Girl Shawn... Whats next

2011-09-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't really taken any new pictures of anything. I was going to give up my domain name and throw in the towel last month. Then I discovered juicing. Crazing little think how a diet can affect a persons mental health.

Juicing has been fun. I feel better and my skin is going through this crazy new transformation that I don't care to talk about publicly. Chuckling to myself I can't help but think it's some for a puberty, cleaning out all the junk in my system.

With this new found energy I've decided to put my creative juices to work again and start challenging myself in several ways. Today I am going to finish up several projects I have going to my United Way fundraiser two day fundraising event coming up. It's very small and limited. I think every thing I sell at the event I'll donate to charity. Everything afterwards I'll put on Etsy and recoup any cost incurred for this event.

I'm making hair pins, arm warmers, tea cozies, scarfs, hats, and tea trivets. What's so special about all of these items you may ask? I'm upcycling old sweaters. I don't knit (yet) and I don't have time to sew. These will be cut, sewed a little bit, glued with hot glue or tacky glue and made of the fabulous, to coin the phrase by Kimora.

Here is a picture to give you a taste of what I'm up to:

Updating a photo test

2011-07-17T09:19:00.001-07:00

I'm using my phone to see if I can post a pictures on google plus
My kiddo's new five fingered shoes.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Journals...

2011-07-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

I felt the need to make art while on vacation last week. It was decided journals would be the way to go, since I already had some signatures ready to go.

The first book was inspired by link given to me by Nerdy Girl. It was a video to Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 page journal. My local store didn't have the right paper. I ended up with the closest I could find which wasn't the heat tolerant. It still worked wonderfully.

I used some stuff around the house to finish the job on the watercolor journal. I used felt for the cover and the spine and puffy paint for decorations. I love puffy paint. It's one of those silly little tools that I never thought would come in handy. I use it a lot now.

The binding was the hardest part. I need to make another one and take it apart, or make a lot of them until I get it right.

Here are the pictures from this fun adventure:

The first book

Binding:

Cover

Inside

Inside Flap

The second book

The Mystery of GMO

2011-06-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

I wrote this report for my Anthropology and Nutrition class. I could put a lot more into it. I stopped where I did because of time and lack of experience writing reports. My next class will be to learn how to write research papers.

6/7/2011
What are we really eating?
Introduction

In 1975 corn on the cob and potato salad at a family picnic was fun and safe to eat. Today there is at least one top food research scientist who will not eat anything that has been genetically engineered. Why wouldn’t a top food research scientist eat genetically engineered food? Is it safe for the general population? What are the side effects? What are the laws? Through my research I hope to address some of these topics. I’ve never written a research paper before and the style I chose to use is more of a story board, to lead you the reader through my findings.

The Mystery of GMO
what are we really eating?
Even though government agencies haven’t proven any of the health issues claimed to surround GMO food, I believe it is a very dangerous food for human consumption. If a bug can die from a corn plant that has been genetically modified what will that corn plant do to a human? If cows develop side effects from the rBGH hormone injections what will it do to humans? Our food supply today is being genetically modified under the guise of feeding the planet.
When I first started on this endeavor to a healthier life style through organic foods and moved away from fast foods as well as eliminating processed foods. I thought I was doing something great for my family’s health and my health. With the rising cost of health care and the super bugs plaguing most of our nation’s inner cities1 I wanted to arm my family with proper information about nutrition, giving their bodies the extra support it would need to fight off any free radicals that may attack their system. We started eating foods that were fresh from the produce department. It was a hard transitioning from box ready to make dinners to a meal that requires thought and planning.

   During this transition I noticed something odd about the potatoes bought from one section of the super market compared to the organic potatoes from another section of the super market. The potatoes I bought from the local super market were stuffed in the cupboard and forgot, the organic potatoes were left on the counter to be eaten in a few days. The organic potatoes were rotten in two days. I remembered the other potatoes from the cupboard, russets, and dug them out. They were as fresh as the day I bought them. I didn’t think anything about this. I thought because the russets were stored in a cool place that kept them longer. The next time I bought the organic potatoes, I put them in the same place as the non-organic potatoes (the russets), the same thing happened, I put them in the cool cupboard. In a matter of days they were rotten. Why would after just a few days would my organic potatoes rot and the super market non organic potatoes not rot?

   Perplexed by this puzzle I consulted the all knowing oracle, Google, and got information overload. I did get a lead on several movies, Food Inc. being the biggest influence. Through this movie I found out about people like Jeffery Smith. At first I thought they were a group of extremists who needed that cause to be passionate about. However, the thought of my family’s health as well as mine was quietly nagging at me. I owed it to everyone I cared about to take the time to investigate this further. I learned like most of the viewers of the movie Food Inc., Monsanto wasn’t a very ethical company according to Food Inc. the movie. How do I trust what this movie had to say? First I went to the root, Monsanto, and looked at their website. They have a video that lasts roughly two minutes and fifty one seconds. Their advertisement company did a fantastic job with imagery and selling the ideas of Monsanto. From this video I was able to understand this company is about helping the people of the earth live a more sustainable life because we are increasing in population. This tells me nothing about Monsanto’s actual practices. I had to find a different approach.

   I wanted to know if the food I was consciously deciding to consume was genetically engineered. Where do I start? I turned to the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations or FDA for short. Their website is loaded with links to anything and everything a person could want. I sat down with a pen and paper and drew a map of what I could figure out. Starting off with a few basic searches on genetically engineered foods I was tossed into areas I didn’t expect and nothing to do with my goal. Has this food been tested for human consumption? Are their laws protecting the people who consume these foods that have had their atoms rearranged and mashed with others to create a more flavorful food like the tomato going to come to harm? (Smith, Introduction) These questions kept popping up every link I clicked on. Every link I found was a sweet, reassuring write up on the good genetically engineered food does.

   This really started to bother me because by now I started reading books like Eat to Live by Dr Furhman who kept using the term nutrient dense foods2. I started following the advice from his books by eating a lot more green vegetables, balancing out my nutrients with fruits and vegetables. I found I had a lot more energy, the medications I’d been on almost my entire life were reduced by half and I could stop taking altogether one of the medications I’d been on since my early thirties. I noticed everything was running smoothly except when I drank milk, any kind of milk. I put the milk on my list next to the potatoes and just stopped consuming. I still hadn’t found any information about the safety of GMO vs Non-GMO foods.

   I found laws that told organic farmers they had to have the soil pesticide free for five years before they would be reviewed for a license to sell organic foods (CO-OP Mt Vernon & FDA website). I found laws talking about what the FDA needs to see in writing and by whom, how long before the product will be released but noting on labeling (Proposed Law Page 4706-4738). The ethics of these doctors and the researchers and the corporations lack because they are the people with the money and no moral centers who tie up the legal system with garble in wording ridiculous laws. I’ve spent weeks lost digging through federal web sites trying to figure out which link will tell me my answers. In Jeffery Smith’s book he starts off with one of the worlds leading nutritional scientists Arpad Pusztai reviewing research information about the drug rBGH3 and found this drug was causing rats to have an instant increase in saturated fatty acids, higher then normal, not only carotid artery disease but also build up in the brain. This rBGH is in my milk. This milk is something I’m giving to my family. What else does this rBGH do?

