Spread Some Happy Today!

You are aligned with God's Perfect Plan for You. It's the navigation system called GPPY.

Follow the Good Feeling - FGF. It may feel unnatural at first, but you'll get used to it.

Trusting God means Trusting Yourself - TGTY.  Believe in yourself.

Feel good. Be happy and if nothing else - SMILE! :)

Know When To Say No

Sounds harsh doesn't it? It comes natural to a two year old and my five year old knows how to spell it. Why do we spend a lifetime trying to ignore it?

It's suppose to sound harsh. Energetically, it draws a hard line with the other party which says, "This is where your request ends with me. Time to look elsewhere." So often we feel No is a rejection and we don't want to hurt the other person's feelings, we want to help, be of service, do God's Will.

You've heard it before- God's Will and trusting God means trusting yourself and how you feel. No ifs, ands or buts about it. If you are not feeling it, don't force it. So often I find myself turning experiences around in my head, trying to see the good in it, second guessing how I feel when really all I have to do is understand it doesn't feel right and find a way to say No. No is the voice of God speaking to me - telling me, "It is not your place. This is not your job."

The trick has been quieting the guilt that goes along with saying No. So often one can feel as if they are the only one who can do the work, organize the group and that they are needed above anyone else. I've got news for you - you are needed and the No you are feeling is God telling you to pay attention to the priorities in your life. The No is saving you from distraction, stress and regret. When you say Yes, but really want to say No, you are taking the space that is meant for someone else to fill. Although you have been asked or invited to participate, you have to discern if it is the right experience for you and the No feeling is saying, quite clearly, "I'm not the person for this job."

How to say No nicely.
1. "I'm over committed and can't give (you, the project) the time it deserves. It's better to let someone else handle it."
2. "Can I get back to you on that?" This one requires a follow up with a clear No.
3. "That is not part of my skill set, you'll be better off with someone else."
4. "No thank you". (with a smile)

What does no feel like?
1. If you are ruminating over and over in your mind about a person, place or situation it may be a signal to get out of it and step back.
2. Are you complaining, feeling victimized or grumpy? These are all ways the body is communicating No to you.
3. Sometimes it's a pit in the stomach feeling.
4. The body can tense up or you can hear the No in your head.
5."I don't know" usually means No. Hey, what if it really is saying, "I don't no."?

What if you've said yes, but really feel like a No? Better to say something sooner rather than later. So many times, we want to help. Don't help! Helping is enabling. Enabling is dis-empowering others. Dis-empowering others keeps them in a role of victimization. When one is in the paradigm of victimization, they are in a vicious downward spiral. This is not a sustainable situation for you or the other party. It's the hand out vs. hand up; giving fish or teaching others to fish approach.

No puts the responsibility right back where it belongs and releases you to allow the abundance of God, the Universe to flow.

Allow Universal Abundance with a simple No.

Secrets Revealed... Building Immunity

We already had our first cold of the school season! Woo hoo!

It went exactly according to plan. You know the plan - the one where you plan not to get sick and publish to the whole world how to stay healthy and then your kid is one of the first to catch a cold plan?

Well, I never said you wouldn't get sick and I didn't expect my kids would never get sick. What I was hoping for, though, was a kid that could shake off any virus pretty easily. And, he did. This is what a strong immune system does. Even if you do get sick, it doesn't shut you down or turn into something worse.

Here are a few more tips and tricks to keep building up your immune system muscle.

Avoid / reduce:
· Dairy products – milk, ice cream, soy, casein, cheese
· White flour products
· White sugar, refined sugar, brown sugar, turbinado sugar, fructose, corn syrup, pasteurized honey
· Alcohol- beer, wine, sweetened fruit juice
· Artificial sweeteners, preservatives, hydrogenated & trans fats
· Anything termed “Enriched” including flours & vitamin drinks
· Avoid or reduce Coffee, sodas, juice boxes, vitamin drinks, etc.

