Jars Jars Jars

   I have always had this fascination with, collecting matching containers, heaven forbid there became an empty jar...I was in my glory! Jars, of any shape, size and form were my favourite by all means. Being asked many times  "what are you going to do with all THIS container, why do you need ANOTHER jar?  Yes I was the pack rat when I was young. Never having to many egg cartons, or similar containers from yogurt, sour cream, honey and what ever else you could buy in a container, and  never having a clue what I was going to do with all of them, I just liked collecting, and then finding a grand scheme what to do with them!  Eventually it would get to be to much and with my love of organizing and cleaning things out (shhhh don't tell anyone) they all became very well known to the recycling.  A few months back I was washing out an Alfredo sauce jar, and I couldn't help but stash it under my sink, but it looked so lonesome I had to keep washing and stashing jars when ever I got the chance!

Colouring the jars with Mod Podge and
food colouring in some water.

So much fun!
Enjoyed some munchies too!

So last friday I went on a pinteresting mission! Found this wonderful blog and such a cute idea of what to do with my jars. So my friend and I were off and have made cute tinted jars for our babies rooms!

Just letting em' dry a little

The end process of warming them in the oven 

What do you do with your jars?

whats in the beans?!

Before I was put on bed rest I taught many preschool dance classes for the City of Calgary. I also taught an activities/games/ movement class where children came and we made different crafts, played different games, creating and learning. Every week these kids communications skills, gross motor skills and listening skills improved. I loved teaching this class!  

I am very passionate about teaching through play. I have always been a hands on person, who struggled in school, but exceeded when I was taught things through experience by doing things and being active. We all know how important it is to be active, weather we are babies, young kids or adults. 

I also teach an Autism Movement Therapy program, where children with Autism Soar! That is a whole different blog though so I wont get distracted. But as I have been doing this classes I have become passionate about helping kids find ways they can learn, and grow and enjoy it!  

So when I found this item I could sell I just had to post it and am really excited about it! 

This game is made by "Learning Resources" the  "Smart Toss Bean Bag tossing game" encourages kids through games and active play to challenge kids gross motor skills. Inviting players to create their own games, match colours and shapes, or numbers, by tossing the bean bags in the holes.

When I saw this item I remembered the bean bag toss game I had when I was younger! How much fun we all had playing.  I loved that game!

Check out some reviews given by customers, and don't forget to check out my Bonanza booth and ebay page! 

 http://www.bonanza.com/booths/Kristi_fbtjwbp

 http://myworld.ebay.com/leigh852012  

It has promoted many areas of their development, especially physical play both indoors and out, personal social and emotional development with sharing and communication and problem solving expressing their ideas

Smart Toss encouraged lots of children to want to go and join in with the numeracy learning. Having the 4 games really helped as I was able to meet different childrens needs including extending more able children, for example by adding two numbers together.

bAbY and CaKe!

We found out the Gender of our little miss and I made cakes that our families had to cut into to find out if she was a boy or girl! It was lots of fun...and lots of cakes!

... In case you missed it we are having a

GIRL! 

Baby Baby Baby

Sept 08, 13 Weeks

Sept 16, 14 Weeks

Dear Little one!

We are just so excited to be having you come to us! After I started getting nauseous on the boat at girls camp I wondered if I was pregnant! It was so hard to wait 8 days before I found out on July 16, 2012! I have to say it was the best day after my birthday day ever! 

Mommy got bronchitis at 8 weeks, I was quite nervous but thankfully I was able to take some things for it and it passed as I started getting morning sickness, and soon it was just the two of us up during the middle of the nights having our little 3 am snack!  You have mommy wanting all her root veggies! mMm! I had a couple of weeks where I couldn't get enough beets! So delicious! As much as Mommy loves Ice Cream you don't! Or rather nothing really sweet at all! Somedays we cannot even eat fruit as that is too sweet.  You also were not a big fan of Ground Beef, Oatmeal or Eggs,  these things have all gotten to be ok with you except Ground Beef does not taste like anything at all or is not very appealing. Ice Cream, or sweets, are still not the greatest but thats ok! We will stay nice and healthy!

 You gave us a little scare at about 12 weeks, as there was a small tear in the placenta, so Mommy went on Bed rest for a little bit, but am happy to say that did not last very long!

 I had a hunch you were a lil lady when we had an ultrasound at about 13 weeks! I said, its a girl! Look at those cute little lips!  She is so pretty! I fell in love with you and have had many more moments like that since. When we found out you were a girl, at 19 Weeks we were very excited! I still don't think I have stopped smiling! Thinking of all the cute little dresses, bows,  doing your hair and dancing in the kitchen with you! 

