Yearly Archives: 2007

A Pop a Day?

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OK, that may be soda for you non-midwesterners – or is it "soft drink". Well, if you don’t know it yet, soft drinks aren’t soft on your body.

"Drinking just one soft drink a day — whether diet or regular — may boost your risk of getting heart disease, a new study shows. That is because a soda habit increases the risk of developing a condition called metabolic syndrome, according to the new research, and that in turn boosts the chance of getting both heart disease and diabetes. "Even one soda per day increases your risk of developing metabolic syndrome by about 50 percent," says Ramachandran Vasan, MD, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and the senior author of the study, published in the July 31 issue of the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation." source

New! Improved! Really?

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I believe that the way God designed the foods He gave to man to nourish his body is perfect. I don’t believe man can improve in any way on it.

I don’t believe that "nutritional products" are what man needs to be healthy. I don’t like gimmicks that try to promote processed/ adulterated foods or non-foods as healthy.  I don’t think good nutrition is based on strange or special, secret foods. And I also don’t believe that eating what’s Good for You needs to be expensive. Good for You – Naturally! is a far cry from buying your potato chips and microwave dinners at the health food store.

Good for You – Naturally! is whole foods nutrition based on G.O.D., God’s Original Diet (as opposed to S.A.D., Standard American Diet.) Good for You – Naturally! is an eating lifestyle based on raw fruits, raw vegetables, raw nuts and raw seeds – and plenty of pure water. We, like most people, add to this (as God Himself did), but this is the foundation for eating Good for You – Naturally!

~~~~ So why am about to recommend a food "product"? Because most people don’t believe anything can be convenient or easy without coming in a bag or a can – or is that plastic tub now? And many people are willing to pay for convenience. Well, many people don’t realize that they are paying for convenience, they just don’t know their is another way – that really isn’t inconvenient either. And there is a food that doesn’t violate any of the Good for You – Naturally! principles, yet is totally convenient.

It most likely will not be for all of you – all the time. But it most certainly will be for some of you – all the time, for some of you – some of the time — perhaps for some of you –  none of the time.

Stay tuned for our announcement.

Lisa’s Simple Potato Soup

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I promised a Corn Chowder recipe about a month ago – ouch! – but I still haven’t found where the children hid the recipe card so here’s Potato Soup instead, for now. This can be made on the stove or in a crock pot.

Simmer in water to cover until soft:

3-4# diced potatoes
2-4 stalks chopped celery
1/2 diced onion
(optional: 2-4 Tb. “BacUn’s” dried bacon bit substitute)

If needed, drain off any excess water, so it just barely covers the vegetables.

Blend, until fairly smooth, 1-2 c. of the cooked potatoes/ vegetable mix with:

2 c. not milk (homemade Almond Milk)
1/2 stick butter

Return blended mixture to the pot. Reheat if necessary.

Life on the Lake!

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Here’s what it looked like an hour or so ago out the street from us. No, we don’t live anywhere near water. We live in the valley between 2 rivers. But our rivers are usually nothing but sandbars with a trickle flowing between them. This year they’ve gotten pretty high with all the rain we’ve gotten. But we’re a long way from flood stage.









Yes, this flood was a broken water main. Thankfully it didn’t flood the front or side road of our house. It was just starting to creep up to our neighbors to the west, and was flowing down the alley to our north and up their driveways. A big dip in the road to our west saved us. The pictures of our boys are on the corner to the west of us. The car – yes it flooded INTO the car – is on the street just west of us. We tried to knock on the door, but no one was home. They won’t be happy when they get home. That’s our daughter behind the tree, (in pink) with water up past her knees. The boat in the first pic is about 1 block west of us.

It took the city about an hour to get someone there to turn off the main! It had burst and raised one whole segment of the street – 1 side of the street about 1/4 of a block long and water was spewing out of both sides of the raised portion. (See first picture) The kids had a great time walking in it and riding their bikes through it. By bath time the water was receding and no fun anymore.

Now the backhoe and jackhammers are at work breaking the street up. Will that be the song that lulls me to sleep tonight?

