Category: Household

How to make a Thanksgiving Dinner that will make Hulda Clark proud (and kitchen tips for health)
I love Thanksgiving Dinner at home. My family loves to cook! Spending the day together in the kitchen is our kind of holiday.

While writing down my Thanksgiving Dinner menu the other night, my mind wandered toward a list of what I am thankful for. On top of that list is my family’s health, which led me to think about Hulda Clark.

Twenty years ago, my father-in-law sent my husband and me a book that changed our lives. It was “The Cure For All Cancers,” by Hulda Clark. Hulda Clark’s book opened my eyes to a whole new paradigm in health. She gave me hope by showing me a better way to live. I have a healthy family because of the lifestyle lessons I learned from her. For that I will forever be thankful.

It makes me wonder what it would be like if we had Hulda Clark over for Thanksgiving Dinner. Would I pass the Hulda Clark test? She’s very strict. Here are a few ideas on how to make a Thanksgiving Dinner that Hulda Clark would be proud of:

1. Get a certified organic turkey.

And not only turkey, but as many certified organic ingredients as possible for making Thanksgiving Dinner. Don’t let too many toxic chemicals, antibiotics, and GMOs crash your party.

2. Use glass or stainless steel cookware.

Hulda Clark recommended as little contact with metal as possible. For cookware, high quality stainless steel is the exception because it is the least likely to leach into its contents. How do you know if it’s high quality? Put a magnet to it. If the magnet sticks, you’re good to go.

Instead of a copper or aluminum roasting pan and bakeware, use glass pyrex or stainless steel. Tie up your bird with twine, but don’t use the metal pins. Use stainless steel pots and pans. Use wooden spoons and spatulas for stirring. Use ceramic knives for chopping up vegetables. They’re extremely sharp and require no re-sharpening. Use a stainless steel knife for carving the turkey.

3. Make everything from scratch.

Let me share my recipes with you:
There are millions of other recipes online. Choose the ones that have the least processed ingredients.

4. Use bamboo forks and knives for place settings.

As I explained in #2, Hulda Clark recommended as little contact with metal as possible. She lauded Asian cultures that use chopsticks for eating as a model of health.

Think back to the fall of the Roman Empire due to its misuse of lead in irrigation pipes and goblets. This is the sound alarm that Hulda Clark points to in our civilization’s use of metal amalgams in many things such as cookware, tableware, tooth fillings, and so on.

Switching to bamboo cutlery makes a giant dent in curbing our daily exposure to metal.

5. Zappicate food before serving.

Find pockets of time to zappicate food before serving. Turkey is supposed to rest for 30 minutes after being taken out of the oven. Let that rest time count by setting it on top of the Food Zappicator. (Make sure it’s on its serving platter and not the hot roasting pan to prevent from heat-damaging your North Pole Speaker Box.)

Do the same for side dishes. Just a little bit of time on the Food Zappicator for some last minute zapping makes the food ready for a healthy meal.

Do you think Hulda Clark would be proud of my Thanksgiving Dinner? Can you think of any other details I missed?
November 21, 2017
Stay Healthy While Planning Your Wedding

Photo by demesa.com

This is a guest contribution from Mark Wilcox of WeddingIntro.com.

Wedding planning is a must, but it is also stressful. If you are not careful you can make yourself sick planning your wedding. In this article, we will look at some ways you can stay healthy while planning your wedding.

Eat Well

The most important part of health is proper nutrition. Later we will talk about exercise, but you cannot outrun a bad diet. If you eat only junk, it is going to make you feel like junk.

I have found through my own personal testing that two mechanisms work better for diet. First is to cut back on sugar and carbs, processed foods in particular. Second, consider fasting. This isn’t the same as starving yourself. Rather consider skipping a meal or two. This will seem weird at first but you will get used to it. This skipping of meals is called intermittent fasting. For more information let me point you to Dr. Jason Fung.

Exercise To Feel Good

The most important way exercise can help is by releasing endorphins to control stress. Taking a break from wedding planning and getting your body moving will actually help you think of more creative solutions.

