So, what's Googling?

Being a born-again blogger, I'm still catching up with the new system and I've yet to figure out how to post my favorite links on the home page. That's coming up, but for now I'll share here a very abbreviated list of some of my favorite sites, with some short descriptions of each.


1. Earthclinic.com
At this site I seek folk medicine's ancient advice from traditions all over the world. And for the past two years, I can honestly say that we've only been to doctors for "wellness" checks because we've never been steered wrong by this site, and we're usually steered in direction of healing. I've learned here that SOOO many minor illnesses can be treated naturally at home instead of by costly and often dangerous mainstream medical personnel and their pharmaceutical drugs!

2. Marksdailyapple.com
This is a paleo/primal lifestyle site run by the esteemed Mark Sisson. Here, I especially enjoy reading the inspirational Friday success stories, as well as the truly awesome recipes that are shared periodically. Lots of good stuff there. Worth it to sign up for the e-newsletter.

3. Whatreallyhappened.com
This is a site for truth-seekers in media/political events.  A whole different perspective from what you'll hear at ABCBSNBCNNFOX news. It can be quite fierce. Michael Rivero, the owner of the site, has been nominated by his readers/fans to run for president. I think that's a joke...not sure, yet. The stories linked here are personally shared by him, or by the member-readers.

4. LewRockwell.com
I go here to exercise and entertain my brain because this is where some of the biggest Libertarian American thinkers hang out. Great stories and commentary. RESPECT.

5. Amazon.com
This truly proved to be a most excellently run business since it made its debut on the net. I find things here from all corners of the earth. From Alum to  Zaatar. I hope to figure out how to link it from my site soon, in order to start taking advantage of their rewards plan.

Five for Friday and,

stay tuned...

Homeschooling Hecticity

Being a stay-at-home/homeschooling parent is an incredibly difficult undertaking. Especially with one or three kids. They say that having four kids is even easier than having three kids. Somehow four kids can pair up and create a sort of working balance because they better self-organize and can leave the care-giver out of their business for extended periods of time.

Whatever the number if kids one has, honestly, it's a huge privilege and sacrifice to be a home-caring parent. But it's an even more herculean effort to do this without a fully supportive partner. And I am truly truly blessed in that department.

One thing discovered when I decided to leave my career to start my 'family business,' was that being a one-income family is easily doable.  Even without my good contribution and benefits, and with my husband still supporting his two children from his first marriage in custody payments, we still did it. We're keeping things simple for the next few years. We didn't move to a new house, didn't buy new cars or splurge on needless luxuries. I can honestly say that our most important luxuries are expensive but clean, healthy, organic foods/products, and travel. Not much else.

I find it a sad myth that many people think giving up one income is out-of the-question for couples.  Most people could actually live on much less than they do, if their priorities were straight. I can fairly say that our personal experience convinced me that my new career as household manager in charge of my family is the most important and best paying job in the world. Serving and enriching my own family's quality of life rather than serving an employer for a salary is truly priceless. The rewards can never be found listed in any benefits package from any employer. Of course, the one who is getting the most benefit is my kid, but we all benefit greatly, as well. We eat better, we manage our own time, at our own pace, and make things for ourselves. It's enough the harmony that is created in the home. Yes, it helped that I'm a teacher by profession, which naturally makes me a creative and organized time manager, but really, many couples can do it without starving in poverty.

Full time home-management is a great adjustment. It's a constant tuning into the immediate beat of the moment, constantly improvising, detouring, inventing and reinventing. That's what I call a natural home-- uncontrolled by outside forces, time-constraints, schedule rigidity, rules, and pre-packaged foods and ideas.

But some days, it can really be hectic being with the kid. Even though my son regularly gives me a break by going to yoga classes, nanny-share, play-dates and getting ample playground and hiking time with friends, on the rare days when he's with me all day, I can easily lose my mind by the end of the day. Especially when we have a no tv policy enforced, there's just no break. Except maybe for the things that do break, and then you also have to clean up the mess...again...and again...and again. On such days, I need to do the "relay race" with my husband-- when he gets home from the office, we pass the kid at the door, and I walk out.

And THAT, my friends, is why I must have yoga in my life!

So on days like yesterday when no blog post appeared from me, it's likely I'm having a "homeschooling hecticity" day. However, I did find a couple of scattered moments at the end of the evening to jot down some preview topics for blogging-- among them the topics of getting to middle-age, an experimental recipe, and yoga on a sheep skin.

Stay turned...

