Dorothy and the Tin man....

    We have all seen the wizard of OZ, we conjure up images of tin men and a pre-teen awkward girl in red high heels. I am certain that was the entertaining scene the ice fishermen got last night when they watched Ryan and I attempt a kettle bell workout. (We have huge picture windows, and our home is very visible from the lake at night.) I felt so uncoordinated it was like I was actually working out in red high heels, and my husband's joints so stiff he looked something like a 6'2 tin man. Oh how I wish I could click those heels and fast forward to months from now when our bodies have acclimated to the new demands we are placing on them. For now we will suffer though, knowing the reward of good health, strength, and well being is on the way. For now, I will have to keep my grunts, groans, and whines to a minimum. Judging from Levi's response as I stumbled upstairs and poured my jello body in the the lounge chair, "oh no mommy are you ok, are you hurt, poor mommy." I may have frightened them. Oy Vey, only 8 more hours and I get to strap on those not so magic heels again, and I'll do it with a smile on!

Barf Wrecks...

    What is a Barf Wreck you ask? It’s the glowing term my son Gabe gives to his least favorite school lunch. The actual name of this particular menu item is “Train Wreck.” This is a pretty accurate description for a pile generic dorritos covered in ground beef, globs of nacho "cheese" sauce, and shredded ice berg lettuce (meaning lettuce that has the equivalent nutritional value of a chunk of ice) optional. Oh lest I forget the cinnamon roll for dessert. Train wreck… this is the state of the school lunch system. The school lunch system is the same government run program under which day care providers get reimbursed monies for their lunch program, provided they keep accurate records and adhere to the "strict" guidelines set forth. In my years as a day care provider I was baffled by these guidelines; for instance, french fries count as a vegetable, as do tater tots, pizza sauce, and the orange sauce in "spaghetti" O's. I don't need to go on and on to prove the short coming of the government’s guidelines for good health. What I can say, is as a parent at what point do we say no? I started three years ago, and it does get easier over time. One approach that I use is being very scientific about the issue. Explaining to Ben, age 11, (who sort of digs having cheap nacho's for lunch once in awhile) that he will get an initial sugar rush and feel pretty good. However, by the end of recess his blood sugar will drop causing fatigue. All that salt will make him thirsty and his brain will be foggy; finally he will feel more hungry that before he ate lunch. Quite often their response is complete disbelief and shock that "food", which is supposed to be fuel for their body’s, can do harm.

    I have felt some success in my years of railing on them about sugar, no pop, more water, and no white grains etc. Success came last night; their pallets have changed.  Ben has been working on a persuasive speech for English; he decided speak on why food additives are bad. When he was giving me the speech as practice, he thanked me for not letting them eat cereal with BHT in it. (Which if you are aware, GREATLY lowers your choices to about 3% of what is in the whole cereal aisle) "Mom it causes cancer and its illegal in most countries, and food dye is made from Tar. I know sick, right!" Ben's final conclusion after an evening of practicing and re-checking facts was: "I think the FDA is broken, or doesn't work anymore." He noticed that in the past, they were quick to outlaw certain food additives, such as orange dye 1. He was very disturbed when he was reading that it is highly toxic and was actually in food for a period. But now, there are many additives and none of us ever ask why. (Including the FDA) He was also confused as to why MSG and corn syrup are in almost every food in the supermarket.

    I would like, as a "dare", to have every person who reads this to attempt to buy 10% of your groceries as whole foods. If the fruit is waxed or sprayed it is not whole. It is NOT as easy to buy whole foods as one might think (although it should be, but that's a rant for a different day).  My children are an investment and I am looking at the big picture for them health wise. For now, they are pretty healthy kids. Sure we get the normal stomach bugs and colds. But I honestly don't remember the last ear infection we had around here or the last bout strep throat. I called the clinic once for one of the children's records and the nurse on the phone said, “is it true this child hasn't seen the doctor in three years?” I said, "uh.. well... yeah I guess not, he's pretty healthy." I guess our investment is paying off, sooner rather than later.

    Fourteen years ago on February 1^st I lost my mother to cancer, just four months after my 20th birthday. This is a huge reason why I take my health and my children's health so seriously. I plan on being strong and active when my children enter adulthood. I hope our efforts to change both of our family's health history will result in very positive outcomes for this crew. My mother wasn't at fault for having cancer. She lived, ate, and smoked the way her culture did. But that is the point, are we going to be a "train wreck" culture, and watch as our children crash? Or are we going to be advocates for cultural change and watch our children grow and enjoy all the adventures this world has to offer, happy, healthy, and free from disease.

The first days of being a herbivore....