   After watching movies and digging around I found out Jeffery Smith has done a lot of research and write ups on genetically modified foods. In his book Genetic Roulette, The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, there are pages and pages of information about foods, environmental toxins, what’s happens when the genes are mashed together. It boils down to some pretty scary stuff. The genes that make milk are the most powerful genes in the body and this rbGH has been banned in The European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (pg 157), yet we still allow for it in the United states. This is growth hormone, according to Smith, has a higher level of the hormone insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). This growth factor is the gene that produces the milk in cows. Why do we need to make them produce more milk then they already do? If you remember from earlier Monsanto wants to help provided for an ever growing population. Why do I really care about this growth factor 1?
According to leading scientists I should care, this growth factor 1 rise cancer risk. As I sit here typing this up I’m compelled to ask how many people in your life today have been affected by cancer. I can say the CDC reports a decrease in breast cancer between 2000 and 2007, there was no real data before 1990. This growth factor 1 is “significant association between circulating IGF-1 concentrations and an increased risk of lung, colon, prostate, and pre-menopausal breast cancer.” Milk is in my yogurt, my cheese, my ice-cream. Milk is in everything and 22% of the nation’s dairy cows have this hormone rBGH injected into them. This drug that causes them to have puss infected udders. Does this get into the milk? I don’t care if they use a process to clean the milk, it still gets into the milk.

   If the milk was so horrific what did they do to potatoes? I’ve heard conversations about only three varieties currently available in the United States today. I’m unable to find any data supporting this information. I did however find the rules by which the United States Patten office classifies an organism and allows it to be deemed acceptable for genetic modification4. These rules are three and sometimes four links deep and the wording is so convoluted. They just don’t come right out and say you can play with your food if it’s not a living animal or human. They have to have a class definition, then a rule and a rule for that rule, on top of a rule. Take for example, when I searched for Potato (to find out how many types of tubors are currently available in the United States today) I found class 435. This class is the beginning, “Chemistry: Molecular Biology and Microbiology,” which leads me to subclass 418. However 418 is not for potatoes, 418 is for plant cell or cell line which is herbicide resistant. OK. What about the potato?

   I found this train of thought was getting me no where fast and went back to Jeffery M. Smith’s book Genetic Roulette. In this book I found more information about scientific studies, human health impacts and the toxins found (pg 29). There were tests done on male mice with a toxin in a GM potato called the Bt potatoes, and they compared this against non GM Bt potatoes in other male mice. The thought is the Bt-toxin won’t survive digestion in the stomach. I don’t understand how they could think this to be true after leaning about the delicate ph balance in the stomach5. The research in the mice proved to not so good for the mice eating the GM Bt potatoes. They had “exhibited an abnormal appearance with signs of degeneration. Microscopic projections on the cell surface, called short microvilli, were also disrupted.”
Recently a very close friend of mine (the person who inspired me to become a vegetarian) developed an allergy to potatoes. We have a running debate about GMO and non GMO potatoes. She believes all of our food is GMO today. I believe I can find non GMO food. If the potatoes she buys are making her sick and they didn’t make her sick a year ago is it this GM Bt potato?

   The book by Smith goes on to talk about the human health impacts of the Bt-toxin. He talks about colon cancers but there are currently no tests. He talks about flu like or food poising symptoms. As of today there is no labeling for GMO foods. What are people afraid of, more government control? I think it’s the lack of control, the lack interference with regulations that has caused the degradation in our own health. When I talk to my friends about these subjects the usual response I get is “oh that’s just crazy why would they do that?” The other popular phrase is, “mmm I love my meat and potatoes and won’t give them up for anyone!”

   I believe something has to change and it has to start today. My hero Aung San Suu Kyi6 has silently fought her battles for over 20 years and has made a huge impact. I don’t believe in violent protests. I believe if we write the people in charge, create sustaining living environments for ourselves like Joel Salatin talks about in Holy Cows and Hog Heaven we can reduce the large amount of cancers in the world. Leave the genetics out of our foods. Just for today I will contact my local farmers, find out how they care for their cows and buy my milk from them. My local CO-OP has a program where I can meet my farmer and find out where my potato comes from. I don’t need a potato genetically engineered to have more protein. I need my potato to do what potatoes were intended to do, be full of good starches and minerals. Our next BBQ will have non GMO potato salad.

Works Cited
Whitney, Ellie and Sharon Rady Rolfes. Understanding Nutrition 12e. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011.Print

Saltin, Joe. Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer’s Guide to Farm Friendly Food. Polyface, Inc Swoope, Virgina. 2004. Print

Smith, Jeffery M. Genetic Roulette The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods. Yes Books, Fairfield Iowa 2007. Print

Smith, Jeffery M. Seeds of Deception - Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods your eating.Yes Books, Fairfield, Iowa 2003

"Guidance for Industry: Voluntary Labeling Indicating Whether Foods Have or Have Not Been Developed Using Bioengineering; Draft Guidance" Fda.gov. Food and Drug Administration, 22ND May, 2009. Web. 25th May 2011.
http://www.fda.gov/food/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/guidancedocuments/foodlabelingnutrition/ucm059098.htm

National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2010: With Special Feature on Death and Dying. Hyattsville, MD. 2011.

"Aung San Suu Kyi - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 30 May 2011 Retreived from: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi.html

School project came out good

2011-05-25T17:42:00.001-07:00

School project I wrote for cultural anthropology nutrition cookbook.

This is one of many recipes in the cookbook.

I'm excited to see it finished.

This is my contribution.

