What I should get her is a knife cutting class at the Viking Store…and I should join her.  However, time is of the essence and I set out to buy her a cutting glove.  This little glove feels pretty soft, but it is made from stainless steel fibers to prevent slicing of her fingers.  I was expecting it to be like a suit of armour, but it’s a rather comfortable little glove.  In hindsight, I should have purchased one for me as well.

Grammy is excited about her new gift.  Should you surprise her in the kitchen, she will be chopping away with a silver glove on her left hand resembling the likes of Michael Jackson.  Hopefully, it will save her the trauma of a small cut that could turn ugly.  The next step is to buy her that suit of armour to protect the rest of her body while simply walking down the street…

I am always on the hunt for good hair products.  This one is certainly one you must try!  No frizzies, smooth and healthy hair…isn’t that the goal?  You can buy it in a small size for trying it out and a large size when you are sold on the product like me   Kourt, I am forever indebted…

With the exception of eating out, and we do still eat out, I have not cooked with refined sugar since we started.  No refined flour, white sugar, brown sugar or powdered sugar.  I have learned to adapt my own favorite recipes by using natural sweeteners like Maple Syrup, Agave Nectar, Honey and Sucanat.  Almost every recipe tastes just as great and better without the refined sugars.  I feel better, I have lost weight and I am still eating all that I love…I am just being smart about eliminating refined sugars and using more whole grain products.

So, I have included the link to this month’s Clean Eating Magazine for your reading pleasure.  I think you will be really impressed….and it’s SO much better for your health!  Here’s to eating clean!

I didn’t clean out my pantry and make a big announcement in the family.  I just started cooking this way, continuing to eat down the pantry, but only buy good healthy food in its place.  The verdict:  I feel GREAT!  The biggest change for me was to eliminate refined sugars…no white sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar.  I LOVE my sweets friends, but have discovered that my sweets are just as great sweetened with 100% pure Maple Syrup, Agave Nectar, Honey and Molasses.  And my stomach rejoices when I am good to it by feeding it as natural as possible.  We already ate brown rice, whole wheat pasta, used whole wheat flour, etc, so we didn’t have many huge changes.

Aside from my friend’s inspiration, I bought several books by Tosca Reno, my favorite being her book for Kids and Family.  I bought the book as a recipe book, but was intrigued with how informative the book was and encouraging.  I was completely inspired to jump on the wagon when I finished her first book.  I knew my kids would be the deciding factor in many of my recipes.  Believe it or not…they love the recipes to date.  Well, my oldest and my youngest.  My middle child has his own eating issues (there’s always one, right?)  I know this diet works because my stomach is just so sensitive.  After we began eating clean, I strayed one weekend when we had guests and I started to feel tired and bloated and blah.  But, the minute we returned to the clean way of life, I returned to feeling great.

The gist is this.  If you choose to eat clean, you need to decide what your commitment is.  Is it all or none?  Is it just during the week?  For us, it is cooking clean at home, providing healthy lunches for my boys and should we decide to eat my every so favorite Mexican, I will not feel guilty.  If my kids have a cupcake at school for a birthday, it’s OK.  I just want to provide good choices and eliminate as much bad stuff as I can at home.  I cook a lot more to keep things fresh, but have found some great new recipes and adapted some favorite old recipes.

I would highly encourage checking this book and all her others out.  It’s a great and easy way to get healthy and avoid all the harmful ingredients in processed foods.  And for you Kindle fans out there, it’s on Kindle, too!

Malachite…

Septarian Geode…

Palm Stones…

Shades of Green…

This is SOAP, my friends.  I am thinking these pretty rocks can dress up anyone’s powder bath.  And they are sure to be a conversation piece…an even better little gift, too!

Today, I have what I thought would be something very simple to find…but it wasn’t.  If you are a mom of a child with ear tubes, swim ear, any ear issue, lend me your ear.  After 2 1/2 years of having tubes in my son’s ears I have become well-aquainted with ear plugs.  I know every doctor has different rules, but our ENT told us that we needed ear plugs post ear tube surgery only for the lake and the ocean.  He only wanted protection from all that dirty water.  Last summer, I spent a fortune at our local drug and grocery stores trying to find the perfect ear plugs that stayed in my son’s ears and didn’t fall out.  By the end of the summer, I still did not have success.  Nothing worked!  

This summer, I found Putty Buddies!  These handy little plugs are made of silicone and mold perfectly to your child’s ear and they aren’t coming out.  Two plugs come in each container, but I even tear each plug in half to get four re-usable plugs out of each container.  Yes, they are re-usable.  The only reason we had multiple plugs used over the past week is due to color preference.  If you gotta wear ear plugs, it is 100% necessary to have a choice in color, don’t you think? 

My 4 year-old son loved these plugs.  I rolled them in a ball and gently pushed them in his ear until they easily molded to his sweet little ear.  They stayed in, he picked his color each time and we were all happy.  Take it from me.  I have been thru almost all choices in children’s ear plugs and these…these are the best!

