Leaving A Legacy of Health

This could potentially be a controversial post.  Many people's ideas of what is "healthy" vary so drastically, so bare with me.  The basic concept is this...  What habits we currently model for our children on a day to day basis in the areas of exercise, food and dietary choices, medicinal preferences, and even mental health (staying stimulated and not going stagnate) are imprinting in them habits and what they envision themselves doing when the grow up.  

Today I am going to tackle the topic of exercise, if you never exercise... then your children are most likely not going to envision themselves exercising as an adult...  this kind of legacy can be dangerous to their health as it is dangerous to ours.  Believe me this is a super convicting post- I am a work in progress- but especially in this area of my life.  Unfortunately, it took me "sacrificing" my health in the name of caring for my family (really, making an idol out of my family in a way), thinking they were more important than taking care of myself... and in my mind of course my children are, but if I don't take care of myself, how can I take care of them.  This became a huge reality for me these past 2 pregnancies when I found myself on bed-rest.  I'm not saying that my being on bed-rest was all my fault, because I didn't exercise, but I will say that I might not be struggling as much as I do with all the symptoms I have if I would have made exercise a priority vs an option. 

I think there is a problem among mother's today... "A Motherhood Martyr Myth!"
Or maybe its just me, in which case this post is more of a confession. 
I used to think that I was a bad mom if I ever left my children, even to go to the doctor or to exercise.
I was constantly struggling in my mind because I already felt like I didn't have enough hours in the day to get everything I needed to get done with my kids and home, let alone, taking off to exercise.  Then there is justifying paying someone to help take care of the precious ones while I exercise. 
It seemed like such a "waste" of money, which furthered my guilt.
 I am currently still in healing from this very oppressive thinking that you are the only one that should ever and only be with your children. 
I personally am a healthier mommy, when I am able to get a serious focused exercise break in a couple times every week. 

So what we have found works for our family is this...

2 days a week: I go to a gym that has a pool to do water therapy &/or strengthening exercises (weights)
I usually take Kelsey my oldest with me at least 1 day/week for her to learn how to use a gym and so we can have fun doing it together.  This has also been a real productive time for my spirit to be filled... with technology devices today, I have been fortunate enough to take advantage of listening to sermons and talks as well as worship... which feeds my soul and helps me be a better mom during the rest of the week.
Then 2-3 days per week the kids and I have an exercise program we go through in our little at home gym... I rotate kids on bike/tread climber/ tumbling mat with our musical instruments and Taebo for kids video.  It is fun!  Definitely productive and helps get the wiggles out of my boys. 
As for the other days of the week... the kids do swimming lessons 2 days per week and we have a small farm with lots of physical work!  :)

Every family's convictions on this topic are so different, so please don't think you need to do it all like us.  This is just what works for our family after much trial and error!


What does your family's physical life look like?

Treating Swine Flu Naturally

We are finally on the upswing from getting hit with this SWINE FLU!

I am finding myself eating my words; when I made fun of how people were freaking out over this H1n1 scare.
"It's a pandemic!"

Well that "pandemic" got a hold of one Tolpin and made its contagious way through the lot of us over these past 2 weeks.

So to make every thing we have gone through worth something. I desire to help you, the mom, get ready for or treat this virus as best as possible without the Tamiflu.

The Symptoms very from one person to another but ours where fairly similar among each of us. You can look up symptoms on- line easily, but I will say one thing. Once you have it... you know you have it, because there isn't anything quite like it (Or at least anything I have personally experienced).
We were told from on-line sources that if you have the H1N1 you "won't typically" have certain symptoms... not true. We tested positive and had symptoms that the 'professionals" said were only typical of the seasonal flu.
My personal belief because of seeing it first hand... I agree that most people will contract this virus. So you need to get prepared!

2 Very Helpful Books:

Doctor Mom's Natural Healthcare for Children
by Kathy Duerr

"Homeopathy" An A to Z Home Handbook
by Alan Schmukler

There are many good ones out there... these 2 are my favorite of the 4 I have!

Of the 2 books, I used the second more during the swine flu period.


