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4 Days of Juicing {and I almost ate my children}

April 24, 2012 By 44 Comments

We have been juicing since before we had kids.

My favorite used to be carrots, apples and parsley.

We have gone through a few juicers over the years and even the kids like it.

Since finding out all about my food allergies we have gone back to juicing and basically trying to make most things from scratch.

I kept on reading about people doing the juice fast and feeling terrific.

High energy levels, clear skin, sharper mind, you look 18 again….

OK, that last one wasn’t on the list but I did read tons of awesome benefits of just juicing for 4+ days.

I thought, “Hey, I juice almost everyday anyways.  What is the big deal to just juice for 4 days?  How hard can it be?”

I almost ate my children.

Seriously.

The first day was a piece of cake.

Cake…Mmmmmmmm.

Second day was harder but I could do this.  Right?

Third day was HARD.

There wasn’t enough juice in the world on day three to make me feel full.

I was caught randomly chewing on the furniture and….

OK, OK…maybe I am exaggerating just a bit.

It was hard though.

I just kept telling myself that I was half way there.

One more day to go.

On day four I was thinking about what I was going to eat on day five.

I had everyone all ready to hit White Chocolate Grill and order ribs and fries.

Don’t even think for a second I didn’t also have some of their chocolate souffle

At the end of day four I could have gone on.

For real.

Why would I do that?

The truth is that I really did feel great during the juice fast.

My energy level was very high throughout the day and then I went to bed at a really decent time.

Maybe I was just going to sleep to forget that I couldn’t eat anything.

My skin was clear.

My stomach felt flatter.

Duh, there was nothing in it!

I lost 5 pounds but I am sure once you eat real food that just comes back.

I felt so good and my energy was so high that I have really tried to continue juicing until noon or so each day.

I juice in the morning and then make enough for a second glass later.

We juice pretty much anything around here but during the juice fast this is the juice I made each day.

Green Juice

Organic Kale (1/2 of a bunch)

2 cups of organic spinach

2 1/2 organic, green apples

1 organic cucumber

3-4 stalks of organic celery

1 organic lime

1/3 bunch of organic cilantro or parsley

{sometimes I would throw in a little ginger root}

The apple and lime makes it sweet enough to drink and like I said before….even my kids will drink it.

It is a really great way to start the morning and I would do it again.

Maybe.

If all sweets were out of the house.

And the grocery stores had burned to the ground.

And my children were not around to be a tempting snack.

OK, maybe not.

On a side note I thought you would like to see where I put my extra stash of “green juice” in the fridge today.

(and not like your cool “stash” of cigs or vodka…..just green juice)

This made me laugh after I took the photo because this was not staged at all.

Protected on each side…..by whipped cream.

Nice!

Filed Under: Family First, Inspired, Made From Scratch, Me Myself and I Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Playing With Clay {and the kids}

March 16, 2012 By

My kids are surrounded by art supplies.

Luckily for them (and me) it is just a part of what I do.

Our days can get busy and with school, home, business etc. I don’t always sit and create WITH them as much as I would like.

The children had been begging to do art together for a while and I could no longer ignore their pleas:-)

We chose to spend our day creating with paper clay.

We all had so much fun and we sure made a mess.

Mess on the table.

Mess on the floor.

Mess on our hands.

It was all worth it though.

{The photos don’t show how we finished them once they dried. A few days after this we painted and stained out pieces.}

I hope I don’t forget how much fun we had and remember that creating WITH them is as important as the time I give myself to create alone.

What do you love creating with your kids?

Filed Under: Family First Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Princess {Even For One Night}

February 22, 2012 By

I loved dressing up when I was little.

I put on plays, wrote stories and often lived in the imaginary worlds I created.

Even as an adult I wish I could jump into time period movies and play dress up.

I need a trunk full of fancy clothes that can transform and bring me back to the imaginary worlds of the past.

My Maddy plays dress up all of the time but one time a year I believe she feels like a true princess.

This is the 6th year that she has attended the Daddy Daughter Ball with her daddy.

It is her most favorite thing to do with her dad.

I am sure the first year he wasn’t so sure that this was his thing.

Now it is.

How can it not be his thing to make his daughter feel special and loved?!

