Quarantine Mindfulness

There are always good things that can come out of every situation. For me, Covid has had its blessings. I was pretty caught up in the business of life and doing little find quite time. I just didn’t think anything in my life was optional, or expendable. Sometimes it takes a crisis, however small, to help you see what is really serving you, and what isn’t. 

I was diagnosed with Covid and suddenly I found myself with all kinds of time. The first week I deep cleaned my home. The second week I started on the garden. Somewhere during all of it, I started realizing that my business was setting a terrible example for my children. When the most repeated phrase in family prayer is “help us to accomplish everything we can”, we may have a problem with “over doing”. I am grateful for the chance to reset.

Covid Hacks

COVID-19 is a confusing virus, and I now have seen first hand why that is. I was exposed via three different sources and tested positive. I’ve been fine. No sore throat, no cough, no fever, no oxygen depletion. It would be easy for me to dismiss the virus as harmless, but I can’t do that—not after seeing my mom and friends, who have also contracted the virus. They are all really healthy people. My mom works harder than anyone I know, but when she got the virus, she rapidly deteriorated. One minute, she had a stubborn cough and was slightly fatigued, but by nightfall and within a matter of a couple of hours, her oxygen level’s dropped to 91, and she was headed in to the hospital. 

We turned her oxygen levels around, and did so in a matter of minutes. 

This is how it happened: I gave her a tablespoon of fish oil (about 2000 mg.)  Pay attention, because the delivery matters! You can take capsules of fish oil all day long, but it will not relieve your constricted, inflamed breathing passages. You must coat your throat with liquid fish oil.  I gave my mom the liquid oil and within minutes, her oxygen increased from 91 to 94. Every time her cough returned, she took more fish oil liquid and her cough abated again. 

I recommend purchasing fish oil. Three I like are Pharmax, sfh, and Dropi. It tastes bad. Be warned. 

My good friend and running partner shared this protocol with me and I feel I’m under a moral obligation to share my experience. I’ve seen this scenario duplicated in my friends, daughter, and Mom, enough times to have a great deal of confidence in it. Covid went from dreaded to very manageable. 

Be well! 

5000 mg liquid fish oil (Wild caught; 3rd party tested is best). 

100 mg potassium 

5 droppers of Kyani Nitro 

Exercise Boosts the Immune System!

Exercise strengthens the immune system in many ways...

• Exercise releases endorphins. That makes you feel good! It also decreases stress hormones that increase likelihood of contracting illness.

• Cleans out your lungs helping to prevent cold and flu viruses.

• It causes your antibodies to move more quickly through the body, helping your immune function.

• Helps with detox. Inducing a sweat helps the body detox.

• Increases body temperature which helps kill invaders.

During the quarantine, exercise is more important than ever. Living closely together can be stressful. Here are some ways we have enjoyed exercising.

Some gyms will allow you to rent their space for family time and then they go in afterwards and sanitize everything. It is great fun!

There are also great online options. I have two favorites! Chris Hemsworth has an app called Centr. I love it! Every day there are workouts and meal plans. The meals are incredible! I use it every day!

My all time favorite app for exercise is Foundation Training. It is the very best for training muscles to do their job, saving your joints.

The weather is betting better so get outside for some exercise! There are still open spaces with no people, so get out and enjoy!

Tools to make dreams a reality

My Dad is an outdoorsman. He has always been, from the time he could walk. When he was about five, his mother asked him why he couldn’t just stay in the yard. He replied that it was “all wore out”. At about seven, he declared that he was going to find some snakes, went up into the mountains and brought back two rattlesnakes.

When he was young, he envisioned himself as a fish and game officer. Somehow as children, we know what we want. His dad however, discouraged him. So, when he went to school, he looked at the  catalog, said, well, I guess I can make a living doing this...and that is what he did. Day in, Day out for  forty years. He didn’t enjoy it. But he did it because he had a family to support. Now, I have to tell you, that I love my Dad for this sacrifice, but I wouldn’t wish it for him.

