TGIF everyone! The gorgeous young miss to the right is turning eight this Saturday so my weekend is pretty busy with her birthday celebration. We don’t usually do parties so I don’t have to worry about themes, favors, and all that jazz. We like to keep it an event for family and maybe a friend of her choosing. So this weekend we have a series of special things planned for her and one friend, along with immediate family and grandparents. Because her birthday is in February we decided to do something that incorporates lots of swimming. All the kids have been itching to get some pool time so it should be very enjoyable. I will be sure to post pictures next week.
In other news, I had a visit with two doctors this past week. My thyroid levels are looking good but at this time I am still on a low dose of thyroid medication. I am so conflicted because I HATE pharma meds but I feel really awesome. I need to research ways to get weaned of the meds but this doctor and another one both tell me I should expect to be on them forever… sigh. Anyway, I saw this doc just before I went paleo/primal and was shocked to hear that I had lost 20 pounds since I was there last. Whoa… it melted off like butter after giving up grains. Cool!
I also saw an orthopedist about my arm, which I injured badly at the gym in late November (after listening to some monumentally bad weight lifting advice). I got the go ahead so start weight lifting again and he gave me a bunch of stretching exercises to do so that my arm muscles stop bunching up and hurting so much after each session at the gym. If I don’t see improvement on my own he said I will need to see a physical therapist but so far, so good.
Okay… a bit of housekeeping now. The winner of the Chobani Champions yogurt case (from 2 weeks ago) is…. Tara Sabo. Congrats Tara, I am emailing you know. Enjoy your yogurt!
Also I want to know what YOU want to read about. If there is a topic that interests you and you want me to cover it, leave me a comment below.
Interesting articles for the week…
I am sure you have heard about the arsenic/brown rice fiasco. Anna at Green talk has some great articles that address the issue, explain why rice and arsenic are such a cozy pair, and what you can do in your home to reduce exposure. Part One and Part Two. I am not surprised that no one sought to fix this issue, even though it is likely they knew about it. Without public pressure these companies have no reason to change things. Money is more important than the safety issues they hope we will never find out about. At any rate I am glad that I am grain free and don’t have to worry about this particular issue.
I read an infuriating article at Cinema Blend about the new Lorax movie. A conservative panel member on Fox News actually encouraged parents to take their kids to the movie and litter all over the theater and theater property to protest the fact that “Hollywood” is trying to indoctrinate our children and turn them into something almost as bad as demon worshippers… ENVIRONMENTALISTS!! The horror! Anyway we cannot wait to see this movie. ;)
I also wanted to share this Chipotle ad just in case is you haven’t seen it yet. LOVE that this corporation sees a problem within our current food system and is doing what they can to fix it from a fast food perspective. I am a big Chipotle fan!
Happy Valentine’s everyone! I did my Valentine’s date last weekend with my sweetheart and it was spectacular. In fact I had so much fun that I didn’t feel like blogging much this week. Just wanted to sit on the couch with my honey and snuggle. Oh well!
We went out for an early dinner and ate one of our favorites… sushi! We had a sushi place in Phoenix that we considered “our place” and had not had much luck finding a place like that in Columbus but I think we finally did. We got a sushi boat for two, salad, miso soup (which I picked the tofu out of), and mochi ice cream. All was delicious! After dinner we went exploring in Polaris mall and ended up getting a couples massage at an Acupressure place. Then we went to a theater and saw Chronicle. My husband got to pick but luckily we have the same taste in movies. It was really good and action packed. After the movie we both noticed how close we were to Powell and there is a Jeni’s Ice Cream in Powell so well, yeah we had to go out for ice cream… again. It was so nice to spend so much time together, just the two of us!!
This week I got my annual delivery of heritage seeds from Seed Saver’s Exchange. W got a lettuce mixture, Dragon carrots, Tennis Ball lettuce, Scarlet Globe radishes, Five Color Silverbeet swiss chard, Kale, and Red Butterhead Lettuce. This year we plan to grow our own salad bar and not grow any tomatoes, like last year. We had way too many!
I also liked this article from a fitness blogger who took on the subject of bladder challenges after childbirth. I had my own issues after birthing three, 9-10 pound babies and then I ran across a doctor who told me that Kegels were the worst exercise you could do to tighten this region and that they actually made the issue worse! This article and interview with a biomechanical scientist says the exact same thing. Instead of kegels we should be doing squats and trying to firm up our bums and thereby our pelvic floor. All I have to say is that after almost a year of squats in the gym, I am a big time believer.
Along those same lines a good book I have been hearing about is Lose Your Mummy Tummy. It discusses the fact that the abdominal muscles separate to allow for a growing uterus when we get pregnant. For some 98% of women that split never closes up totally and you get a bulging tummy long after you have your baby/babies. The author advises that sit ups and crunches make it worse and she highlights some exercises that will actually help. After 3 babies and 2 abdominal surgeries (not c-sections) I am wary it could help me but I will give it a shot. ;)
Chobani Champions Yogurt Giveaway!!
