A puppy, some cranberry juice and my pajamas

Helllloooo random thoughts!  I had so much to get done today, get the house cleaned since I didn't have time this week, and go tanning since I've found in my short time up here it's necessary to keep my mood elevated, and workout to keep up with my bff and beachbody coach Gabriella Harrison's 30 day group challenge. What have I completed?  I'm still in my pajamas, fighting off a headache before I go babysit tonight, have the puppers curled up in my lap, and just chugged a glas of water and some cranberry juice.  And I ate some pomegranate and oatmeal. And string cheese.  But I did get the dishes done and the bed made!  Sucess!  lol!

I think I'm going to have to work on some forgiveness of myself and to stop procrastinating this Lenten season lol.  I put off doing anything today because of the headache, and now have no time to get it done since I have to get ready soon. And so here I am beating myself up for not getting those things accomplished, and there's really no reason to.  I guess just because it was my one day "off" this week so I wanted to knock it out.  But honestly, there's always tomorrow to get it done.  We're not living in filth, the house isn't even messy honestly. I just got used to having time to get it all done, and I need to get over that now. Especially since my schedule is going to be picking up for the next couple weeks and after that, it's time for school to start and I really won't have much time.  So I guess in all reality, this isn't that big of a deal.  I need to get over.  Guess I'm going to keep telling myself that until I forgive myself or fall asleep tonight lol.  Or stay up stupid late taking care of all those things lol.

K, shower time

Peace y'all.

The Season of Lent

GREETINGS AND HAPPY FAT TUESDAY!!!

I am stuffed! And haven't even had dinner yet!  In my hometown we had a very big Polish population in a nearby city, and so have grown up with eating paczkis on Fat Tuesday (aka Mardi Gras!)  Paczkis are a delicious Polish pastery made with a dozen egg yolks (!) and usually filled with jelly, custard or sweet cream, and you eat as many of them as you can in addition to a huge dinner, since traditionally you fast the next day on Ash Wednesday. 

Anyway, they have no paczkis  on the island, nobody even knows what they are!  So I settled for some yummy cupcakes from one of the local grocery stores.  I am going to miss sugar for the next 40 days!

Lent has begun to become important to me over the years, and while I may not go to church during this time (or ever lol) it has become a time of reflection, self-exploration, and renewing my connection with God, and increasing my connection with the Divine and the Universe.  I do try to go on Ash Wednesday at least, or sometimes will put ashes on my own forehead and pray if i couldn't make it to Mass.  This year I am giving up sugar, but am also going to find more time to be alone in nature with God, and am still toying with the idea of actually going to church.  But I am terrified of going to church, especially alone!  But then I guess that's the whole point of Lent, getting outside of your comfort zone.  A lot of people celebrate Lent as a rememberance of Jesus dying for us and repenting our sins. But for me, Lent is a reminder that we are not the only masters of the world, and that we should look to the greater things around us and connect with the Divine to bring about a greater US and humble ourselves to others. But that's just me. 

I'm not trying to preach to anyone, or push Christianity on anyone (anyone who knows me that would be the most hypocritical thing ever since I combine a lot of things into my own brand of worship) but to maybe plant a seed of thought in people to do some of their own self-exploration and connection, whether it be to God, Buddah, Yaweh, The Great Creator, Allah, Mother Nature, Sacred Feminine, Ganush, Krishna, the aliens, Orisis, Patah or whoever else. 

I'll be doing updates on how the Lenten Season goes for me and what changes, if any, I bring about this season.  But for now I am going to go roll myself into the kitchen to make some dinner before my fast tomorrow and eat that last cupcake!!!

Peace y'all!

The homemaker's Valentine

Yep I'm gonna be like everyone else today, and gush about Valentine's day and my husband and all that good stuff! 

So today I got woken up by my wonderful husband with a GORGEOUS bouquet of pink and yellow lilies and sunflowers, a box of yummy chocolates and twilight! Did a bunch of chores, finally got so sick of the boxes I put a blanket over them and put pictures up like a stand or something, went and baby sat and then came home.  I was going to make a fancy dessert for tonight but just didn't feel up to it, so made some "fake 'n bake" raspberry vanilla tartlets, and made up the coffee table for a make shift dinner table.

pictures below :)

My makeshift dinner table :) Awesome flowers provided by the awesome husband!

Delicious fake raspberry tarts!!

Mix a box of french vanilla pudding mix with 1 1/2 cup milk, and whisk until set....

Spoon about a teaspoon of raspberry jam or preserves on the bottom.

Fill the mini grahm crusts with the pudding on top of the jam, then put a dab in with the pudding, and swirl with a toothpick...

