Lest We Forget

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

In memory of Bdr Myles Mansell (1981-2006)

In the news: processed food linked to depression

Each week, we get a CSA produce box from our local organic farm, we get a bin of organic produce that we order through an online grocer that delivers to your door, and we have our own veggies outside, as well as getting a monthly local organic box from another source(and I haven't even mentioned farmer's markets or farm gate sales!). (YESTERDAY, November 8th, I was *STILL* eating fresh raspberries from our garden... unbelievable. You'd think I lived in California and not the Pacific Northwest!) Yes, we eat a LOT of fresh fruits and veggies in our house. In fact, we have a fridge that is JUST for fresh produce. The other fridge has jars of nuts and seeds, cooked grains and legumes sometimes, dairy, meat, condiments, dh's beer (LOL), etc. I've found that just having more fruits and veggies in the house means the kids reach for them more often. It's that simple. No junk food (or even processed food, for that matter)? No arguments over it!

i've edited the following (while I personally don't advocate eating fish, the researchers do, fwiw); here's the original:

Researchers at University College London found that a diet including plenty of fresh vegetables, fruit and fish could help prevent the onset of depression.

They compared participants -- all civil servants -- who ate a diet largely based on "whole" foods with a second group who mainly ate fried food, processed meat, high-fat dairy products and sweetened desserts.

Taking into account other indicators of a healthy lifestyle such as not smoking and taking physical exercise, those who ate the whole foods had a 26 percent lower risk of depression than those who ate mainly processed foods.

People with a diet heavy in processed food had a 58 percent higher risk of depression.

The high level of antioxidants in fruits and vegetables could have a protective effect, as previous studies have shown higher antioxidant levels to be associated with a lower risk of depression.

Eat your fresh (local, organic, raw) veggies and fruit, already!!

quick check-in

i have another post i'm working on... it's just taking some time to get my thoughts together on it... but in the meantime, i just wanted to check-in and say we're having a great (leisurely) weekend. dh came home yesterday and we had a little 'saturday night house party' with the four of us... dh & ds having a pokemon battle and dd playing some piano and dancing (and waiting for her EXTRA loose front tooth to fall out!!!), and well, generally some loud music on the stereo (our nearest neighbour's away for a week, so crank up the tunes!!!)... i should note that we all live on one acre lots, so our nearest neighbour is still about 250 feet away from our house.... PLENTY of space as it is, but when you REALLY want to crank the tunes, well... LOL

today dh is off at army, and the kids slept in 'til 9, so i had a quiet leisurely morning so far... it's a beautiful, sunny, crisp autumn morning (after recent heavy rains) so i'll try to get outside to enjoy it. there's nothing we *have* to do today - nowhere to go, no errands or anything. weekly homeschool reports need to be done, but they don't *have* to be done today... tomorrow works just fine, too. :)

hope you have an enjoyable sunday as well!
~n~

H1N1

I admit it; I'm blissfully ignorant of the media, in general. I choose not to watch the news on tv, choose to generally not listen to the news on the radio, and I don't read a daily newspaper. Once in a while I go online to the news headlines, just so I have a dim awareness of current events, but it's usually all so doom and gloom, I'd much prefer not to fill my head with paranoia and negativity. So, sure, I *know* that H1N1 is making it's second round up here in North America after appearing in spring. I *know* this. I also feel that there's an awful lot of attention being given to it at the moment, and I'm not totally comfortable with that.

I guess I find it mildly challenging how to respond to well-meaning relatives' enquiries as to whether or not I'll be vaccinating our children against H1N1 and also getting them a "regular flu shot". We will be getting neither, and this is causing some friction (a lot?) amongst family who have made different choices for themselves and their dependents. (that's me, the black sheep in the family, always doing things differently. I'm baaaaaaaaaad. LOL) The concerns are heightened because one family member has been diagnosed with it already (moderate case; not needing hospitalization), and yes, we'd been in contact, so there's a considerable amount of worry going around that the kids may get ill yet... especially because I'm choosing not to vaccinate them. I prefer to not worry; after all, it does no good, and well, it's one of the Reiki principles I choose to live my life by. ;)