Today, at Sea World in Florida, as I was watching the dolphin show I thought, “That is something I would LOVE to do. In elementary school, living in Southwest Michigan we often visited animal refuges and I knew that was my calling in life! But I didn’t. As I pondered this, three things came to mind. Three things kept me from following childhood dreams.

• Lack of imagination. Sometimes we know what we love, we just can’t see how to make it profitable. 
• Fear- what if I fail? What will other people think? 
• Self Discipline- The work ethic it takes to do something hard.

I thought of one of my daughters. She is so much like me. She likes so many of the things I liked. She has tons of passion. She is way more athletic than I ever was and she has the desire to do something great. It is too late for me to do some of the things I once dreamed of, but not for her. However, I know that if I don’t help her to prepare for those dreams, there are three things that will stand in her way.

Lack of Imagination: We can help children with this by exposing them to many possibilities. Then we can talk about them. Traveling with children is a great opportunity to expose children to new ideas and cultures, but it is expensive. There are many opportunities close to home if we look for them. AND, there is the internet. We can help our children to find their passions and then look for how they can use them. Instead of discouraging them, help them to enlarge their imaginations. I couldn’t see as a child where my interests and talents could be used and made profitable.

Fear: What if I fail? What will other people think? There are so many fears that children, and people in general have. Fear is the biggest reason people don’t go after dreams. As parents, we don’t have to make it worse. Maybe their goal isn’t the most practical. Maybe we don’t know anyone who has ever accomplished such a thing. Maybe we know thousands of kids who want to do the same thing. Maybe we don’t even know that the goal IS a thing. Who are we to decide or even negatively influence what our children adventure to accomplish. I allowed fear to keep me from opening my eyes to possibilities.


Self Discipline: All the dreams in the world will go no where without a work ethic to go with it. Life is hard. To be able to make great things happen, we have to be able to do hard things. We don’t wake up one day and say, I’m going to do hard things today. It takes years of training.

So many of my cousins are going to look at this and think, "Hard?" But I'm going to use this example because at the time my children thought I was crazy for attempting such a thing.

I wanted to bury our trampoline. I wanted it set into the ground for both safety and aesthetic reasons. My husband was opposed to it, so it took me years to come to the point where I was willing to make it happen. It was between two fruit trees that were growing to the point that there just wasn’t room for it. So this spring, I told two of my boys we were going to did the holes with shovels. I had a few cousins, very athletically inclined, who had done it so I figured we could do it.

My sons Reuben and Tobler somewhat reluctantly opted in. At first it was a bit of an adventure. As the weeks wore on, it became harder. Having Reuben with his sense of humor was a life saver. He joked about digging to china and sometimes made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe, let alone dig! I adore that boy! He is the light in all of our heavy. It took us a month, but we did it! It became something we looked at to remember we could do hard things!

Improve Your Digestion!

Every year I grow lots of purple cabbage. I do this so that I can make sauerkraut! A few days ago I harvested all of my cabbage. Cabbage Harvest Means Sauerkraut Time! It doesn't take long, just a few minutes. I chop up my cabbage, it doesn't matter how finely. I like mine more coarse for two reasons. It's faster, and I like mine more crunchy. Finely chopped cabbage makes a more soft kraut. 

After I chop it, I put it in my crock and sprinkle salt. In my 2 gallon crock I put about 3 medium to large cabbage and about 4 tablespoons of pink salt. The salt helps to release the juices. Then I pound it to finish releasing the juices. This is a little exercise and takes about 5-10 minutes.

Then I place a plate fits rather tightly in the crock over the cabbage. Then for weight I place a Ziploc bag with a few cups of water sealed in it. Then you are done! Place the crock in a cool place and let it sit for 1-4 weeks, depending on how strong you like it. 

Sauerkraut has so many health benefits. 

• It will improve your digestion. Your body has a time digesting cellulose and fiber. We need bacteria to do it for us. 
• Sauerkraut is high in K2 and Vitamin C, Iron, Manganese, and so many other trace elements and nutrients.
• Sauerkraut builds a stronger gut lining to prevent leaky gut.
• Sauerkraut aids to strengthen your immune system. 
• Helps you maintaining healthy weight.