Consider looking into weight training. I’m a big fan of kettlebells. But you can choose your own program. You will not end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Instead, it will make you look toned and fit.

Taylor Swift before the 1989 tour was a skinny girl with a cute face. After going through her training for that tour she toned her figure to the point where many people said she looked better than Victoria Secret models.

Another example is Ronda Rousey. She is beautiful. So beautiful they put her on the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue in just body paint.

Relax

There is no point in trying to plan a perfect wedding, because you will never have perfection. Instead, focus on the experience. You are planning to only get married once. If you spend time only worrying about the perfect wedding you will miss out. Don’t compare your wedding to your friend’s wedding. Or a wedding you read about in The Knot. Or worse some wedding you see in a movie. Just relax. Pay attention. Spend time with the people you love.

Weddings are magical ceremonies, and one of the best days of your life. So eat well, get exercise, and relax. I hope you have an amazing wedding!

March 2, 2016
I am a small part of the big picture.
Bees are magical. They pollinate plants and are responsible for many of the foods we eat. Without bees, there would be widespread famine.

Bees also make a magical potion called honey. Honey is medicinal and lasts forever. It has recently been touted as the “new” cure for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which is laughable considering the medicinal use of honey was documented as far back as in ancient Sumerian clay tablets.

Bees are in danger. All over the world bees are dying. Pesticides and the loss of adequate habitat devoted to bees are killing bee colonies. Governments are not acting fast enough to make the changes necessary to save them.

We, you and I, need to do something about it. It’s really easy to provide a honey bee haven. All bees need is pesticide-free food, shelter and water. Your garden, balcony or front porch will do.
1. Stop using pesticides in your garden. Explore organic ways to control pests such as ladybugs.
2. Plant flowers bees would love throughout the year, especially in the late summer and fall.
3. Set up a clean source of water, like a shallow fountain or rainwater collection system. Bees don’t need much.
4. Leave some ground undisturbed with dead branches for wild bees to find shelter in.
These are the recommendations made by Honey Bee Haven. It’s a small contribution that can make a big difference.
April 26, 2015
Celebrate!

Join me in wishing my husband a happy 50th! We’ve been counting down each month with tips for good health and longevity. This month’s tip: Celebrate!

June 6, 2014
Read

One of the most rewarding parts of my day is reading to my daughter at bedtime. I’ve been reading to her from the moment she was born.

When she was a baby, the sound of my voice soothed her as I read her short poems and sang her songs.

When she was a toddler exploring her environment, soft books with tactile features amused her to no end.

We read board books as she learned more about the world around her. She began recognizing images and putting them together with words. Her favorites were Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, and Big Red Barn; and Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Lonely Firefly, and The Very Busy Spider.

As she extended her command of language, her love for books grew. She got into Dr. Seuss and the poetry of Shel Silverstein.

Long before she learned to read she had memorized Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, Skelly the Skeleton Girl by Jimmie Pickering, and Dr. Seuss’s One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

By the time she started kindergarten we were reading long form books. The first one was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which began our journey through the L. Frank Baum series. After that we dove into the How to Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell. While waiting for the latest Dragon series release, we read all 7 books of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

In third grade she started reading Roald Dahl on her own: Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and The BFG. At this point in time she already has a wide social life separate from me, and a great many interests she pursues on her own.

I still read to her at bedtime, even though she can very well read by herself. We take turns, two pages each. We read The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black. We read Greek mythology and the book of Genesis.

When I started reading to my daughter, I thought I was simply teaching her how to read and love books. What I’ve learned is that there is so much more to it than that. Most of the books I read to her, I had never read myself before. I was experiencing these stories for the first time with her. This was not a case of me, the elder, imparting wisdom to my young. We were sharing laughter, spontaneous bursts of tears, and epiphanies together. We were learning so much about ourselves and each other while we read. Most of all we’ve developed a language and a culture between us based on a literary bond we can draw upon as reference as we navigate the real world together.

