has walked the unthinkable by losing her only child through heart disease. Within 3 minutes, I knew she wanted (or thought she wanted) to give this piano away and that it belonged to her son that had died 14 years earlier. She literally wrestled back and forth with her decision to give it up and decided that it would be best if she just took lessons and used the piano...we kept talking, more her then me, but I quickly moved into counselor role as I grieved with her about her son and encouraged her to take her time in deciding. We hung up.

5 minutes later, the phone rang. It was Wanda with an announcment. She simply said, "I talked to my husband about you and we have decided to give you the piano. You are the one we have been waiting for."

A studio level, amazing quality, nearly $11,500 Kawai - and I am the one she has waited for.

So, who is the one my piano was meant for? I decided to offer it to my 30 students I teach group piano to each week. Their task - write me an essay that convinces me that you are the one who should get my childhood piano. 6 beautiful essays came in of students inspired to keep learning piano after they discovered a deep love for piano and music from taking my class all year.

But the one who stood out the most was from the quiet girl whose eyes twinkled when she talked of being in theater, singing, and music - a young girl who lost her mom way to young.

Sarah.

On Fear

2011-01-30T16:19:00.001-08:00

During our honeymoon/backpacking trip the altitude, low blood sugar and having the body altering (NEVER TAKE THIS STUFF!) birth control pill coursing through my veins all triggered an attack of grand mal seizures. In fact, without being life flown out of the wilderness, I most likely would not have lived on to tell the story.

THe details of that story, in itself, are long and show the hand of God as He whispered to us "It's OK - I know the way. You'll be OK! I know the way!"

Here's the deal - that experience left a scar within my heart that had grown into a large ugly wound of fear. I love to be out in the wilderness - or go skiing - or go running on trails - or mountain biking - but for years, the tape playing in my mind was: "Are you nuts? Do you remember what happened in 1996? What are you doing?"

Fast forward to 2009 - Stud Husband and I decided to tackle some high mountain Sierra trails - real altitude, of 12 to 14 thousand feet high mountain lakes and passes. The entire drive down and 1st day of hiking, I was literally short of breath from gripping fear that 1996 could happen again. I have kids now! We are not just a stones throw from a town in these mountains - we are deep in the wilderness. What am I doing?

But I knew, in my deepest knower, that God does not lead us through the maze of life by fear. That instead, we are to travel this life from victory to victory and ultimately, follow peace. Just because I felt fear, gripping fear at that, does not mean I was not to move forward - on the contrary, fear tends to motivate me to face the giant head on and double check that I am holding on to God's hand tightly as I go.

So one step at a time, I climbed that mountain, both literally and metaphorically - I realized that if I didn't face this head on that this fear monster would only get bigger.

:But God, I am scared!!

Child, that's OK. Do it anyway. Do it scared. But do it.

OK.

And the next day when in 1996, the first seizure hit, I was still feeling amazing, athletic, strong. We climbed up to a high mountain lake at nearly 11,000 feet altitude where I realized that this "Monster" lurking and keeping me from the joy of being there had shrunk and was really a mouse sized puny little squeaky voice that had no power over me at all. In fact, when the fullness of knowing that I was higher then I had ever been on a mountain and I was feeling better then ever was fully realized, I knew once and for all , that God had destroyed that Monster.

Check this video out. It beautifully portrays the truth that God knows the way in all of our lives! Fear is not of Him! When we remember that He Has us in the palm of His hand and He is taking us through this life we can watch all the Fear Monsters in our lives shrink down and completely disappear. We walk this life with HIM!!

Our next adventures

2011-01-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

In 2 years, for our 15^th wedding anniversary, how about we take the family on a mission trip to serve others in need as a way to celebrate being a family for 15 years...?”

- Cory, August, 2009

Dear Friends and Family,

It's hard to believe that we are on the precipice of celebrating 15 years of marriage, but we are. As a way to commemorate our 15 years together as a family, Cory dreamed, as we hiked in a high-Sierra trail in 2009, that during the summer of our 15^th year together, we'd take our entire family to Nicaragua on a mission trip. The trip is being planned through our church, Redmond Community Church for the Mustard Seed Missions, which was started by our friends Michael and Lisa Perkins over 5 years ago. http://www.themustardseedmission.org/

It is our heart's desire to give our children experiences that will immerse them in what it truly means to give, selflessly, and to recognize the need for Jesus goes beyond our political country boundaries to all people. Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America with very little infrastructure or modern conveniences. Families often have little choice but to let their young children scavenge in garbage dumps for food and their daughters to work the streets for money. Unlike in the U.S., there is not a safety net of social services that provides basic needs like food, medical care, and education to people in poverty. By joining efforts with the ongoing ministry that Michael and Lisa have established, we strive to be part of a loving movement that is breaking family cycles and changing legacies. Vocational training for women, feeding and nutritional training programs for the hundreds of people that are living in the Managua city dump, and building projects for homes in major disrepair are just a few of the things we will have the privilege of being part of. Our days there will be jam packed!

The dates of our trip are July 2 – July 10^th, 2011. We are very excited for this amazing opportunity! We hope to bring our own special touch to the team through leading worship as well as Julie's understanding of the Spanish language, that will hopefully allow her to connect with the local people at a deeper level. Our children are natural ice breakers as they easily make friends and will be a vital part of the team as they reach out and connect with Nicaraguan children in a way that only other children can do. And finally, Cory, being the talented work horse that he is, plans to put in long hours, building and repairing infrastructure.

We are humbly writing to you to ask you, first and foremost, to please keep us in your prayers over the next months and during the time we are in the country. Specific prayer requests are:

Health and safety while in Nicaragua (no malaria or dengue fever please!)
That this time of ministry would draw our family closer together and closer to God
That our time in Nicaragua would allow us rich connections with the people in Nicaragua
That God would open or close doors as He leads to pave the way for us to bring high school students and our family back to Nicaragua in future summers
That funds for the trip would be provided for

We are also writing to you to ask you to consider partnering with us financially to make this trip possible. The total cost for the trip is $5000. As I type that number, I truly feel all at once overwhelmed by it and confident that since God Has prompted our hearts to want to go that He will clear all obstacles to making that happen. To help keep track of your support, we are asking that you send any donation through our church. Address the checks to RCC and note “O'Neill Nic trip” in the memo line. Your entire donation will be tax deductible. We will send you a tax statement (and a big smiley thank you note/letter of what we did on the trip ) in time for your April 2012 taxes!

Leave a comment with your email address so I can send you a support letter and address of where to send your donations to. Thank you so much for considering joining us in this new adventure into God's Great Plan!

Santa is still coming to our house

2010-12-02T20:23:00.001-08:00

Over this issue of Santa Claus I can sense that I might be in the minority in our Christian school but our family has had fun with the idea for years. Bekah still enjoys the giggling fun of Santa. My own pastor dresses up as Santa for his kids (when they were younger anyway!). It's just fun. And fun is good! :)

We also celebrate Advent all month as well as St Nick's day where we learn about St Nick - but on Christmas morning, Santa Claus and his reindeer visit our house. I actually kinda believed in this fun little fantasy through 7th/8th grade.

As a mom now, I love that I can give to my children "in secret" as this is a Christ like model of giving that someday, my kids will be able to do for their own children. I now look back on Christmases of my youth and tearfully realize, that my parents were the sacrificial givers of those gifts I knew had to be from Santa because "there was no way they could afford it." That's Christ like love personified.

I whole heartedly agree with James Dobson's perspective on this and thought I'd send it along:

"Can Teaching Your Children about Santa Claus Interfere with Their Spiritual Beliefs Later in Life."

James Dobson: "I don't believe that those early, early fantasies really interfere with later Spiritual beliefs. I haven't seen any evidence of that, either in the life of my kids or in the lives of those I have had anything to do with. To allow a little bit of fantasy in a child's life enriches his intellectual life and I think he needs it. Children thrive on fantasy. It enriches our mental existence. Reality can be a pretty cold and hard place. I think children need the fantasy that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and other childhood mythical creatures bring.

Dr Bill Maier: Childhood fantasies can be fun and help develop a child's imagination. As long as the fantasies are not unhealthy, there is no need to "correct" your kids any earlier than necessary"

For this same commentary in audio form here is the link:

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/James_D...?bcd=2007-12-10

Harvest time!

2010-09-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

What fun it is to harvest in the fall!! We had a cool summer, so harvest is smaller, but it's filling us up with fresh, organic, delicious, life giving food!

This is just a sampling of today's picks...the tomatoes are coming on too...haven't dug up the beets or potatoes much, but they await our dinner table, sucking up the last of the nutrients.
Collard greens, lettuce, swiss chard, beets...so yummy with garlic and olive oil sauteed up to perfection,
Herbs, glorious herbs!! Basil, surrounded by oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsley, and chives.

It's all good...

2010-09-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

Had another epiphany from God today on my run....probably should credit the epiphany to the 2 hour yoga class I did with over 500 "yogis" on the Deschutes River today instead as that's where a lot of these mini thoughts started coagulating in my mind.

God is so clever in the way he gently teaches me. It's always little lessons, spread over months and months, and the final "aha" doesn't come until the exactly perfect time when it all comes flooding through my mind and finally the dots are connected. I always smile up at Heaven at this point, thanking Him for his unending patience.

At the end of last school year I had all but decided that I had given this full time teaching thing a good, honest try, and "thanks, but no thanks", I best be on my way now. However, God divinely whispered to my heart that that might not be the answer and that He'd like me to speak to a couple of fellow teachers. I obeyed, made some phone calls, did some talking and a ton of listening and knew in my heart that I was to return.

So why then, did I spend such a big chunk of the summer dreading this decision? God, where's the Peace that follows after your will? I wrestled with this all summer.

Then God placed another little angel in my life in the form of a stranger on a bus. We had just finished another major backpacking trip - one in which we needed to take a bus to the trailhead - and were on the return trip back to our vehicle - when I just shared openly with the lady next to me about my internal struggles with taking on full time teaching again. She listened attentively and then turned to me and said, "YOu are going to have the best year of your life."

Woah!! That settled hard and fast in my mind and as I pondered her spoken blessing over my life for a few days, I knew it, FINALLY, in my heart! It's a choice! It always is. God is just waiting to hand us His blessings, but we need to choose to receive them as grumbly, hard little hearts aren't capable of it. I will choose to wake up each day and grab God's hand and say, "with you God, I choose Joy.:

The final person in this string of mini lessons (we are up to 3 people already- I am a slow learner), happened today after an invigorating 2 hour yoga class on the Deschutes River, and this time it came from a sweet older man in his 70s, with gray hair, and a thick Spanish accent....and it came in Spanish. We got to chit chatting about the weather and I laughingly admitted that I am a hot weather gal, I love it hot, and am not looking forward to this next winter which is predicted to be a real snowy, cold, and wet one. I said I'd love to live somewhere hot, where coconuts grow on trees and mangos grow in my backyard.

He stopped. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, "You can't leave us. You belong here. You are supposed to be in this community right now, blessing those that you encounter, HERE. Don't push against what happens - like the winter - learn to embrace it, enjoy it. No, you can't leave us. We need you here." (keep in mind, I met this sweet man 5 minutes before he boldly lectured me)

Es la verdad!!

After all of this, I needed a good trail run on the river. I knew God needed to put this all together. And here's what He told me:

We need each other!! Every one of these conversations spoke life into me. And because these people, along the way, spoke life into me, I am now ready to spend a school year, hopefully, speaking life into my students.

As we seek God daily, He fills us up with His life and then we go out into the world and have thousands of little moments, full of hundreds of interactions with other people, and we have the chance to speak life into each of these moments, into the people all around us.

Light up the sky

2010-09-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

Summer sun has set

2010-09-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

We play hard. We do.

A 2 month road trip (5,000 miles of road gravy!)? There were some moments when I might have wanted to dilute the concentrated togetherness, when the trailer or tent seemed a bit too cozy, and when I did wish I could just drop them off to play with someone else for a change. I knew I would and sure enough I am, kicking myself for even daring to think these thoughts. In these precious few years where I am still "Mama" and the playmate of choice, I am so grateful that our lives allow for such concentrated time together. So, YES, I will go toss the football with you all afternoon after swimming with you all morning. YES!! Summer months are rather liberating for kids, I think, because the adults in their lives can say Yes more - sure we can have icecream for lunch, why not! - sure we can get up, skip chores, and bike all day, why not! - sure we can swim all morning and eat berries and honey all day - why not! It's that blessed time of year where "No, it's a school night" turns into "YES!"

We were not indoors (other than our trailer or our backpacking tents) once. But what we were doing is a lot of looking into each others eyes, holding hands, eating every single meal together - all day - laughing - a ton - swimming, running, jumping, and of course....
walking miles of trails, getting gallons of water out of pristine streams, seeing God paint the canvas above with insane colors every evening...

Courtesy of www.coryjoneillphotography.com

To get to these locations, we had to also work. Work hard. (100 trail miles for the Sprouts!!) It's that gentle tug of balance - play hard, work hard - and God smiles down. He seems closer when you are up at 11,600 feet after boulder hopping and climbing your way up, up, up for an entire day, seemingly reaching for Him. His sunsets up here inspire awe. Instant awe. The surrounding ragged 13 and 14,000 feet peaks that surround create humility. ("God you are so huge...yet you know ME and love ME!")

It's these moments and the thousands of other moments we just cherished together as a family, as a team, conquering mountains, lakes, streams, together that have filled us up, refreshed us and will send us forth this year to work hard, to bless our classrooms full of precious children, and to keep our family team thriving in His Love.
courtesy of www.coryjoneillphotography.com

Light light light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me You are with me
I I I can't deny
No I can't deny that You are right here with me
You've opened my eyes
So I can see You all around me
Light light light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me

From the Afters song, "light,light,light up the sky"

Dirty fingernails to celebrate the end of the year

2010-06-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Well my blogging friends, I have just completed my first year as a full time teacher, mom, piano teacher, wife, friend (did I have any time for that??!), performer, runner, whew!!!!

So, I celebrate by hoeing, digging, weeding, and planting. All year I felt the ups and downs that accompanies working with kids ages 6 through 18 (and the adults that surround them all). Their emotional rollercoasters, I vowed, would not become mine but as you love, pour into, nurture, weed, hoe, and water you hope that you will get to see the beautiful harvest by June.

Unfortunately, with kids, the harvest isn't completed in a neat 9 month period. Some kids I saw blossom right before my eyes as the year unfolded. I watered, nurtured, and poured into those kids with easy enthusiasm. Others seemed like the weeds of this world were choking them out and their color seemed to fade from bright green to a pale yellow, their fruit never quite had a long enough growing season to ripen.

A few weeks ago, my mind was so focused on the few that I didn't reach, didn't see change for the better, or didn't see mature that I lost focus of the bountiful harvest happening right around me. This blog tends to chronicle my "aha moments" on my runs of which I share this latest one - I spent the full 7 miles slowly moving from student to student in my room, praying over them and letting God flood my heart with a clear picture of His giftings in their lives - are they courageous, joyful, spontaneous? Are they servants, shephards, or pastors? Are the industrious, perseverant, or determined? And sure enough, each student's giftings, their fruit, became perfectly ripe in my mind's eye and I decided to spend the next class period, publicly blessing them with the fruit I discovered in them.

So today, as I plant, weed, hoe, and dig I do so knowing that my efforts will bring forth a more guaranteed result of a bountiful fall harvest that we will eat on all school year. Unlike with kids, I can see these little seeds grow. I can easily determine what to do to help them with their struggles by weeding, picking off bugs, and watering more. It's part of the restorative process my heart needs this summer to get ready for another year in the fall. I need some time to see the fruit of my labor on silent little plants, reaching towards the Sun, and growing just to nourish my family.

yes, a summer working with the more predictable will render me ready for the more slow process of nurturing kids that comes in the fall. Good thing that the start of the year is coupled with the fall harvest as it provides a beautiful daily reminder that if I tend the garden carefully, a harvest will happen.

Dear Cade

2010-04-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Since he wrote us a letter, I decided I oughta write him one. How fun it is to write love letters back and forth! Thank you Bo, from http://bostern.wordpress.com/ for your inspiration for my letter.

Dear Cade,

I look at you and see a boy who knows for sure that he is a fast runner, a good leader, a strong kicker and a smart thinker.

At nine, your only kryptonite is "perfectionism", but somehow your weakness with that seems to make everything else more charming. You love to play and love to win, but you also love to try. You give everything 110%, even though it scares the perfectionist in you to find your limits.

I love your spark, your joy, your refusal to – almost never - give up. I love that you believe in the goodness of the people around you and pray that someday you'll believe in the goodness in you. I love how your eyes twinkle when you are learning, that you crave to learn about anything and everything, including your insatiable desire to read the Bible.

But I wonder (and this is where the mom road gets a little rough)…

…who will be the first to bend your belief system? Someone will do it. Someone will make sure you understand that you aren’t that great or that fast or that kind. Someone will disregard your sparkling storytelling abilities and define you by your internal struggle to define everything in this world as black or white as you painfully learn, this is an impossible pursuit.

A boy who hasn’t been well-loved will want to become a winner by making you a loser. An insecure girl will make herself feel beautiful by convincing you that you are ugly. It will happen.

And sometimes – as crazy as it sounds – I am tempted to pave the way for the breaking. Sometimes I feel like I should prepare your heart for the sting of reality. To soften the blow of that moment when you will feel the rush of the wind, only to discover it’s someone passing you by; winning your race. I wrestle with the dueling desires to “build-you-up” and “let-you-down-easy” and so I ask for wisdom.

Wisdom that keeps me from speaking words that would define or destroy.

Wisdom that helps you learn to define yourself less in terms of black and white, because that system will only leave you believing you are less than your Creator made you to be, and more in terms of the beautiful rainbow of colors that make you YOU.

Wisdom that helps you find both your breaking and building in the arms of Jesus.

Wisdom, to hold you close and launch you freely into a world that isn’t kind, but so deeply needs someone a lot like you.

So I stand in the shadows of your indefatigable optimism and I pray that when the day comes that you discover that there are those who cannot cheer you on, no matter how much they may secretly want to; you will hold tightly to the knowledge that there are those who always will. No matter what.

We love you more than words can say,

your Mommy and Daddy, Bekah, Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Papa

Is it possible that I learn more from my kids then they do from me?

2010-04-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

My little Wildman Sprout has been leaning more towards the "wildman" then the "sprout" in his 3rd grade year. He is testing the waters, figuring out what might work in this world and finding out, the hard way, that, darn it, life is hard.

My guy is a bit too smart for his own maturity. His little body has not caught up with his brain and all this is trying to wrestle itself out, crammed in a school desk all day.

His loving teachers are constant reminders to me that, sigh, it does indeed take a village to raise a child and they are part of our village.

Instead of coming up with excuses today like, "why should I do homework when I get As in everything?" he took the advice in stride, seemingly understanding that in the real world, we all have to do things we don't want to do or even sometimes see the point of at all and that part of responsibility is sucking it up and being willing to do our best, always, even when it's the last thing we want to do.

And then he wrote us this letter (note: Character grades are given in 7 different areas with 2s and 3s being the lowest and 1s being the highest):

Dear Mommy and Daddy,
I am a new kid now. I have changed very much. I won't lie. I won't be a distraction in class. I will slow down in my work. Everything you said I will do. You will find me getting nonstop 1s on my report card. You will find As on tests. You will find the teacher saying "Cade has been wonderful." All those bad memories are gone. I have a brand new start.

What I learned from this: May I always be as teachable and willing to be molded by God as my son is.

May I: find the eternal treasure in the temporary trial.

A lot of happiness for $4.99

2010-04-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Our weekly run to Trader Joes is one of our rituals that brings happy times. Maybe it's their catchy tunes playing, or tons of food that is $1 or $2 or $3 (how many stores have so many things for sale that start with $1, $2, or $3!!)...maybe it's their yummy samples...

One thing that I can safely pin all these happy feelings on is the weekly flower bouquet I choose to adopt, bring home, and call our own. I walk into the store and just like at a puppy store, they all sit there, with innocent looks just quietly unassuming and obviously desiring to be the "chosen" one that will be plucked from their flower fellowship to be brought home to bring joy to us humans.

This week, my son picked out some lovely delicate purple flowers that now grace our table and join about 10 other potted plants that are brightening up our kitchen from our weekly TJ runs over the past months.

I look at them each day and see growth, when outside it's still grey and brown. I look at them and am reminded of the hope that Spring always brings, of new life, new color, new growth.

That's a lot of joy for $4.99.

It's the time of year too when my husband gears up for wildflower hunts and weekends are full of soccer games and sprints to fields of wildflower blooms to hike, camp, and capture on camera the latest color explosion. To catch your own wildflower brilliance wherever you live, check out the forestry service website: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/index.shtml

Somehow, the simple act of chasing wildflowers is so easily capable of reminding us of God's Glory, to be grateful for all things, and to keep our perspectives in order. Happy flower adventures to you!

For more photos like this, check out www.coryjoneillphotography.com

Filled up

2010-03-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

Simple post to say how filled up I am today -

With the joy of spending my life with such an amazing friend, gentle man, and the encourager of my soul
With my son's joy and exuberance for every thing he does, his swimming lessons he is doing with his class, his soccer practice in the evenings with his traveling team, his book reports, his family
With my daughter's creative approach to life - through cards for every one for anything, her eagerness to dance to an Uncle David song at the school talent show, how she sings and twinkles during most moments of her day
With my many jobs - from teaching my students piano to hanging out with high school students in my Spanish classroom and co-creating choreography with my elementary students during music class to touring the country with my brother doing shows

FILLED to overflowing. Our GOD is so good.

What is your heart filled with today?

Sex part 2

2010-03-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

The actual words of her lovely "Kid" appropriate book: "Do not have sex with anyone other than your husband or wife." Or another wonderful line from her new book:

It's better to marry than to wish for sex all the time.

