Circling Through This Life

This week’s letter is C.  Join me as I join Cristi and Meg and I blog about My Love Affair with C oconut Oil. Many years ago a friend of mine introduced me to coconut oil. I confess I was not keen on it. I am not fond of coconut flavored anything so why on earth would I want to use coconut oil!!!???  Now of course coconut oil is all the rage.  And for good reason. I’m not going to extol the virtues of coconut oil but instead I am going to share a few of the ways we use coconut oil and how I’ve gone from a “seriously? coconut oil?”  to a “Yes, seriously, coconut oil. Try it!” perspective. Coconut Oil is a great substitute for butter. Yes, for me it took some getting used to but coconut oil as a butter substitute is a hit here. Cinnamon Raisin Bagels are quite yummy during Orthodox Christian fasting seasons such as Advent and Great Lent and my girls love them spread with coconut oil. No, I confess coconut oil as a spread is not as yummy as cream cheese on a bage...

The Schoolhouse Review Crew reviews more than home school products. Sometimes we get to try wonderful products for mama. This time we got to review products from Koru Naturals .  Everyone received Emu Oil along with another product or in my case product set.  In addition to the Emu Oil my family received Manuka Oil and Honey Shampoo and Conditioner . Manuka Oil and Honey Shampoo I was stalking my mail waiting for my package to arrive ~ ok I sent the girls to check ~ and I used the shampoo and conditioner the same day they arrived. I was that excited! When I first opened the bottle I smelled a strong scent of almost peppermint. I had everyone smell both the shampoo and the conditioner and we all agree that it smelled like mint. Supergirl named it the mint poo. I was initially very confused because I did not see peppermint oil listed with the other oils: lavender, chamomile, white willow bark, and   rosehip. I thought it odd that it did not list peppermint.  Well ...

This week’s Random Five is not so Random.  It’s my Five Thoughts on Eating Healthy or Five Thoughts about FOOD. Cause it just seems like I am obsessed with food.  Especially when you’re the chief cook (but not bottle washer). 1. Why am I thinking of food so much?  Why do I feel obsessed ?  One word.  One life altering word.  One turn your world upside down and smack you in the head word:  Diabetes. Yes, I have it but that didn’t smack me in the head. My husband has it. That has rocked my world. The positive thing ~ can there be a positive thing? ~ is that in trying to learn how to take care of him, I am taking better care of me and I am taking teaching my children about health more seriously. 2. Food can be healing. No, I’m not talking about the emotion driven urge to feel better by setting off endorphins in the brain. I’m talking about choosing to eat foods that nourish the body to promote the natural healing of cells. I still have far more to lear...

I’ve been very quiet on my blog lately. I’ve got several post ideas and lots of rough drafts started but I’ve found it difficult to make the the time and sit down and blog as frequently as I would like. It’s a simple reason:  I’m consumed with health and nutrition. My health has been slowly declining over time but I’ve ignored it. I thought if I pretend the symptoms aren’t there then I could pretend I wasn’t really facing major health issues. I’ve been lying to myself.  It was ok.  It was just me. It was just my health. Not the health of my husband or my children. Sure we’ve been dealing for 17 1/2 years with a family member with chronic illness and a life-threatening cardiac condition. She pretty much came that way so I think I just accepted that this what it is. Yes in some respects the journey to thinking about the connection between what we eat, nutrition and health began with understanding that this little bundle has an immune system that doesn’t quite work like th...

Yes, I’m using a fancy, forced method of describing meal planning so that I can begin writing ABC Blogging (Blogging Through the Alphabet) with Marcy over at Ben and Me again. Though I’m writing about meal planning it is about arranging (and rearranging certain kinds of foods.) Recently, I broke down, jumped on the bandwagon and purchased the much-raved-about-on-Facebook-book Trim Healthy Mama . With the government shutdown interfering with family cash flow, the book being temporarily out of stock, and being generally impatient I purchased the epub version for NOOK.  (Note: I am not displeased with my choice but I *will* be ordering the physical book as soon as I am able.  Having the real book will make searching for information and following recipes so much easier!) If you regularly read my blog, you’ll remember that my husband (only 41 at the time!) had a very mild heart attack in early June.  Since then we’ve been on a mission to to improve our health by taking ba...

I can’t believe we are 1/3 of the way through October already!  The weather certainly has changed and I can believe it’s October. I seemed to have blinked though and missed the first  third of the month! Here’s my random thoughts for this week: 1. Have you been missing me? I just haven’t been posting much. I’m finding it incredibly difficult to post since the Government Shut Down on October 1st. I think I’m now in a better place emotionally and will get back to blogging. I’ve had lots of ideas but it’s hard to write when you are worried, stressed, and processing it all. 2. Speaking of furlough: My husband is one of the 800,000 Federal Employees who were sent home on October 1st.  He’s also one of the 400,000 that the pentagon ordered back to work since his specific job provides “welfare, morale, or support for the military members.” 3. I am really glad that he is back to work; never mind the financial implications, as much as we love having Daddy around, he disrupts o...

I feel like all I am posting are reviews and Random 5 Posts. Guess I better finish up the Little Steps posts I have been developing. 1.  This was another week cut short by furlough days. Since Honeybear was needed all 5 days last week, he got two furlough days this week plus he took a “use or lose” leave day. So he was home Wednesday, Thursday, and Today.  His furlough day for next week is Monday. 2.  Since Honeybear was home and available, he canned green beans for us! He planted the beans, he cared for them, he picked them, and then he processed them.  I am so proud of him! 3.  We had some berries left from the farmer’s market.  Oh and some strawberries from the store.  I made a berry syrup.  Because the fruit was not “just picked” fresh, we’ve opted to use it right away rather than can it.  I should have taken a picture of the evidence that my husband had “got in the syrup”.  He sampled it and it spilled on his white shirt! He sa...

*Note* I start off with lots of background information but I do share a recipe for “better butter” that is a blend of real butter and a good oil. Scroll down to find the recipe if you want to skip the *why* part. Because of my husband’s cholesterol levels and his newly diagnosed heart disease oh and that pesky heart attack, we’re taking little steps to better health or baby steps to healthier eating. This post gives some background about where we’re starting from. One of things the doctor recommends is a low-fat diet (not a NON-fat diet but a low fat diet). But not all fats are the same and not all fats are bad . Just because it is saturated, doesn’t mean it’s all bad either. Eating a diet where 30-50% of your daily calories come from fat is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, if it is the right fats with the right ratios, it can be very healthy and beneficial for you. (I urge you to do your own research! Do not take my word for it and go to several different sources. There is l...

My husband’s recent heart attack serves as a clattering, clanging, wake up call. Lifestyle matters. I’m not necessarily learning anything new with my research but rather I’m confirming and affirming things I already knew but chose to ignore. This alarm bell doesn’t have a snooze button anymore. Honeybear and I are fully awake now. This isn’t just his health.  It isn’t just my health.  It affects my children. I wasn’t motived to start taking the little steps to eating better for me but now, realizing the impact on my husband and children, it’s time. One Little Step at time. These Little Steps must be small and manageable because otherwise I’ll give up before we even start.  Just thinking of how far backwards we’ve gone overwhelms me.  How far backwards?  What does that mean?  It means that I used to do these things: grind my own grains (mostly white whole wheat berries but also some kamut and spelt) bake my own whole grain breads made whole grain f...