The End Of Five Good Years

For a few months I have been thinking about ending this blog.

The time has come for me to move on.

This is the last post.

I have learned so much during the five years of writing this blog.

It is possible I will start a brand new blog with my real name some day. If you would like to know about that, email me at cceagle111 at gmail dot com.

You will not be able to leave a comment on this post.

Thanks to everyone for the kindness and encouragement over the past five years.

Honoring All Veterans

The flag hanging on our house is the flag my mother-in-law was given at my father-in-law's funeral. I didn't know them and had not met their son yet, but I am close to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and enjoy hearing their family stories and seeing their family pictures. My father-in-law was in the Coast Guard.

It seems weird to wish people Happy Veterans Day when in fact the day is a remembrance of so many men and women who died in the line of duty to their country. Veterans Day is meant to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces.

I would have loved to meet and have time with my husband's name sake. I join my husband and his brother and sister in remembering their dad today and honoring all who have served their country.

Can I Have Your Autograph?

James occasionally tells me stories of when he played in bands. This is one.

After working a steady gig for two years, the band was finding work at various venues. They were invited to play one afternoon center court at a large mall.

They arrived early to set up their equipment on the small stage. The four band members were used to working together and the setting up was proceeding according to schedule. The mall manager hurriedly approached them, asking them to not make so much noise. They didn't think they were being noisy, but they finished their task and began playing their music. The mall manager scurried over to them again, asking them to turn the volume down, it was echoing down the concrete halls in the mall.

Attempting to keep the volume down and still play the jazz, pop, funk that they considered their signature music, there didn't seem to be many mall visitors. They were used to playing to an audience.

Lo and behold, a group of Girl Scouts decided they liked the music, so they sat in a semicircle in front of the stage, moving to the music and giggling as little girls do. One girl jumped onstage to ask the saxophone/flute player, Mike, for his autograph. At the end of the gig, the rest of the girl scouts lined up for autographs too.

After disassembling the equipment, the band was on the way through the mall toward the parking lot. As they turned a corner they saw a pile of papers on the floor, each one scrunched up. There were all the autographs. Mike wasn't famous. Just a good sax player.

Working Toward True Good Health

This Doctor


Wrote This Book.

That is what started a healthier life for me.

Bread was part of just about every meal. Toast or bagels with breakfast. Or cereal and milk. Sandwiches and chips for lunch. A main dish and bread or rolls and butter with dinner. Even had bread with spaghetti. Or if I thought a salad would be good, it was accompanied by bread. I actually believed that making a hot wheat or rice cereal was a healthier choice than eggs and bacon.

And all that time I thought I was doing something healthy. After all, it was healthy grains. Whole Wheat. Rye. Whole wheat and flax. Low sodium and again, thinking it was healthy.

I wasn't really concerned about putting on weight as I got older; it just happens, even when I was not eating differently. It was something to put on the back burner but not do anything about. At least I was doing well emotionally and had learned so much about myself the past few years. Much healing had already begun within myself and in my relationships.

Since going wheat free, changes are glaring. I no longer even think about bread. Believe me, if I missed it I would make wheat free bread to fill the void. But I don't miss bread or crackers or cookies. I do not feel deprived in any way. I am eating as much as I feel like eating. It just so happens that the quantity is less than I was eating before. The amount I am eating now is the correct amount for my particular body. A custom healthy diet without stress. Thank you, Dr. Davis.

Speaking of stress, these days I am calmer and have more interest in doing things instead of just barely getting by doing what I absolutely have to do. I can accomplish more and still able to do even more. My senses are jiving and swaying to the new dance without wheat. Aromas are exquisite and tastes are enjoyable beyond belief.

Before wheat free, you would have thought I owned stock in the company making TUMS I was chewing so many of them. A large bottle a week. No longer need an antacid.

Isn't it annoying when someone gets saved, or is new in their addiction recovery, or first falls in love and they are so happy they want to share it with everyone they can? I feel like I am on the preacher podium these days. I am feeling good, and I wish everyone else could feel like this. Because this is working for me and many other people, I am sharing the info here.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? It is not. It is how we were meant to eat and feel.

Sundays In My City

It is fun to find some rust or weathered walls to photograph.




Friday I slipped on icy place in back yard and tweaked my back. Hope to be better in another day or two. My husband, James, has one more song ready. I added to my sidebar for all to hear. This is a nice, relaxing tune.
Be sure to visit Unknown Mami to see more Sundays In My City posts.


Enjoy your Sunday.

Blog For Peace Day

Nov 4, 2011

One day

One subject

One voice


Join other bloggers around the world.
Visit Mimi's blog here and link up.