Where did she read this? No it was not in a Playboy Magazine for kids...it was her brand new, Kids Bible for 6 to 10 year olds. The Day by Day Children's Bible. http://karynhenley.com/site_pages/Bibleprod_new.htm#anch_7minutes

She has now been asking about sex, mentioning this new word around Cade (who said he's never heard it either...what is that?) and trying to figure it out.

Obviously, we had to do some explaining. And we did. And we kept it simple. But I am appalled at this author's decision to write it that way...so obviously a verb...so poorly written. She could have written this a ton of ways like

You can only be married to one man or one woman - the original verse is about adultery anyway.

I never remember being told in Child development 101 in college to make sure we include stories about "Not having sex with anyone but your spouses" at circle time for 1st graders or to encourage them to make sure they get married someday so that they don't wish for sex all the time. It's insanity. Pure insanity.

There is a time and a place. God tells us that He will disseminate knowledge to us as adults as we can handle it...so why do we dump stuff like this on young kids? I don't care if it's in the Bible. It's not appropriate for young kids. Period. The Bible is full of stuff that is not appropriate for young kids.

I am now descending from my soap box.

I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

Don't buy the Day by Day Children's Bible. (Now I feel even better!)

Sex

2010-03-09T16:17:00.001-08:00

Thought that title might catch your eye.

So, anyone out there think this is appropriate reading for a just turned 7 year old girl? Just wondering if you ever ran across this in any kid's stories out there:

And a man should not have sex with anyone but with the person they have married....

Seeds catalog - AHHHH!!! Spring

2010-03-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

Spent an hour this afternoon, laying on the grass in the sun looking over a seeds catalog, dreaming of all the fun possibilities for this Spring and Summer garden.

It always amazes me the life that God packed into a tiny seed - that from a little seed, planted in the dirt, with God's Sun and Rain, can burst forth life giving, nutrient rich food.

Bring on the dirty nails!

Oddities while looking for a Bible

2010-02-26T18:03:00.000-08:00

My kids are 6 and just 9. They both read. My 9 year old can read any thing...highschool level is not a problem. My 6, almost 7, reads chapter books.

So, they have been begging me to read the Bible. But it is a book full of violence, sex, immorality, and rock and roll...if you know what I mean.

Does my 6 or 9 year old need to be reading about "women lusting after women and doing depravous acts with their bodies" ? etc. (Straight quote from Romans. )

Just because they can read, do they have to be reading about the horrendous violence in the Old Testament - simply because it's in "God's Word".

Today I went to the Christian Bookstore. Maybe that was my first mistake. Of course, they had cute covered Bibles for all different ages. The covers were different, but the inside was always the exact text. No editing out of "prostitutes" and "men lusting after men" or "sexual sins with their bodies"...just all the raw gorey details of the Bible.

There was a lady checking out who overheard my questions and decided to jump on her opinionated box to declare to me, "well, if your kids can read it then I feel they are ready to know about the full sinful nature of mankind. It's God's Word after all. If they can read it then they should know about it all." Blah blah blah. I sort of tuned out to the rest of her speech. I did let her know that I did not agree with her.

Truly, do non-Christian, loving parents, seeking to raise their kids morally look at the things that are taught to kids in Sunday schools at early ages about extremely violent acts in the Bible and think we are crazy? If I stopped for a moment and stepped out of my Christian bubble, I'd definitely be confused as to why we think we need to be talking to 2 year olds in Sunday school about some of the violent moments in the Old Testament like Cain killing Able or having them memorize the 10 commandments asking mommy as she changes their diaper,"What is adultery?"

Just because my daughter mastered the English language by 2, she was not ready to be sat in front of any English spoken R- rated movie. Just because they are great readers does not mean they have to be burdened down by our adult issues of sexual lust, violence, and all the rest. That's not their burden to bear yet.

I would love to hear your thoughts! I just want a truly age-appropriate Bible!!

In the meantime, I ordered this Bible for my soon to be 7 year old: http://www.karynhenley.com/site_pages/howsdiff.htm

Reason #227 for why I love working with High school kids

2010-02-07T15:55:00.000-08:00

Frankly, talking to some adults can feel a bit like talking to Eeyore. I have to step aside so the rain cloud over their heads doesn't get me wet too.

But high school kids - despite the economy, despite the date on the calendar, despite the gray skies, despite, despite, despite, still deep down, have HOPE!

For I know the Plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to give you a hope and a future...

Adults write this on a 3X5 card and tape it to their mirror in an attempt to try not to let this truth slip away from them completely while the average 15 year old just knows this is true.

They don't question it. They don't desperately beg God to not let them forget this. They just walk around knowing it, believing it, and looking forward to it. You can see it in most of their twinkling eyes that they just can't wait to see how it all will unfold.

The funnest question to ask a teenager is: "SO, what are your plans after high school?"

Try it - their eyes usually light up and their voices raise a bit, as their hopeful plans for their future unfold, reminding us all to keep dreaming as God is not done with any of us yet.

Chin up everyone

2010-01-30T18:51:00.001-08:00

I know it's gray. I know it's STILL January. ( I had to remind my husband of that today - Do you know, I told him, that it is STILL January??!)_

We haven't seen the sun in a long time. THis vitamin D deficient soul is relying on a dwindling backup supply to keep the 'ole smile.

So sometimes, I sort of force a smile - it tricks my body - my body must not be so smart as it says to itself, "Self, the face is smiling...we must be happy...let's get those happy endorphines flowing 'cause the owner is clearly smiling...."

And then, soon enough, the smile that tricked the body now has a happy body, and the happy body tells the face to keep smiling....and this is probably why January takes so long.

To read more about why this actually can and does work: http://runninggalinsights.blogspot.com/2008/11/are-you-down-try-this.html

So, CHin Up everyone. Let the words from Wilbur remind you to choose JOY!!

Chin up, chin up
Everybody love a happy face
Wear it, share it
It’ll brighten up the darkest place
Twinkle, sparkle
Let a little sunshine in
You’ll be on the right side
Looking at the bright side
Up with your chinny chin chin…

Chin up, chin up
Put a little laughter in your eyes
Brave it, save it
Even though you’re feeling otherwise
Rise up, wise up
Make a little smile begin
You’ll be happy hearted
Once you get started
Up with your chinny chin chin!

Chin down, you can't come frowning
Turn around
Start clowning
Think sad
Your troubles double
Think glad
To burst white bubbles

Chin up, chin up
Every little time your spirits wilt
Chin up, chin up
Give your attitude an upward tilt
Twinkle, sparkle
Let a little fun begin
You’ll be on the right side
Looking at the bright side
Up with you chinny chin chin
Chin up!

World's Healthiest Foods website!

2010-01-20T16:40:00.001-08:00

Check it out!

http://whfoods.org/

We are eating one of the "world's healthiest foods" tonight as I am currently baking some swiss chard in the oven (with some cabbage).

So get get some chard! I blend it into green smoothies and learned from my sweet friend in Sisters about baking it...set the temp high on your oven, smother the chard or the kale in olive oil and garlic, and bake it until it's crispy-ish. Kids love it.
Here's some more chard recipes: http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/02/recipes-for-swiss-chard-and-mushroom.html

Both the leaves and the roots of Swiss chard have been the subject of fascinating health studies. The combination of traditional nutrients, phytonutrients (particularly anthocyans), plus fiber in this food seems particularly effective in preventing digestive tract cancers. Several research studies on chard focus specifically on colon cancer, where the incidence of precancerous lesions in animals has been found to be significantly reduced following dietary intake of Swiss chard extracts or fibers. Preliminary animal research also suggests that Swiss chard may confer a protective effect on the kidneys of those with diabetes through reducing serum urea and creatinine levels.

If vegetables got grades for traditional nutrients alone, Swiss chard would be one of the vegetable valedictorians. The vitamin and mineral profile of this leafy green vegetable contains enough "excellents" to ensure its place at the head of the vegetable Dean's List. Our rating system awards Swiss chard with excellent marks for its concentrations of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron, vitamin E, and dietary fiber. Swiss chard also emerges as a very good or good source of copper, calcium, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, protein, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc, folate, biotin, niacin and pantothenic acid.

Swiss Chard contains:

1. Vitamin K - The vitamin K provided by Swiss chard-306.3% of the daily value in one cup of cooked Swiss chard-is important for maintaining bone health.

2. Vitamin A - Our food ranking system qualified Swiss chard as an excellent source of vitamin A on account of its concentrated beta-carotene content. Once inside the body, beta-carotene can be converted into vitamin A, so when you eat Swiss chard, it's like getting both these beneficial nutrients at once. One cup of Swiss chard contains just 35 calories, but provides 109.9% of the daily value for vitamin A.

Both vitamin A and beta-carotene are important vision nutrients. In a study of over 50,000 female nurses aged 45 to 67, those who consumed the highest dietary amount of vitamin A had a 39% reduced risk of developing cataracts.

Beta-carotene has also been the subject of extensive research in relationship to cancer prevention and prevention of oxygen-based damage to cells

3. Magnesium - yet another nutrient on Swiss chard's "Excellent Source" list, helps regulate nerve and muscle tone by balancing the action of calcium. In many nerve cells, magnesium serves as Nature's own calcium channel blocker, preventing calcium from rushing into the nerve cell and activating the nerve. By blocking calcium's entry, magnesium keeps our nerves (and the blood vessels and muscles they enervate) relaxed.

4. Vitamin C - Swiss chard is an excellent source of vitamin C-just one cup of this cooked vegetable supplies 52.5% of the daily value for vitamin C. Vitamin C is the primary water-soluble antioxidant in the body, disarming free radicals and preventing damage in the aqueous environment both inside and outside cells. Inside cells, a potential result of free radical damage to DNA is cancer. Especially in areas of the body where cellular turnover is especially rapid, such as the digestive system, preventing DNA mutations translates into preventing cancer. This is why a good intake of vitamin C is associated with a reduced risk of colon cancer.
An important electrolyte involved in nerve transmission and the contraction of all muscles including the heart, potassium is essential for maintaining normal blood pressure and heart function. Swiss chard can promote your cardiovascular health by being an excellent source of not only magnesium but potassium, too. A one cup serving of Swiss chard provides 27.4% of the daily value for potassium along with its aforementioned 47% of the daily value for magnesium, making Swiss chard an especially good choice to prevent high blood pressure and protect against atherosclerosis.

5. Iron - Swiss chard is an excellent source of iron, a mineral so vital to the health of the human body that it is found in every human cell.

6. Vitamin E - Swiss chard is an excellent source of vitamin E, the body's primary fat-soluble antioxidant. Vitamin E travels throughout the body neutralizing free radicals that would otherwise damage fat-containing structures and molecules, such as cell membranes, brain cells, and cholesterol. By protecting these cellular and molecular components, vitamin E has significant anti-inflammatory effects that result in the reduction of symptoms in asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, conditions where free radicals and inflammation play a big role. Vitamin E has also been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer, help decrease the severity and frequency of hot flashes in women going through menopause, and help reduce the development of diabetic complications.

7. Fiber - Swiss chard's health benefits continue with its fiber; a cup of Swiss chard provides 14.7% of the daily value for fiber, which has been shown to reduce high cholesterol levels thus helping to prevent atherosclerosis. Fiber can also help out by keeping blood sugar levels under control, so Swiss chard is an excellent vegetable for people with diabetes. Swiss chard's fiber binds to cancer-causing chemicals, keeping them away from the cells lining the colon, providing yet another line of protection from colon cancer.

8. Manganese - That same cup of Swiss chard will also provide you with 29.0% of the day's needs for manganese. This trace mineral helps produce energy from protein and carbohydrates, and is involved in the synthesis of fatty acids that are important for a healthy nervous system and in the production of cholesterol that is used by the body to produce sex hormones. Manganese is also a critical component of an important antioxidant enzyme called superoxide dismutase. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is found exclusively inside the body's mitochondria (the oxygen-based energy factories inside most of our cells) where it provides protection against damage from the free radicals produced during energy production.

9. Vitamin B6 - A cofactor in the reaction that regenerates glutathione, riboflavin help ensure adequate levels of one of the body's most important antioxidants. Among glutathione's many beneficial activities, it protects lipids like cholesterol from free radical attack. Only after it has been damaged by free radicals does cholesterol pose a threat to blood vessel walls. In addition, riboflavin is necessary for proper functioning of B6. Vitamin B6 is involved in an important cellular process called methylation at the juncture where homocysteine, a dangerous molecule that can directly damage blood vessel walls, is converted into a helpful amino acid, methionine. Without riboflavin's assistance, vitamin B6 cannot change into the active form in which it catalyzes this conversion. Once again, we can rely on Swiss chard, which supplies us with both nutrients. A cup of Swiss chard contains 8.8% of the daily value for riboflavin along with 7.5% of the daily value for vitamin B6.

10. - Mental Performance - Mental performance normally declines with age, but the results of Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) suggest that eating just 3 servings of green leafy, yellow and cruciferous vegetables each day could slow this decline by 40%, suggests a study in the journal Neurology (Morris MC, Evans DA, et al.) Compared to people who consumed less than one serving of vegetables a day, people who ate at least 2.8 servings of vegetables a day saw their rate of cognitive decline slow by roughly 40%. This decrease is equivalent to about five years of younger age, said lead author Martha Clare Morris, ScD, with Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

The History of Medicine

2010-01-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

"What causes one person to catch a cold or the flu and another to avoid it? Why, with serious outbreaks of infectious diseases, are only a certain number stricken, and of those, why do only some people die?"

This is how the new book I am reading begins. (The Immune System Cure by Lorna R Vanderhaeghe and Patrick J.D. Bouic, PH.D.)
This link will take you to a digital copy of the entire book: http://books.google.com/books?id=EDajgKKO1woC&dq=The+Immune+System+Cure+by+Lorna+R+Vanderhaeghe+and+Patrick+J.D.+Bouic,+PH.D.&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=hZZTS4b8Op2ssQOt2vD4DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=The%20Immune%20System%20Cure%20by%20Lorna%20R%20Vanderhaeghe%20and%20Patrick%20J.D.%20Bouic%2C%20PH.D.&f=false

I love it! Can't wait to see the details of this unfold, as I ask myself this question all the time.

When I started working full time this year in a school you wouldn't believe how many people's attempt to encourage me sounded something like this, "Oh boy! You are going to be so sick this year! The first year teaching in a new school - you'll catch everything."

I knew they were wrong but didn't know exactly why. Why did the Swine flu not touch us? Why does strep rip through our school each year and my kids don't get it? How can I be surrounded by kids with fevers, green snot, coughs, and everything else and remain healthy? Why has not one member in my family even had a cold this entire school year so far? We'll probably get at least one cold this year...but some years that doesn't even happen.

So, I plan to include you in this discovery - and maybe inspire us all to make healthy changes or continue doing some of the things we are already doing.

Clue #1 - could be wrapped up in how we deal with sickness. We don't medicate. We don't use antibiotics or cold medicine or antacids. If we begin to feel slightly under the weather, we use herbs, eat more organic vegetables, drink nourishing teas, and rest. Period.

Opening poem in the book:

The History of Medicine

2000 BC
Here, eat this root.

1000 BC
That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.

1805 AD
That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this portion.

1940 AD
That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.

1985 AD
That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.

2000 AD
That antibiotic doesn't work anymore. Here, eat this root....

Stay tuned for more clues as I discover them and share here.

How great thou art

2010-01-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

2010 I welcome with wide open arms!

I have very strange reaction to the New Year. It's change. And I really don't like change, of any sort. I get used to my rut and like to stay comfortable, wallowing in it's sameness. I cried every time a new term started in college (that's a lot of crying! Undergraduate and graduate years - the tears just flowed)

Why? Well, I'd get used to the schedule. I learned to like the new schedule - liked when I could squeeze my runs in, study, see friends, go hiking, have an easier day and then boom, right when I absolutely fell in love with the new routine, it was done...and the next one was upon me and darn it, it was different.

So, I usually find that Jan 1st is my least favorite day of the year. I am sad that the year I have worn like a comfortable blanket is now done. I worked so hard to do all the details of the year - b-days, holidays, vacations, - ahh the glory of a well-oiled, smoothly flowing, familiar system - and now, it's all done and I Start over????

But, this year I am actually finding I am noticing amidst my typical melancholy woes of a new year that I am excited. 2009 was so full of conversations with hurting people - economically, spiritually, emotionally, and bodily health - and what became familiar in 2009 was comments about the sad state of affairs with the economy, the housing market, the health of our nation, our government, the bleak future....

And well into the year, I did get tired of it because I like to smile more then these conversations ever allowed me to do, but unfortunately, I more often then I care to admit, fell into the negativity myself. It became the 2009 thing to do.

This year, 2010, despite the fact that probably none of these bleak conversations have been concluded in anyway, I plan to try to turn the tide, one conversation at a time. I hope to talk more about the beauty of humanity, God's creation (www.coryjoneillphotography.com), and the good to behold in each and every day.

Yes - this year I resolve to focus on How Great He Is.

How Great Thou Art (as performed by my brother David Klinkenberg and I in Molina, IL for a radio station listener appreciation concert we put on for their community):

Our family Christmas Card video

2009-12-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas video! If a picture is a thousand words, then this video is beyond!

Clips of family fun in the snow, of the major production I directed (specifically featuring the parts where my 2 kiddos had solos!), and some ballet and soccer times.

Enjoy!

My little gal singing Happy Birthday Jesus

2009-12-21T20:05:00.000-08:00

She made the 500 person crowd tear up with her sweet rendition of this song -

She is planning on touring with her Uncle David by 10. She calls him about once every other month to remind him of this fact. scroll down to see my previous post with more clips on it of the show.

Best Christmas Present Ever!

2009-12-21T19:34:00.000-08:00

A few clips from our amazing night

My sweet son is one of the Wise guys - the one in the full suit.

Santa and Jesus

2009-12-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

So as a new teacher at a Christian School, I am so focused on "ensuring that learning objectives are being met" that I have to put my sense of humor on hold...but today, it finally happened!

And those 9th graders didn't get it!

Our 12th graders (well a few of them) came into my 9th grade class to announce that Freshmen can sign up to be "Sneaky Gnomes"...same thing as Secret Santa but they can't call it that...is what they told us.

(I couldn't help but laugh out loud at that.)

To which I said, "They can't talk about Jesus, and we can't talk about Santa..."

Seniors laughed. Freshman stared.

Bring on the snow

2009-12-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

Grabbed this post from my favorite blogger - Bo Stern - she pastors at WestSide in Bend, Oregon. THis post was so well written I wanted to duplicate it here so you can read it:

Oh, Snow!
December 3, 2009 by bolovesjoe
I really like snow. I used to hate driving in it, but 15 years living in a mountain town necessitated a change in attitude. I employed a bit of the crazy-eyed if-I-perish-I-perish spirit and now it’s more of an adventure than a heart attack waiting to happen.
I’m not sure what it’s like where you live, but in my city, snow is money. Without snow, our economy – built primarily on tourism – is toast. So we embrace the falling flakes and we wrap ourselves in woolly scarves and thick gloves and – like a city filled with Snow Farmers – thank the Lord for a robust harvest.

My husband travels regularly to Orlando, Florida. Orlando’s economy depends on people like us getting sick of living where we live. It relies on our soul-deep need to sometimes enjoy a tan without goggle lines. They need us to need their sun (and let’s be honest, their giant Mouse) and we need them to need our snow.

This same concept works emotionally as well. One needs help and another needs to be needed. Most friendships in life are built on shared need. Most dating is done the same way. Often the magnet that initially pulls our hearts to other people is that they have something we feel we need…identity, funny jokes, romance, wisdom, money or one of a million other intangibles.
Marriage, however, can’t operate indefinitely on this system. Parenting doesn’t even last through the first week home from the hospital on this system. Real life and real commitment moves beyond the mad grab for what I need, when I need it. Real love sometimes means giving up what I need when I need it. And this concept runs against every grain of my self-focused little heart.

So I’m asking Jesus for a new level of loving that grows even when there’s a small chance of a good return on my investment. Do you see a theme in my life right now? Yep. The Holy Spirit is definitely challenging the way that I love. Even at Christmas, He’s challenging the way that I love and it seems like I could get it right on my own at Christmas, doesn’t it? Nope. I really need Him. I really want to be like Him. I really want to learn to love like Him.
Praying for snow,
Bo

How 120 kids, a news anchorman, dancing, singing, and the Bible relate

2009-11-30T18:36:00.000-08:00

Countdown begins...and I am antsy, jittery, and full of nervous energy.

Dec 17th is the big day - 3 months of work all displayed in a 45 minute explosive night of 1sts. The Best Christmas Gift Ever - featuring a news anchorman covering the story of a group of students planning a birthday party for Jesus.

Firsts are intimidating - you never have walked that road before so it's all new, surprising, thrilling:

120 students all on one stage
High energy choreography (with very little room to do it!)
20 actors and actresses making their acting debut
15 student soloists (sing into the mic!!! Don't move around! Sing out, I know your nervous, but sing like you are not!)
Tech crew - learning music systems, lights and cues oh my!
Singing multi-part songs

2 1/2 weeks left to finalize a million details. And I still have my daily Spanish 1, 2, and 3 classes to keep moving along.

Climbing a mountain...one move at a time

2009-11-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

My friend over at http://www.diaryof1.com/ in pondering about Never giving up hit home. As I take on this monumental task of working full time, teaching 1st through 12th graders, being a mom, a wife, a follower of God, a friend, a sister and still trying to maintain ME I too have wanted to give up, throw the towel in and walk back into my past life of getting to stay home, live on my own schedule, and be free to come and go as I wished. I miss catching planes to locations all over the US to perform with my brother, David. I miss going for a run in the middle of the day along the river banks. I miss just being out and about.

But these times, these super hard times, are really cool too. It's in these times that I find myself learning, growing, and becoming faster then I ever did when life was not so rigorous.

I get to a spot in the climb and it appears at first, impossible. I stare. I ponder options. I stare some more. I ponder more. And finally, I see a possible place to put a left foot that just might allow me to pull myself up and be in a whole new place on the rock...I try it, it's working....I slip...back to the begininning....

