Raw Foods and Cleansing

I have been on a journey of healthy eating for a long time. I have always cared about health and nutrition and could go on and on about my journey. If you want the whole story e-mail me. I think it's very interesting.

But here's where I am now. I have just completed a third set of cleansing with colonics and herbs with Vicki Talmage. I am so grateful for her and her program and her knowledge and willingness to share. I highly recommend her book, From Bin to Banquet; it's full of information and recipes. I still cannot believe all the stuff we have gotten out of my colon over the past 6 months. My little potbelly is gone, my melasma is finally fading away, I haven't had a migraine in a very long time, and I feel good again. I am on the right path for me. I love my deep dark green leafy salads and dressings. I've been drinking rejuvelac and making seed cheese. I sprout lots of different grains, seeds and legumes. I make tasty healthy green smoothies in the morning. And I am well on my way to growing and juicing my own wheat grass. It is a really great place to be. I have spent a great deal of time on it especially these past 6 months, and I just wanted to share!!

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

I finished this book by listening to it from audible.com, all 30-50 hrs of it, unabridged. It took 3 months, but it was very good and well worth my time. It was hard to keep track of all the characters by just listening at first, but with a little help from my book club buddies, we met once a month, I got it figured out and I just kept going.

It was well worth the time. Tolstoy is a master at portraying so many different characters and making them believeable . I think I know people who are just like some of those characters. Also, his insight into the war of 1812 and the defeat of Napoleon are very interesting. I don't know much about Russian history, but Tolstoy insists that the defeat of the French was an accident. After the fact, he says, the historians and the czar talk about how the Russian retreat into the coldness at the time of winter was on purpose to draw the unprepared French into the freezing Russian weather and that they knew the French would lose that way. In fact the French army lost hundreds of thousands of soldier to the freezing Russian winter and it marked the beginning of the end of Napoleon's empire, but Tolstoy makes the case and a good one at that, that it was by accident and that man has little to do with how events actually take place. God knows what will happen and man fulfills roles, but really has little control over the results on a wide scale. Napoleon who had been a master in conquest made several uncharacteristic mistakes such as not to stay in Moscow after he conquered it where there were plenty of supplies for his armies and then retreating in the middle of winter with no winter clothing for his troops and on top of that, retreating by the route least beneficial to his troops. Had he just stayed in Moscow or even retreated by a different route, his outcome may have been very different.

Pierre was probably the main character of this long novel and his ideas and philosophies and how they change over the course of his life is very interesting. He starts out with nothing and unexpectedly inherits a great fortune and title. He marries a selfish woman and hates himself for being like all the other rich people, but he does have nobler aspirations and by the end of the book, he reaches them His wife dies and he is free to marry for love and has children and acts on his nobler desires in regards to his subjects and fellowman.

The romantic stories were fun to read, and I liked how they all came out. I’m sure most men love the details of the war scenes and the women like the romantic relationships. This book’s got it all. No wonder it has stood the test of time. I feel like I really understand what it was like to be an upper class Russian at the time of Napoleon’s invasion. I have a greater understanding and appreciation for these people. And I highly recommend this book!!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year Everybody!!

What are some of your New Year's Resolutions?

One of mine was to work out a new school schedule which we will start on Monday. I hope it works out.

I also want to focus on teaching my kids to help more with meal preparation and clean-up. They are good at cleaning their rooms, that only took a couple years, so now it is time to go to the next level.

Also, I would like to say that you are probably doing better than you think you are. I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed and stressed by the time New Year's Eve came around that I just had to lay down on my bed in the dark, and I didn't want to do anything else. My husband came in and I started telling him that I felt stressed, and he was so good-- this is a great lesson for any husband-- he told me he didn't know why I was stressed and then he named 3 things that I have been doing well with and that I have been getting good results with. I knew he was right. I realized that I was focusing on what I need to do instead of being grateful for what I have done.

When I realized that I was not a complete failure and that I have been good at some things, I felt way better. I jumped up and told the kids we would have a little party after all. I found some old unused party favors and told them that for our party they could pick a prize for every job they did. Soon they were asking me what job they could do next. It was so awesome!! I have never had that experience before. We got a good amount of cleaning done. The house looked respectable for being home to 5 little kids and messy parents. We then had our little party and went to bed. I think that was one of the nicest New year's I've had, and I didn't even stay up until midnight!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to you!!!