Add some fresh raspberries on top and let chill for at least an hour!  YUM!!!

And finally the amazing dinner that was the precourser to the above mentioned dessert, yah kinda lame, nothing big, but it was the first Valentine's Day the husband and I actually got to spend together! We were both working the last two, and on 12's to boot! So this was pretty exciting that we actually had time to spend together, and that I had time to pull something like this together. 

So there it is kids, Happy Valentine's Day. And honestly if you're single, no big.  Go get drunk and bash everybody and everything, it's what I did. Hell i still did it even after I was married lol.

P.S. Anybody notice that the stores already have fucking Easter stuff out???????

Peace y'all!

 

Extreme couponer I am not!!

Lord have mercy, the grocery bill wasn't too bad, but definitley could have been better!!!  I'm trying out this whole meal planning thing which is awesome, but I'm not being too frugal about it, seeing what we still have left in the house before i go out and by more crap lol, and couponing?  Fuck it.  I am the absolute WORST at couponing!!! I either never remember the coupons, or we don't need what the coupon is for, or I don't look at the weekly circulars before going shopping (granted the comissary doesn't have one but still!) WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!  Keeping the house in budget is part of that whole housewife thing, and when it comes to the grocery bill I am failing miserably!!  Somebody help me!  In the meantime, I'm going to stick with the meal planning (it's reduced our food bill by about $60-$100 per week so far) but going to see what we also have in the house each week before I make out the Plan so that we can use up more of what we have in the house before going and buying groceries.  It'll also help if I make more things that can pull double duty.  Roasts, crockpot recipies, soups and the like all usually last at least 2 days, so that will cut down on some more bills.  I just have no idea how to do the couponing still!!!  Any help would be fan-fucking-tastic!!!!!  


http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/frugal-mama-makeover-series-saving-big-on-groceries-part-1.html

Son-rise program and Autism

I've been working with an autistic child for only a week now as part of a therapy program called son-rise, and in just that short time I have learned so much! Not only about autism and my son-rise kid (to protect names) but myself as well.

First let's take a look at ourselves; I know most of us who have never really been around autism or who grew up when I did look at autism with a stigma. You know, we kind of become a bit uncomfortable when the child starts doing their "ism's" or politely ignore them the way you would when a dog is humping their favorite toy.  Or we get the "oh poor's" going on in our head while trying to convince the other person, that "maybe they will outgrow it."  Wow, we really did grow up in a very conformist age eh?  Working with my son-rise kid has made me realize that when people say their autistic kid is such a special person, they're not just talking out their ass.  These kids are pure spirits, there is no other way to describe it.  There is nothing bad about them, they are good energy all around, their vibes are amazing and even though they are withdrawn from their surroundings they are SO grounded and centered there's no way you can't help but feel it.  And maybe that's why we feel uncomfortable around them.  Because we recognize how connected they are to the earth and how grounded they are, and it makes us realize that we aren't.  And when our energies recognize that something isn't in balance it feels uncomfortable to us, and our ego goes to work trying to convince us that we need to retreat back to what is comfortable, which is being uncentered and ungrounded.
Since working with my son-rise kid, I have been more aware of my feelings, when my ego is taking over and been able to check it faster.

Now for the kids themselves. Even though there is so much to learn, when you spend a little time with them, you can just see that they love what they do, and that they are thinking so much all the time, and that they are processing everything, they just can't express it yet.  All those feelings and thoughts and actions somehow get stuck when trying to get expressed to the outside world. And for the longest time instead of trying to reach them, on thier level where they could connect with us, we tried to make them reach our level, or pushed them into the "will never advance" profile which is so terribly sad.  These kids can be so sweet and so interesting to watch, we just have to come down to their place and hang there for awhile to really get to know them.

After reading and watching about the son-rise program, I don't know how anyone didn't come up with this sooner!  Instead of just correcting a child into submission to try and "act" normally which won't do them any good anyway, we need to build relationships and interact with them.  You have to interact with people in life, you can't just "act" your way through it, otherwise what the hell kind of life is that?  Teaching these kids how to "act" is not doing anything, you do that and you will always have limited mobility, interaction, and independence.  Teaching someone how to interact and build relationships with others will increase all that.  I'm not sure how else to put this.  We'll use a dog for example, as everyone knows there is "corrective" obedience training and then their is "interactive" obedience training.  When you force a dog to behave by negative reinforcement all we do is teach our dog to be afraid of us, and then training will take longer, and their are bound to be more accidents and behavioral mishaps because the dog has nothing good to connect with them doing something correctly but has everything bad to connect to it.  But if we try another type of "interactive" training such as clicker training, the dog learns that there is positive association with behavior, they are not scared to behave, and are not so scared of making mistakes that they make more. The dog is more willing to behave since they are not scared of their owner, nor doing behaviors out of submission. They are happy and willing to interact with us and do as we ask because we are paying attention to them, coming down to thier level to see what motivates them, and are celebrating with them.  Whew that was long but I hope I got the point across!