Countering Stress Response

Chronic stress is something we all deal with. It doesn't take a major event to over tax our adrenals. It is the everyday, constant variety that does the most damage. Most of us are suffering from adrenal burnout as our amygdala is constantly sending signals of alarm that activates the hypothalamus to send signals through the sympathetic nervous system to the adrenal glands. When this happens over and over our adrenals are taxed. The parasympathetic nervous system never gets to do it's job and we never feel at baseline. We never feel relaxed and ok. This has so many physical, social, and emotional consequences.

Studies are showing that b vitamin deficiency is linked to chronic stress. We are not able to deal with stress if our b vitamins are low. That certainly accounts for the huge increase in modern chronic stress. Studies also show that our food is lower in vitamins and minerals than it used to be due to our modern farming practices. Dirt that has been farmed for decades and supplemented with only three nutrients cannot possibly produce food that contains the array of vitamins and minerals that our bodies need. Supplementing is critical.

Also, adrenaline was made to give us energy to "do" something. When we don't use it, we become irritable, anxious, and easily angered . A few Sunday's ago I had given my daughters and niece instructions to straighten up a room they had destroyed. I left the room and soon heard one of them screaming bloody murder. I was sure I had an emergency room visit to make and I sprinted into the room, knowing someone had broken a body part. My adrenals sent all kinds of epinephrine (adrenaline) into my system to give me energy and focus to pick up the injured child and quickly get her to the emergency room. Only when I got there, there was no emergency. There was only two girls tickling the other. Well, I had adrenaline coursing through my veins and there was not nothing for it to do. So, it came out my mouth. I became super angry and sent the girls out of the house to contemplate their wrong doings. I spent days wondering why I exploded so easily. Then it occurred to me, that this is what someone does on adrenaline that has no place to go. Someone who lives in adrenal fatigue experiences this often.

So what do we do to combat this constant environment of stress we live in? We MOVE. That is what adrenaline was designed for. It doesn't take much. A 15 minute walk, a few flights of stairs, something that uses both arms and raises your heart rate. The benefits are enormous physically, emotionally, and mentally. You will be surprised what a few minutes of physical exercise can do to combat chronic stress. Sometimes we feel like it is too indulgent to take a few minutes for ourselves and take a walk. I often feel like I have too much to do. I have found however, that in the long run, I am more productive when I take time to reset through physical exercise. It doesn't have to be unpleasant if you aren't a die hard runner. It can look like taking a walk with a dog. Sometimes I love the excuse that my dogs need a walk, when it is really me! Today was one of those moments! It was a gorgeous afternoon and I loaded them in the car and went for a little hike. Free therapy!

If you are experiencing chronic adrenal fatigue, find a good supplement (let me know if you need suggestions), and move more!

Getting Ready for Cold and Flu Season

Power House Garden Remedy

I have three remedies that I depend on to keep us through the winter. One of them is my garden remedy. All ingredients but two came out of my garden. The odd ones out are turmeric and ginger. I have tried to grow them, but our growing season is just too short, even in my greenhouse. I love that most everything in this concoction was grown in my garden organically.

I waited until just before a hard freeze to harvest my horse radish. It is a key ingredient in this antibacterial, antiviral, antimicrobial remedy. I gathered a bucket of roots, but left a few in the ground to grow next years roots. 

I add onions, jalapenos, garlic, and raw homemade apple cider vinegar. The vinegar is last years because we haven't juiced apples yet this year. 

I strained a batch that has been incubating for a month or so. Here you can see the difference between the new and old batches.

While it doesn't look pretty, my mouth waters like crazy while I am making it! We finished the last bottle a week ago and my boys are ready to have a new one. They know that it keeps them healthy. With everything they are involved in, they can't afford to get sick. Swim season has started and they have serious plans. Since starting massage therapy school, I don't have time to get sick either. We will be making this part of our daily routine.