Shawn Miles
Personal Connections
I grew up Philadelphia, in an environment where everyone would gather around the kitchen and socialize while they cook. I'm a social person and love to participate in many gatherings. I grew up eating foods high in calories and made with oils or creams that made the flavor heavy or what some would describe as rich. When I had a decline in good health, I couldn’t accept my favorite foods were making me sick. I was mad, but as my mother used to say…”get over it or get under it.
For this assignment, I wanted to prepare a meal for the class which was warm as well as inviting. It needed to have a rich flavor to delight the tongue and not too heavy on the stomach. It’s like the triple threat; to make foods that are fun to eat, healthy and taste good as well.
I have spent years learning how to make exquisite epicurean foods like Avgolemono, Greek chicken and lemon soup and Alfredo sauce, after all the famous Italian market from the first Rocky movie was on our weekly food shopping stop. Now I was finding anything that had meat, was causing all kinds of problems through out my digestive system. At first I thought the way the meat was processed (some of the frozen packages say sodium solutions on the back of the ingredients) or the lack of exercise was causing issues. Through lots of reading and research (my fall back book is Eat to Live by Dr Furhman) I was able to come up with a healthy way of eating and still retain my love of food. I became a vegan, vegetarian.
A Vegan is essentially those who don’t eat byproducts from an animal. That being said I’m not a true vegan as I have days when I just have a craving for cheese. In addition from time to time I enjoy free range eggs because sometimes I can’t stand the thought of eating another leaf of spinach. As spinach is my main source of Iron, eggs are also another good source of Iron. “Iron is found in food in two forms, heme and non-heme iron.” As discussed on The Vegetarian Resource Group’s web page, see cited information for link. The non-heme iron isn’t absorbed into the body as well as the heme iron is. About twice a month I just want to eat a dozen eggs and cheese, so I usually make a quiche (egg and cheese pie).
History, Diffusion, Cooking Methods, Preservation
These three dishes are three of the first dishes I discovered when I decided to go full on Vegainzed. Vegainzed is my diffused word for once a meat lover now a vegetable lover mechanized in the kitchen to be skilled yet delicious at the same time. Everyone, in my opinion, should have a fast efficient way of working in the kitchen. It should be set up to reach each tool with ease, reach each spice with effortlessness, and know what each and every spice, oil, and vinegar you have can do. This cuts down on wasted time, energy and supplies. This is a skill I acquired from watching my Mom, bless her heart, she would spend hours looking through her spice rack for that spice that she had no idea what it was to add to this or that dish. We would all look at her like she was crazy and didn’t want to eat whatever it was she was going to serve. My mom was my inspiration for picking up the collection of cookbooks I have today and reading through all of them, cover to cover, to learn how the ingredients work together.
First, let me talk to the "I don't want no cold stay away from me" salad. I started off with an organic spring mix, a grapefruit which is known for its lycopene and strawberries for natural iodine and both for vitamin C. The grapefruit and strawberries help fight off any free radicals that may be floating around a persons system from a cold or flu bug. Vitamin C does this “by donating its two hydrogens with their electrons to the free radicals.” (Whitney, Rolfes pg 338). Vitamin C also protects tissues from oxidative stress, enhances iron absorption, and serves as a synthesis of several other compounds. (Whitney, Rolfes pg 339).
I went with the pink grapefruit not because pink is my favorite color (well it is) but because of the lycopene. The lycopene is known to fight oxygen free radicals. It's best known for fighting prostate cancer, so eat your fruits that are red or pink guys. The nutrient-per-calorie ratio is much higher in fruit and I'd rather spend my calories on fruit then on empty calories like fatty salad dressings. The salad greens have the most protein per calorie, based on a study reviewed and analyzed then published by Dr Furhman in Eat to Live (pg 138). Through his analysis he discovered steak and broccoli have the same protein per calorie. If you were to eat a 100 calorie steak and a 100 calorie plate of broccoli it would have the same amount of protein. For a woman my age based on the RDA should consume 46g of protein a day (inside cover Whitney, Rolfes)
The last element I’d like to mention is the pink Himalayan salt. There isn’t much data collected on the Himalayan salt other then it’s a “fossil marine salt” that is harvested from high up in the Himalayan Mountains.
The second dish is my most favorite; it took a while to get this recipe just right! I played with the ingredients for a long time because the usual white mushroom just does not taste right. I use a combination of wild mushrooms, usually oyster mushroom and button mushrooms. After I chop up the mushrooms, sweet onion, and raw pumpkin seed, I toss them in a wok with some oil.
The oil is always important. I can use few different types; avocado oil, walnut oil for high heat, or grape seed oil. Cooking oils are delicate and if the heat is set to high temperature, they will burn; this is referred to as the smoke point. I prefer the light flavor of high heat grapeseed oil. For this recipe I used avocado. The nutty flavor from the oil complements the mushrooms. The wok lets me keep the delicate flavors of the mushrooms with out them turning to mush.
I've heard so many different good things about mushrooms, Washington State University have a whole database devoted to Pacific Northwest Fungi, http://pnwfungi.wsu.edu/programs/aboutDatabase.asp. This dish evolved the way it did through trial and error. I use to use Roma tomatoes and didn't like how under ripe they were so I switched to cherry tomatoes and found the burst of juice complimentary to the texture of the avocado. This can be eaten warm, hot or cold. I usually sprinkle pink Himalayan salt on it as well.
The tomato was once called the “Love Apple” in England in 1596. The English used it for an ornamental plant or for medicinal purposes. Before the tomato got to England it has to come from its origins in South America with the Aztec people. The tomato was brought back to Spain and Portugal then snubbed by most of Europe until eventually they were eaten in salads, according the the Dictionnaire de Trevoux of 1704, Introduction: The Early Modern Period, (pg 357).
The avocado has an interesting history also. There are three distinct types uncovered during archeological digs. The three distinct types are due to the locations they were found, now knows as Mexican, Guatemalan, and West Indian or Antillean. There were known in the Antilles before the Spanish conquest.

Finally dessert, the most important part of a meal! When I had to consciously give up ice-cream for health reasons I started looking for alternatives. I know from studying food through the ages through various sources I could use almonds to create a cream. The most influential book in my studies from food through out history is Take a Thousand Eggs or More, a collection of 15th century recipes.” It has this recipe for making almond milk from scratch well it was labor some and produces little for the amounts I would need to make crème. Hope was lost, and then I stumbled onto the mimi cream. I already knew how yummy fruit was and at the current time I was eating a lot of frozen organic blueberries and mangos. I just poured the mimi cream over the top one day and made the best dessert I’d ever tasted.
I learned a lot about cooking with almonds from a book I bought called Take a Thousand Eggs or more. With so many people who are lacto cent intolerant, it’s handy to know some alternatives. This book talks a lot about foods and new world foods. It was because of this book I have been able to figure out the foundation of flavors, that's how I knew mango and blueberries would work well with almonds.
The last food I used that wasn’t regional was the mango. The mango is a fruit that’s just as old as the tomato and the avocado; it is originally from Malaysia, according to the poem found in “The Mango, its culture and varieties.” I can’t remember the first time I had a mango, but I do remember the first time I had one with my friend from India. She explained I was eating it wrong. Through cultural diffusion I’d learn to cut it like an avocado and take out the see. My friend showed me the way she ate the mango in her culture, they squeeze the fruit all the way around, leaving the skin on, until it feels like water balloon, then cut the top off and suck the juice out of it.
Although I find myself alone most of the time now, I still find it very important to pick out foods I eat with passion. Live each day with intent is a motto I picked up somewhere along the way and I try to bring that into every aspect of my life, including with my food. With that being said…who says passion and healthy living can’t go hand and hand. I will live my life proving that can be done and enjoying every moment of it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I don't want no cold stay away from me" salad
2Pink Grapefruits
1 basket of strawberries
1 bag of spring mix
1 small bag of sprouts
¼ cup raw sunflower seeds (optional)

