I returned to my Dr. today to see the results of my blood work. I spent another 2 hours chatting about nutrition and having a marvelous time! I left with $326 in supplements . . . :O. Now, now. Don’t be too skeptical, think how much the average prescription drug costs when you leave a normal Dr. All those antibiotics aren’t really free you know! You just don’t know how much you are really paying for those because insurance has made quite a secret business of it. Besides, I was spending other people’s money too! I grabbed a few goodies for those I love and want to be strong and healthy, keeping me good company into my old, active age!

Speaking of such people, A.B. will have a hearty laugh when he hears my Dr.’s prescription for me. So my blood sugars and thyroid levels were all great. Nothing dramatic. My cortisol/DHEA levels were low, so he advised me taking some DHEA, which was only $9. Next to that on my little prescription sheet he tore off the notorious pad was “MEAT”. Many an animal must now die because of my vegetarian dietary sin.
Considering that I have produced and maintained 100 pounds of extra human flesh in the last 5 years as well as produced hundreds of gallons of breast milk in the interim. And considering that I was mostly vegetarian for the years just prior to that time of massive tissue and cell construction . . . my body is just really low on protein. Since my cortisol levels were a little low but my sugars were fine, he said my brain just isn’t getting the sugar it needs, making me spacey, etc. . .

Dr. Sebring also said there is some possibility to my secret theory . . . in years past I foolishly indulged in some recreational drug use, psychedelics to be precise. This year I am 10 pounds lighter than I was then, in addition to the weight that I am being leaner. Since part of my symptoms are strange vision and tracers (if I wave my hand past my face I see the image “drug” across the plain of view) when feeling fatigued and light headed. It seems that whenever I don’t feed my body enough and it dips into reserves, burning those fat reserves also releases the stored drugs from ages past. So this is one theory at least.

I will try to eat meat twice a day. That sounds so . . . hard. So . . . expensive. But as my dear friends remind me, meat is pound for pound much cheaper than green drink, or cod liver oil, or coconut oil, or . . . or . . . or . . . or. Fine! Enough! I did buy some of their whey protein powder though for our smoothies. That’s one way to get more protein without having to cook meat! Ha ha! (The kind Dr. Sebring carries is similar to Dr. Mercola’s - be careful about protein powders - if they aren’t carefully processed the proteins become denatured and toxic. I won’t touch soy protein.)

I am starting Nancy Campbell’s “The Power of Motherhood” which I anticipate to be, much like everything Ms. Nancy does, powerful. The first chapter already challenged me greatly, by the Lord’s sweet tender Spirit, bringing me cool water right when I felt quite parched.

Why do I struggle so much with feeling that my mothering isn’t that important? It seems so cliche to say that it is the lies of the world deceiving me. I must admit that it is somewhat so, but more so, it is my own sin that like to believe such deceptions. What a black heart I see I have this week. Quite the perfect state of mind for Sunday, don’t you think? I can’t wait to go to church and be immersed in the glorious gospel. I can’t wait to go and sing with the Lord’s people of His amazing, life-giving, healing love. I love our church. For all its imperfections and quirks, I know I will hear the Gospel and meet with my brethren in true fellowship. It is enough to make me content in this wretched hot weather.

But back to mothering. It almost feels shameful to just be a mother. To have that be my identity. Why? Oh my pride. One can only mother a handful. You have to be something else to get the world to notice. Why am I not content with ministry to a few? Pride. Ugly, ugly pride. It is such a wretched temptation to me. A small part of it, I know, is not so ugly. I want my life to be lived well, with sincere, purity of heart given to my by His Spirit. I don’t want to waste my life. I want it to be used by the Lord for His Kingdom. Yet the world tells me mothering my little tots is a nice, sweet thing, but really it is small. Oh, that is not the words used. People everywhere try to tell me that I am doing a good work, but the look in their eyes, the patronizing air to their smiles really tell me how my job is valued. The way mother’s are treated speaks more than polite words. Even mothering magazines do far more to devalue the job than encourage it. How many times have you seen articles in these publications that help you plan to “get away” from the home and take a break? That offer coping schemes rather than strong, inspiring descriptions of the glory of our task?

