Thursday, May 31, 2012

Smoothies

I just want to take a moment to share about the wonderment of the blender.

With this wonderful appliance I pulvarize food into a liquid and mix it all together so that my son will consume it.

I will often mix strawberries, blueberries, bananas, spinach,  carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and most importantly, water.
 
My very picky son will drink it down and ask for more.

I will sometimes add almond milk, or coconut kiefer, or a little elderberry if I think we need antiviral.

It makes me feel good knowing I can get my two year old to consume something green.

Certainly one should research the topic and as with any dietary and nutritional considerations use caution...there is such a thing as too many greens and variety is essential when consuming them... It would be wise to consult your doctor too.

I believe there is much benefit to consuming a well balanced diet.  Too much of one thing can cause trouble.

Some things I have done with my smoothies:

I froze them into popsicles
I sometimes mix them with rice cereal or oat meal for my son.
I have even made it into a sauce and poured it over rice.

We have even shared the popsicles with the neighborhood kids and they really liked them...untill I mention that there might be veggies in them.   Best not to mention it...they consumed more than half before I told them.  Ah Kids.


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Even Better Pudding ;)

Today while I was at work, I had a slightly overripe banana and a cooked sweet potato.  I decided to mash them together and see if my toddler would eat it.  He wouldn't.  I knew it was a texture issue.

When I got home, I got one of our peeled and frozen bananas out of the freezer, I nuked a sweet potato, and I blended them in the blender one for one.

I added a little almond milk to get it going in the blender, and voila, there was pudding.  It was delicious.  Oh and yes, the little man did eat it all up.


Just to brag a little... there is no added sugar or sweetener to this combination.  The only sugar was the sugar in the almond milk.  Normally I have unsweetened almond milk but this time it had a little cane sugar in it.  Honestly, I don't think it needs any extra sweetener at all.  I just used whatever milk I had on hand.

This new discovery is a joy to me because I can't really have pudding.  I am allergic to milk and all gluten, so it can be difficult to find pudding mix with no milk and no gluten.  I have found some with no milk and no gluten but then it has soy, which is another downer on my "can't have" list.

All natural and delicious!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Making Kits

So much to blog about.  What should it be today?

Making kits?
My weird financial happenings?
Career?
Gardening?
Finding what you need for free?
I found it on the side of the road?


I think I will choose the first one.  Making Kits.


What do I mean by making kits?  Well, I mean that when I have several items that go together for
a purpose I put them all together and find a nice case or bag to put them all in so I always have everything organized and ready for when I need it.

Kits I have put together recently:

Nebulizer Kit
Machine, mask, hoses, several vials of each medication, paper towels


Willoughby's Allergy Kit
Apple cider vinegar/honey cough remedy in a baby food jar, apple cider vinegar/honey cough medicine in a small spray bottle, cypress/lavendar oil spray for his chest, a jar of raw local honey, cetirizine, nasal aspirator, tissues, chopped garlic in olive oil (for his ears) two droppers and a medicine cup.

This kit is very important when I am traveling... it helps so much to have all of that stuff in one spot.
For this kit I used one of my similac breast milk toting bags.


Willoughby's Inhaler Kit
baby chamber, mask, inhaler, Dr's note
For this I used one of my similac breast milk toting bags


My Make Up Kit
all the stuff I need all neat and clean and new and tidy.  I just got a brand new brush set and it is in it's own case, but that case fits into my makeup case perfectly.
For this I found a mini-cooler from the Good Will.

Emergency Kit  (this one needs work)
I have one for hurricanes and evacuations... this one has been dismantled a bit.
coffee, filters, and just the drip part of the coffee maker (you can boil water and drip it into individual cups,) baby wipes, condoms, games for Willough, batteries, various flash lights, I am going to work on a phone list from my phone...in case I have to call someone from a land line without my phone, band aids, alcohol wipes, snacks, medication for my family if there is medication needed, duct tape,  etc.
For this I have a big plastic bin with a cover.
The following article inspired me to make one of these and it freaked me out!

http://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/advice/emergency-preparedness/


Travel Kit
This kit is always packed.  I don't have to put a bunch of toilet items together before I travel as they are always assembled in my travel kit.  I have been doing this for 25 years and it is so nice to just put that kit right in my travel bag.


