Lemon boost

On my raw food revolution journey, I'm picking up little tidbits of information that I thought you might want to know. I have the cutest little book called 100 Ways to Boost Your Immune System, that has so many great ideas for improving your health.

One thing I've learned from this book, is that it is good to have a glass of lemon juice (with filtered water) each morning.

(source: blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com)

Lemons contain bioflavonoids, nutrients that protect your body from environmental pollutants. I love this analogy - Along the membrane of each cell there are microscopic parking spaces called receptor sites. Pollutants, toxins and germs can park here and gradually eat ther way into the membrane of the cell, but when bioflavanoids fill up these parking spots, there is no room for toxins to park.

Bioflavanoids also reduce cholesterol's ability to form plaques in arteries and lessen the formation of blood clots which can lead to heart atacks and strokes.

Lemon also restores the acid-alkali balance in your body. Drinking freshly squeezed lemon juice in water first thing in the morning helps maintain your body's internal balance at a pH that supports healthy bacteria, instead of the viruses and harmful bactiera that thrive in more acidic environments.

If you can't handle drinking the juice of a whole lemon at once, have half in the morning, and half throughout the day in your bottle of water!

(source:skinniepiggie.blogspot.com)

Welcoming the New Year

Hi, everyone! Hope you had the kind of New Year celebrations you wanted, whether it be party time, or a quiet evening at home maybe watching the fireworks on tele, like we did.

I had to start the year with a fresh new look to the blog. I took the carousel photo at the Perth Royal Show in October, and I just love the vibrant colours.

In terms of resolutions, it's same old, same old for me; more organisation, more crafting, lose weight etc, etc. All valid and worthwhile, but usually not achieved!

My BIG change this year is that I have started a raw food diet. After watching copious episodes of the Spa of Embarrassing Illnesses, and seeing what a thorough detox can do for your body, I decided to take out all the crap from my diet. That is, cakes, biscuits, meat, cooked food, cereal, chips, lollies, soft drink.
All I am eating now are salads, fruit, smoothies, dried fruit and nuts. So far I am loving it! There are lots of recipes and youtube videos on line to help get ideas for meals, so it is not too difficult. And it is so nice having only fruit and veg in a shopping trolley, rather than piles of frozen chips and packets of processed foods.
I'm not going to be able to convince Jonathon and Jack too quickly, but you never know.

Apparently a raw food diet can reverse diabetes which, to me, and surely to the world of people living with diabetes, would be a great motivaton to start this diet. I don't know if I have diabetes, but I certainly sleep after eating sugar, and am often sluggish throughout my days. I am also trying to defeat my allergies, as they tire me too.

At the risk of being too personal, I will say that so far all bloatedness is gone and all uncomfortable digestion pains are gone. I've been a little bit headachy before bed, but that's probably because my sleeping pattern isn't great at the moment. Something else to work on!

Anyway, I'll tell you how things go with the diet and see if it has more life changing effects!

Good luck with all your resolutions!

Loving this song

Discovered this song a few days ago. I'm not usually into Lisa Mitchell's music, but with drums added in, this song is so catchy. The video and lyrics are a bit spooky, but the song is in my head all day.

Christmas Fun!

I have totally neglected my blog lately - sorry! There has just been too much going on, but I always knew I could catch up sometime!

Here is a pic of my Christmas tree that I decorated all in red and white this year.

There were sweet gingham decorations, adorable toadstools, shiny apples, candy canes, striped ribbons, crocheted stars, wooden reindeer, handmade baubles, and many other red and white delights!

 The wrapping paper was all red and white too, (with a bit of green, silver and gold!)

Thanks and big hugs to all those people who sent us Christmas cards. We love you!

We had an awesome Christmas, and got to spend time with many of our loved ones.

Mum slept over on Christmas Eve and we had Christmas morning with her. Then we went to Jonathon's mum's house for a beautiful big lunch.

In the afternoon, we went to my sister Kristie's house for a scrumptious dinner. Lily was as cute as ever, especially giggling madly in her new swing.

It was a HOT day of about 38 degrees celcius!

I should have taken way more photos to remember all the wonderful elements of the day, but we did manage to coordinate a group photo (lots of silliness and crazy goings on were had while trying to get this shot!)

It was a fun, and happy day! Hope your Christmas was great!

Wooohooo!!!!!!!

I have been HANGING for this moment! I do love my job, BUT, the last five weeks of the year are just impossible!! So much to do, so little time.

Well the children finished today, so now we just have tomorrow, which involves a quick clean up, a morning tea to farewell staff moving on, and a staff luncheon that will go all afternoon.

All I can say is, Thank Goodness, because I am SHATTERED!!! When I've had a good sleep, I'll get back to you with pics of everything we've been doing lately!

My Boy Turned 12!

It was Jack's 12th birthday yesterday! He, and a bunch of friends, went to Darklight Laser Games for a party, and had a whale of a time.

There is a whole lot of Lego action going on in our house right now!

Happy Birthday, Jack!!!!!

Cute, Handmade Christmas Decorations

Just wanted to share one of my new favourite shops with you - kalaedoscope.

I admire the shop owner, Megan, because I know she is currently in the midst of writing reports, and STILL managed to open her own madeit store in time for Christmas! Megan is selling her crocheted Christmas stars, that look like this:

So gorgeous!

I just received the ones I bought, and they are cuter than cute! I couldn't resist the red and white ones, because I'm working on decorating our Christmas tree all in red and white this year.

Pop over to Megan's shop if you need some new, handmade Christmas decorations.

And, by the way, if you have a shop that sells red and white decorations let me know, and I might visit you too!