But no one makes me feel so gloriously proud to be a mother like Nancy Campbell. God bless her more. She says she draws these exhortations from God, and I like to believe her. She brings scripture alive. Verses I passed over, to weak in virtue of late to see on my own, burst forth with amazing encouragement.

In the first chapter, Ms. Nancy discusses the meaning of God’s name “El Shaddai”. (Please see NOTE at bottom of post.)

She writes “God created man in the image of God and God’s intention for man is to reveal the father heart of God. Above everything else that God is, He is ultimately a father. Because the character of God is to father, He put something of His father heart into man when He created him.”

“Women also were created in the image of God, and He has chosen to put something of His maternal heart within them. Yes, within the Father heart of God, there is a mother heart. We see this encompassed in the word, ‘Almighty’, one of the many names of God.”

Whenever we see the name “Almighty,” it is the Hebrew word, El Shaddai. El means “the powerful, mighty, eternal God.” Shaddai comes from the root word “shad” which is “the Hebrew word for brest. It literally means ‘the breasted one.’”

“This is a picture of God Himself as a nursing mother - One who longs to comfort us, protect us, nurture us and gather us in His arms. He is the God who is all nourishing and all sufficient. El Shaddai is the God Who is Enough. He is able to satisfy all of our needs. he is the God of total provision. . . .As God sheds forth His love, so we are to shed forth love and care to others. In El Shaddai, we see the self-sacrificing love of God, giving and pouring Himself out for others.”

If this was the Lord’s delight and glory, why do I feel it beneath me? If mothering is in and from the very heart and acts of God, how can I see them as loathsome. How fallen we are to see our children as boring. This breaks my heart, more so because I see a part of myself in it. How ugly is our flesh. (HT Mommy Life)? Oh Lord, do forgive, cleanse and change me! Even as I now see you so doing, I praise and thank you.Ms

Ms. Nancy goes on to say, “The true essence of motherhood is the revelation of God’s maternal heart to the world.” WOW. The tasks of my day are not just about raising good kids. As worthy of a goal as that is, it is not enough to overcome my stinky hunk of selfish flesh. My job as “mom” is not just about having a nice, peaceful, loving home, as important as that is. No, my job, Annie as MOTHER (it is wierd for me to even identify myself as such, isn’t that terrible? I just wasn’t raised for this role at all.), is about revealing a part of God’s heart to the world. A part of His heart and passion that can be revealed in no other way. That is incredible.

NOTE - Due to an interesting little discussion today at the Boars Head Tavern, I want to clarify that Campbell doesn’t in any way mean to go the goddess direction. God has revealed himself as primarily male in relation to us. We are to address him as “Father, Hallowed be thy name” and not “Mother”. Jesus, God, came as a male and that is significant. However, God in His fullness is not simply “male” and both sexes reveal His image. The essence of femaleness came from somewhere and it came from the heart of God. Where else would it come from?

Ms. Nancy says “Above everything else that He is, God is ultimately a father. [It is] the character of God to father.” I don’t know if I agree with every detail of this statement. I don’t know if above everything else God is a Father, maybe in relation to us, but it is certain that He has revealed Himself to us predominantly through the image of a male. We are to call Him, “Father!”

I just wanted to state that I LOVE THIS LOTION!

It is the perfect consistency, perfectly natural, makes my skin feel great and, when on sale, it is a great price. Next time it is on sale I am stocking up. I love it and have no desire to look further.

I am even now using a tad on my face because I am out of moisturizer and waiting for my Young Living order next month. I tried the Miessence moisturizers and really liked them. They are more natural than the Young Living ART line, but I really noticed an amazing difference in my skin with the YL. Like awesome.

If you recall, I really liked how well Arbonne creams worked but didn’t like the ingredients (parabens). YL’s works as good or better (I have only had sample sizes so far) but without parabens and other dirtier chemicals. YL’s ART has stuff like pentylene glycol, glycerin, cetearyl alcohol, and glyceryl stearate but as I looked the ingredients up, none of them are too disturbing, things like vegetable based fatty acids. Dr. Young and company swears they are non-toxic and you could eat the creams. Well, that is my rule of thumb and vanity does speak to me on occasion. Just this week dh told me I was no spring chicken anymore.
With YL’s ART you only need 2 creams (one day and one night) for your whole face whereas Miessence has you buy 4. I recommend both lines but am choosing to opt for results over purist ingredients and go with YL for creams.

