Bye bye!! April 21, 2009

Bye Bye USA!

I am flying today back home, I will miss this country and the great friends I’ve made here!

I am so thankful for all the wonderful new places I’ve visited, new people I’ve met, and all this new culture I’ve been immersed into!

Those last 6 months were fabulous, and even though I am glad to go back to France, I will miss greatly the USA.

I hope I will be able to blog when I arrive and keep you in touch with this new chapter of my life which is about to begin. Keep me and my daughter in your prayers, to help us have a safe trip!

I hope that I will be back in the valley by next fall, until then I will be enjoying my country, my friends, my family, and my culture!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

Have a great day

Traveling with little ones April 19, 2009

You know it, I will spend more than 22 hours in a plane with a 4 years old, and no I am not insane!

In this post I will share with you some of my tips to travel smooth with small kids.

Since my daughter was born, I traveled with her at least twice a year by airplane, plus lots of car and train. We ‘ve been flying from Spain to Switzerland, to France, to England. From France to the USA and now we will fly from Phoenix to Paris with a stop in Dallas.

So, if you are planning to travel with your little one soon, these advices can be useful for you and your sanity!!

First of all, accept that children are children, and they have their limits. If you are tired, nervous or/and excited, imagine how would be your kid!

My top 5 rules for kids are:

• Keep them fed
• Keep them comfortable
• Keep them entertained
• Keep them rested
• Keep them healthy

So, in order to keep up with the rules, here are a few tips for you:

- Prepare some snacks and drinks for your little ones. Choose healthy snacks, avoid chocolate or sugary stuff that can make your kid sick. You must have plenty of water or juice to keep them hydrated, avoid of course chemicals or sodas.

- Dress your child comfortable. Make sure your kid is not stressed by the outfit, especially the belt, the socks/shoes; and pay attention to the temperature, there are a lot of changes when you travel (airplane/outside/airport, car/outside/AC…) so don’t over dress your kid nor don’t forget an additional jacket or blanket.

- Prepare some stuff for your kids to do. Don’t expect them to stay during several hours amazed by an airplane, they will be used to it 5 minutes after being in the air! So, what I have for my 4 years old is some play cards, flashcards, and I found at Wallmart some great little books with tons of stickers and activities for 3 $ each.
If you have a stop (like I do in Dallas), (if you have time) bring your kid to the play area. Most airports have those now and it is a great relief for kids. They will feel better after some playing and ready for the second half of your trip.The best I have ever seen was in Basel (Switzerland).

- Then, it is important for kids to have some rest. You sure know when a kid needs sleep, he/she will be very difficult to manage. Take a small blanket and a little pillow plus of course your kids favorite plush toy, so you can improvise a little “bed” even in an airport, or train station etc…

- Don’t travel with sick kids! I know, sometimes you don’t have the choice, so if you do travel with a sick kid, please keep your medicine next to you, take a complete outfit (trousers, socks, underwear,…) in your hand bag just in case of “accident”, take a plastic or paper bag (just in case too!!), and make sure your kid is well hydrated and  follow even more the other rules!

- Last but not least, keep safety as a high priority! Don’t let your child unattended even for half a minute! If you have a nervous kid or you don’t feel confident enough to do that efficiently, then attach your child to yourself. It sounds rude but it works! You can use a small scarf or rope that would be attached to your belt and your kids belt, you can also find one of those kinda belts that are made for children when they begin to walk (do you know what I mean?) Maybe you will not look as pretty as you wanted but at least your kid will be safe next to you.
If you really don’t like this idea or don’t need it, you should make a “tag” in form of necklace (a little paper/cardboard with a rope) where you will write the name of the kid, and your cell number on it. Tell your kid that he/she has to keep it always under his/her neck and show it to a grownup if he/she gets lost.

I noticed something that always works with my daughter: when she is tired or doesn’t want to do something or go somewhere I make it a game; kinda Dora the explorer and then she gets excited and do whatever I ask her. Think that travel is great, it is an enormous mind opening adventure for little ones, so we should try to make that a positive experience for them. Make it fun!