Basic Things you can do to build up immune system:
Echinacea
Vitamins (C, B-6, B12, D, all of them really)
make sure you have a good source of Zinc for vitamin absorption
Eat Healthy ( no fast food / restaurants- we think we got it at a nice restaurant on a Sunday night)
Excercise & Sleep Well- Nap

Golden ticket item: Dr. Zeff (my naturopath) has made a H1N1 tincture from the nosode
call his office and they can mail you one ($10 per bottle)
Salmon Creek Clinic, Washington
1-360-823-8121

He also has a seasonal flu tincture and flu prevention (each $10)


What kind of things should you have on hand to treat symptoms of the H1N1?
Epsom Salt (Lots of it)
Humidifier(s)
Vick's Vapor Rub (lots of it)
Electrolyte drinks
Frozen Chicken Broth or Chicken Noodle soup
(made ahead of time so it is easy to serve)
lots of clean towels
Tea (throat Coat, chamomile, peppermint, cherry bark)
Elderberry Syrup (for sore throat)
Cough Drops
Popsicles
Salt Crackers


Common Homeopathies:
I have only used Boirin Homeopathics
*Oscillococcinum*
(instead of giving full tube of contents.. my dr advised using a capful every hour- your choice of course)
Belladonna (30c)
(for a fever with red heat face.. sudden fierce fever- also headaches)
Gelsimium (30c)
(for a fever where there is drooping teary eyes.. pale face... fever high... hands cold)
Aconite (30c)
(you can use this for sore dry cough/ good to give as soon as you see symptoms of flu)
Nux Vomica (30c)
(vomiting... constipated... tummy upset... oversensitive to light and noise-irritable)
Spongia Tosta (30c)
(for croupy cough)
Antimonium tart (30c)
(wet-non productive cough- thick mucus in lungs)
*Eupatorium Perf (30c)
(for aches and pains in body... hacking cough)
Phosphorus (30c)
(when pneumonia threatens- )

Post Influenza Remedies:
Phosphoric Acid (30c)
(seems both tired physically and mentally)
Influenzium (9c-200c)
(use lower numbers for post flu... 200c for preventative (once a week))

Above all of these those is the homeopathic tincture for sure...
these are homeopathic pellets you can give one pellet every hour as needed generally speaking... if you have questions just ask... I may not know the answers but if I do praise the Lord I can help!


Other Treatments to be done while Ill:


Wet-Sock treatment:
Learned from Dr. Mom's Book:
Soak feet in warm foot bath (I add Epsom salt for detoxing), while feet are soaking having a pair of socks soaking in a bowl of ice water.
Yes, ICE WATER!
After ten minutes or so of soaking, ring out ice cold socks put them on feet and put wool socks on top. Hop in bed for the night and for a common cold you should feel better by morning! It works like a charm... for swine flu... it gives reprieve from the 4-5 day long fevers.
This shocks your body slightly... you've got to try it!

Hydrotherapy:
Learned from Dr. Zeff
Take a hot towel 9as hot as person can stand and ring it out and lay it on torso (wherever ailment... I have also used this for mastitis and it works great).
Then once the towel cools have someone bring you and ice cold towel rung out as well and place it in same place after removing first towel.
Leave until it becomes warm.

This is great for reducing fever quickly.

Just a side note on fevers, I tried everything to reduce their fevers... even tylenol and children's motrin. I stopped after a couple usages because it only brought the fever down by .2-.4 , not a significant enough number for me to justify continuing use.

Vick's Vapor Rub:
so most people know to put good old vick's vapor rub on a kids chest when they can't breathe through their nose at night. My grandma, who was raised on the farm, taught me this trick when my son Austin was getting croup chronically.

You take a liberal amount of Vick's and massage it onto the child's feet. Then you put their socks on and put them to bed. Helps with any coughs... especially croupy ones! Plus kids like getting their feet massaged!


drink lots of good water... we personally use Kangen Water (alkaline ionized water)

If you have this and you have these weird symptoms which we had...

Legs attacked by virus ( yes it happened to my nine year old for 2 days and I gave her Eupator. Perf every ten min for 3 times in one hour and then every hour after that and she slowly got her ability to stand on them and walk. It can be scary but most likely it will go away. Worth going to the doctor for that though... they need to rule out that it did not get into the child's spinal cord by doing their basic, non invasive tests.