Stare....ponder....plan....Try again....

I slip again....

Stare...ponder...plan....Try AGAIN!

It's working! And I get my right leg to a foothold, push up a bit, allowing my left hand to grab a great hold and pull up and suddenly, I am moving into a brand new position, a brand new plateau, a brand new perspective.

The last spot that had me stuck is now figured out, it's now a part of my tricks, adds to my confidence. I get to enjoy the peace that comes when I make it past a sticky spot, but only for a moment.

It's time to take what I learned and think through how to make it past the next spot. And so it goes, one maneuver at a time, all the way to the top.

Gaining perspective one move at a time.

Which won't come if I give up.

And oh view , the sweet view from the top, a little taste of God's perspective on the little planet we wander around on.

I will lift my eyes, to the maker of these Mountains I am climbing!

Kale chips recipe

2009-11-19T20:33:00.000-08:00

This recipe is one of the many amazing creations you can find in

the new e-book Nuts Over Nuts! which contains 50 raw vegetarian recipes created by V

anessa Nowitzky (student of Victoria Boutenko).

KALE CHIPS Recipe

These chips are so fabulous you will never need regular chips again. Dried kale is surprisingly filling-- these nutritious and rich chips are a meal unto themselves.

Each of the following recipes uses about 1 head of green kale. Ruffles have ridges- therefore curly kale holds the flavor best. Wash the leaves well; do not use a leaf if it has those little bugs that like to stick to the backs of the leaves. Don't use the woody stems. Tear large bite-sized pieces of the leaves into a large bowl and pour a sauce (recipes below) over the kale, massaging with your fingers until the kale is thoroughly saturated.

Spread saturated kale pieces onto dehydrator trays with teflon sheets and dehydrate at 105° for 12- 15 hours. The leaves shrink and should emerge crispy.

No dip needed for these chips, but a side of cherry tomatoes or sliced cucumbers helps wet the whistle.

Hummus Kale Chips
Light and lemony. • ½ cup sprouted pumpkin seeds • optional: ¼ cup sprouted sesame seeds • 1 clove garlic • 2 stalks green onion • 2 stalks celery • juice of one lemon • ½- 1 teaspoon cumin • ½- 1 teaspoon cayenne. Grind seeds well in coffee grinder. Chop all other ingredients and blend together in food processor. Follow directions (above).

Sesame Kale Chips
Call these Dragon Wings for their fire-breathing Asian flavor!
• 1 cup sprouted sesame seeds • 2 medium plums (pitted, about ¾ cup chopped) • 1 stalk celery • 1 clove garlic • juice of ½ lemon • ½ cup chopped onion • 1 inch fresh ginger root, minced • Cayenne to taste. Grind sesame seeds in coffee grinder. Blend all other ingredients in food processor, finally adding ground sesame. Follow directions (above).

Fat Free Kale Chips
You will thoroughly enjoy this amazingly delicious fat free version!
In the Vita-Mix, blend the following ingredients well without water (use the tamper): • 1 medium small zucchini • 1 large red, orange or yellow bell pepper • ¼ cup chopped onion • 2 stalks celery • juice of ½ lemon • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste. Follow directions (above).

Cory's photography business is officially launched

2009-10-31T13:51:00.001-07:00

We travel a lot. This summer alone we went from Bishop and Mammo th Lakes, CA, to the Leavenworth, Washington and lots of stuff in between (like Mt Raine er and Mt St Helens National Parks) before heading back to the Sierras, outside of Bishop again.

And all along the way, on trails, in National Parks, in the wilderness...Cory has his gear and we are cheering him on as he captures the beauty of a moment. Almost every one of these shots the family is near by chanting, "Go daddy go!"...and along the way we have all learned better how to first notice and then savor sunsets that light up the sky, leaves turning hues of reds and yellows, flowers bursting in color, and majestic mountain peaks glowing in the twilight.

To be able to capture an image like these, we are at the location for 1 to 2 hours, sometimes more. And many of these photos are after as many as 12 visits to the same location over 3 years of trying before the perfect lighting and conditions finally happen. Patience to the Nth degree.

Come enjoy his collection at his new on line gallery - www.coryjoneillphotography.com

Sneak Peaks of what you'll find if you stop on in:

First morning on our anniversary trip this last summer - Dusy Basin - just over Bishop Pass on our 60 mile route through Evolution Basin on the John Muir Trail and Sequoia Kings National Park.

These types of images range from 9 to 36 images stitched together to create the full image. There's no way to capture the detail and vastness of God's creation with one shot - the pros have all the tricks, eye for composition, patience and equipment to make this happen so that we can all enjoy the beauty of a moment frozen in time forever. Cory is a purist and will never add things that weren't there or use PhotoShop in anyway to change what was really happening.

These pictures are authentic reflections of God's handiwork.

He has an entire collection dedicated to the oceans and waterways:

You'll find panoramics that can be blown up huge or remain smaller:

You'll find pictures that stir peace and joy:

New photos being added weekly.

A post for all moms

2009-10-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Go check out Bo's post about raising her son. It is so amazingly written that I think I just might print it out, stuff it in my son's scrapbook, and keep it forever.

http://bostern.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/dear-joe/#comment-1545

Bright eyes, Richard Simmons, and sweet thoughts

2009-10-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

What my life is full of these days as I teach full time (FULL TIME!!! if I would have been able to see what future posts on my blog would say a year ago, I'd never have imagined reading that I was working FULL TIME!!!) is

Bright eyes full of pride on a student that just "got" it
Sweet comments about sending love notes to Jesus from a 1st grader drawing a picture about John 14:7 (Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength) (and this student happened to be my very own princess)
60 kids in unity with praise hands in the air during a rehearsal for our Christmas musical
5 high school boys gathered around my computer You Tubing for Christian Spanish Praise music
Folders full of hopeful lesson plans
Listening to a student tell me after music class how "his heart is full of emotions - not on the outside, but on the inside...It feels GOOD! Like Christmas morning!"
Blowing kisses to my son as I cruise by his classroom
Early morning, daily staff meetings; 8 different classes to prep for; a Christmas musical to organize with 120 singers, 20 actors, choreography, and tons of solos; and 170 students to learn names of
Sweating all day long like Richard Simmons himself as I teach high energy choreography to 120 students that circle through my music classroom throughout the week

But, I still run just as much as I ever have. Got in a gorgeous 7 mile run through Shevlin Park - lots of trails, hills, and sunlit golden leaved trees. I smiled the entire run with my God and I.

I still play barefoot in my garden. Harvested 50 plus pounds of potatoes yesterday and half that in carrots. Potatoes are a must to eat organically as they are basically poisonous otherwise, but organic taters are so expensive. We are stocked for months now!

Made some yummy zucchini/banana honey and agave sweetened cookies yesterday, cooked down 10 pounds of tomatoes into a delicious sauce, and did laundry.

Somehow doing chores at home is just refreshing when you are gone all day. Somehow doing chores all day at home when there is nothing else to look forward to doing was not as fun...how could adding a full time job make home chores fun? I don't know how, but it has. I just like the variety I suppose. And this year, I do my chores with 3 hard working partners, all with their own jobs turning what used to take me a couple of days into a little over an hour and we are done.

CBS Reveals that Swine Flu Cases Seriously Overestimated

2009-10-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

Dr. Mercola Interviews Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the National Vaccine Information Center

Please watch this video to break through tons of misinformation out there. Annual vaccinations of the flu shot from cradle to the grave is what CDC is recommending. There is this assumption that we are to never have any experience with the flu - but if you have a population that has lived it's life with these temporary immunities to the flu (the shot only creates a temporary immunity) then you have set up a situation where a population is extremely susceptible to a true catastrophic pandemic of the flu as they have not allowed their bodies to go through the natural progression of getting sick, fighting a virus on it's own, and getting strong and healthy again, on it's own. Instead, we become vaccine dependent which is nowhere close to as effective as having a strong immune system.

Infections are predicted to peak in late October (now) and by the end of the year it's estimated that 63 percent of the U.S. population will have been infected with H1N1 swine flu.

What does this mean? By the end of the year the majority of the U.S. population will have likely acquired natural immunity.

Natural immunity is what you gain when you recover from influenza and natural immunity is what is protecting older Americans, who have recovered from exposure to H1N1 strains of influenza in the past and are therefore less susceptible today.

This new revelation, coupled with CBS News' finding that swine flu cases are already being greatly overestimated ... and the fact that vaccines do not offer long-term immunity anyway ... and the questionable motives behind CDC's massive vaccination campaign ... puts an entirely different slant on the swine flu "epidemic," don't you think?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states on their main flu Web site http://www.cdc.gov/flu/ that flu activity is increasing in the United States, with most states reporting "widespread influenza activity."

The CDC goes on to say, and I quote:

"So far, most flu is 2009 H1N1 flu (sometimes called "swine flu")."

But wait stop the presses.

A three-month-long investigation by CBS News, released earlier this week that included state-by-state test results, revealed some very different facts. The CBS study found that H1N1 flu cases are NOT as prevalent as feared. A CBS article even states:

"If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn't have H1N1 flu. In fact, you probably didn't have flu at all."

Obviously CBS News and the CDC are completely contradicting each other. So who is right?

Well, CBS reports that in late July 2009 the CDC advised states to STOP testing for H1N1 flu, and they also stopped counting individual cases.

Their rationale for this, according to CBS News, was that it was a waste of resources to test for H1N1 flu because it was already confirmed as an epidemic.

So just like that virtually every person who visited their physician with flu-like symptoms since late July was assumed to have H1N1, with no testing necessary because, after all, there's an epidemic.

It's interesting to note that at the same time as the CDC decided the H1N1 epidemic warranted no further testing for cases due to its epidemic status, Finnish health authorities actually downgraded the threat of swine flu.

In late July the health ministry and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in Finland actually removed swine flu from a list of diseases considered dangerous to the public because the majority of cases recovered without medication or hospital care!

And, as the CDC continues to use fear to motivate and control Americans with their worst-case swine flu scenarios, they say nothing of the experience of those in the southern hemisphere, which just finished their flu season and found it was not as bad as expected.

CBS News Finds H1N1 Tests "Overwhelmingly Negative"

Before beginning their investigation, CBS News asked the CDC for state-by-state test results prior to their halting of testing and tracking. The CDC did not initially respond so CBS went to all 50 states directly, asking for their statistics on state lab-confirmed H1N1 prior to the halt of individual testing and counting in July.

What did they find? CBS reported:

"The results reveal a pattern that surprised a number of health care professionals we consulted. The vast majority of cases were negative for H1N1 as well as seasonal flu, despite the fact that many states were specifically testing patients deemed to be most likely to have H1N1 flu, based on symptoms and risk factors, such as travel to Mexico."

As you can see from this CBS News graphic, not only are most cases of suspected flu-like illnesses not H1N1, they're not even the flu but more likely some type of cold or upper respiratory infection!

Where is the CDC Getting Their Data?

Given CBS News' findings that most cases of flu-like illnesses are neither H1N1 nor the flu, it begs the question: Why is the CDC reporting that most flu in the United States is in fact H1N1?

Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the National Vaccine Information Center who I spoke with in the interview above, was a consumer representative on the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee in 2003, and she asked the head of the influenza branch of the CDC how much of the flu-like illness that occurs in America every year is actually due to the flu.

The answer was about 20 percent, which corresponds more closely with the CBS News data from 2009.

According to the CBS News study, when you come down with chills, fever, cough, runny nose, malaise and all those other "flu-like" symptoms, the illness is likely caused by influenza at most 17 percent of the time and as little as 3 percent! The other 83 to 97 percent of the time it's caused by other viruses or bacteria.

So remember that not every illness that appears to be the flu actually is the flu. In fact, most of the time it's not.

Curiously, the CDC still advises those who were told they had 2009 H1N1 (and therefore should be immune to getting it again) to get vaccinated unless they had lab confirmation.

Is the CDC Purposely Misinforming the Public to Sell More Flu and H1N1 Vaccines?

Conflicts of interest are rampant in the vaccination infrastructure. The same people who are regulating and promoting vaccines are also evaluating vaccine safety.

For instance, Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia earned at least $29 million as part of a $182-million sale by the hospital of its worldwide royalty interest in the Merck Rotateq vaccine. He also formerly sat on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to help create the market for rotavirus vaccine

This type of conflict of interest has been going on for some time.

In August 1999, the Committee on Government Reform initiated an investigation into Federal vaccine policy. During the investigation the Committee extensively reviewed financial disclosure forms and related documents and interviewed key officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC.

It was revealed that many individuals on two key advisory committees had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines. These individuals were even granted waivers allowing them to fully participate in discussions about vaccine licensing and recommendations for children, despite the fact that federal law states members of advisory committees are required to disclose such ties and recuse themselves from such discussions and decisions.

Further, the investigation revealed that the FDA's and CDC's conflict of interest rules were not strongly enforced while the rules themselves were weak. Specific problems noted by the Committee included:

* The CDC routinely granted waivers from conflict of interest rules to many members of its advisory committee.
* Those CDC advisory committee members who were not allowed to vote on certain recommendations due to financial conflicts of interest were still allowed to actively participate in committee deliberations and advocate specific positions.
* The Chairman of the CDC's advisory committee owned 600 shares of stock in Merck, a pharmaceutical company with an active vaccine division.
* Members of the CDC's advisory committee often left key details out of their financial disclosure statements, and were not required to provide the missing information by CDC ethics officials.

And, when the FDA and CDC approved the controversial rotavirus vaccine in 1998 and 1999, the Committee's report said:

* 3 out of the 5 FDA advisory committee members who voted to approve the rotavirus vaccine in December 1997 had financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies that were developing different versions of the vaccine.
* 4 out of the 8 CDC advisory committee members who voted to approve guidelines for the rotavirus vaccine in June 1998 had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies that were developing different versions of the vaccine.

The rotavirus vaccine was pulled from the market one year after approval, after it was found to cause severe bowel obstructions.

Given their sordid history, can the CDC really be trusted, even today? Do you think that much has changed in just one decade?

Is the H1N1 Vaccine Really Safe as the CDC Says it Is?

CDC officials are screaming that H1N1 is so different from the seasonal influenza strains that have circulated in the past few decades that a national alarm must be sounded and everyone needs to be so afraid that we all should get vaccinated to prevent a deadly pandemic.

Yet, they say the new H1N1 vaccine is safe based on vaccines for that very same flu strain from which it is so different. They write on their Web site "the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccines are expected to have similar safety profiles as seasonal flu vaccines ..."

Another contradiction.

While symptoms of H1N1 flu and seasonal flu are virtually identical, the H1N1 vaccine is showing signs of being quite different from the seasonal flu shot.

Although both are produced using antiquated 50-year-old technology that involves injecting the virus into eggs and allowing it to grow, the virus being used to produce the swine flu vaccine has been found to reproduce much more slowly in eggs than the ordinary flu virus.

And according to a separate CBS News report, the U.S. government is now funding newer unprecedented technologies to speed up vaccine production, including one that involves growing the virus inside animal cells and another that involves flu proteins grown inside insect cells.

The risks of these, and the current fast-tracked swine flu vaccine, are truly unknown at this time.

There is NO Incentive for the CDC or Vaccine Manufacturers to Care About Safety

You may think that the CDC and the vaccine manufacturers must be concerned about safety, as if they released a dangerous vaccine and promoted it to the American public, imagine the lawsuits they would face.

This is actually no longer reality as the U.S. government has granted vaccine makers total legal immunity from any lawsuits that result from the new swine flu vaccine.

In fact, drug manufacturers got a major boost in protection and were granted unprecedented powers to experiment on the population with the passing of the 2006 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (the PREP Act).

This law allows the DHHS Secretary to invoke almost complete immunity from liability for manufacturers of vaccines and drugs used to combat a declared public health emergency, which the "swine flu pandemic" qualifies as.

The PREP Act removes your right to a trial jury unless you can provide clear evidence of willful misconduct that resulted in death or serious physical injury. But that's not all. First you must apply for and be granted permission to sue by the DHHS Secretary.

The most problematic aspect of the PREP Act is that it removes all financial incentive to make a safe product.

In fact, vaccine makers now have a negative incentive to test it for safety, because if they are aware of problems, then they could potentially be held liable for willful misconduct!

As long as they can prove they "didn't know" of any problem, they will not be liable for damages. Hence it's in their best interest to know as little as possible about the adverse reactions it might cause.

It seems unimaginable, but you and your children are now being enlisted as an unpaid human trial subjects for experimental, fast-tracked vaccines like the swine flu vaccine.

Recent national polls have revealed that 30 percent to 50 percent in many communities are not planning to get a swine flu shot ... but there are many who are still ready to stand in line.

.

But I wanted to share one final detail, and that is a new study just released by Purdue University researchers and published in the journal Eurosurveillance.

The researchers found that at this point in time any vaccinations that are given in the United States will likely have little effect on the number of infections. The researchers state:

"The model predicts that there will be a significant wave in autumn, with 63% of the population being infected, and that this wave will peak so early that the planned CDC vaccination campaign will likely not have a large effect on the total number of people ultimately infected by the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus."

In other words, infections are predicted to peak in late October (now) and by the end of the year it's estimated that 63 percent of the U.S. population will have been infected with H1N1 swine flu.

What does this mean? By the end of the year the majority of the U.S. population will have likely acquired natural immunity.

Natural immunity is what you gain when you recover from influenza and natural immunity is what is protecting older Americans, who have recovered from exposure to H1N1 strains of influenza in the past and are therefore less susceptible today.

This new revelation, coupled with CBS News' finding that swine flu cases are already being greatly overestimated ... and the fact that vaccines do not offer long-term immunity anyway ... and the questionable motives behind CDC's massive vaccination campaign ... puts an entirely different slant on the swine flu "epidemic," don't you think?

If you are still concerned about the swine flu, you should know that it is relatively easy to improve your immune response to fight this infection. If 99.9% of the people are not having any serious complications from H1N1, it would seem perfectly rational to believe that minor lifestyle changes could have dramatic effects on fighting this infection, and none of these involve taking potentially dangerous and unproven vaccine interventions.

Simple Measures That Can Help You Fight Illness

* Vitamin D has been well documented to increase the production of over 200 anti microbial peptides that fight infection.
* Eliminate sugar from your diet as that will impair your immune response
* Get plenty of rest
* Exercise appropriately

In a moment....

2009-10-16T21:04:00.001-07:00

.... you can accidentally push delete and suddenly every picture you took in 2009 is gone. It doesn't matter that you have not printed any pictures yet and have no way to ever see those 28,000 pictures again...you pushed delete, they are gone.

This was how our school year started. I was blissfully reading a book on the couch, sipping some tea, relaxed and happy until I heard the strangest gutteral noise come from my Renaissance man that I have ever heard. I came running. Something disastrous happened, I just never would have imagined what.

There is nothing like the moments right after you realize that everything is truly gone that memorializes 2009. Birthday parties, holidays, vacations, school days...it all flashed before my eyes and I just started to laugh. I was too shocked to cry.

We called a dear friend from church - now renamed our computer doctor - and he has spent the last 6 weeks working on seeing if he could recover these pictures. Hundreds of dollars later, weeks of work, and lots of waiting....he is sitting in the studio right now loading all our pictures back into our computer. It's still a massive mess as recoveries like this are never neat - some pictures are gone forever while others are duplicated hundreds of times. It's a pile to sort through - where there once was 26,000 pictures, neatly filed away in monthly folders there is now 110,000 pictures in one giant random mess.

But I don't care - I get to remember, through pictures, what my little gal looked like on her 6th birthday and what soccer stud looked like scoring his umpteenth goal.

Feeling light and happy. Such a close call makes me realize how precious pictures are to all of us. They help us remember this amazing thing we call life. Without them, it's just a blur...but with them, moments are captured, memories preserved, and our stories memorialized.

Swine flu H1N1 vaccine is dangerous!

2009-10-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

Watch this video from Fox News....

Crazy stuff.

My chiropractic doctor yesterday explained to me that those that are getting the vaccine are actually getting the live virus. THis method of using a live virus hasn't been used since the Polio vaccine which proved to be disatrous then. So, folks that are vaccinated are actually sheading the live virus for about a week - putting the rest of us at higher risk of getting it.

They have learned through studying the trends of this virus that only 50% of those exposed to it are getting sick - so half of the people that get exposed have bodies that quickly respond, make the antibodies to kill the virus and they don't even get sick.

Locals - go check out the newest coffee house in town! Green plow is here

2009-10-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

One of my dearest friends -met her the first week we moved here- has gone for her long time dream with her husband and opened their coffee house. It's heart is ministry - the "living room of our town". It seeks to create a meeting place for good coffee, good conversation, good community connections, and maybe even for seeing who Jesus is through the folks that work there, the events that happen there, and the conversations that spring up there.

It's Christianity in action.

And, it truly is the yummiest coffee on the planet. Pat is perfecting his roasting skills and weekly roasts the coffee making for the freshest cup of coffee I have ever had - no bitter aftertast, just smooth and perfect.

While I work all day loving on the students I get to teach, please take a moment and meet a friend at GreenPlow coffee! Tell them I sent you!

http://www.greenplowcoffee.com/

Open hours:
Monday-Thursday 6am-8pm
Friday 6am-9pm
Saturday 7am-9pm

Feeling like a squirrel and loving it

2009-10-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

It's harvest time!! Gathering and processing, cooking, steaming, freezing, canning, bagging. All so that we can eat fresh, homegrown, organic veggies and fruit all winter.

Our freezer is packed though and we have a 1/4 of a cow coming any day now from an organic farm near our home - it'll make it's home in our freezer next to 50 pounds of tomatoes (or more!), AND 360 pounds of organic peaches and nectarines...as well as bags of pesto, shredded zucchini, squash and spinach puree, and bell peppers. Not sure how it's all going to fit...

Still in the ground awaiting their lucky moment to meet the family are 2 yummy varieties of potatoes (German Butterlings and a buttery fingerling), carrots, beets, and the rest of our onions.