• Wash strawberries, greens, sprouts. dry off (I have a salad spinner)
• Mix greens and sprouts
• Cut off the leafy tops of the strawberries and quarter
• Cut of the skin of the grapefruit (they look better and you get all the seeds)
• Mix all of it together
Serve
A-T-M Salad
(Avocado-Tomato-Mushrooms)
2 ripe avocados
1 8oz container of cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup of shiitake mushrooms
1/2 cup of button mushrooms
1/2 of crimini mushrooms
1/2 a sweet onion
1Garlic clove (optional)
¼ cup Pumpkin Seeds
1 tablespoon oil (avocado or walnut or grapeseed)
Salt to taste
• Brush mushrooms clean of all dirt and any other unsavory looking characters.
• Slice
• Rinse off onion
• Peal, mash, slice garlic
• Toss into Wok on low to medium low heat with oil
• Rinse off tomatoes, cut in half and put in bowl
• Half avocado, remove seed, cut into squares and put in with tomatoes
• Add Pumpkin Seeds to wok
• Add a pinch of salt
• Don't over mix or mushrooms will turn to mush
• When Onion turns translucent remove and add to the tomato mixture.
• Lightly stir and serve
Fruit and Crème
1 bag of Frozen Fruit of your choice
Mimi Crème
Serving size 1
1 cup of fruit
1/4 cup of creme.
Works Cited

Mangels, Reed, Ph.D., R.D. “Iron in the Vegan Diet” Heme vs. Non-heme Iron http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm, last updated 26 Apr 2006, 25 Apr 2011

Jane Higdon, Ph.D.,Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, Written in April 2003. Victoria J. Drake, Ph.D.’Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, Updated in March 2010. Elizabeth N. Pearce, MD, MSc., Associate Professor of Medicine, Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, Boston University School of Medicine, Reviewed in March 2010., “Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Research for Optimum Health” http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/iodine/ , 10 Mar 2010, 25 Apr 2011

Henley, E C, & Kuster, J M. (1994, April). Protein quality evaluation by protein digestibility-correlated amino acid scoring. Food Technology, 48(4), 74. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from Platinum Periodicals. (Document ID: 7207457).

'Eat a rainbow' path to health. (2011, January 24). The Providence Journal,D.2. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 2246857231).

Whitney, Ellie, and Sharon Rady Rolfes. “Chapter 10.” Understanding Nutrition. 12th ed. California: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

Sean Kane. (2010, September 8). Tomatoes hold key to prostate cancer cure [Eire Region]. Daily Mail,23. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 2132605461).

Jean-Louis Flandrin (Editor), and Massimo Montanari (Editor), and Albert Sonnenfeld (Translator),”Part six”, The Europe of Nations-States Introduction: The Early Mondern Period, Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present [Hardcover], 1999. Print.

Antony William Whiley, B. and Schaffer, Bruce A. Schaffer, B. and Nigel Wolstenholme, “History, Distribution and Use” The avocado: botany, production, and uses 2001. Print

G. Marshall Woodrow, F.R.H.S.,”The Mango, it's culture and varieties.” publisher by appointment to the late queen Victoria H.G. COVE, 1904 Print, pamphlet

CHERYL PICK SOMMER. "BEHIND THE COUNTER: COMMON CONDIMENT HAS GLORIOUS HISTORY. " The Santa Fe New Mexican 19 Apr. 2006, ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.

Black Bean Burgers, Vitamins and Gluten

2011-02-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

This last weekend I decided I was tired of hunting the store shelves and freezers for a good veggie burger. All of the veggie burger types I found either had way too much salt or some sort of soy. I wanted to be able to eat burgers with the family and not have it be meat. The family are still meat-o-vors. I hunted through websites, magazines and books. After giving up I stumbled across a recipe in Vegetarian times (or http://www.vegetariantimes.com/). Finally I found some time to play with the recipe and put it together. I didn't like one or two of the ingredients so I changed it up slightly.

Canned veggies, no matter what they are have too much salt. Also I like the fresh taste of vegetables out of the vegetables and fruit sections of stores. I'm always asking myself, why would I go through the trouble of eating healthy if I don't buy healthy ingredients, so I buy organic, non GMO, vegetables. My veggie burger had all organic ingredients minus the beans. I need to find a good resource for this and I think my local CO-OP has this.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of cooked black beans (its cheaper to get the bag and let them soak over night, then cook in a crock pot after rinsing.)
A bushel of cilantro
2 cups of chopped tomatoes
2 cups of rolled oats
Season as desired - I put a touch of garlic, a handful of Rosemary, thyme, basil and oregano

Turn the oven onto 400 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a mixer, put beans, cilantro and tomatoes (if you like other veggies like onions put them in there at this point). Mix, I used the pulse on my food processor.

Once mixed transfer to a larger bowl and mix in the oats.
Mix, spoon out appropriate patties on to the cookie sheet.
Bake between 10 - 15 mins depending on your oven.
Once solid to the touch you can brown under the broiler of leave them as they are. I turned them and then sat them under the broiler for 2 minutes. The came out nice.

I had one for dinner with a Pear sauce my sister got me combined with lettuce on top and wow was it full of flavor.

My goal is to add more natural vitamin's to my diet and by eating organic raw vegetables. I already take a combination of vitamins. I take a liquid iron because all the other irons are rough on my stomach. I also take a vitamin D3, 2000 IUs because of the region I live in. B complex is another vitamin I take for a lot of reasons, biggest reason I learned some time ago it helps alleviate the symptoms thyroid disease shows for arthritis. I also take glucosamine and chondroitin for my joints, I have some back/knee issues this helps with a lot. All of the vitamins I take are plant based. This eliminates any meat bi-products. My multivitamin was hard to find, so many of them contain a soy derivative if not soy itself. I ended up with 'Natures Way Alive no iron' multivitamin. The last vitamin on my list is Omega 3, which I actually take flax seed oil. Flax seed oil is the vegetarian Omega 3. When I forget my vitamins for a while I can tell. I feel achy, moody and just down.

The other recent discovery is processed gluten like store bought bread makes me all croupy. If I make the bread or buy organic specialty break I don't get croupy. (Croupy - allergic reaction)

Discovering how my body reacts to food has been a long process, several years in fact.

School Projects lead to something more…

2010-11-24T08:56:00.001-08:00

I've been working on a school project since I started the class, Psychology 101 at Skagit College out of Mt Vernon WA on Tuesday and Thursday nights. It's a wonderful class and the teacher is your typical junior College Teacher. Not sure why someone so smart is teaching here and after the first few classes you stop thinking about that because there is too much focus on class.

The class is interesting. It's comprised of high school students and the working class. We are all there for one reason, to pull ourselves up out of where we are now. At the beginning of class we were assigned this research project. It's something I've been working on for a few years and thought this should be simple. Then two different gals asked if they could join me on two different occasions. In retrospect I keep saying I should have been a loner and kept my mouth shut. Why push past my limits and try something new? Why try to work outside of my safety net? Ok so I did and now I'm so anxious I'm eating ever bad thing that passes in front of me.

My gut hurts, my brain is in a fog and I want to quit school. There I said it. I'm not tough as nails. Anxiety eats me up. I heard there was a form of hypnotism that will help you work through your anxiety. I keep working through the conversations in my head.