A few days ago I blogged about our immune systems and things to take/do to keep it functioning well. Today I read a few other (what I consider worthwhile) suggestions: using a neti pot with warm salt water to flush the sinuses and gargling with salt water. I think taking probiotics is a great idea as well - keep the digestive system functioning well, especially the intestines. *very* important to our overall health. I've been upping our intake of dark leafy greens as well; I get a lot of benefits from consuming enough fresh organic greens daily. And try to laugh every day. Your body has the same physiological response whether you truly laugh or "fake" laugh, so just fake it if you have to, but know that with practice, it gets easier to laugh. We just don't laugh often enough, and hey, it's really good for our health.

So laugh already. And be well.

Wacky Wednesday

Greetings! It's November and no kidding, I was outside in a t-shirt today. It was WARM... and perhaps more importantly, not raining as it so often is in autumn here on the wet coast. ha ha ha that should be west, not wet, but both are equally valid. ;)

Today we had swimming classes this afternoon. Basically 2 hours in the pool. ds has a 45 min lesson and dd a 30 min lesson and the rest of the time is spent frolicking with other hs'ing friends. I swim laps (1000m) while dd is in her lesson, as she's not allowed to be unattended in the pool outside of her lesson (b/c she's less than 7 yrs old). ds, otoh, is off with his friends the entire time. It's a small-ish pool and the hs'ers are generally the only people using the pool as it's mid-day on a week-day.

I came out of the pool today with a slightly hoarse voice. The pool uses ozone filtration, which as I understand it is in some ways chemically similar to chlorination. I definitely notice odd things like this after swimming... so I try not to go to the pool more than once a week. Other times I've noticed I smell like chlorine (despite having a shower and using soap) the next day after swimming... and that's kinda freaky to have a 'bleach' smell emanating from your skin. Nonetheless, within an hour or two today the voice was back to normal... some fresh air and water cleared that up.

Today I had a green smoothie for breakfast, a little vegan (but not raw) chocolate from Denman Island Chocolate - 1/2 oz for a snack, a plate of veggies (sorry, let's pretend I'm refined and classy and call them crudites, LOL) and raw sweet mustard dip for lunch and a banana, another green smoothie for dinner and a mug of peppermint tea later.

broody hen is no longer sitting on any eggs... the three she had been on were non-productive after nearly 4 wks so i've removed them.

Yesterday the kids had their friends over... 5 kids in the house for a couple hours! Actually, ds and his two friends were outside in the creek and forest for most of that time; dd and her friend played dress-up and fairies and make-believe... I tell you, there's not much sweeter than listening to two five year olds playing make-believe together. ADORABLE!!! :D Later, dd went over to her friend's, but the older three asked me to join them playing a boardgame... so we had a 90 minute Full House game that was GREAT fun! They're a great age (9, 9 & 11) to play boardgames together... and I'm aware that part of why I enjoy their company is that they are kids who (a) don't watch tv; only videos and even then, they're not consuming visual media like your 'average' kid out there, and (b) they're all homeschooled and just really in-tune with their spirits... they're really awesome kids.

I have to go now; both kids are in the room and I'm finding it hard to concentrate... :) Oh, and I just remembered I had wanted to write about something completely different. LOL well, it'll have to wait 'til tomorrow, if I can remember 'til then!

NAMASTE'

So yesterday's fish hatchery tour was really neat; sadly, only 2 of the 8 hs'ing families originally interested were able to make it last-minute, but still, it was a great tour. We didn't see them actually harvest eggs or 'milk' the male salmon as none of them were ready or mature enough... they'll be going back up on wednesday morning to check them all again as well. Still, of the 65 chinooks they've already done, there were something like 350,000 fertilized eggs in trays which we got to see - VERY cool. In the springtime when they have hatched and are "buttoned up" we may get the opportunity to go back and hand-feed them all as they grow, which would be really interesting, as well as possibly helping with their release later into the river.

Also took ds and his friend to their Aikido class in town last night. Nothing too eventful to report there; they enjoyed it. I took the puppy to the park and had a herbal tea during part of their class. Today I'm taking my kids with me as I teach tai chi class this morning and this evening ds has yet another Aikido class, only much closer to home.

