Finding Rhythm

I've really been finding a rhythm to preparing raw foods--sprouting, soaking, dehydrating etc. I'm enjoying seeing this emerge and realized I am craving rhythm in other areas of my life. In thinking about this post I realized that when I let rhythm come into my life and don't try to force it, it happens beautifully. When I try to force it--which is the norm for me--it never really takes hold and flourishes.

With Jasmine's learning, I have allowed the natural rhythm of her learning unfold and love watching the process. OK, I admit. Sometimes, I worry, "Is she reading at grade level?" "Am I doing enough?" But the universe always leads me to books, blog posts etc that soothe my worries and I am reassured and watch the process unfold. Tonight Jasmine asked to play with Math flashcards, wanting me to drill her on them. She is awesome. She loves math and asks to do it.

And of course through it all, the rhythm of her dance...

Now can I do the same for the rest of life? Allow the rhythms to emerge rather then trying to force them, rather than "I will do this--exercise, clean house, blog, play music, do art etc--every day". This has never really worked for me and instead of realizing that I tend to beat myself up, "should" on myself, and generally make myself miserable. Maybe there is another way. Intend and allow new things coming in my life--like giving birth instead of pushing and killing all the joy, beauty and wonder.

I intend to allow the rhythms that nurture Jasmine and me to come into our lives.

It's fun thinking in rhythms. The rhythms of the seasons. Here in the Sonoran Desert, we have just had a major shift and the weather is gorgeous. Time to play outside and enjoy the sun. And even the larger rhythms like astrological cycles. I'm doing a chart reading tomorrow and I haven't done one in a long time, and so am aware again of these larger patterns in our lives.

Because I belong to a CSA, I'm eating much more seasonally. I've been craving our winter vegetables, esp greens and this week we got baby swiss chard and baby braising greens. Isn't it wonderful.

I'm so thankful this post came out as it did, inspiring rhythm in my life instead of "shoulds".

And now in celebration of the rhythms of life, let's go....

.....into the garden......

This crazy wonderful pomegranate is loaded with soon-to-be-ripe fruit and grew 1/3 it's own size this summer and is flowering and setting another batch of fruit. I have heard pomegranates bear two crops in our ecosystem. What a trooper!!! I guess it didn't mind all the wildflowers I planted around it.

loaded with almost ripe fruit

....and producing beautiful flowers

.....and setting them into new fruit

The fall corn is starting to tassle...

...and the winter lettuce is up and going.

Just Gotta Share

Well....I haven't posted in a while, BUT I do have several half finished posts I intend to finish and publish sometime soon.

I found this and just had to share it.

Aren’t humans amazing Animals? They kill wildlife - birds, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice and foxes by the million in order to protect their domestic animals and their feed.

Then they kill domestic animals by the billion and eat them. This in turn kills people by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - - health conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer.

So then humans spend billions of dollars torturing and killing millions of more animals to look for cures for these diseases.

Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.

Meanwhile, few people recognize the absurdity of humans, who kill so easily and violently, and once a year send out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."

~ Revised from Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm by C. David Coates

I got it off Raw Living Foods Lifestyle . This is an awesome blog if you are interested in learning more about living foods. I've been working toward a raw food diet for about 3 years now and have recently transistioned to nearly 100% living food. It is so amazing. It's hard to describe but do it. Try eating more foods uncooked and start learning more about living foods. There's a huge amount of information and lots of recipes on the WEB. It's so worth it. A good place to start is to read Dr. Ann Wigmore's Why Suffer? How I Overcame Illness & Pain Naturally. It's out of print but the entire book is here.

I've been reading a few quotes from it and I am ready to start up my wheatgrass and sunflower sprout growing project again. I'm off to soak some wheat and sunflower seeds. You may be seeing pictures soon.

Art First! was The Soundtrack of Our Life

This morning I did art first and then cleaned the kitchen and it was wonderful. Why don't I do this more often?

