I think that this is a great paleo breakfast, though I have in no way, shape or form been adopting the paleolithic lifestyle. I can see how appealing it is to gather your own food from your own garden, and I’m hoping that once the strawberries are exhausted, it’ll be time for the raspberries to be picked – and they ARE prolific, as anyone who has ever grown raspberries will tell you! My neighbor planted blackberries, so hopefully there will be some trading going on over the fence.

What do I normally eat if I’m not eating fruit? Well, I will confess that, for a while there, I was eating Ciel’s leftover ramen noodles (definitely NOT paleo), but breakfast for me usually consists of a cup of coffee or five.

I have just put eggs in the oven to test the “hard boiled eggs in the oven” theory. I would have taken my own pics but my muffin pan is nowhere near as pristine as hers! This method seems to be fairly viral on Pinterest, and many of my friends have tried it and given it their stamp of approval. I tried it with the one egg I had in the fridge last week, didn’t pay attention to the timer, and – let’s just say I had no appetite for eggs after I rescued it from the oven!

Other paleo ideas for breakfast? The standby, I think, is bacon – but really, who has time to stand over a hot stove cooking bacon in the mornings on a week day? Certainly not this chickadee! Brats would fall under the same category. I picked up some delicious brats from Bloomington Meats just last week, and I’m not a brat lover by any means, but these are good!! I chose Midwestern, Apple and Cherry. The flavors were real, nothing artificial tasting in there at all! Bloomington Meats have a great $30 bundle each month, so we had quite a bit of meat to see us through.

When I start taking this paleo thing seriously, I know I’m going to have to give up my beloved overnight oatmeal and my Greek yogurt. Boo. But I’m looking forward to making time to cook broccoli frittata, or zucchini pancakes, or just a big ‘ol fruit smoothie!

What’s for breakfast at your house?

Accentuate the positive, indeed. We learn from experience that what you focus on, you get more of. So let’s make a conscious effort to focus on the positive. I’ll start … you just follow.

Here’s an “Askformation” from Chris Alexandria, the Angel Chatterer, it’s a mantra of sorts. “Why am I so positive?” Chris gives a new Askformation each Monday morning on her Facebook page, and I have to say they have done wonders for me. The thinking behind Askformations is that they get your brain thinking differently. If this were an affirmation, it would probably be “I am always positive”, but asking “why am I so positive?” makes your brain work to answer the question. And it’s in the answering that the “aha” moment occurs.

Here are a few that have worked for me:

“Why does the Universe continue to shower me with blessings?”
“Why do I always arrive at meetings on time?”
“Why do I have so much to celebrate and be thankful for?”

Ask questions like this and the subconscious searches for an answer. The trick is to ask a question in a positive way – so you wouldn’t ask “Why am I so broke?” because your subconscious then focuses on the “broke”. Your question – in this instance – should be more along the lines of “Why am I rich?” And yes, it seems far out there to some, but if you have any knowledge of the Law of Attraction, it would make more sense. Right? Focus on positive words, ask positive questions, and it will bring you positive results.

“Why am I always able to post my blog before 8:30am?”

Try it. Just for a day. Let me know what happens!

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It was 1969, I think. Summer, by the look of the clothes. And Kate was 2, I was 7. ish. This dress I remember very clearly – it was a layered number, some light chiffony-type fabric over nylon. And the sandals. Brown with square bronze colored studs on the crossbar.

Kate’s blanket (which you may mistake for a piece of string) was everywhere Kate was. Except when it was in the washing machine. Because it was still washed, faithfully, until it really did resemble a piece of string. At which point, the blanket was no more. I don’t think she had a name for it, but it was her constant companion. And I mean constant.

So, 1969 – the year that Nixon succeeded LBJ in the role of POTUS, 5 million people watched in awe as Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon. The halfpenny, or ha’pny, as it is affectionately known, ceases to become legal tender in the UK and we got color TV! Chicago police shot Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark as they slept.

In 1969 the infamous Abbey Road photo of the Beatles is taken by Iain McMillan. Sharon Tate et al were murdered by Manson followers, and Woodstock is held August 15-18. Gaddafi commences his rule of Libya, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid immediately becomes a hit on the big screen.

Notable premiers include Sesame Street, The Brady Bunch, Scooby Doo, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and H R Pufnstuf (starring the adorable Jack Wild)

And The Beatles release Abbey Road.

The first strain of the AIDS virus hit the US, via Haiti.

The first message is sent over ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet. The first GAP store opened. Wendy’s and Long Johns Silver’s opened their first restaurants and Pele kicked his 1,000th goal.

