Monthly Archives: June 2017

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What’s up with me?

I’m glad you asked. 

But first, here is a quick recap. I’m the mom of four children that I lovingly refer to as the Fantastik4. Their ages are 17, 15, 11 and 10. I have three boys and the 15 year old is a girl. 

Moving on…

I jumped on the bandwagon and decided to try Whole30. I have wanted to try this for a while but with four kids it’s a little difficult to make a radical eating change, even though it’s temporary, and stick to it if the entire household is not one one accord. I waited until the younger three of the Fantastik4 went to visit their dad for two weeks. I wanted to do this for me, not us and I wanted to be successful. I’m on day 20. 

Because I haven’t done everything 100% according to the plan, I’m extending the time beyond 30 days. Restaurant fries and ketchup became my stumbling block one or maybe two days. I love french fries. That’s my confession. I’ve done well other wise. 

The other thing I’ve been doing is contemplating my next steps towards helping others live a healthier life. One day I met a nutritionist/ personal trainer in the grocery store. She was passing out flyers for a boot camp that was paired with nutrition counseling. As she gave me her sales pitch she said, “The real thing I’m selling is nutrition counseling but people believe working out is the key to weight loss so I’ve put the two together.”

I’m going a step further and saying the key to “whole life wellness” is a combination of many things including healing our bodies with oils, nutrition, drinking clean water, exercise, supplements, as well as the reduction to chemical exposure. 

Every year for the last 10 years or so I’ve eliminated or added things to our lives to improve the short long term quality of life for us. We have a strong history of cancer in my family. In an effort to reduce if not eliminate the chances of developing the horrible disease I knew I needed to make lifestyle changes. I wanted to make them gradually because I didn’t want an uprising in my home. Since I purchase everything we eat and all products we use I have the obligation and duty to make good choices for my family. I’m not 100% where I’d like to be but I’m well on my way. 

This is my invitation to you to join me on a journey to wellness. The portion I’d like to help you with is using essential oils. 

I became a Young Living Oil (YLO) distributor almost two years ago. I did it for my family as part of our journey to wellness. I also became s a distributor for the 24% discount off of the retail price on the products. I told my cousin about my desire to begin sharing my love for essential oils a few weeks ago and I’m pretty sure I offended her because I usually tell her everything but had not shared this information. I honestly don’t know why it never occurred to me. But I told her then and I’m inviting you now. Let’s walk or jog or interval run together towards a goal of wellness. 

I’m in the process of creating my website for YLO where I will share my personal experience, videos on when and how to use the products as well as highlights of various oils and their benefits. I will also share information about research I’ve found and post suggestion concerning nutrition, exercise, supplements etc. that will make our journey to wellness successful. 

Here is a link if you’re ready to signup with Young Living Oil. 

Click here 

Or email me for questions. I’ll even share my discount with you. 

Be well and be whole. 

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Cup and Saucer

Many, many, did I say many? moons ago I remember hearing people talk about standardized testing and how they are biased. The specific example I remember hearing was regarding a question along the lines of, what do you place a cup on? The correct answer was a saucer.

A couple of months ago during a volunteer opportunity/work event I was talking to a teacher who works with students of financially challenged parents. She was teaching her class to set a table for a meal. As she provided instruction for sitting down at the table, she said, “like you do at home” to which a student replied, we don’t have a table at home. That was a reality check for the teacher. Never assume the students have tables, chairs, or anything else.

When I was growing up, my brothers and I ate in our individual rooms and usually in front of the television. I remember a table at some point but I also remember them having a fight, breaking the table then using the top to break dance on. They were resourceful fellows and the first in the neighborhood to repurpose furniture for entertainment. The guys in the neighborhood learned how to break dance on that table, I became their agent and manager by finding places for them to dance for money.

But anyway…

I don’t remember sitting at the table as a family. I don’t recall ever using a cup and saucer. I would sometimes make my mom a cup of instant coffee but I didn’t give it to her with a saucer. I didn’t drink hot tea back then. I would not have been able to pick out a proper tea cup in a line up.

I honestly didn’t learn how to set a table until I was in my early 20’s. I learned after a very embarrassing incident during a visit at the home of the parents of my boyfriend at the time. It was Christmas. His mother asked me to set the table. Uh, what? At the time I swear she was trying to expose my ignorance in many areas in order to discourage him from dating me. I pulled him aside and confided in him my delimna. I had never set a table in my life. After telling me lay down, he told his mother I had a headache and needed to rest. He set the table for me.

Cup and saucer… we make a lot of assumptions about the lives people live and the experiences they have. The affects of those assumptions are evident when only a certain group of people are invited to the table to make decisions about an entire population of people. The decision makers pull from their limited experience without regard for others. I will not say it’s intentional, although I’m not ruling that out. I will attribute some of the decisions to ignorance, being out of touch with various people groups and perhaps not caring to understand.

Some might think or even say a person who grew up in a household without a table is doomed or will not have the ability to over come. These are the people who are easy to discard and write off. I say to you, you are wrong. I believe if given opportunity, education and wisdom most of us will thrive.

Are the tests bias? Of course they are. The question I have is, how do we bridge the gap between the decision makers and the experiences of the test takers?

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Walk with Me

There are a lot of duties and responsibilities that go along with raising children. As parents or guardians we try to impart our wisdom, morals, values, knowledge, culture, beliefs, political views, financial knowledge etc. It is an extensive list. 

One of the things I’m imparting to my kids is to walk with me. That sounds strange but let me tell you why.

I walk a lot. I walk for exercise. I walk to get vitamin D. I walk to relieve stress. I walk to commune with nature. I walk to get out of the office or house. I walk to contemplate. I walk to pray. Some walks are long. Others are intense. Then there are the times I walk with my children. 

We walk as a group to enjoy family time. Sometimes I walk with them individually. It’s during the solo times that I’m able to connect with them on a personal more intimate level as well as discuss my future expectations for them in regards to me. 

I’m not old but I’m not young. I’m at a good point in my life but the truth is I’m getting older. I’d rather face the facts rather than hide from them or deny them. I like having a plan or two in place. I don’t have anything written down but I do verbally share my expectations of how I want to be cared for, when I’m struggling to care for myself, with my children. 

The walks are a key component of that plan. Let me say this, they are typical kids and don’t always want to go on a walk with their mom. They moan and groan and ask, “why me?!” (Because you are the chosen one, now let’s go.) I have pre-walking negotiation meetings with them to determine which route? How far? How fast? Can I listen to music, ride my scooter run, bring some water? After we settle on the terms we head out. 

Back to the purpose and plan of the walk. When I’m older I want them to visit me and walk with me. “Walk with me when I’m old” is my request. Spend some time with me. Bring music I like to listen to now. I want to recreate fond memories of one of the things I love to do with the people I love being with. As we walk today I’m storing away memories that I hope to unlock in the future with something as simple as a walk.