The Quotes are from The Presence Process by Michael Brown the two in orange are:

Although we may not know where we are going right now or how to get there, there is and aspect of our Being that does know. There is an aspect of our Being that knows everything.

A joyful, abundant, and healthy life is pouring itself upon us in each moment. When we "live in time", the vessel that we are is turned upside down. We, therefore, spend our life experience getting instead of receiving.

Jazz joined me and made here own artwork with poems and quotes she likes.




I'm inspired today to post about the Soundtrack of our life--what we listen to. Today it was Putumayo's Acoustic Brazil and Lila Down's Tree of Life. Often, as today, if we're absorbed in something, I'll listen to one album several times. Yesterday, the mood for me was Meditative Gregorian Chants.

I like Gospel music, spiritual music of many traditions, Jazz esp non-traditional, world and ethnic music and more. Jasmine likes most of the previous but sometimes gets bored with the spiritual music. She also really likes classical music especially ballets, musicals, and anything with a great rhythm. Lately she has been into The Nutcracker and Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap, Wiggle, and Shake.

We also listen to spoken word albums. I have taped myself reading several books including Byron Katie's A Thousand Names for Joy, Michael Road's Talking with Nature and Journey into Nature, Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery and parts of Abraham-Hicks books, A Course in Miracles etc. I listen to these when I am cleaning or cooking. For the most part, Jasmine enjoys these tapes and sometimes even asks for them.

We sometimes listen to books on CD, especially when we clean together. The last one was The Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula le Guin and upcoming The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.


Today I met the muse for the first time while playing the piano. I don't know how to explain it except that I felt an actual presence of an energy I would describe as the Muse. It was exciting for me because it is exactly the kind of thing I would love to have happen, but I wasn't expecting or even hoping for it. It just came out of the blue. Ain't life great!


Jasmine has built a house with chairs and sheets in the dining room and today I found her in it teaching one of her girls to read.


And in the Living Foods department--More Fun Things to Eat.

This week I've been playing with some new things. We are getting lots of green peppers and onions in our CSA share so I slice them thin and mix with lime, date paste, chili powder, and salt and dehydrate until soft and then store in fridge to add to salads or other things.

Local greens are still hard to come by, but Nina brings me back arugula and collard greens from the farmer's market in Phoenix. Believe it or not, collard leaves make an excellent wraps. I've been filling them with Guacamole, living salsa, and the pepper-onion mix OR with the following filling: diced apples and green tomatoes, fresh basil, lime, garam masala, date paste, and salt.

This filling is also excellent in green apple coconut wraps--if I don't eat them all first. They are made by throwing apples, mature coconut, lime, a bit of chia seeds, and a pinch of salt in blender and then dehydrating.

I also made my first batch of living spaghetti, with partial dehydrated tomatoes, fresh basil and oregano, onion, garlic, date paste, apple cider vinegar, and salt and served it over pasta made from zucchini. It was so good that I called up Nina, our CSA coordinator, and volunteered to do a raw food demonstration for them as soon as we are getting tomatoes and summer squash. I am definately hooked.

Corn chips have been a big staple of mine whenever we are getting corn in our CSA share. I usually do a batch with about 3 cups of fresh corn off the cob and add lime, chili powder, salt and a tomato if I have one. This week I made the best batch of corn chips yet, by adding an apple and an avocado. They were so delicious that I polished them off before I could share with anyone, and now corn is out of season for another month or so.

And with my non-local cauliflower I made raw popcorn to die for. Just cut up cauliflower into small pieces and add olive oil, nutritional yeast, spirulina, and salt. Then sit down and enjoy.

New life in the garden

I haven't taken pictures of the garden in a long time but this morning I was inspired by some new life appearing.

The I'toi onions are sprouting after having died back for the summer.

The orange tree I planted this spring is showing it's first new growth of leaves.

This butternut is starting it's third crop of delicious squash

What a trooper!