My Diaper Bag

Doesn't every Mom have one of these?

Diapers, wipes, hand sanitizer, extra clothes, sun block, poop barrier, snacks, sippy cup, bubbles,
bags for yucky diapers, hand sanitizer wipes, children's pain medicine.  (The stuff in this bag changes with the age of the child.)

Willouhgby's Non- Dairy kit for school and visiting other households

Coconut milk, Ghee(butter substitute), cracker snacks with no dairy, and anything special that other kids might be having that he will want... coconut ice cream, non- dairy cheese etc. Oh and don't forget the cold pack.  This is a regular square lunch cooler with an over the shoulder strap.

In my purse I always carry two small wooden trains for Willoughby. Thomas and Percy (in my pursey.)

In my purse I have a technology kit... it has my hard drive plus cables, the outlet plug for my phone and the cable to connect my phone to the plug and the computer.  This has it's own little zipper case to protect it from impact and purse dirt.

I have a travel microphone kit that goes with my computer for traveling for those VO auditions I don't want to miss when I am on the road.

I have a lunch kit with a thermal bag, forks knives, spoons and Corning Ware with a rubbarized cover.


Having all these things together is so helpful when you are so busy as I am.  Each kit has a specific place to live in our house so it is always ready when I need it.

I also have a little square zipper bag  and a plastic box that has a handle for Willoughby and when we are going somewhere for a day or a weekend he gets to pick out track and trains to put in each bag... we count the trains and the track and take a picture so we know what to return home with.  We do this with his other toys too.

I have more of these to put together as well.


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Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day!
I am exhausted.  What a busy day.  I saw Chess today.  It was a Community theater production and it was a brave under taking.  I enjoyed it.

The rest of the day was spent incorporating new Freecycle finds and getting the yard ready for planting.  I am looking forward to gowing our plants again for an August harvest or tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, collard greens and lots of herbs.

I am grateful to be a mommy and have such a wonderful son and stepsons.  LIFE is amazing and wonderful!

Thanks to my Mommy for giving birth to me.
Thanks to my great partner for all the lovely gifts and installing the shelf to put them on.  Thanks to my son for the heart box. Thanks to my stepsons for the nice phonecall and nice wishes!

Now I must close my eyes...so tired!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Things I am Manifesting and Daily Dragons

Goals are a good thing and it is good to have them...yes, I agree for sure.  My friend Zoe mentioned this in her blog recently and I have been thinking about it ever since.

*** very provocative interruption during this blog***

(My mother in law offered Wayne and I her mother's house to live in, in Danville PA, as her mother is recently passed.)

I find it interesting that this news comes within the goals and manifesting blog.  One of my goals is to have a bigger living space with a better yard, better school district and a more resonable mortgage...and now there is this opportunity.  It isn't in NY which is the place I like best, but it could provide an opportunity to catch up financially. 

Catching up financially and creating financial abundance is one of our family manifesting goals.

We also want our son to be healthier and we are in the allergy capital of the world. Perhaps another location would be more helpful with his (supposed) asthma and allergies.

We are working on doing more voiceover and building that business.

I am projecting a very near future (like this week) where I get back to my Yoga practice and begin teaching again.

We are creating a near future with more time.

There are various writing projects we both have started that we are in need of working on too.
We are creating a near future to get the driveway and deck properly treated so they hold up for many years to come.

And the most scary one of all is to resolve one outstanding bit of red tape...which I am gearing up to do as soon as I have a bit of time where my son is with Wayne.  

But getting all these things done are lifes small dragons we face.  Daily Dragons,  I like to call them.   But isn't it true that in most stories the dragon, which is sacred is not slain nor destroyed...she is merely tamed and finally understood.

I don't know what the future holds...none do.  One of the things I have learned is that we must listen, really listen to what we want and where we are being guided by life.