Another weird thing that happened to all the kids was eye sensitivity and head aches...horrible head aches! Our three year old though, woke up with an eye totally swollen shut ( he looked like he just got in a fight with Rocky). My naturopath had me give him Pulsatilla (30c)... within five minutes the burning and itching went away and he could sleep. He woke up looking totally normal.

Above all else we found ourselves on our knees in prayer. Drawing closer to the Lord! he hears our cries and the cries of our children. it is always scary to have kids with super high fevers over a long period of time (we are talking days at around 103.5). Remember that a fever is healing... I think of it as cooking the flu to kill it!

Lord, protect our dear friends and their little lambs!
Put your hedge of protection around them that they might be spared this horrible illness! Give all of us wisdom in how to care for our children! Let us help one another and work as the Body of Christ on Earth to serve one another. Bless those who have so graciously served our family. Protect them Lord!

May you have a healthy Fall & Winter!
Any other suggestions please feel free to leave a comment!

Tolpin Healthy Habits

I have shared many of the struggles I have had with health over the last few years and wanted to share with you the top ten healthy habits, or battles(if you will), I have chosen to adopt over the last year.

Disclaimer:
Of course, I am not anal about these... we do everything in our power to not let these things get in the way of fellowship with others...
In addition there have been seasons when I have not been as dedicated to some of these points as others (such as when the weather doesn't permit gardening, or when I am too ill to work out)
Also, some of these may change over the years... my vision though is to continue on this path so my children grow up as this being their normal lifestyle and so it is easier for them when they are raising their own children.

It is not easy making such changes... but it is fun and a part of the legacy we have chosen to pursue diligently.


Tolpin Healthy Habits

1. Exercise (spending more time active outside as well as swimming, using our tread climber when weather isn't as nice, and doing core strengthening exercises to rebuild what I have lost in child bearing- to strengthen my back)
2. Juicing & Smoothies (this has been such a great way to get a ton of our daily fruit and veggies in us)
3. Making Bread (the kids love to grind the wheat and help... very educational and yummy, not mention healthier)
4. Buying Local ( buying produce and meat and milk more locally tastes so good and I can ensure that it is healthier (I know where it has been))
5. Raw Milk (Wow, the taste is amazing... then there is the added health benefits)
6. Gardening, Preserving, Canning & Freezing (I have not successfully canned anything yet but have been reaping an awesome harvest and we have been preserving and freezing) (Next year I want to try Dehydrated)
7. Homeopathy (I am still learning and have so much to learn about this... but so far I have seen amazing results in treating my family at home- Naturally)
8. Dr.Zeff - our Modern Day Doc Baker
9. Kangen Water (Alkaline Water Filtration System - Ionizer- PH/Antioxidant) www.mykangentools.com
10. Enjoy Life - I have struggle with the sin of worry and stress often and have been "working" on not working so hard and letting things go...

Here are few resources I highly recommend:
This is an awesome resource for treating childhood wounds and sickness with Homeopathy. Easy to read and look up ailments... a great resource for anytime your child is sick... I love this little handbook... recommended by Dr.Zeff

Available only on Amazon... no longer in print, but I just bought a couple for under $2 each

These books were very helpful for understanding true companion planting...
I used this first book as my gardening bible this year



This Recipe Book is chalked full of great recipes for Juicing and Smoothies


by Jack LaLanne

This Cookbook has totally shaken my thoughts on what "is" Healthy Cooking
This book really takes us back to the "old" way of doing many things but with reasons



Billy Blanks - Tae Bo Kicks

My kids and I have enjoyed this DVD for a couple years now...
A great way to get exercise on those rainy days

This book has been so convicting for me...




We all have to choose our battles... because that is truly what the are.
Everything battles for your time and attention. Potentially taking you away from your families and the things that are most important. The key is to pursue these things as God allows. We are all on a different path and we should prayerfully consider which paths to pursue and not.
I want to encourage you that these habits have been carefully selected over the course of a year and motivated as a response to declined health.
I am thankful to the Lord that He has provided the mentors and resources to pursue health down these roads.
I think that sometimes God leads us through our pains to enlighten us and teach us.
I have had a testing year... and I am sure their will be more ahead as I grow older. I am excited to follow Jesus and watch Him do more miracles in my life and I surrender it to be used for his glory. I hope that somehow the struggles my family and I have suffered through this year can minister to you. I am posting this so that none of what I have been through or might go through goes in vain. To God Be the Glory!

