Popsicle Presentation and More Good Reads :)

It's been hot. Really hot. I was craving a sweet treat and wanted to make a treat for my sweetie.

So, for myself I made a coffee and chocolate protein powder popsicle.

Into the blender:

 (in no particular amounts)

rice milk

protein powder

leftover cold coffee

stevia.

Into the molds they went to freeze.

Yeah, the ingredients separated a bit, but it was still refreshing! I think next time I will add some mint extract to make them EXTRA refreshing :)

I also made a special treat for my sprout.

Into the blender:

1 banana

rice milk

stevia

some chocolate chips

Into the molds to freeze.

I've been wanting to use coconut milk to make these, as they would give them a SUPER rich creamy texture, but for 2 weeks now my local grocer has been out. :(  I'm not going to drive 12 miles out of town just to get coconut milk. So, as usual, I'll make due :)

Ahhh-THREE more books came in to the library that I ordered!!!

I just started the Laurie Notaro book on the left. Oh.My.Gosh. This lady is hysterical. These are fact-based books and girlfriend can put any embarrassing and humiliating situation in a humorous light.

Finally got Food Rules by Michael Pollan!! I've been on the waiting list for a couple months now.

Great read. Short. Simple. 140 pages of dietary wisdom.

Some "rules" have a paragraph or two of explanations. Some are self-explanatory and need no further explanation.

This last rule is really important. It's nearly impossible to follow every "rule" 100% of the time in our modern post-industrial "revolution" society. You could go NUTS if you tried. Notice, it says "once in a while." Not once every day or once a week.

I think the most important thing is to be able to recognize what is actually food, and what is a processed, refined, food type product engineered in a factory.

Our bodies were not designed to eat the latter.

There are 64 rules/guidelines he gives to ensure healthy and enjoyable eating.

I know the naysayers are out there saying, "Hey, I'm 65 years old and I've eaten pop tarts every day since I was 5 and haven't croaked." (I don't think Pop Tarts have been around that long, but you know what I mean).

 It's not about whether or not you'll keel over from eating a Pop-Tart. It's about disease prevention and promoting QUALITY of life.

You can't see what chronically eating crap food is doing to your arteries, intestines, bowels, liver, or pancreas.  Do you know what you could be preventing by NOT eating crap food daily?

When you start eating to Live, you get a whole new perspective on what is truly food!

Nurturing the Body,Mind,and Spirit Heather-style

You probably can't see it, but this package I received today was shipped to:

Queen Heather Laws. For real. I just wanted to let the company know who they're dealing with ;)

I've been excitedly waiting for this package since last week! 

I've been on a mission to find some high quality, fast-acting, effective vitamin D3. From what I hear liquid form fits the bill.

Ok, so that was the nurturing of the body part, on to nurturing of the mind....

I ordered several books from the inter-library exchange system on Monday, and yesterday after my post about books I found out 2 of them came in!!

First up, THE BOOK OF AWESOME.

A list of awesome things in a world of not so awesome things. Some of my faves:

p.70 Using all the different shampoos and soaps in someone else's shower (GUILTY)

p.288 Seeing somebody laugh in their sleep (i LOVE seeing my daughter do this)

p.137 Finally remembering a word that's been on the tip of your tongue for so long (it's like finding a favorite shirt you thought you've lost!)

p.244 When your sneeze stalls for a second and then suddenly comes booming out (yes)

p.305 Getting into a bed with clean sheets after shaving your legs (oooh that is Nice)

p.216 Somebody flashing their high beams at you to warn you about the cops (I don't speed. ever. at all. so i can't relate to this one, but it sounds nice ;)

p.98 When you're really tired and about to fall asleep and someone throws a blanket on you. (that's love)

There are hundreds more, and if you want a taste, you can check out the website from which this started

http://www.1000awesomethings.com/

Some more mind nurturing:

The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time.

The Writers and Recipients of the Letters:

Pretty passionate and obsessive. Some were borlerline psychotic. "Love" is a crazy thing sometimes.

And finally nurturing the spirit. Trinity's assignment for AWANA over the summer is to memorize Philippians 4:8.

It's a long scripture, but she has 3 months. Since I'm helping her, I'll be memorizing it as well.

Amen :)

Booooooks

I'm a reader, a learner, a truth-seeker.

Therefore I adore reading. I have at any given time at least 5 books on hold at the local library :)

Right now they are:

The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha

Food Rules by Michael Pollan

The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time by David Lowenherz

3 semi-autobiographical fact-based books by Laurie Notaro

Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko

The librarians giggle, because at least once a week they KNOW a book will be coming in for me.

I get giddy when I check the library website and it indicates I have one waiting for me.

I'm mostly interested in biographies, autobiographies, books about nutrition and all fact-based books.