Above ground we have 4 different types of lettuces, swiss chard, collard greens, and kale as well as broccoli, rhubarb, and acorn squash.

But this weekend, we were seeing red. About 200 pounds of tomatoes - half red and ready - were harvested last weekend and on this rainy, slushy day after an invigorating 5 mile run, we spent the day blanching, peeling, and cooking down the yummiest looking puree. To our tomato blend we added oregano and basil and onions from our herb patch...the whole concoction grown in our back yard. I LOVE IT!! We'll can it later today.

For weeks we have often had lunches and dinners that were totally acquired locally - goat cheese I made from our sweet friend's goat milk we get each week and sun-dried tomatoes (from our garden), on a huge salad or an egg omelet with eggs from our friend's goat farm, zucchini, bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, onions and herbs from our garden. Or our favorite - fresh tomatoes on top of an olive oil brushed pizza crust with our homemade goat cheese and tons of garden veggies to top it off. The best pizza I truly have ever had - and I grew up eating Chicago pizza, living in the burbs of the windy city.

So my little princess sprout said today, "It's so fun to store up food for winter! Mommy, are the stores closing this winter?"

What to do about the Swine Flu

2009-10-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

We are doing pretty much everything listed in this article so I thought it'd be a perfect thing to share on this blog. Lots of great ideas in here.

Your request is being processed...

D r. Frank Lipman

Integrative Physician

Summer is over and the question I am being asked most frequently in my practice is, "what do I do about Swine flu?" My patients are wondering whether or not they should get vaccinated and the simple answer I give most of the time is ..NO!

From what you may have read, you might think that the swine flu vaccine is the answer to swine flu. Unfortunately this is not true and until we know that the vaccine is safe, I cannot in good conscience recommend it to most of my patients.

From the outset, let me say, I am not anti all vaccinations, rather I am pro vaccine safety and freedom of choice.

This is why am I not recommending the swine flu vaccine

1) At this stage, for the most part the swine flu seems benign.

Over a million people in the US have already come down with swine flu, many of them without even knowing that they had it. The vast majority of people who get the swine flu recover after a week or so of high fever, aches, and respiratory distress. It's not pleasant, but except in rare circumstances, it is not fatal. Most people who've been infected by swine flu think so little of it, they believe they just had a really bad cold or a regular flu. So unless the swine flu evolves to a much more virulent form, there's no need for mass vaccination.

2) We don't know if the vaccine will be effective.

Vaccines are only useful against the specific viral strain that was available at the time of their manufacture. But influenza viruses mutate quickly, and as the WHO has already said, the real concern with H1N1 swine flu is that it will combine with seasonal flu in the Fall, creating a new strain that will of course be immune to all available vaccines.

3) We don't know if the vaccine is safe.

The FDA has authorized an expedited approval process for the swine flu vaccine but we don't know yet if it is safe. Even GlaxoSmithKline, one of the vaccine manufacturers has said, "The total population studied in clinical trials will be limited, due to the need to provide the vaccine to governments as quickly as possible. Additional studies will therefore be required and conducted after the vaccine is made available."

In other words, the only thing that is safe, is to say that no one knows. Since it's never been used before and they have not had time to conduct any sufficient human testing, by getting vaccinated you are being a human guinea pig.

4) Vaccine manufacturers have been insulated from liability by the government.

The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius has granted legal immunity not only to the makers of the 2 drugs being used to treat swine flu, Tamiflu and Relenza, but also to the swine flu vaccine makers, for damages due to their use against swine flu. By effectively manipulating the legal system, the Pharmaceutical Industry through their powerful lobbyists have acquired almost complete and total insulation from any liability for their vaccines and adjuvants, which are additives added to generate a stronger immune response. It is believed that it is these adjuvants which often cause the problems. The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu was in 1976. Thousands filed claims for side effects such as paralysis caused by the vaccine and a number of people died. I am sure that the researchers know more now than they did last time and no one can say for certain that bad things will happen again or that you will suffer dire consequences if you get vaccinated. But this time you have no legal recourse even though this vaccine involves new factors, which makes it therefore experimental and unpredictable.

By shielding the manufacturers from any responsibility for any harm caused, the pharmaceutical firms have no financial incentive to make the safest product. In fact, they have a negative incentive to test it for safety, because if they are aware of problems, then they could potentially be held liable for willful misconduct.

Instead I advise my patients to build up and strengthen their immune systems to prevent viral infections.

Here are my top 10 recommendations:

1) Optimize your vit D level

Adequate levels of Vitamin D are essential for our immune systems to function optimally. Unfortunately there are no significant dietary sources of Vitamin D, most of our intake comes from exposure to sunlight. If you live far from the equator, you simply don't get enough sun through Fall and Winter to make all the vitamin D you need. So unless you supplement during this period, your innate immunity will be compromised. Vitamin D plays such a crucial role in so many aspects of your body's functioning, that supplementing with it makes sense whether you decide to get the flu shot or not.

We know that influenza always gets worse during the winter months. Now there is good evidence to suggest that this is because as sunlight hours lessen during the winter, the people living in the northern hemisphere become vitamin D deficient and are susceptible to influenza infections of all kinds. Here's a great article available at NIH pertaining to this topic.

There is also some evidence that supplementation with a sufficient amount of vitamin D can help to prevent the onset of a flu or cold.

The current recommendations from the Food and Nutrition Board of the U.S. Institute of Medicine: from 200 to 600 IU/day depending on one's age, are way too low. These values were originally chosen because they were found to prevent osteomalacia (bone softening) and rickets. It is now recognized that vitamin D has many additional physiological functions, for which these levels are totally inadequate. A number of scientists are therefore calling for the Food and Nutrition Board in the U.S. and its counterparts abroad to reassess their current recommendations.

To optimize your vit D levels, you will need to

Take at least 2,000 IU of a Vitamin D3 supplement daily.
Get your 25 hydroxy Vitamin D level checked by your doctor (if that is not an option, you can self test your level with ZRT labs)

Although the current normal range is between 20 and 50ng/ml, this is much too low for optimal health. You want your level to be between 50 and 70ng/ml. This is the most important step you can take to prevent the flu!! It may require a number of months taking 5,000 to 10,000 IU of Vit D3 daily (especially during winter) under a doctor's supervision, to optimize your blood level. Monitor your 25 hydroxy vitamin D status every 3 months until you are in the optimal range, then cut back to a maintenance dose of at least 2,000 IU a day.

2) Get adequate sleep, this is an indispensable requirement for a strong immune system.

3) Get adequate exercise, this keeps you robust.

4) Take actions to lower your stress levels

Do breathing exercises, meditate, practice yoga, spend time doing something that makes you happy. Feeling spent, overwhelmed, and/or mentally run down has a causal relationship to your physical health.

5) Wash your hands frequently but not excessively

It decreases your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don't use antibacterial soap because of the risk of creating resistant bacteria. Rather use a simple chemical-free soap.

6) Avoid sugar and processed foods as they decrease your immune function dramatically.

7) Eat phytonutrient rich meals (lots of colorful salads and dark greens)

8) Eat lots of garlic, it works as a broad spectrum antibiotic.

9) Take a probiotic daily (look for one with 10-20 billion organisms).

A strong immune system relies heavily on having a strong foundation in the gut.

10) Keep a supply of antiviral herbal supplements on hand.

As opposed to antiviral drugs, antiviral herbs do not cause resistant strains because they are multifaceted and contain literally thousands of different medicinal compounds. Thus they are able to attack viruses with a full spectrum of synergistic substances. Andrographis, Olive leaf extract, Grapefruit seed extract and Elderberry extract, all have antiviral properties. Use one or a combination of some of them as a prophylactic measure, for ex.whenever you travel (airports) or enter a potentially compromised environment such as a large office, auditorium, stadium, theater etc.

And if you really want to go all out, here are 4 more tips:

11) Take 1-2 grams of fish oils daily, its beneficial for immune function.

12) Take 2 grams of Vitamin C daily, yes it does help.

13) Stock your home pharmacy with an immune building formula.

Look for one that contains Cordyceps and Astragulus. Take it throughout the flu season.

14) Keep homeopathic Oscillococcinum on hand

Take it at the earliest sign of a cold or flu. Early intervention is essential. If you are exposed to someone with the flu directly, you can take one dose twice a day for two days. You can also take one vial once a week throughout the winter, and two or three times a week during flu season, as a preventative measure.

Frank Lipman MD, is the founder and director of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in NYC a center whose emphasis is on preventive health care and patient education. His personal blend of Western and Eastern Medicine combined with the many other complimentary modalities he has studied, has helped thousands of people recover their energy and zest for life. He is the author of the recent SPENT: End Exhaustion and Feel Great Again (2009) and Total Renewal; 7 key steps to Resilience, Vitality and Long-Term Health (2003).

WHY you should avoid the flu shot

2009-09-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

This article is worth reading. Our family never has gotten the flu shot and none of us have ever gotten the flu either.

Studies show that flu vaccines are unsafe and ineffective.

Signs and Symptoms of Influenza

As most of you probably know, influenza is a contagious viral respiratory infection. Symptoms include:

Fever

Chills

Runny nose

Sore throat

Cough

Muscle aches

Fatigue

Decreased appetite

Typically, the condition will improve after two to three days of bed rest, although some symptoms may persist for about a week.

What many people do NOT know, however, is that death caused directly by the flu virus is very rare. The vast majority of so-called “flu deaths” are in fact due to bacterial pneumonia – a potential complication of the flu if your immune system is too weak.

Other complications can include ear- or sinus infections, dehydration, and worsening of chronic health conditions.

The elderly and people with other pre existing medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease, are at higher risk of developing pneumonia after a bout of the flu.

The Flu Vaccine Does Not Prevent the Flu, nor Protect Against the Vast Majority of Flu-Related Deaths

The conventional treatment for bacterial pneumonia is an antibiotic, not a viral flu drug, so to think that taking a flu vaccine will prevent death from pneumonia doesn’t really make sense.

“But the vaccine will prevent the flu, which will prevent the possibility of developing pneumonia,” some might say.

That sounds good in theory, but the statistics simply do not support this assertion.

Because study after study, and master studies that compile the results from several studies to get a more objective result, keep coming to the same conclusion: Flu vaccines DO NOT WORK, and in many cases do more harm than good.

In fact, one shocking statistic brought to light in this video is that BEFORE the CDC advocated vaccinating children under the age of five, the number of children dying from the flu was very low, and on the decline.

Then, in 2003, just after children aged five and under started getting vaccinated, the number of flu deaths SKYROCKETED. The death toll was enormous compared to the previous year, when the flu vaccine was not administered en masse to that age group!

How anyone can consider a strategy that yields a higher death toll to be a “success” is a mystery to me.

The Problem with Flu Death Statistics

However, as frightening as much of this may sound, it’s important to keep things in perspective. According to the statistics shown in the video above, more Americans die from asthma, and even malnutrition each year, than the flu.

Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grossly distort the facts about flu deaths, making the flu virus seem far more dangerous than is warranted. On the CDC’s main flu page, they state that about 36,000 people die from the flu in the United States each year.

But if you search a little harder, you can find the actual number of people who died from the flu in 2005 (this is the most recent data that’s available) was 1,806. The remainder was caused by pneumonia. In 2004, there were just 1,100 actual flu deaths.

The statistics the CDC gives are skewed partly because they classify those dying from pneumonia as dying from the flu, which is inaccurate.

How is the Flu Vaccine Made?

This is another area that many people do not understand or take into consideration before getting a seasonal flu shot.

In January or February of each year, health authorities travel to Asia to determine which strains of the flu are currently active. Based on their findings in Asia, they assume that the same strains of viruses will spread to the U.S. by fall.

At this point, U.S. vaccine manufacturers start making that season’s flu vaccine, which will contain the strains found in Asia. However, if the viral strains circulating in the U.S. that season are not identical to those in Asia, the vaccine you receive is a complete dud.

And to add insult to injury, you’ve just been injected with a laundry list of harmful ingredients.

What’s in the Seasonal Flu Vaccine?

The flu strains selected are cultivated in chick embryos for several weeks before being inactivated with formaldehyde, which is a known cancer-causing agent. Then they’re preserved with thimerosal, which is 49 percent mercury by weight.

Even many health care professionals are confused about this and are not aware that the preservative thimerosal is mercury. As a quick side note, one of my chief writers told me that, “the doctor’s office told me the vaccine does not contain mercury, just something called thimerosal.”

Please, don’t be fooled by this incredible ignorance. If you have carefully studied this issue there is a great possibility you may know more than your physician about this topic. Don’t back down if they tell you something you otherwise know to be true.

According to the CDC, the majority of flu vaccines contain thimerosal. Some contain as much as 25 mcg of mercury per dose. This means that it may contain more than 250 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit for mercury.

By now, most people are well aware that children and fetuses are most at risk of damage from this neurotoxin, as their brains are still developing. Yet the CDC still recommends that children over 6 months, and pregnant women, receive the flu vaccine each year.

In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain other toxic or hazardous ingredients like:

Aluminum -- a neurotoxin that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease

Triton X-100 -- a detergent

Phenol (carbolic acid)

Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)

Betapropiolactone - a disinfectant

Nonoxynol - used to kill or stop growth of STDs

Octoxinol 9 - a vaginal spermicide

Sodium phosphate

How Safe is the Flu Vaccine?

Serious reactions to the flu vaccine include, but are not limited to:

Life-threatening allergies to various ingredients

Guillain-Barre Syndrome (a severe paralytic disease that is fatal in about 1 in 20 cases)

Encephalitis (brain inflammation)

Neurological disorders

Thrombocytopenia (a serious blood disorder)

How Effective is the Flu Vaccine?

Remember that the potential effectiveness of a flu vaccine is dependent on the ASSUMPTION, made nearly a year in advance, that Asia’s viral strains will be the ones hitting the U.S. When they guess wrong, the vaccine is worthless from the very start.

But does that mean they withdraw the flu vaccine when they discover it contains the wrong strains? NO! They just keep giving it out anyway.

But even if they were to overcome that hurdle and actually select the correct strains, there’s still no evidence that it does anyone any good to get a flu vaccine.

Study after study comes back showing the same dismal results: the flu vaccines are not an effective method of prevention of the flu, and they do not save lives. As mentioned earlier, they may even be responsible for an increased death rate in some groups.

Sometimes determining efficacy is as easy as reading the information coming straight from the vaccine manufacturer.

How about this quote taken directly from the flu vaccine FLULAVAL’s package insert (which you likely never see when getting the flu shot) for the 2009-2010 formula:

" FLULAVAL is an influenza virus vaccine indicated for active immunization of adults 18 years of age and older against influenza disease caused by influenza virus subtypes A and type B contained in the vaccine. This indication is based on immune response elicited by FLULAVAL, and there have been no controlled trials demonstrating a decrease in influenza disease after vaccination with FLULAVAL.”

That’s right, NO controlled trials demonstrating ANY decrease in your risk of contracting the flu at all after vaccination! (It also states that each dose contains a total of 25 mcg of mercury.)

For those of you who are still unconvinced, know that there’s plenty of scientific evidence available to back up the recommendation to avoid flu vaccines. In addition to studies mentioned in the video, here are several other examples showing that flu vaccines do not work for any age group:

A study published in the October 2008 issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that vaccinating young children against the flu had no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons.

The researchers concluded that "significant influenza vaccine effectiveness could not be demonstrated for any season, age, or setting" examined.

A 2008 study published in the Lancet found that influenza vaccination was NOT associated with a reduced risk of pneumonia in older people.

This supports an earlier study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine also confirms that there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza and pneumonia in the elderly, despite the fact that vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now.

In 2007, researchers with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious

Diseases, and the National Institutes of Health published this conclusion in the Lancet Infectious Diseases: “We conclude that frailty selection bias and use of non-specific endpoints such as all-cause mortality,have led cohort studies to greatly exaggerate vaccine benefits.”

A large-scale, systematic review of 51 studies, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2006, found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo in children. The studies involved 260,000 children, age 6 to 23 months.

Last but not least, I think it says a lot that 70 percent of doctors and nurses, and 62 percent of other health care workers do NOT get the yearly flu shot.

The reasons why they opted to not get vaccinated were:

They didn't believe the vaccine would work

They believed their immune systems were strong enough to withstand exposure to the flu

They were concerned about side effects

Might Influenza be Little More Than a Symptom of Vitamin D Deficiency?

Vitamin D, “the sunshine vitamin,” may very well be one of the most beneficial vitamins there is for disease prevention. Unfortunately it’s also one of the vitamins that a vast majority of people across the world are deficient in due to lack of regular exposure to sunshine.

Published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection in 2006, the hypothesis presented by Dr. John Cannell and colleagues in the paper Epidemic Influenza and Vitamin D raises the possibility that influenza is a symptom of vitamin D deficiency.

The vitamin D formed when your skin is exposed to sunlight regulates the expression of more than 2,000 genes throughout your body, including ones that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses. Hence, being overwhelmed by the “flu bug” could signal that your vitamin D levels are too low, allowing the flu virus to overtake your immune system.

At least five studies show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and 25(OH)D levels. That is, the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu, and other respiratory tract infections:

A 2007 study suggests higher vitamin D status enhances your immunity to microbial infections. They found that subjects with vitamin D deficiency had significantly more days of absence from work due to respiratory infection than did control subjects.

A 2009 study on vitamin D deficiency in newborns with acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) confirmed a strong, positive correlation between newborns’ and mother’s vitamin D levels. Over 87 percent of all newborns and over 67 percent of all mothers had vitamin D levels lower than 20 ng/ml, which is a severe deficiency state.

Newborns with vitamin D deficiency appear to have an increased risk of developing ALRI, and since the child’s vitamin D level strongly correlates with its mother’s, the researchers recommend that all mothers’ optimize their vitamin D levels during pregnancy, especially in the winter months, to safeguard their baby’s health.

A similar Indian study published in 2004 also reported that vitamin D deficiency in infants significantly raised their odds ratio for having severe ALRI.

A 2009 analysis of the Third National Health andNutrition Examination Survey examined the association between vitamin D levelsand recent upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in nearly 19,000 subjects over the age of 12.

Recent URTI was reported by:

17 percent of participants with vitamin D levels of 30ng/ml or higher

20 percent of participants with vitamin D levels between 10-30 ng/ml.

24 percent of participants with vitamin D levels below 10ng/ml

The positive correlation between lower vitamin D levels and increased risk of URTI was even stronger in individuals with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Another 2009 report in the journal Pediatric Research stated that infants and children appear more susceptible to viral rather than bacterial infections when deficient in vitamin D. And that, based on the available evidence showing a strong connection between vitamin D, infections, and immune function in children, vitamin D supplementation may be a valuable therapy in pediatric medicine.

How to Prevent the Flu without Getting a Flu Shot

For most people the flu shot does not make you healthy; it does just the opposite and weakens your immune system.

If you follow a healthy lifestyle, you will not have to worry about getting the flu. Take it from me -- I’ve never received a flu shot, and I haven’t missed a day of work due to illness in over 20 years. The key steps that I follow to stay flu-free, which I suggest you follow too, include:

Get plenty of sunshine, safe tanning bed exposure or supplemental vitamin D3

Eat right for your nutritional type, including avoiding sugar

Exercise

Get adequate sleep

Address emotional stress

Wash your hands regularly

Swine flu paranoia humor

2009-09-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

For those of you wondering, I am having a blast in my new role as teacher of 170 students, ranging in age from 1st through 12th. I teach music to the 1st - 12th graders throughout the week and I teach high school Spanish. I just love the daily moments, the hundreds of conversations that happen, the learning, the excitement students show when they grab a hold of a project you present.

I love that I walk down the hall and throw I love yous silently at my son who happens to sit near the door and can see me throughout the day as I traverse from office to copy machine to staff room. I love that every time he sees him, he leaves the line he is in to dash over to me for yet another kiss on the cheek.

I love seeing my little gal throughout the day, getting hugs and kisses from her all day long, and getting to see her in action at school.

I love that I totally know the kids my sprouts are playing with.

Once a month at our school, 7th - 12th graders spend the morning doing a service project in our community and then they get to pick a teacher led activity to do in the afternoon. Well this teacher offered a hike at a local State Park. So today, in the bright happy sun, I grabbed my Wildman Sprout son and Rennaisance Man husband and took 10 middle school and highschool kids out on a 5 mile hike. We all talked the entire time - getting to know each other even better and wishing we could do this every Friday. And I get paid for this??!!

What humors me about being in a school in the US is the paranoia over the Swine flu. I anticipate it will be at our school in a couple of weeks as it's already in our area - and I anticipate that my family will be down for a few days because of it - maybe not, but I am guessing so and frankly, I just want to get it done with.

So I leave with this humorous depiction of our country's current paranoia:

A thank you note I'd like to share with all of you

2009-09-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

To my pastor:

Your sermon blessed us in many ways, but truly, it takes courage to be as transparent as you are, willing to be coming before the church with your own questions.

I don't think I have ever followed up with you over a conversation we had a few years back that set me in a direction of restoration. Your sermon reminded me about it all and I wanted to finally thank you and share with you what transpired.

Remember when I was sick? I dealt with a strange illness for nearly 2 years that resulted in a myriad of symptoms - daily fevers, fibromyalgea, adrenaline tremors, anxiety, no energy, depression and on and on. My whole chemical being was disturbed which kept triggering more problems (like the anxiety) and finally it triggered diabetes II. It was around that time, that when you asked me how I was doing I surprised myself even by saying I'd like to go stand in front of a train at times. It wasn't truly what I felt but after 8 months of being sick and then getting diagnosed with diabetes too I was at my lowest.

So, you pulled me into your office and I was half hoping you'd assure me that I'd be fine...that my body would snap out of this slump and that the nightmare would end...but NO, you said, "your real task is to figure out what you are going to do if you never get better". Oh man did that make me frustrated. Not at you...but at the thought that the hope I was living for that the sickness would end was not the right hope to have but I was challenged to replace my direction of hope from "someday I'll get better" to "what will be my attitude of praise be NOW as I am not necessarily assured that this will pass".