Getting More Done

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How do you do it all? That’s the question I get asked most often. Answer is, I don’t. No one can. But as a mom of many I recognize that my primary role is management. I don’t have to “do it all.” God has given me many helpers to accomplish the family goals He has given us. Here are some basic tips for getting household things done.

Utilize your work force! Train the children to do household duties and assign them to them. They should know what needs to be done when and by whom, so mom doesn’t have to be constantly thinking of this. Use Chore Charts, if needed to help them remember. Utilize Routine.

Mom should not be trying to plan, teach, care for little ones, and do all the household cleaning, meal prep and clean up, laundry, etc. by herself. The children can handle many, perhaps all the household cleaning and perhaps even meals and laundry depending on their ages. I find teens love to go shopping, even if it’s just for groceries. 🙂 They can also prepare meal lists.

Older ones can play with little ones and even teach some things to younger ones when mom needs to work one-on-one with another one, or work on a household project.

Each child, by middle elementary age, can do their own laundry (and a younger one’s and the younger ones can help).

Even a younger elementary age can put juice and cereal on the table or make sandwiches for the family. And preschoolers can set and help clear the table.

This is not slave labor. It is everyone working together (including the “man of the house”, he lives there and is a parent, too) for a common goal – and training for adulthood.

Just a few tips – I’ll elaborate and give more another time.

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Keeping up at Keeping a Home

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The best home organization method I ever used was an adapted version of the original “Sidetracked Home Executives”. I think the popular fly-lady is based off of S.H.E. too. I recently heard they have a website now (doesn’t everyone) and saw that things have changed now. I’m not as impressed with the new stuff.

The biggest problem I had following the orignal S.H.E. was keeping the 3×5 file box organized. My little ones were constantly dumping it and I was spending more time organizing my box than cleaning my house.

For today I’ll just say having a system helps in getting it done. Having a rigid system – one of those written by a Suzy Homemaker by birth – will not. We free spirits that love living life need something a bit different.

I’ll post bits and pieces in this category as time allows.

For Me & My House ~ At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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Spring Cleaning

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I’m faced with a toughy. Married dd #4 was hired by her grandparents to spring clean their house. She asked if dd#5 (teen at home) could help her and I could watch her son. We would split the money between the three of us.

At the time I said, “Or maybe I’ll let you 2 split the money, and then you could help me and your sister do our spring cleaning. We’ll see.” I wasn’t really wanting “paid” for watching dgs.

But the time of payment came. The job had taken much longer than they had anticipated. They were both tired of cleaning for the moment – and paid more than they expected. And my computer is overloading and no cash in sight for replacing it. I went for the money. My house isn’t very bad. We’ve kept up pretty well but have a few projects that need tackled. I guess if I need her help with the spring cleaning I will have to just pay her back.

Hmmm, which is more important a spiffy, shiny home or an effecient avenue of doing our school work and ministry? I’m not really wanting to get a new computer either, but it appears this one can’t be upgraded – parts are discontinued and “obsolete”. Maybe I’ll forget spring cleaning, spend the time writing more resources that will hopefully sell so I can get the money for the new computer. Hmmm. The decisions of life. To clean or not to clean. 🙂

It’s a Quilt! It’s a Pillow! It’s a Quillo!

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Greetings from Me and My House,

Today I’m moving on from nutrition teaching to a simple sewing project. Keep up your Good for You-Natural! lifestyle of eating though.

Quillos are a favorite around our home. Each child has their own for wrapping up in to take a chill off or laying around on. They are super for taking on trips. A quillo is a quilt that folds into a pillow, that is simple to make.

Quillo folded into Pillow {sewing instructions} ~ from Me & My House