What a great thing to have a day set aside to remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Of all the many things I read and have read and have learned from, the scriptures and especially the words of Christ from his own mouth are the most uplifting and enlightening. I am always amazed when I get to 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon and read the words of the Savior which he spoke to those people. Some of it is almost word for word what he told the people in Israel in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in the book of Matthew. Every sentence is a jewel, each line is so full of wisdom. Here are a couple of them:

" And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away." 3 Nephi 12:41-42

"But behold I say unto you. love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you;"
3 Nephi 12:44

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." 3 Nephi 13:21

"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."
3 Nephi 13:24

"Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." 3 Nephi 13:1-2

"Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." 3 Nephi 14:7-8

"Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them." 3 Nephi 14:20

I could go on and on. Look at how succint and brilliant and to the point these sayings are. How true they are, how many ways we can apply them to our own lives. Wow!! If I could only have one book it would be this one!!

Merry Christmas!!

The Economy -- Ron Paul was right!!!

Learning Greek is Great!!!

My oldest child was upset today because her Greek work was so hard and she was so tired and couldn't do any other "school" work today!!! I am so pleased!! We have been using a program written by Cristine Gatchell called Elementary Greek. My oldest finished her first year workbook a few months ago and has started on the second year, and I have too for that matter since I'm learning along with her. It was pretty frustrating at times that first year, because we had to take about 18 mos. instead of just 30 weeks as the book is set up. But we were thorough and we didn't move on until we understood everything in the first year book ( although we could use some continued vocabulary review), but other than that, we got it. We understand nouns, verbs, nominative case, genetive case, adjectives, prepositions and number. In Greek the ending of the noun will change according to it's part of speech in the sentence, so you really have to understand exactly what it is you are saying in order to get the right endings on all the nouns and the adjectives for that matter. So we spent a lot of time memoriziing and reciting noun endings for masculine nouns, neuter nouns and feminine nouns. Also, the articles and adjectives match whichever ending is being used. So there really is a lot to it and there is a ton to learn. And my little girl gets it!! It is hard brain work, but her brain is being wired and trained to think and to understand grammar and speech and meaning. It is also neat how many of our English words come from Greek!!

So anyway, after being excited that she is tired, but successful, I thought about all the things we've learned and learned well from just this first year of Greek and I grabbed the 3rd year book to look at where we'll be in approximwtely 2 years and we'll know all about the verbs and all the tenses. I'm so excited!! It's really hard to learn a lot of these from English because the endings just don't change. We express the same tenses like I was looking in the store would be something like imperfect past or something ( I haven't learned it yet) but in Greek the endings would change according to the tense and use so it is a little more clear and necessary to understand grammar than it is for us English speakers even if we did learn to diagram sentences.

Now that is an education!!! I wish I had learned Greek, Latin and Hebrew as a teenager or kid. Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to read the Bible in its original language?, as well as all the other great books like the Iliad. I bet it sounds so much better in Greek!!

Anyway, today was a nice acknowledgment day. All this hard work is starting to pay off, even if we never did mop the floor last week!! Maybe tomorrow, but probably not, we've got to get our Christmas presents mailed!!!!

Talk about Tuesday

I was just trying to post a comment on my good friend's blog and ended up joining her Talk about Tuesday project by accident so in case anyone links over from that, I thought I'd better at least acknowledge it.

Let's see.... a new project or habit?

My goal for this week is to teach the kids how to mop the floor on their hands and knees and then dry it with their feet. They'll each get their own section with their own rag, spray bottle and drying towel. The dishes are done and the counters are clean and wiped and the family room is vacuumed and clutter mostly put away, so the prospect of this happening tomorrow look good!!

Work is good and I am very grateful for friends like Lazy and websites and books like www.flylady.net who have taught me how to clean and how to teach my children to clean in formal settings. I'm also grateful for the good examples I've had from many of my friends in informal settings. Having grown up with a maid and a very clean, love to clean mother, cleaning up after myself and teaching my children how to clean up after themselves has been a huge struggle for me!! But I think we're getting it, one baby step at a time!!