Mastectomy Alternatives

Thanks to the good doctor, Joseph Mercola for a most comprehensive and intelligent article where the list of sound advice below came from at mercola.com, and where he discusses in depth Ms. Jolie's "heroism"  to amputate herself as a prophylactic measure.

There is hope to stopping this train wreck.

Here are things you can do to drastically decrease your chances of getting *any* cancer anywhere on yourself. Notice the advice "Drink a half to whole quart of organic green vegetable juice daily." If you've been following me, - You know how to make it ;-)

• Avoid sugar, especially fructose. All forms of sugar are detrimental to health in general and promote cancer. Fructose, however, is clearly one of the most harmful and should be avoided as much as possible.
• Optimize your vitamin D. Vitamin D influences virtually every cell in your body and is one of nature's most potent cancer fighters. Vitamin D is actually able to enter cancer cells and trigger apoptosis (cell death). If you have cancer, your vitamin D level should be between 70 and 100 ng/ml. Vitamin D works synergistically with every cancer treatment I'm aware of, with no adverse effects. I suggest you try watching my one-hour free lecture on vitamin D to learn more.
Remember that if you take high doses of oral vitamin D3 supplements, you also need to increase your vitamin K2 intake, as vitamin D increases the need for K2 to function properly. See my previous article What You Need to Know About Vitamin K2, D and Calcium for more information.
Please consider joining one of GrassrootsHealth’s D*Action’s vitamin D studies to stay on top of your vitamin D performance. For more information, see my previous article How Vitamin D Performance Testing Can Help You Optimize Your Health.

• Get plenty of natural vitamin A. There is evidence that vitamin A also plays a role in helping prevent breast cancer.³³ It's best to obtain it from vitamin A-rich foods, rather than a supplement. Your best sources are organic egg yolks,³⁴ raw butter, raw whole milk, and beef or chicken liver.
• Lymphatic breast massage can help enhance your body’s natural ability to eliminate cancerous toxins. This can be applied by a licensed therapists, or you can implement self-lymphatic massage. It is also promotes self-nurturance.
• Avoid charring your meats. Charcoal or flame broiled meat is linked with increased breast cancer risk. Acrylamide—a carcinogen created when starchy foods are baked, roasted or fried—has been found to increase breast cancer risk as well.
• Avoid unfermented soy products. Unfermented soy is high in plant estrogens, or phytoestrogens, also known as isoflavones. In some studies, soy appears to work in concert with human estrogen to increase breast cell proliferation, which increases the chances for mutations and cancerous cells.
• Improve your insulin receptor sensitivity. The best way to do this is by avoiding sugar and grains and making sure you are exercising, especially with Peak Fitness.
• Maintain a healthy body weight. This will come naturally when you begin eating right for your nutritional type and exercising. It's important to lose excess body fat because fat produces estrogen.
• Drink a half to whole quart of organic green vegetable juice daily. Please review my juicing instructions for more detailed information.
• Get plenty of high quality animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil. Omega-3 deficiency is a common underlying factor for cancer.
• Curcumin. This is the active ingredient in turmeric and in high concentrations can be very useful adjunct in the treatment of breast cancer. It shows immense therapeutic potential in preventing breast cancer metastasis.³⁵ It's important to know that curcumin is generally not absorbed that well, so I've provided several absorption tips here.
• Avoid drinking alcohol, or at least limit your alcoholic drinks to one per day.
• Breastfeed exclusively for up to six months. Research shows breastfeeding can reduce your breast cancer risk.
• Avoid wearing underwire bras. There is a good deal of data that metal underwire bras can heighten your breast cancer risk.
• Avoid electromagnetic fields as much as possible. Even electric blankets can increase your cancer risk.
• Avoid synthetic hormone replacement therapy. Breast cancer is an estrogen-related cancer, and according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer rates for women dropped in tandem with decreased use of hormone replacement therapy. (There are similar risks for younger women who use oral contraceptives. Birth control pills, which are also comprised of synthetic hormones, have been linked to cervical and breast cancers.)
If you are experiencing excessive menopausal symptoms, you may want to consider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy instead, which uses hormones that are molecularly identical to the ones your body produces and do not wreak havoc on your system. This is a much safer alternative.