Treating Mastitis

Natural Remedy for Mastitis:
(Nursing Breast Infection)

Echinacea Tincture (1 dropperful every 3 hours or as needed)
Emergence-C Packets (1 every 3-5 hours with water)
Phytolaca Decandra (Biorin pellets) (1 pellet under tongue, directly followed by Belladonna)
Belladonna (Biorin pellets) (1 pellet under tongue)

Use the homeopathy Biorin pellets as needed until you get a grip on the infection
I ususally put an hour between treatments unless it is really bad then only 30 minutes

In addition:
Eating cabbage raw or blanching cabbage leaves and applying them to the infected breast relieves pain and brings down inflamation

Hot water bottles are great to use before nursing your baby because it can help the milk flow more easily

Apply a couple treatments on Hydrotherapy...
go to my Doc Baker's website:
www.jaredzeff.com/hydrotherapy.html

Dr. Jared Zeff is a very trustworthy Naturapathic Doctor who gets my recommendation.
If you are looking for a doctor who cares like Doc Baker cared in Little House....
He is the doctor for you!

My Story of Health & Healing:
So over the past few years I have felt my health declining dramatically.
Having five babies in a row with not much of a break has been hard on me... as it would anyone.
As you know I do not have easy pregnancies.
I usually start having morning/day/and night sickness of the worst kind (intense vomiting) a few weeks after conception and it often lasts as long as the pregnancy... ending the birth process with one last upchuck. I have had two pregnancies were my vomiting wained at around 7-8 months.
The vomiting has been so sever that I usually have to get at least a few IVs for re hydration and in my last pregnancy back was thrown out (bulging herniated disc).
This last pregnancy I went to a Water birth Center (Andaluz), where I was treated by midwives. They helped me so much more than any midwife at a hospital or doctor ever did. I had tried all the treatments and expensive meds for nausea and vomiting and none of them worked (not to mention they were bad for me). They recommended I take phosphorus (Biorin). It worked amazingly!
Over the past 9 years of pregnancy and nursing I have increasingly struggled with getting mastitis as well. I have developed an allergic reaction to all cilin drugs so I am unable to take most antibiotics to treat this. That was my first motivation to finding an alternative route to treating myself. Then upon further studying I learned about yeast infections post antibiotics, I started trying to rebuild my system with Acidopholus (the good buggies... Flora in your intestines).
Chronic Fatigue, stiffness of joints and back, crankiness... All these symptoms began to hit me quickly. When I usually would recovered from childbirth and get my rythm back this last time I didn't experience that. I was exhausted physically. Of course that should be a bit expected since we as moms don't get much sleep.
After many misdiagnosis and feeling very discouraged I found Dr. Zeff. His preventative approach includes educating the patient to be more independent of their health. He mainly focuses on food intolerances and believes we are "toxic" if we are eating things our bodies can not properly digest. I will blog on this some other time, but for now I want to leave you with this:
My growth through this process has lead me to trusting in the Lord in a new way.
Anything can become an idol...
I have learned that in good health it is easy to serve and live in your own strength. I have been learning how to do those things in Christ's strength since I feel often like I have none of my own.
I am also LEARNING (this is taking a while for me) to not put busy-ness as a top priority. I hold a very high standard for myself ad my family in many areas such as cleanliness. I think I used to believe that old saying, "cleanliness is next to godliness." I have since slayed that dragon and am living much more joyfully in my clutter. To help with this process though, we did spend a few days de-cluttering. I want to continue this process in more areas of my home, but need to get well right now. I think that people get distracted from really knowing God and serving Him by taking "care" of the non-eternal "things" we own. I used to spiritualize it. I thought, if I can not take care of it, then I shouldn't have it, and I "need" it, so I have to take care of it. I need to be a good steward of the "blessings" He has given me. Which is true to a certain degree, but I also think that when we are so "blessed" and less "blessing" others it is easy to have too much to care for. That's what happened to me. My desire is to be available to God. To let him use me. If having so much stuff to take care of means not being able to hear Him or be available to Him. Then I don't want it!