Sept 30, 16 Weeks

Daddy and I have thought long and hard about your name, we will decide for sure if your are going to be our little Ellie Marie when you come out, but that is your name as of now.  Daddy likes to call you his little El!  Now at 22 weeks we have gotten the clear from the doctors to do more exercise! Yay! I cant wait to dance around the house, with you baby Girl! 

Love Mommy xoxo

Sept 23, 15 Weeks

Oct 19,  19 Weeks

0ct 15, 18 Weeks

Nov 01,  20 Weeks

Nov 09, 22 Weeks

Day 3-4 Sleep has finally come!

Well after two nights of absolutely no sleep finally I slept last night and am kicking this cold to tim-buck-two!! I did have almost not voice this morning so teaching the grade 6-9 girls in a large gymnasium was a bit challenging! But none the less I made it through!
Besides my cold I am feeling quite well, with surprisingly a good amount of energy to boot! So I have had many very negative comments of how are you going to get better just on juice!?  Well I know I am sick but I AM getting better, AND only on juice! I have only gotten better not worse! Now as I got this cold the morning of the first day I started I really don't believe that this Juice fast made me sick. I have not cheated and my body is healing!  Now for the protein comments!! Yes this did worry me quite a bit and I felt I needed to do some more research! So I went to my trusty herbdocblog.com to read up to see what my friend Dr Schulze had to say about juicing and doing a detox. I won't go into to much detail as my purpose of this blog is not to convince anyone to agree with me, but to just share my journey! So all I will say is WOW! I could not stop reading his books! (which you can get right off his blog!...for free!) I was amazed at all the learning I have had today! I definitely did not do as much research as I should have before I started this 60 day juicing fast...which really,  ok lets ditch the word "fast", cuz I aint starving my self, more like flushing my body of all the junk in it! So from now on we will refer to it as, the juice flushing!
Ok so my plan now! As Dr Schulze has recommended that starting with a 5 day detox program of juicing monday to friday, and if the problem is not gone then do another 5 days, the following monday to friday. Now I have not had any pains since starting this! Yahoo! and I have even had much more energy than normal...which is funny because I have had this cold, but I have not been feeling sluggish! So needless to say I am happy happy! So if I still have this bit of a cold by monday I will do another 5 days of flushing!  I will still be blogging about my nutrition adventure! As I follow Dr Schulze's 20 powerful steps to a healthier life! Here is to a happy healthy balanced life! :)

ps pictures from my juicing today Breakfast and lunch and dinner!

Brekfast: Cantaloupe and kiwi

Lunch/Dinner: Tomatoes, celery, cucumber,
red peppers and lettuce 

Day 2- I will listen to and honor my body!

Well it is 10:46 pm and I am WIDE awake! All I want to do is sleep!  Curtis and I went to bed around 7:30 tonight as he was exhausted from work and I still have this dang cold that is making me just miserable! I tried taking a relaxing bath with epson salts but our wonderful rot iron tub just made the water cold! And we ran out of hot water before the water even warmed up the tub! So I put on my warmest fleece pjs and robe and started cleaning while my tea steeped! Had to do something to get warm! Yahoo! Everything is picked up and  our house is clean but I am still wide awake!
Today started of great! Woke up early...(I did not really sleep much last night either and was very wide awake early early this morning!) None the less I was productive and made a large pitcher of juice! Kale, cuccumber, sweet yellow Pepper, Spinich, lettuce, and apples! I was so hungry, and needless to say the juice was gone very quickly! The day went on great! I watched the documentary fat, sick and nearly dead. Wow! I would recommend this video to anyone weather they want to juice or not!  Definitely an inspiration! Not that I am trying to lose weight here, but become healthier and clean out my body. It really is a good educational video of how much food we eat, that is not doing us much good at all but rather stressin our bodies out! That is my personal view. One of my favorite quotes from the video Joe Cross says is  "we go on holidays, we sleep at night, we give our cars a service but we don't think about giving our bodies a rest."
 Now I have touched on the fact the reason I am doing this is because I want to be healthier! To clean out my system and hopefully get some of the pains I have been feeling under control!  So I was thinking today weather or not I should really be doing this for the full 60 days. I know I am getting a lot of my daily nutrients that I need but my worry is, not getting enough protein with my very active lifestyle. Which I can just add seeds and nuts to this fast and I believe I would be ok!  Second is losing to much weight which would result in me being un- healthy. (maybe these "worries" are just "excusses" to not go the full 60 days and maybe it is this cold talking but ...  my plan when I am done this juice fast, is to continue drinking the juice with healthy well balanced meals, mostly consisting of raw (or steamed) fruits and veggies! Bring more variety and colour into my diet! I don't feel like I would be a failure if I did not do my goal of 60 days. I am sure people who have been less than a little supportive in my efforts of this may be saying "I told you!" "its not healthy" etc etc bla bla bla! I do not care what others think! This is me! My body, my life!
I will listen to and honor my body!

Day 1- don't judge a juice by its colour!