Thanksgiving Comes First

Have you heard about the annual blog club regarding Thanksgiving?

Suldog started something a few years ago. See his recent post here.

Did you already read it? What do you think ?

I have to tell you that I agree with his gripe about the retailers pushing Christmas earlier and earlier each year.

I am not a retailer, and if I had to feed my family (wheat free, of course) and pay mortgage and tuitions and buy shoes for all the rug rats, I would want people buying Christmas presents up the ying yang. But I would not begin before Thanksgiving.

There is enough rush, and push, and stress, and angst to go around. Lets give enough of it to each separate holiday in the order in which we celebrate them.

Like right now: Halloween. I personally do not like Halloween. But will there be a bowl of sugar, er candy, to pass out to the little sweeties who knock on the door on Halloween night. You betcha. Halloween decorations on the front porch. That is enough celebration for that holiday.

Veterans Day in our little town gets a lot of hype. Good hype. There is a pretty nice parade at 2:00 that begins in front of the veterans memorial on Main Street. I put up some pictures of the veterans memorial on one of my Sunday In My City posts here in case you missed that one. The memorial is pretty nice in this town and veterans are treated to occasional free dinners and other recognition. Just some of the perks of living in a small town of under 1100 people.

Thanksgiving is almost two weeks after Veterans Day. Christmas isn't for another month after Thanksgiving. Mr/Ms Retail Shopkeeper, if that month does not give you enough time to decorate your cute little trees and mark items up for the "sales", you suck. I am an old lady and I could do it in a day with one hand tied behind my back. So cut us some slack.

For lots and lots of Americans, Thanksgiving is a holiday we look forward to all year long. Yes, I love Christmas. But Thanksgiving is special. The memories of being a kid out in the country and killing our own turkey (not me personally, mind you, but I did get the turkey feathers to make an Indian headdress). Families got together even though they didn't even like each other. And we ate all day. And played games. And napped. Then ate some more. Of course my childhood was before the guys started watching football instead of participating with the rest of the family, and only stopped watching football long enough to eat the big turkey meal and say "great, this is so good" and hike back to the TV room. But hey, that is still tradition. Still sacred.

So I am joining the hundreds, er twenty or so, bloggers who are showing solidarity and yelling out our windows about the commercialism of Christmas and pushing Christmas to the public before even Halloween: I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore. (So maybe I did borrow that line from the movie "Network"). Works for me.

Halloween 2011

Do you dress up in costume to pass out candy to the trick or treaters? We don't, but I enjoy watching James pass out candy and speak with the little ones who knock on the door of the little hippie house. I have never celebrated Halloween, nor did my kids when they were growing up. But we celebrated Harvest and Autumn with a party at home with any of their friends willing to pass on the door to door candy hunt, or a special night out together instead of costumes and candy. I just could not take a chance that any of my precious children would be the one kid in thousands that ate tainted treats from strangers. So many people told me I was anal about it and I should let my kids have fun like all the other kids. But they knew my reasons and if someone asked them what they thought about missing out on Halloween trick or treating, they said they thought it might be fun but that we always did such special and fun things on Halloween and they could have candy any time, that they didn't feel bad about it. The youngest was three when their dad and I divorced; so when they were with their dad and step mom around Halloween, they were taken out trick or treating. I knew they were safe when they were with me; that was all I could do. I couldn't control their environment when they were with their dad, which wasn't very often after their dad and step mom moved out of state.
For everyone who celebrates Halloween, have a great one. Or a spooky one.

Sundays In My City

This is my favorite house in our little town.


This is James' favorite house in our little town.
These houses are way too large for us, but we like to see the variety of houses here.

Visit Unknown Mami's blog to see more posts with photos of other cities. On Mami's blog Sundays are like taking tours around the world without the hectic travel and expense.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Dog Pack Attacks Gator

Dog pack attacks gator in Florida.

At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a rare beauty and even a certain justice manifested within that beauty.

The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the "apex predator", can still fall victim to implemented team work strategy made possible by the tight knit social structure and survival of the pack mentality bred into canines.

See the remarkable photo below courtesy of Nature Magazine.

Note that the Alpha dog has a hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while another dog has a hold on the tail to keep it from thrashing. The third dog attacks the soft under belly of the gator.

NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH:

A friend sent this in an email. I got such a kick out of it I had to share with my blog friends.

We Have Been Living Without...

Wheat, grains aka gluten, carbs, sugar.

Watch This Video my hubby made:




We read the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis, an amazing human being, a preventive cardiologist, and a best selling author, and now, our friend.

When we do something, we do the Full Monty.

