Thursday, June 6, 2013

What have I done?

Thursday 6th June, 2013 


It dawned on my yesterday exactly what I had said I was going to give up with no processed for for 28 days.

To be honest, I dont think I will make.

My day started with a womens bible study group and believe it or not the subject was facing temptations. Sitting on the table while we had our cuppas were scones with jam and cream, lemon slice, carrot cake (from a packet) and some orange cake. AHHHHHHHHHH. I was good. I had nothing.

Then we had to go out in the afternoon, which meant we would be out for tea. So while the family ate pies and pasties, I had remembered to grab the last little bit of left over vegie soup from the fridge. Boy am I glad I didn't have it for lunch like I had planned.

So the thoughts did start to run through my head, what have I done? I might end up being a bit more "loosey".

Anyway, I just also wanted to share a really yummo recipe that I made on day 2. Chickpea and spinach burgers. I found the recipe while surfing some time ago and fell in love with it as its vegan and gluten free. I got it from Tale of Two Vegans Click on their name and if I have done things correctly it should take you straight to the recipe. It was posted back in 2009 but its a great recipe. 

I did make some changes, like I left out the soy sauce and I also baked them instead of fry them. I baked them at 180C for 15 minutes and then turned and baked for another 15 minutes.

I did make up a double batch so I could have some left over, but my teenagers devoured them. Oh well at least I know they were eating something healthy.

Wish me luck as I start out on day 4.

Bec.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Behind the Challenge

Tuesday 4th June, 2013

Day 2 of the 28 day challenge. Lucky me, I live in Australia so I'm ahead of all my fellow Americans by half a day in this challenge, which means I will finish first, maybe??????

Really I'm just trying to eat a lot healthier. I'm glad the rules are a bit "loosey goosey" as Lindsay said on her blog, as to what processed is.

A couple of years ago I had a bad rash on my hands. The doctors only wanted to give me some creams to help relieve the discomfort. "You'll probable never find the cause, best just to use this" said the doctor handing me a script.

Well I found a cause, food. After speaking to a friend who is a naturopath, I eliminated a few things from my diet. 2 to be exact. Dairy and wheat. Within 1 week the rash I had had for 3 months, and that was only getting worse and spreading up my arms, was gone.

A bit more testing and talking with my friend and we eliminated some other things as well. Soy, gluten, cashews, almonds, yeast, oats and a few things I can't remember now as they were not really in my diet to begin with. An interesting thing happened.

I felt bad, really bad, really REALLY BAD. For about a week. The first couple of days were ok, but then it hit. My joints ached, every muscle in my body hurt, I was crabby and cranky and I did not have a problem in letting people know. And I was tired. By the end of the second week, I felt fantastic. I started to discover I had symptoms I never new were symptoms.

Things like walking up stairs no longer hurt, not that it hurt much before, but I could feel the difference. I had an ease of movement and didn't feel like it was an effort to be walking up the steps.

I didn't need my horizontal life pauses. I found that I could stay up later at night. It had become such a routin for me to crawl into bed at 7:30 on a friday night and sleep until 7:30 the next morning. I was actually starting to stay up later than the kids.

I could think! I had heard of people talking about a brain fog before and had laughed it off, but I had it. I didn't relize it at all until it went away and suddenly I knew what brain fog was. My skin cleared up, I started to lose weight. I had alwasy been hungry. It seemed some days that I was a bottomless pit and nothing would fill me up. But after that first 2 weeks, I lost my craving, my hunger. I would look back on what I had eaten all day and think "Man, how did that ever fill me up?"

Then after 3 months of being really super strick, it was time to try out the no-no foods. To work out which ones, my body could cope with and which ones I was never going to eat again. The theory being that after giving my body and immune system a time of healing I might be able to reintroduce some of the foods.And that my friends is where I fell off the wagon big time.
Coupled with moving and life in general, my eating habits went back to what they had been several months before, because that was what was easy. I cut back on a lot of things and tried to minimilise how much i was eating of certain things, which I'm sure has kept me out of major trouble.

But.......

Over the last 2 years I have learnt that I can survive on eating anything, but not live fully, Sure I dont get major cramps or have to run to the toilet. I have trouble remembering, it hurts just that little bit to move, I have no energy to do anything fun. I now know that what I am feeling now is not normal motherhood, as one doctor tried to tell me years ago when I complained about my tiredness.

So that brings me to today. Time to reassess what I'm doing to my body. Time to listen to it and find out what it likes and doesn't like.So here's hoping this whole food challenge will kick start me into gear.


Bec.


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Monday, June 3, 2013

A Challenge

Monday 3rd June, 2013

 
 

 

There, I said it. Three times in fact. I'll say it again.

I'm taking the 28-day Whole Food Challenge.

Lindsay from the Happy Herbivore has set up a challenge for anyone that is interested. I encourage you all to go and have a look. Your body will thank you.

I am doing well so far, quinoa and rice porridge with fruit salad for breakfast this morning, yummo. Hopefully the next 27 and half days will be as good.

Bec.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

There is life...................................

Sunday 2nd June, 2013.

Well what do you know, there is life after homeschooling. One could be forgiven in thinking that I had infact died when the coffin was sealed on homeschooling. Its been a long time since the last posting.

What to do with myself is a question I am still asking. No longer are my days filled with teaching or researching curriculums. Leaving the homeschooling scene was not my first choice and there are days that I get pangs of wanting so badly for my kids to return home.