I'm not so much into novels, fiction, and traditional "escapism-type" books.

To me, the best "escapism" is other people's reality. I love reading stories about obstacles to be overcome and victory to be won.

And let's face it, we ALL have a story. We've all had obstacles to overcome, and even if victory wasn't ours every time, we HAVE had victory.

Some of my faves:

The Bible. Technically there are 66 books in the Bible.

JONI by Joni Earecksaon Tada-I bawled through the ENTIRE THING.

Stori Telling by Tori Spelling. Don't judge. It was actually really good.

Save Me From Myself by Brian "Head" Welch, former member of metal band KORN. I never listened to KORN in my life, but this book is riveting and beautiful.

My Life in France by Julia Child

A Child Called It by David Pelzer. Hardcore child abuse story. Again, bawling. Victory was his.

Hungry by Crystal Renn. Giving the middle finger to the fashion industry!

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. About Christopher McCandless and his journeys "tramping" it up to Alaska.

Here I Stand: A life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton. About legendary German monk turned protestant Martin Luther.

Soul Sister by Grace Halsell. A journalist who took pills to turn her skin black and integrated herself into the African-American culture in the 1960s. Remember the 80s movie Soul Man? That was not a true story.

Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy. Funny. True. What it's REALLY like being pregnant.
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. An allegory of the Christian life.

The Diary of Anne Frank. If you don't know about this book, you are probably dead.

The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas. Not THAT Lloyd Douglas! This guy's an author that wrote about the robe Jesus wore before his crucifixion, and what could have hypothetically happened to it afterwards.

What in the World is Going on? by Dr. David Jeremiah. A study about end time prophecy and putting it all into perspective.

And then there are countless nutrition and health-based books from Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and other respected nutrition experts.

How about you? What are your favorite kind of books to read?

What book has inspired you the most in your life?

Henna....... before and after!

So long dried out, multi-colored, faded, mousy hair...

See the green streak? Trust me it's there-the result of a less than reputable henna brand. :(
For the past 18 years I've ONLY used henna from the Soap Opera in Madison, except for one time, and look what happened! Green!!

Bring on the Anne of Avonlea/Tori Amos red I so adore and in which I feel most like "myself."  I do believe Anne Shirley was my first exposure to the romanticized redhead. And then there were the Tori years.

*swoon*

I wonder if she has to go through the following for her gorge locks.

The henna after adding boiling water and then mixing:

It's worth the trouble when you have the wonderful help I do! Thanks Bruce. *love you!* 

And knowing that it's a conditioning,non-toxic, plant-based, eco-friendly dye gives me peace of mind as I rinse it out and watch it swirl down the tub drain.

I'm not gonna lie. It's a very laborious time-consuming deal. It took about 20 minutes to apply, then after wrapping it, I let it sit for an hour. Rinsing it takes a good 20 minutes, too! It's a dirt-like mixture with mini plant twigs.

Check it. Helllloooooo Red!

Twas a bit windy...

I feel like "me" again :)

Thank you Soap Opera henna! I'll never stray again!

Veggie Progress, a Fishy Find, and Racing Sausages

Container garden progress is going very well! 

We've come a long way, baby. Click here to see where we started less than a month ago! The peppers will take a while before they show any significant progress.

Look at all those yummy snap pea sprouts!! Cannot wait. :)

Spinach. Yes.

The Bibb lettuce. It's grown considerably.

Not sure how these tomato hangers are gonna turn out. For a while we had a lot of rain and it was running off the roof of our shed directly into the hangers and drowning them :(

We may have saved them...we'll see!  If not, we have some more in regular planters.

My little carnivore loves her fish. Look what I found. Preservative and gluten free. I may have had one, too ;)

And now, the biggest sausages you will ever see in yo life! :)

Our local athletic booster club held a fundraiser and invited the Milwaukee Brewer racing sausages to attend.Here we are with 2 of the 3 that showed up.

There was a raffle to race the sausages-which is basically their forte. Who knew, right?

Anyway, TRINITY'S NAME WAS PICKED!!

She got to race the sausages :)  This is the group who raced, along with the school's mascot. She's gettin' a little cozy with the cat. Hmmmm...

Don't know what a sausage race is? At the Milwaukee Brewer baseball games, there are 4 giant sausages that race. Perhaps we can petition the powers that be to include a Boca Brat :)  Behold (it starts @ 7 seconds in):

Have you ever....

Have you ever had someone "speak" your love language so powerfully, it makes you speechless? And cry. And blubber like a fool.

That scenario may or may not have played out in my house this morning.

Ok, I confess, it did. I have the best husband. Ever. I'm so sorry for all you women who think YOU do, because you're wrong, SUCKAS! ;)

I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, but c'mon....let me show you what mine did.