These 'foods', and I use the term lightly, all create an acidic environment within the body. Yeasts, viruses, fungi and bacteria can only live in an acidic environment. When immunity is compromised, the average cold turns into an ear infection, bronchitis or strep. Give yourself and your kids a fighting chance by reducing these items from the daily diet.

It's one small step toward a little more sleep and a lot more peace.

10 Years

You all remember where you were and how you heard the news. The memory of that day will live with us for the rest of our lives. It's part of the collective conscious of this society and although we may not have known even one person related to the events of that day, we knew every soul intimately... every single soul.

We knew the souls in the towers, on the planes, in NY, in PA, and DC. And, believe it or not, we also knew the desperate souls of those who hijacked the planes. In one day, our lives were forever changed.

Hero or victim - which perspective do you see? These souls came into and left the physical form for the benefit of all. The role they played honors us. Everything stopped, but the world kept turning... Babies were born, communities were brought together, families ended feuding, a country was united and a new story came to be.

That day was one lesson in our lifetime. What did you learn? How will you honor your life and the lives of those around you?

Lessons or blessings - they are one in the same. God always delivers blessings...

Secrets to a Healthy Winter

Every Fall, when the kids head back to school, they start taking this invaluable immunity tonic. Last year they had perfect attendance at school. Of course, they did catch a few colds and had one puking virus, but overall they had a great winter! For the first time in their short lives, they had a normal response to these incidences. There were no trips to the ER for IVs nor constant antibiotics and calls to the doctor.

As you look forward to the coming months, one of the best things you can do, is cut back on sugar, preservatives and artificial ingredients. These ingredients create acidity in the body which translates into the perfect environment for dis-ease to thrive. The combination of cutting back on junk and taking the tonic is how we managed last winter. It's our 'secret' family recipe.

Immune Tonic Recipe
4oz. organic grape juice (Lakewood Organic brand)
1 tsp. fish oil (Nordic Naturals or Carlson brands)
1 tsp. elderberry syrup (Sambucol brand)
1 probiotic capsule (Jarrow brand) 

Directions:
Take 5 mornings a week with 2 days off. Cut the quantities in half for kids 4 and under except for the probiotic. Lately, we've added 2 drops of oregeno oil to the mixture.

The better we all feel, the stronger our immunity and the less we even think about dis-ease. Look for more tips and information in the coming weeks! 

Dent Relief

I've had a dent in the back of my car for the past 7 years. Nothing serious. It just defined who I was.

After receiving the news about my father's sudden death at my in-laws house in Ohio, my father-in-law found the first flight back home so I could be with my mom.  My husband, on the other hand, drove from Ohio to Connecticut with two little boys. At the time they were four and two. It took him 2 days and plenty of Heavenly guidance, but he made it. He pulled into the driveway at my mother's house and my mom took the kids into the house immediately. My husband was still sitting in the car. When he finally got out, he just hugged me and cried. Yes, my father had died, but his friend had died as well. A man he looked up to, respected and who understood him even better than his own family did.  He was gone. Or so we thought...

After composing himself, my husband went into the house and I was left to unpack the car. To make it easier, I decided to back it into the driveway and unload into the garage. As I backed up, I hit something. We were all out of our minds as it was and here I was backing into something in the black of the night in the middle of winter.  It was my father's stump grinder. If you don't know by now, he was a lumberjack. All of his equipment was still in the driveway and the garage. Still fresh with hydraulic oil and wood chips. Brand new car, brand new dead dad and brand new dent... life has a way of happening and we get to make sense of it. It can be fantastically ironic sometimes.

That dent was a gift from my father. It was a reminder to me how quickly life can change - How things, people come and go, but feelings last forever. It marked me like a scar after a cut. And, this cut was deep. In good conscious, I could not get it fixed. Sure, I got plenty of quotes and talked about it, but did nothing until now. It was a scar I wore with pride for 7 years. Everyone needed to see it. I needed to see it. It screamed, "This happened in my life and I survived." It said, "This is who I am."

