The Phoenix

*Before reading this, please read my previous post, as it directly pertains to this one...*  Okay, now that you've done that...  (you have done that, haven't you?)

It's always a lot to pack up the kids, the dogs, all the stuff that belongs to all of us, and to go to the mountains. But it's always worth it. And this weekend was certainly no exception. We went for a specific purpose this weekend... to celebrate our holiday, Samhain.

A Disclaimer for Posts to Come

I have thought long and hard about what it is that I want to write about in regards to my past weekend.  It was very special to me, and because of that I want to share it with the few people who actually read this.  Mainly I know that what I have to say will be welcomed...  but there is always the possibility someone out there will react the way people always do at some point.  I want to say a bit about my spiritual place in the world because it's, obviously, important to me.  It has great value to me.  In order for people to know me in my entirety, they have to know my core being, my central beliefs.

"Whatever activity you do, do it slowly. Do not rush to end it. Be relaxed in everything and bring your full attention to it." I don't know who wrote this, but I think about this a LOT while I'm rushing around.  To experience life, you need to really EXPERIENCE it, not rush through it.

Starting Over Again....

Well, it seems that I fell apart there for a while... and I know EXACTLY when it happened.  It all happened when I found out that Clayton College screwed me out of money and an education.  Everything all of a sudden felt kindof pointless.  And even though I really did try (and thought I was succeeding) to look at it as a new beginning, it really just felt like an ending on something that I didn't want to close. 

Proud

I'm so proud of myself.  I had everything packed for our trip last night. Everything except for the stuff that we need  for today or tomorrow morning. That means that today, instead of running around like a chicken with my head cut off,  I've been focusing on deep cleaning the house.  I've decluttered a LOT of jasmine's room, I've thoroughly cleaned my master bathroom and lilly's bathroom sink areas.  I've put away two loads of laundry, and I'm working on a third.  My master bedroom will be done today, and the entire upstairs area will be vacuumed and the spots on it will be shampooed out.  That should all be done within the next hour.  Then I will watch a show or something to rest for a bit.  Then I'll straighten the downstairs (not too much needs to be done downstairs) and vacuum/shampoo spots down there.  I'm not afraid of overdoing it, because I'll have a mandatory vacation from cleaning my house for the next week!  I'm totally excited about how it will feel to come home to a spotless house.  It would never be able to happen if I hadn't started packing for this trip 2 weeks ago.  I really am proud of myself.  I just had to share that thought.

Socks and Spaghetti Squash

Today is the day I go through the sock drawers in the kids' rooms.  I hate socks.  I do, really.  I hate having to sort through and match socks.  It's just a pain.  It is for that specific reason that I buy the same socks every time I go shopping for myself.  I don't have to worry about a lost one here or a lost one there.  And socks for little kids?  ugggh.  I have yet to be able to keep a pair of socks on Jasmine for more than 10 minutes.  So I stopped trying a long time ago.   Plus, I have to figure out which ones are too small for Jasmine, and I'll have to throw them out.  But to do that, I'll have to put them on her feet to know.  Unfortunately, for the most part, socks are not printed with a size on them.  :(

The other thing of note that I'm doing today (besides getting the massage at 7:00, yay!) is fixing a totally new vegetable for dinner.  I'm going to be cooking a Spaghetti Squash.  I'm totally excited to do this, as well as somewhat terrified it'll turn out badly.  Has anyone ever cooked a spaghetti squash before?  I'm using this recipe tonight.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm not even going to tell Mikey what it is or he won't eat it.  I'll let him know AFTER the meal.  In any case, I'm making it a goal of mine to try one new vegetable a week.  This is it for this week.  Oh, and for my brother-in-law (who may or may not be reading this), this recipe is 100% vegan.

Today's outlook.

This post really is being written because I know that one of my friends is trying to get her house in shape as well, and it helps her to read my blog.  This week, as said earlier, is all about the kids' rooms and bathroom.  Today is really simple.  Pick up all obvious trash in the rooms, and clean the kid's toilet...  the inside of the toilet is already clean, because I've gone through the process of thoroughly cleaning it (I found this pumice stone, on a stick, specifically for toilet bowls and porcelain safe that is AWESOME!).  So today what I had to do was just spray down the outside, especially around the back, and wipe it all down.   So, that's the bathroom.  Should take no more than 15 minutes to do.  I did it already when we were in there to brush lilly's teeth.  Next I have to pick up the obvious trash in the girls' rooms.  Easy enough.  I'm also going to take 15 minutes in Jasmine's room to hang up clothes and take out the ones that don't fit her.  That's it, 15 minutes and I'm done, no matter how far I have or haven't gotten. 