My blog got neglected as it was originally set up to record our homeschooling activites.I have decided that I will now turn it into a journal of my thoughts and activites as I try to figure out what to do with myself. Who knows what I will come up with.

I'm always quick to tell others that there is a season for everything, just because one door closes doesn't mean others wont open.Its also no reason for just stopping. How do I know if a door is locked or not if I dont try and open some.

Its funny, I was asked what I enjoyed doing the other day and I really couldn't think of anything straight off the top of my head. Can "nothing" really be considered doing something? 

So I shall see what I can come up with. There has to be something out there for me to sink my teeth into. Hopefully it wil be an interesting journey as I discover more about myself and how to live outside of homeschooling.

Bec.

Friday, February 1, 2013

The Coffin Has Been Sealed........

31st January, 2013


Well thats it. The lid has been shut and the nails are in. Homeschooling is officially over in our house.


Wednesday 30th January was greeted with much delight at 6am by Miss E.
6:30 saw her fed and dressed and chanting, "I'm going to school, I'm going to school". Dropping her off at the school at 8:50 she was buddied up and gone with out even a hug or goodbye. I'm not so proud as to admit that I came home and cried, actually I was crying by the time I got to the car, but even worse when I finally got inside the house. Just as well hubby works from home and could console me.

Thursday 31st did not bring the same enthusiasim for Miss Z..........

 

No she really wasn't that bad. I did get some smiles out of her....


Master J was so nervous that he couldn't eat his breakfast. But be assured, his appetite is back to normal now.

The end of the 2nd day for Miss E and the first for Miss Z and Master J has seen a thumbs up for school. I believe Master J's comment on facebook was it was cool.

Oh well, I do believe in resurrections, so wont get rid of the idea of homeschooling. There are reasons and seasons for everything and for now this is the schooling season.


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Storm Photos

23rd December, 2012

yeah I know my dates are not in order, but thats ok. These photos i want to share are from the storm on the 23rd December 2012. Yes nearly thought the Myans had been out by 1 day, but i knew better. Anyway to the photos.

The photo below was taken while still light and was pretty much a fluke. I had just been snapping away, as you can't take long exposure photos during the day. I tried that and you just end up with a white screen. Any way I circled the lightning strike to make it easier for you to see.



So once it got darker and i could set up my tripod and set the camera to a 4 second exposure these are the shots I got.
 Yes it is still night time, you can see the light from the window on the grass near the garden bed. There were some huge flashes during this shot and in the circle you can see a clear strike.


The trees in the back yard make it hard to get good shots, so I discovered the front verandah. I can get a clearer shot, just the lightning has to be in the right spot.

 
 January 3rd, 2013

So this time I headed around to the front, my biggest problem today was the little midge bugs we have started to attack me, so I had to call it quits before the storm had moved past enough to get some good shots. But I managed to get some. Here a few of the better ones. I'm going to put all of them in a mini film as i think it would come up awesome watching the cloud move past, but that will have to wait for another day.

The next series of shots are all in a row and it is of a car that drove past. I thought the photos came up ok. What do you think?




 I know there wasn't much lightning, but I thought it was cool the effect of a longer exposure. Any way hope you enjoyed looking at them.

Angels working overtime


 8th January, 2013

"For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go." Psalm 91:11

What a great promise we have. A couple of nights ago I was reminded of God's love when I was able to take some photos of a passing storm which produced a beautiful rainbow.
 God had just taken Noah and his family through the worst storm ever, and promised that there would not be another like it.

Storms are still bad and scary, maybe they only last a couple of minutes, but it is great to know that when they hit we have angels watching over us.

Last night was a scary 10 minutes.

Miss E had been put to bed at 9 and so the rest of family sat down to watch "War Horse". The landlords dog kept barking out side, so I gave her some water and she sat happily at the back door. More barking started this time with her running away. Normally the landlords dont leave their dogs at work so we thought it a bit strange that she was there.

After the 3rd time we decided that we had better call the landlord to check that everything was ok. This was when we discovered that a storm was coming. Having called the landlord he said he would come and collect his dog and take her home. She was probably upset about the storm.

They came and collected her with winds raging around us. Dust was filling the air and we waited while the landlord checked their silos as we had heard some crashing and bashing. 

Its very hard to see things at about 10:30pm. We don't have street lights out here. Everything must have been fine as the landlord gave us a toot and drove out the drive way.

We continuted on watching the movie for only about 10 minutes, when the wailing of the wind caught our attention. Windows started to shake as the noise of the wind grew louder and louder. Mr J tried to open a door to have a look but the pressure of the wind was too great. We could hear things hitting the windows in the back room, so moved everyone into the front of the house and told them to stay there, as we knew we had a dead tree in the back yard.

The noise subsided, the winds died down. Mr J went out the house through the garage to check out side. Sure enough the once faithful shade giver had fallen. I never really understood a storm coming to a complete stop before, until last night, as that is what it was like. As quick as it came, it was gone. The stars where out shining like nothing had happened at all.
This morning before the sun gets too much heat in it, I went to survey and take photos.



 How truly blessed we are. No damage to the house. The only fatalaty might be the watermelon and rockmelon vines that are now sitting under the tree over near the fence. But I'm not calling that yet, they may have survived.

There was a few other branches down as well.

All I can say is "Thank You God" for giving us angels to watch over us.