She is one of his treasures….and she knows it.

…and she lived happily ever after.

Filed Under: Family First, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Happy New Year {let’s celebrate}

January 2, 2012 By

Another year has come and gone.

For some it was their best and for many they were happy to see it go.

I know it was a hard year for many.

In the midst of the hard there is also joy.

There always is.

A new year.

Don’t you just love a clean slate?

That is what a new year means to me.

It means do overs.

Fresh start.

Ways to grow and a motivation to try something new.

Last night as I quietly watched 2011 turn to 2012 …I felt joy.

Joy that I have the honor to write, design and create art for a living.

Joy that I get to stay home each day with my children.

Joy that my marriage has been worth the work.

Joy for the embrace I have felt from you and the art community.

Sometimes I don’t know what I can do to thank my readers and to show my appreciation for your love of what I create and write.

It has been the most unexpected gift.

I wanted to do something just for you to say “thank you”.

For this week I will be offering 20% off your total purchase of our new Coming Home Collection.

Just use the code “celebrate” at checkout.

Thank you for your overwhelming response to our new line.

Thank you for the emails we have gotten about your orders, packaging and our attention to detail.

That is why we do it…for you.

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We also want to remind you that there are 8 more days!!! until  Creatively Made begins.

The more we put it together the more excited I get for all of you to see it.

If you are not signed up there is still time.

You can sign up HERE.

For all of you that are signed up you will be receiving an email this week with all the details for Monday.

In the meantime (if you are signed up for the course)  you can join our private Facebook page by following the link HERE.

It will be an easy way for us to all get to know each other and share your thoughts, art etc.

If you don’t sign up now don’t worry because there will be more information on the first day of class.

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I also wanted to tell you that my most recent article is in the new Somerset Life.

I am always honored to be included in such a beautiful publication.

I think that is about it for tonight.

Thank you!

Truly.

Thank you for all the ways that you made 2011 so lovely.

Filed Under: Family First, Inspired, Me Myself and I, Shop Talk, Style Page Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Christmas Eve {Reflections}

December 29, 2011 By

{the camera wasn’t picked up much and when it was the lighting was horrible…but I still wanted to share}

We all have little traditions that just make special days….special.

I didn’t grow up with a mom that stressed out about Christmas.  She didn’t run us everywhere and didn’t feel like she had to spend money she didn’t have.

A lot of our time was spent at home.

I definitely remember the excitement of pulling all the decorations out of the attic on Thanksgiving evening.

I couldn’t wait to decorate the tree and to see gifts appear under the branches.

My mom was happy to have me take over because it didn’t matter to her how things were put together or decorated. Lucky me.

Christmas was Christ.

Sure, we got presents and ate too much sugar but we knew…really knew….why were were celebrating.

Christmas Eve was church, opening one special gift, reading the nativity story and singing carols.

Christmas Eve is my favorite part of the season.

It brings it all full circle and makes it so real.

I love being surrounded by others singing about the birth of Christ.

It takes my breath away to think about the night sky full of angels declaring the birth of a king.

The whole sky.

Can you even imagine?

I love coming home and spending time with family.

Eating good food, talking and laughing.

I love the excitement the children have waiting to open their few special gifts.

My children get the same gifts each Christmas Eve so their excitement over new pajamas and book is pretty sweet.

One of the sweetest of gifts is that two of my three children play the piano beautifully.

It is the nicest way to end the evening singing carols with my own children providing the music.

(One of these days I WILL learn the guitar and play along with them)

Mom, thank you for all you poured into us.

Thank you for the attention to what truly matters.

The traditions that we are passing on to our children come from you.

The kids were so excited that they wanted to all sleep together in the same room.

They all had agreed that whomever woke up first had to wake everyone else up.

We were lucky….our children didn’t wake us up until 7am.

My sister’s children woke them up at 2:30am……but Christmas day is for another post.

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11 more days until Creatively Made {rediscovering the beauty of your gifts} begins!

I am soooo excited.

We still have so much work to do but I am giddy as I am doing it.

I can’t wait for you to see all the videos, guest videos, art projects etc.

You can see a quick video below.

Creatively Made E-Course from Jeanne Oliver on Vimeo.

Filed Under: Family First Tagged With: ,
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