So far today, this is what I've done:  made bed, showered, got dressed, brushed teeth, swished toilet and wiped down sinks, emptied trash in bathroom.  Did the same for Lilly and her room/bathroom when she got up.  When Jasmine got up, I started the laundry and then brought the kids downstairs.  Once downstairs, I emptied the trash in the main bathroom.  I'm starting to make my way around to all the hotspots in my DECLUTTERED rooms.  The other rooms will have to wait until they're decluttered as well.  It sounds like a lot to do in a morning, but it's not.  And it's not something that I started doing all it once.  I've slowly added one more thing to my routine so that it's becoming an automatic thing.  I just do a little as I enter a room and it really only has taken me an hour TOPS when combined all together.  The key is to just do what you know you can do in a day, and get used to doing that...  then add new things.  Always get used to doing one or two things before you start trying to add more. 

That's it.  I just wanted to get that said while there's still a lot of daytime left today.  I'll write more later.

Maintaining....

Lately...  I've been maintaining.   I've had a lot going on this week.  Our pool team made it to the city championships.  So, this past Tuesday we had our regular pool night.  Then Wednesday, around 4, I went to Charlotte for the tournament and didn't get home until 2 am.  Of course I had to get up at 6 am with Jasmine.  We lost... which meant Thursday we stayed home.  I have to admit I'm kind of glad we lost Wednesday because if we had come back Thursday I would have lost my mind.  Thursday evening I slept.  Friday I was back up in Charlotte by 5:00 and got home around 1:00am.  Then I had to be back in Charlotte by 8:00 am, and we finally lost around 5:00 that night.  Needless to say I've not paid much attention to my house.  But like I said.... I've been maintaining.

Day 3 of the Fast... and other things.

I know it's a little late, but I might as well say a little something about the 3rd and last day of my fast.  Honestly, it went well.  It wasn't hard on me at all, because I was used to not eating whole food.  I had a good outlook on things, etc.  The acne finally came...  the day after the fast was over...  so I'm not sure if that had to do with the detox as much as it had to do with my cycle... who knows.  The actual "goings on" for day 3 are pretty non-existant.  I ended the day with an oriental chicken salad (I really wasn't going to eat the chicken; THAT was for my mom and mikey, but I let it get the best of me.

So, the POINT of the whole fast was to get me ready for healthier eating.  I plan on having MANY more vegetables in my diet and a LOT less meat...  I want to start shopping locally for any meat that we do eat.  I feel great, and I look good, I think.  I just fit better into my clothes, and I feel better about myself.  For those who are wondering (because I know you're out there), I lost about 4 pounds doing the fast.    I feel like I lost about 10.  I just feel lighter.  My head feels clearer.  I'm happier all the way around. 

I'm currently reading a book called The Garden of Eating: A Produce Dominated Diet and Cookbook by Rachel Albert-Martesz.  And, while looking the name of that book up online, I just realized they have a website as well.  I'm excited to check it out.  I already took a break to start looking over the blog there, and it looks great.  In any case, this book is a "cookbook" of sorts.  It's very large, and it's going to take me a while to read, especially considering the fact that it's getting down to the wire on my classes, and I won't have much time to read ANYTHING but my school books.  When I picked it up, honestly I thought I was going to get "vegetarian, vegetarian, vegetarian" pushed down my throat.  I believe that there is a reason we are meat-eaters...  but that's a discussion for another time.  In any case, I thought I'd just skim through all of that, take it with a grain of salt, and get to the recipes...  because that's what I'm after. Recipes that involve more vegetables.  But, after reading the first 10 pages or so, I realize that's not at all what it is.  This woman supports a meat-eating lifestyle, as long as it's not making up the majority of your diet, and as long as it's from local grass-fed farms.  Makes sense.  I hope to try out her setup eventually.  For now, though, I hope to just use some of her recipes to keep me eating healthier.  Again, my motto has seriously become "one thing at a time". 

That's that in my world of food.  Not much else to say at this moment in that arena. 

Day 2 of the Juice Fast

Before I go into the details of today, let me tell you about the rest of last night.  BY FAR, the hardest thing I did yesterday was take that seaweed bath.  I remembered that it was hard, but forgot how hard.  The thing is, first of all, I don't "soak" in baths well.  Usually I'm in there for no more than 10 minutes, enough to get clean and relax a little bit, and then I'm bored and done.  Add to that the fact that I was in EXTREMELY hot water, which was causing me to sweat like crazy, then the seaweed which is simultaneously detoxing, and replacing minerals in, my body.