Lastly I have a giveaway. Chobani yogurt recently sent me some of their Chobani Champions flavors for kids to try and they were big hit here. I have mentioned before that I am something of a Chobani addict. They are my favorite brand of Greek yogurt, or any yogurt for that matter. I sometimes feel guilty that I don’t buy the organic Greek yogurt that is out there but the flavor is just not as good so I hesitate to spend $2.00 a cup on something I don’t absolutely love. Chobani is pricey enough at $1.29 a cup and often times I am stingy with it for this reason. My kids loved having their own Chobani.
The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that the yogurt they sent is non-fat. I refuse to buy the non-fat Chobani varieties because I don’t believe our food should be non-fat. I refuse to jump on the low-fat bandwagon. If the folks at Chobani read this please provide full fat and organic options in the future please!
So… I have a case of the new flavors (3 packs Orange Vanilla/ 3 packs Vanilla Choc Chunk) to give away to two readers. To enter just leave a comment and tell me if you eat yogurt in your house and what your favorites are. For an extra entry “Like” the Chobani Champions Facebook page and leave a second comment telling me you did so. Good luck and have an awesome weekend and Valentine’s Day!!
This month the Green Moms Carnival is tackling love for the month of February but not in the usual sense. Participants were asked to share the green books and authors they love. At first I was rather anxious because I thought it was just what books we love in general and that would be, for me, like picking which grains of sand I like best. I go to the library 2-3 times a week. I have 20-30 books checked out at any given time. I always have my nose in book and have since I was a teen. Books are like oxygen to me and I love quite a few of them. But green books is a much more manageable a task to identify. Or is it?
Once I got to thinking about all the memoirs, local food books, homesteading guides, green energy/green living books, eco crafts, nature enjoyment books, etc. that I have read, I started thinking maybe it wasn’t so easy to pick just a few to highlight here. With some heavy sighs I will try to isolate some of those grains of sand…
I must start off with some of the very first green books I ever read.
The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour – This was one of the first books I ever read about self sufficiency and sustainability. I had grand dreams of having a farm and growing/raising my own food. At the time my husband was so not interested in any of it. Now… 7ish years later he is the one devouring this book and others like it and insisting we take steps to become more self sufficient and responsible for our own food. This book is a true classic.
This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader - It was this book that made me see that having a big farm was not necessarily the only route to go. The author, Joan Dye Gussow, is an inspiration and she lives on a suburban lot where she grows lots of her own food. As a big city lover I found this book very inspirational.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - This book by Barbara Kingsolver was another important book in my own journey. Like me, she moved from the Southwest to the East in search of greener pastures, literally. It was her family’s mission to buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.
Girl Hunter by Georgia Pellegrini – A book that made me change my mind about something I never thought I would change my mind about. A book that most likely will have inspired me to buy my first hunting license very soon. I almost hesitate to classify it as a green book but it is very much about local food!
The Dirty Life - It follows along on the real life adventure of Kristin Kimball who was a writer working in NYC. She met a farmer while on assignment, married him, and they started an ambitious “whole diet” CSA.
Frugal Luxuries by Tracey McBride - Choosing simplicity is green and that is what this book is about. The idea behind the book is to show us how being frugal and simple in our taste is really an art form. It has nothing to do with being miserly or being a cheapskate and everything to do with living well, even luxuriously, on less. LOVE this book!
Big Green Purse by Diane MacEachern – I think this is such an important book because it shows how we can create world change by being mindful about how we shop and what we buy. It doesn’t encourage senseless spending or rampant consumerism but it does address the fact that everyone is still going to spend money on the products that matter to them. If money talks then we need to be aware of what our money is saying. It is all about using the power of our purses to affect change. Read my review here: Shopping for World Change. Diane is also one of the most amazing, intelligent, and inspiring ladies you could ever meet. I feel honored to have met her last month.
I could really only think of two non-fiction authors that are on my must-buy list… as in it doesn’t matter what the book is about, I must have it. I would of course buy other books by the authors mentioned above but the two below have multiple books on the market and I have them all.
Amanda Soule of Handmade Home, The Creative Family, and The Rhythm of Family. All her books are beautiful and inspirational. The projects inside them are green and resourceful usually and the whole concept behind them is to live in simplicity and with greater mindfulness.
One of the really fun things I got to do on my trip to Detroit for the auto show (NAIAS ) was go to the Henry Ford Museum. I got to see an exhibit that has not opened to the public yet AND had a catered dinner right there among all the amazing cars. I felt kinda bad being there without my Dad though… he would have loved it! I did however, get to have dinner with some amazing green mom friends.
As a big history buff I just love museums so this was right up my alley even if cars really aren’t.