I let that thought simmer and boil in my mind and it slowly perculated down to my heart but it didn't really grab ahold of my heart until a year later. I thought about it often and kept challenging myself to let go of the anxiety and fears even in the midst of a scary situation. A good 9 months after you said that to me, I was finally diagnosed. I had Epstein Barr - the same virus that causes mono but in the EBV state is often called Chronic Fatigue Syndrom - and the doc said I'd probably be this way for 5 to 20 years or even for the rest of my life. So the truth of what you said was now a reality.

I was down for no more than a week before God grabbed me and said you can either stop living or you can grab my hand and keep on with as much joy as you can muster. I decided then and there that despite the diagnoses, I was going to start smiling, like Julie does. Maybe I could slowly trick my body into thinking I was happy. It was a first step anyway. I was going to LIVE fully, and praise HIm and not let this EBV be who I was but instead let the fact that I was a child of God, wholly and beautifully made by Him, be who I believed myself to be.

So God began a work to restore me spiritually. And about the time when I was feeling alive in Him again and not defeated by a diagnoses, the diabetes, anxiety, fibromyalgea, adrenal surges, sleepless nights, and fevers disappeared. So, He then healed me physically. Now, I did do things to help my body have a chance as I had no desire to be in this decrepid state for 5 to 20 years - like eat tons of organic veggies and fruit, exercise, etc. - but God did the healing.

I so love that through that one God appointed conversation that we had He was able to bring about Spiritual Restoration to me...and He chose to then bring about Physical Healing too. If he would have healed my body first before restoring my spiritual health, I would never have learned what I needed to learn or been deeply changed and molded by the whole ordeal. It would have been easy to bound around in Joy if he just healed me right away...but He instead insisted that I do what your challenge to me was: let go of the fears, Hang on to Him, keep the faith and the Joy for life in the MIDDLE of it.

It feels so good to feel so great again - but it feels even better to have been given the wisdom that only comes through trials and then Spiritual restoration as He did in me too.

So, since I am not sure I ever thanked you - thank you so much.

Here I am

2009-08-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

I just got home from an 8 day anniversary trip (13 years!!) with my Rennaissance man. 5 nights in the wilderness and 3 nights in travel to get there (plus a gloriously romantic night in a bed and breakfast). He asked me all year if I still wanted it to be a killer backpacking trip and I never waivered in my resolve - ABSOLUTELY! There is no other trip that deeply restores like being in the deep backcountry. Nothing.

Our first night was such a ridiculous contrast to the remaining nights. I thought it would be fun to see book a super cheap hotel and found a deal near Reno for about $25. Flashing neon lights, gambling, people trapped in windowless casinos, NOISE....it was a great hotel really but the setting was so unsettling. Do people really go to Reno to relax? Yikes. We got up the next day and hightailed it to our trailhead, outside of Bishop, CA.

God can speak so loud when the world's city distractions give way to his creation. For 5 1/2 days we hiked - 60 miles - into high elevation Sierras into a basin called Evolution Basin that is heralded as one of the most beautiful places on earth - and it was. We lived at 11,000 feet high for 5 nights - with steep climbs and a total of over 22,000 feet in elevation changes (that's like climbing South Sister 2 times!).

Each morning, I awoke with the same song. Every time we'd hit a rhythm on the trail and descend into silence this same song started playing in my mind. When that happens, I listen. I know it's not a mistake. The chorus played. Each morning I asked God, is this song for me? Yes.

You see, the big change in my life is that I will start, tomorrow, teaching full time. I never wanted to work full time but when I interviewed for part time, they couldn't resist offering me full time. I am half time music for grades 1 through 12 and then half time high school Spanish.

I am undoubtedly nervous. I don't know if we can maintain the family lifestyle we have with me working full time. Renaissance man has told me he will do 100% of the cooking and shopping this year to allow me to put in the hours I need. But, ALL DAY! EVERY DAY! My life was totally full before this.

I want to serve these kids at this school. It's such an honor and opportunity, but I don't want to sacrifice my own family.

Back to the song. It's called "Here I am" and each morning the mountain radio playing in my mind sang to me this chorus. I just got home and had to go see what the rest of the song had to say and it spoke directly into my life. I am to take on this song as my prayer. It will be hard...but as the song says, "Aren't you the closest when it's hardest to stand?" If I take on an attitude of "Here I am, use me" it will undoubtedly trump grumpy attitudes that threaten to steal my servant's joy when this job bleeds into evenings and weekends.

So God, Here I am, send me to the ministry field of the classroom. All of my life, make it an offering.

Here I Am by Downhere

Sometimes Your calling, comes in dream

Sometimes in comes in the Spirit's breeze

You reach for the deepest hope in me

And call out for the things of eternity

But I'm a man, of dust and stains,

You move in me, so I can say

Chorus

Here I am, Lord send me

All of my life, I make an offering,

Here I am, Lord send me

Somehow my story is a part of Your plan,

Here I am

When setbacks and failures, and upset plans

Test my faith and leave me with empty hands

Are You not the closest when it's hardest to stand

I know that You will finish what You began

these broken parts You will redeem

Become the song that I can sing

Overwhelmed by the thought of my weakness

And the fear that I'll fail You in the end In this mess,

I'm just one of the pieces, I can't put this together but You can

Here I Am, all my life an offering to You, to You Somehow my story is a part of Your plan

Here I am

David Klinkenberg is twittering!

2009-08-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

All you twitters and tweeters, you can follow my brother on twitter now! I don't know a thing about this program but I am sure many of you do.

http://twitter.com/fiddleklink

Power of the Word - have to share!

2009-08-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Some of us just easily accept that we are God's child, that He loves us, and that we just have to follow Him...others of us fight much harder through life before these revelations reach our heart. I have 2 sprouts. One wrestles with this. One just believes it.

My wildman sprout is the wrestler. He has been hard on himself since he was learning to crawl upon which God made it super clear to me, "be easy on this guy, he is already too hard on himself." I try. I do. But he is a super sensitive child and lives his emotions OUT LOUD and the loud kiddo gets a lot more negative attention, unfortunately.

These wrestling emotions have erupted this past 2nd grade year as he often said how horrible of a person he was, how he hated himself, and how he wanted to start running and never stop. As mommy, I had to tell myself not to panic but just to calmly listen. So I did all year. But finally in April, I brought my concerns to my Friday morning prayer group at his school and we prayed over his little heart.

That weekend, I shared with him the verses where John asks, "Why do I do the things I don't want to do and I don't do the things I should do? For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." My wildman was shocked to read his very words, thoughts, and feelings in the WORD and even more shocked that it was a grown man who thought this stuff.

YES little one. We all feel inadequate. 'cause we are!!

While many kids proclaim, "I didn't do it!" or "It's not fair...it's Suzie Que's fault, not mine!" my little guy fully knows he has messed up every time he does. He is and always has been completely aware that he is a sinner. Which sets him up to be so deeply thankful for this next part that I shared with him from that Romans 7 passage - "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!...Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Jesus Christ the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

I drew a picture of a boy carrying a large bag over his shoulder, like Santa. This boy in my picture could hardly walk from the heavy bag he lugged - and I shared that that is him - carrying all his sins with him but he didn't need to do that!! That's what freedom is.

It was a long and beautiful conversation. I shared much with him and we read many other passages.

I write about it now because it's been about 4 or 5 months since we talked and I have watched that message from the Bible peculate and simmer in his mind and have been so in awe of the power of the word because my wildman has completely stopped proclaiming how horrible he is, how he wants to disappear, or any of it. He has stopped throwing himself around in his emotional tantrums of frustration at himself.

He has turned into this smiley, helpful, more relaxed, and happy version of himself.

All from reading God's truth.

(and from the power of prayer of a few mom's meeting together to pour prayer over their kids lives together one rainy April morning.)

Goodbye!!

2009-07-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a wonderful week at our favorite camping lake - East lake - perfect beach, camping right on the lake, safe, quiet, beautiful.

The week was well-paced as it started off with our wonderful friends, the Christiansens, from our church and then some other friends came on Sunday....that first group left on Monday and then we came down to our home town for Tuesday's ballet spectacular with our own darling ballerina loving every second of getting to perform in front of hundreds of spectators. Then we went up to the lake again and more friends came on Wed and stayed with us through Sat.

As well, all week my hubby's mom and step-dad were up there camping all week and his brother and his family came on Wed for the rest of the week. So cousins, family, friends...all filled us up to the brim with love and community and connectedness. The stuff of summer!

On Tues though, as I walked into the house the phone was ringing and the person on the other end was bearing news that would completely change our direction as a family. This new season of our life will be so consuming that I have decided to officially stop blogging. If you'd like to know the details, just call or email.

Seasons come and seasons go and this next season will just simply be too hugely consuming to be able to keep this wonderful world of blogging up. I had so many thoughts to share and ideas to ponder out loud with you all, but alas, I will be brought back to conversations face to face with friends and not be able to maintain conversing with the WWW.

It's been a fun journey!!

Love, Julie

Klinkenbergs Unite

2009-06-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Klinkenbergs all descended on Silver Falls into quaint cabins perched in a park like setting in the middle of Oregon, from all over the country, for our family reunion. No agenda other then to eat and visit. I spent 3 days learning more about what my roots are, soaking in the love of family everywhere, and noting characteristics that I have seen in myself and brother and dad walking around in many other Klinks that I never even knew where Klinks.

Flashing from the eyes of all my dad's siblings and cousins was a consistent twinkle that spoke of happy lives and content spirits. That twinkle expresses itself in some as a quiet smile and in others as a boisterous laugh.

My roots do not contain any famous people or men and women noteworthy enough to appear in any history books, but what it does contain are hardworking folks that love their family, their country, and God. Many came from very poor families (my own dad never had running water in his home until he arrived on Oregon State's campus as a freshman) and yet they have college degrees ranging from bachelors to PhDs and worked as civil, nuclear, and mechanical engineers; biologists; doctoral research scientists; teachers; and in the Marines. It's a large family as my great-grandparents had 5 children all of which had large families ranging from 6 to 11 children each. I count myself immensly blessed that God chose to put me amongst their descendents.

Their children rise up and call them blessed and all of the older generation speak of having had such a full and wonderful life that they hope no one cries for them when they die but instead rejoices over a life lived with blessings overflowing.

George Eliot's novel Middlemarch, in speaking of the main character Dorothea, pens a beautiful prose to this effect:

Her finely-touched spirit had its fine issues, even though they were not widely
visible. Her full nature spent itself in channels which had no great name on the
earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for
the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs.

May I never forget the lesson I learned this reunion: to be someone who never desired status but instead spent my life caring for and loving others.

Wisdom while raising onions

2009-06-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

I am loving eating fresh lettuce from our garden. Wow! I forget how much yummier even the simple lettuce leave is when fresh. I came home from our 10 day trip to Bishop (yes, I can hardly believe it myself - I was just at 10,000 plus feet high in the Sierra mountains with no less then 13 rugged granite peaks 13,000+ feet high surrounding us. Backpacking is so rewarding in the Sierras!) and found potato plants almost as tall as my 6 year old...tomato plants thriving and lush and cute bundles of carrot sprouts bursting forth.

I couldn't wait to get home and weed my herb and onion garden...mound the potatoes....plant a double row of beets....and build some more cages for our zucchini.

Broccoli sprouts have poked their head out and my onion patch had green scallions growing towards the sky that are nearly 2 feet long. So, on this observation I thought, "can I just snip off a few inches and have myself some yummy scallions for sauteeing?" I don't know. Will this kill the onion? Will it keep growing more green sprout? Do you just leave it alone? They are all toppling over they are so tall?

So, I called my dad. The green thumb. The guy that can grow anything, and does. The biologist. Plus, my dad, like so many dads, seems to know facts and how tos on anything. He has always been my walking and talking, live encyclopedia. And it is Father's Day - so I will call the ever wise one - my dad.

"Dad, my onion patch has gone nuts...." I explained the onion predicament.

"Well, what's growing out of your onion is simply a scallion."

"I know Dad. Can I eat it?"

"no...no that wouldn't be good for the onion. I am sure of that. You oughta leave it alone."

"But all 50 onions are bent over and top heavy - this couldn't be good?"

"No, it probably isn't."

"So, I can't just trim off the greens?"

"No, I wouldn't recommend that."

"So you are sure 'bout this? Are you growing any onions this year?"

"OH no. I've never grown a good onion bulb in my life."

Well, what more could I say. I quickly hung up and laughed for at least the better half of dinner recalling this wise dad of mine that had just talked to me about raising a good onion for at least 7 minutes to conclude with that zinger.

I'll let you know if I can grow an onion any better then my dad can, using his sage advice.

Good dads just come with an aura that says I can protect you from all things, I can fix everything, talk about anything, I know all things, and I will love you no matter what.

A good dad makes it easy to understand the nature of an unconditionally, loving Father.

Don't you just love dads!!?

Happy father's day daddy. You are still the wisest man I know.

I Will Rise

2009-06-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Current favorite by Chris Tomlin

Introducing Seeds - awesome family worship music

2009-06-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

My kids are loving the first album we got from them. Verses straight from the Bible set to really great melodies - songs good enough for adult church but simple enough for kids to love. Singing verses implants them deep in kids hearts.

Seeds Family Worship was planted when worship leader, Jason Houser, was asked to write some songs to help kids remember the verses from his church’s summer Bible school.

Jason began writing songs and singing them for the kids and families at church. The songs were well-crafted, catchy, and taken straight from scripture. Families liked them. . . a lot.

From just a handful of songs, Seeds Family Worship was planted – providing God’s Word set to music for thousands of families all over the world. We are gladdened by stories of worship times at home, scripture memorized, and object lessons taught using Seeds songs. The fifth Seeds

Family Worship album – The Power of Encouragement – has just released. In total, Seeds has grown to 58 portions of scripture set to music!

The team at Seeds Family Worship continues to create great, scripture-based music. But, we also see God’s call to further equip churches and homes with ways to encourage families to worship together. We want to hear the needs, joys, and hopes for family worship in your church.

While we plant and water, we know that God is the grower of seeds. We can’t wait to see what happens!

We are excited to make Seeds Family Worship Live events available to your church. The mission of a Seeds Family Worship Live event is to provide an opportunity for families of all ages to worship and spend quality time together as a family unit, fellowship with other families in the church, and learn the Word of God.

Here’s How It Works:
The Worship Leader: A Seeds Family Worship leader will come to your church and lead a high-energy, powerful night of worship with the songs contained on the Seeds Family Worship CD’s.

Your Worship Team: Your own worship team will be the musicians to back up the Seeds Family
Worship Leader.

Your Kids: Three to five children/youth (8-15 years old) from your church will sing as part of the worship team. This is a confidence builder for the kids.

Getting Ready: We provide all the CD’s, music charts, for the concert to the worship team at least 2 weeks prior to the worship concert and encourage you to schedule one rehearsal before the worship leader arrives.

Promotions: The worship leader will fly in the day before the event and rehearse with the worship team. We provide promotional posters in advance and power point the night of the concert. Then there will be an additional rehearsal two hours prior to the concert.

Our Goal: TO PLANT THE SEEDS OF GOD’S WORD IN THE HEARTS OF FAMILIES AND CHILDREN.

Bringing Seeds to your Church
If you are interested in booking an event, please contact Michelle Uhri at michelle@seedsfamilyworship.com or call us at 615-463-7398.

Shout outs to all of you Bloggin mamas in love with your man

2009-06-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

In the real world, I tend to stay pretty quiet about how in love I am with my man as so many ladies are struggling in their marriages...

but here in the blogosphere I get so excited to read of all the twitterpated wives that are still on this planet. Yay for marriage!! We'll be swooned together over these men that God has blessed us with! My Rennaisance man has me so swooned that I often call him Mr. Swooney.

Shout outs to all you in love ladies that proclaim it to the world that you and your man are in it for the long haul called forever. Keep it up as you encourage us all to keep working hard to have a great marriage when you boldly brag on your hubbies.

Holly at MooBee is quite swooned with the love of her life, Hot Husband himself: http://moobeefarm.blogspot.com/2008/06/twenty-one.html

At We are That Family, I found 21 posts labeled "I love my hubby" some of the sweetest love letters, stories, and braggin in one spot! http://www.wearethatfamily.com/search/label/I%20love%20my%20hubby

Kristin at Stepping Heavenward, in love since 1990: http://stepping2heaven.blogspot.com/2009/02/valentines-day-1990.html

Sweet Heather at Simple and Deliberate, widowed at 39 from the love of her life shares her love story and God's grace in the midst of losing her soul mate: http://lazydranch8.blogspot.com/

Cathy at Dancing in the Rain can't wait to get alone with her date that she warns us, "don't hate me because he's so handsome and he's all mine!" I love it!! Go Cathy!: http://cathycordero.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-have-date.html

Can't leave the men out of this grand Marriage love affair: Mike so sweetly proclaims the beauty of his wife Melissa as he first sees her in her pjs in the hospital while recovering from her recent colon cancer surgery. Please pray for this dear family: http://easterbrooksfamily.blogspot.com/2009/05/eye-of-storm.html

Bo over at Bo Stern's Blog can't stop telling us all the reasons she loves her man: http://bostern.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/true/

Jen at Diary of 1 recounts the sweetness of getting married in this anniversary post: http://www.diaryof1.com/2008/10/22/the-anniversary/

Amanda at A Thousand Words often tells of how she is married to her best friend - living out a dream she had since she was little to be married to a wonderful man and be a mommy - Couldn't find the exact post I was looking for where she talks of a sweet date, but her blog is full of love everywhere so check it out when you can! http://pslittleworld.blogspot.com/

Mandy and her beloved Mountain Man: http://creatinggoodsoil.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-mountain-man.html

Karyn at A Beautiful Mess is still getting butterflies in her stomach as she smells her hubbies cologne wearing his sweatshirt: http://braat-spot.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-boyfriends-song-sweatshirt.html

Girls weekends

2009-06-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

I can hardly keep up with the weeds in the garden, the mounting pile of mismatched socks, or the mail so blog posts don't seem to happen in sync with life either...but I just wanted to take a sec and reflect on some recent girl time!

In April, some 3 other girlfriends from my town and I spent the weekend in Florence together. Gorgeous blue sky, warm sunny weekend without a picture to show for it. We were too busy talking, walking, eating out, laughing, and not "doing" anything to pull the camera out.

Last week I got to go to a lunch at one of the members of my bookclub's house with one of my favorite authors: Jane Kirkpatrick. Unbelievable time. She is brilliant in all she says - inspiring!!

And last weekend, some long time friends from my early married years spent the weekend in Portland together. Rose garden, comedy club, IKEA, great restaurants and old friends - what a perfect formula to restore this weary soul!!

Girl time is so key to balance for me!! 2 girls weekends and a brunch with Jane Kirkpatrick all in 6 weeks! I am spoiled, loved, and deeply restored!

We had lunch at the Rose Garden, then went shopping in boutiques in NW Portland, then off to dinner at a yummy downtown restaurant before going to the comedy club that night. The funnest thing too was that they all stayed at my parent's house - my mom is on a trip to Chicago - so I got to have a girls weekend with my dad and husband and kid

dos too!! Perfect fun!!

Friends that you can just let your hair down with and know that who you are is loved unconditionally by are the best kinds of friends ever...I am blessed indeed! These gals are ones that encourage, think about all kinds of things, and ultimately inspire me to keep being better at mommyhood, citizenship in my community, and wife hood.

Ultimately, I love that these gals love to SMILE and laugh. They aren't critical on the things around them - just perceptive.

Happy Birthday Lori!! I couldn't love you any more than I do!

Priorities redefined

2009-05-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Moms and dads everywhere can relate to the transformation that occurs the first second that you hold your new baby. In an instant, life is redefined. Priorities shift.

I can still remember the carefree days where I could tap into my spontaneous self and do nutty things like completely rearrange a pre-arranged summer agenda to do some college summer school and work and in an hour, decide to fly to Colorado for rehearsal camp for the Continental Singers who called begging me to be their pianist for a summer of touring the country. Most pay thousands to have this opportunity and most plan for it for a year, but I had the luxury of one hour to decide and then ultimately fly the next day to Colorado, all expenses paid by the Continentals...ahh, the luxuries of answering to only myself. Sure! I'll go! And now for the rest of my life, I will be able to say I am an ex-Con.

In the last month, I have turned down an opportunity to go on a cruise with my brother as the musical entertainment on a Royal Carribean 8 day cruise from Bermuda to Portugal. We were booked for just 2 shows and the rest of the time were totally free to do cruisey things with the 3500 plus people on board.

And, now, I just had to decline a second invitation to do an Alaskan cruise during the first week of June. All expense paid Alaskan Cruise and I passed it right up? See, if I went, I'd miss our guitar and piano studio June recital - it's a huge deal and I have 20 amazing students this year!! Many have been with me for some years now and I am so proud to say that they are truly becoming musicians. We are doing ragtime, blues, a little jazz, some worship music, classical, some show tunes, some Disney, and even a couple of my students are doing some duets together. But, I might just be able to be pulled away from the big show for an Alaskan cruise...

but the next morning is the morning I have been dreading for 2 years - my little princess will be graduating kindergarten in cap and gown. It's a 30 minute ceremony but it is the 20 seconds where my little one will make a small passage into the great big world of elementary school and her priceless expression as she undoubtedly catches my eye from stage for a fleeting moment that begs me to match her joy with my own expression of congratulations that I can't possibly miss. I am going to have to smile even thought my heart is breaking - hopefully she wont' be able to see the tears from stage.

See she has been counting the days 'till she is a big "full timer" at school as a first grader. Just couldn't wait for this big leap towards greater Independence - 'till she got to hold on to the truth that she is now an all -day school girl. As one of my favorite bloggers over at MooBee just wrote:

Oh child, I want to say. You have no idea how many wonderful things you will wait your whole life to hold in your hands.

Each FIRST time will seem like it took forever to get here and you'll want to hold on so tight.