Now I am going to pack my stuff, and make sure for the 100th time that nothing is missing, (you know this feeling of “I know I am forgetting something”) and I will hopefully be in my plane to Dallas on Tuesday morning, then in my other plane to Paris, then in a bus to the train station, then in a train to Dijon, and then in my mother’s car to her home……………………………………………………………… I love traveling! Am I weird??? lol

Have a blessed day!

A great speech to read from John Taylor Gatto April 17, 2009

Today I want to share with you a speech that was told by John Taylor Gatto while accepting the New York City Teacher of the Year Award in 1990.

It is a powerful text that makes you think. I hope you will enjoy it.

I accept this award on behalf of all the fine teachers I’ve known over the years who’ve struggled to make their transactions with children honorable ones, men and women who are never complacent, always questioning, always wrestling to define and redefine endlessly what the word “education” should mean. A Teacher of the Year is not the best teacher around, those people are too quiet to be easily uncovered, but he is a standard-bearer, symbolic of these private people who spend their lives gladly in the service of children. This is their award as well as mine.

We live in a time of great school crisis. We rank at the bottom of 19 industrial nations in reading, writing and arithmetic. At the very bottom. The world’s narcotic economy is based upon our own consumption of the commodity, if we didn’t buy so many powdered dreams the business would collapse — and schools are an important sales outlet. Our teenage suicide rate is the highest in the world and suicidal kids are rich kids for the most part, not the poor. In Manhattan 50% of all new marriages last less than five years. So something is wrong for sure.

This is a time of great school crisis and that crisis is interlinked with a greater social crisis in the general community. We seem to have lost our identity. Children and old people are penned up and locked away from the business of the world to a degree without precedent — nobody talks to them anymore and without children and old people mixing in daily life a community has no future and no past, only a continuous present. In fact, the name “community” hardly applies to the way we interact with each other. We live in networks, not communities, and everyone I know is lonely because of that. In some strange way school is a major actor in this tragedy just as it is a major actor in the widening guilt among social classes. Using school as a sorting mechanism we appear to be on the way to creating a caste system, complete with untouchables who wander through subway trains begging and sleep on the streets.

I’ve noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my 25 years of teaching — that schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aids and administrators but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers do care and do work very hard the institution is psychopathic, it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to different cell where he must memorize that man and monkeys derive from a common ancestor.

Post #100 and some news! April 16, 2009

Hi there! How are you today?

This is my post number 100 ! I can’t believe how fast those last months are gone!

Well, some news, I will fly this next Tuesday to France and maybe I will not be able to blog often, I still don’t know if I will be connected.

I am so excited to go back home and see hubby! I can’t wait!…

Did you noticed the new page called “special series” up here? I am working on a new series about how to simplify your life step by step.

I am sure you will love this one, and I am preparing tons of useful info.

On another hand, I am part of a great project that I want to share with you!

My friend Dave has been suffering from the ravages of Diabetes for many years.  I know, first hand, all of the trouble this disease can cause.  In the last year alone he was in the hospital 4 separate times.

In order to help others avoid the problems caused by Diabetes he and his team (which I am part of) have developed a web site that approaches the problem from the patient’s point of view. Their mission is to ease the discomforts of people with diabetes and help them avoid the consequences.

We all know someone who has diabetes!

Diabetes can and usually does cause some or all of the following trouble:

• · Blindness

• · Foot and Leg pain – even amputations

• · Kidney Disease

• · Heart Disease and Strokes

• · Stomach Nerve Damage

• · Autonomic Nervous System Damage

• · And More…. As if the above weren’t enough

If diabetes is detected and controlled, the ravages of the disease can be diminished or even avoided all together.

If you have this horrible and very difficult disease PLEASE visit MY OWN DIABETES. If you know someone who is struggling with a diet and with diabetes please send him/her an invitation to the website.
This website is recent but very effective and the more members the more we can help each other through support, the forum, etc…

I will be in charge of the translation and launching of the french and spanish version. A good opportunity for me to bring some income while still staying at home to serve my family and the Lord!