 Also we must show up to life:  get up get out of bed and walk out the door into it. That is where it all happens.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Kitchen: Back to the old ways

I am nearly finished changing my kitchen.  Not the tile, not the flooring, nope, not a new fridge or stove. Don't I wish!  I mean what I cook with and store my food in. I changed all of it.  Why?  Well, I receive an email from a woman named Karen Brimeyer http://www.karenbrimeyer.org/ who has studied Leaky Gut Syndrome and puts out a cure to follow.  Now, not being significantly trained in Biology, I am not sure what that exactly means. I have read contradictory articles stating that it is an impossibility to have a leaky gut.  I do believe our guts can become ill and cause our bodies lots and lots of trouble, so, I read her information, and take what means something to me and put it into practice.

One of Karen's emails suggested that kitchens can become toxic and the very items we use to cook on and store food in can contribute to illness in our guts and in our bodies.  So I read this and I get really angry at first.  I start rationalizing it out.  First I can't eat wheat because I have Celiac Disease, then you take away anything with gluten, then it's all grains, then nuts are bad, then this then that, NOW I have to get rid of all my pots and pans and plastic containers because THEY are causing illness in my gut.   My first response was two words I won't post here because I want to keep my blog appealing to all.  But I was VERY ANGRY.  But if you think about it, it does make a lot of sense.

I went on with life and suddenly I found myself thinking about it and more and more.  I was still angry but that wise old voice in my head that tells me the right thing to do kept working on this problem.

Wayne and I had always been looking for an old cast iron pan anyway, so I put out a post on Freecycle. Wanted: Cast Iron Cookware...for cooking, not decoration (you have to be careful because people paint them to hang on their walls.)  I got two responses and from those responses I received 7 different sized cast iron frying pans from tiny to large.  I brought them home and Wayne went to work learning how to scrub them up and re-season them.   It was a lot of work but so very worth it.  I know it is hard to believe, but the food tastes so much better cooked in cast iron.  And it isn't difficult to keep them clean, and they are just as non-stick as teflon if you use them properly.   Having them to cook in cuts down on reheating in the microwave too.

Next, we needed something to boil water in, etc.  But wait a minute,  I have always had Corning Ware from my grand mother.  All through living in Manhattan in my tiny apartment, I had several Corning Ware casserole dishes. They are great because you can put them in the oven, microwave, freezer, and use them to store food in the fridge.  They save space because they eliminate having to have plastic to store in as well as having a whole set of pots and pans.

So I went to PA and went to my favorite junk store and purchased more of it.  I got three glass baking pans of different sizes, pyrex of course, more  Corning Ware too.  Corning Ware came up with a rubberized lid at some point and these can be purchased on Ebay or probably on the Corning Ware site.  I also found some at my local junk store.  This way, you can take your Corning Ware with you for lunch.  It is so easy, especially in an insulated lunch bag.  I even take it over to get my Chilli on Wednesdays.  The serving lady always says how nice it is to see me using my reusable containers, and glass ones at that.

I did keep a couple of plastic containers to organize, and some plastic things for my two year old that I know don't have yucky chemicals in them.  But I have a rule...NO PLASTIC IN THE DISHWASHER. I also saved lots of jars and covers for food storage.  Those can't go in the freezer but they are great for kid snacks and fridge storage.

Once I had all my new items, and cleared out the clutter, I decided to GET ORGANIZED.  I realized that the plastic in my cabinet was always a disaster.  Open the door and it was a sea of plastic and jars.  We could never find anything in there and it was a source of frustration always.  I got some of those wire racks, a whole set for like 12 bucks or something,  and made different levels and put jar lids in a large plastic container so I always can grab a lid.  All of my Corning Ware lids and fry pan covers are in stackable lid holders and it is glorious.

Mind you, I did all of this for less than $30-$50.

Best of all,  I got rid of our drip coffee makers and have an old Corning Ware stove percolator (That we found at the Good Will)  and a small Farberware electric percolator that we got from Freecycle.  My coffee tastes better than ever and I am happy to know that it hasn't been processed through plastic.

Washing dishes is easier than ever.   I can put most everything in the dishwasher or hand wash and dry and put away quickly.  Have you ever noticed that plastic is difficult to clean and takes days to air dry.  See ya, plastic storage!  Good riddance!

Another benefit of cast iron is, that it weighs so much you are strengthening your arms as you cook with it!

I LOVE MY NEW KITCHEN and the food tastes better than ever.