Then.

One day.

You'll discover that the measure of a man (and a Mom) is in the letting go.

So while she crosses the stage and grabs onto her long-awaited diploma and awards, I will be in the audience learning how to let go.

The dreaded calendar

2009-05-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

For months, I have not looked forward to the monthly task of turning the calendar to the next month. Sure, part of me did look forward to the march towards sunshine, veggie gardens, and about 8 weeks of road tripping with the fam this summer....

BUT....

the closer we get to June, the closer I am to graduating from a pre-school mommy to a full fledged mom of elementary kids. I say goodbye to my daily 11 am pick up that I have done for 5 years now - where every day after I have a morning to do what I need to do, I get to go back to my sprouts school and pick up a smiling youngster. I love it. I love spending every afternoon dating my little princess. We dance. We make dinner. We make muffins. We plant the garden. We shop. We do crafts. We learn piano. We hug, alot.

Didn't school just start???? How is it nearly June?

I truly can not believe that in just a few months, she will be in school all day long as a first grader. Everyone tells me that I will fill my time in, that I will get used to it, and that it will be great to have my freedom back.

I doubt it. I am sure I will get busy but I will always be wishing I could be busy with her by my side like it's been for 6 years.

Rennaissance man wants to talk about our upcoming trips and every time he brings it up my eyes gloss over and I can't seem to stick with the conversation. I figured out why - summer = 1st grader and 3rd grader and right now, I want to savor every current moments of having the priveledge of being with my kindergartner and 2nd grader.

Just yesterday they were my 1st grader and preschooler:

So for now, I savor every juicy second I have with them. I find myself hugging them longer, squeezing their chubby cheeks more, saying "sure" more then "not now", and lingering in each moment.

As they say: All because two people fell in love

2009-05-25T19:06:00.001-07:00

It all started nearly 15 years ago, my first day on OSU campus and I was spotted by the man that would change my life. Mutual friends couldn't help but set us up - it was obvious to everyone what a match we'd make. We loved to worship God with music, loved to get out and sweat hard on a bike or run, loved the outdoors....

One of our first times together was in October - I fresh from Chicago was in awe at the way country folk celebrated harvest fests and found myself atop a fresh load of hay in a wagon being pulled by horses around some fields, and then the strapping tall, chiseled faced man of my future dreams looked across the hay bails and confidently winked at me so only I could see and walked right into my heart for what would turn out to be - forever.

It feels as if I couldn't love him more and yet with each passing day, we fall more in love. As life unfolds and I see the way he graciously handles challenges and triumphs I get a deeper knowing into his character that glimpses of, all those years ago, took my breath away.

That God has added to this rich family our two precious children can only send me to my knees in praise of all that he has done.

Because two people fell in love...we get to see His legacy unfold in these sweet little angels

Please help me with my bonus room craze

2009-05-23T07:00:00.001-07:00

For as long as we have had kids and have been home owners, I have dreamed of having the home with the illusive Bonus Room. See, I want our home to be the home that my kids friends want to come to and picture this idyllic world where the children quietly slip away to the Bonus Room and leave with smiles.

Is it possible to raise kids in a little 3 bedroom home and have their friends desire to come over to a little house even during those late elementary and older years? It works find now, but our kids are young and we do have this nice feature - our kitchen, office/music studio, and front living room are situated in this perfect way to create an indoor track. So, no matter where adults might be in the home, the happy children will be careening through the area as they circle around the track.

Maybe this is what all the parenting experts define as: Togetherness.

So what's in these bonus rooms? During my run today I asked myself this very question. I pictured behind each of the doors that lead to these Bonus rooms lies a mini-DisneyLand, full of endless gadgets, gizmos, and Ferris Wheels to keep children giggling and occupied for hours.

And I, don't have one of these places and covet all that do. There. Truth is out.

So I ask, do you think it is going to be possible to raise our sprouts without one of these Bonus rooms!!????

I want one. But Rennaissance Man says, "Julie, we are outdoor people!! Do you really want to have to work harder and longer to afford the big home and give up months of vacations together as a family? We'll just take our kids' friends with us on our adventures. What would we do with all that space? We wouldn't ever be in it?"

10 minutues later, after I have zoned out for about 9 minutes, I hear him pause so I meekly ask: "well, would this bigger home have a bonus room?"

"JULIE!!!!"

Summer couldn't come quick enough as I posted earlier, my desires for STUFF, Bonus Rooms, Stuff for the Bonus rooms, and stuff for future Bonus Rooms is starting to consume me!! I feel as if I am collapsing before the finish line. (So I went out, and for the first time in years, I bought myself 3 summer dresses! No friends or mom to help...I did this all by myself! But, sadly it did not take away this incessant desire for a BONUS ROOM!!!)

10 great money saving grocery tips

2009-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

I cook healthy. yes. I cook yummy food, yes. But I am horrible at doing those things AND not spending our retirement on our meal of the day, a la mode.

A few of my closest friends in town, who also eat like we do but do so for 1/3 of our cost have inspired me to try to improve this. Now, they don't have the dairy, wheat or organic restrictions on their diets which alone will create havoc on the bottom line, but they do have 3 children and both families spend about $400/month on food.

My friend in the valley is a master at couponing - so much so that she does talks, leads seminars, and has this blog. I read it and truly don't get it! I am horrible at detail management so this blows my mind - but many of you are gifted here so her tips will help you! It works - she feeds her family of 6 for CHEAP!! check it out: http://momsequipped.blogspot.com/

Anyway, here's what I did. We spend $800 to $1200 on food. Now granted, since we started eating clean, we don't spend money on doctors. So, in the end, we spend less then we used to on cheap food and doctors/drugs/supplements...but, I still sought to improve this as I know I can do better then $1200! Hubby is losing money this year and next year at work, so we really don't have a choice and I enjoy the challenge.

I stopped creating my meals from recipes. I used to sit down with my favorite recipe books and sketch out a month of recipes and create my shopping lists this way. It forced me to purchase lots of extra food to create gourmet type entres. No more!
I pull out $600 in cash and keep it in an envelope and that's how much money we get for groceries, period. When it runs out, we call you and come over for dinner. :)
I create my meals by looking in our freezer and pantry and seeing what meat, beans, and grains we have to create an entre around. I then go online to sites like www.cooks.com and do a search with that ingredient. I pick the healthiest recipe with the fewest exotic ingredients that contains the most amount of ingredients that we already have and print it out.
We purchase our dairy and eggs from our friends - I make our cheese and yogurt from the raw milk and the eggs are so rich in flavor and nutrients, we tend to need less of them to feel satisfied. By not having to go to a store to buy milk, cheese, yogurt and eggs I have avoided that easy temptation to throw spontaneous purchases into the cart.
We stopped buying cereal and make granola each week from whatever we have around: I currently have 5 pound bags of wheat germ, ground flax meal, oat bran, and coconut that all add depth of flavor and nutrition to the organic oats, walnuts, almonds, raisins, dried apricots, dried mangoes, and sunflower seeds.
I hit the Canned Food Outlet now first - and then supplement with the more expensive Fred Meyer and Costco store second. Canned Food has surprised me with a nice selection of organic and clean foods. But, you do have to be careful here.
I don't go to Costco as much, if at all these days. I thought it saved us money, but really we end up just buying more of what we only "kind of" needed. Some things we need to get from there but I sat down with the husband and outlined exactly what we need from there and disciplined myself to not throw other random things in the cart. Those random things at Costco add up super quick as it's large quantities which means $10 to $20 each - that's a lot to spontaneously spend I have realized.
Eat meat once in awhile, not weekly. We are getting really creative with all kinds of beans.
Eat rice or potatoes almost every dinner.
We buy in bulk from Azure Standard, as always. Cheaper then any store, fresh, with every item offered in organic as well.

It worked!! April we actually spent $530!! And that included a few household cleaning supplies that I never included in my $1200 food months.

Share your tips in the comments! I could use all the help I can get and I am sure everyone else can too in these penny pinching times

We put on a Good show

2009-05-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

Picture at the start of the race. I the one in the pink tank top.

We were neck and neck the whole race. I felt awesome, running in my cool Orange and Black Beaver colored Brook racers in Yellow and Green Duck country...but it is always so intimidating to cross over into Duck territory and run against these folks. Running was invented in Eugene, Oregon afterall, back in the 70s when Bowerman created a legacy in the U of O track team sparking a running epidemic that swept the country. It's where Nike began!!

Truly I love doing these races because it is just a small part of what keeps me connected to another facet of who I am - I am not just a mom or a wife but I am also my own person with my own interests. The fam loves to see their mommy "going for it" as it helps give me my own persona. We all support each other in our different interests - ballet, soccer, running, mountain biking, piano, guitar, photography - whatever it is, in our fam you have a built in cheering section! My father-in-law, mother-in-law, family friend, husband, and 2 kids rounded out my fan club for the race.

As I ran this race this morning, many thoughts swam through the 'ole mind. At the mile mark when I clocked a 6:22 and was the front runner for the women I was definitely worried. Had I started too fast? Adrenaline can work for the first mile, but what counts is how you are doing at the finisth line and adrenaline won't get you through a full 5K! But God intervened there and put my mind back on the right track. I spent the next 1/2 mile just praising Him for bringing my body back from what felt like death in 06/07....I felt awesome. Light, fast, and strong. Feelings I haven't felt in some time. Of course, at that point I calculated that I was still the front runner for the women.

I remember in Jan '07 when the blood tests came back and I got the phone call from the doc: "You have the Epstein Barr Virus or what's also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. As well, you have fibromyalgea and Type II diabetes (caused from a bad reaction to an antibiotic). There's really nothing we can do except advise you to take it easy." I felt like I'd been hit in the stomach...I felt defeated...I felt myself mourning the person that had in effect just died and been replaced with this new EBV person.

But God grabbed me by the heart, shook me up, and basically said, "Everybody dies, but not everyone LIVES! Do you want to let yourself be defeated or will you walk in faith that I can heal you and that unlike many folks out there, you will beat this? You have a choice: either hang your head low and live out EBV forever or hold your head up high and look to me."

(Playing on the playlist is Superchick's rock version of the very conversation God Has with me in '07 - Everybody dies but not everybody lives. Super fun, go live life to it's fullest kind of song!)

So after a few days of mourning, I pulled myself up by the bootstraps and grabbed a hold of LIFE. I kept running. I started eating well. I started living a lifestyle that would detox me and give my system a fighting chance to put this nasty virus into remission.

I also decided to keep smiling.

So, fast forward to today. I seriously ran praising Him. Thank you God for restoring to me athleticism, energy, vitality, and vigor. I give you all the glory!! I don't know if I'll win, but I do know that I feel strong again!

The whole run was lined with spectators cheering. I heard every other second, "you two are the front liners...first women! YOU CAN do it!! " I also knew the champion women from last year, local highschool cross country coach, was right on our heels too.

The gal that had been running on my heels passed me after the second mile but I hung on to her heels during that mile . We ran hard. I knew the last 1/4 mile was after the last turn and it was a straight shot into the finish line, but it was up hill.

I come representing Central Oregon! I come as a Beaver! I come representing moms everywhere that you CAN still get out and do it! I come representing all folks battling a chronic condition - that there's hope!! I come representing God's healing hand!

Before turning the corner for that last hill I naturally overtook her. But, the finish line was still not in sight and she was right on my heels. As soon as I hit the bottom of the hill I picked it up but I still couldn't see the finish line. I told myself that when I do, I was going to sprint like there's no tomorrow and give it everything I had. As the finish line came into view, I kicked it up.

Seriously the crowd was going nuts which told me she was close. I heard the announcer over the speakers saying, "Folks we have a close one here for the 5k women's champion." Then I saw my Rennaissance Man and he was NOT taking pictures - he was screaming at me..."She's on your tail!"

I ran as hard as I have ever run...and entered that finish line in first place with a PR of 21:09. So I ran a sub-7 minute mile average pace!

I caught my breath and immeditately a radio DJ ran up to me and said he was going to interview me live in the show - it's kind of a bummer that 2nd place doesn't get any attention at all.

Turns out, that "woman" was 18. Feels good to beat an 18 year old gal who trains with her track team daily when you are 34! But it feels even better to just feel so awesome again!

Stretching before the race:

Me being interviewed by a DJ airing the show live on the radio:

twirling amongst the green hills and flowers

2009-05-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Here's what my D-70 captured the weekend of the Columbia Hills trip.

Twirling and running, Dancing and laughing in the hills.

Wish me luck!

2009-05-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today we head to the beach for a beautiful 3 day weekend that celebrates the blooming of the Rhododendrons. This trip has something for all of us - endless scenes to capture on film for my Man, a classic car show for the Wildboy Sprout, a parade for the Princess Sprout and a 5K race for me. I came in 1st overall in '07 and 2nd last year (but had a massive migraine the entire night before and morning of the race) - so, I am out for a good time this year, equipped with my new Brooks Mach 10 Racing shoe:
(remember - I am under oath to only be seen racing and training in Brooks and spouting the wonders of the company at various public places.)

So Wish Me Luck!! I am just hoping to prove to myself that I am actually not a year older and 40 seconds slower.

While I am out, you might enjoy checking out Bo Stern's blog. It is so jam packed with JOY; touching ideas on life, womenhood, and parenting; and encouragements to draw you closer to Him! www.bostern.wordpress.com

What brings tears to my eyes on Mother's day

2009-05-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yes I was the recipient of numerous sweet cards, homemade gifts, and meals all day prepared by someone other then myself.

And I loved it all.

But what always touches me is when the hubby in the family quietly pulls his wife aside and speaks words of blessing and thankfulness to her for all that she does for his children. My dad never forgets to give my mom a card like that and my sweet husband blesses me with his deep thankfulness that I am the mother of his children every year.

I am one that needs just a few words of encouragement and I am ready to go the next 100 miles. It's my fuel for living.

I thankfully have a husband that says such words to me all year, but he takes Mother's Day seriously and spoils me rotten on that day and it makes me....

...blessed to overflowing.

My mom left her card at my house - it was too sweet from my dad, married 36 years to her - so I will leave you on this sweet note from him:

I couldn't begin to put into words all the joy you've brought to my life, But all the love I'll ever need I've found in you - my wife.
With love on Mother's Day and Always, Charles

Picture taken on the deck of the gorgeous restaurant we went to - Brasada Ranch - with at least 6 massive mountains in our view out the window of this delicious and luxurious restaurant. If we are going to spend money at a restaurant, it better have an amazing atmosphere and great food and this one is beyond belief with views to die for!

Why God made flowers

2009-05-10T17:08:00.001-07:00

Friday night we sprinted up to the Washington Gorge area on our continual quest to chase wildflowers. As Rennaissance Man turned up a dirt road near a winery, I wondered how this was possibly going to lead to anything beautiful. Seconds later, we turned a bend and before us lay endless green hills exploding with yellow and purple. As far as we could see...we were giggling with excitement as we saw thousands of photo ops laying before us begging to be captured for his portolio that is gaining quite a bit of attention from local professional photographers.

He will probably kill me if he knew I posted this here as these are not worked on or processed at all and it's amazing how the finished photo pops off the page in comparison to these raw images. Right now, these pictures are somewhat dark and in a week, I will post a picture from this shoot that has been processed so the lighting reflects what we actually saw. But, I have to share.

This one location seemed to me to be what heaven will look like - and yet it was just one ravine of hundreds to be explored, but it's all we had time to work. Rolling green hills of various shades, full of flowers, with a stream running through, a gorgeous oak tree and all leading to and pointing towards Mt Hood. In one shot!! I have described my perfect photo but never thought one place on earth would have it all. And there we stood, in the middle of my dream, only it was real!

I took some great shots too with my Nikon D70...but they are still on my camera. Of course, mine have elements like a certain blond gal, twirling in childlike bliss amongst the endless fields.

I was so drawn to the coupling of our children, running with wreckless abandon, giggling and laughing, through these endless fields of flowers. God created flowers simply as a way to paint his earth with His Joy - color at all for that matter did not have to be so vivid - and children, with out a care in this world running through fields of flowers put their for our joy alone is a priceless image. I'll post later!

We enjoyed a beautiful evening camping near a lake and then had a delightful drive home on Sat to let our Wildman sprout go nuts on the soccer field again. One of the dads, for fun, pulled power-foot Sprout aside and teased that he'd pay him $1 for every goal he made...so he went out with kill in his eyes and slammed in 5 goals before the halftime mark, each time looking back at this dad with a finger in the air reminding him that he owes him yet another $1. We left early to get him to traveling team tryouts - this kid needs to be with other kiddos that passionately crave soccer like he does.

Sat evening rounded off with an absolutely amazing musical at my husband's highschool of Annie. I was bursting with pride that our community has such talent - from young orphans through highschool kids, the singing, acting, dancing, and instrument playing was phenomenal. I was blown away. And what a timely message for all of us - Annie reminds those around her in the midst of the Great Depression that the Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow!!

And being amidst God's flower heaven hours before, I had felt the same whisper in my heart as I am struggling to find a job in our town and know that many are unemployed - that the sun will come out tomorrow, His world is in motion as He directs, and things will look up again soon.

Leaving for the Hills

2009-05-08T09:53:00.001-07:00

This is where we are headed today...apparently it's nearly 80 there. We'll be camping by a pristine lake tonight....rushing back tomorrow for the final soccer game of the season and then enjoying the Musical Annie with my mom and dad Sat night. Sunday we have reservations at an amazing restaurant that we went to last year with 180 degree mountain views from California to Washington. Can't wait!!

Waterfalls, spring, and summer sun

2009-05-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

We escaped the gloomy windy rain of our town this last weekend by heading to the gorge, up north, to capture the new spring growth surrounding the many waterfalls. Photographer husband (aka. Rennaissance man) had a wild time, getting wet, climbing hills, and capturing God's beauty. We hiked about 5 miles in total, seeing about 5 waterfalls in all and hillsides full of apple and pear orchards in full white blossomed glory beneath the gaze of a huge snow capped mountain. Wow!! Is all I can say!!

It was sunny, in the 70s, and so refreshing. It's what I did instead of spending the weekend indoors for our church's women's retreat. I love these retreats! I started them 5 years ago...but in MAY!!??? I am ready to do as the REI marketing campaign simply puts it:

Find Out.

Out has been replaced by too much indoor time and REI is very cleverly calling us all to again, Find Out!! Our culture spends so much time inside!

Every summer, the miles on the trails slowly detoxes my soul and mind from things like: 1. need for bigger house, 2. need for cute things to put in bigger house, 3. need for cute clothes, 4. need for stuff!! and replaces all that with just a total sense of peace, a deep reminder of what's truly important (time with each other, God, His creation and being in it), and a total lack of desire for any of the Free Markets world of Stuff. It really takes the full 2 month summer and usually, full detoxing of these desires doesn't really happen until the last weeks of summer.

By this time of the year, even though I vow it won't happen, the world's stuff procurement allure creeps back in and I feel so discontent with our house, the stuff in our house, the stuff on my body, the stuff in the garage, stuff, stuff,stuff!!

So, for me, this first of many weekends to come, of just being OUT all day, of simply Finding Out, was so absolutely what my heart needed.

I missed my friends that got to be together all weekend...but bummer, they chose MAY!!! and they chose "IN" and I need "OUT!!" So, as REI said last year, "Out is IN!" Now, go Find Out!! ('cause I promise you - God's hanging out there in his mighty chapel!)

Powerful Worship time

2009-05-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

My Rennaisance man, his good buddies Jason and Wayne, and I had the privilege of leading worship at church last week. We love to do music together!! We have gotten so used to each other's musical styles that even during practice night, we quickly move from having to focus on the music part and just enter into goose-bump raising worship.

Rennaisance Man and I have been co-leading worship for 15 years now and have worked with tons of different people in this capacity. Always, the goal is to play with excellence so that we are not the distracting focus but people can look past us to His throne. Our pastor came up to us after each service and said that worship took his breath away and he could barely pull himself together to get up and speak. Not that we want to render our pastor speechless, but it is such a blessing to be part of team that is using their gifts to lead others into worship so powerfully.

I've been part of worship teams over the years where it's just not clicking musically so as a musician I have to focus so hard on the musicality of what I am doing that there is no way I can just worship. I also remember the beginning years where I was the rookie on a team learning how to play piano with a band versus playing it as a solo instrument and learning how to sing harmonies on key, how to layer my harmonies and piano parts into the mix to help build intensity, etc. Those years, the focus was just making the music happen more then worship because a brain can only deal with so many things at once.

It is such a treat to be part of such a talented worship team at our church where we finally have all those types of elements figured out, where we don't even script out who is doing what, how many times we will sing verses and choruses, or who needs to come in when. We start playing together - it turns into worship - and His spirit directs the song. All of us on stage completely forget that we are rehearsing or that there are people out in the audience because we are caught up in worship. I love when that happens. (The poor powerpoint person directing the words on screen for the congregation has to be on his toes with us as he never knows what we'll do next!).

Here's one of our favorites as harmonies and intensity build throughout this song finally breaking free at the very end with a declaration that His Glory can only cause us to fall face down at his feet.

Too much to handle

2009-04-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

A friend is going through more then I can imagine having to deal with all at once. Another new friend has recently been sharing with me her story and again, it's more then I can imagine one person having to bear.

I too, have been at points where the weight of what is happening seems to overwhelm me.

I have been on my knees today praying for these friends, as one of them waits as her mom gets a double mastectomy knowing that her dad just lost his job of 14 years all the while suffering with chronic pain and other conditions herself. Too. Much. To. Bear.

In times like this, I often hear folks say things like, "God doesn't give you more then you can handle." I don't know about you, but that always hits me so raw when I am at the end of me and absolutely know that I can NOT handle what's happening very well at all for one more minute.

In those times, what I know God wants us to know in the depths of our soul is this:

God does not ever give us more then HE can handle.

Now, that brings peace. Bring it to His cross, lay down our burdens, and Know that HE is the one handling this in my heart. I don' then go back to the cross and take it back so that I can handle it... I leave it there.