• Avoid BPA, phthalates and other xenoestrogens. These are estrogen-like compounds that have been linked to increased breast cancer risk
• Make sure you're not iodine deficient, as there's compelling evidence linking iodine deficiency with breast cancer. Dr. David Brownstein,³⁶ author of the book Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, is a proponent of iodine for breast cancer. It actually has potent anticancer properties and has been shown to cause cell death in breast and thyroid cancer cells.
For more information, I recommend reading Dr. Brownstein's book. I have been researching iodine for some time ever since I interviewed Dr. Brownstein as I do believe that the bulk of what he states is spot on. However, I am not at all convinced that his dosage recommendations are correct. I believe they are too high.

The Case for Unschooling - a couple of links

 Two internet finds, which I think together, without the addition of too much commentary,  make a powerful case for unschooling all on their own.

What is "unschooling," you ask? Well, you can click on the link and get a quick wiki-definition, but to me, unschooling is what happens when the system is so broken and failed that it begins to deeply disease and damage the students, leaving us no option but to do things drastically differently in order to save them. Unschooling is the revolution.

First, a very short opinion piece by Jean Fan, which appeared in the groundbreaking new organization  www.uncollege.org. The article is copied, pasted and linked below. It's only three paragraphs long. (Thanks RM)

Below that, is a movie trailer for "Boredom - The Documentary." Watch it for insight and a chuckle.  (Thanks TQ)

Then ask yourself, "if I was of college-age today, is this what I would have
wanted for myself, or would I go for something much more meaningful,
like a gap year uncollege opportunity for cutting-edge teens?"

We need more David Karps and less Yale graduates in this world, wouldn't you agree?

Too Much Teaching, Too Little Learning 

Posted on May 2, 2013 By Jean Fan

In my mind, there’s an enormous difference between teaching and learning. Teaching is when a professor stands up in front of the class and lectures for an hour while students zone out; perhaps a few will absentmindedly take notes. Learning, however — real learning — happens only when students get home at the end of the day and do their homework, review their notes, and make connections between what they learned and what they know.

In teaching, teachers take the initiative. In learning, students do.

Unfortunately, very few students go to school to learn. Instead, they go to school to be taught. What this means is that most students are not mentally engaged at school. They are passively, not actively learning. (Even grammatically, “to be taught” is passive.) This is the key problem with traditional institutions — they perpetuate an epidemic of too much teaching and too little learning.

Being a hackademic means that you’re committed to active learning — that is, to taking control of your education. It means that you accept personal responsibility, realizing that “My teacher sucked, so I failed the class” is not a valid excuse for neglecting to learn a subject. It means that you aim to understand knowledge well enough to apply it, not just well enough so that you can regurgitate it to pass a test.

All in all, being a hackademic is simple: it just means that you learn on your own terms.

Thanks for reading and watching, and Stay tuned...

A Yogic Translation

When we left off last, we were doing some yoga breathing. If you're still here and willing to humor me a little, I hope you'll stay on for this next one.



I have this short yoga sequence for us to try here. The Asanas are relatively simple and believed to activate the seven chakras, or energy fields, in the human body.

So let's stand up..

1. We begin in tadasana, or mountain pose.
2. First we transition to ardha uttanasana, or standing half forward bend, with hands to knees.
3. Then back to tadasana (standing)
4. Next we move to the floor into balasana, also well-known as child’s pose, with elbows bent and hands resting close to the head.
5. Then we sit on our feet upright in virasana or, hero’s pose.
6. Return to balasana, or child’s pose.
7. Sit back up to virasana or, hero’s pose.
8. Finally we complete the sequence with bharadvajasana or, bharadvaja’s twist on each side.

Now, guess what? If you actually did this, you essentially just completed the physical sequence of the Islamic Salah prayer ritual which most devout Muslims practice 5 times per day. Well, not exactly the same thing, but it comes pretty close. Look.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salah

Isn't that interesting? 

I've often wondered about the connections between yoga poses and the Islamic prayer ritual. If there was a long-term study that examined the physical benefits to those who practice calm meditation and move their bodies in this way five times daily, I'll bet the results would be very positive and not too far from those current studies which constantly examine the wonderful benefits of yoga.

Looks to me like Allah had the right idea here.

Stay tuned...in.

Yoga. Just do it.

I just finished teaching my last Radiant Child class in a six-week series at a heavenly local yoga studio that welcomed me in February. Together we tried to salvage a lightly enrolled children's yoga program.  The small numbers in the general yoga programs there had been shrinking, leaving the owner with no choice but to give up one of the studios. This left my children's classes  no time or space to continue there.

I deeply enjoyed planning for and teaching this class, especially a mother and her 4-year-old radiant son who were especially enthusiastic, engaged, and curious about the whole 'language' of yoga, not just the Asanas (postures). And from their presence, I grew a little more as a yogini and teacher.

