daily progress

a song for you by Jacob

Today I accomplished parts of my goals and feel that any baby step towards progress is progress indeed!

10 minutes on treadmill
5 minutes yoga home practice
ate half watermelon for breakfast with the kids
made a delicious fruit smoothie for breakfast
inspired myself & others


Today my son Jacob & I were cooking scrambled eggs and he was telling me how Daddy cooks
hard-boiled eggs for him and asked me if the eggs we were cooking make him strong and my response to him was, "any kind of egg eating makes you strong." He accepted this response happily. It was one of those moments where you feel such love for your sweet child.

We are currently drinking vanilla almond milk and chocolate soy milk as a substitute for cow's milk and my children find it quite enjoyable. My one downfall is coffee with french vanilla creamer, which I have not yet sought out a suitable replacement for.

I have to sadly admit that this raw food diet is hard to apply even with the right foods stocked. I suppose you can make it as easy or as hard for yourself as you want. Last night on the way home from yoga, Turner begged for an ice cream cone from Stewarts, which I reluctantly stopped for and then out of habit ordered myself one as well....which broke my raw food diet. Dairy is going to be the element of this lifestyle shift that will be the hardest to break.

one week of raw food

So what does one buy when they have decided to go raw?
Keep in mind there are 5 people in my household so I had to consider that we may
eat one each per family member/day.

1 pineapple
2 mini watermelons
1 cantaloupe
5 avacados
2 bunches of bananas
frozen blueberries
8 lemons
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch dill
4 heads broccoli
4 red peppers
1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
2 starfruits
5 kiwi fruit
6 lbs. empire apples
4 pints blueberries
2 pints blackberries
2 pints raspberries
5 cucumbers
grapefruit
green grapes
5 quarts strawberries
2 quarts stonyfield farms organic yogurt
4 lbs. oatmeal
raisins

I am so looking forward to this exciting week of eating fresh food. Our tastebuds will change and will no longer appreciate the taste of processed, sugary foods, which will further encourage the consumption of life giving food!

the gift of today

life giving produce!

I have finally pared down to just the items needed on the kitchen counter and it looks great!

I am grateful for occasional abundance

I had the absolute pleasure of attending two anusara yoga classes today at Saratoga Springs Yoga http://www.saratogaspringsyoga.com/ ;where I have been attending class for one month; both taught by beautifully in-touch women who know what they are teaching. Things were learned about my own body and soul that I was not previously aware of. For example, I was told by one of my instructors that I am very bendy and have a hard time hugging in. At the later class that I attended, the next instructor told me that I am so flexible that I shoot out and explode my bright energy into forever and need to work on hugging that energy in more, with strength so that I can support my structure more muscularly. If the body expresses a manifestation of the soul, that would completely explain it because I am very flexible; almost to a fault or the point of injury; and need to work on not allowing myself to bend so much that my bone structure is compromised...i.e. boundaries. Many times, I drop my guard and allow people to walk all over my boundaries, and this has ultimately broken me in the past. I'm going to strive to build strength in each posture I take and each life experience.

Today I have also decided to experiment with a one week raw food diet. My grocery bill was $230 due to the fact that I did not limit what produce I purchased because I will be eating produce to the point of satisfaction and do not want to be starving or dissatisfied throughout the day. This also allowed for 20 bags of groceries! The children will be eating a lot of berries and melon for each meal, which they have never argued with in the past. It will be a vast improvement over the dairy/egg/chicken nugget/hot dog/pasta/pizza/white bread lifestyle that many kids are subjected to because people think this is "kid food". I want myself and my children to be extremely healthy and strong for life and this is one step we will be taking towards a healthful future.

My cleaning challenge is working. I have successfully taken care of one clutter pile in my bedroom and also organized my kitchen cabinets and counter. It is truely amazing how a clean house can clear your mind from cluttered, cloudy thinking and perception. Besides it is much easier to maintain a clutter free, minimalist living space.

uncluttered

there are a few spaces in my home that I really appreciate aesthetically.

My living room
With it's warm yellow walls
Colonial pattern and burgundy accent curtains
Blue Victorian couch
to accentuate the blues in my curtains
Brick fireplace
Oak hardwood
Pine
Cherry

The Behr Brothers & Company piano
Kohler & Campbell black baby grand piano
My dream come true
The fact that I later found that Behr Brothers
was eventually bought by kohler & Campbell
piano manufacturers
both situated in New York
And the way I didn't know that when I chose my new piano
My baby and my grand piano
Where I will write the songs that are famous,
If only famous in the ears of myself
and the friends that believe in the music

The stand where the light sits
That I bought at the salvation army
Chalk ware
Spray painted a dusty blue
in the front lawn with the boys
As they excitedly asked what I was doing
and where I would put our new lamp

The place where the treadmill used to reside
Where I spent so many peaceful mornings
Looking out the windows
At the sunrise
And the mist rising over the hills
Between the willow tree branch picture frame
Working out for health
to regain a shape that I once criticized
But should have appreciated
Because it was as beautiful as the sunrise
And I never knew it

Now I push it
on exercise bikes
And elliptical trainers
in spinning classes
pushed by a Russian girl
with an accent,
as we listen to loud
bumping pop beats
and I sweat.
zumba,
hot yoga,
cold yoga,
any yoga,
Spontaneous nature walks
planned nature walks,
walks through museums,
malls,
grocery stores,
and on sidewalks window shopping.
Dreaming of fitting into
the best boots in the world,
named "cydwoq"
handmade in California,
expensive
for expensive calves to fit into.
Trying to find a place in my body that is still mine
The place that I created and I officially own,
that for some reason seems foreign
like a girl with an accent

open mic # 1 : New Life Fellowship

Trinity. Pre-Debut of Taylor Swift's "love story" at open mic night.
January 2011

Kayleigh

Kayleigh, our beautiful Bernese Mt. Dog. She'll be 2 in July!

future rocker singing at a hockey game

Trinity was 1/2 selected from her grade to sing the American & Canadian National Anthem

at a hockey game at the civic center. That's my beautiful girl on the ice in the black dress!

the new rockin hairdo

today I donated my hair to locks of love and had the best haircut experience I've had from this awesome hairdress named Pam Bricker @ Shear Madness in Saratoga Springs. She makes hairdressing an art form!

cleaning challenge

All books will be removed from the shelf,

the shelf will be dusted, and every object will have a new

place that it will be returned to after each use.

While sorting and organizing, I will apply principles of minimalism

and feng shui to bring a peaceful flow to the space which will ultimately

bring peacefulness and rest to my body and mind when I am ready to sleep.

A seasonal bin, craft supplies, books, broken picture frame, cd's, lazy kate for my spinning wheel, and an old box that is still left unpacked from about 5/6 years ago!! One of my personal development goals is to digitize all cd's and dvd's to my computer and an mp3 so that I can then sell them all and reduce the amount of objects in my home. Less stuff, means less burden.

It's time to clean up the clutter in my sacred bedroom space. My personal growth challenge is to take care of one pile per day until my goal is accomplished. I did just recently clean off the top of this bookstand and narrowed my reading down to one book; "What God Wants" by: Neale Donald Walsche; that I have set out to finish reading over the next couple of weeks. The pile of magazines next to the stand will go to the treadmill area to be read daily as I start and maintain my new 10-20 minute/day treadmill routine.

Future Rockin' Piano Girl

This is my beautiful daughter, getting her awesome musical education on an mp3 player,

the way I used to do with my purple radio/casette player machine...

jamming out with Michael Jackson and Madonna underneath my pillow

until 'all hours of the night'

Dreaming

BIG

DREAMS