The highlights for me had to be the car Kennedy was in when he was assassinated…
The chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated…
My daughter thought Kennedy’s car and Lincoln’s chair were morbid when I showed her the photos. It was a very solemn experience seeing them and one I won’t soon forget. That is what I love about history, how it can reach out and grab you, and make you teary eyed even many years after the fact. It makes us think, and remember, and think some more. It makes us wonder what we would do if we were put in certain historical situations. Would we be that brave? Would we be that honorable? Would we stand for that injustice?
#FordNAIAS
** Ford Motor Company paid for my travel and accommodations at the 2-day Innovation and Design Fantasy Camp event, I was not compensated in any other manner for my time. Opinions posted here are my own.**
I don’t typically make New Year’s resolutions but I am feeling rather inspired for 2012. I had two goals for 2011 that I set for myself on March 1st (does that count?) to really concentrate on fitness and exercise and to also make more time for me. I guess I just decided that I needed to allow myself to be more than a mom now that my kids are getting older. I blew those goals out of the water and since I am feeling pretty empowered by those successes I think it is time to set some more goals. No time like the present right?
January is named after the Roman god Janus, god of doorways and thus January is the door to the year. Janus had two faces, one to see the past and one to see the future. Likewise we can reflect back on the previous year, learn from our failures and successes, and look to the future with exuberance. This is the month we spend looking inside ourselves to set a path for the year and prepare for our journey with focus.
My goals for 2011 are still very much in effect. I will keep on hitting the gym and exercising. I will also keep carving out time for me. But I have some other goals too.
This year I resolve to…
Have More Fun
I was bemoaning the fact that I didn’t take many photos in 2011 but honestly we didn’t do much photo worthy stuff. I had grand plans but I let it all fall apart when life got busy. We had a big illness (ie cancer) within the extended family and my husband worked tons of overtime. The only thing even remotely close to a vacation for us was a day trip to the Hocking Hills. I also turned down several fun business travel opportunities because I felt my kids were still a wee bit too young for me to be away (been doing that for years). This year needs to be different. We will take a real vacation and I will make sure my family fun plans actually make it out of the planning stage. I will also travel for business and leave my kids in the reliable hands of my husband. For that to happen it would help if I…
Make More Money
I have a confession. I don’t work all that hard. I worked my arse off for several years when I was just starting my home business and ever since I hit a certain point in my income I have been happy to coast along doing the bare minimum. Yes, technically I earn more with each passing year but imagine what I could earn if I actually put some effort into it. I like to tell myself we don’t NEED more money but my husband has worked a little too much overtime for that to be true. I need to step up and earn the money I know I can make. If it turns out we don’t actually need the money, we can spend it on wants… like the aforementioned FUN. I hear DisneyWorld calling my name. Or we can send it along to our emergency savings and/or IRAs.
In order to make more money I think I need to buckle down and…
Get More Organized
I am sooo badly organized it is tragic and it has to change if I want to earn more money and remember all the fun events coming up that I want my family to take part in. I am sick of dropping the ball on opportunities because the pitches get lost in my email inbox or I just plain forget about a fun event in our hometown. I also need to spend less time on Facebook playing games and reading blog posts in my RSS feed that will not advance my goals. It would help if I knew exactly what I needed to be doing and make sure that was done BEFORE play time.
These 3 goals or resolutions are enough for now I think since my 2011 goals are still in effect… make time for me and also for exercise and fitness. To kick things off I am armed with a To-Do list that I print (on recycled household paper) each day. Each evening I brainstorm and figure out what needs done from blogging to cleaning the toilet. I keep it at no more than 15 things and I try to get everything checked off by the end of the evening. I also have a daily planner on my desk where I can write down all the fun family stuff I saw in the paper or online, even months out, so I will remember them. Above my desk I have a white board calendar with appointments, bill due dates, and work deadlines.
Also helpful are these 3 books. I hope to write more about them soon…
I also accepted a business travel opportunity in late 2011 and I leave in a few days. Woot! Plus I bought a ticket to BlogHer12 and reserved my hotel room in NYC for later this year. This year is going to be awesome. I just know it!
Hi there! I am a green, paleo, crossfit mom of three. I am concerned about health, wellness, and sustainability issues. This is my life. This what I am passionate about. Come get to know me and feel free to connect. Enjoy!
TGIF everyone! The gorgeous young miss to the right is turning eight this Saturday so my weekend is pretty busy with her birthday celebration. We don’t usually do parties so I don’t have to worry about themes, favors, and all that jazz. We like to keep it an event for family and maybe a friend of her choosing. So this weekend we have a series of special things planned for her and one friend, along with immediate family and grandparents. Because her birthday is in February we decided to do something that incorporates lots of swimming. All the kids have been itching to get some pool time so it should be very enjoyable. I will be sure to post pictures next week.
Hi there! I am a green, paleo, crossfit mom of three. I am concerned about health, wellness, and sustainability issues. This is my life. This what I am passionate about. Come get to know me and feel free to 