You will need 4.5 yards total (after preshrinking) cotton print fabric. Homespun plaids work great, as do any type of novelty print, quilting fabrics, or flannels. You can use all one fabric if you want, but I prefer to use differing fabrics for the front and the back. The pillow/pocket can be made with both sides the same as the one of the other fabrics. If you want the two sides to be different, you will need another 1/2 yard fabric. The instructions here are for an adult size, aprox. 45″ (the width of your fabric) by 72″. (A child/smaller size is the width of the fabric by 60″, and a smaller “pillow/pocket” is made. A baby size can also be made – 36″ by 45″.)
This one is child’s size:

Quillo {sewing instructions} ~ from Me & My House

Supplies needed:
So for your adult size quillo, you need:
2 yards preshrunk fabric for the back
2 1/2 yards preshrunk fabric for the front and pillow/pocket
These should be compatible prints – different, but look good together.
2.5 yards batting – any batting that does not have to be quilted at small intervals. I prefer an all cotton or wool batting.

Thread that blends with both your prints.
Scissors/Rotary Cutter & Mat, Pins, Sewing Machine, yardstick, removable fabric marker.

Instructions:
Blanket:
Square up the ends of the fabric and cut (I prefer to use a rotary cutter) the front and back blanket pieces each 72″ long across the width of the fabric. Cut 1 piece of batting the same size.

Layer (by spreading out on a large flat surface) the batting, then one of the fabrics, wrong side down on the batting, then the other fabric right side down (on the right side of the first fabric). Smooth all layers and pin around all edges.

Sew around all 4 edges (I prefer using a walking foot) leaving a 10-12″ opening in the center of one end to turn. Clip corners. Turn right side out and press seams, including pressing the opening seam edges in.

Pillow/Pocket:
Cut 2 18″x18″ squares for the pillow/pocket out of the remaining front fabric (or one square from each fabric, if you are using both). Cut one piece of batting the same size. Layer and sew exactly the same as the blanket part, only about a 6″ opening is needed.

Alternative pillow/pocket:
You may also use an 18″x18″ quilt block as one layer and your front fabric as the other layer. After sewing the edges, turning and pressing, quilt your block before attaching to blanket in next step. When attaching to blanket, be sure to sew with the quilt block side facing the blanket side, otherwise when you fold your quillo into a pillow your quilt block will be inside and unseen.

Quillo folded into Pillow {Click for sewing instructions} ~ from Me & My House

Attach Pillow/Pocket:
Find the center of the open end of both the blanket and the pillow/pocket parts, and match them up. Make sure the center of the other end of the pillow/pocket is lined up with the center of the blanket. Pin the ends of blanket and pillow/pocket together and pin the sides of the pillow/pocket to the blanket. Stitch a narrow seam across the ends of both, attaching the pillow/pocket to the blanket, and closing up the open ends of both.

Lay quillo out flat. Measure in from each side of the blanket onto the pillow/pocket about 1/4″ onto the pillow/pocket. With removable marking (disappearing or wash out marking pen), mark this distance the entire length of the quillo, on both sides of the pillow/pocket. In other words, you are going to sew on the pillow/pocket sides, but you are going to extend these seams the entire length of the quillo. After marking, pin through all layers along each line while quillo is still laying flat. Stitch along both lines.

You’re finished! To fold quillo as a pillow, fold into aprox. thirds along the stitching lines you just made, with the pillow/pocket facing down and your folds on top. Then fold the top down twice to a point just above where the top of the pillow/pocket is, then fold again, over the back of the pillow/pocket. Turn over and reach inside of the pillow/pocket, grab through all layers of both bottom corners and flip the whole thing inside out. Your folded blanket is now inside your pillow/pocket. Smooth and you have a nice pillow.

Simple, but pretty, and certainly practical.

For Me and My House,
At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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New Year – New You

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Greetings from Me and My House,

Perhaps you are one who wants to take a faster journey. You don’t want to just add something good to your eating habits right now. You want to get off the junk – NOW. You’re tired of the way you feel and perhaps look, and are ready to go all the way to get the junk out of your house and out of your body.

It’s not too hard to get it out of the house, just throw it out – all of it. Don’t think about the money you are throwing away. It is more harmful in your body than in the trash. If it isn’t yours to throw away (perhaps your dear spouse isn’t ready for this journey to good health), perhaps you can relegate a certain shelf (preferably up high and out of the way) as their “junk shelf” and keep all items “off limits” to the rest of the family shut away up there.

