Welcome to my blog!

I hope you will be enlightened and encouraged when you come to my page. It is my goal to always keep a good attitude and have it be contagious. Of course, life isn't always a bowl of cherries but hey, we can try to keep it sweet!

I am determined!

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."
- Martha Washington

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Ready for a new week!

I remember dreading Mondays.  As much as I liked my job I hated going to work Monday through Friday.  I hated the routine I had, having to get up, get my kids up and get everyone out the door by 7:30 every morning.  When I resigned from my corporate job I knew I didn't want to go back to work for a long time.  I wanted to be the one leading my kids in the right direction and being involved more in their lives than their teachers or society was.  Society wanted my kids.  No way was I going to give them over.  When I found this home business I wasn't looking for a way to work, or earn money.  It was not worth losing my kids to the public school system.  After a few months of wondering if I could really work at home and raise my kids the way I wanted to raise them I finally decided to give it a try.

This has been the best decision I have ever made, hands down!  It is Sunday evening.  I can't wait to get to work tomorrow morning.  It's also the end of the school year.  With the school schedules inconsistent and school functions I don't have to miss a beat with my work.  I love that I can work my job around my family, instead of working my family around my job.

Tomorrow is a new day.  I am so blessed.  My family has never been happier or healthier.  I can't believe I have been able to earn a good income and be there 100% for my family.  That's not even the biggest reward.  I am also blessed because I get to help other moms do the same thing!  Work at home, prioritize their families and earn a good income.  Life is good!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

What's for dinner when you don't have time to cook?

This kind of goes with my last post.  Please leave me your feedback!

http://internetceomoms.com/atravis/article/whats-for-dinner-when-you-dont-have-time-to-cook

More on teaching my kids healthy habits, eating healthy on a tight schedule!

People ask me all the time, how I'm able to cook nutritional meals for my family with the tight schedule that I have.  So, I thought I'd put some of my tips here.  When my kids were little, all were in extracurricular activities at the same time (now I only have 2 at home so it's not so hard anymore).  It seemed we lived out of my van.  Seriously, I had a cooler in there with food and drinks in it all the time.  There was no way we could afford to eat out all the time and there was no way I was going to get my kids hooked on fast food at such young ages.  After all, they were athletes and had to eat good.  

In the cooler I kept lots of fresh fruit, granola bars, deli style lunch meats, salads and sometimes leftovers.  We also keep dried fruit and nuts around all the time.  Water has always been a big deal at our house.  We still drink lots of water all the time.

At home I always have prepared green salads in zip lock bags.  We always have green salad.  The kids are used to just putting the prepared salad on a plate and maybe adding some grilled chicken or fish that was already prepared, or cheese or seeds or tomatoes or whatever they want on their salad.  The greener the lettuce the better so I use a mixture of lettuces and spinach too.

We live in the Southwest so green chili is a staple around here.  I have it roasted, peeled and chopped all the time.  It's high in vitamin C and very good in everything!  It makes the most boring food extra yummy!  Sometimes I'll put a huge pot of beans in the Crock Pot and it will make a few meals.  We can have it soupy with green chili and cheese one day, the next I'll cook up some ground turkey and make a bean a topping for nachos and if there is anything left after that we might make up some burritos or quesadillas.

Crock Pot cooking is so easy and there are so many nutritional and healthy recipes on the internet.  But, I also like to use the pressure cooker when I'm short on time.  It takes a while to get used to cooking with the pressure cooker the food comes out so good in so little time.  You can put just about anything in the pressure cooker, including deserts :).

I'm all for easy and quick so having things prepared a head of time really helps.  My girls take lunch to school every day.  My little one is able to have warm lunches so the night before I'll put a little bit of leftovers in a microwavable, covered dish and all she has to do is grab that dish on her way out the door.  I also like to buy Gogurts and freeze them.  The girls love them and they're nice and cool when they're ready to eat them.

Portion servings a head of time too!  You know how bad it is to grab a bag of chips or a box of crackers that you really like?  You can't stop eating them!  I love the little snack zip lock baggies.  As you are putting your groceries away put one serving size in the little baggies.  Your family won't over eat that way and again, they can just grab them and go.  Your food last longer and when that happens you save money too!