Bobby Brown, J-Lo, Chaz Bono and Jennifer Aniston were born. Boris Karloff, Jack Kerouac, Judy Garland and Conrad Hilton Jr died.

And we wore really, really short dresses. A la Twiggy.

Having just signed them up for Band Camp this summer (thanks, grandparents!) they will be preparing to play with the Bloomington-Normal Community Concert Band in the summer.

Paris plays a mean trumpet, but is considering changing to the horn as her friend Shaina is giving up band, and that would mean there is only one horn.

Ciel picked up the clarinet and hasn’t put it down since. In her first lesson she just got to blow the mouthpiece, getting used to the reed. But after her second lesson, she came home and looked up a video on YouTube, the turned around and worked out how to play it. She’s a natural.

Ciel is considering switching to bass clarinet. I think that just the plain ol’ clarinet is not “unique” enough for her. She likes to be different, and playing the bass clarinet would fill that need for her. They don’t let the kids switch to bass clarinet until 6th grade … I think it’s a height issue!

So, this summer – four days a week, for three weeks – I’ll be ferrying the girls back and forth to the Jr High for band camp – Ciel will get out 15 minutes before Paris goes in. All I can say is I’m lucky the school is about a 5 minute drive away!

See you in Franklin Park for the concert!

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Today is Crazy Hair Day at school, and for Ciel, that just means leaving her hair down.

Usually, she washes it on a Sunday night, and I braid it – as close to her head as possible – in two braids that stay in all week. It’s an ordeal, I won’t deny that, there are plenty of Ows and yelps as the tenderheaded child complains throughout the whole procedure.

I long for the day when she can comb her own hair. I don’t remember when I started brushing mine (hers needs a comb, definitely not a brush!) but I do remember Betty having to stand on the stairs to gain enough height to brush my hair before school. Then again, she probably just didn’t trust me to brush my own LOL!

Paris has been brushing her own for a while now. It concerned me for a while because her hair is prone to matting and every now and again I’d be able to get my hands on it just to check she was doing it properly. I know, I’m such a helicopter mom!

Ciel, however, is going to be a different story. It takes me an hour to comb out her hair properly. It has to be doused with leave-in conditioner (two types. I’m currently using – and love – Beautiful Textures Tangle Taming Leave-In Conditioner and Rapid Repair Deep Conditioner) and sectioned off for easy combing. I really think that the fact that it’s leave-in conditioner offsets the fact that she doesn’t use conditioner when she washes her hair.

I usually do her hair on a Sunday night, but as today is Crazy Hair Day, we’re doing it this morning.

I just hope she gets to school on time!

[If you like Beautiful Textures too, you can like them on Facebook!]

The wait is over.

The anxiety and wringing of hands is over.

We have an answer!

I will not pontificate any longer on the circumstances that dragged us through the longest journey of my life, I’ll just say that I’m relieved and so, so appreciative.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve read the laments, the frustrations and the sheer hopelessness of my foreclosure saga. If you haven’t, it’s not hard to find

I received news yesterday that my application for assistance through IHDA has been approved. They will be taking care of my mortgage arrearages (that’s a clumsy word!), and will be paying my mortgage from hereon in. I, in turn, pay them 1/3 of my income. So, as my income goes up, my payment goes up until it meets my full mortgage payment, or use up $20,000 in assistance, whichever comes first. (Much of that $20,000 is already eaten up by the arrearages.) Thank you, Illinois Housing Development Association, and especially Kathy Shubert of Mid Central Community Action.

It’s over.

Relief.

And I can breathe again.

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This brings up all kinds of red flags for me that I’m trying to ignore. The biggest of which is that I don’t think I would be a very appealing spokesperson for myself. I feel like I need to very quickly learn the art of cartooning, so I could make an alternate me for my videos.

I love the idea of video blogging. It’s a quick’n'dirty method of getting the word out. Doesn’t take much time (unless you’re a perfectionist), and would really suit what I do. People ask me for advice all the time – how easy it would be just to record an answer on video and upload it to Tumblr!

I have my domain name, I have a Tumblr account, what’s to stop me? Well, I don’t like my hair right now, my glasses reflect the light, I just don’t consider myself appealing video fodder.

No one ever excused his way to success.  ~Dave Del Dotto

Am I still afraid to be a success? Highly likely. I’ve talked this through with Stephanie, who has the uncanny ability to dig really, really deep into my soul – after being told for a good number of years that I wasn’t good enough, I was stupid, I didn’t have a brain and would “never amount to anything”, it’s going to prove people wrong if I ever become successful. And that should be enough to WANT to be successful, right. It’s not. It holds me back.