I am going to keep with the Miessence cleanser because I do really like it and it is cheaper.

I have given Ella a few soft-boiled egg yolks but now have decided to give up. For one, there is just that nervous feeling like when you do something illegal. Most nutritional “authorities” say NOT to give raw egg yolks. Well, I don’t really agree but just in case . . . . I mean it could possibly . . . .

But what really cinched the matter for me was what a pain it is to boil the egg each day. Further, Only 30% of the time did I boil it the right length of time to cook all the egg white but not the egg yolk. Too complicated. If I hard boil them, its easy to make sure they are done (15 min. boiling does it every time) and I can do a bunch one day a week and they keep 6 days (as long as the egg doesn’t crack). Then I just grab an egg, crack it open and there it is, all ready.

Other than sprouted or fermented, we are a grain free family. Baby Ella won’t be getting any iron fortified instant cereal. So I like giving her the extra iron from egg yolks. That and the healthy fats (I buy organic omega-3 enriched eggs) and cholesterol babies growing brains needs are why I am giving her egg yolks for the most part. From raw fruits (so far banana, avocado, peach and pear - I don’t cook the latter two but just puree very ripe fruits) she is still getting enzymes in addition to what I give her from breastmilk, so I am not worried about her needing the enzymes from the raw egg yolk.

So there you have it. It is decided for the Crawford home. I’ve got a decent routine going to finally feed baby. Once or twice a week I prepare and puree up a batch of food such as sweet potatoes or a bunch of fresh fruit, keeping the puree as thick as possible, and freeze it in cubes or “cookies” on a tray and store in a zip lock.

At night when I clean up the kitchen and soak the breakfast oatmeal, I make sure she has 2-4 little plastic containers of food cubes or cookies pulled out from the freezer. That way, I don’t have to microwave them to thaw. I keep the puree as thick as I can so that I can add a bit of really warm, filtered tap water (we added a filter to our kitchen spigot) to the puree to warm it without, again, having to microwave it. The microwave just seems wrong. I do all this work to have fresh organic food for my baby and then I put it under radiation? Uh, I don’t think so.

Really, this isn’t so much work to do once you just figure out your system.

BTW - I was looking up for a friend  . . . . Super Baby Food says that you can give you baby super foods such as ground flax seed, pwd kelp, ground seeds and ground nuts (not peanuts) at 8 mo. of age. Make sure to use ground seeds right away and do not store as these go rancid (creating tissue destroying free radicals.)

(Pst. PJ - This one is for you beloved brother. :-))

My mother’s cholesterol levels are high and her Dr. is wanting her to go on drugs for it. Of course, I freak out because I read nothing good about these statin drugs and know there are many natural alternatives. Statin, inflammation reducing drugs are nothing to mess with. They don’t address the problem and have destructive side effects, such as suppressing your immune system, leaving your body vulnerable to other illnesses and infections (such as fungal). I have been working on researching a little cholesterol-lowering plan for her and thought, since it is such a prevalent problem, that others may want to see the fruits of my labor as well.

First of all, I truly believe that cholesterol myths abound. Cholesterol is NOT BAD. If you didn’t have it, you’d die. Secondly, healthy cholesterol levels have more to do with how much your own body makes rather than how much you eat. It is quite simple minded and incorrect to stop eating, say, eggs which are very good for you just because they have cholesterol. Refined sugar does much more to ruin your heart health than eggs.

High refined carb intake, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, and syndrome x are all associated with heart disease because when your insulin levels are high, your body produces more cholesterol. Insulin is a major hormone that stimulates lots of things in your body, not the least of which is fat deposition and cholesterol production.

To know if you need to worry about cholesterol or not look at the ratio between the level of total cholesterol and HDL. The ideal HDL/cholesterol ratio should be higher than 25% and generally speaking the higher the better. The ideal triglyceride/cholesterol ratio should be below 2.0.