This is a link which can change your life or the life of a loved one, so spread the word!

And you would also be supporting our family through these tough times!

I also wanted to thank you, all my readers, I truly appreciate your kind comments and knowing that my words here are not useless! I could have not reach the 100 post without you! Thank you and I hope you will stay here with me and read the next 100!!

Have a great day!

Natural Healing Part 6: Natural home remedies April 15, 2009

This is the 6th and last part of this series about Natural Healing.

In this entry, I will write about natural old home remedies, those you can do with ingredients you may have in your kitchen.

Like this one for cough relieve I blog about some time ago: HERE.

Home remedies and natural cures or medicines made at home from natural ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, herbs are catching a lot of attention due to its very nature of cure: simple, no side effects, no chemicals, inexpensive, plus the pleasure of being able to cure yourself!.

Read on for how all this is useful and how people are using these home made methods in their day to day lives to stay fit and healthy.

How much do you value your health? Can you put a price tag on your own health or on that of your loved ones?
Obviously not, if anything, your health or that of your family is invaluable.
Long gone are the days when drugs manufactured in laboratories were popular, when expensive chemical or synthetic drugs were deemed to be the best for our bodies.
Apart from the forbidding cost, the side effects that the body has to deal with cannot be ignored. This realization has dawned and people today are going back to natural remedies that humankind has been using for thousands of years. For natural home remedies, the kitchen is a great place to start.
It has almost all the medicines you would possible need at least, to deal with common ailments.
All this at no or negligible cost, purity, without side effects and dollops of TLC (tender, loving care)!

Sounds too good to be true? Well, it is just a little awareness and understanding that you need to make the best out of it.

You can read more on this great website: Home remedies for you.

I also found a very interesting article and lots of recipes over at The natural remedies encyclopedia.

You can read lots of thematic free ebooks, browsing by disease/illness, if you want to go to visit Best natural cures health guide. This website is very well done and the article easy to browse and read.

I have a great book that I bought in Spain called “Remedios naturales para los ninos” (natural remedies for children). I got it when I was pregnant and it has been a huge help for my daughter’s health, even though she was not sick very often.

I don’t have any similar book in English to recommend you by personal experience but if you have a look at this Amazon’s page, you can read all the reviews and take the one you prefer. I really recommend to have some good books at home, it is always helpful.

Think about thrift stores like Goodwill or Saver, you can often find great deals especially on this kind of books!

Do you have any recommendation you would like to share? Do you use natural remedies at home or more “conventional” medicine?

Well, I hope you liked this post and this series about natural healing.

There is a new page called Special Series that will compile all the series made on the blog, so if you missed a part of this one, you can find the link by visiting THIS PAGE.

And as always, if you like it, leave a comment! You know how much I appreciate those!

Have a great day!

He is risen!! April 13, 2009

Happy Easter to all of you!!

I hope you are having a great time in this glorious day of celebration.

I sure did! We went to church this morning, and then we had a nice lunch with friends and I just went home a few minutes ago.

Well, I want to share a story the pastor told me.

Once upon a cross…….

This was a young pastor who one day saw a little boy holding a bird cage. There was 3 little birds in the cage. The pastor asked the boy where he got the birds and the little boy said:

- “I just found them in a nest in my garden.
- What will you do with them?
- Well, I will have fun with them, you know, I will poke them, see if they are going to fight, I will scare them a little bit to make fun from them…
- And then, once you are done, what will you do with them?
- oh, I have a cat you know!
- How much do you want for them? ” said the pastor
- “Why would you buy them, they can’t even fly nor they sing good!?
- You just tell me how much do you want for them.
- Right, 10 $.
- done! “

The pastor took the 10 $ he had in his pocket and gave them to the boy, who run away and leave the birds behind.
The pastor took the birdcage and went to a nice park where were lots of trees, he opened the door of the cage and set the birds free.