  Day Five, Raw Vegan, 6:30 am.I would LOVE a bowl of Cheerio's and milk, and not a green juice. How do I feel? Loads of energy, and bogged down at the same time. Every time you sacrifice a desire for a greater good, you mourn the loss, and are tempted to quit and go back to the comfortable way you were used to, but for me this is more of a spiritual fast of sorts. I desire so much for my husband to have his life back--to see him vital and strong and free of the powerful drugs that mire him down. I desire this so much, and I take seriously the fact that we are bound as one in marriage. As his body heals, I want to offer up those little sufferings (this morning, cereal) as a prayer, an abandonment to God, that I trust my husband will be well again.

  As I stood next to Ryan at the juicer, putting in kale, greens of all colors, fruits, whatever God designed, I saw pouring from the spout the most beautiful colors, the vibrancy of life. Everything we are eating is "raw", or just as it is found in nature. We may chop it or squeeze the juice out of it, but we don't heat it or alter the vital nutrients present in each food. As I blended up a morning smoothie watching that rainbow of nutrients swirl together, I was reminded of what my son Levi innocently said the first time he saw the juicer, "Mommy, it looks like your making medicine." I actually got choked up, and thought, "Well it's God's perfect medicine for Daddy." You know, even if this doesn't heal him, he sure feels a hell of a lot better after only five days, and I am certain that through this fast, whether or not our bodies are transformed, I am sure our spirits will be. After all, there is nothing worse than a broken Spirit; not even a broken body.

The gist of things....

Jennifer, why on earth would you start a blog? Seriously, you have 4 boys, 1 daughter, 1 foster daughter; the last four children happen to be ages 1,2,3 & 4! Are you kidding me, that would be job enough to drive anyone crazy. Your husband own's his own business where you work seasonally, not to mention scouts, church, sports...etc.etc.etc. Over the past week, I have been wracking my brain why I would do this? How can I convince people our story is somehow worth the read, and more important to me, worth sharing with another person. And at the same time convice that very audience I am indeed NOT crazy. Passionate is what I am! Yes Passionate about the health and wellbeing of my family. I read something on a different blog this week that really resounded with me:

" most people don’t resolve to change their life in a significant way until their world falls apart."

Unfortuantly, that is our story as well. We would never have invested the money we do now in Organic foods for our whole family. We would have never given up fast food virtually all together for aprox. three years. I would have never spoke out at social events, to the discomfort of others about the advantages of eating the way God intended. We also would have never been broken to a point where we had to trust in God's will and purpose in our lives. That suffering is not for nothing, and that we can either embrace it, and thank God for every day we have on this earth with our loved ones. Or we can reject the suffering and resent God for the bad days, and the days we will miss when we are gone. (when ever he chooses to take us.) If we choose to embrace our life, with all its sufferings and uninteneded circumstances, we can be truly transormed. The definition of transformation is "A thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance. A metamorphosis during the life cycle." Well naturally, we chose our suffering. Through this journey, we hope my husband Ryan's body will "change in form", but we know our souls and realtionship will go through a dramatic "metamorphosis", which is sure to be rich in blessings and beautifly wrapped in love.

What is this great transformatitive suffering. Well for us it came in the form and a hidden auto immune disease deep with in my husbands body found by accident three years ago. What we thought was a gallbladder attack revealed, through a seven hour surgery, a tangled mess of fibrosis attacking parts of his inner organs. His right kidney was failing, his apendex and galblatter were the first casualitys of this mysterious monster with in him. It took over two months for Dr.'s to even name this monster. We call it RPF (Idiopathic Retroparitoneal Fibrosis), in laymans terms: Fibrosis in an arround the kidneys of unknown origin. Upon a subsequent visit to the Mayo clinic, we were told Ryan had a secondary and more troubling condition. RPF's ugly cousin, sclerosing mesenteritis, the same tangeld web had infultrated his bowl cavity. My first thought was; "are you freeking kidding me?" And that began the pharsumitical managary that is the life of the nearly, 23.5 million Americans that have Auto Immune Disease or (AD). This in comparision to the 9 million american's affected by cancer. Auto Immune disorders are more often than not treated with powerful steroids, immune supressants, organ rejection medications, chemotherapy class medications. AND let me tell you NONE of the medications come with out a price. And I am not talking about the thousands we pay out of pocket, I am talking about how these drugs ravage the body, dealing with symptoms and never adress the root of the problem. What caused my husbands body to attack itself??

What about the 23.5 other american's chained to their medications. Can we do anything different? Can we find the cause of this eppidemic? I am sure each of you know some person who has: Rhumatory arthretits, MS, Lupus, Fibromyalisa, Scleroderma, Sogjrens syndrom..and some 140 other conditions. All these conditions are caused by some sort of inflamation in the body, caused by the body, and triggered by the unknown.

This is why I write....