Your letter of excuses has arrived.  I receive the letter but do not admit the excuses except in courtesy, as when a man treads on your toes and begs your pardon – the pardon is granted, but the joint aches, especially if there is a corn upon it.  ~Lord Byron

So, that’s it. No more excuses. Any day now I begin videoblogging – ask me a question (related to social media, preferably!) and I’ll answer it in a video. I promise not to ramble.

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I long for the day when I can wake up when my eyes want to, rather than when the alarm tells me it’s time to get moving. And speaking of that alarm …

… it goes off with a rousing chorus from “Get It On” by Marc Bolan at 6am. Now, I know I have no need to get up at 6am, so why this happens is beyond my comprehension. Yes, I set it up that way, but still beyond my comprehension.

Then, ritualistically, at 6:10am, 6:20am, 6:30am and 6:40am I have to reach for the iPad, fumble for the on button, make out the huge red snooze button, and press it for another 10 minutes of divine rest. The 6:50am alarm is the one I get up to. No more, no less. Oh wait, that’s a lie. I do sometimes sneak an extra 10 minutes and get up at 7, then the whole morning is a rush for poor Paris, who has to be out of the door by 7:25am.

You may be thinking that I’m a wuss, and I have no willpower. Why don’t I just get up when the first alarm goes off? [it's too damned early!]

You my be wondering, why so many snoozes? [I have no idea! 6am just seemed like a good place to start]

So, how do I cure myself of this weird obsession with the snooze function? Maybe going to bed earlier would be a good start. I honestly start every evening with the intention of being in bed by 10pm. Set the intention, and the Universe will conspire to make it happen. Where are you, Universe? Why are you not kicking my butt up to bed at 10pm??

What usually happens – oh, maybe 90% of the time – is that someone starts a conversation with me at 9:50pm. And one thing leads to another, and well, here I am, still sitting in front of a damned screen at midnight. No self-control, I tellya!

I do relish the weekends, though. Saturday and Sunday mornings, when I can lay in bed for as long as I can sleep, or until the infernal din from Beatles Rock Band refuses to let me sleep any longer. Or a trying-to-be-tiny voice asks me some question that could really have waited until I was more coherent. Just one rule in my house regarding sleep on the weekends. Unless the number on the clock starts with a 9 or above, do NOT wake the sleeping mama bear.

I really must remember to fix that clock for daylight savings time.

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To ask yourself “why?” you first have to find your why. And you may be surprised to discover that your personal why may not be what you thought it was! The reason why you do what you do every day may not be to own a nice house in the country. It may merely be to keep a roof over your head. Your why may not be a Caribbean cruise – it may be to keep the water from being shut off.

Where you are right now determines your why.

There are those who would argue that a person’s why is their life’s purpose. But how can you see a future full of abundance when you can’t even keep the lights on?

Consider this 15-minute exercise from Steve Pavlina on “finding your why”.

1. Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.

He adds “For those who are very entrenched in low-awareness living, it will take a lot longer to get all the false answers out, possibly more than an hour. But if you persist, after 100 or 200 or maybe even 500 answers, you’ll be struck by the answer that causes you to surge with emotion, the answer that breaks you. If you’ve never done this, it may very well sound silly to you. So let it seem silly, and do it anyway.”

Again, be aware that your life purpose may not be the why that drives you right now, right at this very moment. If the fact that you need to save your home from foreclosure makes you cry,  then that obviously is your current why, but not your life’s purpose!

I’d love to hear your why. Would you be willing to post in the comments?

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It’s been a week now that I have not been feeling right.

It started with my body telling me what my head didn’t want to hear. My body was [is] craving something healthier than the SAD (Standard American Diet). I went to a meeting on Wednesday, and as much as I wanted to order the chili rellenos I followed my intuition and ate a salad.

There have been signals for me to stay away from certain foods. It’s hard to put a name to the feelings, or even a description. You know when you just know that something is right.

Oh, my body rebelled in other ways. I’ve spent so much time in the bathroom it’s not funny. I’ve barely done any work in the last week – and not for lack of enthusiasm – I would just need to transport my office to the little room, and I don’t think that’s the answer.

I cannot eat without having to break to rush to the bathroom. As soon as food goes in … well, I don’t want to get too graphic, but you get the picture. I barely slept last night and now I dont know whether to try to go back to bed, to risk going to PromptCare, or to ride it out.

Either way, thank you body. I hate you now, but no doubt will thank you for it later.

Oh. And I lost 7lb in the last week. Wouldn’t recommend this method of weight loss, though.

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