Now, imagine that this is a conversation between God and Satan. God says to Satan:

- “Hey, what will you do with all those humans you took?
- Well, I will have fun, you know, I will hurt them, poke them and then watch how they hurt and kill each other. I will make them invent weapons and guns, and ways to inflict pain to others…
- How much do you want for them? says God
- Are you kidding? They don’t even like you, if you would go there you know what they would do to you, don’t you? Why would you like to buy them?
- You just tell me your price.
And Satan says: ” I want your tears, I want your blood, I want your life.“
And God says: ” DONE! ”

He paid the price to allow us to be free, to open to us the doors of Heaven. He paid the highest price for us, for me, for you!

Jesus our Lord died in the cross to set us free! And on the third day He arose from the dead!

Yes, He is risen! He is risen in deed!

Thank you Lord for paying the price, thank you for bidding for me and pay the highest price so I could be free.

Happy Easter to you all!

blessings

How to be prepared for tough times April 11, 2009

After my post about voluntary simplicity yesterday, I was feeling inspired, especially by the comments and mails I received, so I wrote this post. I hope you will like it!

Yep, you know that, tough times are coming, and some people think it could be very bad very soon.

How do you think your life would be affected? What could you do to minimize this effect?

Do you believe in a “back to basics” living?

Are you prepared for it?!

Well, today I will give you some advice about how to prepare yourself and your family to keep or even improve your quality of life through tough times!

1. Be as self sufficient as you can.
2. This can be achieved by building a full pantry, especially basics like flour, oil, cereals, water, sugar, honey, and lots of canned vegetables and fruits. Dry milk can be useful too.
3. You can also fill up your freezer with some basics like butter, meat, and homemade prepared meals, etc…
4. If you have a garden, plant food! Fruit trees, veggies, etc…
5. If you have some place and are allowed to do it, take some chickens, you will have fresh eggs each morning and maybe some day you could even sell them to those neighbors who didn’t read this post!
6. Find a farm near by (if possible) to buy your milk, it can always be useful to know people who grows cows.
7. Begin right now to live without the comfort. For example, avoid the dryer when you can use the sun and wind to do the job; knead your dough by hand vs processor/mixer; broom when you can vs always use the vacuum; wash the dishes by hand half of the time vs always use the dishwasher; and so on…
8. Learn some homemaking basics like canning, bread making, cooking, organizing etc…
9. Learn to entertain yourself and your family for free. It is very important! If you can’t get rid of your TV, then try to leave it off at least one day a week, and plan a “family night” with games, conversation, music, whatever you are up to!
10. Try to exercise,  maybe some day you will not be able to get your car to go somewhere, you will need to walk; or maybe you will have to do the laundry by hand,etc… So, better get prepared by doing some exercising, walking, and other outdoors activities.
11. I can’t sew nor knit, but that’s something I definitely have to learn! And buy some fabric and materials to do whatever I may need some day.
12. There is a huge amount of resources and info on the web, but maybe you will not be able to consult them when you will need them the most. My advice is to print all the interesting stuff and build a nice notebook that may be lifesaving some day!
13. Build a nice, complete first aid kit, and some basic medicine/remedies. You never know!
14. Limit the products you need for your personal and house hygiene/beauty. Prefer one soap/shower gel that fits all the family needs better than one specific for each person, the same with shampoo, moisturizer, etc… In your home, buy or do yourself one multipurpose cleaner, that could be used to clean floors, counter tops, kitchen, bathroom, and even laundry! Replace your softener by white vinegar and essential oil, and, of course, avoid disposable wipes and other “swiffer” stuff; prefer the old fashioned way: soap, warm water, and some exercise!
15. Enjoy the simple treasures of life! Be happy and positive with all what you already have, smile, and transmit your joy to your family.
16. Trust the Lord to provide for your needs.

Don’t panic! As always, you can do it little by little, with baby steps, and soon you will be able to survive this nasty economy, and even kinda like it!!

For more info, I encourage you to “google” simple living, homesteading, homemaking, and voluntary simplicity. You will be blessed by all the interesting stuff around there to learn from!

If you have more tips to prepare for the worst scenario, or simply become frugal, leave your comment!