John Hopkins Alerts has a great write up for non-medication Anxiety management;

Notice and name
Notice and name
Move
Breathe
Nurture your spirit
Reframe your thoughts
Watch the toxins
Don't watch the news
Don't worry alone

changing it up... cream of mushroom soup

2010-11-07T13:12:00.000-08:00

I'm going to take this recipe from the food network and make it a vegan recipe because by golly I'm dying for some cream of mushroom soup

You can find the original at
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cream-of-wild-mushroom-soup-recipe/index.html
(side note: from listening to a pod cast - don't remember which one or I'd give them credit - when putting tags in your web sites it's always best to put the whole thing. a blind person using voice activated tools will here "click here" when you put that link in". Now I put the link in so they know what they what the "click here" is. Cause honestly that would piss me off too)

Ingredients

5 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms
5 ounces fresh portobello mushrooms
5 ounces fresh cremini (or porcini) mushrooms
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1/4 pound (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, divided
1 cup chopped yellow onion
1 carrot, chopped
1 sprig fresh thyme plus 1 teaspoon minced thyme leaves, divided
Kosher salt -
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup dry white wine (I may eliminate this because I'm not too keen on it but if it calls for the flavor I use a white vinegar most of the time and it's just the same. )
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions

Clean the mushrooms by wiping them with a dry paper towel. Don't wash them! Separate the stems, trim off any bad parts, and coarsely chop the stems. Slice the mushroom caps 1/4-inch thick and, if there are big, cut them into bite-sized pieces. Set aside.

To make the stock, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large pot. Add the chopped mushroom stems, the onion, carrot, the sprig of thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Add 6 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Strain, reserving the liquid. You should have about 4 1/2 cups of stock. If not, add some water.

Meanwhile, in another large pot, heat the remaining 1/4 pound of butter and add the leeks. Cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the leeks begin to brown. Add the sliced mushroom caps and cook for 10 minutes, or until they are browned and tender. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the white wine and stir for another minute, scraping the bottom of the pot. Add the mushroom stock, minced thyme leaves, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the half-and-half, cream, and parsley, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and heat through but do not boil. Serve hot.

Raw Food: Raw Emotions

2010-10-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

Over the last several weeks I've been paying very close attention to what I eat. In fact I believe I can now tell you when I'm deficient in either protein or a green. It's a little neurotic if you ask me.

Tonight I had an epiphany, one of those great big aha moments, if you will. I'm sitting there thinking fat has been fall back. I turn to food to deaden the raw emotions that come with being bi-polar. How do deal with them now that I'm no longer eating fats or processed food.

I can't believe I didn't make this connection sooner. I knew all along that I was an emotionally eater, I just never made the connection that the fat in the foods was an addition and I was using it subdue the raw emotions I've never learned how to deal with.

Bi-polar people in my experience never learn how to deal with these emotions.

We are given drugs and sent to cognitive therapy to learn about triggers. All I've learned about are triggers for PTSD and anxiety.

I have no idea how to handle these emotions that come out of know where. These emotions are raw and intense. They come at me sometimes for days on end and I can't figure out how to deaden them so I eat to numb them. I don't do drugs anymore and I gave up drinking because it was way too much on my body.

I want so badly to feel physically better. I know this is a part of the chronic pain is subsiding and that means I'll physically be better. I''m noticing the raw emotions are still there. I don't think I would wish this burden on anyone.

I can say the more I exercise, take Omega 3 and DHA the more I feel a dampening.

There have been a lot of studies that have proven it won't cure bi-polar disorders, it will ease in the symptoms. While working on a paper for school I found all these articles that talk about omega 3 largely helping reduce the symptoms of bipolar disorder.

All of the research was done outside of the United States.

At this time I've reduced a lot of my crap intake and increased a lot of my good foods and Omega 3s. It's late October and I'm not falling apart like I always do.

I'll keep you posted.

I'm not hungry but breakfast is so important.

2010-10-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

I woke up today not hungry at all. Every day lately I wake up not hungry. I know I have to eat at least the palm of my hand. (side note: I'm only 1/4th of the way through Eat to Live and the concepts about a healthy vegan lifestyle are the concepts I'm trying to follow).

Figuring out what to eat is hard every day, let alone fighting the not hungry part. My doctor thinks I need a digestive enzyme. Today when I have a few moments I'm going to research this. The one she recommended was a meat based enzyme and I don't ingest meat of any kind.

My cheese is rice cheese, which is actually amazing.
My butter is soy free dairy free butter (and I love the stuff), heartburn free for the first time in years.
My milk is a combo of either Almond milk or Oat milk. Rice milk and I don't like each other much. Not sure why.

I think today I'll have a some almond butter on my flax bread (make that two) with a piece of fruit or a fruit smoothie, not sure which. Since my drive to work is so long I like to take my time eating and I really do when it comes to this meal.

I plug in a good song or podcast and kick back with a slow meal. It's not messy and it covers all the basis.

FOOD, FAT and obsessions with diet

2010-10-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

Where to start?

All of these thoughts are racing through my mind like a indie 500 race. I can start with my story and give some fact along the way.

In the spring of 2007 I wanted to go hiking and was fantasizing about it with my gal pal. We kept talking about going to this place or that. Finally we decided it was time and we should just go and do it. It didn't cost anything to park your car and walk, did it? So we grabbed a few water bottles, plotted to have a meal at the top and picked what was considered a moderate to easy hike, Little Si (North Bend WA).
What a joke that very first trip was. Lessons learned, I'm terrified of the woods and will sing childhood sesame street songs to ward off any predators. I wore the wrong shoes and had on the wrong gear, didn't carry enough water or flashlights and told my buddies they didn't have to stick with me.

My BMI at the time was 30 plus. I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, it's an auto-immune disease. My thyroid attacks itself as well as my metabolism moving very slow. I thought if I could just exercise more I could bring my BMI down.

My back hurt a lot from this first hike. Over the next several years I discovered I had bulging disc and curving of the spine as well as no muscle around certain parts of the spine. I kept hiking for up to a year before it got to the point where I couldn't handle it anymore.

I'd like to blame the chiropractor I was seeing. However I can't. The chiropractor was doing topical work on my spine. He did what he could with what he had. It wasn't until I woke up in the middle of the night one day and couldn't move that I decided I needed to see someone else. My health insurance was awful and I just needed to suck it up. Between 2008 and 2009 I've spent almost $15,000 in medical, because it was broken up the way it was it wasn't enough to claim on taxes.

I felt like I needed to take control out of the doctors hands. I needed the control. I was tired of listening to everyone tell me how to live my life. How to get better. I'll never be a medical doctor or a nutritionist, nor will I understand how it all works.

I did figure out what works for me.

Books are a powerful tool and the library was full of the. I spent time asking my friends questions, and then I would go to the library and look up leads in research books. I would spend time digging around the Endocrinology journals I found on the internet.

I discovered soy will block the update of thyroid medicines. I stopped consuming everything that had soy in it. Everything.
I discovered lecithin is another form of soy, even when it doesn't have soy in front of it. (I wish I still had those links to prove what I found from those scientific findings).
I discovered after I stopped eating soy of any form the dose of 137 mcgs of Levothyroxine was lowered to 125 mcgs. I didn't loose any weight. I didn't exercise nor did I change anything else.
I just stopped eating soy.
Soy, Soy Lecithin is in almost every processed food I could find. Vegetable oil has soy lecithin, bread has soy lecithin, the healthy wraps everyone uses today has soy lecithin.

I was mad for a while. Why is all of my food processed?