We are just one phone call away from news that can drive us to our knees - like my friend hearing that her young mom has breast cancer - 2 1/2 weeks ago they didn't live in that world and suddenly their reality is breast cancer. Again, I go back to his truth:

God does not ever give us more then HE can handle.

Yippee! Sprinklers are on!

2009-04-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

Spring cleaning this weekend left our yard looking so much better after 5 huge garbage bag loads of yard debris were cleared from the garden beds. We lost a few perennials this winter and spring, but clearing out some of these plants just cleaned up the beds a bit to create room for nearby plants to thrive.

New life. Such a joy after a long winter. Little shoots of life, pushing with all their might through the soil gave me so much joy to see once I cleared the dead plant parts away. This time of year, my fingernail are more likely to have dirt under them then they are not (and so are my toes 'cause I love to garden barefoot!).

And as I type this, it's nearly 8:30 and it's still light outside and the sweet sound of the sprinklers are pattering away life giving water on our newly organically fertilized lawn and garden beds.

The anticipation of summer and the daily change in plants as they come back to life during this time of year makes these days some of my favorite days of the year!

Power of Peas

2009-04-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

I am making a split pea rice dish tonight and thought I'd share all the wonder packed into a little split pea with you today!

Found the following info on The World's Healthiest Foods Website.

Dried peas

When fresh peas are not available or when you want to enjoy a starchier, hardier flavored legume, dried peas are the perfect choice; they are available any time of the year.

Although they belong to the same family as beans and lentils, they are usually distinguished as a separate group because of the ways in which they are prepared. The different types of peas are all spherical, a feature that also sets them apart from beans and lentils. Dried peas are produced by harvesting the peapods when they are fully mature and then drying them. Once they are dried and the skins removed, they split naturally.

This chart graphically details the %DV that a serving of Dried peas provides for each of the nutrients of which it is a good, very good, or excellent source according to our Food Rating System. Additional information about the amount of these nutrients provided by Dried peas can be found in the Food Rating System Chart. A link that takes you to the In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Dried peas, featuring information over 80 nutrients, can be found under the Food Rating System Chart.

Health Benefits

Dried peas, a small but nutritionally mighty member of the legume family, are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. Not only can dried peas help lower cholesterol, they are also of special benefit in managing blood-sugar disorders since their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal.

Fiber is far from all that dried peas have to offer. Dried peas also provide good to excellent amounts of four important minerals, two B-vitamins, and protein--all with virtually no fat. As if this weren't enough, dried peas also feature isoflavones (notably daidzein). Isoflavones are phytonutrients that can act like weak estrogens in the body and whose dietary consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of certain health conditions, including breast and prostate cancer.

Dried Peas are Packed with Fiber

Check a chart of the fiber content in foods and you'll see legumes leading the pack. Dried peas, like other legumes, are rich in soluble fiber. Soluble fiber forms a gel-like substance in the digestive tract that binds bile (which contains cholesterol) and carries it out of the body. Research studies have shown that insoluble fiber not only helps to increase stool bulk and prevent constipation, but also helps prevent digestive disorders like irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulosis. A single cup of cooked dried peas provides 65.1% of the daily value for fiber.

Dried Peas Provide Energy to Burn While Stabilizing Blood Sugar

In addition to its beneficial effects on the digestive system and the heart, soluble fiber helps stabilize blood sugar levels. If you have insulin resistance, hypoglycemia or diabetes, legumes like dried peas can really help you balance blood sugar levels while providing steady, slow-burning energy. Studies of high fiber diets and blood sugar levels have shown the dramatic benefits provided by these high fiber foods. Researchers compared two groups of people with type 2 diabetes who were fed different amounts of high fiber foods. One group ate the standard American Diabetic diet, which contains 24 grams of fiber/day, while the other group ate a diet containing 50 grams of fiber/day. Those who ate the diet higher in fiber had lower levels of both plasma glucose (blood sugar) and insulin (the hormone that helps blood sugar get into cells). The high fiber group also reduced their total cholesterol by nearly 7%, their triglyceride levels by 10.2% and their VLDL (Very Low Density Lipoprotein--the most dangerous form of cholesterol) by 12.5%.

Take Dried Peas to Heart

In a study that examined food intake patterns and risk of death from coronary heart disease, researchers followed more than 16,000 middle-aged men in the U.S., Finland, The Netherlands, Italy, former Yugoslavia, Greece and Japan for 25 years. Typical food patterns were: higher consumption of dairy products in Northern Europe; higher consumption of meat in the U.S.; higher consumption of vegetables, legumes, fish, and wine in Southern Europe; and higher consumption of cereals, soy products, and fish in Japan. When researchers analyzed this data in relation to the risk of death from heart disease, they found that legumes were associated with an 82% reduction in risk!

In addition to their stellar fiber content, dried peas also feature other heart healthy nutrients. They are a good source of potassium, which may decrease the growth and development of blood vessel plaques and is also good for lowering high blood pressure. A cup of cooked peas will supply you with 20.3% of your daily need for potassium.

Sensitive to Sulfites? Dried Peas May Help

Dried peas are an excellent source of the trace mineral, molybdenum, an integral component of the enzyme sulfite oxidase, which is responsible for detoxifying sulfites. Sulfites are a type of preservative commonly added to prepared foods like delicatessen salads and salad bars. Persons who are sensitive to sulfites in these foods may experience rapid heartbeat, headache or disorientation if sulfites are unwittingly consumed. If you have ever reacted to sulfites, it may be because your molybdenum stores are insufficient to detoxify them. A cup of cooked dried peas provides 196.0% of the daily value for molybdenum.

Description

When fresh peas are not available or when you want to enjoy a starchier, hardier flavored legume, dried peas are perfect. They are available either whole or split, the latter being appropriately called "split peas." While we generally associate dried peas with a deep green color, they are also available in a yellow color, which offers a more delicate flavor and is the type generally preferred in northern European countries. Dried peas are produced by harvesting the peapods when they are fully mature and then drying them. Peas are known scientifically as Pisum sativum.

History

The modern-day garden pea, from which dried peas are made, is thought to have originated from the field pea that was native to central Asia and Europe. Dried peas have been consumed since prehistoric times with fossilized remains being found at archeological sites in Swiss lake villages. Peas are mentioned in the Bible and were prized by the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome.

For millennia, dried peas were the main way that people consumed this legume. It was not until the 16th century when cultivation techniques created more tender varieties of garden peas that people began to consume peas in their fresh state as opposed to just eating dried peas. It seems that the Chinese, a culture that had consumed this legume as far back as 2,000 BC, were the first ones to consume both the seeds and the pods as a vegetable. Peas were introduced into United States soon after the colonists first settled in this country.

In the 19th century during the early developments of the study of genetics, peas played an important role. The monk and botanist, Gregor Mendel used peas in his plant breeding experiments.

Today the largest commercial producers of dried peas are Russia, France, China and Denmark.

How to Select and Store

Dried peas are generally available in prepackaged containers as well as bulk bins. They are available as whole peas or split peas. Regardless of packaging, check the peas as best as possible to ensure that they are not cracked and that they are free of debris. Just as with any other food that you may purchase in the bulk section, make sure that the bins containing the dried peas are covered and that the store has a good product turnover so as to ensure its maximal freshness.

Dried peas will keep for several months if stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry, dark place. If you need to store them for longer, you can keep them in the refrigerator.

How to Enjoy

For some of our favorite recipes, click Recipes.

Tips for Preparing Dried Peas:

Before preparing dried peas, whether whole or split, inspect and remove any debris or dirt. Whole peas need to be soaked in cold water for at least eight hours before cooking, while split peas do not need this extra preparation. To prepare peas, place the legumes in a saucepan using three cups of fresh water for each cup of peas. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover. Whole peas generally take about an hour to become tender while split peas only take about 30 minutes. Foam may form during the first 15 minutes of cooking, which can simply be skimmed off.

A Few Quick Serving Ideas:

Use split peas to make dahl, the classic Indian dish.

Split pea soup, whether homemade or from a container, is a delicious way to enjoy this nutritious legume.

Purée cooked peas with your favorite herbs and spices and serve as a side dish.

Add whole peas to vegetable soups.

Safety

Dried Peas and Purines

Dried peas contain naturally-occurring substances called purines. Purines are commonly found in plants, animals, and humans. In some individuals who are susceptible to purine-related problems, excessive intake of these substances can cause health problems. Since purines can be broken down to form uric acid, excess accumulation of purines in the body can lead to excess accumulation of uric acid. The health condition called "gout" and the formation of kidney stones from uric acid are two examples of uric acid-related problems that can be related to excessive intake of purine-containing foods. For this reason, individuals with kidney problems or gout may want to limit or avoid intake of purine-containing foods such as dried peas. Yet, recent research has suggested that purines from meat and fish increase risk of gout, while purines from plant foods fail to change the risk. For more on this subject, please see "What are purines and in which foods are they found?"

Nutritional Profile

Dried peas are an excellent source of molybdenum. They are also a very good source of dietary fiber and a good source of protein, manganese, folate, vitamin B1, potassium and phosphorus.

For an in-depth nutritional profile click here: Dried peas.

In-Depth Nutritional Profile

In addition to the nutrients highlighted in our ratings chart, an in-depth nutritional profile for Dried peas is also available. This profile includes information on a full array of nutrients, including carbohydrates, sugar, soluble and insoluble fiber, sodium, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids and more.

Introduction to Food Rating System Chart

In order to better help you identify foods that feature a high concentration of nutrients for the calories they contain, we created a Food Rating System. This system allows us to highlight the foods that are especially rich in particular nutrients. The following chart shows the nutrients for which this food is either an excellent, very good, or good source (below the chart you will find a table that explains these qualifications). If a nutrient is not listed in the chart, it does not necessarily mean that the food doesn't contain it. It simply means that the nutrient is not provided in a sufficient amount or concentration to meet our rating criteria. (To view this food's in-depth nutritional profile that includes values for dozens of nutrients - not just the ones rated as excellent, very good, or good - please use the link below the chart.) To read this chart accurately, you'll need to glance up in the top left corner where you will find the name of the food and the serving size we used to calculate the food's nutrient composition. This serving size will tell you how much of the food you need to eat to obtain the amount of nutrients found in the chart. Now, returning to the chart itself, you can look next to the nutrient name in order to find the nutrient amount it offers, the percent Daily Value (DV%) that this amount represents, the nutrient density that we calculated for this food and nutrient, and the rating we established in our rating system. For most of our nutrient ratings, we adopted the government standards for food labeling that are found in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Reference Values for Nutrition Labeling." Read more background information and details of our rating system.

Rennaisance man meets the 21st century

2009-04-18T22:59:00.000-07:00

My favorite picture for I am the gal reflected in his eye.

A more fitting name has been found

2009-04-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

I have officially renamed my StudHusband. Granted, he still loves to get up at 4 am to scale a nearby mountain so that he can greet the sunrise from 7500 feet above sea level. He still loves to scream down trails on his mountain bike, flying through the air as he hits a good jump. Yes, he still loves to snowboard - but only after he hoofed himself to the top of our nearby ski resort mountain 'cause ski lifts are just not his style.

yes he has windsurfed in the Baltic Sea in Germany and got really good at and he looks like an x-treme sport commercial when he is slalom water skiing behind our boat.

BUT....StudHusband no longer fully defines him. Over Spring Break, he took me out on an all day date. First we went to the Portland Art Museum - because his love for photography has now bled over into love for all art. As he thoughtfully gazed at another French painting from the 1700s, he declared that someday, he too wants to paint.

Mountain man of mine, you never cease to keep surprising me!

Then we went off to my favorite vegan and raw vegan restaurant in downtown P-town. YUM!! he loved it too, and always does. So kind of him to even try it, being the ranch boy that he is.

Then finally, he took me ballroom dancing for 3 hours. WOW! He can dance! No kidding. He knows the fox trot, waltz, rhumba, and more! And I, have never ever learned such fineries. I kept urging him to choose a different gal so he could twirl around and actually do the dance but my man kept choosing me. The tall, suave man with long eyelashes and a cleft chin just kept choosing me.

Sigh!

So, my studHusband wants to chase flowers all spring and summer, become a painter, an artist, and a photographer. He sings and plays guitar, writing the most beautiful music to me and to our God. He is an athlete and an amazing daddy. He loves learning new technology as he develops his web design business - and teaches engineering classes and higher level math. True to the 16th and 17th century scholars who explored science at a new level, art, music, movement and sport, religion, and enlightenment my man seems to be straight from a different era!

My man is now officially -

My Renaissance Man!

Chasing Flowers

2009-04-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ahhh...my Studhusband! This spring he has asked me to plan nothing at all for the spring weekends because we will be chasing wildflowers in bloom around the NW, interspersed with soccer (he is the coach and Wildman Sprout wouldn't be caught dead missing a single chance to whack a soccer ball).

BUT....HUN-EEE!! There's so much going on....

"Clear the schedule!"

....women's retreats that I have been asked to speak at, 5K races, get togethers with friends....

"Wildflowers here we come"

So, I will bow out of speaking at the retreat, gracefully step aside so SOMEONE else can win a 5K without me there to usurp the title (Hee hee!!), and I will help carry the photography equipment on our journeys around the NW this spring as wildflowers begin to blossom.

We are hitting the Painted Hills out east in later April, the apple blossoms in hood River in early May, the Rhodies and other magnificent displays of color in Florence in later May (I will squeeze a 5K in there) and everything else in between. Really, it's quite a romantic spring we have planned. And it won't step there - the wildflowers keep blooming all summer, just higher up in elevation - requires the backpacks and a lot of sweat to get to see fields of color glory in July...and we'll be right there in the mix.

I kinda want to balk at it, but I will submit and somehow my heart knows that after months of hanging out in God's art studio with StudHusband and the sprouts, I won't miss all the business that is being cleared for such an occasion.

I am squeezing in a trip to Florence with some girlfriends for a weekend but giving up speaking at our church's women's retreat (a tradition I started 5 years ago that seems to be going strong - yay!).

All in all, skipping "busy-ness" to go celebrate and admire God's creation is probably the perfect prescription for my heart. And quite romantic too.

The trouble with being a girl

2009-04-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

My heart is so full as I write this. A weekend has passed that was full of friends, smiles, laughter, and even warm sunshine. Saturday was pretty much perfect. StudHusband got up at 5 am to meet one of his best buddies in Bend to go up to Bachelor together. They, both being teachers, avoid the lift ticket costs by hoofing to the top and boarding down. Lots of exercise, sweat, sunshine and then a thrilling ride down, through awesome powder.

Our wildman sprout had his first soccer game of the spring with his daddy as coach and had a blast. He deserves to be so good - he devotes hours to honing his craft every evening. It's what makes him tick right now. He was scoring so many goals, out maneauvering kids like they weren't there, assisting, and defending so much that he was crushing the other team. Finally, Coach DAD, put him in the goalee box to give the other team a chance. The most awesome thing about this little sprout is that he is such an encourager to his teammates. He is turning into such a leader, right before my eyes. Then off to a b-day party he went with his good buddies from school. So, Sprout's heart was also filled up to overflowing this day.

So StudHusband got some friend time in. Wildman Sprout got some friend and soccer time in. And then I, after the encouragement of my friend Tiffany, decided to go ahead and go to our women's tea at church. I did so, only after I could convince one of my closest friends to go with me. Together we went, and had a ball. Surrounded by so many ladies that I have know for years, without kids, or deadlines, we just enjoyed time together.

But what surprised me was how many gals I met that were hesitant to go. The consistent theme was similar to mine - "Well, I didn't really have a role in the tea so I thought I'd just skip it this year." This was the first year I was not on the planning committee or hosting a table or playing the piano...it was the first time I could just go. But for some reason, that causes such turmoil in us ladies. We somehow think we need to have something to DO, in order to be WANTED.

Even with God, we think we need to DO something and all he calls us to do is to be STILL and KNOW THAT I AM GOD!!

I so loved being with my friends just because of who they are...not because they did a thing but simply because our hearts connect. And I think what filled me up the most is that I could tell that they loved being with me, simply because of me.

An hour after getting home from the tea, our good friends Harry and Sally showed up for the rest of the weekend and took us out to dinner.

All that to say, the trouble with being a girl is we can get caught up in DOING and not just BEING. This weekend I got nothing done, did nothing substantial to make anything happen, but I am filled to overflowing because this whole weekend was full of time with friends, phone calls to other friends in need of encouragement, and tons of laughter with my family.

Cornbread - Running Gal Style

2009-04-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Nothing I cook is ever actually what the recipe says - Chocolate chip cookies are the code word for something entirely different. But, if kids like it, then we all win in this War Against American Food.

Cornbread - Running Gal Style

Preheat oven to 400

Mix together

1 C cornmeal (I get fresh ground, organic cornmeal which makes all the difference to the taste from www.azurestandard.com)

1 C flour (I do a random mixture of these flours to equal 1 C: Quinoa, Rice, Barley) Of course, you could just use Whole wheat pastry flour or white too

4 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

2 T brown sugar (I use agave nectar, raw honey, or Dehydrated Cane juice here)

1/2 c dry milk powder (optional - I didn't use this)

make a well and add:

2 beaten eggs

1 C milk (I use rice milk)

1/4 C oil

Stir just until smooth. Pour into a greased 9x9" pan and bake 25 min.

OPTION::

Reduce cornmeal to 3/4 Cup. Add 3T soy flour, 3T wheat germ and 3T bran (I did not do this that night but have done this, not using Soy flour but quinoa

What's Cookin'? - April Edition

2009-04-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'd love to hear what's cookin' in your home! If you decide to join me and post a recipe, leave a comment and I will list you with a link to your blog in a post next week. I am not too into recipes that use Cream of something soups as that takes the fresh, homemade, healthy bend out of the recipe. If your recipe idea is fresh, healthy, and yummy - send a comment and I'll list you in my post coming up!

Got this recipe from my cooking expert friend Sacha. Culinary materpieces happen daily at her home.

Here's a yummy way to get the health benefits of squash into your life and kids life:

Roasted Butternut Squash & Thyme Soup

1 large butternut squash (halved, seeds removed, roasted, cooled, peeled and chopped)
1 potato, peeled and cut into small dices
1/2 stick butter
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1/2 C chopped carrots
1/2 C chopped celery
1 T minced garlic
2-3 Cups chicken broth
1 bunch fresh thyme, stems removed
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, 1 picked and chopped, 1 whole
1 bay leaf
1 T brown sugar (I omitted this)
1/2 - 1 C half and half (I omitted this)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

cook squash
Saute onion and carrots in butter until onion is translucent and carrots begin to soften. Add celery and then garlic, cooking for several minutes more.
Add squash, potato, broth, 1/2 of thyme, chopped and whole rosemary and bay leaf
Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer for 20 min
Remove whole rosemary sprig and bay leaf
Puree soup with hand blender or with a regular blender.
(I did not do step 7): Add half and half, brown sugar, remaining thyme and salt and pepper. Simmer soup for 10 - 15 min more.

YUM!! Family test:

they loved it!

Made cornbread too. Recipe to follow on Friday, April 3rd.

Seeking God's direction at each turn

2009-03-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Our town has a lovely canyon, designated for pedestrians only that runs half the length of the town and is a favorite place for me to run. It's so quiet down there as the city beats on in the "above ground" world. But in the "lower lands" of the canyon, cars can't even be heard.

But, the negative side to this canyon is that it truly can feel a bit remote, with towering 50 foot rock walls lining both sides it leaves you realizing that if you were to have something happen, your screams could not be heard by anyone.

So, at 8:00 am when I was running in the "above ground" world - heading to the canyon - I felt a strong voice in my head say, "Don't run in the canyon today". Immediately, I asked, "God, is that you?"

Silence.

So, I began to pray about this. I said, "God, I don't want to make a decision based on fear - but one based on YOU. Please make it clear to me what I need to do."

He impressed on my heart that he will, in His time. I had about 3 turns to make before I arrived at the canyon.

At the first turn, God said, "turn" I will let you know when you get closer.

At the second turn, I said, "I can turn right instead of left and create a different route."

He said, "turn left".

OK God, I am one turn away from the canyon.

Keep running.

I got to the final turn with still time to amend the route and not include the canyon.

God made it clear, right when I needed it: Turn left. Run in the canyon. Run without fear. Run for me. And run confidently knowing that you are safe.

So I did. I didn't think about it again and it was a wonderful run.

And such a powerful run. God always talks to us in His time. Sometimes I want to know 3 turns early where I need to go, but just like He did on this run, He didn't tell me until the final turn.

Just in time.

Detox your house

2009-03-27T07:00:00.001-07:00

After you try to detox your bodies, detox your home:

Clean your house with water,vinegar, essential oils and baking soda (recipes below)
Don't use anti-perspirant. Try baking soda as a deodorant. There are crystals that are helpful for some in preventing odor. Or, just don't use it at all. Your body will stop producing as much sweat and odor and eventually, you won't need it at all (you especially won't need it once your diet is clean).
Use dishwasher detergents that are phosphate and chlorine free...the fumes from the regular dishwashers are literally poison. I get a headache within seconds of smelling the steam coming out of a dishwasher now that I am not desensitized to the poisonous fumes.
Trader Joes has an awesome cleaning line called "NExt to Godliness" - dishwasher liquid soap, hand soap, dish soap, and a household cleaner that cleans everything. Ingredients are alcohol and essential oils (basically). Almost as cheap as making your own.
All your lotions need to be clean. Within 8 seconds of putting something on your skin, it's in your bloodstream. If you can't eat your lotion, then don't use it. It's a toxic load on your whole body.
Make sure your makeup and shampoos and soaps are clean!
Here's some companies that I purchase from

www.lifetreeproducts.com (laundry detergent)
www.seventhgeneration.com (laundry detergent, dish soap, dishwasher soap, toilet bowl cleaner, toilet paper, and more)
www.bi-o-kleen.com (Chlorine free and color safe laundry bleach - brightens, whitens, and softens; household cleaners)
www.countrysave.com (laundry detergent and more)
www.drbronners.com (I clean the whole house with their castille soaps - you can even wash your hair, brush your teeth, and clean a baby with these mild soap. Whole house smells so good too. I get the peppermint one in a gallon size and it lasts for a very long time.)