It is easy to get consumed with food intolerances, or homeopathy, or healthy living (making bread, driving to buy raw milk, taking care of chickens, gardening, etc...). Be careful not to make them idols. I have struggled and fallen in this area. When I feel like all I am learning is how to care for my family. I believe that God doesn't want any of these things to come in the way of serving him or fellowshiping with others. We have to be aware of the fight we are in as Christians. The evil one wants to distract us from God and His service. When we get inward focused, we grow spiritually unhealthy. If we stay outward focused... serving others and loving people we can remain closest to God's heart.

Don't get me wrong taking care of our families is our high calling, it is our service, our mission. I just am speaking from the experience of getting so focused on health that it takes the place of studying God's word. When you get so tired from researching on the computer that you don't have the energy to open up the Word. Then there is a priority out of wack.
This was my mistake. Now, even though I feel the urgency to know how to cook for my family to meet their dietary needs, I am going about it at a slower pace... giving myself grace and allowing myself the time to learn because I need to keep God first. It is easy for me to get "addicted" to learning certain things. If I am not personally growing I get depressed. It is my conscience acknowledgement that I am in ever need of improvement and that God is never done with me.
So I have to be careful to not get distracted by worldly knowledge and focus on Christ.

"My sheep listen to my voice... NO one can snatch them out of my hand." John 10:27-28

"God who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies"
Romans 8:11

Jesus said, I am the resurrcetion and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies." John 11:25

I am mortal, we all are. Our bodies will fail us even when we take the best care we can. We do need to be good stewards of the temples He created so we can serve HIm to our fullest ability. However, we will not die before He calls us home. And He has the power to heal. Let us not forget that even with something like Mastitis God wants us to call out to HIm to heal us.
We all will perish, what I have been experiencing is the reality of a used, mortal body. But GOd can do miracles and He does. He likes to use people who are weak to glorify Himself. Well Lord, I am weak. Use Me!

May you have many blessings of health and spiritual growth!

Raw Milk

We finally did it! We made the switch to Raw Milk and LOVE IT!
It took me a couple months to find a place to get the milk... granted I wasn't trying very hard. I have to drive a good 35 minutes to get it but the health benefits are worth the drive, plus the kids get to experience a different kind of family farm when we go to pick it up.

Here are pictures of the kids watching our Milk Maid Karina milk the cow.
For info on Raw Milk and its health benefits go to Raw Milk.


The had some baby chicks to pet while we were there on Saturday. It has been so long since we had chicks. They are so cute!


There was also a one week old kid that the kids got to hold and pet. I wanted to take him home so badly but we need more space and I would want a girl so we can have fresh goat's milk and make goat cheese. We go through goat cheese like nothing. It is our family favorite! If you know of someone I can get local goat milk and cheese from please let me know!

Building our Defenses and Curing the Sore Ear!

These past 2 weeks my family has been fighting a nasty bug... bronchitis, ear infections, and everything that goes with it.
It has been a hard 2 weeks but I have learned a lot through it all.

Thanks to my new friend Janet at church and my dear friend Shawn I feel more empowered in how to take care of my children with out using antibiotics.

Both of these friends told me they use garlic oil and olive oil (essential oils) for ear aches. Garlic is antibacterial! I had no idea! I used it tonight and my ears feel so much better.

I know there are many people out there that NEVER use antibiotics... and if they can get by without that is fabulous. However, I have experienced certain times/sicknesses where I have felt an infection was out of control and the only option seemed to be antibiotics. Knowing that they kill all the bad bugs as well as the good ones I always load my kids up on vitamins hoping not to catch something else with their compromised immune system. Janet told me about ACIDOPHILUS.
Wow! i had no idea these even existed... where has this been all my life! "All the good bugs," as Janet put it!
According to Dr. Sears and many other websites/ professionals, Acidophilus "is the powder form of the normal, friendly bacteria called flora that lives in our intestines. Our intestinal flora helps to regulate our digestive system." Yeast also lives in our intestines and when we take antibiotics our bacterial flora can get depleted. When there is an imbalance of yeast and flora the yeast can overgrow and can lead to a number of problems. Some include thrush, candida, yeast diaper rashes, yeast infection in the breast, and more. Taking Acidolphilus can rebuild up that flora in the intestines and guard us against yeast infections.

