Making Connections, Sharing Daily Life, and Loving Everyone along the Way

My apologies for the silence for the past 2 weeks!  It's been a very busy time!

I stopped making resolutions years ago.  

There!  I said it!

I kept thinking to myself, "Why am I making these rediculous resolutions, breaking them by the 2nd week, and they're ancient history by March?"  This was leaving behind such pangs of guilt that would rival the highest peaks of the Himalayas!!

Instead I said to myself, "Goals are much easier!  Let's set some good, affirming, life giving goals!"

So I began!  

Or...rather....I began again, and again, and again!

But this time, I wasn't breaking resolutions.  I was looking at my goals realistically, reviewing my progress, reassessing any needs I may have and making needed changes to help with my progress.

Did I fail?!  

YES!!!! 

Did I give up?!  No!

Sometimes when I came to a difficult realization, I had to reassess all things about these particular goals.  For example, I made the goal of getting up before everyone and reading my Bible every day.  It was a wonderful goal.  It called for discipline to get up around 6AM and get my Bible read.  Interestingly, sleep, or the lack thereof got in the way.  So, I looked at the situation and reassessed my own needs and desires.  As much as I wanted to marinade in the Word for a couple of hours, it just wasn't realistic.  I had to deal with pangs of guilt and ask for forgiveness, but I came up with a plan that worked well.  I read for 10 minutes after lunch while the kids cleaned up the kitchen.  Ten minutes was better than Zero!  So at that point in my life, that worked.

What about now?

Now, my husband and I are teetering on the precipice of being completely emtpy nesters.  What a new and novel thing for us to be faced with!  

What will happen?  I don't know, but I have 7 areas that I will be working on in the coming weeks because this will be happening before we know it!  

1). Fitness

2). Finance

3). Family

4). Field

5). Faith

6). Friends

7). Fun

You can find these concepts in the Oola books.  There is their flagship book called Oola:  Finding Balance in an Unbalanced World.  There is Oola for Women, Oola for Christians, and a couple Oola books for business.  

I have 3 of their books and I do love them.  I'm finding that, like everything else, I'm tweaking their thoughts just a wee bit with regard to my own.  

With these areas I've found with other trainings I've attended that they touch on very similar topics.  Balance!  If one area does not get the right amount of attention, it's going to suffer.  So, I need to become stronger in that area to not just succeed, but to bring in a good balance to my life.  

I could tell you my own personal goals for each of the 7 areas, but I have one other concern:  accountability.  To whom can I be accountable?

A mentor...

My husband...

My best friend...

My dog...

...ok, that last one was supposed to be funny! LOL  

Well, anyway, who can be a mentor to me in all of those areas combined?  Truth is that usually only one person can be a mentor in one to three areas...

...usually...

Do I have a mentor?  Truthfully, No, I do not.  I would like to find one.  I've been praying for a Titus 2 Godly mentor for years.  I do have someone in mind, but I'm waiting for God to confirm that to me.

As for evaluating this past year, I look at the 7 areas I listed above and truthfully look at every area, scrutinizing them honestly and say, "Did I put forth my all in this area?  Could I have done better?  What specifically could I improve?  How do I do that?  What tools do I need to accomplish that?"  and so forth.  I started looking at the acronymn SMART. 

So many of us, I know, are just spinning our wheels in life, not truly working toward a goal or a target in any area, just hoping to hit something when we shoot that arrow.  Is it any wonder there is no progress?!   

I learned a long time ago that in order to make progress in my life, I had to make a concerted effort daily in small chunks of time, to hit the larger goal of "XYZ" in any given area.  

It takes focus, determination, and grit to persevere toward those goals!  Setting goals, I need to be SMART about it.  

Did I hit all my goals this year?  No.  But, I'm not giving up!  I've made progress toward a greater goal in many areas of my life.  I'm improving steadily, adjusting my goals and making tweaks as I go.  

What about you?  Let me know how you're coming with your goals!  I'd love to hear from you!

Love & God Bless,

Regina

I want your family to be blessed with toxin free health supporting products!  

Every one of these products have blessed me and my family immeasurably, so to keep that quiet would be a disservice to each one of you! 

So today as I start my Thanksgiving day baking with my Honey Whole Wheat Bread, I'll be praying for each one of you reading this.  I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with love, family, blessings, and peace.

Love & God Bless,
Regina Graham

Years ago, about 24 to be exact, the general "rule of thumb" was when your kids were 2 years old, take them to the dentist, get started with flouride treatments for their teeth, get their teeth cleaned, as much as they will handle, and continue doing that every 6 months until they have their own insurance.