Let me also preface this by saying, we typically are not a WHOLE FOODS, TRADER JOE'S, SPECIALTY GROCERY STORE shopping family. It already taps our resources that I can't eat "regular" food and have to rely on higher-priced produce and specialty items. I think I've shopped at WF 4 times in my entire life.

Bruce works nights and surprised me by walking in the door this morning with the following:

Check it.

Amy's gluten/dairy/egg free pizza. Van's gluten/dairy/egg free waffles. Dairy,egg,soy,gluten free rice ice cream. Erewhon gf cereal. GF Brown rice bread. Gluten free pasta, Rice Dream milk, Maranatha peanut butter, vegetable soup, 365 pasta sauce, Whole Foods spinach hummus, Galaxy Vegan Rice "cheese", kettle chips, GF and dairy free cookies, broccoli, mushrooms, olives, cubed tofu, chickpeas, and ginormous tub of Fage yogurt. There was also fresh spinach, which I forgot in the fridge.
Granted the cookies have eggs, so I can't have them, but trust me "someone" will eat them!

So, yeah, he went all out. After working a 12 hour night shift. At a hospital. Taking care of other people and their poop.

He said, "I just want you to be able to eat a friggin' sandwich! And pizza. I've never seen you eat pizza! I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't eat pizza!"

Since he serenaded me with the song "My chick bad" 2 days ago, I've had it stuck in my head (the few lyrics to it that I know). I told him after I calmed down, and stopped crying, "you know I've had "My chick bad" stuck in my head for 2 days now."

His response, "Aw man, I'm sorry. That's Ludacris."  ;)

He's such a jokester.

If you don't get it, um, google it.

Yesterday on my fun happy gluten free extavaganza I stopped into the local Oskri Organics store to pick up a few snack bars.

I grabbed my fave snack bar they have right away.

Ingredients:  chicory root extract, cashews, cranberries, rice crisp, amaranth, buckwheat, and pumpkin seeds.

Look how much sugar is in it.

THREE grams.

Check the fiber.

TWELVE grams.

 Far out.

Next, for the second time in one day, I jumped and clapped like a goofy spazz. The first time was when I saw the UPS man pull up with my package from the Soap Opera.

I found a new item: MINI SNACK BARS!!

Aren't they so cute??

A size comparison

It has been such a stellar week. God has blessed me EXCEEDINGLY and ABUNDANTLY. Not necessarily because of the THINGS I have in my life, but because of His LOVE and those he's put in my life to represent His LOVE.

Later today I'm gonna head to our weekly FARMER'S MARKET.....should be lots of opportunities for pics and a post tomorrow :)

Shopping Shipment and Muffins for the kid :)

I got a package from UPS today!!!!!!

I can honestly say this is the first time I've ever ordered anything online and had it shipped to my house.

EXCITEMENT!!

I had said in a previous post that I wanted to get some more henna hair dye, but didn't want to go by myself. Bruce suggested I order it online. "Yeah," I thought, "Why not?!"  It only took 24 hours to get here, and Bruce promised to help me dye it this weekend.

He kind of coaxed me into doing it ASAP, in his subtle bold and loving way.

Something about my hair looking dry, unkempt, and multi-colored.

I couldn't be mad. It's true! :)

The Soap Opera in Madison is the only place I will EVER get my henna. I made the mistake a couple months ago of getting a boxed brand from another random store. Oh dear. Even though I've been using henna for ALMOST 18 years now, I decided to do a strand test before I did all my hair.

Thank God I did. The strand stayed green!! It never turned red. I still have a narsty looking green clump of hair to go along with the faded egyptian red from a henna dye from last year, and my natural mousy brown.

Gorgeous.

As soon as I opened the package, a beautiful aroma wafted up, and as the scent reached my olifactory senses, I giggled and smiled.

 I forgot that you get free vegetable glycerin soap samples from the Soap Opera!

I also decided to order a dram of my favorite perfume oil  in da world! Vanilla.

I used to wear this in college. It's how some people knew me...."you know, that girl that smells like vanilla...."

I do miss actually going to the store. It is the most relaxing shop among a mile long street of shops, restaurants, and the hustle and bustle of college kids commuting to class.

Last time we were there was last Labor Day!

Fun glycerin soaps!

After I opened the package and bathed in dabbed on some vanilla oil, I made Trinity some special after school muffins.

Into the mini food processor went bananas, organic milk, 1 egg, spinach, a dollop of peanut butter, and half an avocado.

I wanted to use coconut milk, but the local grocery store was out. Grrrrr....

The dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and oats

Pre-baking

Post baking!

It's been a great day so far, and I'm looking forward to my evening of Bible Study with some great ladies!