When I was done being so angry I started asking, what's in my food?

What does this mean? Dela dexa what a?
What is this? potassium sorbate Isn't that a salt? What if I am supposed to watch my salt intake?

What do I do now? How do I eat?

Oh I found out iodine makes me swell really bad. I think that gluten does something to me to but I'm ignoring that for the minute.

This was 2009.

Why the obsession?

Why didn't I do like most of America and just drink, exercise, on the drugs that I would need for high blood pressure one day, and just accept it?

I believe the American Diet is killing me. I didn't realize how many people this affect until I saw the Jamie Oliver Project. I believe I have control over my life and I can save myself.

I started educating myself with movies like Food Inc, and books like Eat to live. Then I started reading Magnificent Mind at Any age. These pieces of media all said the same thing, "eat nutrient dense foods". Did I mention five years ago now I was diagnosed with bi-polar 1.

When I started down the path as an organic vegan I started feeling amazingly better. The physical therapy started to work. My depression started to go away. I found out a few days ago the dose of my Thyroid meds are going to be reduced again. My ADD meds are going to be reduced again.

I truly believe there is something to be said about this choice I've made.

It's not an obsession I have nor is it a fad diet. It's my choice to be an organic vegan to live life to the fullest. I want to know what a fantastic quality life really means. Not chronic illness ridiculed with pain.

Food, can you believe it? Food.

I've only given a summary of the research and processes I've been through. I take a regiment of vitamins. Over time it's been discovered from doctors that a full range of vitamin B will help with the nervous system, so I take a complex well rounded vegan vitamin (soy free) B.

I also take iron. My iron was depleted because of the huge amounts of ibuprofen from my injuries. Iron will cause issues if you take it with in 4 hours of your thyroid meds. I take it at lunch.

The list of vitamins goes on. I'll save that for another post but felt it important to talk about those two today.

I got the catalogue

2010-01-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

In the last post #30 and #30 part II I was really excited ordering my seed catalogue from Territorial Seed company. Now that it's here I'm overwhelmed by it.

It's a huge magazine filled with so much information. The plan of attack will be to learn how it's laid out, then learn where the seeds are that I want.

After I figure all that out, I'll start planting in pots.

I know so far I want an herb garden, and tomatoes.

I'm not sure about anything else.

I'm so excited.

Update on 101.. 1 - 30

2010-01-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

If I obsess over this daily I would burn out and not finish it.
If I beat myself up daily because life got in the way I would not finish it.

After taking some quite time this morning and reviewing the "1001 day challenge of accomplishing 101 goals" I think I'm on my way to achieving a lot more then I realized.

Here is an update with some additions and subtractions. I left the original in tack and just used the mark ups for clarification.

Personal Goals
**This is an addition from 2010**

Spend more time with P and J --This has been extremely hard in the last year. Money and time has been a serious issue. This year I need to figure out how to make it a non issue.

Spend more time with Super K
Stop watching my life go by and live it - figure out what that means.

Time reserved just for my boys

001 Take my son horse back riding

Since I put the weight back on I can't do this. I need to ditch the weight or we need to find bigger horses. lol

002 Five day river rafting trip with the family

We won't be able to do this until I'm cleared from the doctor for my herniated discs. We just might do a five day trip by a river with some rafts like we use to when I was a kid or a one day rafting trip and I'll meet them at the end.

003 See the boys once a month for weekend adventures

I need to find a cheap way to sleep in Portland. Most of the motels smell like cig smoke and it makes me ill. A weekend ends up costing $500.

004 Explore the mountain range in Portland
005 Teach them empathy, courage, humility, honesty and compassion (while working on it myself)

They are such wonderful young men. I think we hit the nail on empathy recently and are working on the honesty.

006 Play more bored games together

K plays an amazing role in this. Super K!
I did buy Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii so we could play an electronic game and I could get into it.

007 Educate my boys on sex education so they can make smart decisions.

They are already making smart decisions. I'm proud of them.

008 Educate my boys about drugs, cigarettes and alcohol so they won't succumb to peer-pressure and can make smart decisions

We talk a lot. Examples help, TV shows and Hollywood do not. The news and Bridzilla do. hahaha

Health and Wellness

009 Learn Tia Chi - I have no idea how to do this yet. It's on my list to research.
010 Ride my bike to work at least 4 days a week - Physical Therapy is helping me reach this goal.
011 Find a way to run/jog - The elliptical is such an awesome machine.
012 Do a triathlon - have to heal the body 1st, then I can and will.
013 Learn to forgive myself and live with my disorders and disabilities - forgive the past and enjoy the present (more)- I'm so in the right spot these days and know what this means. I understand how this works.
014 Figure out how to volunteer for SEAF - I did and now I'm making art for SEAF
~~015 Volunteer to help babies who need help~~ - not sure I have this in me. After sitting with mom in hospice for those two weeks and watching other families go through so much pain and suffering. I don't think I have it in me. I sat and listened for so many days to them share their pain. I didn't have to share mine but I had to hear theirs and two weeks of day in and day out of that was very very hard. It was hard listening to people die.
016 Donate unused items not touched in six months that aren't holiday or sentimental items - do it as often as I can, and I try to make sure it goes to people that need it, not the trash.
017 Spend the weekend in a cabin in the snow with enough gear to play and have great fun. - this is such a goal for the whole family, shooting for turkey day 2010.
018 Cardio for 30 minutes daily - pushing through my poor lung issues. My lung capacity use to be 300 on the peak flow meter, I'm at 350. Goal is now 400. I still don't do cardio for 30 minutes daily because of poor spine issues. I'm up to 3 times a week.
019 Core training for 30 minutes daily - this I do daily to improve my spine.
020 Track my caloric intake to make sure I'm eating healthy - If I were getting a grade this would be and F. I have the tools. I find when I do this I get caught up in the "am I eating right" mind set and then throw off my eating. This is causing an OCD issue for me. I need to figure this out.
021 Plan ahead for eating so my triggers don't set me in the wrong direction for eating. - I have done a great job in this area by keeping a lot of fruit on hand. To be honest I have had small snippets of chocolate, causing massive migraines. So I must stay away from sugar and chocolate.
022 Learn how to scuba dive - not yet
023 Learn yoga from a yoga master - not yet
024 How do you live every day to the fullest? found the answer - One day at a time. I asked myself that question daily for a very long time. Then one day it just came to me.
025 Who do I love and what am I doing about it? I love myself and those around me. If you want to know how I got here, have tea with me and we can talk about it. This is one of those crazy motivational posters, "life is a journey not a destination". I have my ups and downs. I also make a lot of very hard decisions. I'm very happy with my decisions. I love myself and therefore I love those around me.
026 Learn to meditate - hard on still working on it.
027 Meditate daily - not yet - I can't even meditate for 30 seconds without having a thought about what I should be doing next.
028 What is my dream? Am I perusing it? Figure that out. - Wedding Photography - Now I need to make it happen!!

