It is what It Is!

Purpose – schmurpose! LOL 20 days down and I've spent most of it rather down … but not quite out... due to some of life's unexpected troubles. :( The damages are reversing, healing, returning to normal, slowly. But, as usual, it's not going to stop me from moving toward my goals!

And I am still moving ahead WITH PURPOSE! I am determined that even starting my business month 33% behind (so to speak) will not keep me from building my business!

Same for SPARKnEarthlyBest – no progress to report, but no backsliding either!

On the green front... we are doing LOTS BETTER at eating REAL FOODS! I found a few new blogs to follow in this effort of avoiding processed foods more:

100daysofrealfood.com and foodformyfamily.com and eatingrules.com

If you have any interest at all in eating less processed foods, more organic foods, or more local foods you may find one or all of these very helpful! :)

And with ANDEE365 – Wow! Have we been 'thru the ringer' and then some! It wasn't fun. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. :( However, we have had some extensive family discussions about the things that have happened and the things that could yet happen. These have resulted in a number of things improving around here. But there are still some “issues” to resolve ~ aren't there always such things in large families? LOL So, we move ahead! We go forward WITH PURPOSE! We take stock of where we are at; where we want to go; and which path(s) we want to take to get there.

I do have to say this: In the last 20 days I've talked to a number of locals and met some really nice people! This makes me look forward even more to what's ahead as I seek out more and more of the people of my little town and help them understand what a wonderful thing I have for them with my company! :) There are lots of hard-working folks around here who are barely getting by and really struggling to find that “something” that will help them get to the next check, help them get to feeling better so they can do more to meet their families' needs, and give them hope for a brighter future. Before long they will all know! I can't wait to share what I have with all of them!!!

I close with this:

"Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

~ Steve Jobs (Feb. 24, 1955 – Oct. 5, 2011)

Quick! Time's almost up!

Not much time just now, but really wanted to get a little note out here:


There are improvements in my 100# goal... check my SPARKnEarthlyBest blog for details! :)


There is news in my new business as well... read about it in my Eco~Mom~Andee blog!


And in things around here moving in an earthly best direction... 
using cloth shopping bags more consistently;
making more foods & meals from scratch;
removed about 80% of the toxic products from our home;
steadily finding more ways to conserve, to reduce, to reuse, to recycle, to repurpose more and more things in our lives in an effort to live healthier and more purposeful lives to our earthly best!

It Takes Money:

So I just keep on keeping on, and hanging on, and going on!


There is so much I wish to do but this body of mine doesn't wish to cooperate so often. :(  You know the saying, "It takes money to make money" ??? (Sure you do - everyone does)  Well, it's true; but so is this! It takes money to regain health!


Why is it that the more you see a doctor, the more you need to see a doctor?  And why is that when a doctor gives you a prescription for one ailment it causes a few others to develop for which you need a few more prescriptions for?  Why aren't doctors really interested in helping people get healthy?


MONEY!


That's what it's all about! Money!  See, if the doctors make you well then you don't need to see them so much so they don't make as much money.  And if they don't give you a prescription when they see you then the pharmacy guys don't make as much money either.  And somewhere in the picture are all the other entities that make a little money with every visit: the clinics, the hospitals, the labs, the insurance companies... there are so many people (jobs) with a vested interest in keeping you coming back time after time.  You wouldn't come back if you were well!!!


HOW does it take money to regain health?


The basic recipe to regain health is to do what your body needs to be healthy.
1. You need to stop doing things that make it unhealthy.
2. You need to start doing things that help it be healthy.
3. It's best to both 1 & 2 at the same time until you regain full health.


Sounds so simple!  So easy!  Right?


Wrong!!!


Let's take #1 - what makes us unhealthy?
Pollution, chemical exposures, poor quality foods, a lack of nutrients in whatever we take in, lack of exercise.  That's about it.  "Garbage IN, Garbage OUT" is really all our unhealthy bodies are saying to us!


Let's stop it! 
Pollution - just for us personally it's expensive to remove pollutants from our environment.  Same with chemical exposures.  Poor quality foods - we can buy higher quality at a higher price. So again we're back to money.  Same thing for nutritional values of anything we eat or drink... takes more money to get more quality.  Exercise is maybe the one thing that doesn't need to cost more for us - we just need to make it a higher priority in our lives and do it more often.  But exercise alone generally won't make us completely healthy.
To regain health takes money!


Let's look at #2! Start buying better quality foods with higher nutritional values... those cost more, but aren't you worth it?  Remove all the chemicals from your home - the cleaning stuff, the shampoos, toothpaste, body washes, soaps, cosmetics, air fresheners, etc. Watch for furnishings that contain chemicals that emit fumes into your home.  And what about the foods and drinks you consume? Some are loaded with chemicals and carcinogens and other harmful stuff.  Read all the labels carefully!  Ask questions!  Do your research!
But, to do a really top-notch job (there's a lot of stuff to replace!) with this it takes more money!


I mean, let's face it!  Look around you!  Who do you see with the most health problems?  Those with the least money! I'd be willing to bet that if you could take away the money issue, make it so everyone has equal access to the best quality foods and the highest level of nutritional value for everything they ate and drank then you would find lots more healthier people.  They would just keep on getting healthier too!