It's sad I won't be teaching there anymore, but the good news is, I have another gig in the works, possibly teaching two similar classes to the kids in our residence building for six weeks between July and August. The classic "door shutting and window opening" scenario is before me.

Which brings us to my first posting about yoga. Well.. it would be the first if we didn't count my review of the book, Yoga Bitch.

How do I begin without sounding like another boring yoga commentary to try to convince YOU to practice this essential life skill, NOW! That is if you don't already practice (and preach) yoga, like I know some of you do.
In that case, you're dismissed.

But to everyone else, including you, my husband...Listen up.

First, for heaven's sake, SIT UP STRAIGHT! Yeah, right now. You're most likely slumping over reading this in some kind of unnatural position, aren't you? Whether on your couch with your beloved lap-top, or from behind a desk somewhere, or on a bus looking at your phone, you're not sitting up, right? So SIT UP.

Hard, huh?

Now close your eyes and imagine your spine in the vertical center of your back and do what your mind tells it to do to straighten it up.


Now.

Get your hands away from that keyboard and put yourself in a position  (standing or sitting),  where you drop your arms by your sides. Take a deep breath inwards (inhale) while raising your straight arms up until your hands meet over your head, then breath out (exhale) as you bring your hands down. Do this slowly and several times, at least ten. Ok? I'll wait here until you're done.

Tell me you don't feel a little better. Tell me.

Yoga rocks. Stay tuned...in.

And if this still sounded like another boring yoga commentary to you, maybe Shambu can help 'splain it better.
Click on the picture to watch.


(Thanks to Shakta for sharing first.)

You Tech, and I Blendtec.

I consider our Blendtec to be our next best investment to giving money to Ron Paul's leadership campaigns for peace and prosperity. Here's why.






Getting back into the blog scene hasn't been very easy for me tech-wise. Lots has changed since I quit blogging in 2005, and my entire focus in life has completely shifted since I got married (at 40), left my 17-year teaching career, and had a kid. Now I spend at least 50% of the day in my tiny little condo kitchen, including now at this writing because it's also the best place for our meek internet connection.  Tiny it is, but in my book, the most efficient kitchen I can ever work in, where my husband says "miracles happen." We have a huge freezer taking up a good portion of the space, and lots of gadgets and burners, and awesome food filling all its corners with goodness... everything in its own hidden place. I've a feeling there will be many more 'tales from my kitchen' in future postings at BitchesBroo.

So... the Blendtec topic was an idea I got while working in my kitchen this morning, and it turns out to be yet another product plug. Actually it's two product plugs. Well..maybe it's for a couple of products AND a couple of store plugs. I must be secretly hoping that free advertising for my favorite things might increase readership somehow.

I've now hand-washed and put away my awesome Blendtec and ready to talk about it. I just finished making a home-made version of the left green bottle below.


If you've seen the popular $9.99 bottles of Blueprint drinks at Whole Foods or at My Organic Market, what I made today is very similar, though fresher, more varied, and less costly. But it takes some work and cleanup is a small chore. That's what you're paying for in purchasing the bottle.

I often think that if (heaven forbid!) I ever get diagnosed with a gruesome illness (cancer, diabetes, whatever), I would go on a long juice fast,  drinking only this kind of stuff while doing whatever else treatment (natural, chemo, prayer) I decide to do.

You can basically use any vegetables you like, but just watch out on the fruits and try to keep it to an apple or pear in order to better control for sugars. Here's what I made today with

1 cup water
2 inches fresh ginger root
quarter of a lemon, including rind
4 leaves of kale (and/or spinach, green lettuce, or any other greens)
skin and flesh of one pair or apple
1/3 bunch of parsley
6-inches of a large cucumber (and or 4 stalks of un-threaded celery)

Blended it 2x on "X-Large Smoothie"

Strained it. Drank it! 

Makes about 4 cups of juice, or 3 Blueprint-sized bottles that would have cost $30.

I added a tiny bit of honey in the half cup I gave my son, and he's slowly warming up to the idea of "green juice with honey." Yay!

We bought this blenderizer around 2008 and have since used it almost daily through my pregnancy, weekly through our protein smoothie for breakfast phase, and other great food phases like making dairy-free mousses, home-made tahini, soups, milkshakes, and on and on. We're such big fans of it, that we'd sit around with our older kids and  watch "Does It Blend?" Youtubes. Our favorite was the Ipad episode. People really ouched from this one. Here it is. Stay tuned...