Clean Eating is the gist of The Gracious Pantry.  It is created under the same principles as the Candida Diet:  Eat simple foods that are easy to digest.  By doing this, the energy previously used on digesting refined sugars and high-fat foods is free to move to places in your body that need healing (allergies/sinuses, painful joints, stomach issues).  The numbers of people I know with any of those problems is growing every day.   Stating the obvious, you would certainly lose weight by limiting or eliminating sugars and high fats.

After reading The Gracious Pantry, I am highly motivated to hop back on the wagon.  Tiffany has created a website that is a fabulous resource not only for great  “Clean” recipes, but also for how to get started from Step One.  She offers a list of items to have in order to stock your pantry with clean foods and she also clarifies exactly what needs to be eliminated and how to substitute for those ingredients in your recipes.  (What an amazing help!)  The list of recipes is long and are great to get you started.  She also blogs on favorite brands, which I have found to be extremely helpful when at the grocery store.  Knowing “legal” brands sure makes the grocery trip shorter rather than having to read every package you purchase.  On top of the great recipes she posts, she also has a store that points you in the right direction for tools and recipe books she uses in her kitchen.

Everyone has their own reason for wanting to start eating clean.  It could be like me…because I have to in order to keep my health, or for someone who wants to lose weight or just be take care of your body and be healthy.  I really like Tiffany’s advice in that you have to choose your own boundaries.  If you need a treat, will you allow yourself a treat once a week? once a month?  However often you choose, you need to set your own rules and stick to them.  This is not a diet, but a lifestyle change.  I can speak from experience that when you make up your mind to cut out processed foods and refined sugars, etc, your body will have never felt better.  Your energy will return, your body will heal and you will feel like a million bucks. 

Check out The Gracious Pantry and I would even encourage you to get her feed.  It will be great encouragement to receive good and healthy recipes to motivate you to eat clean and take care of your body!

Here’s a little hometeam pride…

Texas Rangers…

While baseball is OUR thing, they do all sports, all teams, high school, college, professional.  They even have “Dance Mom” items (I will never fill THOSE shoes)…

Their ideas go well beyond the sporting world to seasonal shirts, girls weekends, wine lovers, T-shirts, hats, belts…you just gotta go check them out to see all the choices!  Their website is the best way to get in touch with them, but because they have SO many items, I have found that their Facebook Fan Page is the best resource to see what they have.   Have fun!

 There are currently 18 locations in and around the Houston area.  We pass one on our way to Oklahoma about 45 minutes after we leave our house.  Because it is so close, we have never stopped there simply because at 45 minutes, the kids are finally settling in and getting quiet for our long ride home.  However, people love Buc-ees.  Friends from Houston make Buc-ees their first stop on a road trip north.  So, I had to find out what the fuss was all about.

I was alone and driving back home and decided to make a dash to Buc-ees.  First, there is no dash.  Buc-ees is amazing…cue the Wally World music.  At first notice, you see an impeccably clean and organized gas station despite the hundreds, and I mean hundreds of people filtering in and out.  As I walked around the store, I saw food and gifts of great varieties.

 The food.  Oh, the food….homemade fudge behind a deli bar with at least 50 choices of flavors.  The same goes for homemade beef jerky.  I am not a jerky girl, but the assortment and freshness of beef jerky made even me want to try it.

 They have fresh deli sandwiches, desserts, and the standard cokes, candy, etc.  But who sees that stuff when “fresh” is everywhere you turn?

The gifts…a baby section with darling clothes, toys and books…  A native Texan section with everything you can think of with a Texas flag or the state of Texas on it… A Texas College section with college paraphernalia and clothing.  There is even a cooking section with cookbooks and kitchen items…CUTE kitchen items.

Everyone that works there is friendly, dressed nice, have all their teeth and not covered in tats.  That is a rule for hire…no outward piercings, tats and no criminal history.  The people that work there are upstanding citizens and they appear to really enjoy their job. 

Next door to this amazing wonder store is the Outdoor Store. 

 In the Outdoor Store, they sell furniture, gifts, clothing, cookware…all of the rustic sort.

An outdoorsman’s kind of store.  Antlers are a-plenty.  I was amazed at what they had to offer and was thinking that I should of brought a U-Haul with me to the middle of nowhere on I-45!

After being at Buc-ees for at least an hour, I came home with a T-shirt for everyone in my family (we had to conform!), a few gifts, and a few pieces of Texas paraphernalia.  If you are anywhere near any of the Buc-ees locations, run, don’t walk.  It will certainly be one of the best potty stops you will make in the Houston area.  I can only hope that Buc-ees continues to grow and spread north…all the way to Oklahoma so I can make every stop a Buc-ees stop!

HemmingMyWay is a cinch to apply to your jeans, makes it through the wash (must air dry) and can be used over and again.  Not only are they good for women’s pants, but for men’s clothes and even children’s…like my sweet little toad that always had a big belly and short legs.  His pant legs were always too long!  Altering your pants has never been easier.  Love love love these things!  And I guarantee you will, too.  Click over to Giveaways…you just might when a set for yourself!