What kind of homeschooling mischief will we get into today? ;) Oh, probably finish painting the dough ornaments we made last week (HOPEFULLY; there are 4 cookie sheets full of ornaments on the kitchen counters!!) and seal them, keeping a close eye on broody hen who is due to hatch out 3 eggs any day now, a romp through the forest to the creek out back to find salamanders and frogs and other exciting discoveries, dd is already practising her piano and also some creative dancing, ds will most likely do a fair bit of silent reading, add a few interesting discussions throughout the day and I think we've got most of it covered!

So far today I've had 1L of green smoothie (salad mix, purple kale, bananas, blueberries, blackberries, black raspberries and marionberries, VitaMineral Green, camu camu berry powder, goji berries, maca powder, agave nectar, chlorella tablets and water) and, er, a few Hallowe'en candies, which, no, weren't vegan, raw, or at all healthy.

But right now I have a puppy barking relentlessly at me to get my butt out of bed and come play with her. I guess I'd better get up. :)

Life

A few things of note the past few days:

• Hallowe'en. As we live in a very rural area, the kids go trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood, to less than a dozen houses and are done within an hour easily, and aren't completely inundated with masses of candy. It's just right, imo. The kids put most of their candy in the freezer, and you know, before going out yesterday, they both still had candy leftovers from LAST year's Hallowe'en, so they're not even eating it all throughout the year! this year, ds went out as a jedi warrior with a light sabre, and dd as Cinderella. We had a campfire earlier in the day with extended family and the kids carved pumpkins and had a fun time... and ooh, if Grammy didn't pull of the BEST EVER Dame Edna costume!!! WOW!!! A costume that will go down in history. I'll have to post a picture. dh was both a little disturbed and highly amused at the sight of his mother dressed up as a 6'2" Australian transvestite. LMAO (you would be to, admit it)
• The end of Daylight Savings Time. I was kinda hoping to sleep in just a little this morning, but alas, pets (and children) don't seem to have any regard for man's "wondrous" invention, the clock. Really, I don't have much use for time management either, generally speaking, so I felt compassion and empathy for the animals and children who have a greater connection to their natural rhythyms rather than what time the clock says it is, LOL. I didn't mind so much at all getting up "early". :) So the rooster was crowing by 6 a.m., which was actually 7 a.m. yesterday morning. I made Lucky stay in the coop with the girls until 7 a.m. this morning - I know full well that the local noise bylaw prohibits "excessive" noise before 7 a.m. and after 11 p.m., so I just don't let the chickens out of their coop until 7 a.m (and they're NEVER noisy in the evenings). But the puppy was up at 6, too, and the kids were up by 7ish, which was, yes, a little too early for me. I was *hoping* to have them asleep by now, but they seem to be adjusting to the time-change faster than me. LOL
• Our day was simple. I went to the quarterly food co-op meeting and ordered organic staples for the rest of the house (rice, flour, beans, canned goods, pasta, etc). It's nice to just go and spend time with other women; I enjoy their company. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny autumn day; the kids splashed in the creek in the forest out back, and I played in the compost and cleaned out the chicken coop, and spread finished compost in the garden areas lying fallow for winter (some "chores" are just plain fun - for me, anyways; I don't mind taking the kitchen scraps out to the compost, stirring it up, adding things to it, digging for worms... to me, that's not a chore, that's just enjoyable, but I realize not everyone would agree. I don't even mind cleaning the chicken coop. How weird am I, LOL). And you know, here it is, November 1st, and I was eating FRESH RASPBERRIES from the garden. No kidding. Beautiful, delicious, fresh raspberries. yum.
• Tomorrow we're going on a tour of the local fish hatchery; should be fun, if you happen to think watching salmon get sacrificed for the harvesting of their eggs is fun. One of the dads coming is a minister; maybe he could offer a prayer to the fish who are giving their lives for the greater good of their species? ;) I'm half-kidding; even as a raw vegan, I actually understand the whole circle of life involved, and the importance of the work that goes on at the hatchery. And I'm sure my kids will have some interesting observations and comments on the ride home, too. Undoubtedly.