The monsoon garden my mom planted is up and growing.

Notice the O'odham Ha:al squash growing like mad in the background

It's finally producing squash after months of vegetative growth.

O'odham Ha:al Squash--this drought tolerant local squash is surviving under an established fruit tree that is only watered once a week.

Some other troopers that have been unsung as they grew through the intense summer heat.

Sweet Potatoes

Pomegranates

And I caught this girl being creative again.

Playing my accordian

Playing with home-made clay (she made it herself)

I was back in the kitchen filling up the dehydrator after a couple day hiatus, more granola, and corn tortillas. Both are becoming staples while I learn new living food recipes that I adore.

I have been thinking about energy bars and today I made some awesome energy bars with sprouted sunflower seeds, carob powder, date paste, coconut, diced dried saguaro fruit, spirulina, and a sprinkle of sea salt. They are simply delicious and I feel great after eating them. Actually they are too wet--more of a paste-- and the dehydrator is already full so I'm eating it by the spoonful. Delicious!!

Feel the Music and Dance like No one is Watching

This morning as I played the piano, I experimented with experiencing the music in my body inspired by Touch the Sound (an absolutely amazing documentary about Evelyn Glennie), which might be my favorite movie. When I really pay attention, I feel the notes vibrate along my spine and into the center of my body going up as the notes went up and down as notes went done. The lowest note on the piano was at the lowest point on my spine. This is simply amazing. The top few notes on the piano I'm playing are not sounding real notes, but the top note that had a pure tone resonated above my third eye. Could it be that the piano has the range of our chakra system?


I looked up Touch the Sound on You Tube to post the revelant part and the whole movie is there. I also found this--a TED show on Evelyn Glennie--that I've decided to post instead. She is simply amazing, one of my heros.




This afternoon, we played around with a bellydance DVD and the put on music and danced free-style bellydance. My little dancer is simply amazing.




Some wonderful things occured in my life today. I have much to be grateful for, yet my mind is heavy with old belief and the habit of negativity. I think it is the same as usual but now feels unbearably heavy. At times this inspires me to use the tools I've been guided to to change my thinking. I belive this is a time of clearing on fundamental level. In eating living foods my body is clearing toxicity and the rest of my life is ready to clear also. So my own negative beliefs are in my face ready to be dealt with. Thank you. All is so Perfect.

I finished one tape's worth of Arnold Patent and got to listen to it while I played in the kitchen this evening. I filled another load in the dehydrator with sprouted buckwheat apple cinnamon granola and butternut squash cookies.

....and more about watermelon rind...it is absolutely delicious cut up with just a bit of dressing (mine Olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a bit of agave syrup and a bit of salt) and sea salt. Absolutely divine and it feels so vital. I've been eating it all afternoon and I can't wait to cut into the next watermelon so I can eat the rind. Ha ha.

Back in the Posting Saddle Again

I haven't been posting all week but life is good.

The first day of school for local kids has come and gone. I almost didn't notice it except that it was a particularly schooly day at our house complete with reading and arithmetic. Jasmine has been enjoying practicing her reading skills at Starfall and spent a couple hours at it and then asked me to help her with some of her Mathmania magazines (subscription from her Grandpa, thanks Dad).

I've continued making living food snacks, more corn chips and sweet potato chips, sesame carob balls, and pumpkin butter to eat with the Asian Pears we are now getting in our CSA shares.

Jasmine caught her mom rockin' out at the piano and composed a picture.

I've had books coming in left and right. Well, two more books I had ordered from library came in and I've been spending time with them--You Can Have It All by Arnold Patent and The Promise of Energy Psychology: Revolutionary Tools for Dramatic Personal Change by David Feinstein, Donna Eden, and Gary Craig. The Arnold Patent book is so awesome I have started taping it so I can listen to it as I play domestic goddess. It's totally ACIM, but somehow the way he writes things is helping pieces click for me. In any situation I don't like, the only thing that is lacking is love. A Course in Miracles says this same thing plenty of times, but all of a sudden I really get it. Thank you, thank you, thank you Arnold Patent.