Today I went to New Seasons and got me some of these good buggies! They also make Primadophilus for kids! So since I had one little boy with a near bursting ear drum I had to do antibiotics... but at least now I can boost his system with these buggies!

The last treasure I learned about today were these awesome EAR CANDLES! Once again I had never heard of such a thing. What an awesome treatment! Shawn helped me do it this afternoon. it worked amazingly... it was pretty yucky so I apologize for the disgusting photo but isn't it amazing how much ear gunk I got out of Kelsey's plugged and aching ear! She is doing so much better!
you can see more on these at www.wallysnatural.com

I would love to hear from you! What other tricks of the trade do you know? Any other homeopathic treatments? What have you found works well?

Juicing, Exercising and Getting Healthy

Over the years as I have had babies I have had many problems with my back. Most of you know how I had a herniated bulging disc in my back while I was pregnant with Luke. While my morning sickness was the cause of the disc issues in my back. I have had back problems for years (since a car accident I was in during my high school years). After the delivery of Luke I was feeling pretty good for the most part... with the exception of my back. I would wake up in the morning stiff as a board. Isaac and I thought it was our bed so we traded it in on warranty for a new bed. While the bed was great at first within a couple days I was back to square one. It became pretty obvious that it wasn't just "the bed."

The other big thing I was struggling with was picking up Drew (my very heavy 2 year old). I always envisioned myself being a fun active mom and my back pains were getting in the way of that. I was determined to loose some of that "baby weight" and see if that would help at all with my back problems. So for the first time in years I stepped onto a scale. Shocked (kind of), I wanted to cry. I weighed more than I weighed when I got married and was weight lifting and swimming every day. Back then I was a size 14 believe it or not... by I was strong! It is funny how in your mind you don't age like your body does. So as I looked down at the scale, I wanted to cry... I was 162 lbs! Usually I never got on the scale because it didn't matter what it said as long as my clothes fit and I felt good. Well my clothes wasn't fitting, i didn't feel good and I wasn't able to take as good of care of my kids. I wasn't sleeping well (b/c of my back and nursing Luke) so I was cranky all day. I just didn't have the energy to jump on the trampoline any more. Plus for the first after having a baby... my stomach wasn't just going back like it did with the other four. What hurt the most was that my kids noticed. Every now and then one of the kids would bring up "mommy's tummy." Megan would even ask if I was pregnant again!

So when the new year came around and you hear of "New Years Resolutions" I thought I should make a resolution to loose weight. I had started in November working out on our tread climber a couple times a week and trying to make it to the gym once or twice to swim. It wasn't cutting it though. I wasn't seeing a difference. I was too inconsistent at working out. And I needed to change some things in my diet so I could stay healthy and keep working out. For a while I struggled with getting mastitis every couple weeks. So it made it hard to keep working out regularly. I will blog about this another time to share what I have learned in treating this with homoeopathics.

February was a big month for me... I spent almost all of my free time reading up on and trying out things like cooking with coconut oil, making my own bread, recipe books for low caloric/ cholesterol meals, and juicing. I had a goal to loose 20 lbs in 29 days. Not very realistic, but I was motivated. If I was going to spend so much time working out... well then I was going to have success. Well I worked out almost everyday, with the exception of a four day trip to Port Townsend. I started juicing about every other morning and sometimes every day. On the off days I would make everyone fruit smoothies. We started eating oatmeal at least four days a week (to help fill us up and keep our cholesterol down). Isaac would get up in the morning and shower while I juiced (about 6:15-6:30 am), I would eat something to get my metabolism going and then work out while he ate breakfast and did devos and prayed with the kids. I love our Bowflex tread climber because it is easier on my ankles and knees than other tread mills. I found that I burn a lot more calories on it in less time as well. I average about 400 calories burned in 35 minutes or 500 calories burned in 45 minutes every morning. I really like working out in the morning because I get to have quiet time with the Lord before the day begins... rather than being forced into my day because kids wake up too early. I either read or listen to messages/ worship music on my ipod. Then I go shower and we start our day. I love having work outs, showers, devos, and quiet time all done by 8 am. It has changed the course of our days. the kids and I have much more productive days and I feel so much better.
As for February, I didn't loose 20 lbs, but I did loose 12lbs. Which was probably a lot more realistic for me anyway. Aside from loosing the weight, I was feeling good. I am able to wear my pre-pregnancy pants, and haul Drew and Luke all over (at the same time). And my back doesn't hurt in the mornings. Normally I would not advocate weight scales... but I heard once... "The scale doesn't lie." Meaning if you are working out and eating healthy it will be revealed on the scale. If you are not, it will be revealed on the scale.
The past few months I have been spending more time focused on creating healthier habits such as juicing (which takes a bit of time cutting certain veggies and fruits), exercising, and going to bed earlier. Recently I heard my four year old daughter Megan talking to my son about jumping on the trampoline and it made me giggle. She said, "Maybe mom can do it now that she got rid of her big tummy." They notice not just what I look like but how my size affects what I can and can not do with them. I am excited to continue this journey of healthier living and see where it takes me and my family over the course of the next year.