I actually purchase it all from www.azurestandard.com but you could purchase it from the individual companies or see if your local stores carry some of these healthier alternatives. The above companies sell products that are healthy for you and our environment (which effects all of us as we seek to not poison our water supply, fish, and wildlife) and they seem expensive, but they are always highly concentrated so they truly last a long time.

Or you could do what I have also done for years, which is to exclusively clean every nook and cranny with some concoction from the kitchen:

Cleaner

1 teaspoon of essential oil (like tea tree or lavender) in 1 and 1/5 gallons of water to clean windows, floors, toilets, bathrooms, and kitchen

OR

3 gallons water + 3 Cups of vinegar + 20 drops of tea tree oil

Disinfectant cleaner

2 Cups of water + 1/4 Cup vinegar + 1/4 teaspoons tea tree oil and 1/4 teaspoon of lavender oil

Diaper Pail cleaner

(I did cloth diapers and used this in the bottom of the bucket)
1 cup baking soda
1 tsp of tea tree oil

Mix and work out lumps with fork. Sprinkle in bottom of the pail. Rinse with vinegar and water occasionally and let pail sit in the sun.

Dishwasher detergent

1 C of borax + 1/2 C baking soda (I also add some drops of lemon essential oil)

add 1 tsp per load

Instead of Ajax use baking soda! It cleanse stove tops, sinks, bathtubs, showers, toilet bowls like a charm.

What are some things you could add to this list?

Detox your bodies

2009-03-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Everywhere I turn, I run into more families that are sick. Some tell me that "they've heard" that this is one of the worst sick seasons we've had. I seriously want to declare from the rooftops of my town all that our family has learned these last years, because the culmination of all of the healthy practices that we do results in a super fun winter of skiing, snowball fights, sledding, snowshoeing, snow camping, and cozy get-to-gethers with friends. Winter does not equal sick for us...it equates to cold, crisp fresh air; cozy tea each evening while reading books; thick sweaters; Dansko shoes; concentrated time with friends during the dark, long evenings; worshiping outside around a bonfire.

So, if you find yourself or have found yourself battling a couple of colds, kids with fevers, coughs that don't end, or even the flu during these last few months, try a cleanse. This could be simply eating fruits and veggies for as many days as you can handle it...or you could do a more extensive one that includes detox teas, psyllium fiber, and bentonite ( a clay that literally clings to toxins and helps rid the colon of all kinds of residue and toxins).

If you start to get a tickle in your throat, try what we do: squeeze a fresh lemon into a teacup, put some warmish/hot water in it, and put 2 T of raw honey into the lemon tea. I haven't had a tickle turn into a cold in years with this remedy. It's awesome for coughs for kids too. We never have used cough or cold medicine (and for good reason too: FDA now knows that it has caused quite a few kids to never wake up - read a comprehensive list of meds to avoid here: Cough and Cold remedies can kill Children).

This time of year it's especially important to limit sugar (we don't eat sugar during Jan - April).

Also, eat tons and tons of veggies and fruit and drink lots and lots of CLEAN water.

Get sunshine and exercise too.

When we do catch something, we don't go out and get 7-up and icecream to cuddle up together on the couch with...I instead stock up on things like Coconut water (super sweet and yummy and a perfectly balanced source of electrolytes) and let the kids get a lot of warm tea with raw honey and lemon in it. It's good to take an immune system supporter - look for products that have goldenseal, oregon grape root, pau 'd arco, oregano oil, and echinacea in it. Only take it for maybe 2 weeks, then take a month off (unless you are getting sick).

I take a cold seriously because we have had too many outstay their welcome, turn into secondary infections (bronchitis, ear infections, sinus infections) and I see it around us all the time - the cold that doesn't leave...mucous that lingers around wrecking havoc. This is the war strategy we impose:

Immeditatly stop eating wheat 100% until the cold is long gone
Immeditately stop eating sugar, 100% until it's gone.
Drink warm teas with lemon and raw honey
Increase vitamin C
Drink lots of smoothies with veggies and fruit in it
If necessary, take an immune system booster

If we do these things, we are done with the cold in 2 days flat.

Between these measures, you will not get sick as often and if you do, it might last 2 or 3 days at the most. This year we all caught 1 cold, first time in 3 years, and it lasted about 2 to 4 days. Strong bodies, supported by the stuff of God's amazing creation, can fight these bugs very effectively so you can get back to LIVING for HIM!!!

It works! I promise! It works!

Uncanniness continues

2009-03-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

I finished Chateou of Echos (Awesome read!!) and as I hesitated to close the cover, I realized it was because I couldn't help but think to myself, "Now that the book is over, our visitors will probably leave." (You'll need to read this post to understand this!)

I went to bed.

When I woke up, Mountain Man was gone. He left a note and a sweet plaque that says "God Bless our Home". On the back of the plaque he wrote:

"To one of our favorite family and friends: Thank you for opening your home and your hearts to two wanderers seeking togetherness. Harry & Sally

When Harry met Sally, Live at our house this week

2009-03-21T07:00:00.001-07:00

and....

He met a lady, named Sally, through A Christian Dating service. They have been writing letters for a month (yes, through the mail - these are 60+ year olds without computers! I LOVE IT!) and they want to meet.

He spent Friday night here and on Sat. drove the 3 hours to get to her house to pick her up and bring her to our house. He wanted a safe, neutral place to get to know her. If they liked each other they'd stay until they were ready to leave...if it didn't go so well, they'd just go home! he wanted our advice on her. He wanted me to kick him under the table if he said anything weird - "cause you know, it's been a long time since I dated a lady."

And now, Live at Our House for the last 5 days was the 2009 version of When Harry Met Sally and I was so giggly about it all weekend, because you know what? They like each other! :)

Modern 60 year olds, they both love things like eating healthy, essential oils, chiropracters instead of doctors, herbs instead of drugs, hiking/biking/ walking instead of shopping/eating at restaurants/computers...

Who would have thought that Mountain Man Harry would have cabinets full of essential oils, supplements like Primrose Oil and CoQ10, and books on his bookshelf like "Wild at Heart" and "Hearing the Voice of God"....

But it makes sense! Harry sums up what my blog is trying to be about - he is a mover, he is a seeker of God in quiet and in service to others, he treats his body right through alternative treatments vowing that he will NEVER take a prescription drug. And the proof is in the pudding - he has more energy than many 30 year olds.

Each evening we get to hear more stories, listen to him read his profound poetry of seeking and finding God out there in the mountains, and he even sang 4 of his own songs to us one night with Princess sprout planted firmly on his knee. Who needs TV or Facebook to entertain us?! This is how folks used to do it, and it's filling up our hearts to the brim.

He is quite famous in his little town - because of the novelty of what he did for 17 years and also because he is such a servant to so many, helping whenever he can.

So, it was not a surprise that Sally liked Harry. And I was so honored that I had the chance to watch this unfold in front of me and that I got the chance to serve a man that has served so many.

Our visitor

2009-03-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

It all started 5 years ago. We had backpacked into a wilderness lake, about 7 miles in (shows how die hard we are - Princess Sprout was 2!). In true StudHusband fashion, he wanted to do a night hike after dinner, which he did alone. He came back with a fascinating account of cabins that he found on the other side of the lake.

For those of you that are not familiar with American Wildernesses, let me do a quick 101 here. The key to being a wilderness is that there are absolutely no roads, no human industrial type impact, no buildings...period. This was crazy news! A full village of beautiful lincoln-log type cabins??

The next morning when we wandered to the village, we half expected them to not be there, as if StudHusband just hallucinated it the night before. But, sure enough, there it was. A village in the wilderness! And out popped a white bearded man, we soon learned was named Harry. He warmly welcomed us and even offered us a cabin to sleep in - cleverly coined the "Hampton Inn". Every morning he'd whip out a full pancake,egg,sausage, and bacon breakfast. He had rigged up a private shower room, with pipes wrapped in black plastic that wound down the mountain creating strong water pressure and HOT water. I took a real shower, slept on a mattress, and met up with harry every morning for breakfast in the round lodge room with a beautiful balcony.

This was crazy!! In a wilderness?

As we learned more of Harry, we learned that we were on 15 acres of private land that had been grandfathered in when the area had been turned into a wilderness area. He was the "Wilderness guardian" or, as most knew him as, "Harry, the Mountain Man." This man had chosen this job as he sought peace, solitude, and time with God in quietness. He loves the Lord and Loves serving people up in this remote destination resort that has literally had thousands of people come to it, year after year, to hang out with God and Harry and the peace of the mountains. And it's Totally FREE!!

So, every year, we go back to the area, even though now he is retired and living in his home in the town that abuts the wilderness area, and we visit Harry for a few days. And every year, Harry hints that he'd love to meet a nice lady, as he is wanting to share his life with a lady.

At 69, this is the fittest man I know (other than StudHusband :). He is the kindest, gentlest, and most interesting soul too. He talks of hiking the trail to Anaroid Lake, 7 miles one way, over 80 times a summer so that he could restock his food supply. His stories are endless and each one more fascinating then the next. I tell him that I need to write all of it down, and publish a book: "Everything I needed to know about Life I learned from the Mountain Man".

So, this was my visitor. He called last week and said he's coming through town and needed to stay at our house.

COOL! Mountain Man is coming!

and....

Uncanny

2009-03-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

(So, maybe I'm not done blogging...or I am just weaning myself...or it's an addiction I can't break free of cause I like hearing from you all and reading about your cool lives....blog life crisis happening here...till I figure out, keep visiting!)

It's a super strange and very funny inside-joke between StudHusband and I. For years, I have read books and it's absolutely amazing how I will pick up a book and somehow the plot is simultaneously happening in my life or relates to something happening at that time in my life.

Like, 4 years ago, I started reading the Jank Kirkpatrick series that chronicled women on the Oregon Trail over 3 books. I had no idea where these books were set in, but as I began to read book 3 we were cruising and camping in the exact areas that book was about in California. Then as the book shifted to the Applegate valley in southern Oregon, that's exactly where our trip took us to!

There have been so many instances like that I seriously begin a book and almost think it's going to end up a prophetic glimpse into what might be happening soon. I know, nuts. I read books that I have no idea are set around Easter, right during the week of Easter - or it's set in summer, right when July begins. I never plan this - but it almost always happens!

I just finished Leota's Garden by Francine Rivers - a beautifully written story of the importance of reconciliation between a mother and a daughter - only in this story, the mother dies before her daughter can let her know of the forgivness she feels for her. It was like God handed me a book after true friendship is happening with my own mom to put into words what I have been working through for these years - right during the exact month that I truly think we have made it to the other side of this hard journey between a mom and a daughter.

So, now I am reading a fabulous book called Chateou of Echos where a lady has bought a chateou in Italy and fixed it up to be a bed-n-breakfast. She doesn't enjoy a lot of guests, so often turns guests away who want to book a room. However, she does say yes to an author who wants to do some action research for his story by living in this historical home that housed the people that he plans to write a fiction story about. Anyway, his visit of a few days is so far lasting for 6 months (I haven't finished it)....

I started this book 2 weeks ago with no signs of any Italian Chateau or unexpected visitor in my horizons. 1 week ago I got a call from a dear friend we met 5 years ago...it's a long story, and this is already a long post, but here he is with a new friend that we never have met until 2 days ago...and after 4 days, they show no signs that they want to leave.

But we are thoroughly having a blast with them so I hope they do stay for a bit longer - hopefully not 6 months, but even that could be a fun adventure.

As I started that book 2 weeks ago, i remember thinking, "Now there's no way I will see anything parallell happen to me with this kind of a plot - " and now I read my book each night of the visitor that has moved in and during the day hang out with my friends, who are retired and don't live on any schedule, who are getting super comfy just where they are in our trailer.

It's so crazy!

Amazing Grace

2009-03-15T16:16:00.001-07:00

Answers to a few questions

2009-03-11T12:01:00.001-07:00

1. Wondering what happened with the budget cuts? We just found out and a few of you asked about this. The state is using it's $51 million rainy day fund to fund the shortfalls to districts that qualify. We qualify.

Kids only will lose 1/2 of a day.
Teachers will lose 3 - they will teach one day for free, not teach the 1/2 day, and not get one of their teacher work days. So for us, this means we suddenly we won't get paid about $800 to $1000 that was part of his salary. But, you know what? We'll be OK!! We have faithfully set up our financial spending plan according to the great teachings of Dave Ramsey (www.daveramsey.com) and we are going to be fine. His financial advice is simple: don't spend what you don't have! No credit allowed, period. No borrowing allowed, period. We do owe on our mortgage...but are faithfully paying extra on this every month too so we aren't a slave to this payment for 30 Years. Without any debt, it sure makes life so much simpler.

Anyway, it is enough of a pay cut to make it tricky to pay nearly $10K for the kids schooling next year, so we are still seeking God in this decision.

2. I do still tour with David Klinkenberg when he has a full concert and promoters pay for my ticket. (FUN!!)

3. One comment from a friend said she blogs in place of scrapbooking. I thought I'd alert you all to an awesome, high quality site where you can create digital photo albums and they send you your book in the mail. This company targets professional photographers and they know how to print professiona level books. I never print out my photos anymore. For about $70, I get a large scrapbook that contains nearly 300 photos in it! No cutting, pasting, and sticker collecting. Simple is good!!

High quality printing (much better than the Costco photo books)...tons of space to journal if you choose...full bleed options on pictures. http://www.blurb.com

That's it for now. Have a blessed day!

Done blogging

2009-03-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hope this isn't too disappointing, but I am going to stop blogging. Some day I might do it again.

I don't want to blog about my family life as I figure whoever would want to know what we are up to would know anyway. And it's just taking way too much time to blog about all my random and numerous Spirit, Mind, and Body ideas. Not really able to spend the time it takes to browse around the internet networking and making other like-minded blogging friends which is what well developed bloggers do. I'd like to, but would rather spend that time doing numerous other things.

I am amazed at some of your beautiful blogs - full of everchanging designs, pictures, and side bars. I have read blog posts that have pictures from every year of life of a birthday child in the house...I know for a fact that most of those pictures were not digital so they had to be scanned in, one by one for the world to see. WOW! What a labor of love! I am not worthy!

So, it leaves me pondering why I have been sucked into spending hours and hours doing this. I love to write and think and learn, which is why I started it. But, it's just taken up too much time.

I was going to just take the blog offline, but then I realized I do have hundreds of posts that could be helpful to people out there searching so I'll leave it up...which means that occasionally, I just might add another post!

Zuppa Toscana Soup

2009-03-07T21:16:00.000-08:00

Absolutely delicious! My friend that lived in Italy for a year, brought this recipe to my attention. Now, there's not the load of veggies in here that I typically have in a dinner, so, as always, include a large raw salad with your dinner and you'll be set!

Zuppa Toscana Soup

1/2 lb of spicy ground sausage (nitrate free, of course - get this in the bulk meat section)
2 medium potatoes cut i half and then cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 Cups kale leaves, chopped up well
2 T chicken base or boullion
1 qt water
1/3 C heavy whipping cream (I skipped this entirely)
1/4 t crushed red pepper

Cook sausage then drain. Add chicken boullion, water, potatoes, kale, and cream. Simmer 1 hour. Then add:

1 T italian seasoning blend (or some basil, oregano, thyme etc.) (optional)
pepper flakes (optional)
1 t fennel seeds (optional)

Serve.

Again, the family loved this!

A member of the Brassica family, kale is a great food if you're looking to protect your health and enjoy a delicious food at the same time. It's the organosulfur compounds in this food that have been main subject of phytonutrient research, and these include the glucosinolates and the methyl cysteine sulfoxides.

Although there are over 100 different glucosinolates in plants, only 10-15 are present in kale and other Brassicas. Yet these 10-15 glucosinolates appear able to lessen the occurrence of a wide variety of cancers, including breast, lung, colon and ovarian cancers. Now, research published in the International Journal of Cancer (Zhao H, Lin J) suggests that bladder cancer can join the list.

Barley Soup

2009-03-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

Barley is one of the oldest cereal grains, being one of the main foods of the Greeks. Make sure you soak it for at least 7 hours before using it or the results will be difficult to digest. You might not notice the difficulties, but research shows that the nutrients in Barley are much more available if you pre soak it.

Cool news if you have cholesterol issues - barley reduced serum cholesterol levels by as much as 15% in hypercholesterolemic persons in 2 studies cited by Rosemary K. Newman of Montana State university. Why?:

It contains betaglucans and other viscous soluble fiber components which reduce absorption of fats and cholesterol. (Oats also contain these betaglucans.)
Fiber tends to bind to bile acids, which are removed from the body rather than recycled, thus requiring the conversion of more cholesterol to bile acids.
Contains fat-soluble antioxidants related to vitamin E called tocotrienols that reduce cholesterol syntesis in the liver.

From James F. Scheer Health Freedom News

Beef Barley Soup

prep: 25 min ~ Cooking time: 1 1/4 Hours ~ Servings: 6

12 oz beef or lamb stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 T cooking oil (olive oil!!)
4 C water
1 C chopped onion
1/2 C chopped celery (1 stalk)
1/2 C pre-soaked barley
2 t Non-MSG instant beef bouillon
1 t oregano or basil
1/4 t black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 cup frozen mixed veggies
1 14 1/2 - oz can diced tomatoes (I just used my prefozen tomatoes from the garden)
1 cup parsnips in 1/2 inch slices or peeled potatoes in 1/2 inch cubes

1. Brown meat in hot oil. Stir in the water, onion, celery, barley, bouillon, oregano, pepper, garlic, and bay leaf. Boil then reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 hour for beef or 45 min for lamb.
2. Stir in frozen veggies, undrained tomatoes, and parsnips. Return to boil, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15 min. discard bay leaf.

This was definitely a hit with the whole family. Quite yummy.

Stepping forward

2009-03-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

I have been reflecting this week on God as our Mighty Counselor. Too often I go to people instead of to God for advice. I can touch them, hear them, and seemingly get to the solution faster. But these last 2 weeks, I have tried to do less of that, and more of quietly waiting on Him.

I have had 3 distinct moments when I heard his Counsel these last 2 weeks alone. The first one, I wrote of a few days ago in regards to where I need to be placing my faith. The second one happened after praying all night it seemed for my son when God gave me a simple practical word into the situation for my son. The third one happened, like it often does, in the early hours of the morning. I think God talks to me then the most because I am still, the world is still, and I can hear Him.

God called me to send the Sprout's Applications with the $100 registration fee into their Christian School.

Funny. When it's God, and I know it's God, my spirit does not even quicken and question. It just obeys. I didn't argue that we are potentially in the midst of the worst economic blow to our family over the next 3 years that we have faced yet.

He also didn't promise me, still, that they get to go. He simply reminded me that if I don't take the 1st step He will not be able to complete the work.

I shared this with the sprouts on the way to their school and my sensitive son finished the conversation by saying, "Now God Has a chance to either make it possible that we get to keep going to our school or not. Either way, He'll make it work out for good."

My little guy is getting it!

Welcome to my blog world

2009-02-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

I have this cool spy program hooked up to my blog and now know that I usually have about 40 to 50 different readers every day looking at my blog - you are from all over the country and Canada - and I even know what you google searched to find me with or what website linked you to mine...

I was surprised at how many of you find me that aren't local friends so I wanted to give you a brief snapshot of me. My schooling background is an undergraduate degree in Marketing and also in Exercise and Sports Science ( I also have a degree in Spanish)...my master's degree is in Health Education. I have been a competitive athlete since 1988. I have been playing piano for 28 years. I write about these things a lot in this blog.

Most of you come looking for healthy life ideas. WELCOME!!

So, this has been cool! I can see you now!

I also realized, that you might not know what I do that gives me my unique perspectives on life. OK, so here's what I am up to to fill my days - in terms of my work only (I counted 4 jobs - yikes!) :

I am a mommy of 2 lovely chillen' - one is a 5 year old princess sprout in kindergarten, the other is an 8 year old Sprout in 2nd grade - here's the fam:
I substitute teach at their school when called upon. I have a masters degree in Education so this is good for keeping the 'ole classroom management skills up to par.
I tour around the country with my brother, David Klinkenberg, playing piano and laughing on stage with him as we bare our souls to audiences about growing up together. Although, lately haven't gone as much due to the economy and lack of bookings.
I teach piano - between my husband who teaches guitar and myself we have 20 students weekly that we teach. We do 3 recitals each year and take the summer off to gear up for the next round in September.
I am David's road manager. This means I get to advance his shows once the contracts have been finalized. Weekly I am talking to people in time zones across the US (hence the 6 am calls from the East coasters that don't realize I am in PACIFIC TIME!)...I get to meet people from all over the US, promoters, other artists, big time music managers, and pastors. It's truly a blast.

And in the summer, I do NONE of the above (except for #1) - we hike, swim, road trip, camp, hang with friends, play on beaches, chill while living in our trailer for 6 to 10 weeks. It's always fun to see how big the zucchinis get when you are not home to tame them for that long!

My life is Abundant! Abundant indeed!

Awesome reads

2009-02-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

I'll leave the details up to you to get to discover. Some books I have just finished that I'd highly recommend:

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khalid (fast read - hard to not read and want to take action to do something for the plight of the Afghani people. Really awesome book to learn about the Afghani people.)

2. Blink (the Fiction book, not the one I reviewed a few months ago) - Ted Dekker (hard to put this book down - set in the US and in Saudi Arabia) - for locals, I have this book in my personal library- you can borrow any time! You'll have it read in a night or 2 - it's that spellbinding good!

3. Stubborn Twig - Written by a Corvallis, OR author. An interesting historical account of a Japanese immigrant family and their plight in an anti-Jap Oregon in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. It will shock you that such horrible atrocities were heaped on this race of people in our country. Slow read but very interesting and well written.