Day 1


One day down 59 more to go! Today was not to bad. Started off great! I just wanted to juice juice and juice and if I wasn't juicing all I wanted to do was juice! I am sure the novelty of my "new toy" will ware off soon! But for now I will enjoy experimenting with different things and different combinations!

Here is my first glass of goodness! Yes it totally looks gross! I was disgusted by the colour at first but it actually really tasted quite yummy!


Apple, Lettuce and Cilantro.



I am a BIG fan of Cilantro so I will definitely be using it in lots of my juice combinations, I unfortunately used up the last bit I had when I made this and totally forgot to get some when I stopped at the store, so until I go again! Which I am thinking I will be visiting quite often! I feel like I am  going through A TON of veggies and fruit. Here are some of the other things I juiced today...

Tomato & Celery-delish!

                                             
                                                spinach    cuccumber
                                                orange     kale
                                                pepper    celery
                                                tomatoe  ginger
                                                mango

I am sure by the end of this I may not want to juice another thing again in my life! But for now I will just enjoy!

Around noon I had made a spinach and orange juice and after I drank that I started getting the sniffles almost right away! my throat is starting to hurt...I feel like my body is already trying to cleanse its self! I was shocked! I thought it would take at least a week or two at the very minimum! But oh well just got to get over this hump right!
So as the day went on I was getting more and more hungary but I just kept drinking and drinking! Juice, water, herbal tea! As I snack a great deal at night and usually eat the most during the afternoon/evening it definitely got tougher as the day went on not to mention this feeling like I have a bad cold that just hit me like a ton of bricks!  Its not making thing much easier but I will not give up! I went out and got a "sports" multivitamin because I am very active and am teaching many classes and as I do this reboot I really hope I do not have to cut back from all the things I am doing, but we will see just one day at a time I guess!



Biggest craving today! Bocconcini w/tomato and fresh basil drizzled with balsamic vinegar! 
 (I figure if I write down all my cravings then it is kind of like putting those things in the "brain fridge!" This way I don't feel like I won't ever have these things again! But after this I can reach into my fridge and grab all these delicious..but healthy things I am craving! )

Let the juicing begin!

I came across this blog a few weeks ago and it really peaked my interest!  It was this woman who did the reboot cleanse, which is basically the "juicing diet." I had read some things about juicing from the herb doc prior to this but never really researched it much further than that. 

Now those of you who know me know two things a) I love dancing, running, working out, anything to get me up and moving!  and b) I have become more and more interested, and am now loving learning about  nutrition and health and am fascinated about how amazing our bodies are!

 I grew up in a house hold of no sugar, no milk (other than rice milk and/or soy milk), and also no white flour or whole wheat, instead it was spelt and kamut!  Every night it was rice with quinoa and mixed veggies!  I resented this healthy life style for a looooong time! I just wanted to be "normal." As always being teased as a young child by peers, of the 'weird' food I was eating. As I got older and started making my own "lifestyle choices" I came to realize how important it is to have a healthy lifestyle. Which,  included eating healthy (or being a health nut as some would say!) For me healthy eating gives me such a greater quality of life as I love, respect, listen and respond to what my body is telling me. 

So back to this blog I found! This woman who did the reboot cleanse decided to do this cleanse when she came across the "fat sick and nearly dead documentary and she was having some health issues (which crazy enough are almost identical to the same ones I have been having) and the doctors couldn't find anything or tell her anything, which has been the same case for me!  So I sat down and did some more research, after reading more and more about this watching the trailer for fat sick and nearly dead (not that I am saying I am fat) I couldn't not do this reboot juicing. I did some reasearch on juicers and I ordered my juicer from drmercola.com  (a website my sister recommended to me). 

Well the day has come! My juicer is here! 

I am so excited to start juicing... ok, more nervous than excited. As I am doing the reboot, juicing fast, for 60 days.  I know it is going to be very tough! Emotionally, mentally and physically but I have been trying to mentally prepare my self, and tell my self I can do this! I have also been cutting back in sugar, and processed food (not that I eat a ton to begin with) but just to prepare my body, so the withdrawal of processed sugar is somewhat  easier to overcome, and when I get a overwhelmed of the thought of only drinking fluids for two months I go back and think, why am I doing this? What do I want to get out of this?  

1. Clean out my system to hopefully rid my self of the mysterious pains and excessive tiredness I have been feeling the last couple of months.

 

2. Get back to being me! The high energy go go go loving life person! (As well as having more balance in my life)

3. To be all that I can be! And not let my health get in the way. 

4. To love my self and give to my body what it needs at this time. I am a firm believer in that if we give our bodies the chance to heal and repair itself it is fully capable of doing that. 

I will bring this to a close, my apologies for dragging this all out so much!  I am going to blog about this from day to day or week to week  and I will try to keep these posts much smaller!