This is our compost for the chickens after juicing. Funny thing is they were only laying 2 eggs a day until the day after we started feeding them this pulp. Now we are at 10 eggs a day from 11 chickens! Obviously the days are longer now and it is almost Spring so that makes a big difference but we started juicing in January when we still had snow and we were getting a ton of eggs. I think this says something for veggies & fruit!



Info: We got our juicer at Costco $89.99, but you may have luck finding them online cheaper

Also Costco has been selling tons opf citrus in bulk which is great top juice... and you can freeze it for 5-6 months. Grapefruits, tangelos, cuties are all super yummy and a lot of cultures use these citrus' for detoxing or cleansing.
Also you can freeze the pulp for smoothies... which I do unless I am using grapefruit (it doesn't taste so good in a smoothie)


Health and Blessings!

Magnesium During Pregnancy

At my last appointment with my midwife she suggested taking Magnesium to reduce leg cramps (charlie horses)and restlessness during the night. Trusting her I got a bottle of supplements, came home and did some "research."

To my surprise there is tons of info on Magnesium and Calcium during pregnancy. The added benefits by far out weigh the possible side effects. In fact, it seems more logical to think that it is more of a danger not take magnesium. of course it is always wise to have the advice of a medical professional even when taking supplements.

The basic advantages to taking magnesium during late pregnancy are: reduction of leg cramps, better nights sleep, repair to body tissue, helps build strong bones and teeth, regulates insulin and blood-sugar levels, and helps certain enzymes function properly. Magnesium and calcium work together though so it is important to keep up on taking calcium while taking magnesium. Magnesium relaxes muscles, while calcium stimulates muscles to contract. There is research that shows that proper levels of magnesium during pregnancy can help keep the uterus from contracting until week 35.

Do you need supplements? Probably not, not unless you are experiencing some of the things I mentioned above (leg cramps, high blood pressure, diabetes during pregnancy, etc...) I had horrible morning sickness, like I did every time so it is great to be replenishing my body. feeding the baby doesn't end once baby is born... there is still breast feeding. So I need to re nourish my body so I can produce a healthy supply of nourish able milk. You can get a good source of magnesium from certain foods: green leafy veggies, whole grains, nuts, meat, milk, pumpkin seeds, tofu, etc...

One of the best benefits I have found though to taking the pills so far is that research indicates that magnesium helps with the efficiency of labor. I am all for that! I have to say also that in my last trimester I have had bad leg cramps and restlessness at night during all of my pregnancies (4 so far). Once I started taking the magnesium supplement within a week or so the leg cramps disappeared. Now I am just hoping for the more efficient labor and delivery.

Obviously I am not a doctor, but I wanted to share this new wisdom I gleaned from my midwife whom I trust greatly. She is such a gift to me. If you are pregnant and more curious about the benefits of magnesium during pregnancy I would ask your doctor as well as do some easy research online. It doesn't take long to google magnesium and pregnancy and read a few articles and the benefit could be great for you!

By the way, I wanted to say a congratulations to my friend Brandy on her news of baby #3! We Praise God for your special blessing!
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