Also remember that high cholesterol itself is a symptom. Simply forcibly eliminating the symptom with a drug doesn’t address the problem. When you eat bad fats such as hydrogenated fats (NEVER eat hydrogenated fats) or other fats that have been oxidized (like heated canola or rancid olive) these cause damage to your tissues. Damaged tissues inflame. Your body produces cholesterol to “bandage” and soothe this inflammation. If you just eliminate cholesterol, you still have the original problem. Your body will use something else to bandage, like calcium, which is not pliable like cholesterol but hard like a bone. then you have the hardening of your arteries and you are much worse off than you were with high cholesterol.

So if you have high cholesterol, address it naturally. Be aggressive about listening to your body and restoring your overall health. Here are the steps I have read to be most widely recommended among natural/integrated health sources. Please note, I am just sharing information I have read elsewhere. I have no experience with high cholesterol. I am not trying to diagnose or treat a disease, but share nutritional information. More than ever, I urge those I care about and speak with to find a Doctor that they really trust and follow that Doctor’s advice above all.

To Lower Cholesterol:

1. Cut out all hydrogenated oils, refined sugars and refined carbohydrates. Reduce animal fats. Use coconut oil for cooking, olive oil for unheated or low-heated flavoring and flax seed for cold dressings and other cold foods. Eat loads of raw veggies and fruits.
2. Detoxify - follow one of many simple detox programs. A simple juice fast is always beneficial, or if you are afraid of fasting/don’t have the time, try an colon cleanse and herbal detox regime.
3. Omega 3 - Take a fish oil or cod liver oil, 2000 mg a day for 30 days, then down to 480mg EPA and 360 DHA daily.
4. Niacin - 500mg, 3 times per day with meals - use no flush,iositollhexaniacinatee form. *
5. Garlic pills - 300 to 500 mg twice daily.

The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine says that this program will typically reduce cholesterol 50 to 75 mg/dl in patients with initial total cholesterol levels above 250 mg/dl.

* This book also said, if your levels are above 200, that after two weeks at the 500 mg level, to increase dosage to 1,000 mg niacin 3 times a day until cholesterol levels have dropped below 200mg/dl. If cholesterol levels remain below 200 for two months, then withdraw the niacin completely.

I hope this might keep momma and someone else off drugs that take their toll, both physically and financially. These nutritional steps, unlike statin drugs, will also help address your body’s overall health and why it is producing more cholesterol in the first place.

Just FYI, I am moving our websites to a new host today, the site could be down while the name server change propagates through the net.� Or if I have trouble restoring the database…� Refresh your browser with Ctrl+F5 if it looks funny.
tommy

Update: I think it’s working, please comment on this post if you see anything strange…

My achin’ back has kept me out of my workout clothes this week. I know that part of the difference I feel might be alone from the fact that my back really hurts. However, I really notice the lack of an endorphin boost. Hypoglycemia and depression run infame fam for me and in college I used to feel “blue” and struggle to be productive with my days. However, I disciplined myself to do aerobic exercise every day, 6 days a week for 35 or more minutes and I hadn’t every really thought of depression since.

Lately I started feeling guilty for how much I exercise. When there are 24 hours in my day and 48 hours of work to be done . . . it makes me rethink how valuable each task is. Well, not being able to exercise this week showed me how very, very valuable it is. Even though it takes an hour out of my day, the other 23 hours are much more cheerful, efficient, productive, or at night, restful. My little 5 pound dumbbells are worth their weight in gold! Hopefully I can pick them up soon . . . I tried to exercise yesterday, carefully, but my back ended up worse again. :/ I am not used to debilitation and it is quite frustrating! I can do yoga though and that has helped lift my mood.

I share this to say . . .get movin’! It is so great for you and your kids. My kids often move with me or enjoy their own little “kiddie” workout video. Unless you can live out in the country where they can run around free and safe all day, we city dwellers have to be creative with how to get groovin’. Terri told me in the comments that walking is good for the back, so maybe tonight when it isn’t 100 degrees (around 8:30pm) I will go for a walk.