I love my little son-rise kid already and am so excited to see what changes are in store for all of us on the team and his family, and with him!!

For more information: http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/

Peace y'all!

Homemade laudry detergent

                                                  HAPPY SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!!!


I told you guys this shit was gonna happen!!!!!

So finally got around to making the god forsaken laundry soap.....and I don't know why I DIDN'T DO THIS SOONER!!!!!!!!!  To buy the ingredients to make the detergent were less than buying a reglar 64 load thing of tide by a loooooong shot!

 64 load bottle of tide at the comissary = $13.94.

Box of Arm&Hammer Washing soda, box of borax, and 3 pack of ivory soap = $7.73

We're already saving money here, and I only used 1 bar of soap, 1/2 cup of washing soda, and 1/2 cup of borax. Granted this was the liquid version since we have a new HE front loader, but they have recipes for powder detergent also using the same ingredients.  And I gotta give credit where credit is due, found the recipe at http://www.frugallysustainable.com/

Here's my breakdown:

1) Shave about 1/2 bar of Ivory (or Fels Naptha) into a soup pan, then add 6 cups of water, heat until soap has melted.
2) Add 1/2 cup of the Washing Soda and 1/2 cup of Borax to the mixture, stir until dissolved.
3) Using a 2-3GAL bucket pour in 4 cups of hot water, add soap mixture and stir. (I added about 2 teaspoons of Lavender essential oil to this to give a bit of a nice sent)
4) Then add 1 Gal, plus 6 cups of water and stir.
5) Let sit over night to gel up.

The notes of the website let you know that the detergent will not become a solid gel but will have the "consistancy of egg drog soup" and it does kind of look like it.  Also if a little extra cleaning power is needed, the always handy dandy oxi-clean can be added into the load.

Use 1/2 cup per load. 

The boxes of washing soda and borax I got were huge, and I fully expect to be able to make around 15 batches of laundry detergent, for less than the cost of 1 container of store detergent!!!!!!!!!!!
It only took about 30 minutes to make this and I am thrilled to not have a bunch of artificial dyes, chemicals and sents going onto my clothes.  This was so easy I am now looking at making homemade dish soap and household cleaners as well!!!! I'll keep you informed!!

Peace y'all!!!

Happy Superbowl Sunday!!

Redoing the Side Yard

While I was gone, my husband gave himself a project, and set about to cutting down quite a few limbs and branches from the surrounding pine trees all around our house. Now we have finally gotten around to cutting most of them up for fire wood for both the wood furnace in the cellar and the soon to be fire pit in our back yard. While he was working on that,  I started clearing a path up the slope by the house, made some little dirt stairs and started to clean out some of the dead brush all over the area.  Now I'm stuck with what to do with it.  It's mostly shade, so I guess shade loving plants (duh) but not sure where to put them or how to "scape" it.  Then there is the yard which is screaming for something to spruce it up, but what???  Any feedback is welcome!!!

Thanks!!

Morning musings with oatmeal

I was e-mailed yesterday by a lady looking for someone to be part of a team to help her boys. They both have austism.  I took a look at the program which is called son-rise and it is a theraputic program to help austistic children "re-integrate" back into the world.  I feel like this is something I need to experience, it's kind of ironic that this came about. While I was on terminal leave, I stayed a day over at my Aunt Nancy's house. Nancy is a very intuitive and very much a "energy" girl, and we happened to get on the topic of epidurals which is a hot spot with me becuase of what I've learned while being a doula. I was commenting on how the are starting to be linked to austism in children, and Nancy then commented that while in .her healing school the learned that austism is an energetic disconnection from the Self and the body's world.  Which makes complete sense. The epidural often gives mothers the effect of being "disconnected" from their bodies or a "dissassociation" with one's self and the labor. Which in turn in disconnecting the child from the mother during labor and delivery. The child then has that energetic disconnection already hard wired into them from birth and if not relieved of quickly could possibly turn into what we are now seeing as a very sharp spike in child autism.

I think this is something I need to learn more about, first hand and so am willingly if not somewhat cautiously entering into this new and unkown world. I feel there is something I will learn about myself, and something that will benefit my job by doing this.  Not really sure what else to say, there is something brewing in me, pushing me to do this, but it is a calm pushing.  This will be a challenge. 
I thank the universe for handing me the opportunity, and this challenge to grow.

Peace y'all.