to have Courage....In Family Life, In Spirituality, In Health, In Living Simply

I'm on a journey...... as we all are. Learning, remembering, re-discovering about health, spirituality, relationships, emotions and the mind.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Hanging with the Fam

Rauchelle had a couple days off from work so she was able to spend 3 days and nights with us here at my mom's condo.  And it just so happened that Layne also had 3 days off, overlapping Chelle's, so she was able to come back out here from UBC to spend her time off with the family.  We always LOVE it when we can have all the family together in one place.

We didn't keep overly busy at all.  Actually, very low keyed.  Played some games, watched some movies, had tea together, played with each other's hair, got/gave foot massages, had some Spanish lessons, went for walks, picked berries, all those lovely interacting things to do with those you care about.  And we ate, and cried, and shared our thoughts and love. 

It's been great.

So here's just a few pics (I forgot the camera!!) from the past few days.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Introducing Laars' Perspective

He likes the camera.


He LOVES Mama






He loves cars, too.

Maret kept getting lower and lower to try and stay in the field of view!

This one got a little help from Mama, but I think he's getting the hang of it for a 3yo.

(ok, there were alot that got deleted.  Thank God for digitals!)

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Sadness & Rememberance

You can't go on feeling sad without first consenting to stand in the ashes of some past event and then rubbing the memory of it all over yourself.


~ Guy Finley

This statement really struck me. 


It struck me alot because I've been practicing Living in the Now!


And when I Live in the Now, I'm not living in the past event which isn't even occurring other than in my mind.  The past doesn't exist.  That moment is gone. And neither does the future exist....Other than in my mind.


I only have Now.  And when I'm present in my Now, I have no need to be sad.


I breath deeply Now, and I come back to being present Here & Now.  And Life is Good.

I choose to spend less energy and time on what's gone and what hasn't even come yet.  And give that saved energy to the moment.



Do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?
 "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
 "And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,
yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
"But if God so clothes the  grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!
 "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?'
 "For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for  your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
 "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matt 6:25-34

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Reframe Your Perspective

"When you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change."

Dr Wayne Dyer ~ author, inspirational speaker

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Before & After Photos

About Dec 6th, 2009 I started eating according to The Daylight Diet (by Paul Nison).  It mostly entailed eating only during daylight hours, which in the depth of winter required me to adjust gradually to not eating after 3pm.  I started by not eating anything at all after 6pm.  I found that easy, so I moved it to 5 pm.  And rapidly I wasn't eating (most days) after 2 or 3pm.  I was truly amazed that I could do that, and feel good about it.  I honestly had to start embracing the rumblings in my belly, and recognize that they were signs of a healthy digestive system and aiding in elimination.  It was a good thing, not something to throw food at to stop it.

The weight started to come off right away, and Everette and I boosted it with a 5-day Juice Feast .  Since that time, we have predominantly eaten healthy other than when we traveled and when we stay with people.  Actually, the traveling part went fairly well for us as we stayed mostly High-Raw.  But staying with people makes it more difficult, that's for sure.  And 'living' with people who eat the comfort-foods that easily entrap us....that's hard.

Anyways, here are pictures of me at my starting weight of 184 lbs, the beginning of Dec 2009.
 






















My weight now is 147 lbs.  Actually I've been at this weight roughly 2 months (give or take a pound or two) while we traveled the country and been staying with people.  I am confident that as I continue to eat healthy and incorporate other health practices, the weight will melt off and I will level out at a healthy weight for my body.  I don't actually have a target weight.  I believe my body will know what is ideal if I give it healthy fuel and help it eliminate the harmful stuff.

So, here's pictures taken just yesterday morning.





To see in closer proximity so as to compare......
I was slacking off for awhile from doing my Hoe-Downs, but this week I've gotten back to doing them and I feel better for that.  I feel that they have been helpful in getting my tummy in better shape while losing the weight.  I still have more work to do, but its been a fun and easy way for me to incorporate abdominal and buttocks exercise into my day (most days).  I love the T-Tapp philosophy and highly recommend the exercises (free on YouTube or purchase thru their site.  I'm happy with my purchases.)

Monday, July 26, 2010

Digestive Leukocytosis.....what the heck is that???

I'm presently reading 'Professor Arnold Ehret's Rational Fasting' which isn't written in today's language and takes some figuring out exactly what the Prof is saying (well, he's a bit of a challenge to me, but maybe its just me) but I'm certainly getting the gist of it, and learning and enjoying it too!

Anyways, I got this email from Rory over at Rawdawg Rory and it went hand-in-hand with a bunch of what the Prof is saying.  And in my excitement, I wanted to share it with you.

Here Rory has both a written post and a youtube video to check out.  They both carry the same information.

Recently I posted a blog about the Rational Fasting in which I quoted,

".....the fundamental cause of disease is the presence of foreign material in the human body...this disease causing material is the undigested, un-eliminated and decayed, rotting food elements resulting from too much eating of wrong foods. "

So that's basically what Rory is saying, too.  That our bodies are reacting negatively to cooked foods as if there is an invader present and it needs to be taken out!


Here is my previous post if you missed it.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Happy Thought

The world is so full
of a number of things, 
I'm sure we should all
be as happy as Kings.

~Robert Louis Stevenson
 
Painting by Mary Cassatt

Saturday, July 24, 2010

They Wouldn't Leave the Wagon

from Little House on the Prairie

Pa & Ma are heading to Independence, out of Indian Territory, by choice before the soldiers come to remove them.  On their travels they come upon a covered wagon without horses, but the owners are sitting on the wagon tongue.

They were a man and a woman.  They sat looking down at their feet, and they moved only their heads to look when Pet and Patty stopped in front of them.