029 Love myself unconditionally - doing a 365 project with my camera and iphone to show myself that I am pretty on the outside too.
030 Pee Patch - find and join a local vegetable garden or something I can be apart of that won't miss me if I get sent to OK for a few months- revise - I moved to the country no more being sent to Oklahoma.
I get my Territorial Seed company catalog in the mail in a week, I hope.

I'm going to change this one to potted plants

030 Potted Plants - grow some herbs and Tomatoes

I have a day dream of planting an herb garden on my window sill as well as starting tomatoes in buckets. That way when we move to a bigger place I can have fresh tomatoes in the spring.

It's hard to fathom life. I stopped all the late nights and wanting to be at all those dance clubs on the hill. I do miss the dancing and a handful of peeps (if you are on my flist you know who you are). Now I just feel like making all my day dreams a reality. Before I didn't have time because I was to tired from late night fun. In the last few years I've been trying to get my head on straight, be there for mom when she wasn't throwing me out on my butt because I wasn't my step dad or my sister, or be in a relationship that wasn't healthy for me. Now I'm where I want to be.

Now what? lol

Time reserved just for my boys

2009-07-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

I've had to work really hard at this in the last six months. The very top item on my list however I've avoided. I need to start working on this and make it a priority. I think since I've become a one person income it's become rather difficult meeting these goals.

In reviewing the items from this category the very top item is take my son horse back riding. Then they are as follows: a five day river rafting trip with the family, see the boys once a month for weekend adventures, explore the mountain range in Portland, Teach them empathy, courage, humility, honesty and compassion (while working on it myself).

I forgot that I put down play more bored games together. I hate playing bored games. I have this fantasy we will play a game and be like the families on TV. In reality I don't have the patience to sit for the length it takes to play a bored game. I hate watching them play the game too. They get so angry at each other and quit.

We do much better with out door activities. This last holiday we had the pleasure of playing Yard Darts and Boccie Ball. What a fun game. I really enjoyed it. I will admit that we did play one bored game, my sweetheart facilitated it. It was a scrabble game, and we actually enjoyed it as a family.

By spending time with them we are all working on goal #005 Teach them empathy, courage, humility, honesty and compassion (while working on it myself).

I have faith they will continue to grow to be go humans.

Now to figure out how to reach the goal of horse back riding and white water rafting with little to no funding.

I believe I can reach these goals.

update

2009-05-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

I really want to take the time in the next week to go back and speak to each item. :)

Just finding the time is the question.

I only crossed out the items that are now either 100% completed or an established habit in my life. There are several items so close it was hard to not cross them off.

Time reserved just for my boys

001 Take my son horse back riding - lost enough weight I can finally start planning this
002 Five day river rafting trip with the family - this will have to be next year. My body isn't strong enough yet.
003 see the boys once a month for weekend adventures - yeah... for shame on me - economics, poor health (both their dad and me)
004 Explore the mountain range in Portland - already started. - planning a camping trip late Aug
005 Teach them empathy, courage, humility, honesty and compassion (while working on it myself)
~~006 Play more bored games together~~ - we do this and I'm even playing chess.
~~007 Educate my boys on sex education so they can make smart decisions~~ - we talk every time they are in the car, this will always be on going.
~~008 Educate my boys about drugs, cigarettes and alcohol so they won't succumb to peer-pressure and can make smart decisions~~ - see 007

Health and Wellness

009 Learn Tai Chi - bought a CD. - stared at it, haven't done a lick of work other wise.
010 Ride my bike to work at least 4 days a week - I've managed to conqure my fear of traffic, after I heal an injury I'll start on this goal.
011 Find a way to run/jog - tied into injury, health and one day at a time with PT.
012 Do a triathlon - see 011
013 Learn to forgive myself and live with my disorders and disabilities - forgive the past and enjoy the present (more) - every day - on going.
~~014 Figure out how to volunteer for SEAF~~ completed and boy was it fantastic.
015 Volunteer to help babies who need help - haven't even started to think about it.
~~016 Donate unused items not touched in six months that aren't holiday or sentimental items~~ - this is turning into every month.
017 Spend the weekend in a cabin in the snow with enough gear to play and have great fun.
~~018 Cardio for 30 minutes daily~~ - pushing through my poor lung issues.
~~019 Core training for 30 minutes daily~~
~~020 Track my caloric intake to make sure I'm eating healthy~~ Livestrong
021 Plan ahead for eating so my triggers don't set me in the wrong direction for eating.- this is still a habit I'm trying to create for ongoing not just part time.
022 Learn how to scuba dive
023 Learn yoga from a yoga master
024 How do you live every day to the fullest? Find the answer.
025 Who do I love and what am I doing about it? Find the answer.
026 Learn to meditate
027 Meditate daily
028 What is my dream? Am I perusing it? Figure that out.
029 Love myself unconditionally
030 Pea Patch - find and join a local vegetable garden or something I can be apart of that won't miss me if I get sent to OK for a few months

Website

031 Research Websites
032 Create delightful pieces of art and display them on said web site
033 Learn how to build the website myself
034 Put interesting content on the website
035 Turn it into a site I can earn money off of.
036 read more about other websites and how they did it.

Photography

037 learn how to edit my photography in Lightroom
038 learn how to pick the best picture for web site
039 take great candid shots
040 Take pictures of people that are captivating
~~041 take more pictures~~ (More)
~~042 Make a photo journal of each adventure.~~
043 Learn every inch of my camera and what it means

Money Management

044 Money management- budgeting
045 CD planning - research the best cd for the job
~~046 Use a map to save, budget and pay bills with~~
047 set up savings for CD, holidays, trips, allowance and college funds (using ing for savings) - have the set goal (private sorry not sharing with the world)
048 Improve my credit score enough to do anything I want in one years time.
049 educate myself on tax information and do my own taxes
050 Learn how to be Frugal (wise with your money)
051 Simple Living

Expanding the Mind

052 Learn how to write
053 get a degree in art and photography
054 get another degree in computer science/Web Development (even though I said I hate it, it's the cube and not the science I really dig it)
055 Learn the history of my area - the American Indians, the settlers and more about American History.
056 Learn more about world history.
057 Learn to play my violin
~~058 Create a list of misspelled words and look them up to spell them correctly to improve my spellin~~g
059 read about oppression in our country and figure out one thing I can do to make a difference
~~060 Turn off the TV~~
061 read all of the books in my apartment
062 Go to concerts (all kinds)
063 Write a book that will help someone so they can benefit from my experiences.
~~064 I'm really fascinated by the DiVinici Code and want to learn a little bit more about Symbology.~~
065 Learn more about Greek Mythology
066 Learn more about Roman Mythology

Outings/Travel

067 go to Tibet
068 go to the Himalayans
069 Zip-lining at Whistler
070 go to the Buchart gardens in Canada
071 High Tea at the Empress
072 Do the Seattle to Portland bike ride
073 RSVP - bike ride from Seattle to Vancouver BC
074 Take a trip to Hawaii as cheaply as possible - not the typical tourists trip.
075 take a rafting trip down the AZ River or the Colorado River
076 Climb every mountain that I live around.
077 Learn how to Rock climb at Vertical World.
078 Nordic Ski
079 Snow Shoe
080 Go to Italy and take a Medici Tour
081 Get my Passport
082 Go to every Museum in the Pacific Northwest.
083 climb Machu Picchu with my friend in 2010
084 Have my entire family spend a weekend camping and enjoy it with out a bipolar moment
085 Go see ten movies with my oldest son
086 Take the boys to Philadelphia on New Years to see the Mummers Parade, the Franklin Institute, and the Art Museum
087 go to Crescent Lake, WA
088 Do the Pacific Crest Trail in steps not all at once.