You know, your family won't eat so much junk if you don't bring it in the home right?  Stop bringing in the cookies and the greasy chips.  Instead, buy healthy snacks like trail mix with fruit and nuts, whole grain crackers and popcorn, granola bars and yogurt and even ice cream!  As long as it has nutritional value I will buy it. If it doesn't, I don't bring it home.  Of course, when my kids are away from me I know they're having their junk treats and I personally think it's fine, but when they're home they have the good for them treats.  They get used to eating that way and they begin go love it.  One more thing, I freeze yogurt.  I only buy whole grain and multi grain breads.  Instead of peanut butter I buy almond butter.  It taste great and doesn't have near the fat that peanut butter does.

Another thing I do is make extra.  I really do not like cooking so when I make casseroles or soups or meats I make more than enough.  You can throw the extra in the freezer in single size servings or 
family size servings and take them out whenever you need to.

We love all kinds of food but we are a chicken and fish family.  Fish is easy and fast to prepare an filled with vitamins and omegas.  Although our family likes a good steak or hamburger we rarely eat them.  I use ground turkey in everything from spaghetti to nachos.  Instead of hamburgers we grill turkey burgers.  We didn't always eat this way but we're so used to it now, the family prefers this to the "old" way.

It isn't as hard as it may sound if you aren't used to this.  Just try it and sooner than later you and your family will get used to it.  You'll save money knowing you're doing a great thing for your family.  Plus, you're teaching your kids healthy eating habits.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Teaching our kids healthy habits

I read a post on facebook today that asked "What healthy habits did you learn from your mom?"  I thought, wow, I didn't learn any healthy habits from my mom!  My mom was a very young and single mother raising 3 kids with what she little she had and what little she knew about raising a family.

Yesterday I watched my 18 year old son create a bomb out of The Works Toilet Bowl Cleaner a plastic bottle and aluminum foil.  He brought it over to show me how a household cleaner can be so dangerous.  You see, we don't have any products in our home with harmful chemicals or ingredients in them.  Everything we use, from bath and body products, to laundry products, to skin care and cosmetics, to cleaning product are guaranteed to be safe for my family.  It is a normal way of life for our family.  I never really talked to my kids about how having harmful chemicals and toxins in our home can hurt us but they know!  They know because I take this issue seriously and I'm teaching them healthy habits.

I love my kids so much, I would do anything for them.  Most of us would do anything for our kids.  We even say we would die for them.  

I do research all the time on the harmful ingredients in our everyday necessities.  I get the facts, I share them with people and can't believe this issue isn't important enough for them to switch brands and try to create a safe and healthy home for their families.  The other day I received a forwarded email about the different causes of cancer.  The email came from a friend who knows the facts because I told her.  She's also a friend with a history of cancers in her family.  She's a friend with two young kids.  She knows the facts, ignores the facts, yet forwards emails like this to people.  She would do anything for her kids, except create a safe and healthy home for them.  I don't get it!

What about you?  What would you do for your children?  Would you die for them?  Here are some facts and statistics.  Read them, then tell me...what would you do for your kids?

Cancer in children has increased 400% the past 20 years.  It is currently the number one killer in children ages 7-9.  Asthma in children has increased 400% too!
1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will have cancer sometime in their life.
Quaternium 15 aka Q15 is a formaldehyde releaser and is know to cause skin problems like eczema and breathing problems like asthma.  Formaldehyde is a cheap preservative, and companies use it because it gives their products a longer shelf life.  It is in products like toothpaste, lotion, shampoo, cosmetics and other products, including baby shampoo.
1,4 dioxane is a known carcinogen, also in a lot of skin care products, bubble bath and baby shampoo and more.
We all know chemicals in the home can cause accidental poisonings.  In fact 89% of all poison exposures occur in the home...every 13 seconds poison control is called.
Household cleaners are the # 1 cause of poisoning of children. The top three culprits according to Poison Control: Household cleaners, bleach and medications.

The labeling laws aren't there to protect the consumers, they're there to protect the manufacturers.
20 years ago health issues like cancer, asthma, eczema, adhd, fibromyagia, MS and others were rare, yet today they are so common.  If we don't have these issues in our family we have someone close to us who does.

I'm curious, what will you do with this information?

My Story :)

Just thought I'd share my story with The Internet CEO Moms.