By the time my oldest son was about 8 years old, we noticed brown marks on his teeth. We didn't know what it was and the dentist didn't seem too concerned with it, so we didn't think much of it.  We just told him to keep brushing his teeth twice a day and we left it at that.  

As time went on and things came to my attention--oxidative stress from the wrong oils in our cooking and baking, using vinegar and baking soda to clean with, and subsequently flouride poisoning, this Momma bear's ears pricked up and more research ensued.  

Can you imagine what I found when I looked up flouride poisoning?!  Try it!  


That's just in drinking water! 

And I wondered how my son's teeth were getting brown spots!?

What did we do?  I had been trying to get him to use baking soda and peppermint for a while, but the baking soda just didn't feel good to him.  

As a mother who is concerned, you do all that you can, keep researching, and leave the rest up to God.  

When we moved to Georgia, we've used a filtration system on our refrigerator for our drinking water and use bottled water for our coffee.  I'd like to eventually get a Berkey system like the one below which filters out so much more than our refrigerator filtration system.  

Click the picture to see this particular Berkey filtration system!

 I'd like to say we've reached a point where we're no longer using flouridated toothpaste, but so far it is only me who is using the non-flouride toothpaste.  I think everyone else is more concerned about taste than anything else.  

As for floride free toothpaste for kids and adults, you could make your own toothpaste from Bentonite Clay, which remineralizes your teeth; Organic Food Grade Activated Charcoal, which draws out impurities, Organic Coconut Oil which is a good binding agent; Thieves Vitality OIl and Peppermint Vitality Oil.  You could also add Orange Vitality Oil for whitening instead of bleach.  

Another option for kids is KidScents Toothpaste which is flouride free.  For adults there are quite a few options for toothpaste, including Thieves Whitening Toothpaste.  Take a look and see which one(s) you might be interested in learning more about!  Of course none of these products are made with flouride, so you don't have to risk the flouride poisoning from the OTC products.  

For me, it's a no-brainer!  

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Love & God Bless,
Regina

Welcome to my science class today!

In this brief video, class, you will be introduced to....

The digestive system! 

While this episode isn't the greatest quality, it will give you a fun idea of what happens when the "digestive juices" come along and help digest things.

I would like to explain here at this point, that our gut health is directly correlated to our overall health, physically and mentally.  

In this next video, you'll see a variety of reasons to make it a matter of serious consideration about your own gut health. 

Ok, now that we have those out of the way and I've probably scared the "Dickens" out of you, minus the 3 ghosts, how do you address all of this?

I am continually addressing my own gut biome.  Years ago, in February 2007, I had sinus surgery.  A few days later I got a sinus infection and needed a powerful antibiotic.  I ended up, for the first time in my life, I got thrush!  For those of you who do not know what thrush is, simplistically speaking, it is a yeast overgrowth in your gut that shows up in your mouth and lips.  

That's when I rushed to the box store and bought an acidophilus.  Mind you, that was the best I knew at the time, but fortunately, I know more now.  Keep reading and you'll be pleasantly surprised! 

Enzymes are just a small part of the picture.  Enzymes come along and help to break down your food in to usable bits for your body to use for building, rebuilding, healing, and growing.  Yes!  It's a BIG job!  So, our food must be the best we can possibly manage for the sake of our own health.

But, is our food today the same nutrient dense food that our grandparents had back in the 1970's?

The answer is "NO!"

Start with cleaning up our diets, removing the processed foods, as much as possible.  No one is perfect, right?!  Once a month getting fast food is ok, right?  Well, try eating everything unprocessed for a month, then go get yourself fast food!  See what happens.  My guess would be that you'll likely end up in the bathroom within a half an hour.  I know that's what happens to me!  Whew!

For those of you who are science nerds, go ahead and look up all these enzymes and see what they do, how they do it, why they do it, and all that sort of thing.  I love the research myself, but ya'all need to do some of the work to completely understand the "WHY?!" 

I'm glad you asked!

First of all, I'd start with a good probiotic: Life 9  This is a timed release capsule that releases in the small intestine where it's needed!  It's best to take this right before bed.

Secondly, I'd get the best antioxidant drink on the planet on board: NingXia Red

After you've been on those for 3 months...

Oh!  I forgot to tell you, this is a long term type of thing.  This is where you try those items for 90 days, then stop for 1 week and see how you feel. 

Trust me!  You're going to feel a HUGE difference!  

How do we get started?

Easy peasy!