"What's wrong? Where are your horses?" Pa asked.

"I don't know," the man said.  "I tied them to the wagon last night, and this morning they were gone.  Somebody cut the ropes and took them away in the night."

"What about your dog?" said Pa.
"Haven't got a dog," the man said......    

"Well, your horses are gone," Pa told the man.  "You'll never see them again.  Hanging's too good for horse-thieves."
"Yes," the man said.


Pa looked at Ma, and Ma barely nodded.  Then Pa said, "Come ride with us to Independence." 
"No," said the man.  "All we've got is in this wagon.  We won't leave it."
"Why, man!  What will you do?"  Pa exclaimed.  "There may be nobody along here for days, weeks.  You can't stay here."
"I don't know," the man said.
"We'll stay with our wagon," the woman said.  She was looking down at her hands clasped in her lap, and Laura couldn't see her face; she could see only the side of the sunbonnet.
"Better come," Pa told them.  "You can come back for your wagon."
"No," the woman said.


They wouldn't leave the wagon; everything they owned in the world was in it.  So at last Pa drove on, leaving them sitting on the wagon tongue, all alone on the prairie.


Pa notifies the soldiers at Independence to send help out for the couple.

 ****************************
I chuckled when I saw the store name Nood: New Objects of Desire
Sad commentary on our society.  Wanting more and more.  And yet usually less and less happy.

Give me the simplified life, Thank You.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Traveling in a Covered Wagon

"Pa and Ma were still and silent on the wagon-seat, and Mary and Laura were quiet, too.

But Laura felt all excited inside.

You never know what will happen next,
    nor where you'll be next,
        nor where you'll be tomorrow, 
  when you are traveling in a covered wagon." 

~ from Little House on the Prairie

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Choose the Positive

from Little House on the Prairie

Pa has just had a conversation with Mr. Edwards and Mr. Scott about the soldiers coming out to force the homesteaders to move because they supposedly are 6 miles within Indian Territory.  Pa quickly decides to move his family on his own accord, rather than waiting it out to be physically escorted off the land.

After a feast of potatoes for supper because "We've been going without potatoes, saving them for seed.  Now we'll eat 'em up!" 

Everyone was quiet that night.  Even Jack felt that something was wrong, and he lay down close to Laura when she went to bed.

It was now too warm for a fire, but Pa and Ma sat looking at the ashes in the fireplace.

Ma sighed gently and said, "A whole year gone, Charles."  But Pa answered, cheerfully"What's a year amount to?  We have all the time there is." 



Pa and Ma and the 3 girls (and Jack, the dog) are now traveling to Independence to set up a new homestead.  Ma was disappointed about the sudden move, and the abandonment of their house with real glass windows, and the fields that Pa had worked so diligently on, and the plow that he had just traded furs to acquire.

They set up camp, chained the livestock to the feed-box at the end of the wagon and fed everybody their supper.  The girls are tucked into their beds, and Ma sits down by the fire alongside Pa who begins to play his fiddle.  Pa stopped singing "Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me," to comment "Do you know, Caroline, I've been thinking what fun the rabbits will have, eating that garden we planted."

"Don't, Charles," Ma said.

"Never mind, Caroline!" Pa told her.  "We'll make a better garden.  Anyways, we're taking more out of Indian Territory than we took in."

"I don't know what," Ma said, and Pa answered, "Why, there's the mule!"  Then Ma laughed, and Pa and the fiddle sang again.



That's the kind of attitude I want to have.  Although undesirable things happen to all of us, can we focus on the good in the situation, rather than wallowing in the bad?  Can we even say that it is 'bad'?  It might just be the thing that moves us, motivates us, propels us toward something we would not normally choose but might be a true blessing in disguise.

Because of them or in spite of them I am not sure.  Does it matter?

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Granville Island


 We wandered thru the stores a bit, especially over at the Kid's Market where the Toy Store is, and listened to the Bucksters outside of Bridges and the Bakery.  I didn't see the magician but much of the family did, and from the crowd that gathered it was a sensational show.
We found another park for the children to play at for a couple hours in the city as we enjoyed some short snoozes and chatter before driving Layne back to her temporary abode and an evening for her of getting paid to watch a movie with the ESL students! 

Monday, July 19, 2010

New Looks



And Mitchell lost his.

While the boys did something with their hair, us girls did something with our toes and fingernails.

A New Look for alot of us.  Plain and simple.


Saturday, July 17, 2010

To the Fort

In celebration of Banff National Parks 125th Birthday, some Canada Parks were offering free admittance today, so our family headed over to the participating Fort Langley Historical Site

where we spent 4 delightful hours and got ourselves some sore legs and very wet children.  Enjoy the pics.

An HBC (Hudson Bay Company) flag

A fun puppet show the children loved about Biodiversity and a spider coming to appreciate its own unique characteristics.


Inside a soldiers' tent.

Inside a Cooper's barrel.

Inside a picture!



The fellow in the middle was a great story-teller, imagining he was the captain of some voyageurs traveling by canoe from Fort St James to Fort Langley with a portage at Hell's Gate. The guys on either side were 'acting out' what life for them might have been like being voyageurs.  Here they carry 100 lb packs of pelts on their backs, using straps around their foreheads.  Their bellies would be wrapped time and time again with fabric (up to 40 feet long) to help support their abdominal muscles to prevent ruptured hernia's and spilled guts!



 
This other fur was from a Timberwolf, much bigger.
The children almost always enjoy a coloring opportunity.  Here Maret and Tov are coloring eagle heads to make hats.

Another successful unschooled day.  Anders asked, "Can we come here tomorrow?"