Making Art

089 Learn to Paint in oils
090 Learn to knit and make a cable knit sweater
091 Make a puppet
092 have my friends and family over a puppet show
093 Help the boys make a stop motion animation movie
094 refinish a chair - Victorian style
~~095 Go to art shows.~~
096 build a Marquee tent from the 1500's
097 send a homemade art project once a month to a friend
098 Make paper to completely make a book from scratch

Out side of Categories

~~099 Visit my friends more~~
100 Learn to Kayak
101 Write my ten commandments

Money Management

2008-12-31T14:57:00.000-08:00

For years I was terrified of my money and ignored it and blamed all of my problems on everyone else but me. Lately it was finding the root cause then blaming the problems on them. Now that I am past that I have to take hold of the reigns and do something about it.

I started reading "The Simple Dollar" at the suggestion of a friend and found it to be the beginning of my money education.

From here my plan of attack is to

1. open an allowance account - this account is where I can have all my spending money from.

2. open a savings account for the trips I want to take. Saving for them will come from my allowance and where ever else I can shave money from

3. open an ing account for the other savings accounts.

College fund for boy 1
College fund for boy 2
Three months living fund
House fund (I want to buy a house in the woods after I clean up my credit - no time line)
Emergency
Medical Expense
Summer Camp
Wii
CD fund
Retirement

I figure if I have to pay for it why not earn interest on it while I'm saving for it. I never really looked at it like this. It's always been sitting there in my head, floating around like a bunch of fish in a bowl of water.

001 Take more Pictures

2008-12-30T21:51:00.000-08:00

I really want to improve my photo skills in many areas. I find many inspirations on flickr plan on carrying my camera everywhere to try to take more pictures.

Maybe I'll even try to incorporate the 365 project, a picture a day. I think that would be a challenge for me.

101 the beginning ideas

2008-12-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

Time reserved just for my boys

001 Take my son horse back riding
002 Five day river rafting trip with the family
003 see the boys once a month for weekend adventures
004 Explore the mountain range in Portland
005 Teach them empathy, courage, humility, honesty and compassion (while working on it myself)
006 Play more bored games together
007 Educate my boys on sex education so they can make smart decisions
008 Educate my boys about drugs, cigarettes and alcohol so they won't succumb to peer-pressure and can make smart decisions

Health and Wellness

009 Learn Tai Chi
010 Ride my bike to work at least 4 days a week
011 Find a way to run/jog
012 Do a triathlon
013 Learn to forgive myself and live with my disorders and disabilities - forgive the past and enjoy the present (more)
014 Figure out how to volunteer for SEAF
015 Volunteer to help babies who need help
016 Donate unused items not touched in six months that aren't holiday or sentimental items
017 Spend the weekend in a cabin in the snow with enough gear to play and have great fun.
018 Cardio for 30 minutes daily - pushing through my poor lung issues.
019 Core training for 30 minutes daily
020 Track my caloric intake to make sure I'm eating healthy
021 Plan ahead for eating so my triggers don't set me in the wrong direction for eating.
022 Learn how to scuba dive
023 Learn yoga from a yoga master
024 How do you live every day to the fullest? Find the answer.
025 Who do I love and what am I doing about it? Find the answer.
026 Learn to meditate
027 Meditate daily
028 What is my dream? Am I perusing it? Figure that out.
029 Love myself unconditionally
030 Pee Patch - find and join a local vegetable garden or something I can be apart of that won't miss me if I get sent to OK for a few months

Website

031 Research Websites
032 Create delightful pieces of art and display them on said web site
033 Learn how to build the website myself
034 Put interesting content on the website
035 Turn it into a site I can earn money off of.
036 read more about other websites and how they did it.

Photography

037 learn how to edit my photography in Lightroom
038 learn how to pick the best picture for web site
039 take great candid shots
040 Take pictures of people that are captivating
041 take more pictures (More)
042 Make a photo journal of each adventure.
043 Learn every inch of my camera and what it means

Money Management

044 Money management- budgeting
045 CD planning - research the best cd for the job
046 Use a map to save, budget and pay bills with
047 set up savings for CD, holidays, trips, allowance and college funds (using ing for savings) - have the set goal (private sorry not sharing with the world)
048 Improve my credit score enough to do anything I want in one years time.
049 educate myself on tax information and do my own taxes
050 Learn how to be Frugal (wise with your money)
051 Simple Living

Expanding the Mind

052 Learn how to write
053 get a degree in art and photography
054 get another degree in computer science/Web Development (even though I said I hate it, it's the cube and not the science I really dig it)
055 Learn the history of my area - the American Indians, the settlers and more about American History.
056 Learn more about world history.
057 Learn to play my violin
058 Create a list of misspelled words and look them up to spell them correctly to improve my spelling
059 read about oppression in our country and figure out one thing I can do to make a difference
060 Turn off the TV
061 read all of the books in my apartment
062 Go to concerts (all kinds)
063 Write a book that will help someone so they can benefit from my experiences.
064 I'm really fascinated by the DiVinici Code and want to learn a little bit more about Symbology.
065 Learn more about Greek Mythology
066 Learn more about Roman Mythology

Outings/Travel

067 go to Tibet
068 go to the Himalayans
069 Zip-lining at Whistler
070 go to the Buchart gardens in Canada
071 High Tea at the Empress
072 Do the Seattle to Portland bike ride
073 RSVP - bike ride from Seattle to Vancouver BC
074 Take a trip to Hawaii as cheaply as possible - not the typical tourists trip.
075 take a rafting trip down the AZ River or the Colorado River
076 Climb every mountain that I live around.
077 Learn how to Rock climb at Vertical World.
078 Nordic Ski
079 Snow Shoe
080 Go to Italy and take a Medici Tour
081 Get my Passport
082 Go to every Museum in the Pacific Northwest.
083 climb Machu Picchu with my friend in 2010
084 Have my entire family spend a weekend camping and enjoy it with out a bipolar moment
085 Go see ten movies with my oldest son
086 Take the boys to Philadelphia on New Years to see the Mummers Parade, the Franklin Institute, and the Art Museum
087 go to Crescent Lake, WA
088 Do the Pacific Crest Trail in steps not all at once.

Making Art

089 Learn to Paint in oils
090 Learn to knit and make a cable knit sweater
091 Make a puppet
092 have my friends and family over a puppet show
093 Help the boys make a stop motion animation movie
094 refinish a chair - Victorian style
095 Go to art shows.
096 build a Marquee tent from the 1500's
097 send a homemade art project once a month to a friend
098 Make paper to completely make a book from scratch

Out side of Categories

099 Visit my friends more
100 Learn to Kayak
101 Write my ten commandments