That is the gift of literature.

May 7, 2014
Play Music

Go on, you know you want to. Just pick up a musical instrument and play it. If you don’t have an instrument, just sing. Or beatbox.

Don’t worry if it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing. Sing a song.

April 7, 2014
Lemon Vinegar Cleaner

I love my scented vinegar cleaner. I’ve been using the Orange Vinegar Cleaner now for a year and it is fantastic. It has all the benefits of cleaning with vinegar: non-toxic, food-grade, environment-safe, non-allergenic, inexpensive, gentle on hands, deodorizing and effective on all surfaces (except granite or marble) – all while giving me that sweet citrusy smell of orange.

In preparation for spring cleaning this year I am making Lemon Vinegar Cleaner for a stronger, tangier citrus scent. Fill a quart-size glass jar with lemon peel. Make sure the peels are clean. No need to scrub them or anything; just make sure there are no lemon sacs, membranes or seeds getting lost in there. If you don’t have enough to fill a jar yet, freeze it and keep adding to it until it’s packed tight.

Pour white distilled vinegar into the jar until it covers the lemon peels, not quite to the rim but pretty close. Screw the lid on and store in a cool dark place for two weeks.

After two weeks of soaking lemon peel in vinegar, it’s time to get it out. Set up a funnel into a HDPE 8-oz spray bottle. Pour the lemon vinegar a third of the way into the spray bottle. Top off with water.

March 16, 2014
Take a walk

Spring is just around the corner. The snow and ice is melting. The sun is shining brighter. This past weekend we took a 2-mile walk to the village and back. It was great to get some exercise, fresh air, sun and sightseeing at Camden Village. Come along with us.

March 10, 2014
Hug a Tree

It has been so hot here in the Central Valley of California. The little tree in front of our house cracked right in two. It’s the tree the Chipmunks in our latest Time Brats movie perched up on. (Boy, am I glad it didn’t crack while the kids were up on it!)

Speaking of trees, here’s my daughter hugging a tree for Team Yupapotamus Ranch Capture California Adventure #36: Hug a Tree.

Go on, hug a tree and say, it’s all right, tree. I love you!

May 31, 2013
Garden Update

My Shade Garden is coming along nicely. Most of it, at least. I planted early spring plants such as peas, sugar snap peas, broccoli, lettuce, radishes and beets on February 16 and 17.

Remember those Sugar Snap Peas I got from Botanical Interests that I planted a while back? Here they are now!

Aren’t they happy?

The radishes are perking up adorably as well. Here’s one. I love its red stems and heart-shaped leaves.

I can’t wait to see these underground beauties.

The lettuce, broccoli, spinach and beets have also sprouted, but I’ll wait a little bit until they’re bigger before I take pictures.

Someone has been messing around in my garden. I don’t know if it’s a bird or a little mammal, but I really need to figure out a way to keep my plants from getting eaten. I have both a cat and a dog, and the neighbors’ cats come over to play too. You’d think we’d keep the rodents and birds in check, but I still see a lot of gopher holes throughout the lawn.

I was thinking of maybe building some kind of Arduino-powered robot-scarecrow to create a motion-detecting alarm to scare off little creatures. Still tossing around some ideas. Maybe something as simple as solar-powered or wind-powered kinetic sculptures would be sufficient.

As for the Little Marvel Shelling Peas I had leftover from last year, I wrote about refrigerating them before putting them in the ground. I think I read about it somewhere in an old copy of The Old Farmers Almanac. Well, my peas took a very long time to emerge. The Sugar Snaps were way further along before I saw even just a peep of the peas. I finally saw some of them this weekend.

What else have I got to report? Remember the rose bushes I pruned and fed banana peels? They are growing so big and beautiful. Here’s Security, the Rose Bush with the killer thorns by my daughter’s window.

The Olive tree is sprouting shoots at its base.

I think I may take cuttings this summer and see if we can grow more of this Olive tree that is so rich in symbolism.

March 10, 2013