As I mentioned in our Transitioning post, going cold turkey does give you faster benefits, and sometimes this is needed to keep you going. One of the not so pleasant initial benefits for some though is going through the physical effects of getting the junk out of the body, detoxing.

I’ve transferred 3 articles on detoxing from my old list over here. They can be read at:
Ditching the Junk and Detoxing – 4/28/02
Detoxing 2 – While Pregnant? – 5/3/02
Detoxing 3 – Going all the Way – 5/7/02

Would you like to know more about transitioning to Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! Check out our Online Courses to enroll in our FREE Preview course or see if we have a full Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! course and community currently being offered. Also click on over to read our Good for You-Naturally!™ section of our website.

For Me and My House,
At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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Good for You-Naturally! ~ Transitioning

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Greetings from Me and My House,

Welcome to 2007! Did you set a goal of eating more healthily this year? For the next 7 weeks I will (Lord willing) give you 7 steps to take on this journey to a Good for You-Naturally! Lifestyle of Eating.

How many times have you set this goal before, only to fall down and give up? Good for You-Naturally! is a Lifestyle of Eating not a diet. It is not something you “go on” for a while, then go back to your “normal” ways of eating. You never stay healthy or keep the weight off when you yo-yo back and forth between ways of eating. Aren’t you sick and tired of being sick and tired – and overweight?

Good for You-Naturally! is a lifestyle change that will take time to become habit. It is about developing good habits of making the best choice available at the time. This is not the Garden of Eden, and we don’t always have the perfect, purest choice available at all times. But here in America, we most always have some choice. Make the best available choice. And when you don’t, then next time do. Work at it. Make it a habit.

Going “cold turkey” really produces the best benefits. You really notice that the change was worth it, right away. But for those of you that want to slowly wean off your old ways, I present these 7 weekly steps.

WEEK 1
This week your goal is to add more living food to your way of eating. Begin by adding a big fresh vegetable salad to your lunch and or supper every day. Eat it before the rest of your meal (or you’ll be tempted to not finish it.)

Your best choices will be to use a dark green lettuce as your base, such as Romaine (not iceberg) and add a good variety of other vegetables to it, especially much cruciferous ones such as, broccoli and cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, radishes, green pepper, etc. Get as many of the vegetables as possible organic. Romaine lettuce and carrots are both pretty readily available and not overly expensive. Vary your ingredients each day/meal.

For those of you wanting to go all the way, including vegetables with the highest nutritional benefits, you will want to include at least 1 cup of raw power vegetables each day, particularly cruciferous vegetables, those known to have anti-cancer and other health benefits. These are Arugula, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Watercress, Bok Choy, Turnip Greens, Mustard Greens, and Collard Greens, Mizuna, Tatsoi, Rutabaga, Napa or Chinese Cabbage, Daikon, Horseradish, Radishes, Turnips, Kohlrabi, and Kale. Some of these I’ve not ever seen or tried, (and I don’t even know if all of them are eaten raw) but there is enough variety there for everyone to include raw cruciferous vegetables daily. (I found out over 25 years ago that turnips and kohlrabi are delicious raw. I’d never heard of turnips eaten uncooked before that, and had never even tasted kohlrabi.) If you don’t include a cup everyday, try to get at least 3 cups a week, either 1 cup every other day, or 1/2 cup per day.

In addition to cruciferous vegetables, dark green and bright orange ones generally have the most nutritional value. Avocados, though really a fruit, are excellent nutritionally also.

Is this already a part of your way of eating? You can begin adding Sprouts to your salads at each meal. Growing them is cheap and easy. Get our Gardening for Wimps guide for all the help you’ll need to get started.

Would you like to know more about transitioning to Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! and our 7 steps for getting there? Enroll in our full Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life! course and community. Check it out at our Online Courses. We also offer a 2 week, FREE Preview course that is available anytime. Also click on over to read our Good for You-Naturally!™ section of our website.

For Me & My House,
At Jesus’ feet,
Lisa

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