When you visit the links above, click "Subscribe" on both of them.  You'll get a 24% discount right after you create an account.  Make sure you write down your account number, PIN number, sign on name, password, etc, and set your subscription to process at the day most convenient for you.  Here's a bonus, when your order reaches 100+ in personal volume (PV), you get free shipping!   Keep your subscription going and you'll earn loyalty points toward FREE products!  It's a great program!

As for "WHO", anyone 12 and up can take the above supplements.  What about younger ones?  They can take the Kids' MightyPro--Pre & Probiotic, it seriously tastes like a Pixie Stick!!!, and 1 ounce of NingXia Red each day instead of 2 ounces.  

Kids can also take enzymes with Mightyzyme supplement.  

As for the next step for older children ages 12 and adults, the next step would be to take a look at what types of things you're having issues with?

Do you need help with allergies?

Try Allerzyme

Are you wanting to just begin?

Try Essentialzyme

Now, back to your own "why"...why would you start using these supplements to help with your gut health?  Here is a list of a few examples:

*Mental fatigue

*Digestive discomfort

*A need to avoid certain foods because of how you "react"/food sensitivities and allergies

*Irregular bowel movements, diarrhea, or irritable bowel

*A feeling of "fullness" or bloating

*Sluggishness after meals

*Gassiness

*Acid reflux/ Acidity issues/ GERD/ Heartburn

*Poor tissue repair

*Weight gain

*Constipation

*Crohn's disease

*Celiac Disease

*Lactose intolerance

*Diverticulitis
*Gastritis

*Skin issues/ acne/ eczema or psoriasis

These are only naming a few of the plethora of gut-related issues.  (S. Harnich,206)

If you have any of these issues and are being treated by a Dr for them, please take the ingredients lists to each of the supplements I've mentioned above to your Dr's visit and see if they're ok with you taking them before you even order. 

Other than that, folks, your health is in your own hands.  Do the research!  Type up "Benefits of _______" each ingredient in the above supplements.  Want to take a handy dandy supplement from the local box store?  Great!  But you're only going to absorb about 30% of the supplement.  When you have excellent quality supplements that all the ingredients adhere to the strictest of standards, you cannot go wrong!  

Take control of your gut health today!  Your body will thank you in the long run!

Love & God Bless,

Regina Graham

According to my husband, this soup was awesome!  It was just as good the 2nd day which says a lot! 

Now, how does one begin?  I'm going to give you the recipe, then I'm going to explain how we do the butternut squash.

8 Cups Butternut Squash, pre cooked and pureed (explanation below)

1 stick of butter (please only use butter)

1-32 ounce container of Chicken Bone Broth 

1-Fist size onion chopped finely

1-Green Pepper chopped finely
(Season above items with Himalayan Pink Salt, pepper, and garlic powder "to taste")

2-Pounds of Ground Pork Breakfast Sausage Cooked

     (When it's almost finished, sprinkle with Cayenne Pepper--to taste--I probably used 1/8th of a teaspoon, as well as  Turmeric)
3-Pounds Small Red Potatoes--cleaned and quartered--Spray a cookie sheet with non stick coconut oil spray, add potatoes and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parsley, then coat with avocado oil.  Bake at 350º for 30 minutes--turning 1/2 way through the cooking time.
1-Pint Heavy Whipping Cream 15 minutes before serving

And here is the finished product!  I love throwing a hand full of oyster crackers in mine, too.  

Substitutions:  You can use any meat.  This works well with a spicy meat, so a smoked sausage that has a jalapeno twinge to it would work well, too.  The point is to balance out the sweetness of the butternut squash.
*You can use non-dairy products if you need to, like coconut oil instead of butter and any non dairy milk in place of the heavy whipping cream, too.  

*You can substitute the chicken bone broth with vegetable broth if you are more of a vegetarian/vegan, too.  Admitedly, I haven't used any of the vegan/vegetarian meat substitutes in this, so I cannot vouch for those and their flavor.  If you do, please leave a message for me in the comments! 

Now, why did I make Butternut Squash soup?  I made it for a bunch of precious friends who came to my house to "Make & Take" some Pumpkin Sugar Scrub!  We used Cinnamon Bark, Nutmeg, Ginger, and Clove essential oils in this scrub along with pumpkin!  What a lucious invigorating scrub for us to try!

This was such a fun night and I enjoyed having everyone here!  

Next time I'm "Cooking with Vitality Oils"!  I can't wait to show everyone how easy it is to use these oils in the kitchen!  I'm sure they'll love the result, too!  I'm working on the menu and it could very likely include something with spaghetti sauce! 

If you would like the recipe for the Pumpkin Sugar Scrub just let me know!

Love & God Bless, 💜 

Regina Graham