It was time. I don't have any logical reason for why, I just knew it was time to fix it.  I kept looking at the dent and how I defined myself, not wanting to let go of that moment in time. It was as if I had a piece of my Dad with me in that dent. Just like bumper stickers on the back of cars that convey how the driver feels about life, abortion, teams or schools ... I used the dent in the same way. But now, that sticker, that dent is inside me. It is part of my cellular structure. I've meditated upon it for the past 7 years without realizing it. That meditation has become a part of who I am.

How odd it is to define ourselves and unconsciously label or limit who we are. How odd it is to have to keep something like a dent for so long and then one day wake up and it's gone. What dents are you wearing? Is it time to smooth them out? The Buddha teaches that "Nothing ever goes away, until it has taught us what we need to know." The struggle of dark and light, good and bad has disappeared. What is left? Love.

My husband hammered it out this week. It's a smooth back-end again and I feel good about it. To the human eye, the dent is gone. That's OK, because it is forever engraved in my heart.

Power Breakfast: Gluten Free Pancakes

The challenge: Make a great tasting, whole grain, gluten-free pancake.
Why?: Because.

Cornstarch. That's the real reason. It lacks any real nutritional value, is a high glycemic food, has no fiber, no protein, and is highly inflammatory. It is also one of the main ingredients in most gluten-free foods.

Many of you know spelt is my go-to grain for most everything. And, although it is a low-gluten food, it still has gluten. I wanted to make a true, whole grain pancake without gluten, but also without cornstarch - something that had more nutritional value. Thankfully, my kids are pancake connoisseurs and I can experiment with them. Sometimes the feedback is good, sometimes not - but they still eat it.

As is true to form with my shopping habits during the summer, we had run out of our standard spelt flour for the usual pancake breakfast. Keeping up with feeding the kids during the summer months is a challenge in itself.  I swear they make up for the other nine months of the year when they are in school by eating constantly all summer. So, that morning, after surveying the pantry, I found some brown rice flour, corn meal and xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is a natural food product that thickens food. It acts like a glue when gluten based flour is not available. It's also used widely in gluten-free foods, but not the main ingredient. Usually 1/2 to 1 tsp. is all that is needed.

School is fast approaching, and you can amp up these pancake to make a complete meal. We added more fiber and protein by using flax seed and raw, organic, vegan brown rice protein powder. You'll also see oatmeal in the recipe below. Oatmeal is gluten free, however, it is not always processed in a facility that uses gluten specific machinery. Therefore, it can be considered a 'contaminated' food. If you have true celiac disease, make sure you purchase oatmeal processed in a gluten free facility.

Now we can have our cake and eat it too - gluten free!

Gluten Free Pantry Pancakes:
1 cup goat milk (can substitute almond or rice milk)
1 cage free egg
1/2 tsp. organic sea salt
1/2 tsp. aluminum free baking soda
1/2 tsp. free-trade vanilla
2 tbsp. whole cane sugar
1 tbsp. cold-processed, unrefined, sesame oil
1 & 1/4 cup organic brown rice flour
1/2 cup organic corn meal
1/2 cup organic oatmeal
1 tsp. xanthan gum
Optional: 2 tbsp flax seed meal and/or 1 scoop of Garden of Life Raw Protein.

Mix ingredients together and spoon onto a hot pan. Add a few chocolate chips or blueberries. Flip over and cook both sides.

To top them off, try Grade B Maple Syrup, almond butter & jelly or raw honey. The door is wide open to try all kinds of whole grain, gluten free flours - coconut, almond, quinoa, and millet.  Why don't you experiment a little? Let me know how your pancakes turn out.

By the way, I have been known to run out of sandwich bread and send pancake or waffle sandwiches to school. Just food for thought as you start planning those school lunches...

Mix it up and have some fun!