I've also been learning and playing with EFT and other energy techniques in The Promise of Energy Psychology. In fact, that's what I had intended to do tonight but my sister just contacted my mom because she couldn't find the address to this blog and could she get it? So I decided I better update a bit. And I took pictures today (yeah!) which is the single most determining factor on whether I post or not.

This stylish young lady came into the kitchen today and announced she was on her way to dance school. (And who couldn't run and get the camera when such an important guest shows up.)

This afternoon, we brought little goodies to Nina and Peter, including corn bread made from flour corn we grew in our garden. They were just finishing getting the new Ajo CSA website they created on-line. Nina is the goddess of fresh produce in Ajo and picks up things for me from the city when she goes, so I try to bring her offerings and worship so she knows how loved she is. Nina lent me a fabulous book Local Wild Life: Turtle Lake Refuge's Recipes for Living Deep by Katrina Blair. Oh thank you Nina, goddess of fresh produce, you are so wonderful. Local Wild Life is a cookbook and more, using both local and living foods. I love it!

Grandma brought home dry ice from the clinic and she and Jasmine had a great time playing with it. Jasmine spent the next hour in and out of the kitchen retrieving various items for her "investigating" and I enjoyed her enthusiasm as I played Domestic Goddess in the kitchen.

More raw snacks and more creativity

After posting last night, I went over to Green and Crunchy and stayed a while. I love her posts. Very inspiring! She posts mostly about creating beautiful living food snacks for her family. Her posts are complete and the pictures fabulous. Well maybe someday I'll be there....

I spent lots of time in kitchen again today. I am determined to eat only living food so I am stocking up on raw snack food. Yesterday the dehydrator was full of sweet potato chips and corn and buckwheat crackers and banana fruit leather (to be used for awesome strawberry crepes (recipe here). Today it got filled with sprouted buckwheat, pineapple, blueberry granola bars, sun bread (sunflower, sundried tomatoes, basil, and spices), and coconut green apple wraps. The coconut green apple wraps cracked and are not going to work as wraps but they are so delicious I'm eating them like crazy.

This evening I played with SoulCollage cards. I started the "I am the one that" exercise. It was powerful and wonderful but I think for it to sustain I need to keep working with the cards.

Jasmine found a picture of three capes in a Waldorf toy catalog we found as cleaning and organizing continued at our house this morning. She was so inspired by the capes she decided to write a play and then perform it with two of her friends (they don't know about this yet). She's finding costumes and creating costumes and figuring out the storyline and dialogue. She expressed to me today she would like to type it up on the computer and print it out. She off and running and it was all inspired by a picture of capes in a catalog.

Costumes

Accessories

and shoes.

Since we watched the movie "David", Jazz has developed a strong interest in the biblical David. At her request, I ordered every David book the library had that went beyond the "David and Goliath" story (2). We are almost through the first one and Jasmine has decided that Bathsheeba is the perfect name for her character in the play she is creating.

Getting Serious About Living Foods

“Living foods create living bodies, dead foods create dead bodies.”

---Dr. Ann Wigmore

Last night I googled "Ashland Oregon, raw foods". I'm enjoying doing research on our new home. In the process I found this website; Allisa Cohen The Raw Food Diet. After reading for a while, I've decided to go as close to 100% raw as possible. Eating raw foods is such an amazing journey; once you start you don't want to stop. I love the vitality and energy I feel. There's nothing like it; I need much less sleep, my outlook on life is better, my mind is clearer. I just feel much more alive.