It was a one day chore to clean out everything in the cupboards and fridge with a grain ingredient. Then we purchased almond flour, buckwheat flour, coconut flour, coconut oil, and searched for wheat free, gluten free, low carb recipes.

Now: No more yucky stomach after eating!

For my entire life, after milk and cereal, my stomach was so bad, I thought I was lactose intolerant. I bought pills to take before I put any milk products into my mouth. Now I don't need the pills at all. I can get a piece of cheese and eat it without taking pills first. Who knew?

No more headaches!

No more water retention. (No swollen fingers, toes, face). Do you look at yourself in the mirror and see swollen puffy places under eyes, in cheeks, in neck? Just maybe it is the wheat causing that in you too.

Not as many mood swings! (Notice I didn't say "no more". I am a woman and I reserve the right to swing my mood any way I want.)

I have more energy and more interest in doing things, not just putting things off for another time!

I am weaning myself off blood pressure medicine. My blood pressure is better than it has ever been.

Eating natural foods has increased my sense of taste. Fortunately for me, I really enjoy all veggies and fruits. And I like meat and cheese and nuts.

I am losing weight and I am not on a diet. Changing the food I eat is a lifetime change for me, not a fad diet. Why would I ever want to return to a way of eating that aggravated my insides, made me moody, and packed on weight.

My internal thermostat has changed. As each week progresses without wheat, my body temp becomes more normal. I am not cold, or sometimes shivering. I have long ago said goodbye to menopause, so this was not night sweats or chills. Now I have a warmer body, able to enjoy outside activities in cooler weather.

I am sleeping better!

Now for some more big big news. James wrote a song about our experience of no wheat. It is really a cool song.

If you go to Dr Davis' blog and read his post about James here, you can go listen to James' song from Dr Davis' blog. Be sure to leave Dr Davis a comment and tell him thank you from James and me. His book has literally changed our life and I am sure it is not easy for him to stand firm against the pressure from many directions.

We are working on a video that will be done soon too so that will be here when it it finished.

Let me know what you think of the song. And while you are checking things out, give some thought to eliminating wheat long enough to see what I am talking about. Take care of yourself. Be the best that you can be. You are worth it.

Update: I added the video to this post.

Hugs,

Goodie Box

Have you ever received a goodie box? One with many little individually wrapped gifts?

The mailman brought a special box to our door. Inside were sixteen individually wrapped packages and some pictures and one book and a journal. I was so excited to sit down and open each package and ooh and ahh with each new discovery.

I was the giveaway winner on Cinner's blog Things About Who,What,When,Where and Why.


Inside the box was a totally cool wooden inlay magnet of a flying goose, the book, the journal, a black bracelet, a rhinestone bracelet,a daisy candle in a holder, a rock personalized by Cinner, a cool bag which I will use when I walk around town because it has zipped pockets for camera, phone, etc, a turquoise ring, two keychains, a crystal, a roll of white ribbon, four little plates that will go in the kitchen, a painting of Canadian mountains that Cinner painted, four metal charms, an angel statue for the garden, 3 heart decorations (see pic), black cloth napkins, very lovely lace, 24 pearl buttons(see pic), and a toy tractor(peeking out under the white ribbon)!When she mentioned her giveaway, Cinner was sparking interest in someone using some of the items in crafty ways. Well, it worked.


Now, that is a goodie box!

Thank you, Cinner, for the sweet letter and for wrapping each gift with so much love. I have ideas for so many of the items. James and I are rockin' out that all around our little hippie house will be reminders of you when I finish the little projects.
Hugs, Hugs, Hugs.

Sundays In My City

The Catholic Church in our city. Our little red car is in front.





Visit Unknown Mami's blog for all the other great posts linked to her blog and see the sights in other cities.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Crossing Paths

Photo found on Graphics Grotto.

We cross paths with so many people in a lifetime. How we look at them and how we treat each one says a lot about our character. Do we really see each person? Do we think we are a pretty good person because we discount only some of the people we meet? Only the ones who don't have the drive to "be" someone, to achieve enough to be recognized. That's all right, isn't it? We can justify ignoring and thinking less of some others because we have worked hard to be who we are, to get where we are, and it is good to be proud of our achievements. Crossing paths with someone who may want something from us, or who might take some of our precious time is only an inconvenience. We don't need to be respectful of each one we meet; some of them just don't deserve it.

I wonder how many people really live like this. Really believe this. Missing out on so much. So much.

Fable Of The Porcupine

I am probably the last blogger to see this. A friend emailed this to me.
It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold.

The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves. But the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After awhile they decided to distance themselves from each other, and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: Either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others.
This way they were able to survive.

The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people; when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others, they can admire the other person's good qualities.

Moral of the story: Just learn to live with the pricks in your life!