Right now I am so tired of always needing more money to keep doing what I'm already doing!  It's making it harder and harder to save up for things I really need yet! I need to eat totally organic foods, and drink totally organic beverages.  But the highly processed stuff is cheaper and fits my present budget better. :(  I need to build up my own business more. But that means more printing stuff from my home computer (business cards, flyers, info sheets, invitations, etc.) or paying someone else to do it.  I need to keep my bills (rent, utilities, phone, car, groceries, etc) paid up but that gets tricky when the cost for those things goes up and the income stays the same, or worse, goes down!


Bottom line... IT TAKES MONEY!!!

It's been awhile

Yes, it's certainly been a long time since my last post! :)


My list of links is growing - so I may just create a post soon that puts them all in one place and then more slowly I will add some info about them. Sorry, there won't be any with this post.


This is just a huge update of all sorts of things.  


First - the new kittens (born June 17th) and their mama got really sick in July and finally in mid-August (just before they would be 10 weeks old) we lost them all.  It's been a hard blow for all of us as we worked so hard and put so much into caring for them in efforts to save them all. :(


Second - in the ever-changing lives of my kids we have been having one crisis after another with different kids.  Of course, they are all adults now - but four still live with me - and just because they are legally adults doesn't mean they aren't still my kids. lol  Cars breaking down; jobs changing - cutting hours, laying off, or just being challenging in new ways; searching for jobs - first jobs, new jobs, different jobs; new health challenges developing; old health challenges getting worse; all in all, it's the same ol' - same ol' - never really changing status of needing more money than we have to care for all the things that come up.  It's not unlike a dog chasing it's tail - totally futile to attempt; but having done so, IF one should catch up then suddenly you find yourself getting bitten!


Third - we're into a decluttering mode - more now than ever.  It began when my sister moved out - and it's taking on a whole new meaning after attending our district convention at the end of July and then our circuit assembly at the beginning of September!  Now, it's not just get rid of things we're not using or haven't used in over a year; it's become get rid of things we don't really need. In other words, let's take a close look at every single thing in every single room of the house, including closets, porches, deck, garage and yard and let's see if we REALLY & TRULY NEED IT for survival. :)


This has become a huge project. One we hope to finish by the end of September. :)


I'm still working on building my business - ecomomandee.blogspot.com and I'm still working on my weight loss goals - sparknearthlybest.blogspot.com/ and like always I'll keep working on all these.  I'm not one to give up!

An Interesting Turn In Life

If you're still counting with us, it's been 254 days of striving to be as green as possible in our lives. More to our lives, it's been that long that we've been reusing as much as possible, reducing what we use to start out with, and recycling everything else if it's possible. It began as an effort to save money and to get healthier. It's evolving into a different way of living.

What began in one way has turned to another - a broader sense of understanding how every tiny thing we each do can and does affect things around us, things that we often don't see as a part of our life. We have been successful in cutting costs and yet our bottom line is no different, perhaps worse, because outside of our control costs increased for the things we do still need. As fuel prices skyrocketed to nearly $5.00 a gallon around here every commodity rose prices saying it was related to their fuel costs increasing. Hundreds of people here lost their jobs as some companies closed their doors, no longer able to afford to stay open - due to rising costs of operations. Yet, when fuel costs came down (presently they are about $1.70 per gallon) no one saw a correlating decrease in the costs of any commodities.

My grocery bill is still well over $100.00 per week! That $100.00 can now fit into just 2 bags instead of 4! We're buying less packaged food, lots fewer snacks, sticking mostly to essential things like veggies, fruits, grains, beans, seasonings, some dairy, some meats - getting things in bulk as much as possible. In general we buy less food now.
The cost of electricity and natural gas has risen enough to make our monthly bills 20-30% higher even though our usage has dropped by as much as 40%!
Insurance costs went up about 10% over last year.

We've had some other changes recently - thus my reason for not getting back here sooner than now. ;-)
Since August one of my older kids has moved out and is attending college in another state! And my three high-school kids are now being homeschooled. This began in large part due to the rising costs of getting them to their charter school (22 miles one way - a round trip made as often as 3 times a day, usually 5 days a week) but has also been something we have wanted to do for some time but just didn't have the right circumstances before now. So alongside my niece whom I've been homeschooling the last few years (she's just 7) we now have 3 high-school juniors working on finishing the requirements for graduation within the next year or so.

This has brought about an expansion in our aspirations towards a lessor carbon footprint and a more earth friendly lifestyle.
They are learning the "wonders" of cloth napkins, and dishtowels; of using the same glass instead of another from the cupboard each time they want something to drink; using more durable things over disposable things.
When we had to get up earlier, rush to get everyone ready to go out, get them to school by a certain time, our whole day was full of rushing to one thing after another and we did often use disposable things to make it easier, faster, more available to our schedules. Now we've eliminated that too. We're not rushing - most of the time.

We are also developing plans for home-based businesses: perhaps making eco-friendly items to sell; making jewelry; a photography business of some kind; selling artwork of various types that we make; and there's always my business - offering non-toxic household cleaning, personal care products & healthy supplements.

The best thing to come out of all the recent changes would be the increase in our own individual spirituality. We have worked at living Christian lives all along but somehow now it's more a lifestyle than before. Somehow now, we are each more Christ-like as we do whatever we are doing in our daily lives. We begin the day with Scripture & prayers, we end the day with Scripture & prayers, and we often turn to Scriptures as well as pray many times during our day. It may be done together as a family, or individually as the situation merits. We are filled with many blessings in so many ways!

Yes, we still struggle and the money coming in doesn't yet exceed the money owed but somehow the essentials get covered each time and whatever can wait keeps waiting. But in so many ways life is the best it can be in these days and times; and I will keep on giving all my earthly best!