I've been aiming for 80% living foods but now I'm ready to crank it up. Allisa mentioned in her blog that not having enough raw food around is a problem when moving into a living food diet. This is totally true for me. I had a period of time two or three weeks ago where I was tired of food prep and wasn't making enough. I would get really hungry late at night and eat things that blogged me down and dimmed my light. So today, I spent much of the day in the kitchen making living foods. I'm over complaining about the amount of time it takes--I also cook for my mom who has no interest in going raw--so I am preparing two different meals. I don't care. I want this raw thing bad enough I'm just going to do it with all the joy I can muster--I mean allow.

I haven't posted much about the garden lately, mostly because my energy is now moving forward toward the next thing. I created fabulous gardens for my mom and she is loving them esp the girls (her three chicken). I made her a chicken tractor for Christmas as she really wanted chickens, but didn't have a place for them. We are still getting some things from the garden. Our 105+ degree weather day after day is hard on many plants. Melons and Armenian Cucumbers are some of the survivors.

A French Melon, an Armenian Cuke, and a cup of dried flour corn.

Jazz is planning a dinner she is going to cook for our Locavore friends. She'll grind the corn in the Vitamix and make it into cornbread, using wheat (also ground into flour) that we get in our CSA shares and eggs from our chickens. The corn is long gone from our garden, but a new batch is coming up--in the monsoon garden. Monsoon. What monsoon???? (We've had only one rain and monsoon season is 2/3s over.)

I cut open the seed pumpkins today. Pumpkin season is over here, too, although we have another season for them also in the fall. These are the pumpkins that produce the green tasty seeds you buy at the store. Our vines died before our pumpkins were completely mature so our seeds are a lighter shade of green, but they are delicious.

Pumpkin seeds

Eating melon as we play 10 Days in Europe--a favorite at our house.

I am crazy about SoulCollage®

This is what happens when a person stays up all night collaging. I've been eating mostly-over 90% living food-and the detox symptoms are calming down and I have lots of energy. I feel vital and alive a lot of the time and I wonder why everyone isn't doing this.

These first five cards are my first SoulCollage cards. I just jumped in and made them. I didn't know the "official" size so mine are 4"X6" which is considerably bigger than the ATCs (2 1/2"x3 1/2") that I've been making. Only the first one has a title so far.

Abundance

Some images wanted to go on a smaller size card so two ATC-size cards got made too. Aren't they beauties.

These SoulCollage cards kept coming--late at night, while Jazz was at camp--I kept making SoulCollage cards. I didn't blog although the house is slowly getting cleaner. Actually doing art is helping me to keep on cleaning house, preparing food, and generally running a household.

And these little ATC size cards keep popping up here and there too.

I realized these would make nice gifts--little wallet sized cards with inspirational quotes.

And life did keep happening at our house. Eggs got laid. Food got prepared. Parties attended.

Our girls have laid their first dozen eggs now.

The food dehydrator has been busy. Besides finishing up the saguaro fruit, I did another tray of tomatoes and lots of sweet potatoes. The sweet potato chips go fast at our house. They are so delicious. This time I added lemon pepper and they are even better than ever.

We attended a birthday party and what kind of birthday party do you have when temps are in the triple digits?--one at night with lots of water play.

Playing fill the bucket

Other updates:

I am still training for my first 5K run and getting better every day.

I am still doing A Course in Miracles although much slower than intended. The lesson I'm on now I've been doing for four days (they are daily lessons). Lesson 20 involved remembering the lesson twice an hour and after four days I am remembering it several times a day. It takes what it takes.

I have not started The Artist's Way but I've been doing Art.

I'm eating mostly--at least 75%--local food. In fact, it's what I want; food with vital energy. Things I used to eat don't appeal to me. An example is the packaged Earthbound Farms organic spinach. It does not have the vitality that I now want in my body. I am so thankful to be on this path.

I have not been using shampoo or conditioner in my hair for a couple months (see my post No-poo and more) and mostly it is pretty fabulous. I am washing it with baking soda and then rinsing with apple cider vinegar every week to 10 days.